Galatians (12)

Introduction: Read Galatians 3:10-29

Point: The law cannot justify. No person can be made right with God by keeping His law.

The Law cannot justify.

Transition: Why not? Because of it’s purpose… Galatians 3:19 and following is going to answer the question, “What is the purpose of the law.” ?

Purpose

From this passage we can conclude that the purpose of the law was to be a temporary guardian until Christ came.

Verse 19 states that the law was added because of transgressions. This doesn't mean that the law brought about transgressions, rather it was added because of transgressions. Sin existed before the law of Moses. Since the fall of humanity in the garden it has always been the rebellion of every human being to live independent of God. Do attempt by our own means to relate with our Creator. And since humanity was guilty of overstepping the moral boundaries of God, the law was added.

It was added as a covenant with the nation of Israel as a continuation of the plan of God to bring about his unconditional promise of blessing to all ethnicities through the seed of Abraham. From what we have studied in Galatians so far we know that the offspring of Abraham is Jesus Christ. The promised gift of faith in Jesus Christ is the unconditional promise that God has faithfully fulfilled. So that those who believe in Christ can be made right with God. The law showcases the curse, the promise reveals life through faith in Christ.

Notice that in Gal. 3:24 the law is labeled as a guardian. This term has a very positive connotation to it. In other words the Scriptures are saying that God established His laws with the nation of Israel for the purpose of being a guardian. When I think of a guardian I think of a person who has been given the responsibility to help look after others. A body guard, a baby sitter, a property manager, a gate keeper, a police officer. All of these guardians are tasked with the responsibility of watching over people.

How is the law a guardian??

1. The law exposes sin (Romans 7:7)

2. The law excites sin (Romans 7:8)

3. The law executes life (Romans 7:9-11)

by revealing the deceitfulness and deadliness of sin. Paul said this very thing in Galatians 2:19

by complementing the promise. Death by the law, life by the promise. (Gal 3:21)

by holding everyone captive under sin. (Gal 3:22a-23a) the law of God holds Jews and Gentiles alike are held under sin. Not is exactly the same way, but certainly for the same purpose. This is Paul’s argument in Romans 1-3, that even those without the witness of the written law of God are still guilty of breaking His law because of the testimony of creation and conscience.

Transition: The law of God is a temporary guardian until Christ came in that it exposes and excites sin, executes life, and also because the law of God explains God.

4. The law explains God

One way that the law explains God is by revealing His own character and nature. From our series through Psalm 119 we discovered over and over that God’s laws, statues, promises, commands, precepts, words, are wonderful because God is wonderful. How can something that produces death be wonderful? Because when death is produced in us we are prepared to trust in the promise of God that brings life.

Another way the law explains God is the contrast between how God gave the law and how He gave the promise. Notice in Galatians 3:19c-20 . This verse is describing the way God gave the ten commandments to the nation of Israel. See in Deut 33:1-2 His reference to ten thousands of holy ones is a reference to angels that God used to bring Moses the law. Stephen makes the same point in Acts 7:38

Point: God used angels to give the law by an intermediary, Moses. However, God gave the promise to Abraham by Himself. The very way in which God placed the law in comparison to the way in which he gave the promise shows us the unconditional nature of God and the conditional nature of the law. God is one, and being one gave the promise directly to Abraham. God is still one when He gave the law, but gave the law through a multitude of intermediaries. Whats the point?? Which shows that the law was never intended to give life, the law was never for the purpose of making people right with God, the law is weak to save and strong to condemn.

Deuteronomy 33:1–2 ESV

This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death. He said, “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.

Acts 7:38 ESV

This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.

We should be very caution of giving too much credit to the law. It has it’s purpose in God’s plan, but it was a temporary function to bring about the promise! Keep in mind, the Judaizers who were coming to the new Christians in Galatia were trying to convince them that they needed to adhere to the law in order to be right with God. Now, if we had grown up with the binding of the law over us like the Jews had for centuries, we could easily understand why they thought they should make these additions to the gospel. However, they were guilty of giving the law too much place in God’s plan of redemption. Case in point: Even Moses, the human mediator that God used to record His law, was in the very act of receiving the commandments, appealed to the promise of God in order to receive mercy. Look at Exodus 32:7-14

Exodus 32:7–14 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

The law produces fear, and rightly so. However, the promise produces faith.

5. The law exults Christ

Galatians 3:19b says...

The law was given as a guardian in order to direct sinners to Christ! Just like a guardrail guides a driver away from impending death so to the law guides sinners to the death, burial, and Resurrection of Christ! This brings exultation to Christ!

Again, Galatians 3:22 says...

The law imprisoned so that Christ could set believers free! Just as a judge might ring a gavel on the case of a guilty criminal and declare him to be not guilty. So too the promise is given to those who believe in Christ and God rings His gavel and declares a believer to be set free from sin and death and alive in Christ! This bring exultation to Christ!

Finally, Gal 3:24 reminds us that…

The law exults Christ in that Jesus fulfills the law. He accomplished the demands of the law. And died in the place of those condemned unclean. He redeems from the curse of the law by offering the payment of His blood for the pardon of those enslaved to to sin.

In effect.... Jesus came and said to the law, “You were working through a Temp agency, your job is now finished, and I am the One who has finished it.”

Closing: Has the purpose of the law been fulfilled in your life? Has sin been exposed and excited in your heart? Are you aware of the execution that sin produces? Have you been awakened to condemnation you are under? Do you see that God is just a fair in bring His wrath upon your sin? Have you looked upon Christ in simple faith? Do you know that His death can be your death? That His Resurrection can be your Resurrection? That His exultation can be your exultation? Are you trusting Christ alone to make you right with God. To be redeemed, adopted, forgiven, and made into a new creation?