Chapter 32—The Righteousness of Christ in the Law
[
This article appeared in
The Review and Herald, April 22, 1902
.]
The greatest difficulty Paul had to meet arose from the influence
of Judaizing teachers. These made him much trouble by causing
dissension in the church at Corinth. They were continually presenting
the virtues of the ceremonies of the law, exalting these ceremonies
above the gospel of Christ, and condemning Paul because he did not
urge them upon the new converts.
Paul met them on their own ground. “If the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious,” he said, “so that the
children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall
not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the minis-
tration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory” (
2 Corinthians 3:7-9
).
The law of God, spoken in awful grandeur from Sinai, is the
utterance of condemnation to the sinner. It is the province of the law
to condemn, but there is in it no power to pardon or to redeem. It is
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ordained to life; those who walk in harmony with its precepts will
receive the reward of obedience. But it brings bondage and death to
those who remain under its condemnation.
So sacred and so glorious is the law, that when Moses returned
from the holy mount, where he had been with God, receiving from
His hand the tables of stone, his face reflected a glory upon which the
people could not look without pain, and Moses was obliged to cover
his face with a veil.
The glory that shone on the face of Moses was a reflection of
the righteousness of Christ in the law. The law itself would have no
glory, only that in it Christ is embodied. It has no power to save. It
is lusterless only as in it Christ is represented as full of righteousness
and truth.
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