Mike,

I would like to make some observations if you would bear with me. Moses had requested that he be allowed to see YHWH’s glory which was refused, but he was allowed to see His back parts as He passed by the crevice in the rock and removed His hand. Verse 29 of chapter 34 records that Moses’s face was aglow because He had been speaking to him. It would appear that the exposure of Moses’ face to that initial sight of His glory in His back parts remained throughout the forty days He instructed him which culminated in His rewriting the Ten Commandments on the two new tablets Moses had fashioned and placing them in Moses’ hands. And of course they are the tablets Paul referred to in 2Co 3.
The Two Laws theory proposed by the Church of God Seventh- day was of course adopted by H W Armstrong. Their reading of Gal 3:19 was that the ceremonial law was “added” to the eternal, immutable, inexorable Law of God, the Ten Commandments, two years after YHWH spoke them when the tabernacle had been completed and Leviticus was written detailing the service of the tabernacle. Actually, the tabernacle was finished after one year, but they wrote two years.
Moffet translated Gal 3:19, “Then what about the Law? It was interpolated for the purpose of producing transgressions till such time as the Offspring arrived to whom the promise was made;” That translation puzzled me and even more puzzling was the word translated “because of” which is charin, the accusative form of charis translated ‘grace’, favor or thank in most places. During my studies years ago I decided to call a university department of Greek and spoke with an associate professor of Greek who also taught at Northwestern College. He said he translated it, “By grace of or by favor of transgressions.” Paul’s statements in Rom 7 would be amplification of his statement to the Galatians. And 1Co 15:56 would give us a further clue that the strength of sin is the Law.
Just a note. Thanks for your time,

A____

Hi A____,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. It is obvious to anyone reading Galatians that “the law” under discussion includes the ten commandments, along with the law of circumcision. It takes the influence of Babylon to blind our eyes from seeing that “after faith is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster… the law”.

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; [ and it was] ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Gal 3:20 Now a mediator is not [ a mediator] of one, but God is one.
Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [ to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

We did not argue in WCG that the ten commandments could give life. I well remember Herbert himself likening the ten commandments to a mirror which could show you your sins, but it could not wash your face for you. That is “the law” which “could not give life, was not of faith, concluded all under sin… under the law, shut up unto the faith [“of Jesus”] which should afterwards be revealed.” That is what “brought us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith”, the faith of Christ. “But after faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster”.
But I am preaching to the choir.
I appreciate what your Greek scholar friend said to you about the Greek word ‘charin’ in Gal 3:19. Yes, that does indeed add great weight to what Paul reveals to us in Rom 7. “We do not produce sin, the law is the strength of sin, and sin is the sting of death.”
That is all blasphemy to anyone who believes in free moral agency.
We are blessed above many to see these truths which are hidden from the eyes of the entire Christian world.
Stay in God’s Word. In doing that you will be staying in the spirit.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike