Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE OLD COVENANT
12. The Law was a civil code for the government of
the old Jewish theocracy. It was never intended to be a
permanent and universal rule of religious faith and practice.
It was added, the Apostle tells us, that is, added to the
Abrahamic promise, “because of transgressions, till the seed
should come to whom the promise hath been made” (Gal.
3 : 19). The tendency of the Children of Israel to drift
into the customs and practices of their idolatrous heathen
neighbors occasioned the giving of the Law. Under conscience
alone the people became such habitual sinners that
it became necessary to put them under a code of law, in
order that they might know the eternal distinctions between
good and bad, right and wrong. Such is the purpose
of law, generally speaking: it is to define right and
distinguish it from wrong. Law was never eizacted to make
people better, but for the purpose of restraining the lawless
and protecting the weak from the strong. (Cf. Rorn.
7:7-11, 3:19-20). Therefore, what the Law could not do
for man, God did for him by a manifestation of His
infinite grace in the person of His Only Begotten (Rom.
8~3-4).
13. To summarize: as stated above, God has made
two wills. The first was made with respect to the fleshly
seed of Abraham, through the mediation of Moses (Deut,
5). The last is an overture to all mankind through the
mediation of Jesus Christ. The Old was ratified by the
blood of animals at Sinai: the New’ was ratified by ‘the
precious blood of Christ on Calvary. (Cf. Heb. 8:ll-22)’.
the death of our Lord abrogated the Old and ratified the
New at the same time (Col. 2:13-15, Heb. 8:23-28). He
nailed the Law to His Cross and ushered in the universal
reign of grace. God graciously permitted the Law to re-
main as a civil code for the Jewish people down to the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but its
binding force was removed when Jesus was crucified. One
of the elementary principles of law is that a new will
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