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