STUDY THEME: GALATIANS: THE CHARTER OF GRACE. 7-13-03
"GOOD NEWS! NO LONGER UNDER THE LAW." GAL. 3:10-14, 18-25
GALATIANS 3: 10-12, 13-14, 19-22, 23-25.
The good news in last Sunday’s lesson was "We are Saved by Grace." The good news in today’s lesson is that "We Are No Longer Under the Law." We have moved from slavery to Sonship.
Last Sunday we began a four weeks study of the Apostles letter to the Galatian Christians. Paul made a point to remind the Galatians that he was an Apostle like the ones Jesus had selected. He then proceeded to emphasize the very issue of the Book of Galatians: "We are saved by grace." This grace is freely offered to anyone who will confess with their mouth that they believe in Him as their Savior. Nothing is to be added to that, whether it be our good works or in obeying the Law of Moses.
Paul reminds us in Galatians that the door to God’s love has been unlocked by Christ’s death. It always stands open. All we need to do is lift the latch of faith and enter. God’s grace accepts us by our acceptance of His Son who died for our sins. We are called to freedom in the marvelous grace in which we stand. Yes, we are called to good works, but it is not to gain salvation but because we are saved.
Today as we look at the third chapter of Galatians we find Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia concerned those Christians who had begun to listen and adhere to those Judaizers that were teaching them to be circumcised and to obey the Law. Others have noted that in Paul’s letters he usually says something like that in Ephesians 1:16,
"I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." In his letter to the Galatians, he gives no such prayer or statement of thanks. In fact, he calls them foolish and "bewitched." This no doubt was because their problem was not one of immorality and sin but of violating a key doctrine that could not be overlooked and if continued would lead to disaster in destroying the truth of the Gospel.In last Sunday’s lesson Paul stressed the fact that faith in Christ is the only condition for salvation and sharing in Christian fellowship. Emphasizing that point by an illustration from the life of the church in Galatians 2: 11-14, Paul pointed out that salvation is by "one way for all men." Also, the very fact that we have one Heavenly Father makes necessary our fellowship with our brothers in Christ. In Galatians 3 and 4 Paul did two things: He contrasted the freedom and the superiority of the Christian life.
Today’s lesson will focus on the fact that believers in Jesus Christ are no longer under the law. The two unchangeable things that a person must come to grips with in order to be saved are the grace of God and the death of Christ. Anything that adds to those two vital things is legalism.
Vance Havener once said, "Some Christians are so subnormal that when they see a normal Christian, they think he is abnormal."
We shared last Sunday that the first two chapters of Galatians are personal, the next two are Doctrinal, and the last two chapters are practical.
Today we enter upon a study of the strictly doctrinal part of this epistle.
Stressing again that FAITH is the only way, may I read the first 9 verses of Gal. 3 from a Contemporary English Version of the New Testament. TEACHER READ GAL. 1: 1-9.
1. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 10-12.
In Vs. 10 we might ask, "What doe she mean when Paul speaks of the curse of the law? Is it a curse to have good laws? Surely not! It was a great blessing to Israel to have the Ten Commandments, the highest moral and ethical standard that any people had ever received, until our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed the Sermon on the Mount. Is this a curse? Surely not! It was a great blessing to Israel to have such instructions to keep them from a great many sins to which the Gentile nations round about them were given.
When God gave that law, he promised a blessing on all who keep it, and declared that they would receive life thereby. Rom. 10:5 says
"The man which doeth these things shall live by them. Yet, everyone who recognizes in that law the divine will of God and yet fails to measure up to it comes under the curse."And who is there today who has ever kept this law? I know people say, "If we do the best we can, will that not be enough?" In James 2:10 we read,
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." When we speak of people being under "the curse of the law," we mean they are subject to the penalty of the broken law, and the penalty is death, spiritual and eternal. Ezekiel 18: 20 says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." For all who are under the law and fail to keep it are under the curse. But our Lord Jesus Christ has died to deliver us from the curse of the law.Can we not deliver ourselves? No! It is impossible for men with fallen natures to fully keep the holy law of God. God did not give the law to save man. He gave the law to test him, to make manifest man’s true condition. It was really given in order to give to sin the specific character of transgression. If men disobey God they are transgressors. It is impossible to be justified by the law for to be justified is to be cleared from every charge of guilt.
Vs. 11 emphasizes that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
"The just shall live by faith.".In Galatians 3:10-14 Paul quoted four Old Testament texts that provide biblical support for the gospel of grace. Each of these quotations supports a statement Paul made about the inadequacy of the Mosaic law to save anyone. His first statement was about all who rely on observing the law. Paul wrote that they were under the curse. In order to support this claim, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26, "Cursed is the one who does not confess all the words of this law, to do them."Paul next quoted Habakkuk 2:4 to further support his conclusion:
"The just shall live by faith." People are declared righteous based on faith. Paul’s point in Vs. 11 is that the law justifies no one because salvation has been and always will be by faith, not by works of the law.The first part of VS. 12 high-lights the difference between salvation by works of the law and by justification by faith: the law is not based on faith. The two ways of salvation are opposites. Paul supported this by quoting one of the key texts, Leviticus 18:5. The Judaizers used as proof that those who kept God’s law would receive life from Him: The man that doeth them shall live in them. But the problem is that no one can be saved by the works of the law, because all have sinned: no one doeth them perfectly and thus shall live. Those who rely on their own ability to keep the law perfectly are only deceiving themselves.
It was written in Habakkuk 2: 4,
"The just shall live by his faith," so it was made known even in the O.T. times that men were to be justified, not by human effort, but by faith. Three times those words are quoted for us in the N.T. In the epistle to the Romans the apostle says in Rom. 1: 16,17, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."In the epistle to the Hebrews we have exactly the same words quoted in Heb. 10:38,
"The just shall live by faith." And here we have them in the epistle to the Galatians in Galatians 3:11. "The just shall live by faith."How do men become just before God? As we have already remarked, Romans answers that question and expounds the first two words "The just." It tells us who the just are, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But if justified by faith, how is one maintained in that position?
Galatians answers that and puts the emphasis on the next two words, The just shall live by faith. And what is that power that sustains and strengthens and enables just men to walk with God through this world, living an unworldly life, even as
"Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 5:24)? Again the answer comes to us as in Hebrews the last two words are expounded, "The just shall live by faith."But if "the just shall live by faith" then men never can be justified by efforts of their own, for Vs. 12 tells us,
"And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them." The law did not say, "The man who believes shall live," but, "The man who does shall live." The latter might seem to us to be the right thing; if a man does right he ought to live. The trouble is, man does not do right. We read in Rom. 3:23, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." If one commandment out of ten has been violated that man has forfeited all claim to life.Suppose a man falling over a precipice reached out his hand as he went over, and caught hold of a chain fastened to some stump in the cliff, and here hung on to the chain. The chain has ten links. How many would have to break to drop the man into the abyss below? Only one. The law is like that chain; when you sinned the first time you broke the link and down you went, and are in the place of condemnation if not saved.
You never can fit yourself for the presence of God by any works of righteousness that you can do. The law says,
"The man which doeth these things shall live in them," but men have failed to do, and therefore are condemned to die.In the next verses we will be looking at the glorious message of reconciliation.
2. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 13-14, 18.
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law!"
How did He do it? "By being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Here was One who had never violated God’s law, here was the holy, eternal Son of God, the delight of the Father’s heart from all eternity, who came into the world, who became Man, for the express purpose of redeeming those who were under the curse of the law. He Himself said in Matt. 20: 28, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." But if He Himself has violated that law, He is subject to its penalty and never can redeem us; but how careful the Word of God has been to show that He never came under that penalty. He was holy in nature from the moment He came into the world. The angel said to Mary, His mother in Luke 1: 35, "That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."His life was absolutely pure as He went through this scene. He magnified the law, and made it honorable, by a life of devotion to the will of God. Heb.4:15 says,
"He was in all points tempted like as we are, but without sin." Sinless, though tempted; and at last according to 2 Cor. 5:21 "God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God."He against whom God had nothing, voluntarily took our place, went to the cross, and there paid the penalty that we should have paid. If I had to pay, eternity would be too short for it, but He, the Eternal One, hung on the cross, settled to the utmost penny every claim that the offended law had against me, and now I receive Him, trust Him as my Savior, and what is the result? I am delivered from the curse of the law. And now I can sing:
"Free from the law, O happy condition!
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission.
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all."
"Now we are free—there’s no condemnation.
God provides a perfect salvation;
Come unto Me, oh, hear His sweet call!
Come, and He saves us once for all."
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."And now in Vs. 14 because of that, the blessing of Abraham may come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. What is "the blessing of Abraham?" Long ago God had said,
"In thee and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." But centuries rolled by and the nations of the Gentiles were left outside; they were outside the pale, strangers to the covenant of promise, they knew nothing of the blessing of Abraham, nor what God had promised through his seed.But now Christ has died, not for Jews only, but for the Gentiles also, and because of His work the message goes out to the whole world that God can save every one who believes on the Lord Jesus, and all believers become, in faith, the children of Abraham and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. The blessing of Abraham is justification by faith for every believer, even as
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." (Rom. 4:3)The apostle draws attention to the fact that when God said to Abraham,
"In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed," He was not referring merely to the nation that should spring from him, but to one individual Person, for it had been settled in the purpose of God from eternity that the Christ was to be born of Abraham’s lineage. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.If I could do anything to save my soul I would put God in debt to save me, but all God does for me He does in pure grace. Though the law came 430 years after this promise of grace for all nations through Abraham’s seed, it did not alter God’s purpose: it was given only in order to increase man’s sense of his need, to make him realize his sinfulness and helplessness, and lead him to cast himself on the infinite grace of God.
In Vs. 18 if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. If it comes through self-effort it is not a question of promise at all. But God gave it to Abraham by promise, and,
"The promise," Peter said on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:39, "is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."3. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 19-22.
In the earlier part of this chapter we have been considering the relationship that the law had, the law as given at Sinai, to the unconditional promise of grace which God gave to Abraham 430 years before, and we have seen that the law coming afterwards could not add to nor take away from the covenant already made. That naturally leads to the question in Vs. 19, which Paul knew his Jewish readers would be asking,
"Wherefore then serveth the law? If the law did not add anything to what God had given by promise to Abraham, and surely it could not take anything from it, what was its purpose? Why did God give it at all? The apostle answers, "It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."I think perhaps we may understand it better if we read it, "It was added with a view to transgressions," in order that it might make men see the specific character of transgression, and thus deepen in each soul a sense of his sinfulness and his need. In Rom 7:7-13 Paul said that the laws command increased his sinful desires of actions and led him into further transgressions and utter hopelessness. This means that what the law did was to make wrongdoing a legal offense. Thus the law not only intensified sin, it also condemned people in sin.
We are all so ready to excuse ourselves, to say if we had known better we would not have done the wrong thing. How often you hear people say, "I do the best I know, and endeavor to do the best I can." But where has a man or woman ever been found who could honestly utter these sentences? Have you always done the best you knew? Have you always done the best you could? If you are absolutely honest before God, you know that you have not. Again and again we have all sinned against light and knowledge, we have known far better than we have done. Thus we have failed to glorify God, and by going contrary to His revealed will we have proven our selves not only sinners but transgressors as well. That was one reason for which God gave the law—that men might have a deeper sense of the seriousness of self-will which is the very essence of sin, of rebellion against God.
But as it served this function, the law was a temporary part in God’s plan of redemption. We see this in the word added. It was "added not as a codicil as appended to a will in order to alter its provisions but added in order to accomplish some other subordinate and supplementary purpose. Another indication of the law’s temporary nature is seen in the words "till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." The seed who should come is Jesus Christ, as Paul made clear in Vs. 16.
Paul asked another question in anticipation of his critics: Is the law then against the promises of God. Paul quickly and strongly denied this, declaring, God forbid. But the purpose of the law was not to provide a way of salvation. If the law could have given life, then righteousness should have been by the law.
In Vs. 22
"But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin." If God has concluded all under sin, must all men be lost? No; all have been concluded under sin "that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." God would have all men recognize their sinfulness in order that all might realize their need and come to Him proving His grace. He puts all men on one common level. Rom. 3:22-23 says, "There is no difference: for all have sinned."God demands absolute righteousness of sinners before they enter heaven. Rev. 21: 27 says,
"There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth." You may have your 95c worth of righteousness while I do not have a nickel’s worth of it, but neither of us can get in unless we have our hundred cents, and there is no difference. Rom. 3:10 says "There is none righteous, no, not one." Remember that God said that, not some zealous, earnest preacher or evangelist, but God Himself by the Holy Spirit. And the law was given to demonstrate that fact."The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." In other words, when men come to the place where they realize the fact that they cannot earn eternal life by any effort of their own, and are ready to receive it as a free gift, that moment it is their’s. "John 3:36 says,
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Again in John 5:24 Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed out of death into life."4. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 23-25.
In Vs. 23 Paul states the point of Vs. 19-22 even more strongly. He shows another use for the law. Paul says "But before faith came," that is, "before the faith," because it was made known clearly and definitely that God was justifying men by faith alone in His blessed Son, "We were kept under the law."—He speaks now as a Jew—"we were kept under the law", shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. This analogy pictures the O.T. people imprisoned by the law until Christ came.
The Gentiles at that time did not have the law, but the Jews did. God gave the Jew that law, and he was looked upon as a minor child under rules and regulations. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." In this section Paul argued that the law was not meant to give life but to stimulate sin, to condemn all humanity as legal transgressors of God’s law, and to make everyone desperate regarding their plight.
The original word "schoolmaster" was not exactly a school-teacher, it really means a child-leader, a child-director, and was the name applied in ancient Greek households to a slave who had the care of the minor children. He was to watch over the morals of the child, protect him from association with others who were not fit for his companionship, and take him day by day from the house to the schoolroom. He then turned him over to the schoolmaster, but at the end of the day he would get him and bring him back home again. The apostle says here, and very beautifully, I think, "The law was our child-leader, our child-director, until Christ came.
It is clear that Paul did not intend to convey that the law was given to guide educational advance but to be a stern taskmaster and harsh disciplinarian. As Martin Luther put it, "With its whippings the law drives us to Christ."
That is God did not leave His people without a code of morals, until Jesus came to set before us the most wonderful moral code the world has ever known. The law served in a very real way to protect and keep them, from much of the immorality, iniquity, villainess, and corruption found in the heathen life round about them. As long as the people lived in obedience, in any measure, to that law, they were saved from a great deal of wickedness and evil.
"The law was our child-leader," perhaps not exactly to bring us to Christ, but, "The law was our child-leader until Christ." John 1:17 says, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Now Christ has come we have come to the door of the schoolroom of grace, we have learned the blessed truth of justification by faith alone in Him whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for our sins. We are no longer under a child-director or the law, but have become a disciple or learner of Christ Himself.
We are here told that we are not only freed from the law as a means of attempting to secure justification, but are also freed from that law as a means of sanctification; For we have so much higher a standard in Christ risen from the dead, and are to be occupied with Him. As we are taken up with Him the grace of God teaches us in Titus 1:12 that "Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
Anyone having the wonderful teaching that came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the marvelous unfolding of the epistles showing what a Christian ought to be, has this new standard of holiness, which is not the law given at Sinai, but the risen Christ at God’s right hand, and as I am walking in obedience to Him, my life will be a righteous life, and so "After that faith is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster."
Then in Vs. 26-27 Paul adds "Ye are all the children (sons) of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" from Him we receive life." To whom does God communicate eternal life? To all who put their trust in His blessed Son. 1 John 5:12 says, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." And so we can see why our Lord in John 3:3 stresses, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." There must be the imparting of the divine life. This makes us members of God’s family—a new and wonderful relationship. "For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
The coming of Christ has forever altered the laws former claim and status. To seek to go back under the tutelage of the law is to deny the efficacy of Christ’s death. We who are the true children of Abraham through faith are no longer under the law or its curse. No longer slaves or truant children now, we have been set free, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and adopted as heirs of God Himself.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM GALATIANS 4 & 5 WE LOOK AT THE GOOD NEWS, "WE ARE FREE TO SERVE." A.V. DAUGHERTY 7-13-03