ll
exponents of the Law and of works deserve to be called tyrants and
oppressors.

The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin. That this is the purpose of
the Law can be seen from the account of the giving of the Law as
reported in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of Exodus. Moses
brought the people out of their tents to have God speak to them
personally from a cloud. But the people trembled with fear, fled, and
standing aloof they begged Moses: "Speak thou with us, and we will
hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." The proper office of
the Law is to lead us out of our tents, in other words, out of the
security of our self-trust, into the presence of God, that we may
perceive His anger at our sinfulness.

All who say that faith alone in Christ does not justify a person,
convert Christ into a minister of sin, a teacher of the Law, and a
cruel tyrant who requires the impossible. All merit-seekers take Christ
for a new lawgiver.

In conclusion, if the Law is the minister of sin, it is at the same
time the minister of wrath and death. As the Law reveals sin it fills a
person with the fear of death and condemnation. Eventually the
conscience wakes up to the fact that God is angry. If God is angry with
you, He will destroy and condemn you forever. Unable to stand the
thought of the wrath and judgment of God, many a person commits
suicide.

VERSE 17. God forbid.

Christ is not the minister of sin, but the Dispenser of righteousness
and the Giver of life. Christ is Lord over law, sin and death. All who
believe in Him are delivered from law, sin and death.

The Law drives us away from God, but Christ reconciles God unto us, for
"He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." Now if
the sin of the world is taken away, it is taken away from me. If sin is
taken away, the wrath of God and His condemnation are also taken away.
Let us practice this blessed conviction.

VERSE 18. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make
myself a transgressor.

"I have not preached to the end that I build again the things which I
destroyed. If I should do so, I would not only be laboring in vain, but
I would make myself guilty of a great wrong. By the ministry of the
Gospel I have destroyed sin, heaviness of heart, wrath, and death. I
have abolished the Law, so that it should not bother your conscience
any more. Should I now once again establish the Law, and set up the
rule of Moses? This is exactly what I should be doing, if I would urge
circumcision and the performance of the Law as necessary unto
salvation. Instead of righteousness and life, I would restore sin and
death."

By the grace of God we know that we are justified through faith in
Christ alone. We do not mingle law and grace, faith and works. We keep
them far apart. Let every true Christian mark the distinction between
law and grace, and mark it well.

We must not drag good works into the article of justification as the
monks do who maintain that not only good works, but also the punishment
which evildoers suffer for their wicked deeds, deserve everlasting
life. When a criminal is brought to the place of execution, the monks
try to comfort him in this manner: "You want to die willingly and
patiently, and then you will merit remission of your sins and eternal
life." What cruelty is this, that a wretched thief, murderer, robber
should be so miserably misguided in his extreme distress, that at the
very point of death he should be denied the sweet promises of Christ,
and directed to hope for pardon of his sins in the willingness and
patience with which he is about to suffer death for his crimes? The
monks are showing him the paved way to hell.

These hypocrites do not know the first thing about grace, the Gospel,
or Christ. They retain the appearance and the name of the Gospel and of
Christ for a decoy only. In their confessional writings faith or the
merit of Christ are never mentioned. In their writings they play up the
merits of man, as can readily be seen from the following form of
absolution used among the monks.

"God forgive thee, brother. The merit of the passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and of the blessed Saint Mary, always a virgin, and of all the
saints; the merit of thy order, the strictness of thy religion, the
humility of thy profession, the contrition of thy heart, the good works
thou hast done and shalt do for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, be
available unto thee for the remission of thy sins, the increase of thy
worth and grace, and the reward of everlasting life. Amen."

True, the merit of Christ is mentioned in this formula of absolution.
But if you look closer you will notice that Christ's merit is
belittled, while monkish merits are aggrandized. They confess Christ
with their lips, and at the same time deny His power to save. I myself
was at one time entangled in this error. I thought Christ was a judge
and had to be pacified by a strict adherence to the rules of my order.
But now I give thanks unto God, the Father of all mercies, who has
called me out of darkness into the light of His glorious Gospel, and
has granted unto me the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.

We conclude with Paul, that we are justified by faith in Christ,
without the Law. Once a person has been justified by Christ, he will
not be unproductive of good, but as a good tree he will bring forth
good fruit. A believer has the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will
not permit a person to remain idle, but will put him to work and stir
him up to the love of God, to patient suffering in affliction, to
prayer, thanksgiving, to the habit of charity towards all men.

VERSE 19. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God.

This cheering form of speech is frequently met with in the Scriptures,
particularly in the writings of St. Paul, when the Law is set against
the Law, and sin is made to oppose sin, and death is arrayed against
death, and hell is turned loose against hell, as in the following
quotations: "Thou hast led captivity captive," Psalm 68:18. "O death, I
will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction," Hosea 13:14.
"And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," Romans 8:3.

Here Paul plays the Law against the Law, as if to say: "The Law of
Moses condemns me; but I have another law, the law of grace and liberty
which condemns the accusing Law of Moses."

On first sight Paul seems to be advancing a strange and ugly heresy. He
says, "I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." The false
apostles said the very opposite. They said, "If you do not live to the
law, you are dead unto God."

The doctrine of our opponents is similar to that of the false apostles
in Paul's day. Our opponents teach, "If you want to live unto God, you
must live after the Law, for it is written, Do this and thou shalt
live." Paul, on the other hand, teaches, "We cannot live unto God
unless we are dead unto the Law." If we are dead unto the Law, the Law
can have no power over us.

Paul does not only refer to the Ceremonial Law, but to the whole Law.
We are not to think that the Law is wiped out. It stays. It continues
to operate in the wicked. But a Christian is dead to the Law. For
example, Christ by His resurrection became free from the grave, and yet
the grave remains. Peter was delivered from prison, yet the prison
remains. The Law is abolished as far as I am concerned, when it has
driven me into the arms of Christ. Yet the Law continues to exist and
to function. But it no longer exists for me.

"I have nothing to do with the Law," cries Paul. He could not have
uttered anything more devastating to the prestige of the Law. He
declares that he does not care for the Law, that he does not intend
ever to be justified by the Law.

To be dead to the Law means to be free of the Law. What right, then,
has the Law to accuse me, or to hold anything against me? When you see
a person squirming in the clutches of the Law, say to him: "Brother,
get things straight. You let the Law talk to your conscience. Make it
talk to your flesh. Wake up, and believe in Jesus Christ, the Conqueror
of Law and sin. Faith in Christ will lift you high above the Law into
the heaven of grace. Though Law and sin remain, they no longer concern
you, because you are dead to the Law and dead to sin."

Blessed is the person who knows how to use this truth in times of
distress. He can talk. He can say: "Mr. Law, go ahead and accuse me as
much as you like. I know I have committed many sins, and I continue to
sin daily. But that does not bother me. You have got to shout louder,
Mr. Law. I am deaf, you know. Talk as much as you like, I am dead to
you. If you want to talk to me about my sins, go and talk to my flesh.
Belabor that, but don't talk to my conscience. My conscience is a lady
and a queen, and has nothing to do with the likes of you, because my
conscience lives to Christ under another law, a new and better law, the
law of grace."

We have two propositions: To live unto the Law, is to die unto God. To
die unto the Law, is to live unto God. These two propositions go
against reason. No law-worker can ever understand them. But see to it
that you understand them. The Law can never justify and save a sinner.
The Law can only accuse, terrify, and kill him. Therefore to live unto
the Law is to die unto God. Vice versa, to die unto the Law is to live
unto God. If you want to live unto God, bury the Law, and find life
through faith in Christ Jesus.

We have enough arguments right here to conclude that justification is
by faith alone. How can the Law effect our justification, when Paul so
plainly states that we must be dead to the Law if we want to live unto
God? If we are dead to the Law and the Law is dead to us, how can it
possibly contribute anything to our justification? There is nothing
left for us but to be justified by faith alone.

This nineteenth verse is loaded with consolation. It fortifies a person
against every danger. It allows you to argue like this:

"I confess I have sinned." "Then God will punish you." "No, He will not
do that." "Why not? Does not the Law say so?" "I have nothing to do
with the Law." "How so?" "I have another law, the law of liberty."
"What do you mean—'liberty'?" "The liberty of Christ, for Christ has
made me free from the Law that held me down. That Law is now in prison
itself, held captive by grace and liberty."

By faith in Christ a person may gain such sure and sound comfort, that
he need not fear the devil, sin, death, or any evil. "Sir Devil," he
may say, "I am not afraid of you. I have a Friend whose name is Jesus
Christ, in whom I believe. He has abolished the Law, condemned sin,
vanquished death, and destroyed hell for me. He is bigger than you,
Satan. He has licked you, and holds you down. You cannot hurt me." This
is the faith that overcomes the devil.

Paul manhandles the Law. He treats the Law as if it were a thief and a
robber He treats the Law as contemptible to the conscience, in order
that those who believe in Christ may take courage to defy the Law, and
say: "Mr. Law, I am a sinner. What are you going to do about it?"

Or take death. Christ is risen from death. Why should we now fear the
grave? Against my death I set another death, or rather life, my life in
Christ.

Oh, the sweet names of Jesus! He is called my law against the Law, my
sin against sin, my death against death. Translated, it means that He
is my righteousness, my life, my everlasting salvation. For this reason
was He made the law of the Law, the sin of sin, the death of death,
that He might redeem me from the curse of the Law. He permitted the Law
to accuse Him, sin to condemn Him, and death to take Him, to abolish
the Law, to condemn sin, and to destroy death for me.

This peculiar form of speech sounds much sweeter than if Paul had said:
"I through liberty am dead to the law." By putting it in this way, "I
through the law am dead to the law," he opposes one law with another
law, and has them fight it out.

In this masterly fashion Paul draws our attention away from the Law,
sin, death, and every evil, and centers it upon Christ.

VERSE 20. I am crucified with Christ.

Christ is Lord over the Law, because He was crucified unto the Law. I
also am lord over the Law, because by faith I am crucified with Christ.

Paul does not here speak of crucifying the flesh, but he speaks of that
higher crucifying wherein sin, devil, and death are crucified in Christ
and in me. By my faith in Christ I am crucified with Christ. Hence
these evils are crucified and dead unto me.

VERSE 20. Nevertheless I live.

"I do not mean to create the impression as though I did not live before
this. But in reality I first live now, now that I have been delivered
from the Law, from sin, and death. Being crucified with Christ and dead
unto the Law, I may now rise unto a new and better life."

We must pay close attention to Paul's way of speaking. He says that we
are crucified and dead unto the Law. The fact is, the Law is crucified
and dead unto us. Paul purposely speaks that way in order to increase
the portion of our comfort.

VERSE 20. Yet not I.

Paul explains what constitutes true Christian righteousness. True
Christian righteousness is the righteousness of Christ who lives in us.
We must look away from our own person. Christ and my conscience must
become one, so that I can see nothing else but Christ crucified and
raised from the dead for me. If I keep on looking at myself, I am gone.

If we lose sight of Christ and begin to consider our past, we simply go
to pieces. We must turn our eyes to the brazen serpent, Christ
crucified, and believe with all our heart that He is our righteousness
and our life. For Christ, on whom our eyes are fixed, in whom we live,
who lives in us, is Lord over Law, sin, death, and all evil.

VERSE 20. But Christ liveth in me.

"Thus I live," the Apostle starts out. But presently he corrects
himself, saying, "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." He is the form
of my perfection. He embellishes my faith.

Since Christ is now living in me, He abolishes the Law, condemns sin,
and destroys death in me. These foes vanish in His presence. Christ
abiding in me drives out every evil. This union with Christ delivers me
from the demands of the Law, and separates me from my sinful self. As
long as I abide in Christ, nothing can hurt me.

Christ domiciling in me, the old Adam has to stay outside and remain
subject to the Law. Think what grace, righteousness, life, peace, and
salvation there is in me, thanks to that inseparable conjunction
between Christ and me through faith!

Paul has a peculiar style, a celestial way of speaking. "I live," he
says, "I live not; I am dead, I am not dead; I am a sinner, I am not a
sinner; I have the Law, I have no Law." When we look at ourselves we
find plenty of sin. But when we look at Christ, we have no sin.
Whenever we separate the person of Christ from our own person, we live
under the Law and not in Christ; we are condemned by the Law, dead
before God.

Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as
it were one person. As such you may boldly say: "I am now one with
Christ. Therefore Christ's righteousness, victory, and life are mine."
On the other hand, Christ may say: "I am that big sinner. His sins and
his death are mine, because he is joined to me, and I to him."

Whenever remission of sins is freely proclaimed, people misinterpret it
according to Romans 3:8, "Let us do evil, that good may come." As soon
as people hear that we are not justified by the Law, they reason
maliciously: "Why, then let us reject the Law. If grace abounds, whe