WEAKNESS OF THE LAW
We must not fall into the error of thinking that the law given to and by Moses had built-in imperfections because of its origin or agency of transmission. It originated with God, and Moses was such an outstanding person that God said He spoke to him "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." The perfect God did not give an imperfect law. The law was perfectly adapted to the purpose for which it was intended. Its inability to justify lay in the fact that it was a law, a written code, not that it was the law of God.
So long as man is in the flesh, in his human nature, he cannot be justified by such a written code, regardless of its origin. The weakness is not in the code but in the flesh. Just as law places restraints on what man is allowed to do in the flesh, so the nature of man places restrictions on what the law is able to accomplish. There are things that law cannot do with us because we are in the flesh.
The law given by Moses was of divine origin. It was not unholy or unjust, for "It was ordained by angels through an intermediary" (Galatians 3:19; RSV). It was not an unspiritual arrangement, for "we know that the law is spiritual" (Romans 7:14; RSV). We can only conclude, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12). How could that which came from God, was furnished by angels, was holy, just, good, and spiritual, fail to produce life? The answer is that its failure is not in its source or character. It failed simply because man is what he is. The very essence of man's justification by law is absolute and unvarying conformity. This requires man's perfect knowledge and understanding from the very moment he comes under the law. If he makes one mistake he becomes guilty under the law, and all of his good deeds in the future can never purge that guilt. Man is incapable of such perfection.
The law cannot justify, because it arouses carnal desires or passions. We must deal with man as he is. Filled with curiosity, the urge to experiment, and the ambition to learn by experience, man is lured to destruction by that which is forbidden. The very commandment intended to restrain all too often incites. The law identifies sin, points it out, and locates it as surely as a "Wet Paint" sign on a park bench warns the passerby. The apostle says, "If it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness" (Romans 7:7, 8; RSV). The tragic feature is that the penalty is death. There is no mercy in law, only justice! "For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me" (7:11; RSV). This is the inexorable fate of the legalist, one who seeks to be justified by law. He cannot escape it. His own testimony as to his imperfection will condemn him.
The law could not give life. It is not within the province of any written code to do so. But the law could and did bring knowledge of sin. "For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin" (3:20; RSV). The plain force of this passage is that the greater one's knowledge of law, the more he realizes his own sinfulness and human weakness. The word "law" has many shades of meaning in the sacred Scriptures. Ignorance of this leads to some absurd and false conclusions. The strict and proper meaning is "a rule of conduct, prescribed by superior authority." In the final analysis, the character of the authority determines the objective of the law. God is holy, and He desires that we be holy. His nature is the criterion for our measurement. When we apply the law to our conduct, we are made to see our own failures and shortcomings. The more we learn of the law the greater becomes our sense of guilt and inadequacy.
The law could and did bring wrath: "For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression" (4:15; RSV). The law provided for the conscience a standard external to itself. If there were no law, there would be no sense of transgression and no guilt. With a code of laws before him, man can determine the utter futility of trying to become perfect by law-keeping, and thus be led to see the need of a Savior.
The law made nothing complete, or perfect. In that respect it was weak and useless. This is affirmed by the writer to the Hebrews: "On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect)" (Hebrews 7:18, 19; RSV). But this did not militate against the law in fulfilling its assigned role. Its purpose was to hold man in restraint until Christ came. Justification was not to be found in the law, but in the love that manifested itself in the Son of God.
The covenant, which bound Israel to the true and living God in a relationship of intimacy that was comparable to marriage, was repeatedly violated by the nation. That constant violation demonstrated that a covenant consisting of a written code could never make man guiltless before God. For this reason, Jeremiah, the priestly prophet, predicted the advent of a new covenant, which would be of a different nature. Written codes are external, but the new covenant was to be internal. It was not to be written upon stone tablets or papyrus sheets, but upon human hearts.
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31-34; KJV).
As a prelude to our discussion of that new covenant which God has made with us in Christ, let us consider an analysis of this prophetic promise.
The covenant to come was to be a new one. It was not to be an extension of the old, nor was it to be a renewed application or imposition of the terms of any previous agreement. The first covenant was made when the fathers were delivered from slavery in Egypt; the new one would be made when men were delivered from the bondage of sin. The new covenant would be unlike the former one. The former covenant was the constitution for a physical nation upon earth; the second was for a spiritual kingdom made up of those called out from every nation upon the earth.
The legal code ordained at Horeb did not succeed in binding the people to God. Instead, they lived by their lusts and trusted in the fact that they had the law in their possession. They worshiped the tables of the covenant and the ark in which they were contained. In time of battle they carried it to the field of conflict, exactly as other nations bore their images of worship and in which they trusted for victory. The nation broke the covenant, even though God was faithful as a husband. The nation chose other gods, but God chose no other nation.
The new covenant was not to be a written code. Its sanctuary was not to be the room behind the second veil of an earthly temple, but the inner being of a consecrated person. God placed the tablets of stone in the Holy of Holies under the Shekinah, the glory of His presence. Now His law, His principle of action, is not enshrined in a book but within the spirit of man. The body is the temple of God. The inner man is the holy of holies. Here God's glory is seen and experienced through the indwelling Spirit. Once God put His law in a sacred chest created by men. Now His love, as a divine law, is enshrined in a spiritual treasure-house of His own creation. He said, "I will put my law in their inward parts." The covenant is not chiseled in stone. It is not written upon paper. It is not printed but imprinted. It is engraved on the heart.
The new covenant is individual in nature. It is secure in the inner being, that is, in the heart of the faithful person. One does not belong to God because he belongs to a covenant people. He belongs to the covenant people because he belongs to God. He does not arrive at a covenantal status by subscribing to a code, but by surrender to the Christ. God is the God of those who have bared the walls of their hearts to the inscription written by the finger of God. Those who have covenanted with Him are His people. Any person upon this earth who has entered into the covenantal relationship with God is a child of God, and that covenant pledges his allegiance to God. So long as life continues he must have no other gods.
The old covenant, based upon the flesh of Abraham, was entered at birth. It was ratified on the eighth day of the life of the male child, by circumcision, a cutting of his flesh. The child knew nothing about the covenant. He did not know God. He was first introduced into the covenant and then taught to know the Lord. The new covenant was to be different. It was not to be based upon the flesh, but upon the spirit. It was to be the result of a personal choice, an individual acceptance of God. It would not be necessary to teach those under the new covenant to know God, for they had to know Him to be in the covenant.
There is nothing in Jeremiah's prophecy to suggest or intimate that brothers and neighbors would not teach each other under the new covenant how to live a life above reproach. It is simply that they will not need to teach those in the covenant to know the Lord. The promise is that all who are in the new relationship will have had their iniquity forgiven. God will remember their transgressions no more.
We have come to the place in the study to give attention to the new and different covenant. We have the assurance that it is "a better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (Hebrews 8:6; KJV).