The Law and the Promise

Turn in your bibles to Galatians 3:19-29.

Hear now the word of the Lord:

Galatians 3:19–29 ESV

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 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. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 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. 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. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

PRAYER:

O Father, give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts to believe your glorious promises to us, your people. Do this through your Son and by your Spirit. Amen.

Introduction

This morning, we will continue our study of Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia.

Serval times in Galatians, Paul contrasts the idea of law with the idea of promise. One is something that God wants us to do, the other is something that God does for us. And people get into a real mess when they confuse those two things.

In this sermon, we are going to unpack what is meant by both law and promise and how they apply to us today.

But first, we need to recap what is meant by “law” here.

As I mentioned in a previous sermon, “the law” can mean one of many things, depending on the context. It can mean God’s commands generally. It can be a shorthand for the five books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). It can mean a “principle”, much like we would say the Law of Gravity or the Law of Thermodynamics.

Here, in the book of Galatians, Paul is using “LAW” to refer to the Law of Moses—think of the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices, the food laws, the sabbath laws—all of which are part of the ceremonial law that God gave Israel through Moses.

Now, the churches that Paul is writing this letter to had a problem: some people were teaching that in order to be a real follower of Jesus, you had to keep the ceremonial laws. In other words, you had to become Jewish religiously. If someone wanted to become a Christian, it wasn’t enough that they believe and be baptized. These false teachers insisted they had to keep the whole Mosaic law system as well.

This flew in the face of the good news that Paul and the other apostles preached to the churches. Paul insisted that the gospel of grace was far superior to the law of Moses. He declared that now that we have Jesus, we are not under the old covenant and those ceremonial laws do not apply anymore.

But that raises a question: if what we really needed was Jesus, why didn’t God just start with that? Why weren’t one of Adam and Eves daughters or grand daughters chosen to bear the messiah? What was the point of the sacrifices if he could have just sent Jesus to be our sacrifice right away? What was the point of the temple if he could have just sent his Spirit to make his dwelling amidst his people right away?

Paul anticipated this question and gave two reasons why God gave the Mosaic Law.

The Purpose of the Law

Reason 1: To Make Sin Clear

The first reason God gave Israel the law was to make sin clear. We see this in Galatians 3:19, as well as Romans 3:20.

Galatians 3:19 ESV

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made…

Paul made a similar point in Romans 3:20.

Romans 3:20 ESV

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin

The law does not create sin in people—it exposes the sin that already exists.

It is like turning the light on in a dirty room. The room was dirty before, but you didn’t know just how dirty it was until the light came on.

And if you turn on a dim light, you will only see part of the mess. As you increase the brightness of the light, the more filth is exposed.

The Law of Moses was very particular; it had high demands, and because of that, it showed just how sinful and inadequate people were when they couldn’t keep it.

This is really true of all of God’s laws, whether moral or ceremonial. When God commands “You shall not commit adultery”, it turns a light on in the life of the hearer.

And then comes Jesus, who turned the light up even brighter when he said that to look at someone with lust is to commit adultery with them in your heart.

The more specificity to the law, the more light it is radiating into the dark and dirty rooms of our hearts.

This is why it is so important for us to be in the Bible regularly: so we can shine God’s light into our souls to expose sin that needs to be repented of.

Open the Scriptures each day and ask God to show you what needs to be changed.

Reason 2: To Be a Tutor

The second reason God gave the law was to be a tutor, guardian or a teacher.

It was at one time common for nobility and the wealthy to hire tutors for their children to help guide them until the time came when they reached maturity and were able to be independent adults.

This is what the Law of Moses was for God’s people. Listen to what Paul says in verse 24:

Galatians 3:24 ESV

24 So then, the law was our guardian [tutor] until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

God gave Israel the Mosaic law in order to teach them the differences between sin and righteousness; about sacrifice and punishment; about God’s presence.

The temple and its rituals taught us about God’s holiness and the sacredness of his presence on earth. This was to prepare us for Jesus, the true temple, and his church, which is his body.

The sacrifices taught us about the cost of sin and the need for a substitute. This prepared us for understanding what Jesus would come to do for us on the cross.

The laws about Jews being distinct from gentiles, such as the dietary and clothing laws, were meant to teach the difference between holiness and sin; the difference between believers and unbelievers; about being distinct from the world.

In addition to these two reasons, Paul also clarifies what the Law was NOT for.

What the law was not for: Giving eternal life (v21)

The law was NOT given in order to grant eternal life. Listen to what verse 21 says:

Galatians 3:21 ESV

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.

The law of Moses could never give eternal life. No law, for that matter could.

Why? Because a law is something we must do. And nothing we do can fix the fact that we have already broken so many laws. Even if we amend our lives and stop sinning as much, what is to be done about our past sins? Or what about the sins we will inevitably commit in the future?

And lest we presume we haven’t sinned enough to warrant God’s wrath, let us remember what the Scripture says:

James 2:10 ESV

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

James, earlier in his letter, compares the Law to a mirror.

Listen to this:

James 1:23–25 ESV

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

How ridiculous would it be to look in the mirror at your dirty face and then proceed to take the mirror of the wall and try to scrub your face with it? That is exactly what people are doing when they try to use the law to clean themselves. The mirror shows us the dirt but it cannot clean it. We need soap and water for that. And that soap and water, of course, is the blood of Jesus, applied by faith, and expressed in the waters of Baptism.

This is why it is utter folly when people in our day reduce Jesus to a mere moral teacher. We already had great moral teachers before Jesus. That is hardly a reason for the son of God to take on flesh and dwell among us.

No, the reason he came was to do what the law could not do: to bring about atonement and therefor forgiveness and the gift of cleanness before God.

Before moving on to discuss God’s promises, I’d like to add one more clarification to our understanding of God’s law.

A further clarification

Some people think that God’s Laws are a burden—whether the Jewish ceremonial laws or even the Ten Commandments or New Testament commands.

This is both true and false.

God’s laws can be both a burden and a blessing.

It is indeed a burden to those who seek to find favor in God’s sight through keeping the law without faith.

But to those with faith, God’s laws are a delight.

Psalm 119:97 ESV

97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

1 John 5:3 ESV

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

See, the false teachers that Paul condemned in his letter were saying cleanness in God’s sight was obtained by keeping the Jewish laws. If that were the case, this would indeed be a burden.

But if we are made righteous and clean by faith and we are resting in that reality, then his commands are a delight to us, because we get to do them out of love and gratitude.

It is the difference between obeying God to earn his favor and obeying him because you already have his favor.

So then, we have considered the purpose of the Law. Let us now turn to consider the promise.

The Contents of the Promise (Brief)

Paul has used the term promise several times in this letter and has contrasted it with the Law of Moses.

The question then becomes: “What exactly does he mean when he says promise?”

Well, we know at the very least that whatever Paul means by “promise” is directly connected to God’s promises to Abraham, since he has brought that up several times and will continue to do so into the next chapter.

In reading Galatians, I have found four specific things that Paul associates with the promise:

Righteousness/Cleanness(v24)

The Holy Spirit (v14)

Sonship (v26)

Inheritance (v29; heirs)

And we will look at each of these in further detail shortly.

Before we do that, we need to ask another question: who was the promise ultimately made to?

The Recipients of the Promise (v19)

The promises God gave to Abraham have a direct recipient and an indirect recipient.

The Direct Recipient: Jesus

The direct recipient is Jesus. Look at Galatians 3:19 with me:

Galatians 3:19 ESV

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made…

So Jesus is the one to whom the promises of Abraham were ultimately made.

Paul says this based off his earlier argument from Galatians 3:16 when he said “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”

The ultimate offspring of Abraham that God had in view when he made the Abrahamic Covenant was Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate inheritor of the land promise. He is the ultimate inheritor of the offspring promise. He is the ultimate inheritor of the blessing promise.

As I pointed out last week, the purpose of the Abrahamic Covenant was to bring us Jesus and Jesus brought us the New Covenant and all of its attending blessings and promises.

The Indirect Recipient: The Church

Now I mentioned there is an indirect recipient of God’s promises to Abraham, and that would be the Church.

But how can this be? How can the church, which at this point is primarily non-Jewish, inherit the promises that were made to the Jewish people through Abraham?

Simple: the scriptures say that Jesus is the one to whom those promises were made and we just so happen to be united Jesus. We are part of his body. And because we are part of him now, those promises are for us too.

This is exactly what Paul says in verse 27. Look at it with me:

Galatians 3:27 ESV

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

In other words, what is true of Jesus according to his human nature becomes true of us, because we are united to him. We are “in him”. We are wearing him. He is our clothing.

To see this in action, let’s look at those four concepts Paul associates with “the promise” in his letter that I mentioned earlier: Righteousness, The Holy Spirit, Sonship, and Inheritance:

1. RIGHTEOUSNESS: We are righteous because Jesus is righteous

Galatians 3:24 ESV

24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified [righteous/clean] by faith.

1 John 2:1 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

So we are righteous because Jesus is righteous.

2. SPIRIT: We have the Spirit because Jesus has the Spirit (and sent the Spirit)

Galatians 3:14 ESV

14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Matthew 3:16 ESV

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

We have the Spirit because Jesus has the Spirit (and sent the Spirit to us)

3. SONSHIP: We are sons because Jesus is the son

Galatians 3:26 ESV

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

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

We are sons because Jesus is the son

4. INHERITANCE: We are heirs because Jesus is the heir

Galatians 3:29 ESV

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Colossians 1:15–16 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him.

We are heirs because Jesus is the heir

So the church is the beneficiary of Gods ultimate promises to Abraham. why? Because Jesus is the ultimate offspring of Abraham. It follows then that those who reject Jesus have no share in the promises to Abraham. So if there is a Jewish person who can trace their lineage back to Abraham, they have no right whatsoever to those promises if they reject Jesus, the son of God.

Luke 3:8 “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

So then, as the church, we are the inheritors of God’s promises through Jesus. But now lets consider the equality of the promise:

The Equality of the Promise

Here is one of the most culturally disrupting aspects of Christianity: look at Galatians 3:28 with me.

Galatians 3:28 ESV

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

One of the most radical things about Christianity is its equality.

This may sound strange to us moderns who have drunk deeply from the wells of feminism, liberalism, and egalitarianism. Many see Christianity as oppressive, not liberating.

To be sure, there are some people or groups within Christianity that are oppressive and abusive. But that is not BECAUSE of Christian teaching—it is despite Christian teaching.

But when we talk about equality, we must be very careful to define our terms.

Christianity does not teach equality of station, rank or purpose however. Pastors have authority over those who are not pastors. Husbands are the ones who rule their homes. Christians do not all have the same gifts—we have differing gifts and callings that are meant to harmonize within the church.

Christianity does teach equality of value and inheritance. All Christians are equally valuable and equally a partaker in God’s promises.

What Paul is arguing for here is an equality of inheritance of God’s promises. Lets look at each of the points he makes in greater detail.

Heritage (Jew or Greek)

First of all, all Christians share in God’s promises, regardless of their heritage.

This is a radical concept, because ethnic hostility was—and still is in many ways—totally normal outside of Christianity. But inside the church, Christians are all citizens of the same heavenly country. Whether we are from North America, Brazil, China or Somalia—if you are a Christian, then inside the church, there ought to be no favoritism based on someone’s heritage or nationality.

Now this passage is particularly addressing hostility between Jews and Gentiles which was especially heated. Listen to this passage from Ephesians that addresses this more fully:

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The gospel does not erase our national heritage. There are Jewish Christians, Italian Christians, American Christians, Japanese Christians, etc. But what it does do is make our national heritage irrelevant to our inheritance of God’s promises.

Class (Slave or Free)

Second of all, all Christians share in God’s promises, regardless of their class.

This is also a radical concept. Slaves in the ancient world were the lowest class. They weren’t even considered humans most of the time. And here is Christianity, declaring that everyone in the church must see one another as brothers and sisters—as a family. This means that slaves would stand with masters while singing praise to God. This means the poor would sit with the rich at the Lord’s table, eating the same bread and drinking the same cup.

Ephesians 6:5–9 CSB

5 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ. 6 Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart. 7 Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to people, 8 knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord. 9 And masters, treat your slaves the same way, without threatening them, because you know that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Philemon 15–16 CSB

15 For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave—as a dearly loved brother. He is especially so to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Gender (Male or female)

Third of all, all Christians share in God’s promises, regardless of if they are male of female.

In the ancient world, many societies views women—especially women in lower classes—as sub-human or as property. Not so in Christianity.

The church has always valued women and held them in high regard. In fact, historically, the most honored person in the church besides the Lord Jesus is his mother, Mary.

As mentioned before, equality of value and inheritance does not mean equality in role or station. Women are not to be leaders of the church. They are not to teach publically to the whole congregation. But that is because God is a God of order and he created men and women differently. We have different purposes, skills and roles. Rather than bucking against this, we ought to embrace it, since it comes from God and can only be for our good.

Conclusion

And this whole business about equality is really the occasion for Paul writing this letter. The judaizers were causing division in the church and treating gentile Christians as less important than Jewish Christians. There ought not be any favoritism in the church. We are all one in Christ. Let us live like it.