Romans 5:20 - The Mosaic Covenant: God’s Grace Magnified
Last week we looked at God’s gracious covenant dealings with Abraham, as the plan of redemption first revealed in Genesis 3:15 continued to progress.
God promised Abraham a son from whom a great nation of people would descend. We might call that “the people promise.” And God promised a land on which those people would live. We might call that “the land promise.”
God fulfilled “the people promise” with Isaac and his descendants, the Israelites. But before the land promise could be fulfilled, the descendants of Abraham would be enslaved and eventually delivered from slavery. That deliverance occurred under the leadership of Moses. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and organized them into a great nation.
One reason for their organization was so they could take the promised land. And to organize them, God gave them His law. The law enabled them to function as a nation in covenant relationship with God. And like God’s previous covenant dealings with His people, the giving of the law was a gracious act of God.
Now, it’s clear in both the OT and NT that God’s law condemns sinners. So how could the giving of it be consistent with God’s graciousness?
Well, though it condemns sinners to death, Scripture teaches that “The law is holy…the commandment…is good.” The apostle Paul writes, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?” meaning, did the law put me against God? Paul says, “Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” “It was sin, producing death in me through what is good (the law), in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
The law is good. Sin kills. The law brings knowledge of sin. It reveals sin to be what it is. God gave His law to Israel to organize them as a nation, but the law of the Mosaic covenant was given for an ever greater reason than that. Romans 5:20 tells us that reason.
Now, it’s true that some of the Mosaic law no longer applies, while some of it still does. I’ll get into that shortly, because that is essential to understand. But this new development in God’s redemptive plan – the giving of His law – reveals that God graciously gives His law to those with whom He establishes a covenant relationship, and a covenant relationship with God always involves two things: a growing awareness of our sin and a growing awe of His grace.
Exodus 24 shows the ratifying of the covenant. Like the covenant with Abraham, God gives His word and blood is shed when the covenant becomes official. So there’s clear continuity from the covenant with Abraham to this one, and this covenant was necessary for the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. This is how God made Israel into a great nation. This is how He taught them how to interact with Him and with each other.
The covenants with Abraham and Moses emphasized physical blessings (people and land), though there was always a spiritual component – knowing and loving God. The NT explains that these physical blessings were foreshadowings of the greater spiritual blessings in the covenant of grace with Jesus Christ. The covenant of grace emphasizes spiritual blessings, though there is a component of physical blessings as well.
If you wonder what happened to the Mosaic covenant, the Israelites repeatedly broke it until eventually God took away the land and their nation fell apart. They lost those physical blessings which were dependent on their obedience to God, though God was continually patient with them.
And yet what we learn in Galatians 3 in the NT is that even though the Israelites continually disobeyed God and lost so much of their physical blessings, the greater spiritual blessings promised to Abraham never failed. All of those spiritual blessings are fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
So, what should we make of what God was doing with this Mosaic covenant?
Well, like we’ve seen in previous weeks, Christ would eventually come into the world through the nation of Israel. According to His human nature, Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. He fulfilled the offspring promise of Genesis 3:15 and “the people promise” to Abraham. That was one reason God established Israel – to pave the way for Christ the Savior.
But another reason comes up in Romans 5, and it should frame how we see God’s law. Notice the first half of the verse. Paul says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass.” Sin was already in the world, so the moral law of God already stood. But with the giving of the Mosaic law, God presents sin as a violation of His standard.
When we see the word “law” in the Bible, it refers to different things at different times. Sometimes, it’s referring to the moral law of God – the Ten Commandments. Other times, it’s referring to so many of these other laws in the book of Exodus. The NT teaches us that Christ did away with much of the law given through Moses.
What did He do away with? Well, there are two types of Mosaic law: the Ten Commandments and the covenant code. The Ten Commandments take priority. They’re absolute and still binding today. They’re general statements of morality.
The covenant code was important to the Israelites and unique to their situation. It contained civil and ceremonial laws. The civil law was the national law – laws for harmony within their nation. The ceremonial law was the worship law – rules for how to approach God. Today the people of God are citizens of not just one nation but many nations, with Jesus as our king. So, Jesus has done away with the civil law of Moses. Also, Jesus has performed the necessary sacrifice to make us clean from sin once and for all, and He has atoned for all of our sins. Jesus has also done away with the ceremonial law.
So, then, what “law” is being referred to in Romans 5:20?
If we look at the previous chapters of Romans and the argument Paul is making, He seems to have all of it in mind, but especially the Ten Commandments, because the civil and ceremonial laws are done away with by Jesus, but the moral law still condemns sinners apart from Christ. And Paul says, “the law came in to increase the trespass.” In other words, the law magnified sin. Why would God, in His progressing plan of redemption, put sin under a microscope, and how could that be gracious of Him?
Have you ever been stopped for speeding, and the officer asked you, “Do you know how fast you were going?” Looking at the Ten Commandments – coupled with Jesus’ explanation of them – is kind of like God saying, “Do you know what you were doing wrong? Let me tell you.” Our sin naturally condemns us and harms us in many ways – whether we see it or not. It’s better to see it clearly than to not see it.
William Hendriksen makes this comment on the first half of Romans 5:20: “A vague awareness of the fact that all is not well with [a man] will not drive [him] to the Savior. So the law acts as a magnifying glass. Such an instrument does not actually increase the number of dirty spots on a garment. It makes them stand out more clearly and reveals many more of them than one can see with the naked eye. Similarly, the law causes sin to stand out in all its heinousness and ramifications.” In its wickedness and its consequences.
In the Mosaic covenant, God was magnifying what had been a problem since Gen. 3. Sin was a problem during the life of Noah, and after Noah and his family left the ark. Sin was a problem in the life of Abraham, and it was still a problem when the Israelites left Egypt. But with Israel, God was now clarifying the gravity of sin as He never had before.
As Abraham waited on God, he experienced a growing awareness of his sin. So did Moses and the Israelites. So did David (who we’ll look at next Sunday). So do all of those whom God has saved – in both the OT and NT eras. A covenant relationship with God involves a growing awareness of our sin.
This is part of God’s plan of spiritual growth for your life. Are you willing to be honest with yourself and with God about your own sin?
You know, when Christ began His ministry of teaching and preaching, He clarified that keeping the law is not just a matter of outward behavior, but of the heart. So every last one of us stands guilty on our own record. It’s as if Jesus said, “This is how fast you were going,” and many people, including many Jewish religious teachers, replied, “No, that’s not true.” Many weren’t willing to admit their blind spots, but a covenant relationship with God involves a growing awareness of our sinful blind spots. However, that’s not all that is involved in a covenant relationship with God.
Look at the rest of the verse. “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” God was very gracious toward the Israelites when He rescued them from Egypt. He was gracious towards them as they journeyed toward the promised land. And in the OT book of Deuteronomy, just after Exodus, God reviews and renews the covenant with Israel, and Moses says, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.” In other words, the covenant – with the giving of the law – was because of God’s grace.
He increased their understanding of their sin, in order to increase their understanding of His grace. Not that He made them sin; they did that just fine on their own (so do we). But His law not only magnified their sin; it magnified His grace.
Again, William Hendriksen’s notes are helpful here. He says, “This increase in the knowledge of sin is very necessary. It will prevent a person from imagining that in his own power he can overcome sin. The more he, in light of God’s law, begins to see his own sinfulness and weakness, the more also will he thank God for the manifestation of His grace in Jesus Christ. Result, where sin increases, grace increases also.”
What can be said about the grace of God? It’s stunning. It’s puzzling. It brings a feeling of relief and hope that you might be afraid to let yourself enjoy. Sometimes it can feel awkward. In our foolishness, we might rather earn it. But His grace is exactly what we need. It puts us at ease. It gives us everything.
God’s rules are good and helpful. They guide us and teach us and protect us. But the rules are not enough for sinners. The law is not enough for covenant breakers. We need grace.
The people in the OT era saw dimly what we see with crystal clearness. In God’s progressing plan of redemption, He didn’t bring Christ into the world right away. But Christ was always the plan. Jesus was always – always – the fulfillment of the law.
The giving of the law continued to pave the way for Him to appear at the appointed time. In Galatians 4, Paul says that, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” At one point in history the law was given; and at a later point, the only One who could meet all of the law’s requirements was given.
In fact, before Jesus died for our sins and rose again to defeat death, He even more clearly explained the law of God – magnifying our sin even more. And yet even as He was doing that teaching and preaching, He was perfectly fulfilling the law’s demands in the place of those He came to save!
God showed grace to Israel during the OT era, but the fullness of His grace is now on clear display in the person and work of Jesus. If you feel the heaviness of your sin, do you understand that His grace is heavier? If you see the darkness of your sin, do you realize that His grace shines even brighter? If you sense the condemnation for your sin, do you understand that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?
Abiding by God’s ways for living is the best way to go through this life, but you must have the peace and hope and comfort of His glorious grace. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and increase to you as we go to His table now.
Please bow with me in prayer.
God promised Abraham a son from whom a great nation of people would descend. We might call that “the people promise.” And God promised a land on which those people would live. We might call that “the land promise.”
God fulfilled “the people promise” with Isaac and his descendants, the Israelites. But before the land promise could be fulfilled, the descendants of Abraham would be enslaved and eventually delivered from slavery. That deliverance occurred under the leadership of Moses. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and organized them into a great nation.
One reason for their organization was so they could take the promised land. And to organize them, God gave them His law. The law enabled them to function as a nation in covenant relationship with God. And like God’s previous covenant dealings with His people, the giving of the law was a gracious act of God.
Now, it’s clear in both the OT and NT that God’s law condemns sinners. So how could the giving of it be consistent with God’s graciousness?
Well, though it condemns sinners to death, Scripture teaches that “The law is holy…the commandment…is good.” The apostle Paul writes, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?” meaning, did the law put me against God? Paul says, “Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” “It was sin, producing death in me through what is good (the law), in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
The law is good. Sin kills. The law brings knowledge of sin. It reveals sin to be what it is. God gave His law to Israel to organize them as a nation, but the law of the Mosaic covenant was given for an ever greater reason than that. Romans 5:20 tells us that reason.
Now, it’s true that some of the Mosaic law no longer applies, while some of it still does. I’ll get into that shortly, because that is essential to understand. But this new development in God’s redemptive plan – the giving of His law – reveals that God graciously gives His law to those with whom He establishes a covenant relationship, and a covenant relationship with God always involves two things: a growing awareness of our sin and a growing awe of His grace.
Exodus 24 shows the ratifying of the covenant. Like the covenant with Abraham, God gives His word and blood is shed when the covenant becomes official. So there’s clear continuity from the covenant with Abraham to this one, and this covenant was necessary for the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. This is how God made Israel into a great nation. This is how He taught them how to interact with Him and with each other.
The covenants with Abraham and Moses emphasized physical blessings (people and land), though there was always a spiritual component – knowing and loving God. The NT explains that these physical blessings were foreshadowings of the greater spiritual blessings in the covenant of grace with Jesus Christ. The covenant of grace emphasizes spiritual blessings, though there is a component of physical blessings as well.
If you wonder what happened to the Mosaic covenant, the Israelites repeatedly broke it until eventually God took away the land and their nation fell apart. They lost those physical blessings which were dependent on their obedience to God, though God was continually patient with them.
And yet what we learn in Galatians 3 in the NT is that even though the Israelites continually disobeyed God and lost so much of their physical blessings, the greater spiritual blessings promised to Abraham never failed. All of those spiritual blessings are fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
So, what should we make of what God was doing with this Mosaic covenant?
Well, like we’ve seen in previous weeks, Christ would eventually come into the world through the nation of Israel. According to His human nature, Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. He fulfilled the offspring promise of Genesis 3:15 and “the people promise” to Abraham. That was one reason God established Israel – to pave the way for Christ the Savior.
But another reason comes up in Romans 5, and it should frame how we see God’s law. Notice the first half of the verse. Paul says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass.” Sin was already in the world, so the moral law of God already stood. But with the giving of the Mosaic law, God presents sin as a violation of His standard.
When we see the word “law” in the Bible, it refers to different things at different times. Sometimes, it’s referring to the moral law of God – the Ten Commandments. Other times, it’s referring to so many of these other laws in the book of Exodus. The NT teaches us that Christ did away with much of the law given through Moses.
What did He do away with? Well, there are two types of Mosaic law: the Ten Commandments and the covenant code. The Ten Commandments take priority. They’re absolute and still binding today. They’re general statements of morality.
The covenant code was important to the Israelites and unique to their situation. It contained civil and ceremonial laws. The civil law was the national law – laws for harmony within their nation. The ceremonial law was the worship law – rules for how to approach God. Today the people of God are citizens of not just one nation but many nations, with Jesus as our king. So, Jesus has done away with the civil law of Moses. Also, Jesus has performed the necessary sacrifice to make us clean from sin once and for all, and He has atoned for all of our sins. Jesus has also done away with the ceremonial law.
So, then, what “law” is being referred to in Romans 5:20?
If we look at the previous chapters of Romans and the argument Paul is making, He seems to have all of it in mind, but especially the Ten Commandments, because the civil and ceremonial laws are done away with by Jesus, but the moral law still condemns sinners apart from Christ. And Paul says, “the law came in to increase the trespass.” In other words, the law magnified sin. Why would God, in His progressing plan of redemption, put sin under a microscope, and how could that be gracious of Him?
Have you ever been stopped for speeding, and the officer asked you, “Do you know how fast you were going?” Looking at the Ten Commandments – coupled with Jesus’ explanation of them – is kind of like God saying, “Do you know what you were doing wrong? Let me tell you.” Our sin naturally condemns us and harms us in many ways – whether we see it or not. It’s better to see it clearly than to not see it.
William Hendriksen makes this comment on the first half of Romans 5:20: “A vague awareness of the fact that all is not well with [a man] will not drive [him] to the Savior. So the law acts as a magnifying glass. Such an instrument does not actually increase the number of dirty spots on a garment. It makes them stand out more clearly and reveals many more of them than one can see with the naked eye. Similarly, the law causes sin to stand out in all its heinousness and ramifications.” In its wickedness and its consequences.
In the Mosaic covenant, God was magnifying what had been a problem since Gen. 3. Sin was a problem during the life of Noah, and after Noah and his family left the ark. Sin was a problem in the life of Abraham, and it was still a problem when the Israelites left Egypt. But with Israel, God was now clarifying the gravity of sin as He never had before.
As Abraham waited on God, he experienced a growing awareness of his sin. So did Moses and the Israelites. So did David (who we’ll look at next Sunday). So do all of those whom God has saved – in both the OT and NT eras. A covenant relationship with God involves a growing awareness of our sin.
This is part of God’s plan of spiritual growth for your life. Are you willing to be honest with yourself and with God about your own sin?
You know, when Christ began His ministry of teaching and preaching, He clarified that keeping the law is not just a matter of outward behavior, but of the heart. So every last one of us stands guilty on our own record. It’s as if Jesus said, “This is how fast you were going,” and many people, including many Jewish religious teachers, replied, “No, that’s not true.” Many weren’t willing to admit their blind spots, but a covenant relationship with God involves a growing awareness of our sinful blind spots. However, that’s not all that is involved in a covenant relationship with God.
Look at the rest of the verse. “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” God was very gracious toward the Israelites when He rescued them from Egypt. He was gracious towards them as they journeyed toward the promised land. And in the OT book of Deuteronomy, just after Exodus, God reviews and renews the covenant with Israel, and Moses says, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.” In other words, the covenant – with the giving of the law – was because of God’s grace.
He increased their understanding of their sin, in order to increase their understanding of His grace. Not that He made them sin; they did that just fine on their own (so do we). But His law not only magnified their sin; it magnified His grace.
Again, William Hendriksen’s notes are helpful here. He says, “This increase in the knowledge of sin is very necessary. It will prevent a person from imagining that in his own power he can overcome sin. The more he, in light of God’s law, begins to see his own sinfulness and weakness, the more also will he thank God for the manifestation of His grace in Jesus Christ. Result, where sin increases, grace increases also.”
What can be said about the grace of God? It’s stunning. It’s puzzling. It brings a feeling of relief and hope that you might be afraid to let yourself enjoy. Sometimes it can feel awkward. In our foolishness, we might rather earn it. But His grace is exactly what we need. It puts us at ease. It gives us everything.
God’s rules are good and helpful. They guide us and teach us and protect us. But the rules are not enough for sinners. The law is not enough for covenant breakers. We need grace.
The people in the OT era saw dimly what we see with crystal clearness. In God’s progressing plan of redemption, He didn’t bring Christ into the world right away. But Christ was always the plan. Jesus was always – always – the fulfillment of the law.
The giving of the law continued to pave the way for Him to appear at the appointed time. In Galatians 4, Paul says that, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” At one point in history the law was given; and at a later point, the only One who could meet all of the law’s requirements was given.
In fact, before Jesus died for our sins and rose again to defeat death, He even more clearly explained the law of God – magnifying our sin even more. And yet even as He was doing that teaching and preaching, He was perfectly fulfilling the law’s demands in the place of those He came to save!
God showed grace to Israel during the OT era, but the fullness of His grace is now on clear display in the person and work of Jesus. If you feel the heaviness of your sin, do you understand that His grace is heavier? If you see the darkness of your sin, do you realize that His grace shines even brighter? If you sense the condemnation for your sin, do you understand that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?
Abiding by God’s ways for living is the best way to go through this life, but you must have the peace and hope and comfort of His glorious grace. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and increase to you as we go to His table now.
Please bow with me in prayer.
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