Chapter 29 [XVII.]--A Comparison of the Law of Moses and of the New Law.
Now, amidst this admirable correspondence, there is at least this very considerable diversity in the cases, in that the people in the earlier instance were deterred by a horrible dread from approaching the place where the law was given; whereas in the other case the Holy Ghost came upon them who were gathered together in expectation of His promised gift. There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated; here it was on the hearts of men. There the law was given outwardly, so that the unrighteous might be terrified; [831] here it was given inwardly, so that they might be justified. [832] For this, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment,"--such, of course, as was written on those tables,--"it is briefly comprehended," says he, "in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." [833] Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." [834] God's law, therefore, is love. "To it the carnal mind is not subject, neither indeed can be;" [835] but when the works of love are written on tables to alarm the carnal mind, there arises the law of works and "the letter which killeth" the transgressor; but when love itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith, and the spirit which gives life to him that loves.
[831] Ex. xix. 12, 16.
[832] Acts ii. 1-47.
[833] Rom. xiii. 9, 10.
[834] Rom. v. 5.
[835] Rom. viii. 7.
Chapter 30.--The New Law Written Within.
Now, observe how consonant this diversity is with those words of the apostle which I quoted not long ago in another connection, and which I postponed for a more careful consideration afterwards: "Forasmuch," says he, "as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." [836] See how he shows that the one is written without man, that it may alarm him from without; the other within man himself, that it may justify him from within. He speaks of the "fleshy tables of the heart," not of the carnal mind, but of a living agent possessing sensation, in comparison with a stone, which is senseless. The assertion which he subsequently makes,--that "the children of Israel could not look stedfastly on the end of the face of Moses," and that he accordingly spoke to them through a veil, [837] --signifies that the letter of the law justifies no man, but that rather a veil is placed on the reading of the Old Testament, until it shall be turned to Christ, and the veil be removed;--in other words, until it shall be turned to grace, and be understood that from Him accrues to us the justification, whereby we do what He commands. And He commands, in order that, because we lack in ourselves, we may flee to Him for refuge. Accordingly, after most guardedly saying, "Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward," [838] the apostle immediately goes on to add the statement which underlies our subject, to prevent our confidence being attributed to any strength of our own. He says: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us fit to be ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." [839]
[836] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[837] 2 Cor. iii. 13.
[838] 2 Cor. iii. 4.
[839] 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.
Chapter 31 [XVIII.]--The Old Law Ministers Death; The New, Righteousness.
Now, since, as he says in another passage, "the law was added because of transgression," [840] meaning the law which is written externally to man, he therefore designates it both as "the ministration of death," [841] and "the ministration of condemnation;" [842] but the other, that is, the law of the New Testament, he calls "the ministration of the Spirit" [843] and "the ministration of righteousness," [844] because through the Spirit we work righteousness, and are delivered from the condemnation due to transgression. The one, therefore, vanishes away, the other abides; for the terrifying schoolmaster will be dispensed with, when love has succeeded to fear. Now "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." [845] But that this ministration is vouchsafed to us, not on account of our deserving, but from His mercy, the apostle thus declares: "Seeing then that we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, let us faint not; but let us renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God with deceit." [846] By this "craftiness" and "deceitfulness" he would have us understand the hypocrisy with which the arrogant would fain be supposed to be righteous. Whence in the psalm, which the apostle cites in testimony of this grace of God, it is said, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth is no guile." [847] This is the confession of lowly saints, who do not boast to be what they are not. Then, in a passage which follows not long after, the apostle writes thus: "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." [848] This is the knowledge of His glory, whereby we know that He is the light which illumines our darkness. And I beg you to observe how he inculcates this very point: "We have," says he, "this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." [849] When further on he commends in glowing terms this same grace, in the Lord Jesus Christ, until he comes to that vestment of the righteousness of faith, "clothed with which we cannot be found naked," and whilst longing for which "we groan, being burdened" with mortality, "earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven," "that mortality might be swallowed up of life;" [850] --observe what he says: "Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit;" [851] and after a little he thus briefly draws the conclusion of the matter: "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." [852] This is not the righteousness whereby God is Himself righteous, but that whereby we are made righteous by Him.
[840] Gal. iii. 19.
[841] 2 Cor. iii. 7.
[842] 2 Cor. iii. 9.
[843] 2 Cor. iii. 8.
[844] 2 Cor. iii. 9.
[845] 2 Cor. iii. 17.
[846] 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2.
[847] Ps. xxxii. 2.
[848] 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6.
[849] 2 Cor. iv. 7.
[850] See 2 Cor. v. 1-4.
[851] 2 Cor. v. 5.
[852] 2 Cor. v. 21.