WHY THE LAW THEN?

Text: Galatians 3:15-29

I. QUESTION: WHY THE LAW? ANSWER: THE MOSAIC LAW WAS GIVEN FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION

A. The Judaizers said that the Law was given so that we might be justified through works. Paul said the Law was given so that we might be justified through faith.

1. “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22).

“Trying to be good is commendable under most circumstances. At all times it is better than trying to be bad.…Yet there is a circumstance in which trying to be good is definitely evil” (Willard Maxwell Aldrich, “The Sin of Trying to Be Good”; Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 95, p.364).

2. “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).

B. The Mosaic Law is good and in no way contrary to the promises of God (Galatians 3:21; Romans 3:29-31; 7:12; 13:8; 1 Cor.7:19).

C. What would happen if we removed Moses and all of Moses’ influence from the Bible?

1. We wouldn’t have the Torah.

a. While the history in Genesis would have happened, it was Moses who recorded it.

b. We wouldn’t have the biblical books or history in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

i. Without Moses there would have been no Exodus from Egypt.

ii. Without Moses there would have been no Passover.

iii. Without Moses there would have been no tabernacle.

iv. Without Moses we would have no recorded genealogies.

v. Without Moses there would therefore have been no book of Joshua or Judges.

2. We wouldn’t have the prophetic books of the Old Testament, because they primarily are a call to repent and turn back to the Torah.

3. If there was no Moses then there would be no Gospel and no Jesus to redeem us from our sins.

a. As God, Jesus has always and will always exist.

b. Without Moses there would have been no fullness of the time in which God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal.4:4-7).

II. TWO METAPHORS EXPLAINING THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

A. “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed” (Galatians 3:23).

1. When Paul talks about the custody of the Law, he does not have in mind our modern correctional facilities and penitentiaries.

2. In Paul’s day, people were often kept in custody until the final determination of a lawsuit or criminal charges could be made.

Did you know?

Solitary confinement in U.S. prisons goes back to 1829 and was inspired by the Quaker belief that everyone has an inner light of God and that if you isolate a prisoner with only a Bible he would use his time to read, pray and repent. However, this philosophy ended up leading to insanity, rage and suicide.

a. The purpose of the law was to detain the Jews while the legal case and criminal charges were being made against them.

b. The good news of the Gospel is that while we were guilty and deserving of God’s wrath, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the penalty of the Law. We are no longer under custody but FREE!

c. The Judaizers wanted to go back into custody and bring Gentile Christians with them.

B. “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal.3:24).

1. The tutor wasn’t a teacher but a slave guardian.

2. The tutor supervised a son’s activities and behavior from the time the child woke up in the morning until he went to bed at night.

3. A boy came under a tutor’s control at about age six and remained under his authority until his teens/late teens.

a. The metaphor of the law as a tutor emphasizes the temporary nature of the Mosaic Covenant.

b. Paul emphasizes the fact that we have now “grown-up” and don’t need to go back to our childhood.

III. SALVATION IS BY GOD’S GRACE, DAMNATION IS BY OUR WORKS (BOTH GOOD AND BAD WORKS)

A. The only thing that we can do to be accepted by God is to put our faith in Jesus Christ.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6).

B. Jesus did not come into this world to make good people better. Jesus came to save those who were lost and dead in their sins (Matthew 9:11-13).

“Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”” (John 6:28-29)

QUESTIONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION & MEDITATION

Take what you have learned this morning and make it into a prayer. Pray that God would save you from both your “good works” (self-righteousness) and your evil works. Pray that God would give you opportunities to share with others that it is only through the work of Jesus that we can be saved.

In what way was the Mosaic Law given for our justification?

In what way did the Judaizers say the Law was given for our justification?

What would happen if we removed Moses and all of Moses’ influence from the Bible?

What is a metaphor?

What two metaphors does Paul use to explain the purpose of the Mosaic law?

How were prisons in Paul’s day different from our own? How is this important for our understanding Paul’s analogy that “we were kept in custody under the law” (Gal.3:23)?

Explain what was meant by the statement, “salvation is by God’s grace, damnation is by our works (good and bad).”