th and condemnation.
What term significant of greater abomination could he apply to God's
Law than to call it a doctrine of death and hell? And again (Gal 2,
17), he calls it a "minister (or preacher) of sin;" and (Gal 3, 10)
the message which proclaims a curse, saying, "As many as are of the
works of the law are under a curse." Absolute, then, is the
conclusion that Law and works are powerless to justify before God;
for how can a doctrine proclaiming only sin, death and condemnation
justify and save?

46. Paul is compelled to speak thus, as we said above because of the
infamous presumption of both teachers and pupils, in that they permit
flesh and blood to coquet with the Law, and make their own works
which they bring before God their boast. Yet, nothing is effected but
self-deception and destruction. For, when the Law is viewed in its
true light, when its "glory," as Paul has it, is revealed, it is
found to do nothing more than to kill man and sink him into
condemnation.

47. Therefore, the Christian will do well to learn this text of Paul
and have an armor against the boasting of false teachers, and the
torments and trials of the devil when he urges the Law and induces
men to seek righteousness in their own works, tormenting their heart
with the thought that salvation is dependent upon the achievements of
the individual. The Christian will do well to learn this text, I say,
so that in such conflicts he may take the devil's own sword, saying:
"Why dost thou annoy me with talk of the Law and my works? What is
the Law after all, however much you may preach it to me, but that
which makes me feel the weight of sin, death and condemnation? Why
should I seek therein righteousness before God?"

48. When Paul speaks of the "glory of the Law," of which the Jewish
teachers of work-righteousness boast, he has reference to the things
narrated in the twentieth and thirty-fourth chapters of Exodus--how,
when the Law was given, God descended in majesty and glory from
heaven, and there were thunderings and lightnings, and the mountain
was encircled with fire; and how when Moses returned from the
mountain, bringing the Law, his face shone with a glory so dazzling
that the people could not look upon his face and he was obliged to
veil it.

49. Turning their glory against them, Paul says: "Truly, we do not
deny the glory; splendor and majesty were there; but what does such
glory do but compel souls to flee before God, and drive in