LAW AND GOSPEL COMPARED
‘But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, … much more that which remaineth is glorious.’
In these verses we have a comparison between the old and the new dispensations in defence of St. Paul’s ministry: a comparison from the less to the greater. The old was glorious in the circumstances of its promulgation at Sinai, but it is excelled in glory by the new.
I. Death and life.—The law was a ministration of death; the Gospel is a ministration of the Spirit, and so of life. The one works death, the other life: life is better than death. The Gospel, as the ministry of the Spirit, gives light.
II. The law was written on stones, the Gospel is written on the heart.—The law was something outward, making little appeal to the heart, nor quickening the will; mainly a letter; not a living, inward power or principle so much as an elaborate ritual. The Gospel is written, not with ink or with graving-tool on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart by the Spirit. It is inward and spiritual, a living power and principle, God’s power unto salvation dominating a man’s inward life. The inward and spiritual more glorious than the outward and mechanical.
III. Condemnation or righteousness?—Condemnation is ministered by the law when we are brought to feel that we are under the curse of the law. Righteousness is ministered when we are brought to accept Christ’s perfect righteousness for justification.
IV. The law has lost its glory.—The law was made glorious, the Gospel is essentially glorious.
V. Law temporary, Gospel permanent.—The Mosaic economy was meant, not to abide, but to vanish away when it had served its time and purpose. The Gospel remaineth, is imperishable, is never to be superseded.