The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 108

dition-broken and humbled by the action of the law upon his conscience-it meet& him with the tidings of redemption, and of life and blessing (including spiritual renewal) coming to him on the ground of" the righteousness of faith" (cf. Acts xiii. 38, 39); 3. The privileges of the older covenant foreshadowed those qf the new (l Pet. ii. 9). But the contrast is gree.t here also. See above. III. THESE CONTRASTS ALL DEl'END UPON A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRAST. The deepest contrast, between the two covenants is to be sought for in the view which each takes of the direction in which the individual (formerly the nation) is to look for acceptance and happiness-for " life." 1. The l.aw. The law appears in the covenant with Sinai in its original, unqualified severity, as, on the one hand, awarding life to the obedient, and on the other, denouncing penalties against the breakers of even the lea.st of its commandments (Gal. iii. 10---13). Doubtless, but for daily pardon of daily offences, the Israelite, under so strict a constitution, would have been totally unable to maintain his footing. These offences, however, appear as so many bree.ches of the covenant bond, which, in strictness, was the keeping of the whole law. A right apprehension of God's design in placing Israel under this constitution will do away with any appearance of harshness in the arrangement, as if God were purposely mocking the weakness of the people by setting them to work out a problem-the attainment of righteousness-in that way incapable of solution. The morel task given to Israel among the nations was, indeed, to aim at the realisation of righteousness, of righteous- ness as prescribed by the law. But God's design in this was not, certainly, to make the salvation of any Israelite depend on the fulfilment of impossible conditions, but, primarily, to conduc~ the seeker after righteousness by the path of honest moral endeavour, to a consciousness of his inability to keep the law, and so to awaken in him the feeling of the need of a better righteousness than the law could give him-to drive him back, in short, from law to faith, from a state of satisfaction with himself to a feeling of his need of redemption-of redemption at once from the guilt of past transgressions, and from the discord in his own nature. The law had thus an end beyond itself. It was a schoolmaster to lead to Christ. The later Jews totally misconceived its nature when they clung to it with unbending tenacity as the sole instrument of justification (Rom. x:. 1-4). 2. The Gospel,. In this is revealed" the righteousness of faith "-the righteousness which is" unto a.11 and upon a.11 them that believe." This is the only righteousness which can make the sinner truly just before God" (Rom. iii. 21-27). But the law is not thereby ma.de void. It remains, as before, the standard of duty-the norm of holy practice. The design of the Gospel is not to abolish it, but to establish it more firmly than ever (Rom. iii. 31). Faith includes the obedient will. The end of redemption is holiness. IV. THE !SRA.ELITE, WHILE BOUND TO GoD BY A COVENANT OF LAW, YET ENJOYED MA.I.._..Y BENEFITS OF THE STATE OF GRACE. The better part of the Israelites were perfectly aware that had Got.l been strict to mark iniquities, they could not stand before him (Ps. cxxx. 3); that their own law would have condemned them. But they knew, too, that there was forgiveness with God, that he might be feared (ver. 4). Piously availing him.self of the expiatory rites provided for the covering of his sin, the godly Jew had confidence towards God. Many in the nation grasped the truth that an obedient will is, in God's sight, the matter of chief importance, and that, where this is found, much else will be forgiven-that he that feareth God, and worketh righteous- ness, is accepted with him (Acts x. 1:15), notwithstanding tbe special imperfections which may mark his daily life. This was pra.ctica.lly to rise from the standpoint of the; law, to that of the righteousness of faith. It enabled those who had attained to it, though under the law, to cherish a delight in spiritual righteousness, and even to finu joy in the law itself, as the outward expression of that righteousness. It was not, however, the complete joy of salvation. The law still hovered above the consciousness of the Israelite with its unfulfilled demand; and he had not the means of perfectly :i,acifying his conscience in relation to it. While in those in whom the law had wrought Its work most effectually, there was a deep feeling of tiin, a painful conscious- uess uf frustration in efforts after the highest goodness, which day by day wrung from them sue;L cries as that of St. Paul-" 0 wretched man," etc. (Rom. vii. 24). Here, again, tLe Gos1,el revtals itself as the termination of tLe law of Moses (Rom. x. 4).-J. 0, cn. xrx. 3-G.J TIIR TIOOK OF EXODUS. 113