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9. The rewards and penalties
of the law were all temporal.
There are no promises of future
rewards, nor threatenings of future punishments, in all
the Mosaic law. Every careful student of that law must be
aware of this feature of it. The reason is clear. It was a
national, temporal law, given for a national, temporal
purpose. As a sample of all, see Deut. 28:1-19. If they
keep the law, they shall be blessed in children, in goods,
in cattle, in health, etc. If they disobey, they shall be
cursed in all these. Stoning to death was the penalty for
theft, murder, Sabbath breaking, etc. Hence it was the
"ministration of death written and engraver in
stones" (2 Cor. 3:7), and "is done away"
(vs. 11).
Paul states that the promise of the
future inheritance was made to Abraham four hundred and
thirty years before the law was given. From this he
argues, and forcibly, too, that the keeping of the law was
not necessary in order to receive Christ and the
inheritance. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but
as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I
say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God
in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty
years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the
law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham
by promise" (Gal. 3: 16-18). "For the promise,
that he should be the heir of the world, was not to
Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the
righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law
be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect" (Rom. 4:13, 14).
This plainly states that the law
was not given with reference to the future inheritance.
Surely Abraham did not keep the law, which was not given
for several hundred years after he died. But Abraham is
the father of the faithful, and not simply of those who
were "of the law" (Rom. 4:13-16). This point
alone ought to open the eyes of those who contend so
earnestly for the keeping of the law as necessary to
salvation. We are the children of Abraham (Gal. 3:29) and
"walk in the steps of our father Abraham, who was
never under the law (see Rom. 4:12-16). We are under the
covenant of promise made to Abraham four hundred and
thirty years before the law (Gal. 2:15-19; 3:15-19), and
not under the covenant of the law from Sinai, which is
bondage (Gal. 4:21-31).
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