Before he closes this page of his message, and turns the next, he has as it were a parenthetic word to say, indicating a theme to be discussed more largely later. It is the function of the Law, the moral place of the preceptive _Fiat_, in view of this wonderful Acceptance of the guilty. He has suggested the question already, iii. 31; he will treat some aspects of it more fully later. But it is urgent here to enquire at least this, Was Law a mere anomaly, impossible to put into relation with justifying grace? Might it have been as well out of the way, never heard of in the human world? No, God forbid. One deep purpose of acceptance was to glorify the Law, making the preceptive Will of God as dear to the justified as it is terrible to the guilty. But now, besides this, it has a function antecedent as well as consequent to justification. Applied as positive precept to the human will in the Fall, what does it do? It does not create sinfulness; God forbid. Not God's will but the creature's will did that. But it occasions sin's declaration of war. It brings out the latent rebellion of the will. It forces the disease to the surface--merciful force, for it shews the sick man his danger, and it gives point to his Physician's words of warning and of hope. It reveals to the criminal his guilt; as it is sometimes found that information of a statutory human penalty awakens a malefactor's conscience in the midst of a half-unconscious course of crime. And so it brings out to the opening eyes of the soul the wonder of the remedy in Christ. He sees the Law; he sees himself; and now at last it becomes a profound reality to him to see the Cross. He believes, adores, and loves. The merit of his Lord covers his demerit, as the waters the sea. And he passes from the dread but salutary view of "the reign" of sin over him, in a death he cannot fathom, to submit to "the reign" of grace, in life, in death, for ever. [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =Now law came sideways in;= law in its largest sense, as it affects the fallen, but with a special reference, doubtless, to its articulation at Sinai. It came in "_sideways_," as to its relation to our acceptance; as a thing which should _indirectly_ promote it, by not causing but occasioning the blessing; =that the transgression might abound,= that sin, that sins, in the most inclusive sense, might develop the latent evil, and as it were expose it to the work of grace. =But where the sin multiplied,= in the place, the region, of fallen humanity, =there did superabound the grace;= with that mighty overflow of the bright ocean of love which we have watched already. [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =That just as our (ἡ) sin came to reign in our (τῷ) death,= our penal death, =so too might the grace come to reign,= having its glorious way against our foes and over us, =through righteousness,= through the justifying work, =to life eternal,= which here we have, and which hereafter will receive us into itself, =through Jesus Christ our Lord.=