The law comes after the covenant: a rule for the confederates

We often read Exodus 19 and 20 in one breath. Brakel deliberately sets a boundary between them.

First the covenant is solemnly confirmed. Then comes the law.

"The law was not the covenant"

In his treatment of the law Brakel says explicitly that the covenant at Horeb was made before the proclamation of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are therefore, according to him, not the covenant itself, but are added to it "as a rule for the confederates."

That one distinction has great consequences. The law then does not become the ladder by which Israel works its way up to being God's people. It is instruction for a people that has already been placed, by God's action, in a covenant relationship.

Substance and purpose

Brakel then makes a second distinction: the content of the moral demand and the purpose for which the law is given at Sinai. The demand of holiness is truly complete; God's standard is not lowered. But the purpose of the Sinaitic law-giving is, according to him, not the same as the purpose of the covenant of works with Adam.

As a rule of life the law therefore does not stand opposed to grace. Brakel can even say that it is grace that the confederates receive a firm rule for their life.

Obedience as fruit and sign

Here Brakel prevents grace from becoming non-committal. Obedience is duty. It shows sincerity. James's language about faith that becomes visible through works fits in that frame. But works do not become the price by which the promise is bought.

Brakel moreover warns that the law can be wrongly used. When people make it a way of self-justification, it receives a function for which, according to him, it was not given to the confederates. The same law can therefore be approached rightly or wrongly, depending on the place we give it.

A surprisingly current tension

This touches directly on modern discussions about Torah and legalism. Brakel would not accept that every serious obedience to God's commandments is therefore automatically "covenant of works." At the same time he would just as little allow obedience to become the ground of justification.

But which laws are we talking about?

Brakel then distinguishes moral, ceremonial and civil laws. That is no unimportant scheme: each type of law receives for him its own function within Israel's covenant life. We look at that next time.