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“Five Facts About The Law Of God” •
6.23.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- The argument of the Apostle Paul presented in
the book of Galatians can be summed up this way: "All of God's
righteousness and favor extend exclusively to those who believe in
Christ!"
- This was the experience of Paul and the
Galatians, as well as the biblical fact of Abraham himself! He was justified 13
years before circumcision and 430 years before the law!
- Since this is the case, it leaves us with a
burning question which is the theme of our section today. What is the point of
God's law? Why was it written?
- In our section today Paul will give us 5
facts about the law that will help us to understand it's nature and our
relationship to it. Because they are not "sections," I'll call them
out as we pass them.
Text
•
Galatians 3:19 : "What purpose then does the law
serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to
whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a
mediator." : God gave the law to the people of
Israel when they were to enter into the land of Canaan.
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It was a covenant between Lord and tenant. The land had been overrun by the
idolatrous descendants of Ham and God was going to use Israel to evict them.
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God's people were to live under the law, as a way of expressing love for God
and holiness or separation unto the Lord. The law revealed a different standard
of living in this world.
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Never once is the law tied to eternal life or salvation as we know it. Rather,
those who lived by it would find themselves blessed and living peacefully in
God's land.
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God also promised to evict the Israelites if they would follow in the same sins
as the Canaanites. Obedience to God's law equalled life; disobedience meant
death.
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So back to Paul's question. If it's purpose is not productive toward eternal
salvation, why then does it exist? What does it do? This brings us to our first
fact about the law.
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The law is additional. It was added
alongside of the promise that God gave, not a substitute or an alternative.
Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone was never plan
B!
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People tend to think in those terms, expressing it in a sentence like this:
"God gave salvation by grace through faith in Christ because they could
not keep the law." This is right but wrong!
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God brought the law into being because of transgressions, a word expressive of
boundary lines being violated.
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The law is meant to reveal our constant desire to go beyond the boundary lines
that exist! The law of Moses makes sin a matter of offending God official!
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He added it to define and raise the consciousness of our sin, leaving the objective
law to serve as a mirror which reflects our character in the light of His Holy
standard!
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Notice though, our second fact: The law is temporal.
The law was added until the Seed, Jesus should come. This brings us back to the
promise that Abraham received which was binding!
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When Jesus came into the world, He said that He had not come to dispense with
the law, but to fulfill it's demands perfectly. (Matthew 5:17)
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Jesus Christ lived perfectly under the law of God, fulfilling every one of it's
demands. His performance was great enough to provide righteousness for all who
would believe upon Him!
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Note third that the law was a miracle.
"Don't denigrate the law! This law was appointed or ordained through
angels, by the hand of a mediator."
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The word "mediator" refers to one who stands between two parties and
acts as an arbitor, intervening for the sake of restoring or creating a
peaceful accord.
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The law did not come directly to Moses, but passed from God, through the hands
of angels.
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It's an equal mistake to belittle the law as it is to magnify the law beyond
it's borders. The law is miraculous and wonderful for what it is!
•
Galatians 3:20 : "Now a mediator does not mediate for
one only, but God is one." :
Mediators, arbitors, generally help in a neutral way between to factions. The
law required a multiple of at least three to bring it into existence.
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But the promise that God made to Abraham directly, was spoken by God and
ratified by God alone when He passed through the pieces.
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God's promise then stands not on the shoulders of men or angels, but on His own
eternal strength and power to decree and complete it in you!
•
Galatians 3:21,22 : "Is the law then against the
promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could
have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all
under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those
who believe." : Paul's leading question is
rhetorical and therefore, an obvious no. The law of Moses is not opposed to the
promise of God. They are entirely complimentary.
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There is not a law that could give life. One cannot arrive at a life that is
pleasing to God by keeping laws. There is not a law that can give or breathe
spiritual life into a person!
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This brings us to our fourth fact regarding the law. The law was provisional. Like a government that
rises in a time of crisis, the law martialed God's people.
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God's Word, the scripture, has confined all under sin. The picture behind the
word "confined" is of a net that has been lowered into the sea and
has lured in the fish.
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When that net is brought up, the fish are captured on all sides. There is no
escape from their fate! The law has done this to every man!
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The law exists to trap man, to surround him, to expose to him the sin that
exists in his life! The law is a prison that tells every person that they are
neither free, nor are they righteous!
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God has done this, brought every person under the weight and guilt of their own
sin, so that the promise of life might be by faith in Jesus Christ, given to
all those who believe!
•
Galatians 3:23 : "But before faith came, we were kept
under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed." : Before faith came. Faith has always been, but the faith that
was to be put in Christ had been veiled.
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Now after Christ had come, there exists an object for our faith, the Promised
Messiah Jesus. Before that was available to us, the law kept God's people under
guard.
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The same word is used of an army garrison, employed either to keep you safe
from those who would attack or to martial you into a given city.
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The law stood positively as a guard over God's people until faith in Christ was
revealed. Some would object: How was God's law guarding them?
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Consider the Jewish dietary law which prohibited them from eating certain foods
that would have caused rampant disease because of unsanitary cooking
conditions.
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The laws that called for them to recognize clean and unclean items in their
homes or in their skin saved generations of people from extinction.
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Those were the physical issues that the law protected them from. How much more
did the moral law protect them from living in a constant state of self-destruction!
The law was their guardian!
•
Galatians 3:24,25 : "Therefore the law was our tutor to
bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no
longer under a tutor." : The law was their
confinement, their prison protecting them from the outside world. It was their
guardian and their tutor or as the AV translates it, "schoolmaster."
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It was common for one trusted slave to perform the task of educating the
children of the household. This education went far beyond books and classroom.
- It extended into an education of the
way life was for that family. What were the morals of the home? How was life
perceived?
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The pedagogue had extensive power over the child, even to the point of deciding
whether a child could leave the house!
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The law taught the Jewish people what the character of God's life required, but
it didn't transform them into those people. The tutor was only meant to bring
them towards Christ!
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Now, for both Jew and Gentile, there is no longer the power of the tutor
because the life of God has come into the children of God, by the grace of
Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit!
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Understand something of Paul's subtlety here. Being under the law is not more
sophisticated than being under grace. Being under the law is not step two or an
advanced degree.
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Being under the law is like a grown Harvard educated man enrolling in a
Kindergarten course! It's like a grown man going back to find his schoolmaster,
wanting him again to rule his life!
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Going back under the law is not just NOT a step forward. It's a an unthinkable
regress into immaturity! The law is for kids!
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This brings us to our final fact that Paul relays to us. Let me review. Paul
has told us that the law was additional,
temporal, a miracle, provisional and
finally, transitional.
•
Galatians 3:26-29 : "For you are all sons of God through
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you
are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." : You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus! Sons
being fully grown, capable of being trusted!
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You are fully matured sons of the Father, ready to take on the privliges of
your inheritance and the responsiblities of the family business!
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When you believed in Christ, you were baptized into Him. Immersive baptism
speaks of a complete initiation into all that Jesus represents. The person
baptized has put on Christ.
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Because of His goodness, because that is what God sees, any other distinction
that one could make about you is meaningless!
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Paul may be hinting here at a prayer that was historically uttered by orthodox
Jewish men, thanking God that they were neither Gentiles, slaves or females!
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In Christ, all of that type of thinking is utterly abolished! A transition
beyond class has occured! There are no racial, social or sexual points of
discrimination. You are all one in Christ!
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Paul does not mean that a Christian will not recognize a man from a woman. It
means that there is no distinction that earns a person any extra favor from
God!
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Being related to Christ relates you to the promise that was made to Christ! You
are heirs of that promise equally with another!
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Every blessing that God wants to give you is available in Christ! The promise
of Abraham was made to him who received it in faith!
•
Galatians 4:1-5 : "Now I say that the heir, as long as
he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all,
but is under guardians and
stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time
had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem those who were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." : When an heir to a fortune is a child, Paul uses the word for an
infant, he or she is no different than any slave. They have no claim to their
rights. They cannot act independantly.
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During the child's growth, they are under the superintending care of guardians
and stewards.
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The word "guardians" refers to an overseer, while
"stewards" refers to the master of the house. They guide and direct
the child as he grows, teaching him the ways of the home.
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One day, when the Father dictates that the child is ready, those overseers and
masters instantly become the child's employees and the relationship is
reversed!
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That's the illustration of what it was like to be a Jewish person before
Christ! They were in bondage under the elements, or first principles, the
rudiments of life in God!
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The law pointed to something that men and women were meant to graduate to!
That's what faith in Christ is: A graduation to greater things!
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The law served it's purpose, but when the fullness of time had come, God
brought His plan into action! The word "fullness" speaks of a fully
complemented ship, with all crew and cargo aboard.
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Many have commented about the world at the time of Christ, dominated by Roman
rule, which helped to pave the way for Christianity's spread.
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Roman peace, Roman roads and Roman commerce all existed to bring the world
together in one place. It was Roman Justice that crucified Christ, a
fulfillment of prophecy!
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Add in the usage of koine Greek, a single language that all spoke and you have
the right time! God picked a perfect time to send Jesus, His Son, who came
forth from a woman.
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Jesus, always having been divine, put on humanity through the virgin womb of
Mary, bypassing the sinful nature carried in the line of a human Father.
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Jesus who was born under the influence of the Mosaic and was without sin,
served as One who had the right to redeem, to purchase those who were under the
law!
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Why? So that we could be heirs along with Him! Christians are recipients of the
honor that is due His name!
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When one was adopted by another, that person left all vestige of his past
behind him, including the name and debts of his former family and became a full
fledged son.
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Paul is telling them that they are acting like slaves when they should be
walking around as what they really are: Sons of God through Christ!
•
Galatians 4:6,7 : "And because you are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave
but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." : What a wonderful verse. To our English ears we miss the
intention entirely.
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For those of us with difficult relationships with our Fathers, the experience
is one that you will have to trust is awaiting you.
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God has adopted you in Christ and now, it's the Spirit of His Son that cries
out in your heart to be closely, intimately related to God! The law never did
that!
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The law forces you to look down and mutter the words in fear, "Yes
Master!" Faith in Christ allows you to run to Jesus, and arm in arm with
Him, call out excitedly, "Daddy!"
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"Abba" is an incredibly intimate word expressing warm affection and
deep love! God has not simply adopted us and left us without the ability to
respond to Him. His Spirit does that in us!
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We're sons! Heirs of God through Christ! What Christ deserves, by union in Him
by faith, we receive!
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If you have believed, every warm feeling and love that God wishes to shower on
Christ is yours to enjoy because of what He has earned for you!
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The law taught you and I to know God's perfection and holiness. The Lord Jesus
gave us His perfection and holiness!
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To those who seek to follow the law, there will be the constant presence of
fear. To those who respond in faith, there will be the constant presence of
great joy!
Conclusion
- The law was additional to the promise, to reveal the sin that needed the promise! The law was temporal, until the promise of the Seed, Jesus Christ fulfulled it.
- The law was additional to the promise, to reveal the sin that needed the promise! The law was temporal, until the promise of the Seed, Jesus Christ fulfulled it.
-
The law is a miracle, passing
through the hands of angels. The law was provisional,
confining, guarding and leading God's people to safety until Jesus came.
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The law is transitional, pointing to
the reality that we are not meant to remain children, but are meant to be fully
matured Sons, heirs of the promises made to Jesus! There is nothing better!