Law.' '1 This was not written on tables of stone, but 'shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.' 2 Therefore the Law of God is love. + To this the carnal mind is not subject; neither indeed can it be.' 3 When then the works of love are written "in tables in order to alarm the carnal mind, it is the law of works, and the letter which slays the transgressor but when love itself is spread abroad in the heart of the believing, it is the law of faith, and the Spirit giving life to him who loves. And 30. See now how closely this difference agrees with those Apostolic words which a little while ago I quoted in another connection, postponing their fuller discussion. • Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be an epistle of Christ ministered by us, not written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of the heart.' Observe how he shows that the one is written outside the man, to alarm him from without, and the other inside the man, in order to justify him within. he calls them fleshy tables of the heart (meaning) not the carnal mind, but a living person having sensation contrasted with a stone which is senseless. And what he says a little after, that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses, and that accordingly he spoke to them through a veil, signifies that the letter of the law justifies no man, and that a veil is interposed in reading the Old Covenant, until we turn to Christ and the veil is taken away. That is, until we pass to grace, and under 1 Rom. xiii. 9, 10. 2 Rom. v. 5. 3 Rom. viii. 7. stand that our justification, whereby we do what he commands, comes to us from Him. He commands us in order that, since in ourselves we fail, we may take refuge in Him. So after He had been most careful to say 'such trust have we through Christ in God,' lest we should ascribe this to our own strength, he proceeds at once to commend the grace of which we are speaking, and says, 'not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.' 1 31. And so because, as he says elsewhere, the Law was imposed for the sake of transgressions,'2 that is that letter which is written outside a man, therefore he calls it both a ministration of death, and a ministration of condemnation. But this other Law, that is, of the New Covenant, he calls the ministration of the Spirit, and the ministration of righteousness; because by the gift of the Spirit we work righteousness, and are set free from the condemnation of transgression. The former therefore is abolished: the latter abides. The school-master who terrifies us will be taken away when love succeeds to fear. For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.' But this ministration, so the Apostle teaches, is not the product of human merits, but of mercy: 'wherefore having this ministry, as we have received mercy let us not faint; but let us cast away the hidden 2 Gal. iii. 19. 1 2 Cor. iii. 5-6. け things of disorder, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully'.1 By this craftiness and deceit he would have us understand hypocrisy whereby the proud desire to appear righteous. Whence in that Psalm which the Apostle quotes in evidence for this very grace, it is written, blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose mouth there is no guile '.2 This is the confession of lowly saints, not of men who boast themselves to be what they are not. And shortly after the Apostle writes, For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ'. This is the knowledge of His glory, the knowledge that He is the light which illumines our darkness. Observe then how he impresses this thought on us: 'but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us '.* And then he goes on with greater fullness to commend this same grace in our Lord Jesus Christ, until he comes to speak of that vesture of the righteousness of faith, whereby being clothed we shall not be found naked, and for which we yearn being burdened with mortality, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. And see what he adds here: 1 2 Cor. iv. 1-2. 3 2 Rom. iv. 8; Ps. xxxi. 2. 4 2 Cor. iv. 7. 'Now He Who hath wrought us for this selfsame thing is God, who hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit'. And after a little he adds: 'that we may be the righteousness of God in Him'. This righteousness of God is not that whereby He is righteous, but that whereby we are made righteous by Him. 32. Therefore let no Christian wander from this faith which alone is Christian. Neither let anyone who shrinks from saying that we become righteous through our own selves, and not by the grace of God working this in us (because he sees that faithful and godly people cannot endure this assertion), take refuge in the assertion that the reason why we cannot be justified without the working of God's grace is that He gave the Law, He appointed its teaching, He gave us Holy Commandments. For beyond all question these things without the aid of the Spirit are the letter which kills: but when the life-giving spirit is present, He causes that to be loved as written within which the Law caused to be feared when written without. 33. Look into this a little while in that passage also where the Prophet gives the clearest testimony on the subject. 'Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will accomplish a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah: not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt: for they have not persevered in my Covenant, and I have forsaken them, saith the Lord. For this is the Covenant which I will ordain for the House of Israel: after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my Laws in their heart, and in their mind will I write them: and I will be their God and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every one his neighbour and every one his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least unto the greatest of them; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more '.1 What are we to say to this? It would be impossible, or very difficult, to find in the ancient Scriptures, except in this prophetic passage, any mention in so many words of the New Covenant. In many a place it is symbolized and foretold, but not expressly mentioned by its name. Consider therefore with care what difference God orders to exist between the two Covenants, the Old and the New. 34. When He had said, 'Not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,' see what He added: 'because they continued not in my Covenant.' He ascribes it to their fault that they did not continue in God's Covenant. He does this lest the fault should be ascribed to the Law which they had received. For it is this Law which Christ came not to destroy but to fulfil. Nevertheless the ungodly are not justified by this law but by grace. For this is the work of the life-giving Spirit, without whom the letter kills. For if a law had been given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law: 1 Jerem. xxxi. 31-34. |