THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Heb. 2 :4 ; Rom. 1 :17) and the law is not o f (out o f) faith.” What the law requires is not believing, but doing. The law says,- “ H e . that doeth." The emphasis is on doeth. The reason o f this is ' that there were many among Paul’s opponents who depended upon the law, but they were not doing it but simply hearing it and talking about it (cf. Rom. 2:13, 17, 23; Rom. 10:5). In the same way there are many today who talk o f salvation by good deeds, by char acter, by observing the Sermon on the Mount, but after all they are not doing, they are not living the Sermon on the Mount, they simply talk about it, and just so there are many who are dwelling upon keeping the Mosaic law—the Seventh Day law—who are not keeping that law at all as is required in the Mosaic . legislation. No Seventh Day Adventist keeps the Mosaic seventh day law in the exact way pre scribed in the law (Ex. 35:3; Num. 15:32- 36.). A very prominent sociological teacher in America who made a great noise about religion consisting o f living according to the Sermon on the Mount, was at that very time guilty o f the most flagrant violation o f the letter o f that Sermon on the Mount by divorcing his wife, the mother o f his children, and almost immediately marrying another woman who had more money (cf. Matt. 5 :32), Monday, April 29 . Gal. 3 : 13 , 14 . Paul turns quickly and joyfully from the hopelessness o f man’s condition under the law, to the glorious possibilities opened up to us in Christ. The Jews were under a curse brought upon them by the unkept law o f Moses, and the Gentiles were under a curse by disobeying the light that they had received but not obeyed (cf. Rom. 1:20-32; 2:14, 15), but “ Christ redeemed us (first the Jew, then the Gentile, and particularly believers—Rom. 1:16) from (o u f p f) the curse 'o f the law, having become (i. e., by becoming) a curse for (rather, in behalf o f) u i ” , Note carefully the method by which Christ redeemed us from the curse th'at was upon us all through
the broken law ; that way was by taking the curse that was upon us upon Himself, “having become a curse in our behalf” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21, R. V .; Isa. 53:6). There is an absolute interchange o f positions between Christ and us. Christ took the place o f the curse which belonged to us by hanging on the cross, and we, when we believed in Him, stepped into His place of perfect acceptance before God (cf. 2 Cor. 5 :21, R. V .; Isa. 53 : 6 ) . Again Paul forti fies his position with Old Testament Scrip ture proof. The law itself, the very law in which the Judaizers made their boast, said: “ Cursed is every one -that hangeth on a tree” (Deut. 21:23). God by a long and remarkable, but very natural chain of providences, brought it to pass that Jesus not merely died, but was crucified, and thus in a very literal way fulfilled and did away with the law (cf. Acts 2:23; Col. 2:14). And what was the.purpose o f this? “ That upon (unto) the Gentiles might come the blessing o f Abraham in Christ Jesus.” The blessing o f Abraham was the blessing of justification by faith (cf. v. 6 ), and this blessing comes upon the Gentiles through Christ taking the curse that was due to us upon Himself upon the cross. The cruci fixion o f Jesus Christ in our stead makes justification by faith possible for us. And what was the purpose and result o f our being justified by faith on the ground of Christ’s death on the cross? The question is answered in the remainder-of verse T4, “That (more exactly, in order that) we (i. e.-, we believers, Gentiles as- well as- Jews) might receive the promise o f the Spirit through faith.” The gift o f the Spirit is called the promise o f the Spirit because He- was the Spirit that was prom ised by the prophets'(Joel 2:28, 29), and by our Lord Jesus Christ as His one all- inclusive promise for the present genera tion (cf. Acts 14:5; 2:33). Our receiving the Spirit was conditioned on the death of Christ on the cross. W e being justified through that death, God Could give us the Holy Spirit as the seal o f our justification (cf. John 7:39-; Eph. 1:13; Gal. 3:2).
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