First, John 1[:17]: “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
First, John 1[:17]: “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
§ 38. Once these points have been carefully observed, the response that must be given to the arguments of the other side easily appears.
(I) “The Law is said to have been given through Moses; grace and truth came to us through Christ (John 1:17). Therefore Moses taught the Law alone, and Christ taught the Gospel alone.”
We respond. This should not be taken exclusively, as if Moses taught the Law alone. Rather, an antithesis is being set up between the ministry of Moses and the benefit of Christ. Moses indeed teaches the Commandments, and he promises life, but under the condition of perfect obedience. Because we cannot provide this on account of the corruption of our nature, a mediator was needed—namely, Christ—to take away the ministry of death and condemnation and, on the other hand, to give grace and truth. Chemnitz (Harm. evang., ch. 20, p. 61) clearly shows what this [passage] means. Therefore a distinction must be made between Moses the teacher and Moses the lawgiver or mediator of a legal pact. As a teacher, Moses wrote and preached about Christ, but as lawgiver and mediator of the old covenant, he merely gave the Law through which God’s grace and truth do not come to us because we lack the perfect fulfillment of it. Rather, these come to us through Christ, who not only preached the Gospel but also by His Passion earned for us the good things offered in the Gospel. Some draw a distinction between the principal and nonprincipal offices of Moses and Christ. The principal office of Moses (they say) was to promulgate the Law, but he also taught the Gospel, though obscurely. Christ’s chief responsibility was to promulgate the Gospel, though He also taught the Law, but not principally. But the antithesis of this statement comprehends several more things.