Galatians 3:15-22: The Role of the Law

Galatians 3:15-22: The Role of the Law

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and today the next passage we come to is Galatians 3:15-22. It says,

15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19 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. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 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. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we read in Psalm 19 that your law is perfect, reviving the soul. Your testimony is sure, making wise the simple. Your precepts are right, giving joy to the heart. And your commandments are pure, enlightening the eyes. So, please, as we dig into your Word this morning, revive our souls, give wisdom to our minds, impart joy to our hearts, and enlighten our eyes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. There are certain household items that can be very helpful when they’re used in a certain way. Yet they can also be incredibly harmful—and potentially even lethal—if they’re not used properly. For example, Drano can be quite helpful when you’re trying to unclog a drain. But if someone didn’t know what they were doing and tried to use Drano as a cooking ingredient, I don’t think that would go very well. It would probably result in a phone call to the poison control hotline and perhaps even a trip to the emergency room. The same is also true of other household chemicals, such as ammonia or bleach. These powerful chemical agents can either be extremely helpful or extremely harmful depending on how they’re used. 

And the same can also be said of other things as well, including—as we’ll see today—the Old Testament law. After God rescued the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt, he gave them very detailed and extensive instructions for how they should live. These instructions are called “the law” and include commands related to how God wanted his people to treat one another, what festivals he wanted them to observe, the kinds of sacrifices they were supposed to offer, and a wide variety of other guidelines for how they were supposed to function as a society. We find these laws in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These laws are also very helpfully summarized for us in the Ten Commandments. 

And just like a household chemical, the Old Testament law can either be extremely helpful or extremely harmful, depending on how it’s used. Now, unfortunately, it seems our natural tendency is to attempt to use the law in a way that God never intended for it to be used. And the results are nothing short of catastrophic. 

You see, when many people open the Bible and read the commands God gives to his people, they often assume that following those commands is what we have to do in order to go to heaven. They imagine that if we just try hard enough and do a good enough job obeying God, then God will see that and be pleased with that and let us into heaven. Unfortunately, though, that couldn’t be further from the truth. And anyone who has that view—or any form of that view—is in grave danger of spending eternity separated from God. 

In addition, there are also a variety of other ways in which people—and even genuine Christians—can misunderstand or misuse the Old Testament law. And the results of that are never good. So, it’s very important for us to understand the purpose of the law and how it’s supposed to function in our lives—lest we do the spiritual equivalent of using Drano as a cooking ingredient. 

Fortunately, in Galatians 3:15-22, Paul explains the role God intended the law to have. In this passage, we learn that God gave the law to his people in order to prepare them for the gospel. That’s the main idea. Again, God gave the law to his people in order to prepare them for the gospel. 

By the way, the word “gospel” literally means “good news” and refers to the good news of what Jesus has done to save us from our sins through his death and resurrection. And the law prepares us to receive that gospel message and be saved not through obedience but through faith. And as we work our way through this passage, we’ll learn a lot more about how exactly that law does that and prepares us for the gospel. 

But first, to remind you of the context here, Paul’s been arguing in his letter to the Galatians against a group of false teachers known as Judaizers who were claiming that Gentile—or non-Jewish—Christians needed to keep the Old Testament law in order to go to heaven. And in the previous passage of Galatians 3:1-14, Paul talked about how even Abraham—the great father of the Jewish nation—was “justified”—or made right with God—not through any moral accomplishments or religious observances but rather through faith. Paul even quotes Genesis 15:6 to back that up. Abraham was justified simply through faith and not on the basis of living righteously. 

So, now, in verses 15-22, Paul anticipates how the Judaizers might respond to that. They might be like, “Okay, we’ll admit that Abraham was justified through faith. But then, several hundred years later, God gave the law to his people through Moses so that it’s now necessary to keep the law in order to be justified before God.” In other words, the Judaizers would likely claim, the law represents a more complete revelation of God’s will and a more complete picture of what’s required in order to enter heaven. That’s the argument Paul’s anticipating from his opponents and therefore what he’s responding to here in our main passage.  

So, let’s look at what he says. Look first at verses 15-18: 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 

Now, I know there’s a lot in these verses, but let’s just take it piece by piece. Way back in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham. A “covenant” is just another word for a sacred agreement. God made a sacred agreement with Abraham in which he promised to bless Abraham in several significant ways. These included the physical land of what would one day become the territory of Israel, descendants as numerous as the starts in the sky, and—most significantly—that through Abraham God would one day extend blessing to all nations. 

Abraham wasn’t told exactly what that blessing would be, but, looking back, we now know that to be the blessing of salvation and eternal life through Jesus. So, God’s promise to Abraham was a promise of unfathomable spiritual blessing. God made a covenant with Abraham in which he promised unfathomable spiritual blessing not just to Abraham himself but to countless others through Abraham. 

Now, Paul makes a very interesting point in verse 16. He states, “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.” So, in Genesis—particularly Genesis 13:15 and 17:8—God promises his incredible blessings to Abraham and his “offspring.” And Paul’s point here is that the word “offspring” in those verses actually refers to one offspring in particular—who, Paul says, is Jesus. 

So, basically, the way it works is that Jesus is the sole heir of the unfathomable spiritual blessings God promised to Abraham. Therefore, the only way you and I can participate in those blessings is through Jesus. And I know that’s a little abstract, so think of it this way. It’s like God has placed all of his infinitely valuable spiritual treasures in a vault. And the only person with a key to that vault is Jesus. So, if we want to access those treasures, the only way to do that is through Jesus. He is the singular “offspring” of Abraham and the sole heir of God’s promises. 

One commentator named Todd Wilson explains it like this: “Christ Jesus is the one true beneficiary of all of God’s promises. God has given everything to Christ. Every blessing God wants to give to the world, and to you and me, has already been given to Jesus. Thus, every blessing we seek, every good thing in the world, is to be found in Christ.” So, Jesus is the sole beneficiary of all of God’s promised blessings. Therefore, the only way we can enjoy those promised blessings is through Jesus—and specifically by putting our faith in him. 

And that’s the case for every single person who’s ever lived. The only way anyone has ever been saved from their sins and gained entrance into heaven is through faith. And that includes not only people in the New Testament era but also people in the Old Testament era. For some reason, a lot of Christians seem to think that people in the Old Testament era were saved by keeping the law, whereas people in the New Testament era are saved through faith. Yet that’s just not true. 

People who lived before Jesus came were saved though forward-looking faith—that is, faith that looked forward in time to the anticipated coming of the Messiah. Even though people in the Old Testament didn’t have all the specific information about Jesus that we have today, they were still responsible to believe the revelation that was available to them at that point in history. So, Old Testament figures such as Abraham, Moses, David, and everyone else were all saved through a faith that looked forward in time to the Messiah. 

And of course, nowadays, we’re called to have a faith that looks backward in time to the Messiah—whom we now know to be Jesus—and specifically to what Jesus has done to save us through his death and resurrection. We now understand that Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life in our place, died on the cross in order to suffer the punishment for our sins, and was then raised from the dead three days later. And it’s by looking backward to Jesus and what he’s done to save us that we experience the salvation he offers. 

So, the only way anyone has ever been saved or ever will be saved is through Jesus. He’s at the very center of God’s plan for rescuing us from our sins. Those who lived before Jesus came needed to trust in Jesus with a forward-looking faith, while we who live after Jesus has come need to trust in him with a backward-looking faith. At no point in the entire history of the world has anyone every been saved in any other way than through faith. That’s the reality Paul’s pointing to in verse 16. 

And Paul’s central argument in this paragraph is that the law doesn’t change that. God made a covenant with Abraham that was permanent and unchangeable. And the arrival of the law several hundred years later didn’t affect that covenant with Abraham in any way. In verse 15, Paul states, “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.”

So, think about the rules we follow today when it comes to a will. Let’s say someone enlists the help of a qualified attorney and goes through the appropriate steps to draft a will and then eventually passes away. When that happens, whatever’s written in that will is legally binding and can’t be altered regardless of subsequent events. For example, if one of the deceased person’s children becomes ill and is no longer able to work and is therefore facing severe financial hardship and could really use more money, that doesn’t change how the estate has to be distributed. Whatever’s written in the will is legally binding when it comes to the distribution of the estate. No subsequent events can change or invalidate what’s written in that will. 

Similarly, God’s covenant with Abraham is binding and unchangeable. So, when God gave the law to his people through Moses, that didn’t invalidate his covenant with Abraham or alter that covenant in any way. Paul makes this clear in verses 17-18. He writes, 17 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. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 

So, God’s covenant with Abraham is just as much in effect as it’s ever been—along with that covenant’s promise of unfathomable spiritual blessings obtained through faith. This means that—contrary to what the Judaizers were claiming—keeping the Old Testament law isn’t in any way the means by which we’re saved or a requirement for entering heaven. 

However, that raises a question. Why then did God give the law to his people? If the law isn’t the means by which we’re saved, what function does the law have? 

Paul answers this question in verse 19: “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.” So, why did God give the law? Paul says he did so “because of transgressions.” “Transgressions” is just a fancy word for sin or rebellion. God gave the law because of the transgressions—or sins—of his people. 

Now, there are several things this statement might mean—and a decent argument could be made for any of these possible interpretations. So, before we go any further, I think it’s helpful at this point for me to give just a brief overview of three functions that the law has—pulling not only from this passage in Galatians but from the entire Bible. Theologians commonly acknowledge three ways God intended the law to function. 

The first is as a muzzle. As you probably know, a muzzle is a device that’s often used on a dog in order to keep its mouth shut and prevent it from inflicting harm by biting people. Obviously, the muzzle doesn’t do anything to change the dog’s nature or desires. It simply keeps the dog from acting on those desires. We might say it has a restraining effect on the dog. In a similar way, the law has a restraining effect on people and on the collective sinful tendencies of a society. 

Although it doesn’t take away anyone’s sinful desires, it does make people think twice before acting on those desires. For example, when someone who’s familiar with God’s command not to murder has a murderous thought come into their mind, hopefully a healthy fear of God and God’s justice and God’s retribution will help to deter them from following through with the murder. Now, of course, we’re not really getting down to the heart here, but the restraining effect that the law has on human sinfulness is nevertheless a very legitimate and helpful function of the law. 

Second, the law also functions not only as a muzzle but also as a mirror. This function of the law has come up several times in our study of Galatians these past few weeks—and for good reason. God gave us the law in order to reflect back to us who we really are and show us our true nature and condition. Apart from the law, we’re often able to fool ourselves into thinking that we’re pretty decent people. But when we see how high God’s standards for moral perfection actually are, we become aware of just how short we fall of those standards. This is why Paul says in Romans 3:20 that “through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The NIV translates it, “through the law we become conscious of our sin.” 

In this way, the law functions as a mirror that shows us the truth about ourselves. And as you know from looking at a physical mirror, that truth isn’t always pretty. Sometimes, you look into a mirror and see that your hair’s all messed up or that you’ve got something stuck in your teeth. So, you don’t always like what you see in a mirror—yet the mirror never lies. And in the same way, the law functions as a mirror that shows us the truth about ourselves and the ways in which we’re not what God wants us to be. The law is designed to humble us and tear down our self-righteousness and crush our self-sufficiency and lead us to the brink of despair—so that we’ll reach out for the grace and rescue God offers us in the gospel. That’s the whole point. God doesn’t just want us to feel bad about ourselves and stay in that condition. He wants us to see the pervasiveness of our sin so that we’ll put our faith in Jesus to rescue us from that sin. 

Then finally, the law functions not only as a muzzle and a mirror but also as a map. Now, for any of you who are younger who may not know what a map is, it’s kind of like the paper version of a GPS. And a map is helpful because it tells you where to go. It guides your journey. And that’s what the law does as well. 

After we’ve been led to Jesus and have put our faith in Jesus and have had our hearts changed by Jesus, the law then shows us what forms our obedience should take. Of course, we’re not obeying in order to earn salvation—since we’ve already received salvation. Instead, we’re obeying simply because we love God and are so grateful to him for saving us. 

So, in our quest to express our love and gratitude toward God, the law guides us in that endeavor. And it also shows us how to live in the way that will lead to the greatest blessing for us as individuals and flourishing as a society. You know, when parents tell their kids not to play in the street, they’re doing so not because they’re trying to stop their kids from having fun but rather because they’re seeking to protect their kids from harm. Likewise, God tells us to do certain things and avoid other things in the law because he cares about our welfare and is marking out for us the path of greatest blessing. 

This is how the psalmist can say in Psalm 119:97, “Oh how I love your law!” And in case you’re tempted to dismiss that as something that’s “only from the Old Testament,” we also find that sentiment in the New Testament as well. Paul states in Romans 7:22, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being.” Also, James 1:25 refers to the law as “the law of liberty.” So, in case you thought that the New Testament has a negative view of the law, I’m here to tell you that the New Testament doesn’t have a negative view of the law at all. James 1:25 calls it “the law of liberty”—the law of freedom. 

Now, the New Testament does teach that we’re not under the law in the same way the Israelites were. The law was indeed directed toward Israel, not the church. However, there are still timeless moral principles we can extract from the law that are relevant for Christians today not because we’re under the law but because those principles express God’s unchanging character. Again, there are timeless moral principles we can extract from the law that are relevant for Christians today not because we’re under the law but because those principles express God’s unchanging character. 

Now, sometimes, it requires a bit of thought to extract these timeless principles from the law. For example, when God commands the Israelites not to eat certain foods, it requires thought to extract the timeless principle from that—because Jesus declared all foods clean. Nevertheless, it’s important for us to understand that the law is still very relevant for us as Christians. It functions as a map. 

So, the law is a muzzle, a mirror, and a map. And returning now to Galatians 3:19, where Paul states that God gave the law to Israel “because of transgressions,” that statement can conceivably be interpreted as a reference to any of the three functions of the law. Yet I believe the best interpretation by far is as a reference to the second function of the law—which is the law as a mirror. This interpretation certainly seems to fit the best with the flow of Paul’s thought. 

So, when Paul says that God gave the law “because of transgressions,” he means that God gave the law in order to expose the sins of his people and make it clear how desperately they needed a Savior. This becomes even more clear as we continue on in the verse. Paul writes, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made….” And of course, we know from earlier in the passage that that “offspring” is Jesus. So, the law was given “until” Jesus came. 

God gave the law to his people Israel in order to expose their sins and thereby prepare them for the coming of Jesus—so that, when Jesus came, they’d ideally be ready and eager to put their faith in him. Essentially, you might say that the law was intended to plow the soil of people’s hearts in preparation for the seed of the gospel to be planted. 

And that’s the way God intends for the law to function in our hearts as well. Before the gospel will mean anything to us, we have to first come to an understanding of the serious and pervasiveness and heinousness of our sins. It’s not until we’ve come to terms with the reality of our sin in that way that we’re in any position to put our faith in Jesus. 

And for those of us who are already Christians, that’s also critical for us to understand as we share the gospel with others and seek to lead others to Jesus. Before people can appreciate the good news of the gospel, they first have to understand the bad news of their sin. 

Imagine how you might respond if I came up to you and started to explain the process for how you could obtain a presidential pardon for federal crimes. And let’s say I went into great detail about the intricacies and complexities of that process. I think it’s fair to say that, regardless of how accurate my explanation of that process might be or how passionate I might be in sharing that information with you, you’re probably not going to have much interest at all in what I’m saying—because, as far as you know, you haven’t committed or been convicted of any federal crimes. So, if you don’t think you need a pardon, you’re probably not going to have any interest in the process for obtaining one. 

Similarly, until we help people recognize the fact that they’re sinful and are therefore condemned before a holy God and destined to face God’s eternal punishment, they probably won’t have any interest in what we try to share with them about Jesus. The only way the gospel will make any sense to them or be seen as having any relevance for them is if they see their sin. Until they come to a realization of their sin, everything we try to explain about God’s grace in the gospel will be utterly meaningless to them. That’s why the law is so essential—because of the way it reveals our sin. 

Then, moving forward in our main passage, Paul continues his explanation of how the law functions in verses 21-22. He says, 21 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. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

So, looking at verse 21, if we were able to make ourselves righteous in God’s sight through our obedience to the law, that would indeed be a valid path to heaven. Yet that’s just not possible. Instead, as verse 22 says, the law “imprisoned everything under sin.” Or, to be more specific, it revealed to us that we were already “imprisoned…under sin.” It revealed our true condition. 

And we see the intended result of that revelation at the end of the verse: “so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The purpose of the law is to lead us to “faith in Jesus Christ” in order that we might receive the promised blessing of eternal life. 

I once heard it described like this. It’s as though there are two doctors who work in partnership with one another. The first is Dr. Law, and the second is Dr. Grace. And these doctors have a very strict division of labor. Dr. Law only gives people a diagnosis, while Dr. Grace provides treatment for the person’s illness. So, if someone goes to Dr. Law expecting to receive treatment for their illness, they’re going to be very disappointed—because Dr. Law never provides treatments for any illnesses but instead only offers a diagnosis. 

Yet we still need to see Dr. Law before we see Dr. Grace because we need to receive that diagnosis before we’ll be eligible to receive any treatment. So, understand that both doctors are absolutely necessary. We aren’t ready to see Dr. Grace until we’ve first visited Dr. Law and received a diagnosis. Yet we dare not return home from our visit with Dr. Law until we’ve also been in to see Dr. Grace and received from Dr. Grace the treatment we so desperately need. 

So, let me encourage you this morning, if all of this talk about God’s law has awakened you to the reality of your sin and caused you to feel guilty for your sin, don’t ignore those feelings of guilt. Those feelings are actually a blessing from God and are intended to alert you to the fact that something’s wrong. Just like physical pain often alerts us to the fact that something’s wrong physically, the feelings of guilt we experience often alert us to the fact that something’s wrong spiritually. So, the last thing we should want to do is to ignore them. So, instead of ignoring those feelings, recognize that your subjective feelings of guilt are probably an indication of the objective reality of your guilt before an infinitely holy God. But don’t stop there. Let those feelings and that understanding drive you to put your trust in Jesus as the only one who can save you from your sins and give you the gift of eternal life.