Amen! This is the balance, then -- To continually show the Christ of the law and the Righteousness in him. We have the same problem today that Paul had with the Judaizing teachers in his day and it's not necessary -- we have such better, "exceeding great and precious promises"-- a new but everlasting covenant -- better understood than ever before -- As we lift up Jesus so that He may "draw all men to Him", we show the enabling grace provided to keep His law of liberty. All that has been written for us in that covenant is for our benefit and happiness -- our abundant life. It is only in Jesus, though, that, as fallen sinful beings, we can see the law as "good", not just a list of restrictions and thus live in harmony with it. The "ministration" (law) itself has no glory apart from Christ --
The greatest difficulty Paul had to meet arose from the influence of Judaizing teachers. These made him much trouble by causing dissension in the church at Corinth. They were continually presenting the virtues of the ceremonies of the law, exalting these ceremonies above the gospel of Christ, and condemning Paul because he did not urge them upon the new converts. {1SM 236.1}
Paul met them on their own ground. "If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious," he said, "so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory" (2 Cor. 3:7-9). {1SM 236.2}
The glory that shone on the face of Moses was a reflection of the righteousness of Christ in the law. The law itself would have no glory, only that in it Christ is embodied. It has no power to save. It is lusterless only as in it Christ is represented as full of righteousness and truth. {1SM 237.2}
It was seeing the object of that which was to be done away, seeing Christ as revealed in the law, that illumined the face of Moses. The ministration of the law, written and engraved in stone, was a ministration of death. Without Christ, the transgressor was left under its curse, with no hope of pardon. The ministration had of itself no glory, but the promised Saviour, revealed in the types and shadows of the ceremonial law, made the moral law glorious. {1SM 237.4}[/color]