Word to the Legalist

Gal 3:15-29 

Chapter Six
The Logic of Law
Gal_3:15-29

"The Judaizers had Paul in a corner. He had just finished proving from the Old Testament that God’s plan of salvation left no room for the works of the Law. But the fact that Paul quoted six times from the Old Testament raised a serious problem: If salvation does not involve the Law, then why was the Law given in the first place? Paul quoted from the Law to prove the insignificance of the Law. If the Law is now set aside, then his very arguments are worthless, because they are taken from the Law.

Our faith is a logical faith and can be defended on rational grounds. While there are divine mysteries in the faith that no man can fully explain, there are also divine reasons that any sincere person can understand. Paul was trained as a Jewish rabbi and was fully equipped to argue his case. In this section, he makes four statements that help us understand the relationship between promise and Law.

The Law Cannot Change the Promise (Gal_3:15-18)

The word promise is used eight times in these verses, referring to God’s promise to Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen_12:1-3). This promise involved being justified by faith and having all the blessings of salvation (Gal_3:6-9). It is obvious that the promise to Abraham (and, through Christ, to us today), given about 2000 b.c., preceded by centuries the Law of Moses (about 1450 b.c.). The Judaizers implied that the giving of the Law changed that original covenant of promise. Paul argues that it did not.

To begin with, once two parties conclude an agreement, a third party cannot come along years later and change that agreement. The only persons who can change an original agreement are the persons who made it. To add anything to it or take anything from it would be illegal.

If this is true among sinful men, how much more does it apply to the holy God? Note that Abraham did not make a covenant with God; God made acovenant with Abraham! God did not lay down any conditions for Abraham to meet. In fact, when the covenant was ratified Abraham was asleep! (see Gen_15:1-21) It was a covenant of grace: God made promises to Abraham; Abraham did not make promises to God.

But Paul reveals another wonderful truth: God made this promise, not only to Abraham, but also to Christ. “And to thy Seed, which is Christ” (Gal_3:16).

The Bible concept of “the seed” goes back to Gen_3:15, after the Fall of man. God states that there will be a conflict in the world between Satan’s seed (children of the devil, see Joh_8:33-44) and the woman’s seed (God’s children, and, ultimately, God’s Son). The Scriptures show this conflict: Cain versus Abel (see 1Jo_3:10-12); Israel versus the nations; John the Baptist and Jesus versus the Pharisees (Mat_3:7-9; Mat_23:29-33); the true believer versus the counterfeit (see the Parable of the Tares, Mat_13:24-30, Mat_13:36-43). Satan’s goal in the Old Testament was to keep the Seed (Christ) from being born into the world, for Satan knew that God’s Son would one day crush his head.

In the final analysis, God made this covenant of promise with Abraham through Christ, so that the only two parties who can make any changes are God the Father and God the Son. Moses cannot alter this covenant! He can add nothing to it; he can take nothing from it. The Judaizers wanted to add to God’s grace (as though anything could be added to grace!) and take from God’s promises. They had no right to do this since they were not parties in the original covenant.

The 430 years of Gal_3:17 has puzzled Bible students for many years. From Abraham’s call (Gen_12:1-20) to Jacob’s arrival in Egypt (Gen_46:1-34) is 215 years. (This may be computed as follows: Abraham was 75 years old when God called him and 100 when Isaac was born, Gen_12:4;Gen_21:5. This gives us 25 years. Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born, Gen_25:26; and Jacob was 130 years old when he arrived in Egypt, Gen_47:9. Thus, 25 + 60 + 130 = 215 years.) But Moses tells us that Israel sojourned in Egypt 430 years (Exo_12:40); so the total number of years from Abraham’s call to the giving of the Law is 645 years, not 430. The length of the stay in Egypt is recorded also in Gen_15:13 and Act_7:6, where the round figure of 400 years is used.

Several solutions have been offered to this puzzle, but perhaps the most satisfying is this: Paul is counting from the time Jacob went into Egypt, when God appeared to him and reaffirmed the covenant (Gen_46:1-4). The 430 years is the time from God’s confirmation of His promise to Jacob until the giving of the Law at Sinai.

Regardless of what solution to the dating question we may choose, the basic argument is clear: a law given centuries later cannot change a covenant made by other parties. But suppose the later revelation, such as the Law of Moses, was greater and more glorious than the earlier? What then? Paul makes a second statement.

The Law Is Not Greater Than the Promise (Gal_3:19-20)

The account of the giving of the Law is impressive (Exo_19:1-25). There were thunders and lightnings, and the people were trembling with fear. Even Moses was shaking in his sandals (Heb_12:18-21). It was a dramatic event in comparison with the giving of the covenant to Abraham (Gen_15:1-21), and, of course, the Judaizers were impressed with these emotional externals. But Paul points out that the Law is inferior to the covenant of promise in two ways.

The Law was temporary (Gal_3:19).

“It was added . . . until the Seed should come.” Now it is obvious that a temporary law cannot be greater than a permanent covenant. When you read God’s covenant with Abraham, you find no “ifs” in His words. Nothing was conditional; all was of grace. But the blessings of the Law were dependent on the meeting of certain conditions. Furthermore, the Law had a terminus point: “until the Seed [Christ] should come.” With the death and resurrection of Christ, the Law was done away and now its righteous demands are fulfilled in us through the Spirit (Rom_7:4; Rom_8:1-4).

The Law required a mediator (Gal_3:19-20).

When God gave the Law to Israel, He did it by means of angels and through the mediation of Moses. Israel “received the Law by the disposition of angels” (Act_7:53). This means that the nation received the Law third-hand: from God to angels to Moses. But when God made His covenant with Abraham, He did it personally, without a mediator. God was revealing to Abraham all that He would do for him and his descendants. A mediator stands between two parties and helps them to agree; but there was no need for a mediator in Abraham’s case since God was entering into a covenant with him, not Abraham with God. “God is one” (Gal_3:20), therefore there was no need for a go-between.

The Judaizers were impressed by the incidentals of the Law — glory, thunder, lightning, angels, and other externals. But Paul looked beyond incidentals to the essentials. The Law was temporary, and required a mediator. The covenant of promise was permanent, and no mediator was required. There could be but one conclusion: the covenant was greater than the Law.

The Law Is Not Contrary to the Promise (Gal_3:21-26)

You can almost hear the Judaizers shouting the question in Gal_3:21 : “Is the Law then against the promises of God?” Is God contradicting Himself? Does His right hand not know what His left hand is doing? As he replies to this question, Paul reveals his deep insight into the ways and purposes of God. He does not say that the Law contradicts the promise, but rather that it cooperates with the promise in fulfilling the purposes of God. While Law andgrace seem to be contrary to one another, if you go deep enough, you will discover that they actually complement one another. Why, then, was the Law given?

The Law was not given to provide life (Gal_3:21).

Certainly the Law of Moses regulated the lives of the Jewish people, but it did not and could not provide spiritual life to the people. (Gal_3:21should be matched with Gal_2:21.) If life and righteousness could have come through the Law, then Jesus Christ would never have died on the cross. But Jesus did die; therefore, the Law could never give the sinner life and righteousness. It was “worship of the Law” that led Israel into a self-righteous religion of works, the result of which was the rejection of Christ (Rom. 9:30-10:13).

The Law was given to reveal sin (Gal_3:19, Gal_3:22).

It is here that we see the way that Law and grace cooperate in bringing the lost sinner to Jesus Christ. Law shows the sinner his guilt, and grace shows him the forgiveness he can have in Christ. The Law is “holy, and just, and good” (Rom_7:12), but we are unholy, unjust, and bad. The Law does not make us sinners; it reveals to us that we already are sinners (see Rom_3:20). The Law is a mirror that helps us see our “dirty faces” (Jam_1:22-25) — but you do not wash your face with the mirror! It is grace that provides the cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ (see 1Jo_1:7).

There is a lawful use of the Law, and there is an unlawful use (1Ti_1:8-11). The lawful use is to reveal sin and cause men to see their need of a Saviour. The unlawful use is to try to achieve salvation by the keeping of the Law. When people claim they are saved by “keeping the Ten Commandments,” they are revealing their ignorance of the true meaning of the Law. The Law concludes “all [men] under sin” (Gal_3:22), Jews and Gentiles alike. But since all are under sin, then all may be saved by grace! God does not have two ways of salvation; He has but one — faith in Jesus Christ.

The Law was given to prepare the way for Christ (Gal_3:23-26).

Here Paul uses an illustration that was familiar to all his readers — the child guardian. In many Roman and Greek households, well-educated slaves took the children to and from school and watched over them during the day. Sometimes they would teach the children, sometimes they would protect and prohibit, and sometimes they would even discipline. This is what Paul means by schoolmaster (Gal_3:24); but please do not read into this word our modern idea of a schoolteacher. The transliteration of the Greek would give us our word pedagogue, which literally means “a child conductor.”

By using this illustration, Paul is saying several things about the Jews and their Law. First, he is saying that the Jews were not born through the Law, but rather were brought up by the Law. The slave was not the child’s father; he was the child’s guardian and disciplinarian. So, the Law did notgive life to Israel; it regulated life. The Judaizers taught that the Law was necessary for life and righteousness, and Paul’s argument shows their error.

But the second thing Paul says is even more important: the work of the guardian was preparation for the child’s maturity. Once the child came of age, he no longer needed the guardian. So the Law was a preparation for the nation of Israel until the coming of the promised Seed, Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal in God’s program was His coming (Gal_3:22), but “before this faith [Christ] came” (Gal_3:23 3, niv), the nation was “imprisoned by the Law” (literal translation).

The Law separated Israel from the Gentile nations (Eph_2:12-18); it governed every aspect of their lives. During the centuries of Jewish history, the Law was preparing for the coming of Christ. The demands of the Law reminded the people that they needed a Saviour. The types and symbols in the Law were pictures of the coming Messiah (see Luk_24:27).

A good example of this purpose of the Law is in the account of the rich young ruler (Mat_19:16). This young man had everything anybody could desire, but he was not satisfied. He had tried to keep the commandments all his life, but still something was missing. But these commandments broughthim to Christ! This is one of the purposes of the Law, to create in lost sinners a sense of guilt and need. The sad thing is that the young man was not honest as he looked into the mirror of the Law, for the last commandment (“Thou shalt not covet”) escaped him; and he went away without eternal life.

The Law has performed its purpose: the Saviour has come and the “guardian” is no longer needed. It is tragic that the nation of Israel did not recognize their Messiah when He appeared. God finally had to destroy the temple and scatter the nation, so that today it is impossible for a devoted Jew to practice the faith of his fathers. He has no altar, no priesthood, no sacrifice, no temple, no king (Hos_3:4). All of these have been fulfilled in Christ, so that any man — Jew or Gentile — who trusts Christ becomes a child of God.

The Law cannot change the promise, and the Law is not greater than the promise. But the Law is not contrary to the promise: they work together to bring sinners to the Saviour.

The Law Cannot Do What the Promise Can Do (Gal_3:27-29)

With the coming of Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel moved out of childhood into adulthood. The long period of preparation was over. While there was a certain amount of glory to the Law, there was a greater glory in the gracious salvation of God as found in Christ. The Law could reveal sin and, to a certain extent, control behavior, but the Law could not do for the sinner what Jesus Christ can do.

To begin with, the Law could never justify the guilty sinner. “I will not justify the wicked,” said the Lord (Exo_23:7); yet Paul states that God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom_4:5). King Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, reminded God to condemn the wicked and justify the righteous (1Ki_8:32); and this was a proper request in light of the holiness of God. The trouble is, nobody was righteous! It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that the sinner is justified — declared righteous — before God.

Furthermore, the Law could never give a person a oneness with God; it separated man from God. There was a fence around the tabernacle and a veil between the holy place and the holy of holies.

Faith in Jesus baptizes us “into Christ” (Gal_3:27). This baptism of the Spirit identifies the believer with Christ and makes him part of His body (1Co_12:12-14). Water baptism is an outward picture of this inner work of the Holy Spirit (see Act_10:44-48).

The phrase put on Christ (Gal_3:27) refers to a change of garments. The believer has laid aside the dirty garments of sin (Isa_64:6) and, by faith, received the robes of righteousness in Christ (see Col_3:8-15). But to the Galatians, this idea of “changing clothes” would have an additional meaning. When the Roman child came of age, he took off the childhood garments and put on the toga of the adult citizen. The believer in Christ is not just a “child of God”; he is also a “son of God” (see Gal_3:26, where children ought to be translated “adult sons”). The believer has an adult status before God — so why go back into the childhood of the Law?

“All one in Christ Jesus” — what a tremendous claim! The Law created differences and distinctions, not only between individuals and nations, but also between various kinds of foods and animals. Jesus Christ came, not to divide, but to unite.

This must have been glorious news for the Galatian Christians, for in their society slaves were considered to be only pieces of property; women were kept confined and disrespected; and Gentiles were constantly sneered at by the Jews.

The Pharisee would pray each morning, “I thank Thee, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, and not a slave.” Yet all these distinctions are removed “in Christ.”

This does not mean that our race, political status, or sex is changed at conversion; but it does mean that these things are of no value or handicap when it comes to our spiritual relationship to God through Christ. The Law perpetuated these distinctions, but God in His grace has declared all men to be on the same level that He might have mercy on all men (Rom_11:25-32).

Finally, the Law could never make us heirs of God (Gal_3:29). God made the promise to “Abraham’s Seed” (singular, Gal_3:16), and that Seed is Christ. If we are “in Christ” by faith, then we too are “Abraham’s seed” spiritually speaking. This means we are heirs of the spiritual blessings God promised to Abraham. This does not mean that the material and national blessings promised to Israel are set aside, but that Christians today are enriched spiritually because of God’s promise to Abraham (see Rom_11:13).

This section of Galatians is valuable to us as we read the Old Testament Scriptures. It shows us that the spiritual lessons of the Old Testament are not for the Jews only but have application to Christians today (see Rom_15:4; 1Co_10:11-12). In the Old Testament we have preparation for Christ; in the Gospels, the presentation of Christ; and in the Acts through Revelation, the appropriation of Christ.

Your Christian life ought to take on new wonder and meaning as you realize all that you have in Christ. And all of this is by grace — not by Law! You are an adult son in God’s family, an heir of God. Are you drawing on your inheritance? This will be Paul’s theme in the next section."