He bad discovered also that there was no life to be hoped for from the Law. Such had never been its intention. The ' parenthesis ' of the Law had for its purpose to create the full knowledge of sin (5ta ydfiov iiriyvuffii a/xaprlas), to produce in the con- science the conviction of it.
Moreover — such is the weakness of human nature — the Law tended to stir sin into dreadful activity, for every commandment seemed to bring up a new crop of sins into his life.
But to the Law St. Paul held on as long as pos- sible ; his sudden conversion means as much. The Law was the one outlet to the hopes of Judaism ; while to the patriotism of St. Paul Christianity seemed anti-national. Therefore he hung on till he could hold no longer — ' 0 wretclied man that I am ! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?' (Ro 7^'*). ' Any true happiness, therefore, any true relief, must be sought elsewhere. And it was this happiness and relief which St. Paul sought and found in Christ. The last verse of Ro 7 marks the point at which the great burden which lay upon the conscience rolls away ; and the next chapter begins with an uplifting of the heart in recovered peace and serenity; "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus " ' (Sanday-Headlam, op. cit. p. 189). He had found salvation by grace, redemption in Christ, and righteousness by faith and union with Him ; ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death ' (Ro 8^). The very essence of St. Paul's gospel is to be found in his conception of Christ's relation to the condemning Law. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, because He stood condemned in their place, and took their condemnation upon Him- self ; therefore St. Paul is bold to say, ' Christ re- deemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us ' (Gal 3^^).
It is characteristic of his rebound and glad- ness of spirit that he, by pre-eminence in the NT, called his message the good news {eiiayyekLov), and the discovery sent him out everywhere (' Woe is me if I preach not the gospel') to the multitudes of burdened souls, who were held, as he had once been held, in this strange captivity. Through all his letters, the contrast between Law and gospel as mutually exclusive is developed in the anti- theses, law and faith, works and grace, wages and free gift — 'Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law ; ye are fallen away from grace ' (Gal 5*). In the Third, the Pauline, Gospel,
we have our Lord's story of the two debtors, butli of whom, when they had nothing to pay, were frankly forgiven. In the days before his conver- sion, St. Paul had been painfully trying to pay that debt. Brought to the knowledge that he had nothing wherewith to pay, he made the great dis- covery that Christ had paid the debt and set him free. And, as he who has been forgiven much will love much, therefore evangelical love burned in St. Paul's heart, as perhaps never in the heart of man besides, to the ' Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.'
Though the idea of the Law in the Epistle to the Hebrews is so different that it is impossible for Gal. and Heb. to have come from the same pen, yet the contrast between the Law and the gospel is ' with- out doubt identical with that of St. Paul, although the writer of Hebrews possibly reached that posi- tion by a different road ' (A. B. Davidson, Hebrews [Hand books for Bible Classes], p. 19). Both writers hold that Christ is the end of the Law to every one that believeth, and through Him is the Atonement made once for all. But inasmuch as the question between Jews and Gentiles had in the days of Hebrews passed beyond the stage of keen contro- versy, and a free gospel was preached everywhere, the writer did not feel it needful to develop the contrasts between Law and gospel in the Pauline manner. Yet ' the ceremonial observances are in themselves worthless (He 7'^ lO^"*) ; they were meant to be nothing more than temporary (9"'^" 8'*) ; for God Himself in OT Scripture has abrogated them (7'* 10") ; and the believing Hebrews are exhorted to sever all connection with their country- men still practising them (13^*)' (A. B. Davidson, op. cit. p. 19). When the Sun has risen, all other lights pale and fade. The substance has come, the shadow disappears.
It has already been pointed out that there is no sufficient reason for assuming a schism re Law and Faith in the apostolic writings. St, Paul stood on substantially the same ground as the Twelve ; his recognition uy them (Gal 2^'^"), and much more his acceptance by the Church, imply as much. Nor is there on a fair and careful interpretation any antagonism between the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle of James, The question turns on the meaning of irio-rts, St. James is not denouncing the Pauline Trlaris, but the caricature of it in a narrow Judaism, which has reduced this noble faculty of the soul to the mere intellectual accept- ance of a dogma — a,Jides informis, ethically fruit- less—a faith without works (Ja 2^^% St. Paul, on the other hand, thinks of a fdes formata, ' faith which worketh by love' (Gal 5*). Words mean different things to different men. To St, Paul ' works ' mean fpya vdfiov, while to St, James they correspond to what St. Paul calls ' the fruits of the Spirit.' Thus, 'so far as the Christian praxis of reli- gion is concerned, James and Paul are at one, but each lays the emphasis on different syllables ' (Moffatt, LNT, p. 465). It is nothing strange that both go to the story of Abraham (Gn 15^) for an apposite example, for it has been pointed out (Lightfoot, Gal.'', 1876, p. 157) that this passage was a stock subject of discussion in the Jewish schools and in Philo. St. Paul, quoting Genesis, affirms that the initial act for which Abraham was accepted in the sight of God was his faith ; and St, James, thinking more of Gn 22^^ than of Gn 15", says that his faith was made clear, ' seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.' ' Faith alone justi- fies, though the faith which justifies does not remain alone.' Thus we read (Tit 3^), ' I will that thou affirm confidently to the end that they which have believed God may be careful to maintain good works ' (cf . the Scots Paraphrase [56], ' Thus faith approves itself sincere, by active virtue