XIV.

The Glory of the Gospel.

"If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious."—2 COR. iii. 7–11.

THE gospel which St. Paul preached to the Corinthians was so much undervalued by them, that in the text he is led to extol it to them; and this he does by comparing the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations together, and by showing how far the glory of the gospel exceeded that of the law. Let us see then

1. What is the apostle's description of the law. 2. What is his description of the gospel.

3. The superior glory of the one when compared with the former.

The words of the text give us first a description of the law.

The description applies both to that original law

which God gave at the creation, and that modification of it which Moses delivered to the Israelites on Mount Sinai.

Now, the apostle calls this law "the ministration of condemnation." Not that it at once condemns all, without regard to obedience. For the angels have been under it from the moment of their creation, and yet we know that a greater part of them have never been condemned by it. But still it is truly "a ministration of condemnation" in a wide sense. It demands a sinless obedience in all who are under its authority, and consequently condemns the creature as soon as the creature becomes a sinner. It holds out a solemn and awful end to all who fall from its purity. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." It is evident, then, that the Israelites (for whom this law was first delivered), and all who have been partakers of human nature since it was first defiled by sin, must stand accused by this law and bow before God as selfcondemned criminals.

Hence, the apostle in the text also calls this law "the ministration of death." All who are condemned by it are condemned to die; for this is its invariable decree, in the decisive language of Scripture, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Its sentence includes death present and eternal. That death which bids our bodies crumble in the grave, and that more fearful death which cuts our souls off from communion with God, and connects them by an eternal chain with that dreadful being who is the source of all misery. This, then, was man's state; he was under the curse and punishment of a law of harsh and unmitigated justice.

Sacrifices for sin, it is true, were added under the Mosaic dispensation, but with no inherent power to expiate a sinner's doom. For we must regard them rather as shadows of the sacrifice which was to be under the next and more glorious dispensation. Therefore, as there is no mode under the law of removing the curse which the sinner incurs by the very first transgression, he may be truly called a hopeless and a perishing sinner. And justly does the apostle speak of it in my text as "a ministration of condemnation and of death."

2. But what names does the apostle apply to the gospel or the Christian dispensation ? He calls it the ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of righteousness.

It is the ministration of righteousness. We all know what righteousness implies. It is a conformity to some moral standard and law. And this law must be the same strict law which we have been considering. We cannot without impiety consider God as giving a new and less strict law to man; for God could not have made any mistake, and have given to His creatures any law but the one best suited to them. It could not be necessary for God to withdraw one law and give another; and it would be contrary to His nature, which is "without change or shadow of turning." Since, too, God is a God of purity, His law must be also a strict and pure law. We are now, therefore, under the same holy law which to the Israelites was a ministration "of condemnation and death," but still it is to us. "a ministration of righteousness and of life." How are we to reconcile these things? If there be still a law over our heads demanding righteousness of us and we

are unrighteous, how shall we fulfil its demands? We must in despair turn to some one who can make an atonement for us. Thus through Christ the ministration of the gospel turns the law from a law of death and a ministration of condemnation into a law of righteousness and a ministration by which we may live. It is most important that we should understand and realise this, in order to understand the nature of the dispensation under which we are living. We may read this truth, explained most fully in the Scripture. It tells us of Christ, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. It tells us that God sent forth His own eternal Son, born of a woman, made under the law, to remove its curse from man and to save man from death. But the gospel goes still farther. It tells the ransomed penitent that He who endured the curse of the law for his sinful soul, fulfilled its demands in his stead; that while looking at man, in himself, God must ever regard him as a sinner, yet for the sake of an obedience wrought out by another, greater and holier than man, He will treat him as though he were righteous and raise him to heaven. If we ask the name of this gracious Being, he tells us, "This is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness." And He has taught His apostle to give us this testimony concerning Him, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

It is thus because Christ is made righteousness for us that the gospel is called a ministration of righteousness. The apostle, moreover, calls it "the ministration of the Spirit." He gives it this name on account of the great outpouring of the Spirit with which this dispensation

commenced; not that we are to suppose that the Church under the law was without the influence of the Spirit. It was solely through His gracious and powerful influence that Enoch walked with God, and Noah feared Him, that Abram believed in Him, and Moses served Him. It was He who filled the souls of the prophets, and enabled them to foretell with such wonderful accuracy, the advent, the death, and the glory of the Messiah. But the great and general effusion of the Spirit was reserved for a brighter and more glorious day of grace. Jesus on the cross purchased the fulness of the Spirit; and when He ascended into Heaven, He obtained the ministration of it, and gave that full display of Its power which filled Jerusalem with astonishment on the day of Pentecost, and added to a persecuted Church in one hour three thousand souls. He has ever since been bestowing the same gift, in a greater or less degree, on the world; and has proved His gospel to be the ministration of an almighty Spirit by the moral wonders which it has performed. And this thought, brethren, should much endear the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who are made partakers of it. It is Christ's gift and seal-His legacy, which He left to comfort His followers till He come again to take them to Himself.

Let us, however, pass on to our third head, and see the superior glory of the gospel compared with that of the law. The apostle does not assert that the Jewish dispensation had no glory. He speaks of it, on the contrary, as a very glorious dispensation. It had a glorious Author, and its object was glorious. It served to show the holiness, purity, and justice of the Most High. It was published in a glorious manner, in the

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