St. Paul, however, goes far beyond this purely juridical conception. He also represents our deliver- ance from the Law as a transaction ethically con- ditioned. From the mystical union with the
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Crucified and Risen Lord comes a power which transforms and re-creates our nature, and thus enables us of oui-selves to fulfil the requirements of the Law (Ro S^^-, Gal 5i« ; cf. v.-^). The Apostle traces this power to the Spirit of God and of Christ : ' if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law ' (Gal 5'^) ; against such as bring forth the fruits of the Spirit the Law is not valid (v.^'') ; the Law is not imposed upon a righteous niJin (1 Ti P). Thus freedom from the Law is in no sense a merely legal freedom ; it is an ethical freedom which is quite ditl'erent from mere arbitrary choice, and implies that we fulfil the demands of the Law not through compulsion or fear, but in zeal and love (cf. Ro 8i«-, 2 Co 31"-). . Hence the Christian is not free in the sense of being his own master ; on the contrary, he is subject to the Lord Jesus and God (Ro H^'**), but serves Him from the dictates of the inmost heart, having yielded himself with consum- ing gratitude and love to the Saviour who died for him (2 Co 5"^-).
(d) The Laio abolished yet continuing in force. — St. Paul thus teaches that the Law is abolished, and that nevertheless it abides. It is abolished by Christ in the sense that it has no longer any validity for the Cliristian as a statutory system ; justification is effected through faith alone, and without the works of the Law (Ro 3'-^ Gal 2'"). This holds both for Jews and for Gentiles (Ro \^^^- 3-"-); here there is no difference between them. The place of the Law is now taken by Christ (Ro 10''). Everything turns upon our union with Him, and works are not to the purpose ; in other words, all depends upon faith, which is simply the acceptance of the gospel, or of Christ, and the invocation of His name (Ro lO^^^'). In particular, the ordinances which had hitherto obstructed religious intercourse between different peoples, as Israelites and Goyim, had all been done away in Christ (Eph 2"-22; cf. Gal 3^8, Col 3"). In Him circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision noth- ing (Gal 5« 613, 1 Co 7i9)_ Hence St. Paul, a Jew, can become as a Gentile to the Gentiles (1 Co 9'-^), just as St. Peter and other Jewish Christians had done in Antioch (Gal 2^^-''-'^). In the religious sense, i.e. as regards salvation, the Jewish Christians too were now free from the Law.
On the other hand, however, the Apostle also affirms the permanence of the Law. The impera- tive of the Law remains valid not only because it still retains its juridical authority over non- believers, but also because it furnishes the ethical standard of the Christian life generally, and of the religious life of Jewish Christians in a special degree. Thus the idea of a ' tertius usus legis,' of which the Reformers spoke, corresponds exactly to the Pauline view. Not only does St. Paul regard the all- embracing requirement of the Law — the command- ment of love — as a permanent expression of the Divine will (Ro LSSi", Gal 5^*), but he also borrows moral i)recepts and rules of discipline from the Mosaic legislation (see art. Commandment). He is confident, no doubt, that the Spirit supplies not onlj^ moral power but also moral insight (Gal 5'^; cf. Ro 12-) ; but the Spirit does not ojjerate only in the individual soul, but operates also, and mainly, through juophecy and through the written Law, which indeed is spiritual (Ro 7^*), and must there- fore be spiritually understood (cf. e.g. 1 Co 9**"^").
Here we undoubtedly light upon a difficulty in the Pauline view. On the one hand, the Apostle incisively challenges the Judaistic claim to impose the ordinances of the Law upon the Gentiles, while, on the other, he upholds the authority of the Law under the term 'Scripture.' The latter contention might readily lead to a new kind of legalism, and lias frequently in some measure done so. St. Paul himself, however, rejected this inference, and even
suggested a rule for the spiritual application of the LaAV, viz. in his doctrine of the Law as having a typological or allegorical significance for Chris- tianity ; cf. Col 2^'^'-, where he says that the ordin- ances relating to foods, feast-days, etc., are only prefiguring shadows of the reality, which is Christ, just as the circumcision of the flesh has found its true fulfilment in Christian baptism (v.^"-).
In connexion with this problem we must also consider the peculiar relation of the Jewish Chris- tians to the Law. According both to Acts and to the Pauline Epistles, the Apostle maintained that the Law had a peculiar binding force upon Chris- tians belonging to the race of Israel. As regards Acts, we need refer only to 2pi-2s le^ IS'^. When St. James spoke to St. Paul of the rumour that he taught the Diaspora to forsake Moses, St. Paul promptly gave the required practical evidence for the falsity of the report, and for his own allegiance to the Law (21-'^-). He even circumcised Timothy, a semi-Gentile (16'). According to his own Epistles, again, he was to the Jews as a Jew (1 Co 9^^), and he counsels the Jewish members of the Church in Corinth not to undo their circumcision (1^^), since every man should remain in the condition in which he was called (v.''"). In Gal 5^ he solemnly declares that every one who receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the whole Law — an assertion designed to traverse the foolish idea which the Judaizers had tried to insinuate into the minds of the Galatians, viz. that circumcision was a matter of no great importance. This declaration, no doubt, was made from the stand- point of those who believed that justification was to be obtained by the works of the Law. At all events, where higher issues are at stake, the Apostle assumes that he is absolved from the strict letter of the Law, as, e.g., for the sake of brotherly intercourse with the Gentile Christians (cf. 1 Co 9^1 with Gal 2i2-i4). There is another fact that points in the same direction. In Ro 11 St. Paul asserts that the Chosen People are to occupy a permanently distinct position in the Divine process of history. But the persistence of the distinctively religious character of Israel would seem to involve their permanent retention of circumcision and the Law. * How such segregation is to be eftected and maintained in mixed com- munities without violating full religious fellowship is a problem with which missions to the Jews are still greatly concerned; cf., e.g., the relation be- tween the Sabbath and Sunday. But it is implied in the whole tenor of Pauline teaching that in such conflicts the principle of freedom shall in the last resort prevail. For, as has already been said, all the commandments are comprehended in the law of love, and rites and ceremonies, such as circumcision, purifications, and observance of the Sabbath, are but shadows of the reality that we have in Christ. In relation to God circumcision is in itself of no value. Hence, when St. Paul as- serts that it is the doers of the Law who will be declared righteous in the Day of Judgment (Ro 2^'), he is thinking, as the context shows, not of an external obedience, a performance of the law 'in the flesh,' but of a circumcision of the heart and of a moral righteousness (cf. 2"'- 25-2»)_