What did God write the Law on when he gave it to Moses?
God gave the Law to Moses written on cold stone, not on a beautiful piece of lambskin. Stone is not cuddly; it is cold and not something you can bring to yourself. That Law was cold and beggarly, and from man's standpoint it was weak because he could not keep it.
Les explains that the Law was perfect, the very mind of God, but from man's point of view it was something he couldn't keep. It was weak and beggarly because there was no power in the Law to help him keep it. He points back to Exodus and asks how God gave it to Moses: not on a beautiful piece of lambskin, but on cold stone. Stone, he notes, is not cuddly; it is cold and not something you can just bring to yourself. That was the Law—cold and beggarly, as Paul says.