Galatians 3:21-25

This morning we are going to be studying Galatians 3:21-26.  It this section Paul asks another question.  “Another question?”  Right, this is the 8th question Paul has asked in this chapter alone.  That may be a record.  Let’s read the question from the New Living Translation.

NLT Galatians 3:21 Well then, is there a conflict between God's law and God's promises?

Do we have a problem between the Law of Moses and the promise God made to Abraham.  This week’s question is a follow on question to last week’s question.

Last week we asked and answered the question, “Why did God do the Law of Moses?”  Around 2,000 BC God made a promise to Abraham; all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed.  Paul explained to us that the seed was Jesus.  Through Jesus all of us are Abraham’s kids. We are blessed by being declared right with God!   There was a promise made to Abraham because of his faith and then we had 1,500 years in the middle. The Law was in effect for 1,500 years. The question from last week was, “Why did God go from the faith of Abraham to 1500 years of Law and then back to the faith of Christ?”  What was the purpose of the Law of Moses? 

We found the answer in the metaphor of a “quarantine.”  The Law quarantined the family of Abraham, the Jews, to keep them distinct and unique and separate from the world.  They were given this Law to help them minimize sin until the cure of the cross came.  It is amazing that the Jews stayed the Jews for all that time.  Most other races and nationalities and religions have come and gone.  But the Law quarantined the Jewish people and kept them around until the time was right for the cure.  The purpose of the Law was to be a quarantine for the family of God so the Messiah would have a family to work with. 

In our last two sermons from Galatians the Law has come off as a somewhat less than a positive thing.  Those who rely on the Law to get right are the Buck Owens, the curse.  And it is inferior to the promise because of the angel/mediator thing.  It is a quarantine; that is not fun.  All of this negative press on the Law leads Paul to ask our question for this week.  It seems every answer in Galatians leads to another question. 

Recap:
Galatians 3:9-10  So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  All who rely on observing the law are under a curse.

Galatians 3:19  What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.

That naturally brings us to this week’s question.  After hammering the Law for the last two sermons, is the Law a bad thing?  Did the Law hinder God’s promise to Abraham?  Is there a conflict between the Law and the Promise. Now, we are all on the same page and ready for Paul’s answer.

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Galatians 3:21-26   Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.  23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.  25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.  26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

There’s the short answer; no.  The Law and the Promise were not working against each other, but rather they worked together.  Let’s break this down, verse by verse, and get into this passage.  There is a wonderful metaphor here that is amazing and enlightening. This metaphor will help us see the big picture and where we fit into it.  This is difficult scripture, but worth the effort to unfold it.  

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(v21) Paul begins by telling us, if there were any way that law could give us life then the Law of Moses would have. But, Law cannot give life. It is a dead thing, not a life giving thing. If Law could have given us life and made us right with God then the Law of Moses would have been enough to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham.  But Law can’t give us spiritual life and therefore could not be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.  The Law can only convict and at best instruct. It can’t give us new life.

 (v22) Instead all the Law can do is point to the fact that we are all sinners.  The Law tells us when and where we are sinners.  All the Law can do is point out the problem and quarantine those who are sick.  Only Christ/faith is the cure that brings life and rightness with God.  We get the blessing of being Abe’s kids by having Abe’s faith.  I want to talk more about that next week.  You cannot get to be right with God by doing stuff.

I ran across this little chart that may help:
1. The promise created a religion dependent on God.
2. The law created a religion dependent on man.
3. The promise centers on God’s plan.
4. The law centered on man’s duty.
5. The promise focuses on God’s grace, sovereignty, and blessings.
6. The law focused on man’s duty, work, responsibility, and behavior.
7. The promise requires only sincere faith.
8. The law required perfect obedience.

The purpose of the Law was not to be the blessing.  It could not give life or make anyone right with God.  That is the first part of Paul’s answer.  The Law was not attempting to do the blessing.  The Law was not in conflict with the Promise because they weren’t designed to do the same thing.

Now we come to the 2nd part of Paul’s answer and here is where he uses the amazing metaphor. This is the fun part of the sermon. It is the metaphor of thepaidagogos. 

Rich Greek and Roman boys had a paidagogos. The paidagogos is more than a babysitter, it is closer to a nanny; maybe a super-nanny.  These trusted family slaves were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of these rich boys, not girls. The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without their paidagogos right there beside them.  They weren’t teachers so much.  These rich boys would have had their schoolmasters.  But they were sort of a cross between a bodyguard, a babysitter, a school counselor and a lunch buddy.  They would raise their boys until the boy was grown.

Now watch as Paul uses the paidagogos metaphor to explain how the Law worked.  Follow the steps:

1) God made a promise to Abraham: His kids would be blessed.  Abraham’s seed would bring life and rightness to the world. 

2) Abraham begat Isaac, who begat Jacob who had 12 sons, including Joseph. Because of a famine they all ended up in… Egypt; where they stayed, ballpark, 500 years. Then… Moses brought them out of captivity.  Abraham’s family then became the nation of Israel. You could say the birth of a nation.

3) God through the angel gave the Law to Moses who taught it to the nation young nation of Israel. Throughout the next 1500 years the paidagogos nurtured and guided the growing nation of Israel through it’s elementary school years and through the teen years of Israel.

4) But one day the boy nation becomed a man.  I think that day was Pentecost AD 30. The day came when the little boy turned into a young man and didn’t need a babysitter anymore.  The Law did its job and delivered a young man into the adulthood of faith.  The young man, Israel was thankful for the help growing up, but not longer needed his paidagogos.

5) So, all who have the Christ/faith are made right with God and thus become grown men of faith who no longer need the babysitter of the law.  They now have their own life as they fulfill the promise of Abraham!   

So the answer to the question is the law in conflict with the Promise?  No, it was a babysitter until the children of God grew up.  Then, it was no longer needed. It would be silly for the grown man to go back to wanting to be under the paidagogos.
                              
Now let me read our verses from TIM while expanding on the metaphor.

TIM Galatians 3:23-26  Until faith in Christ was shown to us as the way of becoming right with God, we were protected by the law. We were watched by our babysitter, until we could put our faith in the coming Savior.   Let me put it another way. The law was our big brother to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God.  25 But now that faith in Christ has come, we no longer need our nanny.  26 So, now you are all mature sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Wow, wasn’t that fun.  Paul picked the perfect metaphor to explain the big picture of God.  The Law did its job and turned over a people who were ready for the Messiah and received the blessing God had promised Abraham. 

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That is kind of the end of the sermon; the answer to Paul’s questions about the Law.  But I want us to make some applications to who we are. Where do we fit into all this? What practical applications can we draw from the paidagogos metaphor?

1) We are not under the Law of Moses.  The first 39 books of our Bible, the Old Testament, was not written for us.  That was the paidagogos which led protected and defined a people for 1,500 years.  It is not for us.  Are we supposed to follow the 10 commandments?  Well, no.  Those are not our commandments. 

2) But, the Law is a good thing.  It is like me babysitting the kids.  It is like when I keep the Hank Dog.  I may tell him to stay out of the road. I may grab him up and keep him out of the road. But when he gets to be a young adult and has his own car, and I’m not there to watch him, he is going to go into the road.  But, he may remember his grandpa telling him about staying out of the road, and remember to be careful.  That is sort of how we use the OT.  We look and see we catch insights into
…how we please God; Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.
…how to be safe; Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
…how to treat others: Thou shalt not kill, adultery or steal.
…how to treat our family; Honor your Father and Mother.
We aren’t under the paidagogos of those Laws, but we can see where the danger is and how we love God and each other.  The Law is a good thing and we learn from it. 

3) We are mature sons of God.  It is the difference in being a kid and being an adult.  Kids have bedtimes, and rules about brushing their teeth, and have to be told to take a bath and only watch a defined amount of TV and only an hour of video games etc.  But as an adult we don’t live by those kind of rules, we go to bed because we need to.  We brush our teeth because we like our teeth.  We limit our fun because…well I’m not sure why.  But we do.  It is a different way to live.  As mature sons of God we love him!  And we live for him.  We do right to please him.   We live, not by law, but by love. 

4) We are all sons.  Notice in number three I said sons and not children. This is big. All who have Christ/faith are sons of God.  Here is a sneak preview of next week and the week after that.  There are no females in Christ.  What?  We are going to discover over the next two sermons, that all who have Christ/faith get Abraham’s inheritance.  We are going to discover there is no racial, social or gender basis for the blessin.  All who have Christ/faith are the sons of God and get the blessing. “Wow, I can’t wait.”

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In the churches of Galatia in 49 AD, there were a group of Jewish Christians going among Paul’s Gentile churches and telling them they needed to follow the Law of Moses, in addition to their belief in Christ, in order to be really “in with God.”  If they wanted to get the blessing of Abraham, they needed to be circumcised like Abraham and follow the Law in order to be the real family of God.  But Paul says no.  The Law was simply the paidagogos, the babysitter, until they were big enough to have Christ/faith.  Mature sons of God don’t need the babysitter any more!  We are sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ! 

Los Alamos Church of Christ
April 5, 2009