The Function of the Law – Galatians 3:19–29

So it's Galatians three, starting at verse ninety through to the end.

Wherefore then serveth the law?

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 the mediator.

Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

Is the law then against the promise of God?

God forbid.

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

But the scripture saith, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should have afterwards been revealed be revealed.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring it to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, that is neither bond nor free, that is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

May the Lord bless this reading of his most precious word.

My dear brethren and sisters in Christ, and I pray you are in Christ this night.

We continue our journey through Paul's letter to the Church of Galatia, and we come to that passage where Paul speaks with great clarity and great urgency.

This is not a soft section.

Paul is pulling no punches, and rather than breathing into artificial play pieces, breaking, sorry, into artificial pieces, I want us to see the layers Paul lays down, each one building upon the last.

The first layer.

Paul begins with a question that every Jewish believer would have asked at the time.

Why then the law?

Good question, is it?

Why the law?

If God had already given his promise to Abraham, why introduce several centuries later the law?

And Paul answers his own question.

It was added because of the sins of the people, the descendants of Abraham.

The actual quote is it was because of transgreshion until the seed should come, the seed being Jesus Christ.

The law was never ever meant to replace the promise.

The law rarely was never meant to save.

And the law was never meant to give life.

The law was given to reveal sin.

There's an argument that goes, how can you know you have sinned if you've got no law to measure it against?

It's a fair comment, isn't it?

How do you know you've broken the law, i.e., sin, falling short of the target that God said, if you don't know what that target actually is?

So God in Moses gives the law.

It was given to reveal sin.

It was there actually to put a cage around sin so you could look at it like a wild animal and keep away from it.

And for Christians, it's there to drive us to Christ.

In fact, for some of the Jews, it would be there to drive them to Christ as well.

They would see afar off, as we'll see when we get to Hebrews.

The fathers could see Christ as a distant figure, a target to hit.

Before the law, you see, sin was still sin.

But humanity had no way of measuring the standard that they had to hit.

They had no way of measuring whether what they were doing was against God's will or not.

Unless God directly intervened, as he does with Abraham and Sarah when they're in Egypt.

You know that story, I assume.

So when Abraham and Sarah, when they're early on in their lives, they go into Egypt because of a famine.

And Abraham says to his wife, You're so good looking, the Pharaoh's gonna want you for one of his wives.

Don't tell them I'm your husband, they'll kill me.

I'm your brother.

And basically that's what happens.

Pharaoh takes Sarah to be a wife.

God sends a plague on the Egyptians because of it.

And it's only when Pharaoh discovers that Abraham is actually Sarah's wife that he understands.

Abraham had no way known that was a penny God.

There was no law in there to actually tell him.

He was doing what he thought was right to save his life.

He didn't have enough to know that God wouldn't let him perish.

So the law is given there to restrain us from that.

It gives us a revealed standard by which to measure itself.

Think about that one a bit.

The law gives us a standard.

The moral law gives us a standard to measure ourselves by, and the moral law is still in place.

You know, only one God, guys.

Honor your father and your mother.

Don't steal, don't kill, don't murder, don't don't lust after what somebody else has.

You know?

Be kind to each other.

The lawyer becomes a measuring stick.

Becomes a ruler, becomes a cane if you want.

It's the mirror.

It's a diagnostic tool.

But it was always, always ever planned to be temporary.

It was given until the seed should come.

That seems to be quite clear, and that seed, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Now let's be clear here.

Let's be very, very clear.

As I've said before, Paul is not saying the moral law is abolished.

He's not saying that at all.

The moral law reflects the character of God and continues to guide even us, all believers.

But the ceremonial law, the sacrifices, the priesthoods, the temples, the rituals, the feast days, the purification laws, those were shadows pointing to Christ.

And when Christ came, all of those shadows were fulfilled and are no longer required by us.

And Paul then gives us a vivid image of the law as a schoolmaster.

Now, we need to understand the schoolmaster in Paul's day.

I don't know about you, but I was not a good boy at school.

I had Mr.

Slipper and Mr.

Kane quite a number of times in my day.

Our schoolmasters were strict.

You know, it was you stood up when they came into the classroom, it was Mr.

or Miss or Mrs.

depending on you were told how to address them.

And what they said mattered.

In Paul's day, it was even stricter because schoolmasters had complete control over their tutors, over their, I want to say tutors, over their pupils.

So they could whip them, beat them, literally, you know, they had full control.

A strict guardian, schoolmaster is a strict guardian who escorted the child to school.

And once a child safely reached maturity, in our case, we would say once a child is baptized, then the guardian's role, the schoolmaster's role, ended.

And that was it.

It's like when we left school, the schoolmaster's role ended.

And likewise, once Christ came, the law's role as guardian ended.

We graduated into grace.

The law brings us to the school's gates.

Christ brings us into the family home.

In our second layer, then, school ends, schools out, the king has come and life begins.

Paul then shifts from the temporary nature of the law to the eternal nature of the promise.

He says this.

He says that the law was ordained through angels to the hand by the hand of the mediator.

The law was ordained through angels by the hand of the mediator.

Now be careful with this.

This refers not to Abraham.

Abraham at this stage is not the mediator.

It's Moses at Sanii.

And the idea that Paul says the law came from angels.

Remember, we always have this picture of Moses talking to God and getting the law from God.

But in Jewish tradition, the law, uh Jewish tradition holds that angels were involved in mediating the law, being the messengers from God.

The point actually, though, is quite simple.

The promise was given directly by God to Abraham.

The law was given indirectly through angels and through Moses.

Therefore, what therefore the promise is superior to the law.

Because the law, the promise, sorry, comes directly from God to Abraham.

The law becomes a little bit of a crooked roof, there's mediated and people in the middle.

And then Paul writes, The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin.

The Old Testament scriptures say puts everything under sin.

The law shuts every single mouth.

The law leaves no room for boasting, and it shows us our need for Christ.

And then come to the best verses I've read so far.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Just think about that for a week.

You, all of you, are all sons, I include you, Sue, all sons of God through Jesus Christ.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

For as many as you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Now I'm assuming you will be baptized.

I know some of you have, but I did you.

I know I'm assuming the rest of you have, but think about that for a minute.

When you are baptized into Christ, we can talk about that as baptism in water, but you could also talk about it as somebody who may not be baptized but has definitely accepted Christ Jesus as their Savior, then they have put on Christ.

And when you have put on Christ, then your sins are taken away.

They are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and you are made clean in the sight of God, not because of your own merit, not because of anything you've done, but because Christ died on that cross.

And when you die and you stand in front of the throne and you are judged, God is pleased to see you and look at his son.

Because he sees that part of him in you that is now made whole, because you have put on Christ.

To put on Christ is to be clothed in his righteousness, wrapped in his identity, and covered by his grace.

Now, I want to say a wee word or two about baptism if you don't mind.

Whether baptized as an infant and later confirming that faith, or baptized upon profession as an adult, the key issue is not the timing, but the reality of the faith in Christ.

Baptism is an outward sign of an inward movement.

Christ is the substance.

And what matters is that you have put on Christ by faith.

So we know, we have all seen people who have baptized and gone off to show that they're not Christians.

And I know people who have never been baptized because they've been Anglicans and they've gone for confirmation.

And they have been some of the best Christians I know.

It's the intent.

Do you have Christ?

Is the question.

In fact, uh, Daniel can tell you one of the things I did in baptismal class was to stress, do you have Christ?

Because that's what actually matters.

And then Paul reaches his crescendo.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And I'm going to digress again here.

I have seen this verse used to argue for the validity of female bishops, female ministers.

That is neither male nor female.

And if you think about Titus and Timothy, Paul talks about who can and cannot be those roles.

That verse cannot be used for that purpose.

This verse reflects directly to a sign that was in the temple.

You could go so far forward.

And if you were not a Jew, there was a sign going, well, it didn't say this, but the simple phraseology I'll use.

Only Jews can go past this point.

You go a little bit further, and I may get this the wrong way around, so forgive me, but you'll get the idea.

The next stage was only men could go past this point.

So the women could go a little bit further than non-Jews, Jewish women could go a bit further, but I may have that the wrong way around because I haven't checked it out.

And then the next point, only the men could go forward with the animal to be sacrificed, and they would have to hand that over to the priest, and then the priest will go and hand it to the sacrificing priest, so another layer, and there are all of these layers of actually making an offering to God.

What Paul is saying here, and let me make this very clear all of that is gone.

Christ is our great high priest.

This is a phrase you'll hear a lot as we get into Hebrews.

Christ is our great high priest.

So there is neither Jew or Greek, there is no war stopping you going forward to the next level.

Then he goes, There is neither free slave or free, so a slave or a free person, another war gone down, another barrier to go to Christ has been removed.

There is neither male nor female, another barrier has been removed.

Everybody, without exception, who has uh can, if they put their trust in Christ, come to Christ.

And everybody, without exception, if they are called, can receive forgiveness from Christ.

Now I know there's discussions around election and all of that, but that's a theological argument.

You know, if you're called to Christ and you're a slave or you're a Greek or a heathen or you're a uh a me, then you're allowed to Christ.

There's nothing stopping you, there's no barriers, there's no war, all of those have been taken away.

And anyone, anyone that tries to stop anybody getting to Christ, that puts things in the way, that says you actually have to be confounded before you come to Christ, that says you actually have to light candles before you can come to Christ, that says you must become an accepted member of the church before you can come to Christ.

It's a liar.

They're worse than the devil.

In fact, they are the devil.

And what do we mean about coming to Christ?

I'm talking about that great meal we call the Lord's Supper.

I think that's the best example because that's the best example where people, denominations have denominational rules.

I have no rule here.

I have one rule here, sorry, and that one rule is that you put your trust in Christ.

You only take it if you trust in Christ.

If you don't believe, it's nothing wrong, just let it go past.

Because that meal is for believers and believers only.

That little bit of bread, that little bit of wine, or that little bit of fruit juice in artists, is for believers only.

All of those who put their trust in Christ, whether they be baptized or no, whether they be uh Church of England or Baptist or Methodist or I don't care.

It is the Lord's table.

Not mine.

Not the table of brutal process and free church, it is the Lord's table.

And anybody that stops anyone coming to the Lord's table is not of Christ.

I apologize for the digression.

This does not erase the differences that statement.

It redeems them.

It means no believer is a second class citizen, no background disqualifies you, no past defines you.

Christ is a great unifier.

And if you belong to Christ, Paul says you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise.

Now remember, this is a massive step for the Jews.

This is a massive step.

Because the Judaism of coming to the Galatian church and go to the Galatians, you've got to be circumcised.

Because if you're not circumcised, you're not part of the people of Abraham.

Not when you belong to Christ.

When you belong to Christ, then you are of Abraham.

You're his offspring.

And you're heirs according to the promise.

You're not servants, you're not outsiders, you're not probationary members, you're heirs.

Third later this is an application, living as children of the promise.

I'm trying to work out what that means today.

The law teaches us, it's very common, but it no longer changes.

The moral law still reveals God's character, it still convicts, it still challenges, it still guides, but it no longer condemns a believer.

It no longer condemns you as a believer.

Why?

Quite simply because Christ has taken that condemnation away.

That doesn't mean we should ignore the moral law by any way, shape, or form.

But it means we don't have to worry when we don't get it right.

For the proud, pride is a terrible thing.

There are those that think they can earn their own way out.

You get it a lot with pseudo-Christians who think they can do good works and all the rest of it.

It's a massive one.

If you think you can earn God's favor, if you think you can work your way by coming to church, playing the piano in church, by reading the Bible, by being nice to your neighbor, by giving feeding a poor, no.

It's nice stuff, don't get me wrong, it's awkward stuff.

But it doesn't get you to heaven.

And if you think it does, if you think that's a necessity, then you have not understood the law at all.

But for those of us who are tired of trying, and I say those are because I'm tired.

For those of us who are tired, it's mercy.

If you're crushed by your failures, and I've got a whole litany of failures I've been working through, then Christ has fulfilled the law for you.

I was gonna say for me then, but it's not just for me, it's for all of you.

We can't get it right ourselves.

Got no hope.

And we don't have to worry about that.

And that's the beauty of Christ.

You see, our identity is no longer identified.

Our identity, our identity is no longer defined, I should say, by what we've done in the past.

It's gone.

Or done.

Paul says, you are all sons of God through faith, not through performance.

Think about that one.

You are all sons of God because you believe in Christ Jesus, not because of how you act, or have acted in the past.

Because up until you accept that point in Christ, you are defined by what you've done in the past.

But once you've accepted who Christ is, all of that is just past history, gone.

And we start a new life.

The old man goes, a new man comes.

We can't earn our faith through heritage.

It's an interesting statement from Paul, isn't it?

Because the Jews were very up on their heritage, weren't it?

They used to keep well, we see it in the Bible, we see all of those histories of the ancestors of Jesus and the different family tree lines.

And they had specific rules as to who could be Levites and who could be priests and what those families did, and who could be Coens and who could be cantors and who were singers, and you had to have a particular family line, and it's still all there.

And Paul's going, nah, it's all gone.

It's all gone.

Doesn't matter who your f who your ancestors were, it doesn't matter at all.

It's all gone.

And you can't do it, as I said before, by religious observance.

But you know what?

If you feel if you feel you're not right here, if you feel unworthy, if you feel afraid, if you feel absolutely the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Because Christ puts and clothes you in his own righteousness.

In a sense, you could argue he loves you because you feel unworthy.

He is for you because you are you're trying so hard.

It's like when you're a kid, you revise so hard for your exams.

And then when that paper sits in front of you, it flights out of it.

I don't know about you, I know when I did my A-level marks, you know, I I I sailed through my A-level marks.

When I came to do the exam, I walked into the room and threw up, and I've always done that with exams.

I can't sit exams because I feel everything just goes up there.

And in this world, if you fail your exams at that level, you're done.

You're damned, you're condemned, whatever.

But that's not faith in Christ.

When you put your trust in Christ, when you are crushed by your failures, when the world is hammering you into the floor because of what you believe, because you trust him.

When the world looks at you and tells you you're an idiot, when the world looks at you and tells you you're a bigot, or when the world looks at you and tells you all the names I get called and told, just remember that Christ clothes you in his righteousness because you're trying.

You failed, he doesn't care what matters is you tried.

Move on.

This word is also one for the proud.

You know, there are other people that feel super superior.

They feel great, they feel they have everything, they feel they know it all.

And Christ goes, No, you don't.

Unless you know Christ, you know nothing.

Unless you know Christ, your faith is false.

Unless you know Christ, your understanding of the Word of God is false.

Unless you know Christ, your prayers are false.

Unless you know Christ, your attendance at church is false.

Unless you know Christ, doesn't matter how great you are in this world, you're living a lie.

And that's something that there are many and many churches need to learn, and many and many religious societies need to learn.

Unless you know Christ, you know nothing at all.

And that's why we have the church.

It's very different now to what it was.

See, the church is a new family, it's not a collection of tribes, it's a collection of individuals.

In Christ, the barriers of the tribes fall.

Anybody can preach if they the Holy Spirit says so.

Anybody can sing, anybody can do anything.

There's not specific rules.

The labels for law.

We're not of Judah, we're not of Ephraim, we're not of Manasseh, we're of Christ.

It's just one label.

We are of Christ.

We are one family.

We are brothers and sisters, adopted by God.

We are half brothers and sisters, sorry.

We are in the family of God.

Adopted by God through our acceptance of who Jesus Christ is.

We are higher than the angels.

We are higher than the messengers of God.

We are higher than the servants of God.

We are online with Jesus Christ in all things that matter.

We have one Savior, we have one faith, and we have one new birth.

We live as heirs, we don't live as slaves.

If you are Christ, you are an heir of the promise.

So live like it.

Live like an heir of the promise.

Walk in confidence in the world, not in fear.

Walk in grace, not in guilt.

Walk in unity and not in division, and walk in love and not in pride.

You see, you have graduated from the schoolmaster.

You walk now with the king himself.

The law brought us to the school gates.

Christ brought us into the family home.

The law showed us our sin.

Christ saved us from our sins and showed us our salvation.

The law revealed our need, and Christ meets our need.

And if you are Christ today, you are Abraham's offspring, not by blood, not by effort, not by law, but by grace through faith.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.