The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The inferiority of Law compared to Promise

We must also note that Paul added two further elements in explanation of the purpose of the Law, i.e. “it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator”. (Gal. 3:19) This additional clause is designed to show the inherent inferiority of the law in terms of the way it was given and administered, that is, through angels and a mediator. Paul’s meaning is clear: the law is not on the same par with the covenant of promise (that is the Abrahamic covenant) not only because it was chronologically limited but also because it was handed down by angels with a man acting as a go-between. The Hebrew text of Exodus chapter nineteen, which contains the scriptural account of the giving of the Law, does not refer to angels, but it does describe Mount Sinai as surrounded by thunder, lightening, a thick cloud, and billows of fire. (Exod. 19:16–19) Later Old Testament texts, notably the Septuagintal version of Deut 33:2 and Psalm 68:18 interpret these natural phenomena to mean that a large number of angels, the fiery hosts of heaven, accompanied God in his giving of the law at Sinai. The participation of the angels in the giving of the law was not merely a piece of pious Jewish folklore, for it is confirmed elsewhere in the New Testament[1]. Paul accepted it and repeated it not for the purpose of enhancing the law by associating it with the glory of angels but rather to indicate how superior ‘promise’ is to ‘Law’ since the latter required a creaturely mediation.

    The Law was not only mediated by angels but also Moses. The people themselves asked for a mediator. They said to Moses, you go to the Lord and relay to us what He says - we dare not come close. And in Pauline theology, Moses the mediator stands in contrast to Christ. As Paul explains more fully in 2 Cor. 3:7–18, the ministry or covenant negotiated by Moses was characterized by death and condemnation and it is “fading away”; on the other hand, the new covenant that Christ has ushered in is marked by life, justification, and a radiance of “ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Paul did not intend to denigrate Moses as a person but rather to show again the transitory and totally inadequate character of the Law as a system of salvation. The Epistle to the Hebrews picks up on one of Paul’s favorite themes, that of servant and son, and applies them to Moses and Christ in precisely this way: “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house … but Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house” (Heb 3:5–6;). But there is more: Paul gives another purpose to the giving of the Law. It is tied up with the phrase, “it was added because of transgressions”. In other words it was to bring the realization that sin was exceedingly sinful. Those that break God’s law will suffer the curse. It was the case with Adam. He sinned and suffered the curse. But where there is no law there is no imputation of sin.[2]

More Next Time

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[1] cf. Acts 7:38, 53; Heb 2:2

[2] Rom. 5.13