0044. The Law Covenant

The Law Covenant

"Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar" (Gal_4:24).

1. Law, as set forth by the Commandments, written on two tablets of stone, is a covenant which worketh wrath.

When the Law was given, Mount Sinai did exceedingly quake. It was covered with "blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; * * And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb_12:18-21).

The one who comes under the Law of God is under the curse, because it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them" (Gal_3:10).

2. The covenant of the Law demands obedience of man. "If ye will obey My voice indeed, * * then ye shall be", etc. (Exo_19:5). This was the condition of every blessing which man could receive under the Law. It is illuminating to study the wonderful promises which Moses gave, as written in the closing chapters of Deuteronomy; everywhere it is: "Do this and thou shalt live."

3. The covenant of the Law was not unto salvation, but unto privilege. Through the keeping of the Law, the Children of Israel were to become established as a peculiar treasure, and a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, etc. (Exo_19:6).

4. The covenant of Law became operative when the people accepted the covenant and the people said, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Exo_19:8).

5. The Law covenant was quickly broken, even before it was received, engraven upon stones. Moses had been forty days in the mountain, and returning with the two tables, he found the people dancing around a golden calf which they had set up.

Moses cast down the tables of stone and broke them. Israel had already broken them by her disobedience.

6. The Law covenant being broken, Moses had no claim in Israel’s behalf, save the covenant of grace. In Exo_32:7-8, Exo_32:10, we read, "And the Lord said, * * They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them * * let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them".

Then it was that Moses pled the unconditional covenant of Grace, which had been given unto Abraham.

God pity the one today, who seeks to camp under the Law, surrounded by the thunders of Sinai.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR