Galatians 3:19 to 3:29

We have been covering Paul's Epistles, and I'm continuing now with Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. We saw, basically, that Paul wrote the Epistle because there were many false brethren, Galatians 2, verse 4, that were perverting Christ's Gospel, Galatians 1, verse 7. And it is important for us, brethren, to review the theme.

And really, today, that's what we're going to concentrate a little bit on reviewing the theme, and then we'll cover it to the end of this chapter. It is important to understand this, brethren, because there is a very deep misunderstanding today between grace and keeping God's law. And I am, in a sense, re-emphasizing it and repeating it, because the society is so ingrained in these thoughts that it even affects people in the Church. And maybe most of you are not affected by it, but there are still some that are being affected. And we need to make sure we understand that, yes, indeed, we are justified by faith, by Christ's blood, but that does not exonerate us to not obey God's law. We have to obey God's law. So, Paul, in this epistle to the Galatians, was re-emphasizing that point that we are justified freely. But we must respond with gratitude and do what is pleasing to God, which is being loving to one another. And God's laws are none other. God defining how to love one another. Because without God's laws, our expression of love is twisted. And that's what we see in this world. A twisted, perverted expression of love. Oh, this is just love, but it's twisted because it is not according to God's laws. So God's laws are these 10, think of it like rivers or channels that show us how to properly express love.

So, Paul, in various epistles, emphasized this point. Let's just look at a few points in Romans, very briefly. In Romans 3, verse 28, Paul said, we are justified freely by faith. So if you turn to 3, verse 28, it says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith. We need to understand that the word there is justified.

And we need to understand what justified means. You see, most people say, well, that means we saved by faith. And therefore, I'm going to do nothing. But you know what? The word is not saved, it's justified.

Now, granted, justified is a step on a process of salvation. Therefore, we can, by extension, say we will ultimately be saved by faith. But apart from the deeds of the law, we are justified by faith. In other words, we are made right with God, we are reconciled with God, we are made at peace with God by faith.

And it is the faith of Christ, not my faith and not your faith. What does it mean? I don't need to have faith. Of course I need to have faith. But if my faith is not good enough, I don't have to rely on it, because it's Christ's faith that you're not justified by. And that I can bank on. So, and then it says, apart from the deeds of the law, which means you and I are not made right with God by deeds of the law.

And I have expressed that often, many times it says, using the analogy of paying a fine, when you break a law, you have a fine. You don't pay the fine by obeying the law. You pay the fine by paying the fine. And paying the fine, talking spiritually as far as our sins, is crushed blood. He gave his life for us. The wages of sin is death, and the only way we can be redeemed from death is by another life. Life for life. Not by us obeying the law. Does it mean, therefore, that we don't have to obey the law?

No, because Paul, in the same book, Romans, just one chapter earlier, in chapter 2 verse 13, says, For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be future justified. That means, at the end of the road, at the end of our lives, yes, we are justified now by the faith of Christ.

We have to respond by doing what is pleasing to God. In other words, by practicing the law. And therefore, at the end of the road, we will be justified. We will be changed to spirit beings if we have really responded and become like God. In other words, God has opened the door through Christ for us to be reconciled with the Father. But now that we are reconciled, the ball is also in our court to make an effort to stay there.

And look at Romans 8 verse 4. Romans 8 verse 4, it says, For the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled of us. In other words, there is a requirement of the law that needs to be fulfilled on us. It is required to keep the law. Oh, it's not required to keep the Sabbath, people say. Well, it says here it's required.

A righteous requirement of the law needs to be fulfilled in us. So it is required that we don't lie. It is required that we don't steal. It is required that we love God and put God first. It is required that we keep the Sabbath. But righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

We do not walk according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to God's Spirit, which is the Spirit of doing what is pleasing to God. The Spirit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and meekness and self-control. That's what it is. And the first one is love, which is defined by God's Ten Commandments.

And so we also read, going back to Galatians, in Galatians 2 verse 17, that said the problem there was that people were trying to be justified by obeying physical ceremonial laws. Oh, you are justified by offering so many bulls and whatever it is. And, you know, it reminds me of the Catholic Church, you know, well, you'll be forgiven if you sing so many or say so many our fathers and so many whatever.

And no, no, those were only pointers to Christ. Now that Christ has come, He is the fulfillment of the law, is fulfilled that law that pointed to Him. Oh, it doesn't mean that Christ has done away if the law is fulfilled that law that pointed to Him, the sacrifices pointed to Him.

And therefore it says, in verse 17, if we seek to be justified by Christ and we then are still breaking the law, you know, we have found sinners. Because, oh well, Christ therefore justified me and therefore I don't have to do anything. You see, this is the usual thing. There's this pendulum. You know, there's the right way. There's this... You think about any issue in life. You know, there's the right way and there's always somebody that pushes to the extreme, to the left and says, yeah, you're gonna go. It's gonna be black, pure black. And then there's somebody that says, no, no, it's gonna be pure white. In everything you think about anything, any issue, there's always these extremes. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be this. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be this. Oh, yeah, we're justified by Christ, therefore we don't have to keep the law. Oh, no, we're justified by the law. Christ is not enough. You know, there's gotta be a balanced, godly approach, not an extreme to the left or extreme to the right. And therefore, Paul is here saying, yeah, you get some people that says, all right, I've saved by grace. I'm justified by Christ. Good! But if we don't repent and obey the law, is then Christ a minister of sin?

If we say, well, because I've saved by Christ and I can go on living in sin, is in Christ a minister of sin? And he says, certainly not. Certainly not. You see, then Paul, in Galatians, then goes on to talk that we got it by the law. And then he brings the example of Abraham in Galatians 3 verse 9. So I'm still reviewing what we've covered before. But in Revelation 3 verse 9, he says, yeah, we, yes, we were saved by grace. But remember, Abraham had to obey and he had to believe in God. You see, God called him, leave your land and he obeyed. He believed God. There was a trusted God. This is important. You see, of course, we justified by the faith of Christ. But now you and I have to believe that the faith of Christ is enough for you and I. We have to trust God in that. I think we had in the sermon after an issue where there was mention that, yeah, we have to believe in trust. So it is important that. You see, because our belief produces actions. See, because we are justified by the faith of Christ, that in turn is going to yield an action, a response from us to say, all right, Christ has done everything he has paid, we reconcile with God. But now that we are reconciled with God, we cannot go on displeasing God. We've got to do what is pleasing to him. We've got to do what's pleasing to him. So, in James chapter 2, we see examples of James saying, you know, are you justified by faith alone? No. We need to go beyond that. We need to have works. And you read James 2, it covers that. So, that is very important. People say, oh, well, you're not justified by works. Of course not. You're not justified by works. Whether it is whatever works or whatever law or whatever things of myself, not even works of my own faith. I'm justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, not my own works. Now, that, by the way, brethren, it's a great consolation. Because I've come across a lot of brethren in the church that after being many years in the church, they say, I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough. I don't have enough faith. Brethren, you and I are not justified by my faith or your faith. That is the good news. It's Christ's faith that justifies you, not your faith. All you need to do is to believe that his faith is enough.

You've got to trust that his faith is enough. Yes, from faith to faith. But your side is you've got to trust and believe. And by that means, as you do that, you are going to grow in faith. And we've seen in the prayer requests today a number of cases which God intervened miraculously. Obviously, we don't know God's mind, and sometimes he allows certain trials to continue. That's his way. Sometimes the redemption will only be after death. That's his call. Maybe we overcome what we needed to and we made it, quote-unquote, between inverted commas. He knows better. He sees a big picture. You and I can't see it that big. He sees this big puzzle. But we've got to believe and trust that you and I are not justified by our works. We're justified by Christ's works, by Christ's faith. But that does not mean we must not do works.

Right. So, continuing, then we see that Paul in Galatians is talking about a promise that God made to Abraham. Because he says, well, Abraham believed. You and I need to believe. We need to trust God. And because he believed, he received a promise. Look at Galatians 3 verse 15. And he's talking about bringing and starting the point of a promise. Now, what is a promise, brethren? What is a promise? A promise is basically an outcome of an agreement that you do this and I do that. And therefore, if you do this, I will do that. It's a promise. In other words, it's an outcome of a contract, of an agreement, of a covenant. So that's why he says here in verse 15, brethren are speaking a manner of men. Though it is only a man's covenant or a man's agreement. I'm giving you an example. If you have an agreement with a builder or a bank or whatever it is to sign a contract to get a loan, to buy a house or to buy a car or whatever, you make an agreement. Even though it's only a human agreement. It's an agreement. You've got to do what it says there, right? You're going to do what it says. It says you're going to pay so much a month, you've got to pay so much a month. At the end of that period it's yours. But in the meantime you can have it. That's what the contract says. That is the agreement. So it says, no, it's only a man's covenant. Yet if it's confirmed, in other words, if it's been signed and sealed, no one at all also adds it to it. That's it. It's binding. Of course it's not talking if there is then some other problem, if something else comes up, whatever it is, it then gets discussed and renegotiates. That's a different issue. But if it is signed, you've got to stick to it. Right. Now, it brings the point of Abraham. Because there was a promise done to Abraham. And you can read that in Genesis 12, that it says, leave the land of your fathers and I'll give you the land and through your seed you'll be blessed. So there was a promise done right there. And it says, now to Abraham and his seed was the promise made or promises made. What do you mean to Abraham and his seed? The promise was done to Abraham and to Jesus Christ, which is a seed from Abraham. It wasn't just to Abraham, it was to Abraham and Jesus Christ through obviously Jesus Christ. So that was already at that time forecast or prophesied. So it does not say to seeds as of many, but as of one and your seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later. What do you mean the law was 430 years later? Do you mean that God's Ten Commandments didn't exist from creation? Of course not. I mean, even the Sabbath was right at creation. It says right on Genesis 2, it says God rest on the seventh day and sanctified it was right there. You read at the time of Noah, cleaning and clean animals went into the ark. Don't think that Adam was there going out and, oh, you come in, oh, you come in. God inspired those animals by themselves to come in. Imagine Noah was just there and looking at it and he said, wow! Wow! You know, they're coming in pairs. And for clean ones, they came in seven pairs. So that was amazing. So clean and clean foods existed before Noah.

You read also in Genesis that Abram obeyed God's laws and commandments and statutes, not just the Ten Commandments. So Abram was obedient, but now we have that there was an agreement made and a promise which was 430 years before Sinai when they left Egypt. The estimates is that the promise to Abram of Genesis 12 was in 1876 before Christ and 430 years brings to the time they left Egypt and were in Mount Sinai at about 1448 BC. Exactly! 430 years to that day! To that day! God's a great mathematician. He works it out exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, he says, you know, but the law, which was 430 years later, then how is it possible that the law was 430 years later? Because he's talking about a different law.

Look at verse 19. This is where we're picking up. We're going to be picking up today in a moment, but look at verse 19. He says, For what purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions. So how can a law be added? Because then it's not the original law. Because if there are transgressions there must be a law, which has got state commandments. And the wages of sin is dead. So, what law was added? Was all the washings and ceremonies given through Moses and through the Levites were implemented and the priesthood implemented all that and those washings and all those things. Those things were added at the time of Sinai. Why? Because there were a bunch of rebellious Israelites. They were rebellious. For 40 years they rebelled and only a handful of them actually made to the promised land. So less than a handful, in fact. So that's what he says. He's saying that in verse 17 that the law was added. And then it says, He cannot know the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ. You see, the promise done to Abraham was done and confirmed by God through the seed was Christ at the time of Abraham before the ceremonial law was added. And therefore those Israelites or those Jewish that were saying you needed to obey the ceremonial law to be justified. He said, no, because that law came well after the promise was given to Abraham. And therefore then he says, verse 18, if the inheritance is of the law, what do you mean he says? Because that promise gave them an inheritance. Gave them a land, gave them an inheritance and gave through your seed Jesus Christ, every other nation will be blessed. So that inheritance to the Israelites people and to every other nation through the Israelites people, that inheritance was not through the ceremonial law. It was through a promise made to Abraham, a covenant. So let me ask you, then why does God make covenants?

I mean, the law, you and I know that we got to obey the law, right? And what was the covenant? Obey the law. So why a covenant? Because it's just saying you got to obey the law and you got to obey the law. So why a covenant?

That's an enigma, isn't it? No, it's not. Because the covenant is so he can bless us beyond what the law says. So that he can bless us even more and more and more. He wants us to bless us. So he said, you just do this, which is nothing else than what you should do, and I'm going to bless you even more. That's why a covenant. So what it is, is that God is binding himself to bless us. That is huge! See, all we have to do is obey. But he says, if you obey, yeah, you'll have a good life, whatever it is, and fine. But no, it says, no, I'm going to give you eternal life. So the covenant is there to give us more. All right. So, and that's what it describes here in verse 18. So what we've seen, brethren, as a matter of summary, is we are forgiven free, gratis, by God's loving kindness and grace. Two, we need to obey the law. It's God's law, love. Three, Christ is not a minister of sin. So just because we are saved by grace doesn't exonerate us for not having to obey the law.

He also said it's the faith of Christ, and it's not just our obedience that justifies us. This is an important point. And the promise, the covenant, is for God to bless us more with an inheritance, which is Christ's inheritance. So to make a little bit further progress ahead of this, let's analyze a little bit more what Paul is saying here in the promise. Because he says there is a promise, and what is this promise?

What is this promise? The promise is to receive the rewards that Christ will receive.

The promise is for us to receive the rewards that Christ will receive. So with that in mind, let's continue with Galatians 3 verse 19. For what purpose, then, does the law serve? And now we've seen he's talking about the ceremonial law. He's not talking about it then. Come on. You see, we've got to read always in context. That's why Paul's writings sometimes are difficult to understand, because he can use a word, but he's got to read it in context. What is he talking about? Because Paul is very bright, very intelligent, very smart, let's call it that, very, very good thinker. And we can pick up a word that he says, and we can get carried away with incorrect understanding. So we've got to read the context. Therefore, the context, yeah, I've explained clearly, is the ceremonial law. It's the law of Washington, the law of... and all other ceremonial or physical things around it. And he says, it was added, we've got a translation, still the seed which is Christ shall come, to whom the promise was made. See, the promise was made to Christ. So the promise was made to Abraham through Christ. The promise was made to Christ. And it was appointed by angels, by the end of the mediator. You see, the ceremonial law was appointed by messengers through a mediator. Mediator being Moses, and the messengers were the Levites and the high priests and others that were passing it on to the people. Now, a mediator does not mediate for only one. What do you mean? A mediator does not mediate for only one.

To give you an example, if you have a situation in which there are two parties, right? There are two parties. For instance, maybe there's a dispute. There are two parties. One party says this, and the other party says that. And then you call in a mediator, right? Which kind of works through and works through and actually you reach a position. A mediator does not mediate for only one. Now, if you only have one party, you don't need a mediator, do you? You don't need a mediator if there's only one party. There's going to be two parties.

Now, one of those parties is God, and the other party is us, people, Israelites, or us, spiritual Israel. So, that's why it says, but God is one. God is one, and we are the other. Of course, he's talking in double meaning, you know, quite often. God is one, but God is one party in this mediation process. See, so we got to drink it in carefully.

Verse 21. For the law then, says, by a part of 21, is the law then against the promises of God? Is the ceremonial law against the promises of God? Certainly not. See, the promises of God went to Abraham, and to, or through his seed, Christ, so to Abraham and Christ, which then is for us, I believe, who believe. So, those promises for us to be, we know, sons and daughters of God in the kingdom of God. So, does the ceremonial law do away with that promise? No, certainly not. For if there had been a law which could have given life, if there was a law that could forgive us, if there was a law that could give us eternal life, then why would Christ come to us and die?

Why would Christ have to suffer, have to leave the form of God to become the form of man and to die? It could have just said, well, the other law, that's it. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, eternal life, truly righteousness would have been by that law. But there isn't. There's no law that can pay for the wages of sin, because life is for life, and the wages of sin is death.

So, continuing, yeah. 22. But the Scripture has confined all and the sin. We all sin. You're reading Romans. Everyone is sinned. There's an unrighteous. No, no one. We all have sinned. Would you hand up if you never sinned? There's nobody. It's a good sign. It's not a good sign. But anyway, I would be worried if anyone sinned up never sinned. Because we all have sinned. But he is Christ's mercy, he is God's mercy, because there's no one.

And therefore, the God being, the eternal being that created us under the authority of the Father, had to become a human being, had to die for us. And he did that in faith that the Father would resurrect him. He did that in faith that this act would indeed encourage us or motivate us to repent and change. That was the act in faith of Christ. If he believed that this would not yield any fruit, why would he do it?

But he had faith that this supreme act would yield the right fruit in us. So the faith of Christ, he told us that once he was dead, he knew he trusted the Father would resurrect him, because he was dead. And two, he knew that this supreme sacrifice would motivate us to change, to repent. And then he would give us his Holy Spirit, which is his power, to help us change.

So there is, but the Scriptures confide all understand that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. The promise of the faith of Christ might be given to those who believe, as who trust believe. See, so verse 23. But before faith came, what do you mean before faith came? Before Christ came and gave us his evidence of his faith, that's why before faith came, because before Christ died for us and had the faith that Christ would resurrect, because the Father would resurrect him.

So before faith came, we were kept under guard by the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was like a token, a pointer, an example to say, that is going to be fulfilled, but not yet. See, which would afterward be revealed? Which was afterward revealed? What? When Christ came. When faith came. When that act of faith was executed. Verse 14. Therefore, the law, the ritual law, the ceremonial law, those washings, and all those physical things that get wrapped with that, was our tutor. The law was our teacher.

The law was pointing to Christ. So the Israelites at that time realized that they needed a sacrifice, which is the sacrifice of Christ. You can read that in Hebrews 9 and 10, where it says, Christ gave us one sacrifice, and the other sacrifices would never purify us, would never forgive us. They were just a metaphor, an example of the reality, which is Christ. Yes, the reality, the real sacrifice, is Christ. Therefore, the law, that's the ceremonial law, the ritual law, the sacrificial law, was our tutor, our teacher, our guide to the real sacrifice, which is Christ. To bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith, by His faith, and we have to believe and trust that that's enough.

But after faith has come, we're no longer under the tutor. After faith has come, what do you mean faith has come? Christ has come, He has done this act of faith, and we're no longer under that ceremonial law. No longer do we need to offer sacrifices. We no longer need to do that. And then it says, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Why? Because when we repent, when we're baptized, we are immersed, baptized into the spiritual body of Christ, which is the Church.

And that means we're part of Christ's body, and therefore we are part of Christ. And therefore, if the inheritance is to Christ, the inheritance is to us. That's why it says in verse 27, For as many of you as you were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. That's what he said. You baptized into Christ, into the spiritual body of Christ, which is the spiritual Church of God, the true Church of God.

It's a spiritual organism. So we baptized into the Church of God, into Christ. We are Christ. We are part of that family.

And then it says, There's not a Jew, no Greek. There's not a slave or free. There's not a male or female. Because you're all one in Christ. What you mean? Because you're all part of the spiritual body of Christ. You're all one. So whatever race you are, whatever sex you are, whatever color of eyes you have, you're one. Whether you reach your poor, you're one in that family. And therefore, you are cohesed. Because it says, And if you are Christ, then you're Abram's seed, because you are part of Christ. The Christ is of the standard of Abram. So you're part of that seed. And he is according to the promise. And look at, just very briefly, Romans chapter 8. Look at Romans chapter 8.

In verse 17, it says, And if children and heirs, heirs of God. Now you can read that in many ways. Like if your heirs of your dad, of your family, you're going to inherit the possessions. But not only that, you're going to be really part of that family. Of that, you are really one of the family. And it says, And joint heirs of Christ. If, if a small word, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. So brethren, here is a great vision that we're going to keep in mind. There is a great vision that we've got to keep in mind. And what is that vision?

To be glorified with Christ. And brethren, that boggles your mind, that boggles my mind. I can't visualize it, but we have to have that vision. And we have a purpose. So brethren, when you and I go through trials and sufferings, always keep the vision in mind. You need, I need the vision. I need the hope of that vision. It's an anchor. The hope is a anchor. We need that vision. Please, brethren, keep that vision in mind. So, what Paul is saying, yeah, he is. There's nothing you and I can do to clean myself. Between inverted commas to clean myself. Only Christ can clean us, can reconcile us to the Father. But you and I need to be repented. We need to have that vision because there is a purpose. And therefore, we've got to keep going and there will be sufferings on that road. Next time, we're going to look at the following chapter because then Paul explains that there is always a human tendency to go back. Why? Because where we came from, there's always a tendency to go back. To where you came from. And if you came from the Gentile world, there's a tendency to go back to those Gentile things. If you come from a Israelite-ish world, there's a tendency to go back to those sacrifices. So, in the next chapter, he brings out that point that be careful because there's always this desire, a tendency to go back, back to the old rut of thinking. And brethren, as we come into the church...

Let me just conclude with this. As we come into the church, there's a real danger of us wanting to go back to that old thinking. And if we come back, or we come from, let's call traditional Christianity, for instance, particularly in this world today, most of you don't come from a Jewish background. So, we all come from, basically, there might be one or another exception, but we must all come from a traditional Christianity background. There's always a tendency to go back to that rut. You think about it. You walk from point A to point B, back to point A to point B. And you've done this all your life. And what have you done? Think of it that you walk in the grass, and in that place you always walk up and down on that grass. You're gonna make a little trail in the grass. And when you're gonna go in your life, there's always a tendency to walk back into that trail, to go back into that trail. So, whether you come from traditional Christianity, or where do you think you've got to become a Jew? Because it's not. There's always a tendency to pull you out, so we gotta be focused in the vision. And Paul is young, in Galatians, emphasizing that vision. Please brethren, let's be focused in that vision, and not be turning one way or the other.