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(3)
It was temporary, given until "The Seed should come" and so in no competition with
the age-abiding covenant made with Abraham.
(4)
It did not come direct from God, as did the promise to Abraham, but was mediated by
angels in the first instance and by Moses and the High Priest in the second instance.
(5)
It was therefore in the nature of a contract, depending for its fulfillment on the
observance of its conditions, whereas the promise made to Abraham in Gen. 15:
was so given that Abraham was unable, even as he was unasked, to promise
anything.
In one sense, this is sufficient for the purpose of following the argument of the
Apostle, but the Word of God is a great deep, George John Gwynne, B.A., Rector and
Vicar of Wallstown, Diocese of Cloyne, must be given the credit of bringing forward a
fuller and more satisfactory interpretation than any other that the present writer has yet
seen.
The questions which await solution, and upon which Gwynne was enabled to give
fuller light, are:
(1)
What "law" is intended in the words "wherefore then serveth the law?" His answer is
"the ceremonial law".
(2)
"It was added"; his contention is that it is a law that was "superadded" to an existing
law that is in mind and not the addition of the law to a promise made years before.
(3)
"Because of transgressions"; the primary meaning of charin "because" should be
retained, not reversed, and that primary meaning is "on behalf of".
(4)
The law that was superadded was temporary "till the seed should come".
(5)
The Mediator is not Moses, but the High Priest.
When we examine this question in our next article, we shall learn that even Gwynne,
keen as he was, missed the inspired guidance of one passage, which modifies his
exclusion of Moses in the reference to the mediator, and compels us to include much
more than the ceremonial law. But of this, more when we have all the material before us.