From Chains to Children - Galatians 3:19-29

Have you guys ever made a point in a in a debate or some kind of discussion that you're having to where you're going to answer it and further solidify your point?

I'd like to think that sometimes I would be good in speech and debate because when I was younger, I really like to argue with people.

I really like to uh to show people's imperfections and their perspectives.

And uh I think in a in a healthy way, you can do that well if you're trying to help people see the truth of the scriptures, the truth in love, and do it in a humble way that acknowledges your shortcomings and your failures.

And Paul tonight is a person that is imperfect.

He in many ways has fallen short of the glory of God, but by his grace, uh God has called Paul to Himself and He has a new identity and a new hope, a living hope that's in Jesus Christ.

And when Paul is gonna ask some questions tonight, he's gonna double down and further solidify his point that the law does not save.

The law does not does not help you earn righteousness.

The law is going to show you your need for a savior, the need for the promised one, the offspring of Abraham, and your need for faith.

So tonight I really hope that you see this connection where Paul's gonna ask a question and then answer it.

And then he's gonna ask another question and then he's gonna answer that second question.

And it's all it's all for the point.

It's all for the point of showing us that we need to have faith in Christ, faith in the one who fulfilled the promise that God made to Abraham.

Now remember, God made a promise face to face with Abraham.

He made a promise to him.

Now the law came differently.

The law came differently.

The law was given to Moses, and then Moses delivered that law to the people of Israel.

He was an intermediary.

He's the one that went between, went between.

There was no intermediary between God and Abraham.

But when God made a promise to his people, if you keep my law, there's blessings to follow.

It was delivered with the help of angels.

We not exactly what that looked like, but there were angels involved, as we're gonna see in our text today, tonight.

And Moses is gonna be that person that goes between the intermediary.

So I really would like you guys to key in on those key details as they're gonna be important in our time tonight.

So let's pick it up in verse 19 of chapter 3.

He is beautiful, that's for sure.

Uh that is 100% accurate.

Can I read the verse?

Beautiful Savior.

Follow along with me in verse 19.

He says, Why then the law?

What's the point of all this?

What's going on with this law?

If the law was made and the promise was to follow, if you if you keep this law then, the if then, what's the point of that if we can't keep it?

If we cannot fully obey it, we can't perfectly follow God's commands.

He's gonna answer the question here.

Verse 19.

It was added because of transgressions until, key word, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made.

Until the promise, until the until the offspring should come.

This offspring is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Through this offspring, the nations will be blessed.

That's God's promise to Abraham.

That's his promise to him when he said, You're gonna be blessed, you're gonna have offspring.

Your children are gonna be like the stars in the sky.

At that time, he had how many children?

Absolutely.

Zero, zero kids, old man, zero children, zero people to carry on his legacy, carry on his name.

And God says, You're gonna have a whole lot of kids.

Your descendants are gonna be like the stars in the sky.

Look up, he says.

All those stars.

Imagine that, all your children.

Through faith, through faith, right?

The offspring that that God is talking to to Abraham is through your line, there's gonna be there's gonna be coming a man that through him all the nations will be blessed.

Your spiritual offspring are gonna be like the stars in the sky.

So the law, the law was here.

Why?

It's to show us our transgressions, to show us that we don't meet the standard, we miss the mark.

We don't we don't complete the things that God tells us to, we don't live the way that God shows us how to, the way that Jesus perfectly did.

The law was added because of transgressions.

In Romans chapter 5, Paul kind of adds on to this.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

He says, Now the law came to increase the trespass.

To increase the trespass.

How many of you have seen a no trespassing sign?

It means don't go past this line.

It's lawful, it's against the rules to go beyond this point.

And in your mind you're thinking, well, well, what's what's so cool back there that they wouldn't want me to go and see?

What's the point of all this?

Right?

And that's a similar mindset that Israel had.

Well, it's not so bad if I break this law.

Don't trespass, God says.

That's what the law came to do, to increase the trespass, to show us that we break the law, we fall short of the glory of God.

But in Romans 5, 20 it says, But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

Verse 21.

So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin shows us our need for righteousness that we don't have, but a righteousness that Jesus does have.

A righteousness that Jesus says, you can have this if you believe in me, if you follow me.

This is the righteousness that we need to stand proper in the sight of God.

And as we reflect back on our time in Galatians, earlier on in chapter 3 in verse 10, we see that those who are under the law, which is all of us, those who are under the law are cursed by its rule.

We don't match, we don't uh hold up to God's standard.

There's no saving grace found in the law because we can't keep it.

We break the rules, we don't get the benefits, the promises that God gives us through our job of keeping the law.

We can't keep the law.

We break, we're lawbreakers, we're transgressors, Paul says.

Though it does not provide the guidelines to please God, it does do this, though it does, it does provide the guidelines to please God, how to live a life set apart.

That was the purpose of the law.

This is how you are my people.

You're gonna live this way, not that way, like the nations.

You're gonna live in this specific uh sequence of steps.

This is how you to arrange your life, this is how you treat people, this is how you interact with me, your God, your maker.

That's what the Ten Commandments is all about.

To teach us the way of following after God.

But there's no saving grace found in the law because we cannot keep it.

The law is good to show us the boundaries of what pleases God and grieves God.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8, you see, now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient.

There's no point in having a set of guidelines if people don't break it.

There's no purpose in saying, hey, don't do this if people are already living the right way, already living the proper way.

The law is for the disobedient, the lawless, the ungodly, the sinners, the unholy.

It goes on, there's a list here, the profane, those who strike their fathers and mothers for murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.

This these are the people that fall under those who cannot keep the law of God.

In verse 11, he concludes In accordance with the gospel, the glory of the blessed blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

This is this is the gospel.

The gospel frees us from these things.

All of us fit into these categories of lawbreakers, transgressors.

And the law is good if it shows us that we need a solution.

It's good if it shows us our need for a savior, because we need someone who can take our place and perfectly fulfill the law.

The law does not assist in diminishing or subduing sinful nature.

Have you ever looked at a set of rules before and be like, okay, that's as long as I memorize all these steps, these rules are gonna help me live better.

If that was true, all the rules and laws and guidelines that your parents give you would help you to not disobey.

But, as all children do, there's there's some disobedience.

There's some falling short of your parents' standards.

You take what's not yours, you say what is not true.

You don't honor your father and your mother in certain ways.

The law does not assist in diminishing, making less of, or subduing sinful nature.

The law doesn't curb our sinful appetites, the law doesn't remove that fallen nature that's within us.

It doesn't do that, it's not going to work.

In Genesis chapter 8, this is post-flood, God punishes the world.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

And in verse 20 of chapter 8, Moses says, The Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Never will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

The scriptures tell us that from youth the hearts are evil, from a young age, from youngsters, from middle school age, and even younger, believe it or not, even younger than you, there are hearts that are wicked and evil, opposed to following God.

Opposed to God, opposed to what he would call us to do, opposed to the way he would show us to live.

Now, this word until in our text in verse 19, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

The offspring, Jesus, would come, and he would be the person who would fulfill the promise made to Abraham, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

Now in Genesis chapter 12, we see more of this interaction with God in Abram, and Abraham, who would be the father of many nations.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Now the Lord said to him, Go from your country and from your kindred and to your father's house, to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.

In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Going on in verse five and six.

Abraham believed what God promised to him, and as we've reflected on the past few weeks, it was counted to him as righteousness.

Abram was still a fallen guy.

This guy who was met by God, who was chosen by God, who received the promise from God, he was just like you and me.

He had his faults, but he believed in the promise, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

He was an ordinary guy, just like you and me, and God selected him.

God chose to make a promise to Abraham, and through him the nations would be blessed.

We're waiting for this promise to be fulfilled.

The law is coming before.

The promise was made, then the law, 400 and some years after, and then the waiting game.

And we keep waiting and waiting for this offspring to come onto the scene.

And the law was put in place, as I spoke about earlier, by angels.

They were delivered to Moses by angels.

We're not quite sure how that happens, but Moses is the intermediary.

In verse 20, now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

Here, Paul's trying to draw our attention to the differences between a promise made face to face with someone and a law that's given through an intermediary.

How many of you would love to get a card, a sports card by your favorite, favorite sports player?

You'd like to meet this person.

Now what tell me what's better?

You meeting them face to face, asking them questions, playing catch, you know.

Say, hey, like, I'm gonna give you tickets to the game.

We're gonna give you box seats.

Or would you would you prefer one of his uh one of his representatives comes in and say, hey, like, you know, this this guy that you've been watching on TV, he says hi and uh he says, this is how this is what I want you to do.

Um no, it's it's better to meet someone face to face.

It has a greater significance, it has a greater priority than meeting someone through an intermediary, receiving news from someone or promise from someone through an intermediary.

There's there's a ranking here, there's there's a higher priority given to the promise made face to face to Abraham.

Now, this doesn't this doesn't put make void, this doesn't uh nullify, this doesn't diminish the law, but it it shows us that that through uh through sinful man this law is gonna reveal sin and increase the need for a solution.

Increase the need for a solution.

The intermediary here is Moses, the go-between, who's going to apply the law to the people of God.

And the importance here is the law, or the promise rather given face to face, has a greater ranking, a greater significance, though both both are from God.

One is one has has more prominence.

Contrasting the differences between the covenant and made on Sinai, these angels ministered to uh to Moses to give him the law.

Again, we don't exactly know how this works.

We don't exactly know, we don't have a clear picture of this, but we see it in the New Testament, we see it in Hebrews, and we see it in Acts as well.

Now the promise fulfilled, the law kept would ultimately be found in Jesus.

Ultimately found in Jesus.

Second question.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

He answers it right away.

Two words.

Certainly not.

Certainly not.

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.

If you could uphold the law and do what the law required, you would be a righteous person.

You would be in right standing with your maker.

But we know we fall short.

We know that we go astray.

We we go in certain ways.

I imagine keeping the law.

I know that every illustration has points where it breaks down, but I imagine keeping the law like an impossible carnival game.

You know which ones I'm talking about.

Like you got the rings and the bottles, you got like the basketball three-point shot that seems makeable, because like you're Steph Curry in your own mind, you can make it.

But you try and you try and you try and you fail, and you ask mom for more tokens, and you ask mom for for more dollars, and you keep trying and you keep trying, and you don't get the big bear, you don't get the prize, you don't get the promise.

If you make this, then you get that.

We fail to succeed in upholding the law.

We cannot do it.

All you need to do is just complete the task.

All you need to do is live this way.

We cannot do it.

We fail to measure up.

We cannot we cannot sink every three-point shot at the carnival.

We cannot put every single ring on the bottle.

In the same way, we can't follow God's laws perfectly, flawlessly, with a heart that is pure.

The law demonstrates and proves our unrighteousness, but faith in Christ affords us his righteousness as a gift.

In John chapter 5, verse 24, he says, Truly, truly I say to you, Sir Jesus, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

John 5:24

He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life.

Whoever has been found in Jesus passes on from death to life.

We get his righteousness.

There's only two kinds of people in this world.

Did you know that?

Only two kinds of people.

Those who are righteous because of what Christ has done, and those who are unrighteous, those who do not have Christ, who are stuck in their sin, who do not measure up to God's standards.

If you are righteous, the spotless, the spotless Lamb has cleansed you with his blood.

You are in God's sight without blemish, without sin.

You have life.

Death does not weigh you down.

Let's write this down for point number one.

Understand the role and rank of the law.

The role and the rank of the law.

If there's any ability for us to be made righteous from the law, to uphold and keep all of it, then there would be no need for a promise fulfilled.

We would be made righteous in our own doing, in our own efforts, in our own power.

In Romans chapter 11, verse 32, and Paul says, For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.

Romans 11:32

Everything is imprisoned under sin.

Everything that that has breath is fallen short of the glory of God, and we're under the law.

We are, we are, this weight of judgment is over us because God must punish sin.

God's standard is perfection.

If we look at Christ like, yes, Jesus was perfect, that's the standard.

We don't measure up to Jesus.

We can't say we follow Jesus perfectly.

God uses the law as a means to show his mercy and grace to fulfill his promise made to Abraham, to bless the nations through the offspring, through Jesus Christ.

In verse 23, there's this until word.

Until word again.

Now, before faith came, now faith, faith has to have an object.

You can't just have faith, you know?

You can't be George Michaels and just say you gotta have faith.

You can't just have faith in something, something empty, something without significance or substance.

You have to have faith in something, someone, or else you're just it's just a feeling.

I just have this feeling.

I have faith.

Something good's gonna happen, I just know it.

It's more of like a wish.

Some people look at the word faith and be like, I hope I wish, but I don't I don't really have something to prove why I believe this will happen.

Before faith came, we were held captive under the law.

You were corralled, you were cornered in, you were held and bound by the law, imprisoned until.

The coming faith would be revealed.

Until the coming faith.

The faith in who?

In what?

In the work and person of Jesus Christ.

Before faith came, we were held captive under the law.

The law has a certain role to play.

It shows us who we are, exposes us of our sins, and shows us our need for God.

Verse 24.

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

This word guardian in the Greek has a meaning of someone in biblical times, in Old Testament times, that would be a slave that worked in the home, someone who would look after children until they were mature, until they got to adulthood, to show them, not academically, to teach and show them how to be a moral person, how to do the right thing, to kind of keep them out of trouble.

You might say, like maybe a babysitter.

I'm not calling you guys babies, and Paul is certainly not telling his readers that they're babies, but the idea here is that the guardian, it shows us, it shows us what's right, what's wrong.

And we're wrong a lot.

The guardian's just, hey, don't do that.

Hey, you did that again.

Stop doing that.

That's wrong.

You're breaking, you're breaking the rule, stop doing that.

That's good.

Keep doing that.

Oh, you broke the law again.

Stop doing that.

This this overseer, this person that's going to correct morally, this guardian, that's what the law is.

That's how Paul describes it.

Our guardian.

It shows us where we're wrong.

It shows us how to live a life that would please God until Christ came.

Christ came and showed us exactly what it looks like in person to live a life pleasing and holy to God.

There was no sin, no deceit found in him.

He was spotless, perfect, perfectly following after his father's commands, obeying, fulfilling all that God had given him to do.

He did it with perfection, with excitement, with joy, without complaining.

And sometimes we can do the right thing, but in our hearts we're kind of grumbly, complaining, like, yeah, I'll do it, mom.

On the outside, we're doing what's right, but on the inside, we're doing what's wrong.

Can anyone relate?

On the outside, you're like, man, that's I know, I know what to do to get what I want, and it means doing what my parents say, but in the inside, I don't want to do it.

I don't really care, but I'm gonna do it anyway because there's a prize at the end that I really want, and I kind of want that real bad.

Sometimes that's what that's what's going on in our minds.

We want what we want, and we know how to get it, but inside there's a grumbling, there's a complaining in us.

Jesus never did that.

Jesus never complained, Jesus never talked back to his parents, never rolled his eyes at his parents, never walked away speaking things under their breath, saying things in his mind and in his heart that were disrespectful.

Never once.

Never once.

This is a Savior who showed us how to live a life that pleases God.

The law was our guardian.

It shows us our wrongs, it exposes us, it helps us see our need for something better.

And verse 25 says, Now that the faith has come, this is Jesus.

Now that faith has come, we got faith in him.

We're no longer under a guardian.

We don't need someone who's gonna show us you're doing it wrong, we're doing it right.

No.

We have someone that did it, that accomplished it.

For in Christ Jesus, verse 26, you are all sons of God through faith.

You're sons of God.

You're in the family of God through faith.

If you have faith, you have someone that's gonna lead you in all truth.

The spirit that dwells within you is going to show you.

You don't no longer need a guardian because you have the spirit.

You have faith in God, you have a confidence because the spirit dwells within you.

Verse 27, as many, for as many of you have been baptized into Christ, have been put, have put on Christ.

Put on Christ.

What does that mean?

Putting on Christ.

You must be thinking, like, well, I put on, I put things on my head, I put things on my feet, I wear things, but putting on Christ, putting on his righteousness, putting on the identity that you have in him because you have the Spirit, because you have his Spirit dwelling within you, this is how you put on Christ.

You follow, you follow after him.

If you've been baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ.

Put him on.

Put on Christ.

And that the teacher, Jesus, not only helps us, but he helps keep us in the way that we should go.

He has given his spirit to us to help us out because on our own we cannot, we cannot know, cannot follow after God, but he helps us.

The teacher perfectly modeled what it looks like to live a sinless life in verse 25 and purchased us into the family of God with his blood on the cross through faith in the gospel work.

That's how that's how we live a life that pleases God.

It's through the Spirit, it's through faith, through faith.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

And remember, as we think about the gift of faith in James, the gift of faith in Galatians, it's something that's received.

We can't earn it, we can't buy it, we can't strive to attain it.

It's a gift that God gives to us.

He opens our eyes to see the gospel and causes us to believe.

So let's write this down for point number two.

Treasure the matchless gift of faith that fulfills the promise.

Treasure the matchless gift of faith.

There's not another thing that you could have in this world that's more valuable than faith in Christ.

That's the ultimate gift.

The ultimate gift is eternal life in his name.

Eternal life in Christ.

So if we have the Spirit, we have His inherited righteousness that he accomplished, that He holds, that He alone has.

This is what Jesus says to us.

If we have the Spirit, we put on Christ.

So put them on.

Walk in the way that God would lead you through his spirit and through his word.

That's our design.

As many of you have been baptized into Christ, put him on.

Now he's going to go and make some clarifications.

Paul's going to talk about the comparison game.

He's going to talk about who's on your left and who's on your right.

You're kind of looking people up and down, be like, huh, you're a Christian.

I'm a Christian, but huh.

No, none of that.

He's going to clarify here in verse 28.

There's neither Jew or Greek.

There's neither slave nor free.

There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ.

The family, the family of faith, the people of Israel, the people that God made a promise to through the offspring of Abraham.

Thinking about all the all-stars of the Hebrew people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon.

Thinking about all these, all these men, all the prophets that told of what was to come.

The Messiah is coming.

The offspring is coming.

Wait for him.

There's a lot of pride.

Imagine if you were you were related to someone really important, someone really famous.

You're like, that's we have the same ancestry.

Did you know that?

Some people like go on ancestry.com and like kind of geek out a little bit about like, well, I'm Abraham, I'm related to Abraham Lincoln, or I'm related to some important like king or royalty or someone in someone of some leadership or authority way back.

I was talking to a Mormon guy that sometimes comes into the office, and ironically, he's related to Martin Luther.

And uh he he there's like a sense of like pride and excitement about that for him, and it's kind of it's kind of odd.

But what we can look back and think through faith, you are related to a really important person that God made a promise to.

That's Abraham.

Through faith, you can be one in Christ.

So there's no there's no longer a distinction, there's no longer June nor Greek, doesn't matter where you grew up or who your family is, where your heritage is, doesn't matter if you're a free person or a slave, if you're in bondage or not, that doesn't matter.

The gospel levels all playing fields.

There's no longer male nor female.

This is speaking in the culture where uh women did not have as many rights as men.

Um women were uh had had a in the society people looked people looked down on women.

And so Paul is saying there's there's no longer there's there's no longer a hierarchy or an importance for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The gospel levels the playing field.

If you have faith in Christ, you're on God's team.

And that's what levels everything.

You're in God's family, you're a son of God.

In verse 29, we're gonna conclude here.

If you are Christ's, if you belong to him, if he purchased you with his blood, then you are Abraham's offspring.

You are evidence of a promise fulfilled.

You are walking, living, breathing, evidence of the promise made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis.

You are exhibit A of the promise.

Spiritual children that God said will outnumber, will look up, look up, Abraham, the stars.

That's the comparison.

That's your offspring.

And if we have Christ, there's no rank or hierarchy.

There is one status, saved or not saved, redeemed or not.

You are either a righteous person or unrighteous, all because of what Christ has done.

That's how that's how Paul is describing this faith, this gift, this fulfilled promise.

There's no longer a distinction.

If you've put on Christ, you have the Spirit, faith has come, you no longer are bound by sin, you're no longer feeling the weight of the law, showing you your failure to keep it.

Christ's perfection, his perfect obedience to the Father is accredited to your account.

You have the righteousness of God if you have faith in his name.

And you are an heir of the promise, an heir of Abraham through faith.

And that is that is the greatest gift of all.

There's nothing that can compare to that.

There's nothing that matches the gift of salvation.

You can have the greatest status in the world.

You could be the greatest at anything.

You might think of sports, music, and any kind of design, any kind of medical research or technological research.

You could be at the very top.

You could be the most wealthy person in the world.

You could have the most importance on planet Earth.

You might be curing cancer, sending people to different planets.

But if you don't have Christ, you have nothing.

You have absolutely nothing.

You are unrighteous without without the perfect the perfect work of Christ accredited to your account.

So in this world, there is a distinction.

People that are wealthy.

There are people that have more money than other people.

There are people with more with greater status.

There are people that come from lines of royalty.

But if you have Christ, we are all equal.

We're leveled.

We're leveled because of the work that He has done.

We belong to Him.

And that is something that is worth thinking about.

It's worth meditating on.

Do you have that matchless gift?

Can you say, I have all the riches, I have all the promises that God has made me, and I believe it.

The law, my sin paid for on the cross.

All these Ten Commandments and all the laws and rules and everything that I've failed to uphold, Jesus paid for those.

He died for me.

He forgives me of my sins.

He calls me his own.

Is that you tonight?

That's my question for you.

Have you responded to the gospel?

Do you feel the weight of the law?

Do you feel how you cannot stack up?

And do you see how Jesus did?

Do you see how He perfectly obeyed the Father and took death on a cross that you deserved?

And calls you to respond, calls you to accept the gift of life that he offers you tonight.

Let's pray.

God, we need your help to obey you.

And without your spirit, without your help, we can't, because we just keep falling short.

We keep messing up.

We keep sinning against you, sinning against siblings, sinning against our parents, against our coaches, against our teachers, against our neighbors, against our own family, God, we fall short.

But God, you you never did.

In Jesus, you you never failed.

You accomplished and fulfilled all the work that God had for you in this life here on earth.

And God, because of your perfection, when you died and defeated sin and death and you rose again, you are victorious.

God, we can be victors as well over sin if we have your spirit.

If we are alive in Christ, we can be confident that beyond the grave there is life.

Though we fall short and break the law, we're transgressors.

Jesus paid it all for us, and we can have life and hope in his name.

So God help us to dwell on that.

Help us to think about our status in light of the law, in light of the promise that you've made to Abraham.

And God, will you do a good work in the hearts to mold and shape these young ones?

Uh, to show them, God, your your glory, to show them their need for you.

Will you accomplish that tonight?

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.