07. "Wherefore Then Serveth The Law"

CHAPTER VII "Wherefore Then Serveth the Law"

Since it is so clearly revealed in the Scriptures that the Law could not justify, save, nor make man good--in other words that the Law was not given as a cure or remedy for man’s lost condition, many ask, "Why then the Law?"

Remember, it was given as the rule of life to a people already chosen by God. It was not given to give life nor to make them a covenant nation. When God proposed the Law, Israel said, "All that the LORD hath spoken we will do." Did they do it? No. Could they do it? No, never. Did God expect them to do it? No. Why then the Law?

According to the Scriptures, the Law was given for certain specific purposes. Note some of them:

1. To Give the Knowledge of Sin The enormity and heinousness of sin are made conspicuous by the Law, inasmuch as sin makes even that which is in itself good, an incentive to evil. We read, "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence" (Romans 7:8). Note carefully the faithful testimony of the following verses of Scripture: "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound" (Romans 5:20); "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (Romans 7:7); "That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful" (Romans 7:14); "For by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20).

Paul says, "For without the law sin was dead (Romans 7:8). It was through the Law that he discovered how very much alive sin was. Apart from the knowledge of the true purpose of the Law, sin was apparently inactive and unobserved and he was very much pleased with himself as his words in Php 3:6 reveal. There he says, "Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." This is what he refers to when he says, "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9).

Note the four results of the coming in of the commandment, when he, Paul, saw the holy and spiritual character of the Law: it excited his evil passions (Romans 7:5); it produced the knowledge of sin (Romans 7:7); "For sin, taking occcasion by the commandment, deceived me" (Romans 7:11); the Law slew him (Romans 7:11). "For I through the law am dead to the law" (Galatians 2:19).

2. That Every Mouth May Be Stopped

Man likes to be under the Law because it gives him something to glory in, something to boast about--not before God, but before man. The incident of the rich young ruler related in the Gospels (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23), serves well to illustrate this purpose of the Law. We see here one who, as he himself declared, had observed every point of the Law from his youth up; yet concerned about his spiritual state, he came to Christ earnestly seeking to perfect his ways. He approached Christ on legal ground, saying, "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ answered the young man by referring him to the Law. In answer" to the young man’s second question, "What lack I yet?" Christ showed him that he had not fully kept the Law. Neither was he ready and willing to do so, for he went away sorrowful--silenced by the Law.

Note that the young man asked what he should do to inherit eternal life. What we inherit belongs to us by right and title; it is legally ours. No one inherits eternal life; it is the gift of God’s grace.

Another incident shows how those appealing to the Law were silenced by it. "And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" (John 8:3-5). After He had stooped down and written on the ground, He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John 8:7). Then when He had again stooped down and written on the ground, the woman’s accusers were silenced. We are told, "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst" (John 8:9).

3. The Law Was Given To Bring Man Under Judgment to God

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19).

We have seen that the Law detects sin, and reveals it in its true character, and that it strips a man of his own righteousness, and silences his mouth.

Here we see the sinner as a criminal at the bar of justice, with no one to plead his case. He is adjudged guilty of the greatest crime in the Universe--SIN. No excuses for past failures avail, and no promises for future reform are considered. He stands there a helpless, hopeless, and speechless criminal; and but for the mercy of God would be forever banished from His presence.

4. The Law Was Added Because of Transgressions

"It was added for the sake of defining sin" (Weymouth). The Law defines sin, and gives to it the character of transgression. "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15). Adam’s original sin was a transgression. He had a definite command to refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is why Paul says, "Them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression" (Romans 5:14). In a certain town there was no law against riding a horse on the sidewalks. Later, a law was passed against such an act. It was just as dangerous to pedestrians and just as injurious to the walk before the law was passed as afterwards. But while it was an offence before, it was not a transgression until there was an express commandment to be broken. So sin was in the world before the Law was given, but it was not a transgression until after the entrance of the Law. It came in to reveal and not to remove sin; not to keep from sin, but because sin had already entered.

5. The Law Was Given To Curse and Condemn

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known" (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

Though Israel had promised to do all that the LORD had spoken, she was not able to do it, and was therefore under the curse and condemnation of the Law.

Regarding the Law and its ministration the Apostle Paul says, "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory" (2 Corinthians 3:9). This he says about the Law engraved with letters on stone--the Ten Commandments--and not the ceremonial Law as some would have us believe. To the Galatians he writes, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Galatians 3:10); "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13).

6. The Law Was Given To Minister Death

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away" (2 Corinthians 3:7). "The letter killeth" (2 Corinthians 3:6). "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me" (Romans 7:9-11). And, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19). When Paul’s words in Romans 7:10 are rendered, "And the commandment was ordained to life" it is evident that the words "was ordained" have been added by the translators because they are in italics. From the whole body of truth regarding the Law we know that the Law was not ordained to life, but to death. With reference to when and where the Law slew Saul of Tarsus men are not agreed. Some say it was when he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the believers there. Others contend that it was when he was alone with the Lord in the Arabian Desert. But one place is revealed where it could and did actually come to pass; that place was the Cross. It was on the Cross that "our old man was crucified." It was there that the Apostle Paul and all other true believers were slain by the Law.

We have already seen that the Law could not give life, but could only curse, condemn and kill. Therefore the believer is dead to the Law, and it was the Law itself which killed him. He is dead to the Law, not through suicide, but through execution. We are told, "That if one died for all, then were all dead" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

7. The Law Was Given To Be a Tutor Unto Christ "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Galatians 3:24).

Some consider this ministry of the Law in relation to Israel to be practically that of a truant officer conducting Israel to Christ.