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law of any kind, for ever vanish in the presence of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Yet, it
must also be remembered that the two epistles that most definitely exclude "the works of
law" as factors in salvation, namely Romans and Galatians, are at great pains to
emphasize its eternal validity (Rom. 13: 8-10; Gal. 5: 13, 14). The command "Thou
shalt not steal" is as binding upon a Christian under grace as it was upon a Jew under law
(Eph. 4: 28); the honouring of father and mother was not abrogated and emptied of
meaning at the advent of grace (Eph. 6: 2). The ceremonial law however has gone.
Christ has "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Col. 2: 14), and the
close proximity of "meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or
of the sabbath days" (Col. 2: 16) shows that the ceremonial law is in view. The elaborate
ritual given to Israel "stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings (literally
baptisms), and carnal ordinances, impose on them until the time of reformation. But
Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come . . . . ." (Heb. 9: 10, 11), we are
certainly safe if we include the ceremonial law in that which was added "till the seed
should come".
"It was added because of transgressions." Charin "because of". A very great
diversity of opinion has been held by commentators on the precise meaning of charin
here. Ellicott has summed up these differences under three heads:
1.) Ad coercendas transgressiones, to restrain transgressions, as Chrysostom and
most of the old expositors; 2.) Transgressionum gratia, that is, to call forth
transgressions, to multiply them, to bring them to a head, some modern expositors;
and 3.) Transgressionum causa, in order to make known transgressions, and in this
way to compel men to acknowledge their guilt, Calvin.
Ellicott objects to the first that it is untenable "because no satisfactory examples have
yet been adduced of such a practically reversed meaning of charin". The second though
more plausible he rejects as being "open to the grave objection, that in a comparatively
undogmatical passage it ascribes a purpose directly to God which would have certainly
needed a fuller explanation". The third he retains "with some confidence, which is
lexically defensible, and yields a good pertinent sense . . . . . to make man feel his need of
a Saviour". This is true, yet the lexical objection is strong, namely, "that the force of
charin is in gratium" (Meyer).
It is undeniable that charin means "in any one's favour, for his pleasure; for the sake
of a person or thing, on account of" (Dr. Bullinger's Lexicon). The number of
occurrences is nine, and they are the following: Luke 7: 47 "wherefore"; Gal. 3: 19
"because"; Eph. 3: 1, 14 "for this cause"; I Tim. 5: 14 "no cause of"; Titus 1: 5 "for
this cause"; Titus 1: 11 "for . . . sake"; I John 3: 12 "wherefore"; Jude 16 "because
of". We will return to this word, its place and meaning, after we have considered the rest
of the sentence.
"It was added" prostithemi. Now this word assumes that there exists something to
which the addition can be made. For example, one cannot "add one cubit" to one's
stature unless one is already of some height (Matt. 6: 27); when the promise was given