Galatians: God's Grace, God's Law & God's Promise (3:15-29)

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Our second reading is from Galatians chapter 3, beginning at the 15th verse.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.

This is what I mean.

The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Why then the law?

It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

Certainly not.

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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 were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The word of the Lord.

So let's pray.

I didn't plan it this way, but our call up this morning is just exactly what we need to be praying into this passage.

So I want to pray this again.

God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity.

Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Please be seated.

Well, I want to start this morning by reading a quote from a book called Life in the Trinity, An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers, by someone named Donald Fairbairn.

I know you're nervous.

Bear with me.

This is a scholar, Donald Fairbairn.

He writes this Our task as Christians is not to aspire to some higher or better world, either through our own efforts or with God's help.

The effort we put into Christian life is not our attempt to achieve something we do not already have, because God has already given us a share in the Son's relationship to the Father.

We are already daughters and sons of God.

And we are called to live like sons and daughters by reflecting the relationship of the true Son to his father.

So let me ask you how that hits you.

Is that an encouraging thought?

Is that kind of a curious thought?

Does that sound just really dry and academic?

Probably.

I wanted to share that with you this morning and get a little autobiographical.

I read this book when I was in my second year of theological studies at college.

And you guys, a lot of you guys know my story.

You know that I grew up in a solid Christian home.

My folks are here today to worship with us.

And you know that I grew up in a really solid gospel-centered church that preached faithfully the scriptures.

And yet, my default setting was a default setting that said, the Christian life is about figuring out what makes God happy and doing that.

Based on your response, I don't think I'm alone.

In fact, I think that's most of our default settings.

I think that's the default setting that leads to so many expressions of religion around the world.

It is various attempts for human beings to attain the favor of God.

Understood one way or another, right?

Okay.

This is enough to drive someone to Bible school, by the way, someone like myself.

I went to Bible school and I was studying in this systematic theology class with Dr.

John Clark, and uh he had us read this book called Life in the Trinity.

And when I set this book down, that was the concluding paragraph that I just read.

When I set that book down, my whole world, my faith, was completely turned upside down in the best way.

My assumptions were completely turned upside down in the best way.

I set this book down and I said to a buddy of mine who took the class as well, who himself is now an Anglican pastor.

I said to him, This is the very first time in my life where I understand that my Christian faith is more about what God has done for me in Christ than what I have to do for God.

Let me say that again.

I understood for the first time that the Christian life is more about what God has done for me, his generosity, his goodness, his grace towards me than it is anything to do with his requirements or expectations of me.

Can you imagine how liberating that is?

When you've taken God's word seriously enough that you want to apply yourself to study it, suddenly to realize his approval is not contingent on my performance.

His approval is wholly promised to me and delivered by the gospel.

His grace comes by way of the gospel, not by way of my performance or his requirements or my obedience to his law.

The reaction that I had setting this book down, I think, is the reaction that Paul is looking for from the Galatians.

He wants to remind this church that's had some wacky teachers join the community and teach to the default setting.

Remember our default setting?

If I do what makes God happy, I'll get God's favor.

These teachers come into this church after Paul leaves, and they say, here's the thing.

You want God's grace?

That's good.

God's grace requires a combination of your faith in Jesus, sure, trust in Jesus, that's a good thing.

But also it requires your obedience to what God requires of you, his law.

You have faith in Jesus, you obey his commands, that equals salvation.

And Paul comes in and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We've got this turned around.

God gives us the gift of faith.

We put our trust in Jesus.

He promises the gift of his grace, his goodness, his kindness towards us.

And that results in our obedience.

Right?

Out of gratitude, out of joy, out of the comfort of the gospel, his salvation, his favor, his goodness is not a result of our obedience.

Our obedience is a result of receiving this free gift.

Do you see the difference?

The Galatians have missed the difference.

And it's not that this is some intramural debate between Christians, right?

Some one theological camp debating another.

Paul is saying if we really take this logic to its, you know, to its nth degree, we end up with two religions.

We don't end up with two interpretations.

We end up with one religion that says, if I do the right things, I get what God offers.

And you have the gospel, which said God freely promises his grace and goodness and kindness towards us, and sticks to that promise for no other reason, then God doesn't go back on his word.

That then inspires our living into the reality that God has already brought us into by grace.

We see the difference?

Men, if we miss that, we're in trouble.

Men, if we miss that, we get uh legalistic.

We get proud because we think we're nailing it.

Or we get anxious because we feel like we're failures.

See how that works?

Galatians feel that way.

We still feel that way.

What we want to see today in this passage is one of the most important distinctions I think you can find, you can make in Scripture.

One of the most important distinctions we can make in our Christian life.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I stumbled upon that distinction when I set this book down.

Paul wants to lay this distinction down for the Galatians.

It's the distinction between law and promise.

God's law and God's promise.

Both are good, by the way.

We're not choosing one and rejecting the other.

Both are good, but they have different purposes.

And if we try and make one do what only the other does, then we get into trouble really, really quick.

Then we get proud, then we get anxious, etc., etc.

The most important distinction we can make in our Christian life is understanding the difference between what God promises and what God gives us in his law.

God's grace, Paul wants us to understand, comes by way of his promise, not by way of the law.

God's grace comes to us by way of his promise, not by way of his law.

So this is important.

If we understand this, it'll change the way we read the Bible.

If we understand this, it will root us, it will anchor us in the comfort and assurance and joy of the gospel as Christians.

It will liberate us.

But we've got to understand the difference.

So let's understand the difference.

I want us to understand Paul's main point here, which he gives us right up front.

And then I think Paul's answering kind of three questions that follow that.

Three like, well, hold on, Paul, if you thought about this.

So let's understand his main point.

Let's see how much time we have to go through.

Because that's supposed to be a four-minute intro, and it was a 10-minute intro.

So let's open up the scriptures and let's understand what Paul is getting at here.

God's grace comes by way of his promise, not by way of his law.

Paul gives us his main point right up front in verse 17.

Let me read verse 17 and 18.

This is what I mean, Paul says.

We read about that promise in our Genesis reading just previously, right?

So 430 years after that, God gives his law to Moses, who Paul later references as an intermediary or a mediator, etc.

Okay, so this is what I mean the law, which came 430 years after this promise to Abraham, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise.

But God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Here's what Paul's saying.

Promise came first, God gave it to Abraham.

430 years later, we've got to understand some Bible history here, right?

So 430 years later, Abraham's descendants, the people of Israel, have been delivered from Egypt by God's grace, and now God is giving them the law through Moses, right?

And the law is the summit of the law being what we understand as the Ten Commandments, right?

This is what this is God's expectations, his requirements, his commands to his people to live into his goodness and godliness, right?

So God gives the law to Moses, to Israel, and now what Paul's opponents are saying is, well, God might have promised his grace to Abraham, but now his terms and conditions have changed through Moses.

God promised his grace through faith to, and he delivered it through faith to Abraham, but now God's delivered his law, his requirements, the do's and do-nots.

And if we expect the grace that Abraham received, we've got to do the do's and don't the don'ts.

You see what I mean?

This is what Paul's opponents are saying.

The terms and conditions have changed, and Paul's saying, no, no, no, no, no.

Terms and conditions don't change on God's promises.

He doesn't go back on his promises.

They hold, they're solid.

The law, even if it comes after the promise is given, does not alter or modify or nullify his promise of grace.

So think of it this way.

If I say to you, your birthday's coming up, and I say to you, I'm gonna put$1,000 check in your birthday card.

What I just gave you is a promise.

I'm not gonna do that, by the way.

But I say that to you.

I say, I'm gonna put$1,000 in your in your birthday.

What I just did is I gave you a promise, right?

Your birthday's coming up.

If you open up that, you know, if you trust me enough to open up my birthday card, there you go, there's your check, right?

A different thing would be this if I said to you, I'll put a thousand dollar check in your birthday card, if you come and help me do some landscaping around my house to get ready for your party.

That's a different thing, isn't it?

One is an unconditional promise that I gave to you, the other is a conditional promise, so to speak.

But a conditional promise is a strange thing, because that kind of voids the terms of a promise, right?

I just gave you a contract, is what I gave you, not a promise.

What Paul's opponents are saying is God's grace comes by way of a contract.

We do the do's and we don't the don'ts, and we get God's grace.

And Paul is saying God's grace is not a contract.

God's grace is a promise.

It's freely given to us, and that promise points us directly to Christ.

That's what Paul says in verse 16.

This promised offspring.

It points us directly to Christ.

The whole of salvation history is God working up his promises in real time to bring us to Jesus, in whom all of his promises are fulfilled.

That's the Christian life.

That's the hope here.

So Paul's point is God's promise, fulfilled in Christ, is not conditional on our keeping his law.

It's not conditional on our obedience.

And this has to push back on our religious instincts, doesn't it?

Because every religious instinct we have within us tells us, no, I've got to do the do's and don't the don'ts if I expect to get the grace that I want.

Man, this is turning your assumptions upside down kind of stuff, isn't it?

But Paul says, this is what makes God so good.

This is what makes his gospel so generous.

This is what makes it so comforting and assuring.

Our hope is not our performance.

Our hope is God's promise.

And he doesn't go back on his promises.

Period.

That's Paul's main point.

God's grace comes to us by way of his promise, not by law.

The law does not alter or modify or nullify his promise of grace.

Okay, a couple of objections.

Or a couple of questions, really.

We're probably thinking them ourselves.

Okay, Paul, if God gives us his grace, not by way of this contract, we're going to do the do's and don't the don'ts, but by way of his freely given promise, then why did he give us his law at all?

Why regulate our behavior at all?

Right?

That's, Paul, would say a good question, by the way.

He would say verse 19, why then the law?

He says, it was added, this is so interesting to me, it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

Okay, what do we expect to be written there?

I'm going to suggest we expect something like this.

Why did God give us his law?

Why did he give us his commands?

We'd expect to hear something like, so that we know how to earn credit with God.

Right?

That's often how we sort of treat the commands, don't we?

We do the do's, we don't the don'ts, we build up some credit.

Paul says that is not the reason God gave us his law.

Why did he give us his law?

Because of transgressions.

God did not give us his law so that we can build up credit with it.

God gave us his law so that we can understand our serious, serious deficit.

That's very interesting.

We're talking recently about uh, with one of my folks that was talking about home inspection and stuff that goes with that.

When you hire a home inspector, you're kind of only expecting bad news, right?

You're just hoping the news is not that bad, right?

You don't hire a home inspector and hear from the home inspector, boy, there's some serious foundation issues here that I'm concerned about.

There are some serious roofing issues, we're gonna have to redo that, etc., etc.

But don't worry, I'll get working right away.

You know?

It's like home inspectors don't do that.

Home inspectors come in and they tell you all the things that are wrong so that you can make a responsible choice as a home buyer, etc., right?

Home inspectors only come in and give you the bad news, but you need that bad news, don't you?

You need to know what's going on in the foundations, don't you?

That's what the law is doing.

The law moves into the house of our souls, pokes around in the nooks and crannies, and says, yeah, the foundation issues you thought were a minor issue, they're a major issue.

Yeah, the roof thing that you thought was a lily is a massive, massive issue.

All of this needs to go.

The law only delivers bad news in that way, right?

The law can only deliver us bad news, it can only make us aware of our serious, serious deficit before God.

The law does not deliver good news.

Good news comes by way of God's promise.

Because the law might be our home inspector, but Jesus is the generous renovator who comes right in and says, and I'm going to repair this, I'm going to renew this, I'm going to restore this, and I'm going to do it all.

I'm going to cover this great cost all myself.

That's what I'm going to do for you.

See how the law and the gospel partner together?

You need the law to tell you what serious deficit you're in, but you need the gospel to come in and bring you hope and renewal and restoration.

The law is powerless to do what it points out.

But the gospel empowers us to be renewed and restored.

Do you see that?

We're starting to see the difference here, right?

We're starting to see the importance of making this distinction properly, right?

Because if we go to the law, if we go to God's law, his requirements, his commands, and we say, boy, I need some comfort in my Christian life.

Here's where I'm going to find them.

We will only find our faults, our sins, our transgressions, our iniquities highlighted.

And we will only despair all the more of ourselves and of our position before God.

Or we'll become prideful because we think we're nailing it.

It'll be one or the other.

Only the gospel comes in and says, it's not your performance, it's my promise.

You see that?

Why did God give us his law?

He gave it to us because of our transgressions, so that we can see what is seriously at deficit with ourselves, and we can see the goodness of God and the gospel.

Because God gave the law until the offspring, Christ Himself, should come.

The law is meant to point us to this ultimate work of salvation that God accomplishes through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

If we treat the law like it's an end to itself, then we've missed its point.

The point of God's requirements, his commands, was always to point us to Jesus.

And so that's where we go for comfort.

We go to Jesus.

See that?

Philip Melanchthon, a favorite reformer of mine, he says that the law shows us the disease, the gospel, the cure.

That.

Why did God give us his law so that we can know the serious deficit we're in, but we can see how seriously generous God is in Christ.

Okay, Paul, you're saying that the gospel makes all these promises, that the law does all these things.

Boy, it kind of sounds like there's a tension here.

It kind of sounds like there's a contradiction here.

It kind of sounds like one's trying to do the other's job here.

Does the law contradict God's promise at all?

Verse 21.

Paul says, certainly not.

Let's understand their purposes.

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

See, if you could keep God's commands to the degree where you could earn your salvation, you could earn God's grace, then sure, salvation could be offered through the law if we could do that.

But like a home inspector, it's only going to come in and show us our faults, right?

So, verse 22, but the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

See, life comes only through God's promise, who is Jesus, not by way of our performance through the law.

That's what Paul's saying.

There's no contradiction here.

But if we treat the law like it's our means of self-salvation, then of course we're going to run into this seeming contradiction.

We're always going to wonder, how does God's grace, the math of God's grace, add up with the performance I'm expected to do?

The, you know, the requirements I'm expected to keep?

And the answer is, these are two separate things.

Right?

We need to make that gospel distinction between what God promises and pledges and delivers us in his gospel and what he requires us by his law.

Okay.

Final question.

How then do I relate myself to God's law?

If grace comes by way of his promise, not the law, how do I relate to God's law, to his requirements?

Paul gives two analogies here.

Verse 23.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, Paul says, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

God's law, his requirements, his commands, were a lot like a lot like a prison guard for his people.

Keeping his people out of the worst forms of sin.

Not a prison guard sometimes, you know, can be punitive, but it can also be protective, right?

It'll keep God's people away from the worst kinds of sins that will result in their separation, alienation, condemnation before God, right?

God's law is a little like guardrails along the highway.

If you're hitting up against the guardrail, that's bad news.

But it's at least keeping you on the road, right?

God's law is something like that.

It's something like a guard, but it's also something like a guardian, Paul says, verse 24.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

This word guardian is kind of a tricky word to translate.

It's related to our English word uh like pedagogy, right?

So like teaching.

It's kind of like the law is a disciplinarian or a schoolmaster or a trainer or tutor.

It trains us in the goodness and godliness that God desires for us and delivers to us in the gospel.

The law is a little bit like Alfred's relationship with Bruce Wayne.

Hear me out.

When little orphan Bruce was a little boy, he needed a garden guardian, didn't he?

He needed someone who was going to make sure he ate his vegetables, didn't stay up too late, did his homework, didn't talk back, etc., etc., to raise him into a mature man, right?

Once Bruce becomes a man, a bad man, he doesn't need that sort of guard or guardian anymore, does he?

But Bruce doesn't just toss Alfred out on the street, does he?

No, in fact, Alfred, if we've seen the movies, you've read the comics, whatever, Alfred is like something like the voice of conscience for Bruce.

He's something like his guide or his, you know, his uh counselor.

Something like that.

Well, suddenly this disciplinarian becomes, uh, who kept Bruce out of uh the worst kinds of trouble, now becomes a guide who points him in the right direction.

And that's our relationship with the law in Christ.

See, the law is not God's promise of grace.

The law trains us to move towards the grace of God in Christ by going further into the gospel.

The law which kept us away from the worst kinds of sins can now point us towards living a good and godly and flourishing life, the kind of life that God promises to deliver to us.

So it's in our best interest to know what's in God's law and to obey it.

Not because God is going to be upset and you know smite us or something like that.

We have confidence in God's promise.

But we move towards, we keep God's law precisely so that we can go deeper into the promises, into the goodness, into the grace of God.

So let me give you one example here.

Ummandments, thou shalt not covet, right?

That's commandment number ten.

That's a commandment that Paul himself in Romans says he struggles a great deal with, right?

And probably we do too.

Probably we notice when someone is more successful or outperforms us, and we get envious of that person, right?

We all get covetous, don't we?

So the law can say, don't do that.

And that's a good idea, don't do that.

But it can't give us the power not to do that.

But in Christ, well, we now see that we've been, well, we've we're the heirs of promise.

God's delivered us his grace, wholly, completely, freely.

There's no need to strive for that.

I just received that as a gift through faith.

But now I can read, Thou shalt not covet, and I think, well, what kind of good and godly thing is God calling me towards?

What's the opposite of content or of covetousness?

I think something like uh contentment or gratitude, right?

Maybe living a life that's fuller in Christ, that's deeper in the gospel, is a life where contentment and gratitude grows and grows and grows.

Suddenly the law becomes, it was a guard, but now it's a counselor that points us in the right direction.

That's our relationship to God's law in Christ.

Do you see the difference?

Boy, it's so easy to make the Christian life into a religion of do's and don'ts.

Earn God's favor by doing the right things and don't do the right don'ts, etc.

What Paul is saying is revolutionary here.

And it is so easy for us to miss.

God's grace comes by way of his promise, not by way of his law.

And when we understand it that way, we understand that we are not, we're not strivers.

We're sons and daughters.

Our identity is in God's promise in Christ.

That's why Paul brings up baptism.

We are rooted in Christ.

Our hope is in his promise completely.

And being rooted in Christ, we are made sons and daughters by grace through Christ.

We are included in his family.

We're children of his.

It's true that Paul says sons, and that's only because in this culture, sons were the ones who stood to inherit the estate, right?

So the idea that men and women alike, Christians, would inherit God's covenant promises is a pretty radically egalitarian idea.

Men and women both stand to inherit God's goodness and grace together, brothers and sisters in Christ.

That's what we're made.

That's our identity, that's who we are, verses 26, 25 and 26.

And in verse 27 and 29, he brings it home with this incredible passage that often gets quoted, but I worry it gets quoted out of context a little too often.

What's Paul trying to say?

God delivers his grace through his promise.

And we are made children of promise.

And being children of promise, we stand to inherit God's goodness and grace together.

That is who we are.

That is our identity.

Doesn't matter what our social distinctions might be, men or women, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, all of this is secondary to the reality that when we come here and gather as a body, when we stand before the Lord, we are beloved sons and daughters of his by grace.

Period.

Because he's promised us that.

And God does not go back on his promises.

So we're right back to what Fairbairn writes in Life in the Trinity, aren't we?

He concludes, we are already daughters and sons of God.

We are already called to live like sons and daughters by reflecting the relationship of the true Son to His Father.

This is what we already are, and we become more of who we are through Christ and through our obedience.

God's grace is by promise, not by law.

What an antidote to fear and restlessness.

Maybe you are feeling fearful or restless.

Maybe you've come to church because you feel like this is just another way I can desperately try to make God happy.

What I want you to hear today is God's promise is that his grace is freely given to you in Christ.

His heart is for you.

Come to me, all who weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That's God's heart for you.

That's his promise to you this morning.

And when we struggle with pride, when we struggle with self-congratulation or self-righteousness, we remind ourselves that there's nothing we did to earn this.

It was a free gift.

And if it's a free gift for me, it's a free gift for my neighbor.

It's a free gift for those that I love.

It's by promise, not by obedience.

The gospel shows us the Father's grace, who sent his Son to save our race, proclaims how Jesus lived and died that we might thus be justified.

It bears to all the tidings glad, and bids the hearts no more be sad.

The weary, burdened soul it cheers, and banishes their guilty fears.

May we in faith its message learn, nor thanklessly its blessings spurn.

May we in faith its truth confess, and praise the Lord our righteousness.

Let's praise Christ our all-sufficient.

Thank you for listening today.

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