18. What, therefore, was the purpose, or special design, of the giving of the law at Sinai?
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Verse 24.
Notes.—“What is the law of God for? for us to keep in order to be saved by it?—Not at all. It is sent in order to show us that we cannot be saved by works, and to shut us up to be saved by grace. But if you make out that the law is altered so that a man can keep it, you have left him his old legal hope, and he is sure to cling to it. You need a perfect law that shuts man right up to hopelessness apart from Jesus, puts him into an iron cage, and locks him up, and offers him no escape but by faith in Jesus; then he begins to cry, ‘Lord, save me by grace, for I perceive that I cannot be saved by my own works.’ This is how Paul describes it to the Galatians: ‘The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary when you set aside the law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”—“The Perpetuity of the Law of God,” by C. H. Spurgeon, pages 10, 11.
“And let it be observed that the law did not answer this end merely among the Jews, in the days of the apostles: it is just as necessary to the Gentiles, to the present hour. Nor do we find that true repentance takes place where the moral law is not preached and enforced. Those who preach only the gospel to sinners, at best only heal the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly.”—Dr. Adam Clarke, on Rom. 7:13 (edition 1860).
Commenting on Gal. 3:23, Mr. Spurgeon, in his “Sermon Notes,” CCXII, says: “Here we have a condensed history of the world before the gospel was fully revealed by the coming of our Lord Jesus.... The history of each saved soul is a miniature likeness of the story of the ages.” That is, in his experience, each individual that is saved is first in darkness; he then comes to Sinai and learns that he is a sinner; this leads him to Calvary for the pardon of his sins, and so to full and final salvation.
Penalty For Transgression
Destruction Of Korah, Dathan, And Abiram. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23.