Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB000006B
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00:05 Welcome back, right before our break we were talking about
00:09 the purpose of the law. 00:10 Jim you are going to jump right in here to Galatians 3. 00:15 Let's take a look at Galatians 3:19, right there the 00:20 apostle Paul pretty much fore- shadows, he is thinking ahead 00:24 and knows what type of questions are coming. 00:27 In verse 19 he says, "what purpose then does the law 00:31 "serve?" If the law, like that bowl of fruit wasn't to 00:35 catch the oil, does that mean we throw it away? 00:38 If the law wasn't for justification does that 00:41 mean there is no need for the law? 00:42 The apostle Paul is trying to address that question. 00:44 He says, "it was added because of transgressions," let me 00:49 stop there for a moment. 00:50 There are many people when they look at that think well 00:53 the Ten Commandments then must have been added just 00:56 because of sin and then it goes on to say, 01:00 "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made;" 01:04 so they must have just been added because of sin and then 01:07 they end and there is no longer a need to keep them after 01:10 the Seed has come. 01:12 We are going to address that a little more as we advance 01:14 along but I want to make this point. 01:16 When it says law, first of all this is talking about not 01:19 just the Ten Commandments, again it's that word nomos, 01:23 it just means law in general. 01:24 - our viewers if they weren't here before, the Greek 01:29 or original text of Galatians does not use a definite 01:34 article anywhere Paul is talking about law. 01:36 In other words it's not the law, but in the original it 01:39 is simply law. - that's right. 01:41 So the idea is what is the purpose of law in general if 01:45 the promise is how we are to receive the inheritance? 01:48 So he says it was added because of transgressions. 01:52 If you think about, whether it's the moral law, the 01:55 Ten Commandments, whether it's the sacrificial laws, 01:58 whether it's circumcision, the issue that was heeded in the 02:02 book of Galatians, what ever your talking about in terms of 02:06 law, the reason that they were given in part 02:09 was because of transgression. 02:11 In other words prior to any sin coming into the world 02:15 there was no need because the principles of the law 02:18 were in the heart and people were living the law 02:21 in their lives, God's creation was living out the law. 02:25 Once there was a fall, especially once God's people 02:28 went into Egypt and they came out. 02:31 In order to instruct them, in order to give humanity 02:33 a clear picture once more of His will, the law was given. 02:37 He speaks of it as being given with a specific role in 02:41 this time, but this giving of the law isn't talking 02:45 about the existence of the law in the whole. 02:48 It's talking about a picture of God's will, 02:50 a picture of God's will. 02:52 So what we are going to look at here in this next verse 02:55 it's going to begin to flush out for us what the real 02:58 purpose of the law was as proclaimed from Sinai. 03:02 So it says in the next part, "it was added because 03:05 "of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the 03:08 "promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by 03:11 "the hand of a mediator. Now the mediator does not 03:13 "mediate for one only, but God is one. " 03:15 He is simply making the point the law and the promises 03:18 both came from God and God is one. 03:20 They are not contrary to one another. 03:23 It is also interesting that he makes the point that it 03:26 came through the hand of a mediator, that it was appointed 03:29 by angels, the same things Stephen said when they stoned 03:33 him, they receive the law through the direction of angels 03:37 and have not kept it. 03:38 So both the apostle Paul, Paul is just repeating the words 03:41 of Stephen who had an active part in his own conversion. 03:45 When you say that something is received from the hand of 03:48 angels you are displaying its exalted character. 03:52 If something came to the hand of angels, 03:53 you are talking about something sacred. 03:55 - that is exactly right. Then he says in verse 21, 03:58 "is the law then against" - I want to backup Jim. 04:01 I want to backup, it is interesting in my study and I 04:04 know you have done a lot of studying" in the book of 04:06 Galatians, most commentators have 04:09 a real problem with verse 20. 04:10 They say in verse 20 wall was Paul making a point of? 04:13 Then they wrestle and wrestle and I think the reason so 04:16 many people wrestle with verse 20 is because they want 04:19 to pit the law against the promises. 04:22 When you understand the reality, Paul is saying there 04:25 is look the same God who mediated the law, mediated the 04:28 promises, the same God who gave the law gave the promises, 04:31 therefore they cannot be contradictory. 04:32 They go together and go hand-in-hand so don't try to pit 04:37 them against each other and then you may understand 04:40 the truth of God. 04:41 That's right, excellent point. 04:43 In verse 21 than he begins to talk about why they are not 04:45 pitted against each other. 04:46 He asks, "is the law then against the promises of God?" 04:49 The answer is pretty strong. "Certainly not! For if 04:52 "there had been a law given which could have given life, 04:55 "truly righteousness would have been by the law. " 04:58 So here the apostle Paul is saying there is no law that 05:03 gives righteousness, that is somewhat obvious. 05:07 Righteousness is right living, it denotes life. 05:12 The law is not able to give life, only the 05:16 Life-giver can give life. 05:17 I mentioned before the break the text in Isaiah says that 05:21 God talks about those who know righteousness, speaks of 05:24 the people that know righteousness, he says, you who 05:28 know righteousness in whose people whose heart is My law. 05:31 I'd like to say that righteous- ness is right being that is 05:35 manifested in right doing. 05:37 It's not just outward it starts inwardly, but can't help 05:40 but to become outward. 05:42 1 John 3:7 says, "do not deceived, He who practices 05:48 "righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. " 05:52 There are some people who want to say righteousness is 05:55 all inward, it's always inward eye has nothing to do with 05:59 outward, but that is not true anymore than righteousness 06:02 being outward and not inward, it's both. 06:03 That's right, and you know there is something else 06:06 we discussed before is that righteousness, 06:08 when you look at the righteous- ness you can see in the law, 06:11 the law of God as it's shown is sort of like 06:14 a picture of a person. 06:17 So God's righteousness is expressed in the law sort of 06:23 the same way a picture of me expresses who I am. 06:27 Yeah you can see who I am, but the embodiment of who I am, 06:32 the fullness of who I am isn't there. 06:35 You can't get life out of that. 06:37 In the same way you can't get life out of the law. 06:40 You can only get life from a Life-giver. 06:42 So he makes the point, if there had been a law given which 06:45 could have given life, truly righteousness would have been 06:48 by the law, but there is no righteousness that can come 06:50 out of the law. 06:52 One good example of how God dealt with that is in the book 06:55 of Romans, I thought maybe we could look there together. 07:00 If you go to Romans 7, in chapter 7 you will remember from 07:04 a previous episode, we looked at verse 14 where it says, 07:09 "for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, 07:14 "sold under sin. " So law is spiritual but I'm carnal and 07:18 we had this disconnect, we've talked about that before. 07:23 So in verse three of chapter 8, Romans 8:3 it says, 07:27 "for what the law could not do in that it was weak 07:30 "through the flesh. " We just read in Galatians the law 07:33 couldn't give life. - that's right! 07:35 Because it was weak in the flesh. 07:36 The law is spiritual, but we are carnal. - that's right! 07:40 So because the law could not give life something else had 07:43 to be done and it says what God does right after this. 07:46 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak 07:49 "through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the 07:52 "likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned 07:56 "sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law 07:59 "might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the 08:02 "flesh but according to the Spirit. " 08:05 So from God we receive the Spirit, the law can't give us 08:10 the Spirit, but God gives us His Spirit which creates 08:14 that submission to God, that crucifixion of selfishness. 08:18 I think of it in my own life, what does that look like? 08:22 For me, suddenly I had a hunger for God. 08:24 I had an interest for the things of God. 08:27 I desired to follow God, my heart was melted by the love 08:30 of Christ and suddenly my attitude towards spiritual 08:34 things changed, that is what the Spirit can do 08:37 that the law simply cannot do. 08:39 That's right, that's right and so you have this, one of 08:42 the things about the law is that it points out a condition 08:46 and it makes known to us the reality that we have no 08:50 righteousness, yet we need righteousness 08:52 if we are going to have life. 08:54 So as Paul goes on in Galatians 3:22 he says, "but the 08:59 "Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by 09:05 "faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who 09:08 "believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard 09:12 "by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be 09:15 "revealed. " Now before when he said until the Seed should 09:18 come but now here he links faith to that. 09:21 I'm not going to comment on that but I want us to look at 09:23 the language he uses and depending on your 09:25 Bible translation, mine uses the word confined under sin. 09:30 Kept under guard by the law, I think the King James says, 09:35 shut up under sin and other translations use these similar 09:39 words, shut up, confined, kept under guard, like you are 09:43 being jailed and what the Bible is doing here. 09:46 What Paul is doing is showing the role of the law 09:48 as a disciplinarian. 09:51 In other words for the unconverted person, the law's 09:55 role our relation to the law because we are sinners, 09:58 all the law you like and do is condemn our actions. 10:01 It can't give us righteousness, it can just bear witness 10:04 to righteousness, it can show us right and wrong, but it 10:07 can't transform us because we are untransformed because 10:11 we are carnal and all the law can do is say you are carnal 10:14 you are condemned, you're on death row. 10:17 That is right. - the Bible says kept under guard by the 10:22 law for the faith which will be revealed. 10:25 So the idea is you are shut up in this prison cell and 10:30 it's an unpleasant experience until you come to the 10:35 realization that there is one door out. 10:37 - that's right, that's right and so this idea of sin, 10:41 the law revealing our sin, of course the wages of sin 10:44 is death so when the law reveals our sin it automatically 10:49 shows us we are doomed to die eternally. 10:53 So we are in this fearful mode until, like you said, 10:57 you see that the door, that door is faith coming. 11:01 Faith in what? Faith in Christ is exactly right. 11:04 Verse 23 says, "but before faith came, we were kept under 11:07 "guard by the law, For the faith which would afterward be 11:11 "revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to 11:15 "Christ, that we might be justified by faith. " 11:18 The law couldn't give us life, but it's certainly wants 11:21 us to have life. - that's right. 11:23 It says look, you are outside of My will so you are doomed 11:26 to die, the law is simply an expression of God's will. 11:30 God uses the law to show us our guilt, to give us a deep 11:34 conviction that we need Him. 11:36 That leads us to Christ. And then it says, "but after 11:40 "faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. " 11:44 So once the law fulfills its role, as a jail master, 11:48 as it were, showing us that we are outside of God's will. 11:52 We are destined to die eternally, we say oh, I need to 11:56 escape from this and we reach out by faith in Christ 12:00 and receive His sacrifice in our behalf. 12:03 We received the Spirit of God which gives us a humble 12:06 heart that now the law can recognize. 12:10 Now we do not need that law from a jail master role 12:13 anymore. - no not in the role of a disciplinarian. 12:17 Like when you're growing up as a child and your parents 12:20 tell you to do this and do that, the hope is one of 12:22 these days it will be in your heart and 12:25 you will choose to do it. 12:26 So in the will of God, before we come to Christ the law 12:31 tells us what's wrong and it's abrasive, we don't like it. 12:36 But when our heart is converted it becomes in our heart to 12:41 choose to do the things that please God. 12:44 Just like David said, now all of a sudden it is 12:46 oh how I love thy law. - that's right. 12:47 Something changes and I think of Psalms 19 were it says, 12:50 "the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. " 12:54 We know that only God can convert the soul. 12:56 But the Lord Jesus uses the law to lead us to Himself 13:02 that we might find a humility that brings us into 13:06 Harmony, spirituality which the law is trying 13:11 to get us to have. 13:12 So now we are desirous of keeping the law. 13:15 That is just a powerful thought. 13:17 I hope you will join us next time. |
Revised 2023-04-24