Why did Paul use the Old Covenant as a part of his argument with the Galatians? What was he getting at?
He used the Old Covenant as an argument that because of their efforts to obtain favor with God by the works of the flesh, they were putting themselves back under the Old Covenant, and under the inevitable resulting bondage. Paul’s argument shows that the Old Covenant is not a matter of time, but of condition. It is just as easy for us to be under the Old Covenant as the Children of Israel, because it is just as easy for us to attempt to earn the favor of God by the works of the flesh as it was for them.
An alternative way to view the Old Covenant is dispensationally. Under this view, the Old Covenant was initiated by God to teach the Children of Israel a lesson. This view ties is with what one perceives the main issue of Galatians to have been.
Was the issue in Galatians that those who were following a false Gospel were doing so because they were trying to follow a system whose time had passed? The is was the view of Butler and those who opposed Waggoner and Jones. Under this point of view, the law in Galatians was a system of law whose time had come to an end at the cross. Under this way of thinking, it is easy to see why they would view the law in Galatians as being the ceremonial law. If it included the moral law, under their way of thinking, that would mean the time for the moral law had passed.
However, under Waggoner’s view it was not an issue of the Galatians attempting to follow a system whose time had passed, but an issue of unbelief. The Galatians were attempting to obtain favor with God through the works of the flesh. The moral law, in its function as a convictor of sin, was acting to drive them to Christ, in whom alone they could find forgiveness of sins.
Here is an endorsement of Waggoner’s view from Ellen G. White:
quote:
The covenant question is a clear question and would be received by every candid, unprejudiced mind, but I was brought where the Lord gave me an insight into this matter. You have turned from plain light because you were afraid that the law question in Galatians would have to be accepted. (MR9 329)
What is it about Waggoner’s view of the Covenant that would have caused those who opposed him to have accepted his view on the law in Galatians? It is that he viewed the Old Covenant as a matter of time, not of condition, just as he viewed all of Galatians in a non-dispensational manner.
How do these issues impact us today? If Waggoner’s opponent’s are right, then Galatians is not the pressing a book for us. Whether or not the system of law the Children of Israel followed is one we should also follow is not a pressing issue. However, if Waggoner was right, Galatians is a pressing issue, because it is just as easy for us to attempt to obtain the favor of God by the works of the flesh as it was for the the Galatians.
