Sermon Tone Analysis

REVIEW:

Today we reach the half-way mark of Paul’s pointed letter the churches in the Roman Province of Galatia.

Ironically, we also reach the apex of Paul’s argument against the Judaizers.

In the last section we ran across a critical point of application about how to read the Bible the same way Paul read and understood the Bible.

We have to keep the entire storyline of the Bible in mind if we are to truly understand any part of the Bible.

So you cannot begin with your circumstances and hope that the Bible speaks to that issue.

You cannot begin with current event and hope the Bible speaks to them.

You cannot (as the Judaizers did) begin with Moses and the law and interpret the rest of the Bible upon that foundation.

You must begin where the Bible begins, with God.

You must see that God is the Divine initiator; He speaks and Creation happens.

He speaks and man responds.

And God’s first action was creative and beautiful and his first words were “It was good.”

Everything begins with a good and generous Creator who is sharing his own goodness with his own created beings.

If you don’t begin there, you will miss God’s longterm agenda.

You’ll miss his intentions with mankind.

And because of this, you’ll miss the true nature of God.

You also must see how God interacts with a humanity that has rebelled against his authority.

There is no doubt that God justly brings judgement to a people who were wreaking havoc in his good world (like ), but even when mankind deserved to be wiped off the face of the earth, he reached out to one family.

The family of Abraham.

And even though Abraham was not looking for God, he wasn’t worshiping God, he didn’t love God.

God wanted once again to show that even though he had the authority and the power to bring more judgement that instead he would offer protection and provision.

So he entered a covenant with this family of Abraham.

He promised them that he would miraculously provide a child for he and his old and barren wife.

He also promised them that he would bring blessing to the people of the earth that blessed Abraham’s family and cursing to those who cursed his family.

Lastly, he promised this family that he would provide and prepare a land for them to live in that would be unlike any other land he had journeyed to or lived in before.

Filled with beauty and flourishing and life and abundance.

God, however, demanded that Abraham lived his life as if what God had said he was going to do, he would actually do.

That was the covenant.

It was based upon God’s promise and Abraham’s faith.

And in the end of the great big story that we read in the Scripture, God has welcomed not only Abraham’s ethnic family into this blessing, but he opened it up for all kinds of people who would believe in him to enjoy his goodness and generosity, like he intended them to from the beginning.

INTRODUCTION:

The Judaizers (the people that followed Paul to undo parts of his message and questioned his authority) must have laughed at what Paul had just said.

Paul, you’re living in a fantasy world.

Paul you’re just offering people a more palatable message so you can get more followers, probably so you can become more wealthy.

Paul you’re not a true apostle.

You’re not a true Christian.

True people of God obey the law, Paul.

Paul, why don’t you enlighten us all… if what you say is true, “Why then did God give the law?”

Before we continue in the text, you might be wondering, if this was settled in the first century, is it even an issue today?

Is this even a message I need to hear?

The question is still being asked, and there is still so much confusion in the world today, and there is so much confusion in religion today, and so much confusion in the Church today.

Since I am speaking to many of you who consider yourself to be a part of the Church and part of the family of God, my application points will primarily be towards you.

However, if you don’t consider yourself to be a Christian and a part of the Church, I believe you can be greatly helped by observing this conversation.

The internet if chalked full of satirical shows, skits, movies, and articles that poke fun at Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus and they are typically aimed at the Mosaic Law.

So the same question can be asked from two opposite perspectives: 1.

The Jews would ask “Why then the law?” to someone like Paul because Paul preached that your acceptance with God did not come on the basis of strict observance of the law.

So, if it doesn’t, why did God give the law? 2. The unbelieving world, on the other hand, looks at the law as an enormous list of arbitrary demands that God gave to a group of primitive people just to mess with them.

So, “If God is so good, why did he give people the law?”

There is good reason for asking question number two, but that is not the purpose of the passage we’re looking at this morning.

The passage we’re currently looking at comes from a thoughtful and earnest protest from the Jews.

If the covenant made to Abraham was the basis of our standing with God, then why would God even give the law in the first place?

You need to understand the way that God-fearing, Jewish people viewed the law that was given thousands of years prior to the first century to their forefathers.

In their thinking, the covenant was the starting point, but the law was the foundation of their relationship with God.

For the Jews and maybe even for the Galatian Christians, this is where the rubber meets the road for Paul.

Because if Paul has no adequate response to the Jews question, the Galatians convert wholly to Judaism (and by doing that nullify God’s gracious act in initiating the covenant.)

If Paul says, “the law had no authority or bearing” the Judaizers win and everyone removes the bacon from their refrigerator, gets circumcised, and worships at the temple on Saturday SO that they can receive a place at YHWH’s table.

So how does Paul deal with this delicate question?

EXPLANATION:

The complexity of Paul’s answer informs us of the complexity of the situation.

Paul knows that the simple answer to the original question was not going to be enough, he had to dig quite a bit deeper and answer a couple other questions to fully explain what he intended for his readers to grasp.

We have talked a little bit about the law, but I want to be sure that we’re all thinking the same thing when we hear the term, “The Law.”

It’s clear from the context that Paul is referring to the Mosaic Law which contained both moral and ceremonial law.

Now, Paul unwinds this obviously difficult subject like this:

First, He defines the purpose of the law

Second, He explains the scope of the law

Third, He details the transmission of the law

Fourth, He exposes the two-fold function of the law

What is the Purpose of the Law?

The law was added (because) of transgressions - the law (which came 430 years after the covenant) was added (in addition to the promise) because of a stepping over the line.

19 Why, then, was the law given?

It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins.

Let’s back up for a moment to really get a hold of what Paul is saying.

Remember, God chose Abraham, God chose his family to be the family through which he would bring blessing to the whole world.

That is what God wanted to do through them.

However, what we discover along with Paul by simply reading the OT is that even though the Jews carried with them the solution to man’s problem, they were actually a part of the problem.

Why?

Because they were infected with the same disease as everyone else.

Sin had taken hold of their heart in the same way that sin had a stronghold on the hearts of the pagans.

So, God’s intention with the law was at the very least to show them that they were infected with the same disease that everyone else was infected with.

The way that Paul puts it in another letter he wrote is like this:

Romans 5:

Commentator William Hendrikson captures the purpose well when he wrote:

“By reason of the transgressions, therefore, the law was added, so that when the law demands nothing less than perfect love for God and the neighbor, and the man sees clearly that there is very little of this love in his heart, he may by means of this realization be led to the Savior.”

Interestingly enough how many people inside the church and outside have assumed that the law’s primary purpose was to prevent sinning?

Yet, to really understand this you must admit that error and realize that God added the law to reveal sin, not prevent it.

The Purpose of the Law was to Reveal Man’s Sinfulness

What is the Scope of the Law?

The scope is that the law is added until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made…

The offspring (as we learned last week) is Christ.

And the promise that God made to Abraham was to him and his offspring, or to him and Christ, which is shorthand for to those who have faith in Christ.

To carry on the analogy that I used partially in the last section of a doctor who carries with her the vaccination for a disease, yet is infected with that disease, that doctor must be quarantined temporarily until they receive the vaccination themselves.

The law was like a temporary quarantine until the medicine could be applied to the Jews themselves, but not just the Jews.

The promise was made to Christ and all of those who trust in him.

So the point Paul makes by bringing in the scope of the law was to show that the law was never intended to be permanent, but temporary, until the Messiah came.

The Scope of the Law was that it was to be Temporarily in Place until the Messiah Came

it was to be Temporarily in Place

until the Messiah Came

Now for the third part of Paul’s answer to “Why then the law?” he details the transmission process of the law

How was the Law Transmitted?

And why does that matter?