The Purpose of the Law
Galatians 3:19-25
The great missionary, J. Hudson Taylor understood the connection between the character of God and the certainty of His promises. He said: “There is a living God. He has spoken in the Bible. He means what He says and will do all He has promised.” Hudson was right. A promise is only as good as the character of the one who promises. What does it mean to make a promise?
Merriam-Webster defines “promise” as: “a legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.”
In Genesis 15, God made such promises to Abraham. He promised Abraham a land, a people, and a Seed who would be a blessing to all the nations. There were no “ifs” in the promise. It was all one-sided… it was all on God’s end. That promise includes all in Christ through faith… and nothing can ever replace or supersede that unconditional promise to Abraham… not even the Law of Moses.
This was a controversial message in Galatia. If the Law didn’t supersede the promise, then what was the point of the Law of Moses? This is the issue Paul tackles in Galatians 3:19-25. We need to understand the whole purpose of the Law before we can see the irrevocable power of the promise. That’s going to be so important to us as Christians who live by faith. It’s important because our faith is fed only by hearing and believing the promises of God. Let’s look at Galatians 3:19-25.
In honor of God and His Word, please stand for the reading of these verses. Paul asks the one question that the legalists in Galatia were begging him to answer:
19 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. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.
21 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. 22 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.
23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
[Prayer] In these verses, Paul finally answers the Judaizer’s toughest question, “What was the purpose of the law?” No one is denying that the law had a purpose or that the law came from the same God who made the original promise to Abraham. The trouble in Galatia was that they misunderstood the whole purpose of the law. They saw it in tension with the promise to Abraham. This still happens in our day. When some people read the Bible, they see nothing but confusion and contradictions. For them, human reason is the final court of arbitration. So when Scripture doesn’t seem reasonable to them, they try to change the Bible to make it line up with their human reasoning. This results in greater conflict and more confusion. That’s the problem when we look at God’s Word through the veil of prejudice. In verses 19 through 25, Paul is not only logical and reasonable, he’s also historically and theologically consistent. Paul teaches three reasons why the law was given. The first is in vv. 19 and 20…
I. The law was given to prepare the heirs to receive Jesus Christ (the promised seed) [19-20].
Look at 19-20 again. It says: 19 “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. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.” Let’s examine this one piece at a time.
Paul clearly states that the law was added because of transgressions. He said the same thing in Romans: “through the law comes knowledge of sin” (3:20); “where there is no law, there is no transgression” (4:15); and “if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (7:7).
In other words, the law is like a mirror that God holds up to show how filthy we really are and how much we need the cleansing which only He can provide. He doesn’t want us to say, “I’ll clean myself up so God can receive me.” That’s no better than making hand-sewn fig leaves to cover your shame. But isn’t that the nature of humanity to do such a thing? Someone might understand the law but then conclude, “I’m too sinful to come to God.” But that’s not a good argument either. That’s no better than a man saying, “I’m too dirty to take a shower.” No, it’s your dirt that commends you to take a shower!
The more you realize your uncleanness, the more you should see your need for the shower. In the same way, the more we see our sin for what it is, the more we should desire what only Jesus can provide. The greater your knowledge of sin, the greater your awareness of your need for Jesus.
There is no sin so great that Jesus is not greater still. But if someone says, “I don’t need Jesus; my life is clean compared to most people.” Then that person needs to look into the mirror of the law and see their filth for what it is. There are none so good they need not be saved… and none so bad they cannot be saved. People have to see their sin for what it is, in order to see the Savior for what He offers. Therefore, Paul says, the law was given to prepare the heirs to receive Jesus Christ… the promised Seed.
Then at the end of verse 19 is the phrase: “The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.” What is Paul saying here? The activity of angels in connection with the law is mentioned in Deuteronomy 33:2 (as well as other Scriptures). And the unnamed mediator is probably a reference to Moses himself. Moses was known as the mediator of the law between God and Israel. Hebrews refers to Jesus as a better Mediator than Moses because He represents both God and man.
Paul is probably trying to make the point that the law is inferior to the gospel because the gospel is unilateral (the Law isn’t) and it came to us without the intervention of angels and human mediators (which the Law required). “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). But (says verse 20), “a mediator does not represent just one party, but God is one.” A mediator is a go-between who represents two parties; in this case, God and man. Jesus alone could perfectly represent both God and man. Moses couldn’t; Abraham couldn’t. Only the promised Seed (through Abraham) could intervene on man’s behalf with the saving authority of God.
There is perfect unity in this mediation because God is one. As the Hebrew Shema (in Deut 6:4) which is quoted every Sabbath by faithful Jews to this day clearly recalls: “Shema yisrael adonai elohenu adonai echad.” Which is, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Our Judge, our Mediator, and our Advocate are one… and the one who knows us best, loves us most.
The law was given to prepare the heirs to receive Jesus Christ… the promised Seed. But then he goes further. The second point is developed in verses 21 and 22, namely…
II. The law was given to show the necessity of faith to inherit the promise in Christ [21-22].
Hear the word again: 21 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. 22 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.
Belief (or faith) is essential to those who inherit the promise. Faith is the evidence that you are a beneficiary of the covenant promises given to Abraham. Faith not only believes the promises of God, but faith receives the promises of God and enjoys them right now even before they come in all their fullness. Faith doesn’t boast; it isn’t proud. Faith is adorned with humility. Faith serves with joy because it sees and savors God. We don’t need to wait until we get to heaven to enjoy the fact that God delights in us. God wants you to enjoy this fact right now!
But there are circumstances that make it so hard to rejoice in our faith. Most of the circumstances in this life will not make sense to us until we see it from God’s perspective. Thank goodness, the Bible tells that there are really two worlds, not just one. Faith is the only way we can embrace the reality of life beyond this world… to the world to come.
In a series of articles for Forbes Magazine entitled “You’d Cry Too”, Peggy Noonan wrote about why Americans seem so unhappy in this present generation. She said:
“We are the first generation of mankind to believe in one world. Our forefathers believed that there were two worlds; and that this was the short, nasty, and brutish one. They never expected to be happy here because they knew that true happiness was in the world to come. Being the first generation of men to believe in one world, that is why we are so unhappy.”
Not too long ago in USA Today, media mogul Ted Turner said, “I’m not a religious man; I only believe in one world… that this is the only world we have.” Well, pass the Prozac! Only by faith can we enjoy the reality of the world to come even when circumstances challenge everything we hold dear in this life.
Philip Yancey said: “Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.” That’s the way it was with the Law. When the law came, it didn’t make immediate sense in relation to the promise. It only makes sense when we view it from the perspective of Mt. Calvary. God knew exactly the effect the law was to have on those who would inherit the promises. What did the Law accomplish? It showed the necessity of faith to inherit the promise in Christ.
Now we’re ready for the final point in Paul’s argument. We’ve seen that: The law was given to prepare the heirs to receive Jesus Christ, to show the necessity of faith to inherit the promise in Christ, and third…
III. The law was given to keep us in custody until we could receive the promise by faith [23-25].
In 1873, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached a sermon on this text entitled, The Great Jail and How to Get Out of It. It was a message that true freedom can only be found in Christ, not works, not religion, only Jesus.
The image of a jail is accurate according to the word picture used by Paul. “23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.” Sometimes when a person is out of control and likely to harm himself or others, they put such a person into a straight-jacket. In some cases, this is the most merciful way to protect someone until they can be transferred from one place to another… it’s done on their behalf, but without their consent. In some ways, this is what the Law was for the world. “We were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.”
Several years ago, it was early September and I had the windows open to let the breeze blow through my room where I was working. On the windowsill crawled a spindly little granddaddy longlegs spider. It had crawled through the screen and was inside the house where it didn’t belong. Some folks would have crushed the little spider, but I didn’t see any point in that. I decided to take it back outside where it needed to be. But to get it from point A to point B, I had to bind the spider by the legs so it couldn’t get loose, or fall on the carpet to be crushed underfoot. So that’s what I did.
I’m sure that during the whole trip, that little spider felt doomed. He had lost all control of his movement and didn’t know where on earth he was headed. But it was all for his own good. He thought it was horrible; but it was for his deliverance. When I got to the backyard, I turned that spider loose and he scampered away. Now my intention had been to get that spider to the backyard where he belonged even before I grabbed him by the legs and restricted his movement. The binding was an unpleasant act of powerful mercy on behalf of a creature which could not save itself and was bound to die apart from the intervention.
Verse 24 says: 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” And there it is. The Law has accomplished its purpose; we’ve been turned loose to live freely in Jesus Christ.
(c) Charles Kevin Grant
2003