Sons and Daughters of God

Galatians 3:21-26

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What We’ll See:

• The Law of Moses was once our Guardian.

• When we trust in Jesus, we “outgrow” the Law.

• Believers are Sons and Daughters of God in Jesus.

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Context

There were people who were teaching lies to the Christians in Galatia. One of these lies was that you needed to follow the Old Testament law in order to live the right way. Paul has been using the Old Testament to show how Christians live the right way and avoid God’s punishment through faith. And How God give us Christians His promises and His grace? He chooses to work through people deciding to trust in Him: He uses faith. So why was the law even added? Because of our sins, our wrongs against God and other people, until Jesus showed up and brought the Gospel with Him.

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Galatians 3:21-26

Galatians 3:21–26 (ESV)

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21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

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22. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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23. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

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25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26. for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

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Sons and Daughters through Promise: Introduction

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21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

When Paul says “Law” here in verse 21, he is talking about the Law of Moses or the Old Testament law. The parts of the Law of Moses are written out in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. When those parts are put together, you get the full Law. If you’ve ever heard the words “penteteuch” or “torah”, Genesis and these four books are what’s being talked about. Penteteuch just means “five books” and “torah” meaning “law”.

Again, we saw that God gave the Promise of the Gospel all the way back in the time of Abraham in Genesis 15. This was long before the Law of Moses started to be given in Exodus. Since we know that God keeps His promises, the Law of Moses in Exodus doesn’t invalidate God’s Promise back in Genesis. God’s promise didn’t expire.

21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

Paul brings up what a reader might be thinking here in Verse 21 by asking this question. The Law was being misused by false teachers in Galatia, and, Paul just had to spend a whole passage assuring the Believers that Jesus, God’s promised Messiah, wasn’t invalidated because of the Law of Moses.

Does that mean that Jesus and the Law are contrary to eachother? look at the second part of Verse 21

Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

Paul says “no!”. He actually says “no” in what is thought by many Greek Scholars to be the strongest terms possible. This is the same phrase used in Galatians 2:17 when Paul reminds us that when we do the wrong thing as Christians, it’s not Christ’s fault.

This phrase can almost mean, “it’s not possible.” The law is certainly not contrary to God’s promise. He then qualifies his strong “no!”

God put the law in place, and it worked well. When we look at the law, we see God’s loving fingerprint. The law is harsh, and so are it’s consequences when someone sins, but we see God’s idea of fairness. Although the world isn’t fair, God’s law set a precedent for how each person should be treated fairly.

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

If there was a law that could do what the Gospel does, then we could just use that law. The law of Moses is God’s perfect Law, and so if a Law could do it, then it could.

This is Rayno Nel, the winner of the World’s Strongest Man Competition. The Competition is a rigorous one that involves lifted difficult heavy things. Have you ever said or heard someone say “it’s not heavy, it’s just .....” right ‘awkward’. Imagine if someone took that idea and made a sport out of it. That is the world’s strongest man competition, except now the things you are lifting are heavy and awkward.

Say that we needed to move the pulpit and Rayno Nel was here. Say that, as strong as he was, he tried to move this pulpit, and he wasn’t able to. He breathes heavily and his face turns red, and finally he admits defeat, and says, I’m sorry, it’s too heavy.

Now, what are the chances that you… would be able to move this pulpit? How many of you would try anyways?

If he can’t move it, chances are, none of us are going to move it by ourselves.

In the same way, if there was a Law that could make us righteous, that could help us to live the right way, God’s law would be the one that could do it. But can it? No, just knowing the right things to do isn’t enough. God’s Law isn’t contrary to how we’re supposed to act as Christians, it’s just not strong enough.

The word “life” could refer to a few things: it could refer to the Eternal Life that Jesus gives when we believe.

It could mean the life we get when we decided not to sin. Remember that there are consequences when we do something wrong.

This verse could be saying that we get life by doing the right thing instead of sinning which brings forth death. The law isn’t able to prevent us from sinning, it’s there to show what it looks like to sin and what it looks like to love other people.

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22. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Now this phrase “so that” could mean a couple of different things. It could mean that the result of Scripture imprisoning everything under sin was that we have to trust in Jesus for the Promise.

This “so that” could also mean that God did this on purpose. It was God’s plan to deal with our sins by making faith our way out. Remember Ephesians 2, which tells us that we are saved by Grace so that no one can boast. This seems to be the most likely reading. Remember this verse doesn’t say that God made us sin: we did that by ourselves; God plan was to imprison everything under sin and make faith our means of escape.

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23. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

When Jesus came, he offered people the ability to be spiritually reborn; we become new people, and because of this, as we’ve been looking at over the past few weeks, we can now live the right way when we make the decision to trust in Jesus.

But before then, we needed the Law of Moses to tell us what to do. The word for revealed means carries the idea of ripping the curtain back; it carries the idea of making something fully known or bringing someting to light. God doesn’t want this faith we have in Jesus to be unclear or hard to understand. Faith is not a simple thing, but making the decision to trust in Jesus is very simple, though not always easy. We can know from this verse, that God’s plan was to make trusting in Jesus a something that was obvious, or plain to see. We may learn new facets of God’s truth, and new ways we need to trust in God, but He has made faith fully known to us.

Paul then uses a word picture. We were imprisoned under the law until faith was revealed; it was like the law was our nanny until Jesus came.

The word Guardian, is the word παιδαγωγὸς and is a specific type of person, probably a servant, who helped to raise their master’s children in the time of the New Testament. A man might help with the raising of the master’s children while the master taking care of family business or running the estate. This guardian had the authority to tell the children of the master what to do, and part of raising a child is teaching them what to and not to do.

Are you familiar with the word “baby-proofing?” When I think of the word, I think of this image.

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Now, when I see the word “imprisoned” in verse 23 after reading verse 24, I think of this, and something else. Any guesses on what my next image is going to be?

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That’s right: baby-gates.

The Law imprisoned us, it was our guardian, telling us what to do. It kept us from going into rooms we were supposed to be in and pulling all the tissues out of the kleenex box, if you will. It also told us when to go to bed. When do you think a guardian ceased telling the master’s children what to do?

When they grew up.

Paul is using this word picture to say that before Christ, humanity, was under the Law of Moses, and, like an ungrown child, they were under strict rules. Just like children have a strict bedtime, the law had strict rules about what you can and can’t eat.

This all changed when Jesus arrived on the scene.

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25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26. for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

What does Paul mean by “faith” here? He is talking about faith in Jesus.

This verse says that since we can now trust in Jesus to become a new creature, we don’t need the Law. We can now live by the Spirit.

Is there is anyone who like how baby-gates look? Do they keep them up year round because they like the aesthetic they bring to the house? Do they like having to do the step over, or having to open the gates to get around? I’ve never met anyone. If you do, don’t let me dissuade you from keeping them up, but usually people take them down. Why? They are a means to an end; just like the law. Kids grow up, and, we hope, become more mature, and we generally don’t have to worry about which room they go into, and eventually, we open the door to let them in, rather than locking the door to keep them in.

As an adult, do your parents still tell you when you can go to sleep? What about when you can or can’t have dessert? In the same way, through Christ, we’ve all outgrown the law, We don’t need it anymore! Again, all scripture is Godbreathed, and we can find great examples of how to Love God and the other people around us, but we don’t follow the law of Moses.

My father taught me some great lessons, one of which is about icy roads. He taught me how to counter-act swerving on slick roads, and how, on the ice, never slam on the breaks, but take your foot of the gas. In the same way, the Old Testament Law can teach us some good lessons, but it’s not what we follow; we seek to Love God and Love others. Also now that we’ve believed in Jesus, we now have a new Identity: Look at verse 26.

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

What does it say we are in Christ Jesus? Sons and Daughters of God. While Paul makes it clear that all humans are “offspring” of God; God created everyone equally, but we are not all “Sons” and “Daughters” of God: that is a title reserved for those who trust in Jesus. The word “sons” can means someone who is a physical descendant, but is can also mean someone who is adopted.

In this word picture, it makes the most sense for “sons” to be talking about a grown up “son”. Though Paul was using a word picture: what he calls us is not: we are actually sons and daughters of God in Jesus.

Remember 1 John 3:1-3? This is Part of how loving God is; He wants people to become His Sons and Daughters. Being a Son or Daughter of God is a term of endearment. God wants us to be a part of his family. Also, remember how last week we talked about the inheritance. Who gets the inheritace? Sons and Daughters do! Part of that inheritance is the Gospel: We benefit from the Gospel; we become a new creation when we become believers; we have the power of the Holy Spirit available to us; and we have the promise that God will reward us in the next Life for the Good things we do now. We don’t need to follow a moral list of rules to live the right way because we are grown up! When we choose to love God, we stop sinning because of our love for Him. We submit to the Government because we Love God, and God, our father, told us to.

Because Jesus opened up a way through his death on the Cross, this offer is open to anyone, no matter your background, who wants to believe. As Sons and Daughters in Jesus, we’ve outgrown needing to have a bedtime, and can get to what really matters: Loving God and the People around us. And we do this by faith.

Paul is going to continue to talk about new Identities in the Next Few verses.

What We’ve Seen:

a. The Law of Moses was a good guardian for the time.

b. Now that we’re believers, we’ve outgrown follow the Law.

c. We are now Sons and Daughters of God in Jesus.

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Applications:

a. Seek to trust God in all areas of your life.

b. Seek to Love other God and Others.

c. Look for ways to share the gift of “Sonship” with someone.