God's Law and How It Fits

This morning, we're going to be looking at Galatians 3, the second half of Galatians 3. Last time we met, when we looked at Galatians 3:1-14, we saw that not only are we saved by the gospel, but we also grow through the gospel. If we understand and we fully adopt the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins, if we fully adopt that into our lives, then all of our motives are changed by it. All of our thinking is influenced by it. We saw last time that while we are justified by the gospel, meaning that God has instantly made us right with Him, we also saw that there is a process called sanctification, which is a lifelong process of coming to grips with the gospel and its implications for our lives.

It's a lifelong process of remembering what the gospel actually means for us. So I guess the next part that Paul deals with is this issue. If we are reminded of the radicalness of salvation by grace rather than salvation by doing good things, by works, we are logically brought to the next question. If we are free from the law, and we just read it again this morning in Exodus 20, the summary of God's will for our lives. If we are free from that, does that mean we don't have to obey the law of God?

If I'm only saved by Christ's performance rather than my performance, why should I strive to live a holy life? Why bother? In other words, what is my relationship as a Christian to God's law? Now that's a logical question. Don't feel bad if you've wondered that yourself.

But Paul is now trying to argue this, and that's what we're going to be looking at. Paul comes to this point in his letter and he's dealt with how we are saved. He's dealt with how that changes our thinking and our motives. And now he begins to answer the question: how do we live then as God's rescued people? So if you have your Bibles with you, let's turn to Galatians 3, and we're going to be reading from verses 15 to 25.

Galatians 3:15. Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The scripture does not say "and two seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person who is Christ.

What I mean is this: the law introduced four hundred and thirty years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise. But God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. What then was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.

The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party, but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

But the scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin. So that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

So far our reading. So the question Paul is trying to answer here, that reading might seem a little bit cryptic to you, the question Paul is trying to answer here is: how does the law that God gave Moses four hundred and thirty years after a promise He made to Abraham fit in with the gospel of Jesus Christ? First, Paul wants to stress what the law does not do. What the law does not do. He says he begins in verse 15 by taking an example from everyday life.

He points out to human contracts, to a covenant. In particular, the word he uses here is referred to as a will. And he says, if a will is made and it is legal, then it is binding. Nothing you can do or no situation that changes will change this covenant, this will. The promise he points back to with Abraham was this covenant, or this will.

Paul argues that some people wanted to argue that the law of Moses which came later trumped or changed the promise that God had made to Abraham. The promise which was: I want to be your God. I want you to be my people. And I will make sure that that is going to happen. That was the promise.

And now these people say, well, this law has changed that in some ways. It has added some conditions to it. These people might argue that if we are to get the blessing of Abraham, we will now have to obey the laws of Moses. But Paul shows in verse 17 that this is the wrong conclusion to make. The law of Moses cannot turn God's promise to Abraham and turn it into, by extension, turn it into something other than what it already is.

Paul says it's a solemn, binding promise. Now, it's a powerful argument that Paul makes here. If the law of Moses came later and could become a way of salvation, then it means that God had changed His mind. If it came later and it was a way of salvation, then it means God had changed His mind. It would mean that God had decided that we didn't need a saviour, we didn't need Him in this process, that we could live out and receive this blessing based on performance.

In verse 18, he goes on to say: for if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise. If the inheritance, if the blessing depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise. And it boils down to this: a promise and a law are mutually exclusive. They're mutually exclusive. If I give something to Ben because of what I promised him, then it's not based upon his performance.

I give him something because I've promised it to him. But if I give Ben something because of what he's done, then it's not because of my promise. It's because of what he has done. For a promise to bring a result, it needs only to be believed. For a promise to bring a result, it needs only to be believed.

But for a law or a condition to bring a result, it needs to be obeyed. Say, for example, my dad came to you and said, I want to give you a round-the-world trip ticket to go and see any of the places you want to see. The only thing that could stop you or prevent you from receiving this amazing round-the-world trip ticket is by failing to believe that claim. But on the other hand, if I say to you, my dad is willing to give you a round-the-world trip ticket if you give him your Queensland Reds membership for this year, then you have to fulfil a requirement and a condition in order to get that trip. If you don't meet that requirement, then you fail to receive this ticket.

If the law of Moses, Paul is saying, if the law of Moses was intended to be a means for salvation, then the promise of Abraham would not have been a real promise. God wanted to make so sure that the promise to Abraham would stick. In fact, that he made more than a promise, he made a covenant. Sealed in blood, unbreakable. And Paul takes us back to Genesis 15.

And you may remember, we did a sermon on that a few months ago, where God signed off on this promise. If you remember in Genesis 15, God came to Abraham and Abraham said, God, I haven't seen this promise. You've made this promise, and he had made it a few years before that in Genesis 12. Abraham says, Lord, you made this promise, but I haven't seen it yet. And God says, the promise still stands.

To make sure of it, go and get a heifer, a ram, a pigeon, and a dove, I think it was. And slice them in half, and their blood will be spilt on the ground in their guts, and we're going to make a self-maledictory oath. And this was a custom of that day: that if you made a binding promise, like you sign in black ink on a paper, you would actually walk through the carcases of these animals and say, if I do not go through with my promise, if I do not meet my promise, may I become like these animals. May I become like these animals. May my blood be spilt on the ground.

The amazing thing, of course, was that Abraham fell into a deep trance or sleep, and he didn't partake in this. God came in a smoking firepot and an oven, and He paraded through these carcases. God made the oath on Himself that He was going to keep the covenant both for Him and on behalf of humanity, on behalf of Abraham. That was called the self-maledictory oath. And Paul is driving us back to that promise.

Paul is saying that God made this and He's not going to break it. He's not going to have it turned upside down by this law of Moses that came later. Of course, we come to the pointy end of the argument. So what is the purpose then of the law? If it doesn't change anything, if it doesn't add anything, why have it there in the first place?

If the law came after the promise and it doesn't add or take away from the promise, what is its purpose? Well, there are three things that Paul points out about the law of God and its purpose in our lives. The first one that he mentions here is found in verse 19. It was added because of transgressions until the seed, which is Jesus Christ, would come. The Lord didn't come to tell us about salvation, but about sin.

The law didn't come to tell us about salvation, but about sin. It's the first purpose of the law. It's to show us our problem. It's to show us our problem. It proves to us that we are in fact lawbreakers.

To prove to us that we cannot be the solution to our own problem because we are unable to be perfect law keepers. We are lawbreakers. Verse 21 says that God never intended His law to impart life. Otherwise, we could become righteous through it. He goes on to say in verse 22: in fact, the scriptures declare the whole world is a prisoner of sin.

Not only do we simply fall short of God's glory and His perfection, not only are we nearly within reach, but we are so incapable and completely under the power of sin that we aren't even close. We require a rescue. We desperately need something astounding to happen to change the situation. Paul says the law shows us our sin so that what was promised might be given to those who believe. The law does its work to lead us to a recognition of our need for salvation by grace.

It was given because of transgression, Paul says. It points out our sin. Now, Martin Luther, the great reformer, said that the law acts like a mirror. You hold up this mirror to yourself and you look into it and you see all the blemishes on your skin. You see all the crow's feet.

You see all the pimples. You see all the hair loss. I'm not looking at anyone. The law is like holding a mirror up to yourself. And while you may have been in la la land your whole life thinking that I'm pretty decent, I'm pretty good, I look stunning.

When that mirror hits your eye level, reality hits you like a freight train. Especially in the mornings. Am I right? So the first purpose of the law is to point us to our sin. The second purpose Paul points out, and the third purpose really, they go hand in hand, is that firstly, the law guards or acts like a guard.

Verse 23 says, before this faith came, this saving faith, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. The Greek words for "held prisoners" and "locked up" means to be protected by military guard. You're locked away in prison. The third purpose is of the law being a tutor. Verse 24 says: the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ.

Again, the Greek word here is of a slave that used to be a tutor or a supervisor of his master's children. Teaching them, training them, sort of like a Victorian idea of a nanny. Now, these are in fact metaphors that the Old Testament uses of the law. The Old Testament speaks of the law being a god that keeps us in check and a teacher that corrects our thinking or our actions. But what Paul wants to do here is he wants to stress what it actually means.

Those things, the law does that. It does keep us in check—what we say, what we do. It does act as a guard around us, and it teaches us how to live good lives and do the right thing. But Paul wants to highlight the elephant in the room. He says these two purposes, to guard and to tutor, remove freedom.

In both cases, the relationship with the law is not intimate or personal. The relationship with God is not intimate or personal. It's based on rewards and punishment. We're treated—if you think about the metaphors—we're treated either as children or we're treated as dirty, rotten convicts. Here Paul points out the flaw of all religions that are based on everything but the gospel.

Because they all operate on something similar to this. And although it may be packaged differently, they are generally characterised by a sense of bondage, a sense of being trapped, a sense of an impersonal relationship with the divine that's motivated by a fear of what he or she or it may do, and lastly, an anxiety about your standing before God. A fear, a deep insecurity. And of course, we realise that this can exist even in the Christian church today. But just as a guard points to the difference between imprisonment and freedom, and as a tutor points to correct actions or knowledge over incorrect ones, the law also points us ahead.

You know how I said that the law is kind of like a mirror? Well, want to change that a little bit. The law is kind of like a window. And if you focus on one part of the window, you can see a reflection of yourself, can't you? And it acts like a mirror.

You can see those blemishes. You can see those pimples. But if you change your focus just a little bit, you look deeper into this window and you see through the window to what's behind it. The law is like a window because it makes us reveal who we are, but we look through it deeper to see Jesus Christ. To see and to long for someone that could actually obey this, who could actually exemplify this, who could actually live out all of these things.

The law makes us realise our need for a hero, our need for salvation by love. John Stott, a great preacher and a great academic who actually died a few years ago, wrote in his commentary on Galatians 3 this, and it's a quote that's worth reading. He warns us about the importance of the law in our lives and the purpose of it. He says: after God had made the promise to Abraham, he gave a law to Moses. Why?

Because he had to make things worse before he could make them better. God had to make things worse before He could make them better. You see the law exposed sin. He goes on to say: it provoked sin. It condemned sin.

The purpose of the law was to lift the lid of man's respectability and to disclose what he is really underneath. Sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God and helpless to save himself. He goes on to say: and the law must still be allowed to do its God-given duty today. One of the greatest faults of the contemporary church is the tendency to soft-pedal sin and judgment. We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel.

To do so is to contradict the plan of God in biblical history. No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear. And it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth. Incredible words.

So then, lastly, if the law does point out our sin, if the law does show that we are in bondage, we are in slavery to these actions, and our fear and our insecurity. How, on the flip side, having received Christ, having realised our freedom in Him, our forgiveness, our acceptance. Being on the other side of that, when we are when we have become Christians, how does the law fit into our lives? Well, we understand that the law is no longer now a system of salvation. It is no longer something that forces or coerces us through fear. We no longer obey the law out of a fear of rejection.

But when we grasp salvation by that promise that God has made, our hearts are filled with gratitude and joy. When we get it, when that penny drops, our hearts become filled with joy and gratitude. And when that has happened, our desire is to please our saviour. And how do we bring God pleasure? By living a holy life.

And where do we find an example of that? In the law. Can you see how the emphasis shifts? No longer are we motivated by fear, but we are motivated by gratitude and joy. We're motivated by love.

And in fact, when we come to the law motivated by gratitude rather than fear, we are better at obeying. We are better in our obedience of the law than we could have ever been if we wanted it to save us in some way. Because if you see God as a loving, forgiving father, then you will be motivated by a love to please Him. On the other hand, if you see God as the law bringer, the judge, then you will be motivated by fear. I know a man who cheated on his wife.

It was eventually found out. Now, his wife was destroyed. And his strong, beautiful Christian family was nearly ripped apart by this dumb selfish decision. His wife was on the verge of leaving him, but by God's grace, it came to a jarring realisation of his sin and it came to a deep understanding of God's compassion for him. And through a miraculous work in this woman's life, she was able to forgive her husband and they were reconciled.

Now, this was amazing. But this man would tell you that because of this woman's remarkable forgiveness, the gratitude in his heart means that he will never ever consider doing that again. Having realised his guilt, knowing that he didn't deserve her love and her forgiveness, and yet being forgiven broke this man's heart. He would never, not once, ever dare to even consider being unfaithful to his wife again. He'll walk that line forever because of his gratitude towards her.

Once we understand the forgiveness and the love of God apart from what we do and how far we fail, we don't obey God any longer for our sake. We don't obey God because of our fear of Him. Rather, we now obey God for His sake. For His delight. His pleasure in us.

We follow the law's guidelines to please and to delight our father who's in heaven. And that is by far the most powerful motivation. Let's walk in that. Let us grow in that. Let us love that.

Let's pray. Amazing love. Amazing grace. How sweet it is to us, Lord. Lord, it's so easy to try and find checks and tick boxes and to plot ourselves, Lord.

But really, ultimately, what our heart yearns for is a relationship. And it is something that is grace. It is something that is—but yet it is by far the best. And, Lord, we thank you that this relationship has been opened for us through Jesus Christ. And as we reflect on what He has done for us on the cross, that He took our sin, that He took our shortcoming, our slavery, our bondage to sin upon Himself.

But we stand on the other side of that cross, on the other side of the rolled-away gravestone. And we have lives that are victorious. We have motives that are pure. Lord, we have been changed. We have been renewed.

We have been redeemed. Lord, our motives have changed. And, Lord, this feeling inside our hearts is burning. This emotion, Lord, it is true because we know that it is the Holy Spirit confirming it in our lives. Lord, we want to serve you better.

We want to love you better. We want to do that through our lives that are pleasing in your sight, that are holy, that are set apart. Lord, help us to live graciously, to love abundantly because we have first seen that in you. Help us to realise like this man that being forgiven despite our unfaithfulness changes us to love and to not consider hurting you again. Motivate us, Lord, through this.

Thank you that you do not hold this over our heads, but that you love us regardless. Holy Spirit, empower us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.