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The Curse of the Law
The Mosaic Law is mentioned in the Bible
hundreds of times. Why do you suppose this is true? God never
intended the Ten Commandments to make a bad man good or a good
man better. The Ten Commandments were not to give anyone life
(Gal. 3:21; Rom. 3:20-21). But the Law had a spiritual purpose
to perform (Rom. 7:14). This spiritual role was to be God’s
X-ray machine to reveal the nature of man.
The Law of Moses is made up of many more
laws than just the famous ten. It actually includes hundreds of
laws and ordinances. This whole complex system of commands and
sacrifices was designed by a holy God to reveal to us His
perfect character and to teach us just what we are like when we
are compared to Him.
The Law: Tied to Sin
In order to activate His spiritual X-ray
machine, God mysteriously attached His righteous laws to our
sinful heart.
“For until the law sin was in the
world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over
those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the
transgression of Adam.” (Rom. 5:13-14)
Even though the people who lived from Adam
to Moses (about 2000 years) did not have a specific law to
break, like Adam's command not to eat the forbidden fruit, sin
was still in man. Physical death was clear proof that the death
seed was there.
Many years after Adam, God gave His Law
and He gave it in two forms. He gave to the Jews at Mount Sinai
a written version etched in stone tablets, and He gave to the
Gentiles a spiritual version written on fleshly tables of the
heart (2 Cor. 3:6, Rom. 2:14-16). Both versions were given
to express God’s holiness and to expose sin as a
transgression against Him.
"Moreover, the law entered that the
offense might abound." (Rom. 7:20)
The Greek word "entered" comes from a word
often used of a Greek play in which an actor entered the stage
to play a supporting role. The Law of Moses entered God's plan
of grace to play a supporting role - to stir up invisible sin
within man.
The Law's stirring of our sinful heart
would be like throwing a rock at a hornet's nest or poking a
sleeping bear with a stick. Both the rock and the stick
(representing the Law) would stir our sin, (represented by the
hornets and the bear). The Law stirs our sin in order for it to
be made known.
Paul’s Contact with God’s Law
Paul learned this truth about God's Law
personally.
"What shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin but by the law; for
I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For
apart from the law, sin is dead (or dormant). I was alive
apart from the law once; but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained
to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." (Rom.
7:7-11; commentary mine)
Paul received the knowledge of his death
nature because of the stirring of his sin caused by the
Law. He had broken God’s Law against covetousness and therefore
became aware of his sin before God. "Oh God," he must have
thought, "I am a covetous person. I am a sinner. Therefore, I
am dead and in need of life." The Law had accomplished its work
in his life.
Paul explained the work of the Law to the
Galatians.
"What purpose then does the law
serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the
Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was
appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator." (Gal.
3:19)
Paul had gone to great lengths to teach
the Galatians that God’s Law was never meant to give anyone
life. It was added to reveal sin as a transgression before God.
A transgression is an unlawful trespassing upon someone else's
domain. It is unlawful to trespass God’s holy domain. The
boundary that separated a holy God from sinful man was not
clearly marked until the Law.
God’s Law says to every member of Adam's
race, "No trespassing!" To transgress God's Law is to realize
that one has become guilty before God.
"Now we know that whatever things the
law says, it says to them that are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the
knowledge of sin." (Rom. 3:19-20)
We have all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. How do we know this is true? It is true because
we have all broken God's Law. The Jews could not keep the Law
written upon stone. The rest of us cannot keep that which is
written by God on the fleshly tables of our heart. The Law says
that Jews and Gentiles alike stand condemned before God.
The Law Becomes the Strength of Sin
"The strength of sin is the law." (1
Cor. 15:56b)
What a strange statement! How is the Law
the strength of sin?
Without the Law, invisible sin within us has no means of
expressing itself. It has no strength! How could we ever
define or describe an invisible sin nature without the Law?
The Bible calls this invisible nature
within us the flesh (Rom. 7:18), sinful passions (Rom. 7:5), sin
(Rom. 7:17), the old man (Eph. 4:22), and lusts (James 4:1).
But it can only be understood when it is spiritually set in
motion. The Law, as the strength of sin, gives our sinful
passion a little push.
A young boy came into the kitchen with his
mom many times. One day she said to him, "Sweetheart, do you
see that big jar up there on the top shelf?"
"Yes, Mommy," he replied.
"Well, dear, there is something in that
jar that mother does not want you to see, so please do not ever
look in it, okay?"
"Sure, Mom," he responded.
Suddenly those hidden impulses of Adam's
sin inside the little fellow began to vibrate like a tuning fork
struck by a mallet. These vibrations eventually nudged him to
take just one little peek into the jar. His ability for
disobedience was always there, but until the Law struck the
chords of his sinful heart, it had no means of expression, no
strength.
Our silent sin is like the energy stored
in a fully charged battery needing some outlet of release.
Connect the battery to a small appliance and the energy will
flow. Our sin had no channel for expression until the Law of God
gave it one.
God was gracious in providing His Law to
become the strength of sin. He exposes our sinful condition in
order to create within us a thirst for His wonderful grace.
“For when we were in the flesh, the
passions of sin, which were aroused by the law, were at work
in our members to bear fruit to death.” (Rom. 7:5)
Law and Death
If the sting of sin is death (and it is)
and the strength of sin is the Law (and it is), then the Law
must be tied to death. The Law, unless it is kept absolutely
perfectly, can only curse. The Law is a unit, and as a unit it
demands all or nothing at all. If one fails to keep it
flawlessly, it will become a killer.
"For as many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continues not in all things which are written
in the book of the law, to do them. But that no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for
the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that does them shall live in them." (Gal.
3:10-12)
"Who also made us able ministers of
the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for
the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the
ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was
glorious, so that the children or Israel could not
steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not
the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does
the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." (2 Cor.
3:6-9)
No matter how well it is concealed, God's
Law will search sin out (Rom. 7:14-25). Once our sin is exposed,
God’s Spirit opens our blind eyes to the knowledge that we are
spiritually separated from God.
The Law, therefore, becomes a killer and a
minister of condemnation to those who do not know Jesus Christ
as Savior. It gives them no excuse and no place to hide.
The Law will always do just what God has designed His holy Law
to do. It can never give anyone life, nor make anyone better.
But it will always demand from the human race the righteousness
of God and condemn all who do not measure up. It will stir up
the Adamic nature within and give the knowledge that we are
sinners and under God's condemnation. The Law was designed to
reveal a curse. So the Law and death go hand in hand.
Why the Cross?
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written,
'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree' - that the blessing
of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith." (Gal. 3:13-14)
By understanding this goal for the Law, we
can begin to understand why Jesus Christ had to die on a cross.
It would have seemed more appropriate to the shadows of the Old
Testament for God to allow the Lord Jesus to die on the mercy
seat or on the brazen altar. After all, it was upon the mercy
seat that the blood was sprinkled, and upon the brazen altar
that the sacrifices were offered. Both of these foreshadowed
the death of Christ. So why did God determine that Christ was
to die on a cross?
His death on the cross had everything to
do with the final judgment of death imposed by God's holy Law.
Again, the Law is God's executioner, pronouncing every human
being guilty and condemned (2 Cor. 3:6-9). The Law's role as an
executioner is illustrated simply, yet graphically, in the Old
Testament.
"And if a man has committed a sin
worthy of death and he be put to death, and you hang him on
a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree,
but you shall surely bury him that day (for he who is hanged
is accursed by God)." (Deut. 21:22)
If a Jew committed a sin worthy of death
(broke a law which was to result in death), he was to be stoned
to death and then placed on a tree. This Law-breaker suspended
on the tree graphically revealed that God's holy Law had been
broken and His divine judgment of death had been executed.
Christ, Cursed for Us
Think for a moment of the death of Jesus
Christ. His payment for sin, as the Lamb of God (Jn. 1:29), was
the real thing. All of the shadow sacrifices of the Old
Testament Law system pointed to His final offering. Jesus
Christ died on a cross! He was nailed to a tree! Paul
connected His “cross death” to the Old Testament illustration of
the one who hung on a tree (Deut. 21:22).
"Christ
has
redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for
it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'"
(Gal. 3:13)
When God placed my sin upon Christ, His
holy Law did what it was designed to do. It became His minister
of condemnation. The Law killed God's precious Lamb. Jesus
Christ bore its full curse for us! At that moment "He who knew
no sin became sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).
On the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus
Christ satisfied forever the divine judgment of death demanded
by God through the Mosaic Law. When He screamed from the cross,
"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:45-46), He
bore the Adamic curse of being separated from God in our place,
thereby becoming our sin substitute. He took our place! He bore
our curse!
What happened to the curse of the Law
following His death on the cross?
"And you being dead in your sins and
uncircumcision of your flesh, has he made alive together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and
contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross." (Col. 2:13-14)
The curse imposed upon us by the Law was
blotted out forever. No one today receives eternal life by
keeping the Mosaic Law. God never gave the Law for this
purpose. We are given life today by trusting in God’s Son as
the One who died for us.
"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believes." (Rom. 10:4)
Sources
New American Standard Bible
Donald Gray Barnhouse
Chafer’s Systematic Theology
R. B. Thieme
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance |
