The Law V.S. The Promise, part 2 (Galatians
"Now
before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the
coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ
came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has
come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons
of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
(Galatians 3:23-28; ESV)
Do you ever wonder why some things are the way they are? For example, why did God create
mosquitoes? I can’t think of a single
purpose for them other than to be annoying nuisances; they must be a product of
the Fall. Well, we’re at the end of
Galatians chapter 3, and up to this point Paul has been really hammering home
the point that the Law (the Mosaic Covenant) cannot justify us, is mutually
exclusive with grace, and does not nullify the Abrahamic promise. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering
why did God give the law? What was its
purpose? That’s what Paul now addresses
in this passage before us.
1. The Purpose of the Law:
Guardianship (“Now before faith came, we
were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be
revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we
might be justified by faith.”).
The Jews of Paul’s day revered the Law.
It was God’s gift to the Jews. If
adherence to the Law cannot justify us, then why give the Law; what is its
purpose? The purpose of the Law was to
be our “guardian;” to guard over us until the coming of Jesus Christ. The NKJV and the NASB translate the word
“guardian” as “tutor.” Paul even goes so
far as to say that before the coming of Christ, we were enslaved (“held
captive”) by the Law.
I want to focus on the idea of the Law being a guardian or
tutor. The word in the original Greek
spoke of someone who was specifically hired to guard and instruct boys of
wealthy families until the age of manhood.
This sheds a great deal of light on the purpose of the Law. The
Law’s primary function was to point out our sin and point us to Christ as the
solution. In Romans, Paul says, “Yet
if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have
known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’”
(Romans
7:7). Think about it for a
moment. The only thing a rule can do is
tell you that a particular behavior is wrong.
Furthermore, the Law points us to Christ; that is what Paul means when
he says “we were held captive under the law…in order that we might be justified
by faith.” Since we can’t keep the law,
and failure to do so brings a curse, then Jesus becomes our only solution.
2. The Purpose of Faith: Freedom (“But now that faith has come, we are no
longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through
faith.”). These are probably
two of the best words in all the Bible, “but now….” Since the advent of Jesus Christ and the
introduction of the gospel, Paul now says that we are no longer under the
guardianship of the Law. Faith has
come! The Law has served its intended
purpose by showing our desperate need for Jesus Christ and what he has to
offer. Now, I want to be very careful in
saying, Christians are no longer under
Law. What I mean by this is not that
we are no longer obligated to abide by God’s moral code found in the Law. Sticking with Paul’s analogy of a guardian,
if the Law was our guardian until the arrival of Jesus Christ, then the Law is
no longer necessary now that Jesus has come.
I know there are some people who are going to read this and say,
“Woo-Hoo, now I can sin my face off!”
Hold on a moment. Freedom from
the Law is not license to sin (we’ll get more into this when we get into
chapter 5). Again, from Paul’s letter to
the Romans: “What shall we say then? Are we
to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we
who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). However, the glorious truth is that we are
all sons (children) of God through our
faith (cf. John
3. The Result of Faith: Unity (“For
as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”). The main thought here is unity. The first thing I
want to address here is Paul’s statement regarding baptism. In the early church, baptism was very closely
related to faith. You would never see in
the early church someone coming to faith and then waiting weeks, months or
years before getting baptized. In fact,
so closely related are conversion and baptism that some have taught that
baptism was necessary for true
salvation. However, that is confusing
the symbol with the reality. Conversion
is a work of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is
an evidence of conversion. Baptism is
the public proclamation that one has been saved by the power of the Holy
Spirit; it is a visible act of obedience that everyone can verify. Think of marriage. Two people make a commitment to spend the
rest of their lives together, and they make that decision public by holding a
marriage ceremony. The marriage ceremony
no more makes a man and a woman
married than the symbol of baptism makes
someone saved.
Paul goes on to say that everyone who has been baptized into
Christ has put on Christ. Faith unites us with Christ to the point
where we put on Christ. What does this
mean? There are two ways to look at
this. The first is positionally; i.e., our position before God. In this sense, we stand before God and he
sees Christ in us—his righteousness, his perfection, his holiness, etc. (cf. 2
Corinthians
Application Time. As noted in a previous study, we’re right in
the middle of Paul’s doctrinal exposition.
Paul is teaching us at great length the freedom we have in Christ
through our faith. He doesn’t get
practical until chapters 5 & 6.
However, we need to resist the urge to take in all this instruction and
not apply it in our lives. It’s very
easy to have a “head” knowledge of the truth, but not a “heart”
conviction. In other words, we can know
the truth, but not really believe it.
Our faith gives us freedom from the demands of the Law! Paul writes elsewhere, “The sting of death is sin, and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians
Secondly, we are all one in Christ. You have more in common with a Christian on
the other side of the world than you do with your unbelieving neighbor next
door. The barriers of human separation
are broken down. Unbelievers try in vain
for world peace and unity amongst mankind, yet they ignore the only one who can
bring unity—Jesus Christ! We need to put
on Christ and live out that unity in our everyday lives.
Bottom Line. I close with this verse from Romans: “But thanks be to God, that you who were
once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of
teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from
sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
Have a blessed day!