Sermon Tone Analysis

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Review:
Last week I mentioned that this is the half-way point in the letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians and that this is also the apex of Paul’s argument against those who were trying to undo Paul’s message of the Gospel.
This is such an important section of the letter because there was so much confusion about the topic of the Mosiac Law particularly because Paul had considered the Gentile Christians the people of God right along with the Jewish Christians.
And one thing led to another for the zealous Jewish Christians who believed that the Gentile Christians could BECOME a part of the real people of God if they did the things that identified the Jews as the people of the God.
Be circumcised, eat kosher, observe the Sabbath.
Paul’s point all along has been that being made right with God (justification) could not come through relying on the law, but it came because God promised it would come through Abraham’s offspring who is Jesus Christ.
And if the Gentile Christians gave in to the Judaizers, they would be nullifying God’s own covenant, making God a liar.
So, the Jews demanded to know; Paul, if a right standing with God comes because of God’s promise (by grace), then why did God give the law anyways?
So Paul dissected the ins and outs of the Mosiac Law.
He gave them the purpose, the scope, how it was transmitted, and how it functioned.
I think the analogy is helpful for us so I’ll just refresh us on a medical analogy and then we will look at the second function of the law.
Introduction:
The Jews were called to be the carriers of the blessing that was promised to the offspring of Abraham.
But even though they were supposed to be the carriers of the medicine that the world desperately needed (Jesus), the Jews themselves had the same disease, they were in need of the same medicine.
So God added the law to function as a scanner that would reveal to the Jews that they were infected with the same disease as everyone else in the world.
And that through this LAW scan they would recognize their need for a Healer, a Redeemer.
So God temporarily quarantined the Jews (apart from the Gentiles) until Christ came.
But as we learned last week, it was even worse than that.
The Law negatively functioned as a sort of prison, keeping not only the Jews, and not even only Jew and Gentile, but the law imprisoned everything under sin.
And God did this for a reason.
We wonder why bad things happen.
And it’s easy to wonder that and it’s easy to even give a vague response to children, or unbelieving people because we don’t want to make God look bad.
But make no doubt about it, bad stuff happens in the world because the world is in a prison—the negative effects are everywhere.
Anywhere you don’t see those negative effects is only because God is merciful.
Explanation:
So the law functioned as a prison and the law functioned in another although similar way.
What is the second function of the law?
Gal 3:24
Other translations use the words “tutor”, or Young’s Literal Translation says, “child-conductor.”
And in Paul’s day most families had a live-in au-pair or maybe what we call today a nanny, although they weren’t only a babysitter, but they were brought in to the home (many times as slaves) to ensure that the children kept in line.
When a child is small it can seem as if all you ever do is say, “Don’t do that.
Stop that.
No-no.
Don’t go there.
Don’t say that.”
So the law was like that constant nagging.
Yet, all of that nagging (as we parents know) is necessary to bring the child to an understanding of their own need for maturity.
Until you can begin to make decisions that reveal you know that touching the blazing hot pan of cookies is going to hurt, I’m going to stand over you and make sure that you don’t touch the cookie pan.
And his point in using this metaphor is to show the Jews how God intended the law to function as a nanny who looked after them during the time of their childhood which was from the time of the law until the time Messiah came.
Just as parents don’t intend for their children to always need the nanny, God did not intend for the Jews to always need the law as a way to keep them in line.
child-conductor
So, if you can recall two weeks ago how we talked about the different scenes in the grand story the “era of the law” happens during the third scene (Abraham and the Covenant People Israel).
It runs from the time that God gives the law in Exodus all the way until Christ came.
When Christ came he brought the age of faith.
This doesn’t mean that salvation by ever by works of the law, though.
We know this because Abraham was justified by faith as were many others (.) What that means is that the entrance of the Messiah brought on a swelling movement where you have not only Jews giving up all to follow Christ, but you even had Gentiles that were leaving all that they knew to follow Jesus.
And this is the age we live in.
It’s astonishing that today there are gathered millions of Christians all over the world that have given up allegiance to all other people and things to follow a Jewish man that was killed by a Roman Empire over 2,000 years ago.
How is this possible?
Because the Holy Spirit of God awakens the seed of faith in our hearts (that’s what theologians call regeneration) and that seed of faith grows and swells in the heart of totally sinful and undeserving people to believe that Jesus really is the Son of God and that what He said in antiquity is actually happening in our midst today.
That’s what Jesus brought with him.
The law was intended to be a type of guardian until Christ came.
Again this deals with the temporal nature of the law, but from a theological perspective Paul’s not just dealing with a date on the calendar.
You see, with Christ (Messiah) came NOT only the Healing that mankind needed to rescue the soul from sin’s bondage, with Christ came a new age; the age of the reign of Christ.
And while the reign of Christ is certainly not in full bloom, it has nonetheless begun with His own bodily resurrection.
So what Paul is saying through this verse is that the function of the law was to be a nagging and condemning nanny until the Messiah came.
So that when the Messiah came, he would bring a swelling movement of trust in himself.
And I’ll be brief in this, but you know the feeling.
If you’ve ever been under Bible teaching that is stifling and nagging and condemning, and then you hear Bible teaching that is focused on the need for faith that is motivated by mercy and grace, all of the sudden it is literally freeing.
It’s almost as if at first you’re waiting for the teacher to say… “Gotcha!” It’s almost too good to be true.
The Second Function of the Law was to be a Guardian Until Christ Came
A guardian, nanny, tutor, even parent has the goal in mind that one day and gradually they would instruct themselves out of a job.
Their job was to instruct unto maturity.
The law’s job was to instruct until maturity.
You will notice that Paul refers to this maturity in two ways; he says the coming of Christ as a way of describing maturity, and he says, the coming of faith to describe maturity.
So what is maturity?
The maturity Paul speaks of is Christ himself.
He is the true Israelite.
There was only one mature Israelite, and that was Jesus Christ.
Yes, I am using the past tense, “was to be” and “until Christ came” because that is how Paul speaks of the second function of the law.
In fact, Paul goes a step further and he says,
You read that right.
Jews are no longer under a guardian.
Paul says, “we” because the Jews were the ones who were placed under the watch and supervision of the guardian.
Because of the swelling movement of faith because of the arrival of Christ, the need for a nagging and condemning nanny is not necessary.
Why is the law functioning as guardian not necessary?
There is that beautiful phrase that is overlooked so often, “for in Christ Jesus” — Paul’s point: you don’t need to become a cultural Jew in order to be a part of the covenant family of God, for you are “In Christ Jesus” and He is the faithful Israelite that successfully fulfilled the vocation of the covenant by bringing the blessing of God’s love to the families of the earth and taking upon himself the curse that the families of the earth had accrued their our sin.
Paul now adds force to what he has just said by reminding them of their own entrance into the family:
Gal 3:27
He does this further as he once again rehashes their own experience in baptism
The old entrance into the covenant family was through circumcision, the new entrance into the covenant family is faith that is publickly demonstrated through baptism.
Unlike in today’s evangelical world where we almost discourage baptism, the NT world did not see a distinction between faith and baptism.
Baptism is almost always optional today whereas in the NT the one never came without the other with the exception of the thief on the cross.
Is baptism important?
Today, we ask everyone to bow their head and close their eyes, and just slip up their hand if they want to accept Christ.
God forbid that other people know that you want to admit your own sinfulness and your allegiance to Jesus.
Today, you can sign your name on a card and be given full assurance of eternity with Christ.
This is foreign to the NT.
In history and in many other countries around the world today, baptism still signifies that you have died to yourself, you’ve died to allegiance to all other religions or gods, and you are not ashamed to show others that you believe in the risen Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is our King!
What Paul is saying is that—that baptism represents your admission into the covenant family, there is no need for additional customs, or rituals, or ceremonies, because in Christ:
Gal 3:28
Your seat at the table of God is not based on your Jew-ness, your freeness, your maleness, or your moral-ness.
Your seat at the table is based on the faithfulness of Jesus.
Had He not been faithful to the mission the Father gave him, had he not been faithful to go to the cross, had he not been faithful, we would still be under the law, we would still be lost and hopeless.
But:
What does it mean to “be Christ’s?”
To be Christ’s is to belong to Him.
To belong to Him is to relinquish my desire for independence from God and in exchange we receive true freedom that is in Christ.
And if you belong to Christ, then no matter what race, gender, or status you have now, you are spiritually Abraham’s offspring and that means you are an heir according to the promise.
It’s interesting what we might think that means.
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