As regards the proper signification of the term, however, the Law may be defined as the positive revelation of the Divine ordinance to the Israelites, who therein, as in the covena.nts, the promises, and the Temple service (Ro 9^), had a sacred privilege unshared by other peoples (cf. 2'^ 3'^). The law of God, which in the heathen was but an inward and therefore vague surmise, was for the Jews formu- lated objectively and unmistakably in the written Law (Ro 217-20 ; cf. 2 Co 3"), and the Jews, even if they broke th^t Law (Ro 2-^^-), could yet boast of a moral advantage over the heathen (Gal 2'^).
The Law, however, is a revelation not only of the Divine requirements, but also of the Divine pro- mises and threats attached thereto. The Law, i»
short, contains a judicial system, in that it deter- mines the relation between man and God by man's obedience to, or transgression of, the Divine com- mandments. If man keeps the whole Law, he is rewarded with 'life' (Gal 3'- = Lv 18^), and this is bestowed not of grace, but of debt (Ro 4'* : /card 6(pei\rj /j.a) ; while if he does not keep the Law in its entirety, he is accursed (Gal 3" = Dt 27-"), and passes into the power of death (Ro 6-^ 7'°, 1 Co 1556).
The Law demands, not faith, but works (Gal 3"'-)) and hence St. Paul speaks repeatedly of the ' works of the law ' {^pya vofjiov, ' works prescribed by the law ' ; cf. Ro 3•-^ Gal 2i6). By ' works of the law,' however, he means, not simply the exter- nally legal actions in which the heart is not im- plicated, but no less the morally irreproachable fulfilment of the commandments, which claim the obedience of the soul as well as of the body, and forbid sinful desire as well as sinful action — just as, indeed, the requirement of the whole Law is summed up in the commandments of love(Ro 13^'*, Gal S'"*). It is no doubt the case that for St. Paul outward rites and ceremonies are included in the characteristic ordinances of the Law (Gal 2^^ 4i" ; cf. Ro 9^ 14^). The LaAv as a whole consists of par- ticular commandments of a statutory nature (ric vd/xou tGjv ivToXQiv iv doy/j-acri, Eph 2^'' ; cf. Col 2^'*). * In Gal. it is especially the ceremonial or ritual ordinances of the Law that are referred to, as St. Paul is here dealing mainly with the question of circumcision (cf. 2'^-'^- 43-'» 5-"'-, also Col 2i=*f- ^u-as). In Rom., on the other hand, he is treating rather of the moral requirements of the Law (cf. 2'-'-^ 7'-8*). Nevertheless, we must not ascribe the conscious differentiation between moral law and the cere- monial Law to the Apostle himself. For him the Law is an indivisible whole (Gal 3^^* 5^), though he certainly recognizes gradations of value in its com- mands (e.cf. the commandment of love), and finds its kernel in'the Decalogue (cf. Ro 13«f-, 2 Co3''-' : the Law engraven in letters on tables of stone). All the Law is Divine. While it might seem as if in Gal. St. Paul designedly avoids speaking of the Law as the Law of God (cf. 2'9 3"'-2i), but rather sets it, as the ' mere rudiments of the world' (4''^-'' ; cf. Col 2** -**), on a level with the heathen stage of religion, the absence of any such design is shown by the fact that even in the same Epistle he exhorts his readers to fulfil the Law by love (5^^'-), and thus asserts its holiness, while elsewhere (e.g. Ro 7^-- ^•*- ^6- 22) ]^g jjj. sists upon its Divine and spiritual character.
(b) if is viciv of the function of the Law. — The most cliaracteristic feature of St. Paul's doctrine of the Law, however, is found in his statements re- garding its function. Here, in fact, he develops a view directly opposed not only to his own earlier Jewish conception, but also to the thoughts of the naturaJ man, viz. that the Law is not meant to mediate life to man, but is rather a medium of death. In the abstract, of course, he still recog- nizes that the Law was designed to be a real channel of righteousness and life (Ro V^ -. ' the commandment which was unto life,' 10', Gal 3^- : ' he that doeth them shall live in them '). In the actual circumstances of life, however, the matter has quite a ditterent bearing, for no human being has ever fulfilled, or ever can fulfil, the condition of perfect obedience to the Law. The Law is thus quite incapable of bringing life to man ; nor, indeed, was it given by the all-foreseeing God with any such design. On the contrary, it has primarily a purely negative aim and effect, viz. to intensify the moral and spiritual misery of the unsaved man,
* Some scholars are of opinion that the word S6yiJ.aTa here re- fers to the treatises with which the ancient Rabbis had overlaid the Law, but this is hardly compatible with Col 2^-^ : to xetpd- ypaijiov TOts S6yiJ.a<Ti.v.
SO that the greatness of the Divine grace may be the more clearly displayed ; and it is only upon this background that the Law has any positive significance at all.