Galatians 3:15-20

This morning I am going to begin by reminding you of three concepts we have recently covered in our study of Galatians.  In our passage for this morning these three concepts come together to ask a significant question.

Concept 1) People of faith are Abraham’s descendants.

NRS Galatians 3:7 So, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham.

This is what the Galatians wanted.  They wanted to be fully integrated into God’s chosen family. Paul tells them when they have faith in the crucified Jesus, they are! When we believe in the redeeming death of Jesus, we are counted as the descendants of Abraham.  Have you ever noticed that people are proud of who they are related to?  We are related to Abraham, by faith!

In the actual Greek it is not descendants or even children as the NIV translates it, but actually; sons.  The difference in sons and children will become significant in a couple of weeks.  But note here that even us, who are Gentiles, become the offspring of the great man of faith, Abraham.

Concept 2) Abraham’s descendants get the blessing.

Remember God took Abraham out on a clear desert night and spread all the stars out above him and said, “Count ‘em.” And Abraham said, “I can’t, there are too many.” And God said, “That is how many descendants you will have and that through you all the peoples of the earth would be blessed.”  Not only are we his kids, we are the blessed kids!

Remember:

NIV Galatians 3:9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

There is a promise made to all who are Abraham’s offspring, those who have faith; they will be counted as righteous.  Abraham believed and that was credited as righteousness.  When we have the same faith in the promises of God, we are made right with God.  That is wonderful.  I a right with God because of faith!  I am tight with God because he counts my faith as righteousness.  The concept two is: we are blessed with Abraham because of faith.

Concept 3) People who rely upon the law are cursed.

We learned this two weeks ago.  We are Buck Owens and unlucky, if we rely upon the law, instead of faith, to make us right. 

Galatians 3:10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

Because we can’t make a 100% on the test of life we are under the curse; the woes, the Buck Owens because of the Law.  Remember it is hard for me to make it through one sermon without any hyperbole.  Everything I say is wrong. I lie all the time. I can’t say anything that is true… Whoops there I go again. Those who rely upon a legal system to get right or stay right with God are under the Buck Owens because they can’t do it perfectly. 

These three thoughts: 1) We can be Abraham’s kids by faith, 2) As Abraham’s kids we get the blessing, and 3) People who rely on law are under the Buck Owens; these three concepts, lead us to ask a significant question. 

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One more thing before we get to the significant question. Let me tell you my ballpark way to remember dates in the Bible.  This is a + or - a couple hundred years; a lot of slack in these dates:
-Abraham: 2000 BC
-Moses: 1500 BC
-David: 1000 BC
-End of OT 500 BC
-NT – 0 BC or AD
-Us: 2000 AD
Now we are ready for the question.

“Okay Paul, you have talked about Abraham, who lived around 2,000 BC, and you have talked about Moses and the Law which was roughly 1500 BC, and you have talked about Jesus’ crucifixion around 0. Here is the problem; God made a promise to Abraham and then 500 years go by and then the Law comes and lasts for 1500 years and then comes Jesus, who we have faith in and we get Abraham’s blessing.  Here is the part that is hard to get.  If it is having Abraham’s kind of faith that I can get the blessing and be his descendant, then why in the world did you to the whole Law of Moses thing anyway?  Why put something in place that is going to end up as a curse?  Why did you do the any Law stuff at all?  It seems you could have just skipped that and stayed with the faith thing.”

That is the question we are going to explore this morning in Galatians 3:15-20.  It is not just an interesting question.  Anytime we ask God why, we are on sketchy ground, but Paul’s answer has a real-life application to you and me, as well.  Let’s work through our 6 verses.  To see if we can get our head’s around Paul’s answer to why God did the Law. 

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Galatians 3:15-16   Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.  The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.

Paul’s first point is once a contract is signed it is, “Black, black, no trade back.”  That ends any discussion.  Once you say, “Black, black, no trade back” then there is not way to unto the deal.  Everyone knows that.  God made a promise to Abraham around 2000 BC and said, “Black, black, no trade back.”   

Then Paul points out this promise which has been duly sealed with the appropriate words, says one seed not many seeds. Let’s go to Genesis and check this out. I’m reading from the KJV because it quotes God accurately.

KJV Genesis 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land:” and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

KJV Genesis 13:15 “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.”

KJV Genesis 24:7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.”

Paul is accurate; God said to thy seed not plural seeds. Paul wants us to understand the blessing comes through the one person Jesus!  Jesus is the seed that blesses all the people of the earth.  We got that let’s keep going.

Galatians 3:17-18 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

The promise came around… 2000 BC.  The Law of Moses came around 1500 BC or as Paul says 430 years later; ballpark.  The Law cannot undo the promise.  The Law cannot unto the “Black, black no trade back.”  Even though the law was in effect for 1500 years, it did not negate the promise nor in some way earn the promise.  It would not be a promise if we earned it by the work of law.  It is grace!  Okay, we got that Jesus is the seed the answer to the promise and we got that the Law did not cancel the promise. Now we are ready to get to the point.

Galatians 3:19  What, then, was the purpose of the law?

Why did God do the law thing in the middle between the promise and the seed; between the “Black, black, no trade back,” and Jesus?  Why do the law?

Galatians 3:19-20  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.  A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

Let’s break this down into three answers to our question.  What was the question?  What was the purpose of the law; why the law? 3 Answers:

1) Because of transgressions
2) Until Jesus
3) The Law was given by angels and a mediator.

I guess we are done. There are your answers.  Let me go to N. T. Wright to help us out because he is really smart

Paul is quite clear that the human race as a whole is sinful, under God's judgment. He is also clear that God called Abraham so that eventually, through his family, the remedy might be found for the problem of human beings and indeed the cosmos as a whole. But Abraham's family, from that day onwards, were also, still, part of the human race. The people who carried the solution were themselves part of the problem. The doctors were themselves infected with the disease. (Aw, a doctor metaphor.)

What then had to happen? Answer: the doctors themselves needed to be put in quarantine until the medicine they were carrying could be applied. The law was a kind of temporary quarantine for this purpose; to go on insisting on it after the solution has been found is absurd. The law was given, Paul says, because of this in-between state of Abraham's physical family, the people of Israel. It was given, in fact, 'because of transgressions'; a 'transgression' is not just a sin, an act of wickedness, but the breaking of a law. It was given for a set period of time, until the single family intended and promised by God should arrive with the Messiah.

That is a great analogy.  The Law was given to minimize the sickness of sin; to help curb the disease, to let people know what was making them sick. The Law explains the disease called sin.  But when the cure was finally developed and the vaccine of the cross was being injected around the world the quarantine was lifted.  The Law was used by God because of transgressions until the Seed which would save the world!  The Law served its purpose of containing and identifying the disease. But, now, we have the cure and we not longer need the quarantine. Wow, I like it!

What about number 3; this angel and mediator thing?  This answer is a little more complicated and requires us to dig a little bit into Paul’s world.   Let’s go back to Acts and Stephen in chapter 7.

Acts 7:36-38  “He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'  He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.”

Stephen tells us that it was actually an angel who spoke with Moses on Mt. Sinai and gave him the Law.  You have this picture of the receiving of the Law:

GOD - ANGEL - MOSES - PEOPLE

But when God gave the promise to Abraham it was simply like this:

GOD - ABRAHAM

Therefore Paul argues that the law has always been inferior to the promise, because the promise didn’t have any intermediates.  It was straight from God.

Let’s put this all together to answer our question, why law?  I hope when someone stops you on the street and says, “Why do you think God gave the Law to Moses? You can say. God made a promise to Abraham that someday all the people would be blessed through him.  Someday there would be a promise that would come to pass that would be spectacular.  But that day when the promise would come took a long time; like 2,000 years.  Something had to be done in the meantime to minimize the damage of sin, there had to be a quarantine on the sin.  That was the Law.  The Law, which was a good thing, did its job and was fulfilled and went away when the cure of the cross was realized.  The Law was never intended to change the promise. After all, it came through angels, not straight from God.  Therefore relying on the Law after it was done, places you under the Buck Owens; a curse.  Woo, that was pretty hard, but worth it.

Why did God do the Law?  He needed it to limit and identify sin until Jesus could fix it! 

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Now let’s get to the good part of the sermon.  Let’s see how this can be a step toward freedom; where it means something to us. Here is the point. Here is what you can take home this morning.  God is not capricious.  God is not fickle.  God does not change his mind on a whim.  God keeps his promises. It may have taken 2,000 years but once God said, “Black, black, no trade back,” you can count on him keeping His word.  That is what it is all about.  Remember Step Two? The Faith becomes Your Faith.  Faith knows God keeps his promise.  He promised Abraham, his kids would be blessed by being declared righteous.  We are his kids by faith. We can know that we are right with him because he always keeps his promise. 

Did you notice that it’s been 2,000 years since Jesus brought the cure?  Isn’t that curious? The Promise 2000 BC; the Cure 0, Us 2000 AD.  But, that doesn’t matter.  Even though it has been 4,000 years since the Promise, you can count on it because God said, “Black, black, no trade back!”

Los Alamos Church of Christ
March 29, 2009