Galatians 3:15-29

The Gospel of Grace Versus Works

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another opportunity to come and study your Word. We pray that your Word would touch our hearts today and change us from the inside out. Lord, in Hebrews 6 we hear about the goodness of the Word of God, and we pray that we would taste of that today, and even imbibe and drink and swallow deeply, Lord, that we would truly receive the food of your Holy Word, God.

Without this, we have no life in us, and to us, your Word is life. So, Lord, speak to us this day, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

What is the theme of Galatians, brother?

The gospel of grace and standing against any other edition of works.

That's well said. So, we see a lot of counterpoint, point-counterpoint, law, grace, gospel, false gospel going on here. Probably one of the more used genre TV shows is the courtroom drama. You go back, some of us remember Perry Mason.

I don't think Emily remembers, Tim doesn't remember Perry Mason. Loved him, Della. Supposedly he and Della had a relationship outside the show. But anyway, courtroom drama, Perry Mason, Matlock. Who doesn't like Matlock and the way that he could just tear a witness apart and almost put them into tears and they admit the fact that they killed the person.

It's like, he just had a way about him. How many spin-offs are there of law and order? It's like, you almost can't get enough of these courtroom dramas. I'm sorry? It's coming, coming to a theater near you.

Being able to take a scenario of a perceived action and witnesses that are presented and coming up to the whodunit at the very end of it. Sandy and I do enjoy the show Castle. I don't know, some of you have seen Castle.

It's ringing a bell when you're the younger people.

One of the things that we have identified that we absolutely love about Castle and it's almost unique is that you don't know who did it until there's two minutes left in the show. You will have somebody in front of Kate Beckett and Richard Castle in the interrogation room and they're just tearing them apart and you're going, but he didn't do it because it's five minutes on.

They're good at hiding the, you know, and if you're really, really, really good. Now, how many people like to read mystery novels?

A couple.

How many people read the last chapter before they read the whole book? The reality of the Christian, even the evangelical world, is this almost conflict, almost this tension of do you stand by the side of the law or do you stand away from the law?

This thought of legalism versus too much latitude and there's almost a tension in there. I mean, you think about the law and what did Jesus have to say? A couple of things in the Sermon on the Mount. You think that I've come to abolish the law.

I have not come to abolish it but to fulfill it. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, but by any means, it just appears from the law until everything is accomplished.

He basically validated the law but he claimed within him is the fulfillment of what the law had to say. Jesus is asked, what's the greatest commandment? And he said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.

And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the laws and the prophets. He almost validates the existence of the laws. And so now we get into this little section here in Galatians 3 where I almost perceive a courtroom scene.

The Abrahamic Covenant Is Unbreakable

Covenant v. Law. I'd love to have the Supreme Court try that case. Covenant v. Law. And we're going to hear evidence about what is the covenant. We're going to hear evidence about what is the law. And then we're going to hear the evidence of covenant v. Law.

And we'll go through that and eventually we're going to have a verdict. You're going to be the jury. We're eventually, I'll let you be the judge. All right, I'll be the judge.

All right.

We're going to take this three times, three sections in a row. Rick, I'm going to ask if you would read verses 15 to 18. We are going to look at some evidence because if you're going to be in a courtroom, you're going to have evidence for the plaintiff and for the prosecutor.

Anybody here ever serve on a jury? Oh my goodness, you guys know this stuff. If I break protocol, I expect you guys to reel me in. Genesis 3, 1, and 2. That's going to be for the covenant going to be number one.

It's going to be anyway. Genesis, huh? Genesis. Genesis 12, 1 to 3. We're on the covenant side of it. I'm going to skip over to Emily. Matthew 1, 1. Genesis 15, please, if you'll have that one ready. I'm going to tell a story about my wife.

We had Mary Elizabeth and Tim over and she accidentally called her Mary Kate.

It's okay because your middle name is Catherine, so it kind of works.

I am in so much trouble already. Genesis 15, 13. Genesis 46, Tim. And Dominic, you got Exodus 12 and Acts 7. If you would have that, please.

What was that about death and life and the power of the tongue?

Oh boy, that was our devotion this morning. Is this death or life?

Right.

Give me Galatians 3, 15 to 18, please.

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. 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.

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. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise.

But God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Clearly the big subject in this paragraph is a covenant. What is the covenant? What is a covenant?

Unbreakable promise.

That's well said, and that's also very well said.

There are unbreakable covenants.

What you just read about is unbreakable.

Is what? Unbreakable.

Absolutely.

So a lot of it has to do with somebody who has the authority to make a covenant, somebody who is going to be the recipient of the covenant, and it's terms of what's going to take place. This says that we have an example, and we're going to talk about, even with a man-made covenant, nobody can add to it, nobody can change it.

So the first thing he's going to be talking about is the reality that a covenant, even if we're talking about man-made covenant, is a binding agreement between two people. And the covenant that he's talking about in this section is the Abrahamic covenant.

That's what's actually on trial here. It shows up in Genesis 12, 1 to 3. Bob?

To Abraham, go forth to the land which I will show you, and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing to those who curse you. I will curse you, and you shall be blessed.

So the reality is that this is the establishment of an agreement, and the power of this agreement, the ratification of this agreement, is Yahweh making the statement, I will, I will, I will. And in fact, as we go through the book of Genesis, this promise that God gives is reiterated to Isaac, is reiterated to Jacob.

It's ratified by God, it is not going to be changed. And it says that even in a man-made covenant, nobody adds to it or changes it. Once that covenant is set, it is set. And it's something that is not to be altered.

And so he's setting the groundwork that this Abrahamic covenant, which shows up initially in Genesis 12, is God's proclamation, and he ratifies it, and he has put his seal on it, this is not to be changed.

This is a covenant to be. Now who receives this? In verse 16 it said, Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offsprings. No, that's not what it says. And to his offspring. It does not say offsprings, referring to many, but to one.

The recipient of this promise, who is? Who is the recipient of this covenant? I got one answer, Christ, and I got another answer, Abraham. Who is the recipient of this promise?

The recipient is the one giving it.

The recipient, the one giving is the deliverer, or the covenantee, covenantor. The covenantee is the one who's getting it. Abraham, according to this promise here, it is given to Abraham and to his offsprings.

According to this passage, the promise is to a singular. Offspring, not offsprings. Now we often look at the Abrahamic covenant, and I don't think it's inappropriate to say that he talks about, because I will make you a nation, and I will bless you as a nation, and through you all the nations will be blessed.

There is application throughout humanity to this promise. But there is a unique aspect to this promise, according to this passage, that goes to his offspring. And in this case, his offspring is not his son.

He goes up on the mountain, and God says, I want you to sacrifice your son, your only son. Well, okay, first of all, according to God's view, that was his only son. The first one was a mistake. But that being said, that's not the promise, and it's not Jacob.

Who is the actual indicated offspring in this passage?

Christ.

It is Christ. Matthew 1 .1.

Emily?

It is important to note in the very, very beginning of the Gospel message, in the very, very beginning, I don't think this is an accident that Matthew shows up first in our Bible. Now, there are three Gospels that are called the Synoptic Gospels, and I think it's generally believed that Luke was the first of the Synoptics, and that Matthew and Mark used content in writing, because you can do a comparative, almost word-for-word, idea-for-idea, in many sections of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And then there's also thought that there was another document, a Gospel-like document, that doesn't show up in the canon, and that they shared common thoughts. But it's not a mistake that in the canon of Scripture, Matthew was first.

I do believe that this is a God-ordained order to the Scripture, and it starts out with the reality that Jesus is Abraham's offspring, pointing us all the way back to the promise that was given, and that when Paul writes his letter, and he talks about the promise, the covenant was made to Abraham and his offspring.

Not to say offsprings, referring to many, but offspring, and then he clarifies it, who is Christ.

John. Yes.

Come back to me. Recipient. Somehow that didn't get into my head.

You got it right, though.

You said Christ.

Yeah, I got it right, but I didn't understand. The one who receives. The one who receives.

I apologize.

Sometimes I get my mind going.

I got my answer right, but I didn't.

Yes, you did.

But that isn't the question.

Okay, so he made the comment that it was Abraham, which is true according to the text, and you said Christ, which is true according to the text. They're both the right answer. They're both the recipient.

It was given to Abraham, and through Abraham, it goes to his offspring, Christ.

Recipient. Yes. Thanks.

For educating us. I appreciated that. Sorry, I interrupted you.

John.

No, that's okay.

Yeah.

I'm still trying to find that.

Okay, it's in verse 16.

Of? Galatians.

Galatians 3.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, I'm reading out of the ESV. It says, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say to offsprings. Referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring, singular, who is Christ.

And he makes a big deal in this particular case. If you go back into the Greek, the plural form, the singular form, that this is a promise given to Abraham pointing to one offspring. And that's Christ.

Now, what I mean to say, the law, which came forward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make that promise. The covenant is superior to the law. That's what he's saying. The law is given, and we're not saying the law is inappropriate, is wrong, whatever else.

But what he's saying here is that the law, the covenant, came before the law. Now, there's a lot of analysis. What is this 430 years referred to? And some of them take us from the covenant of Abraham, but then the 430 years ends up somewhere in Egypt.

So there are variations of how this is presented. But it appears to be perhaps the most logical. In Genesis 15, who's got that? You've got that? So this is going to be a 400-year period, and probably we're looking at something that spans across these 400 years.

Because when did the law arrive? Where were the people when the law arrived? They were in the wilderness, Sinai. They were not in Egypt. It was after Egypt. So if the covenant was given, the law was given, there must be events that bracket over these 400 years.

Genesis 46.

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here I am. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father.

Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation, bring you up again.

This is really the last recounting of the Abramic covenant given to Jacob. And at this point in time, there is concern about the ability of the Jews to survive the famine that would occur with Joseph down in Israel is going to impact this family.

Now, at this point in time, they're a family. They're a clan. But there is going to be a reality that they have a need for food, for sustenance. And God encourages them, don't be afraid to go down to Egypt.

You're going to be there for 400 years, but I am going to be with you. You're going to become a great nation. That's what happens in Egypt, is they go from a clan to a number of multitudes, so much so that Egypt is concerned about how large these people, so they turn them into servitude.

And they're there for 400 years. Exodus 12, Dominic?

The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land to be kept up watching by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

So this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

There is an understanding that as we come to the conclusion of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph's down in Egypt, that as that's drawing to a conclusion and the nation is now leaving the land and they're going to be having to go down to Egypt, where by God's foreknowledge, they're going to be there for 400 years.

That is the end of the age of promise, which is going to, this 430 years is going to be culminated by the beginning of the age of law. So the last time that the family, the clan, gets the restatement of this promise is to Jacob, don't be afraid to go down there.

They go down there. God knows they're going to be down there. He knows that they're going to be in captivity for 400 years. And he knows that at the end of it, they're going to come out and they're going to be at Sinai.

He knows they're going to be in the wilderness and that the law will be given. And at that point in time now, the nation is living under the law. Prior to that, they weren't living under the law. They were living under the covenant promise.

What we have now is a reality that what God has given is by his promise. For if an inheritance comes by the law, it is no longer comes by promise. The relationship between God and his people, codified in the Abrahamic covenant, his promise, unbreakable, unchangeable, it's an inheritance to the people.

It did not come by the law, because the law doesn't come for another 430 years. It doesn't come by law, but it comes by God's promise, because God gave it to Abraham. Acts 7? Yeah.

"...from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot to give him as a possession and to his offspring after him, no child.

And he spoke to this effect that his offspring would be surjoiners in the land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them. For thus the nations, the nation that they serve, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me, the covenant of...".

The attorney for the covenant rests his case. We have undisputable evidence that the promise given to Abraham was given by God, is unbreakable, and it was given because there was going to be an offspring who would come.

And this was actually given 430 years before God spoke a law into existence. So the attorney rests his case.

The Law Exposes Sin and Leads to Christ

All right.

Sue, if you would give me 19 to 21, and Bob, you're going to get 1 Timothy 1 and Romans 8, Sandy, you're going to get that, please. And so the attorney for the law stands up.

Go ahead.

What purpose then, the truly righteous?

So the purpose of the law as we look at why the law is the question that is asked by our attorney. And he says that it's given because of transgression and that the law is put in place until the offspring, that singular offspring, comes.

1 Timothy 1.

"...if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, the murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers and manslayers, fornicators...".

Oh, you can stop there. It's going to go on with the list of pretty nasty stuff. The message there is that the law was needed, but it wasn't needed to care for or to encourage those who are already righteous.

The law is given because people are sinners.

Why?

To show us that we can keep it.

That's a good answer. In fact, that's the right answer. Because the law has obligations and requirements that are set out of what you're supposed to do, but man cannot keep it. I think about the interchange that Jesus had with the rich young ruler who said, Lord, what must I do to achieve the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus said, keep all the commandments. And he said, Lord, you know that I've kept all the commandments since my youth. And Jesus said, sell what you have. And you see, he got down into his heart where his heart desired and coveted.

And that one little kernel made the rich young ruler leave because he knew that he was guilty in front of the law. How much of the law do you have to keep to be righteous?

100%.

100%. 100%. And so this law now becomes there and is needed there until an offspring comes. What happens at the arrival of the offspring? First of all, who is the offspring?

Christ.

Thank you, Christ. What happens at the arrival of the offspring? The Greek word starts with the tau. On the cross.

On the cross, that's when he arrives.

What happens at the cross? To Telestai.

To Telestai.

To Telestai. To Telestai. Jesus comes to go to the cross. Yes, he comes. And yes, he lives for 30 years. And yes, he has three years of ministry and disciple making, preparing the disciples to carry on the work.

But Jesus came to go to the cross.

You see, you're making the same mistake that the prosecutor. You're basing your assumptions on something that hasn't happened. 430 years hasn't come yet and the crucifixion and resurrection, which is the key to Telestai.

He said it on the cross.

You're right. I need to, first of all, build the case for the inadequacy of the law. Objection sustained. But we can say this scripturally, that the law was given, not for righteous man, but the law was given because man sins.

And to let man know that they are a sinner. And if man knows they're a sinner, what would they conclude about their stance in front of a holy God?

Guilty.

I'm in trouble.

I'm in great trouble.

I'm in great trouble. It says here that the law was put in place by God through an intermediary. Not by one, but by God. God is one. The law is not a construct by somebody's imagination. The law is a documentation of God's very words to man.

It was given to man and it's revealed by man. And it says here through angels, which I find fascinating because the angels are the messengers. It doesn't say here by the Holy Spirit. It says here that we have God.

And I do believe in this case we are talking about the Trinity of God. We're talking about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We're talking about the full essence of God delivers the message of the law.

And it says so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given. It doesn't say that man might adhere to the law. It says that the promise by faith in Christ Jesus. See, the efficacy of the law is perfect.

It perfectly reveals sin. And that was its intent, was to perfectly reveal sin. The efficacy of the law doesn't say that as long as I tell people the parameters, they will abide by it and be found just and justified in the eyes of a holy God.

That was never the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was to say you think you've got it. Well, there's probably one that's going to trip you up in it. If none of the others trip you up, the tenth will get you.

Maybe you've got the first tablet and you worship God and you don't worship idols. And maybe you've got the surface area of the relationship between people, I don't murder, but on Sermon on the Mount, he tore that apart too.

He said, have you ever hated anybody? Have you ever looked at a woman lustfully? And it says if you've ever done any of these lesser things, you've done the whole thing. The sufficiency, the efficacy of the law is not salvation.

The efficacy of the law is to turn you to where you need to be turned. Romans 8, who's got that? Go for it.

For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh.

See, the efficacy of the law is perfect in that it does reveal our inadequacy. And then when Jesus said, I don't come to abolish the law, to fulfill it, through him, the reality of the law to drive us to the cross, this now becomes perfectly sufficient for salvation because it drives us to the cross bottom.

I was just struck by something that he said, that the way...

Absolutely. So let's go to...

And that it's given as a school to lead us to... When they say Jesus said what was the greatest commandment, he quoted Deuteronomy. But then he was questioned by lawyers, but then later he went directly to the Pharisees and said, what about Messiah?

They just looked at him like they couldn't answer him because the law was to lead to Messiah. In some ways, I'm fascinated by this study because I've been reading and studying this and working through this recently, this year, and the whole proto-evangelium in Genesis and the promise of the seed to destroy Satan, and then also, too, in Deuteronomy, there's a verse, and I've been very struck with these things.

I don't want to take away, but I just want to point out that... Because it's not a puzzle to come to understanding, but just one of the deeper things that I've wrestled with. And then, so, in... There's a verse that says that when God separated the nations at Babylon, the entire Babylon, he says, I gave Israel.

So he chose them, he chose Israel, but they didn't even exist, even then. See, so I'm just kind of, like, jumping back on, like, paths, like going back to that period of time where he separated the nations and said, well, Israel has promised them something.

And then you go back to the next step, and you go to Genesis, and you got what transpired in the garden, was it Genesis 3? And the whole, kind of like that whole conversation between God and man, and then he looks at the devil, and it's his seed, and your seed, and it's very...

Like I said, I don't claim to have it all, to figure it out. I don't really look at scriptures, just come to some pragmatic, I got it, you know what I mean? It's like, so, it just keeps growing.

So the beauty of this passage is going to take the train that you're going down and realize that as the culmination of the law being fulfilled in Christ, we now see that sinners are going to be set free, and it's no longer just the nation of Israel.

It is worldwide. Sinners are set free through the fulfilled law in the offspring, which was the promise of the covenant. So, Judy, I'm going to ask you to read 22 to 29, Psalm 143, Carol, Barb, Romans 6, Ephesians 2, Janet, and Galatians 3.

Faith Makes Us Sons of God in Christ

John, if you would have those ready for me. Give me Galatians 3, 22 to 29, please. It starts out by indicating that we are all captives, and so now we continue with the trial, and we realize that humanity is not free of control.

All humanity is by definition. We are captive. We're either captive under the law or captive under denial of the law. We're captive, but we are captive until faith sets us into a level of freedom. Psalm 143?

Don't bring your servant to trial. Compared to you, no one is perfect.

No one is perfect. And so if you're going to think that you're going to approach God by keeping the law, by being under its guidelines, no, there is nobody perfect. Romans 6?

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to everlasting wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

The reality is that what we do is basically controlled by something that we're submitting ourselves to. And with the law, you were basically held captive under the law. Are you wanting to go back to that captivity again?

Because you're going to be captive to somebody, and the reality is what it says. We are slaves. We do obey. And now comes the reality of Christ. The law is going to turn us to Christ. And it uses a term here which is fascinating that the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

And now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. Now, it depends on which version of the Bible you have there. It can be guardian. It can be custodian. I think that's what you just read.

It can be tutor. It can be schoolmaster. It's a word that is not used anywhere else in Scripture. It's here, peridagogos, something like that. You're better at Greek than I am. I can do the Hebrew. You can do the Greek.

It's a combination of words. And the implication here is that there is a slave and there is a little child. And the slave is actually responsible for the development of the little child. And I find this fascinating because it almost implies that the slave is not an authority unto himself.

But the slave gets his authority from the master. And so you have a picture of perhaps a house with somebody of stature who has a servant. And then this lord of the manor, whatever, has a little child and assigns the responsibility to one of the servants to train up my little child.

God, the law. See, the law is God's, it's his instrument. And so prior to faith, prior to Christ, God gives the law, gets its authority from God, is under the accountability to God. And the law then is set in a position of training for the little child who doesn't know the way to go.

And so we know the picture that the law was our schoolmaster, that the law reveals to us that we don't keep the law, that we're sinful. The law is that which, as we learn more and more and more, we're pointed to the cross.