II. By that ceremonial law which formed so important a part of it.—The Jewish ceremonial pointed to Christ and His redemptive work from first to last. The epistle to the Hebrews was written to show this—that the ceremonial law was far from being a final and complete rule of life and worship, did but prefigure blessings that were to follow it, that it was a tutor to lead men to the school of Christ.
III. By creating a sense of moral need that Christ alone could satisfy.—The moral law—God’s essential, indestructible moral nature in its relation to human life, thrown for practical purposes into the form of commandments—is essentially, necessarily beyond criticism; but when given to sinful man it does, but without grace, discover a want which it cannot satisfy. It enhanced the acting sense of unpardoned sin before a holy God. It convinced man of his moral weakness, as well as of his guilt, of his inability without the strengthening grace of Christ ever to obey it.
Lessons.—1. We see a test of all religious privileges or gifts: Do they or do they not lead souls to Christ? 2. Observe the religious use of all law—to teach man to know his weakness and to throw himself on a higher power for pardon and strength. 3. We see the exceeding preciousness of Christ’s Gospel—the matchless value of that faith which lives in the heart of the Church of God.—H. P. Liddon.
The Progress of Revelation.
I. The law was our schoolmaster as giving precepts in which principles were involved but not expressly taught.
II. As teaching inadequate and not perfect duties—a part instead of the whole, which was to develop into the whole. Examples—the institution of the Temple worship; the observance of the Sabbath; the third commandment.
Lessons:—1. Revelation is education. 2. Revelation is progressive. 3. The training of the character in God’s revelation has always preceded the illumination of the intellect.—F. W. Robertson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 26–29.
The Dignity of Sonship with God—
I. Enjoyed by all who believe in Christ.—“For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (ver. 26). Faith in Christ emancipates the soul from the trammels and inferior status of the tutorial training and lifts it to the higher and more perfect relationship of a free son of God. The believer is no longer a pupil, subject to the surveillance and restrictions of the pedagogue; but a son, enjoying immediate and constant intercourse with the Father and all the privileges and dignities of a wider freedom. The higher relation excludes the lower; an advance has been made that leaves the old life for ever behind. The life now entered upon is a life of faith, which is a superior and totally different order of things from the suppressive domination of the law.