Law and Promise (Galatians 3:15-26)

Here is Sunday’s sermon from Galatians 3. You can catch both the audio and video here.

There are at least two common sayings thrown around today that many people think are in the Bible but most certainly are not. One of those is this: “God will not give you more than you can handle.” Well, COVID showed what that statement was worth. 

But there’s another that’s just as common. “God helps those who help themselves.” A majority of Americans think that’s in the Bible. Apparently 82% of born-again Christians think it’s in the Bible. But it’s a sentence that couldn’t be more at odds with the message of Scripture. And it reflects a mentality we’re all born with and have trouble trying to shake. 

Context: Galatians

Now that teaching was spreading in the church in Galatia. The gospel had changed the lives of many in that city. But false teachers had weasled their way into their midst. And they were misleading these believers: “If you want to really follow Jesus, you also have to obey the teachings of Moses. You have to first live out what our prophet says.” And they were taking those words - the Old Testament law - and were twisting them into something they were never intended to be.

Paul writes this letter to wake up this Galatian church. To tell them that the law was never meant to function in this way. And that their real hope was found in the promise of God. And in Jesus alone. That’s where God our Father wants to take us today, also.

Context: Scripture

But, before we head there, we need to remember what two big themes in this passage refer to. After rejecting Him as King, God’s people had strayed. When they got to their lowest, God sent them a flood. When they lifted themselves to the heights, the Lord tore them down to size. And He could have washed His hands and walked away. 

But instead, He approached a man in a middle-eastern desert and promised him a great mass of land. And a massive amount of descendants. And through that offspring and through that land, God would bless the entire earth. The Lord made that promise. To a man named Abraham. 

Well, his children became a nation called Israel. And to that nation, as they approached that land, God gave them the Law through a man named Moses. The Ten Commandments, plus regulations about how to live as a people and how to worship as a people.   

Here in Galatians, Paul refers to both of those gifts of God. He says something about the Promise and something about the Law.

The Promise Remains

First, the promise remains. Here’s what seems to be the logic of those teachers infiltrating that Galatian church family. “Yes, Abraham did receive a promise from God. It’s certainly relevant in some way. But God also gave Moses laws. After the fact. And we still have to keep them.” 

Paul writes that church to refute that misunderstanding, and he reminds them - and us - of a couple of important things.

The Law Doesn’t Void the Promise

The law, first, doesn’t void the promise. The apostle says, in verse 15, that things don’t work that way in real life. You can’t just add a page or slap an amendment on the end and undermine everything the first agreement said. 

No, he says in verse 17, the law given to Moses many years after, can’t annul that first covenant. The promise remains. So whatever that law means - it doesn’t mean that. That the promise has been done away with. The law doesn’t void the promise.

The Promise Pointed Ahead to Jesus

The promise, second, pointed ahead to Jesus. Now I’m a bit of a grammar geek, and apparently, so was Paul. In verse 16, he points to the fact that the word in the Old Testament book of Genesis is singular. It’s not “offsprings,” but “offspring.”

Now he knows - as the Galatians did - that the singular use of offspring could still refer to all of Abe’s descendants. But Paul is reminding them - and us - that it didn’t just refer to that. The Promise ultimately pointed to one descendant, Jesus Christ. 

He is the true offspring Abraham was promised. And beyond that, the true children of Abraham aren’t those of the physical offspring - Israel. They are all of those who are connected to Jesus by faith. The promise pointed ahead to Jesus. 

The Promise Remains - and Is Fulfilled

So here’s why this is so important. It’s not just that the promise remains. The promise has also come. In Jesus Christ. It’s been fulfilled. The whole point of the promise has arrived. In history. In Christ and His offspring. 

Not too long ago, the vaccine came. And most of us were really excited. Counting the days. Now that things are returning to normal, we couldn’t imagine going back. Tom Schreiner says: “To submit to circumcision (the Law) turns back the clock in salvation history.” Why would we go back to the law when the promise is here?

A promise that comes by faith. Not by works. A gift of grace. Something that came before and now has come and stands as far better than the law. The promise remains.

What We Learn from Roundabouts

Over the past several years, getting around our city has grown much easier thanks to a marvel of civil engineering. What’s that? The roundabout. But here’s the problem: many of our citizens don’t appreciate their glory. And they have no idea know how to use them. 

We’ve all seen the most egregious errors. Someone will turn to the left, driving headfirst into traffic, nearly causing a multi-car pile-up. But those situations are rare. Far more common is this mistake. The driver will stop, before entering the traffic circle, politely beckoning other cars to enter first and proceed, bringing the flow of traffic to a grinding halt.

Now I think we could all agree. We need more kindness and consideration in our day. But there’s nothing nice about that maneuver. Because the roundabout’s point is to keep cars moving. It’s not considerate to gift your neighbor a traffic jam - an experience that the roundabout was designed to put an end to. It helps no one to turn those wonders of transportation design back into four-way stops. We make those intersections into something they were never meant to be.

The Law Reveals

That’s what the “Judaizers” - these false teachers - were doing in Galatia and throughout that part of the world in that day. They were taking the law of God and turning it into something it was never meant to be. And harming genuine believers in the process. Not just stalling them before they entered the intersection, but hurling them the wrong way toward their death.

First, the promise remains. But second, the law reveals. The law given to Moses was never meant to be a path toward salvation. Now those teachers in that day probably would have affirmed that. Their logic was probably more like this: “It’s not like we’re saying these things are what saves you. But how can you be a Christian if you’re not a Jew? And true Israelites do these things. You should do them.” 

But they were missing the point. They were turning back the clock. And they were leading people astray. The Lord was creating a new nation, a new Israel - made up of people from every tribe and tongue and nation. People united to Jesus by faith. And adding back in those rules worked against God’s plan to bless all the nations of the earth.

Whatever they might have been saying, they were acting like the law saved. And it never has and never will. The law reveals.

The Law Shows Our Sin and Need

The law, first, shows our sin and need. Scholars have long argued what verse 19 means. Paul says, “It was added because of transgressions.” There are many ways we could read this. But the two that make the most sense are these. Either the law was given to restrain sin. Or it was given to increase sin. 

Now the false teachers seemed to be advocating for the first idea. That keeping the law kept us from sin. I don’t think that’s Paul’s point here. I think it’s the latter. That the law increased sin. 

Now that sounds weird, I know. That God would give His people something so they’d sin more? But I think it’s like a sign on the counter that says, “Please don’t eat the cookies.” You weren’t a good person before the sign. But that sign really makes you want to eat the cookies. And shows you just how bad a person you are. And how much you need a Savior. It’s like a spotlight shining in our faces, showing all of our wrinkles and blemishes - who we truly are.  

Romans 5:20 says it this way: “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” There’s a Jewish proverb that goes like this: “The more torah (or law) the more life.” Verse 21 of Galatians 3 says the opposite. Paul says that the law could never have resulted in life. God gave it primarily to show us how sinful we were and how much we needed His abounding grace.

The Law Shows Us the Way to Faith

The law, second, guides us to faith and family. The apostle gives us a couple of illustrations in this passage to tell us further what the point of the law was.

The first is found in verses 22 and 23. Paul speaks of the law - and all of God’s word - acting like a prison guard - pushing us into the cell, locking the gate behind us - and showing us just how much we were under the power of sin. And just how much we needed help being freed from it. We’re entrapped by sin. We’re in bondage to it. 

The second is found in verses 24 and 25. In those days, families would have household slaves who’d function as guardians over their children. They were less like teachers and more like nannies. They’d care for the children, keeping watch over them. But those guardians only served until the children reached maturity. 

Paul’s point is this: the law functioned for one period of time. And that was it. It wasn’t needed after the promise had come. It guided us to faith - not in ourselves, but in Jesus, who could set us free from our bondage and get us out of prison. And it guided us toward family. 

What a beautiful verse is verse 26! “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” We’re no longer under the custody of that guardian. We’re now free. We’re adults. And even sons! 

Don’t read that as sexist. It applies to us, those who believe, whether we’re male or female. And in that day, people were sexist. And only the sons really had many rights. Only they got the inheritance. But by faith, in Christ, we all have those privileges. 

The Law Revealed Our Great Need

That’s the promise God was talking about. That we’d be a part of God’s family, children of Abraham by faith, inheriting a new heavens and new earth with and because of Jesus.

But we’d only get to that point by understanding what the law was for. It wasn’t meant to bring about those promises, but rather show how much help we needed to get there. If keeping the law would bring life, than salvation wasn’t a gift. It was really wages for our work. Life didn’t come through promise. But by merit. 

But that pathway is a delusion. It goes against God’s ways. Where He helps the helpless and gets the glory. The law doesn’t show us the way to heaven, but rather our need for heaven to come down to us.

What Now With the Law?

Now here’s a question you might have: what now with the law? Is it relevant to us? If so, how so? Maybe you’ve told someone that you hold to a biblical view of sexuality. And that person says, “Oh, you follow the Bible. So hopefully you don’t eat shellfish or pork. I sure hope your shirt isn’t made of more than two types of fibers. Surely you don’t sow your field with two types of seed.” And they walk off. 

Friends, those commands were given to the people of Israel. In the law. Jesus came, as He said in the Sermon on the Mount, to fulfill it all. In Romans 10:4, Paul says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” We’re no longer bound by those laws. 

However, it doesn’t mean that we do what we want. Paul elsewhere speaks of something called “the law of Christ.” We follow Him as a disciple. There are commands we’re to keep. But they’re not burdensome. And we no longer have to be circumcised or even keep the Sabbath. The promise has come.

What We Hate About Treadmills

But it’s so easy to drift back into that mentality. That we must perform. Even those of us that would never call ourselves religious. That we have to help ourselves.

I hate treadmills. More than once I’ve fallen off of one. One of my sons tried to stand on a moving machine and got thrown back into a concrete wall. They can be dangerous. But they sure aren’t fun. They make you really tired. You never really get anywhere. And you look pretty stupid in the process. I hate running. But I hate running in one spot even more. 

Too many of us are constantly on a treadmill. Trying to work our way to God. And really getting nowhere. Living quite miserably in the process. And one day, it’s gonna get shut off and we’re going to faceplant on the floor.

What Difference Does This Make?

So we’re better off receiving His promise. Here’s a another thing you might ask: what difference does this make? When we receive Jesus and walk by faith? Here are six possible results.

First, purpose. Now, as His kids, we have a purpose to obey. To spread His glory, to expand His kingdom. Our wheels aren’t just spinning. We have somewhere to go. We’re not doing things to get something from God. We already have His approval. Now we’re doing things to give something to Him.

Second, joy. No longer are we just doing our duty, going through motions, trying to earn our keep. It moves from duty to delight. Because we have His promise, we want to give Him our everything. Our hearts are engaged. It’s our joy to serve Him and others.

Third, freedom. Because we’re His kids, we’re in His family. We don’t have to earn our way in. We can be ourselves. We can be free. And in doing what He asks, it’s not like we’re eating our vegetables or doing our homework. We’re truly doing what is good for us, what makes us truly human. We’re experiencing true freedom.

Fourth, honesty. Catch the cross-chart on the screen. From left to right is our timeline. The top axis represents His holiness. The bottom axis displays our sinfulness. What we want to do is compress the whole thing. He’s not that holy. We’re not that sinful. And all we do is diminish the beauty of the cross. No! Allowing the cross to be big allows us to deal with all that tension. We don’t have to prove to God or others that we’re awesome or worthy. We can be honest.

Fifth, kindness. Think about how we can apply that chart to others - well or poorly. If I realize I’m a mess - and God welcomes me in Christ - don’t I look at others differently? But if I don’t think the gap’s that wide in my life, I tend to look at others with a judgmental, critical spirit. Don’t we see this everywhere today? In the promise of God in Jesus, we find the pathway to gracious, kind living. 

Sixth, rest. I said I don’t think we’re bound to keep the Sabbath. I stand by that. Check out Colossians 2, if you don’t believe me. And also read the book of Hebrews. The idea of Sabbath rest points ahead to Jesus. He is our ultimate rest! We don’t have to work, work, work to impress Him. The message of the Bible isn’t “do.” But it’s “done.” It’s not “git ‘r done.” It’s “it is finished.” And if we believe that, we can truly rest.

God is Gracious

Karis, COVID has been tough. If you’re like me, you’ve beaten yourself up. But here is the gospel, the good news. Because God is gracious, we don’t have to prove ourselves. We have His promise. It comes by His grace, as a gift. 

We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to work hard to keep it. We can get off the performance treadmill. And not only is that the way back to life. It’s the way to progress, as well. We can run and run free in His grace. 

Only Jesus frees us from that performance treadmill. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. He helps those who can’t. The law was meant to show us we couldn’t do it. And guide us back to the promise. Let’s cling to that promise together.