[January 28th, 1855.]
The immutability of the law is a fundamental truth. This rests on its nature, and on the immutability of God. The evidence is found in the Scriptures and in conscience. This the Jews believed, and this truth lay at the foundation of their error, which was twofold. 1. That the law was to be fulfilled by their own righteousness. 2. That the form in which the law was immutable was the Mosaic law. This twofold error led to the effort, 1. To establish their own righteousness, and 2. To their making righteousness to consist in ceremonial obedience.
Paul taught, 1. That the law is immutable; as he asserts and proves. 2. That it cannot be satisfied by our righteousness, but is and can only be satisfied by the righteousness of God. 3. That Christ is therefore the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 4. Consequently the immutability of the law is consistent with its abrogation, because its abrogation is effected by its fulfilment. The law is immutable so far as it demands righteousness as an indispensable condition of justification. But it is abrogated so far as it says, do this and live, i.e., so far as it requires our own righteousness.
There are different senses in which Christ may be said to be the end of the law. 1st. In the sense of its completion. But this is contradictory to the meaning of , which never occurs in the sense of . 2d. In the sense of having made an end of it, abolished it. This he has done in two ways. a. In so satisfying its demands that it ceases to require our own personal righteousness as the condition of justification; and b. In putting an end to the Mosaic institutions, so that obedience to that law is no longer necessary to salvation. 3d. Christ is the end of the law in being its aim or object. This means either. a. That the end of the law is righteousness. Christ is the end of the law because he is our righteousness. The end or design of the law is secured in him. So that it is by faith and not by works that the end of the law is to be attained. This agrees with what follows. The law demanded what we could not do. The gospel requires simply faith. Or, b. Christ may be said to be the end of the law as he is the object aimed at in the law. It was designed to bring us to Christ. The law is a school-master. This is true of the moral and also of the Mosaic law. In any sense the great truth taught is that Christ protects us from the law, and is our righteousness. Whether this is taught by saying that he made an end of it, or that it loses itself in him as to its great design, so that what it contemplated is secured in him, matters little.
Out of Christ we are exposed, 1. To its inexorable demands. 2. To its awful curse. 3. To its slavish spirit.
In him, we are righteous. 1. We meet all the demands of the law by pleading what he has done. 2. We are free from the curse as he was made a curse for us. 3. We are delivered from the spirit of bondage again to fear and are filled with the spirit of adoption.
Hence, 1. As the apostle teaches, we have peace with God, and peace of conscience.
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Assurance of eternal life, as no one can condemn those whom God justifies.
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With this we have a principle of obedience, for until we are reconciled there can be no holiness.
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We are made partakers of all the glory and benefits of his triumph. Having obeyed and suffered for us and as our representative, we share in all the blessings promised as his reward.
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