Sermon Tone Analysis

Context: We can’t achieve God’s favor by means of our effort.

Specifically by works of the law.

If it were possible to contribute to our salvation in this way, we would nullify the covenant God made with His people and would make Jesus and His redemptive work unnecessary and irrelevant.

This captures much of what Paul has been making clear in this chapter.

And this is not a mere theological treatise for Paul.

Paul is not disconnected from this people and their needs.

He understands what is at stake here for this church.

Whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ is attacked, that is, whenever people mess with the gospel, everything that matters in the lives of people is in jeopardy.

When this sense of urgency and readiness to defend the gospel is not felt or employed in this church, we can be sure a certain deception has begun among God’s people.

Just like a parent would spring into action to protect his or her child at the first sign of possible danger, so should the people of God be on guard for any potential threat to the purity of the Gospel among the church.

But the church in Galatia was being attacked by the proclamation of a false gospel, and the people were buying into it.

This broke Paul’s heart.

So he wrote this letter in an attempt to clarify the gospel in the people’s minds and hearts.

So his emotion is grounded in the truth when he says, O foolish Galatians!

Who has bewitched you?..... Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

It is important to be clear on what the role of the law of God is meant to play in the lives of people.

We are not suggesting, and more importantly, Paul was not suggesting that the law is irrelevant or somehow sinister in some way.

It was misunderstood, taught incorrectly and used improperly, but it is from God. Paul concludes this chapter by making some important points about the law that will help us understand ourselves, one another, those with whom we interact in the world and the prevailing need we all share.

So let’s go to these concluding verses

Galatians 3:19–29 (ESV)

Why then the law?

It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not!

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

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 no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Introduction

Consider what Moses said about his people of Israel:

Do you think that if Moses had made a statement like that today, he would be accused of be too critical?

Perhaps his words would be thought to be defeating.

Was he being censorious (condemning and judgmental)?

Perhaps some of those thoughts were among those who actually heard Moses say these words.

Was Moses being too critical?

Was he being unnecessarily negative?

When we consider what is made clear about the people of Israel during the days of Moses, and more broadly, what the Bible makes clear about human sinfulness, we would not conclude that Moses was being too critical.

He was being wise in his actions and words.

The law of God has something to offer us in our understanding of human sinfulness.

When we consider the law of God from certain perspectives, the depth of human sinfulness is clarified and the depth of God’s grace is all the more incomprehensible.

But it seems to me...

FCF: We often either overestimate or underestimate human sinfulness

We are often content with too much pessimism towards others or even ourselves or too much optimism.

This makes sense in light of the fact that we’re all affected by sin to the extent that we struggle to perceive the truth about people and about God.

But what I think our text makes clear is that...

Main Idea:

The law of God clarifies both the severity of and the solution to human sinfulness.

Main Question

What will help us to understand the severity of and solution to human sinfulness?

The purpose of the law (19-22)

It exposes the sinfulness of man (19)

AQ: What is the purpose of the law?

Question: Why then the law?

Answer: because of transgressions

What does that mean?

Scripture interprets Scripture

Corruption is there and the law makes it clear.

The law is an agitator.

It makes visible what was always there

The law also intensifies sin.

When our rebellion meets the law it expands

Romans 7:5 (ESV)

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

So the sinful inclinations of the heart are not just exposed by the law, they are also aroused by the law.

Why?

Because apart from the Holy Spirit, when the self-centeredness and rebellion of our hearts rage against anything (like the law) that call it into question.

It seeks to defend itself against any authority… even God’s.

It shows the unity of God’s ways (19-20)

Galatians 3:19–20 (ESV)

...until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

The intermediary here, I suggest is Moses.

God gave His law to Moses and Moses gave it to the people of Israel.

Remember, this came 430 years after God made His covenant with Abraham.

And, unlike what the Judaizers may have been teaching, the fact that God gave the law does not demonstrate he has somehow withdrawn the promises He made in the Abrahamic covenant.

He gave the law to make clear that the only way to receive the promises of the covenant was to have the same kind of faith as Abraham did.

But what is Paul getting at here in vss 19-20?

As far as the Mosaic law was concerned, it was not given to impart life, but to make clear we don’t possess life in ourselves.

Just the opposite.

And the fact that God used a mediator to convey His law displays a certain inferiority to the covenant made with Abraham.

It’s not that the Mosaic Covenant was evil or not of God.

It was good and came from God.

But it does not deliver the promises that are made in the Abrahamic Covenant.

But focus on the phrase we see at the end of v. 20: God is one.

What does that have to do with anything, and what are we meant to understand about God and His covenants by it?

This same phrase shows up also in Rom.

Paul makes clear everyone (Jew and Gentile) is justified faith and not by works of the law, like he does in Galatians.

And the reason God is God to both to Jew and Gentile is because God is one.

Justification is being dealt with here.

Jews are justified by faith.

Gentiles are justified by faith.

That is the way God is God to His people, and this is made clear by the fact that God is one.

So when we go back to our passage in Gal three, and see that God is one, Paul is saying that yes, God used Moses (an intermediary) to convey the law to His people, and yes the Mosaic covenant is inferior to the Abrahamic Covenant because it does not deliver the promise of salvation, but reveals our need for eternal life, never-the-less both covenants make clear that eternal life come by grace through faith.

It exposes the hopelessness of man (21-22)

Paul poses another question in v. 21: Is the law contrary to the promises of God?

In other words, does the Mosaic covenant contradict the Abrahamic covenant.