Galatians Part 5

Jeret Foshee

Galatians • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Chapter one of Galatians we saw that Paul was astonished by the Galatians but in order to be able to correct them and speak to them he needed to prove himself to them

So he proves that his apostolic authority, position, message, and mission was all divinely given

In chapter 2 and Paul began to unravel the Galatian situation and had a lot to do with their beliefs and behavior

When we understand that justification is the gracious act of God by which God declares sinners righteous solely through faith in Jesus Christ

it should drive who we become or how we behave which Paul talks at the end of chapter 2

We die to self and live in Christ, through Christ, and with Christ in me

We saw that not only does God declare what we are not, but He also declares what we are

Last week we began in chapter 3. We climbed the first mountain, so to speak.

We talked about how Paul is going to take us on a historical journey and he began that journey by talking about the covenant that God made with Abraham

That even the very first covenant that God made was not based on works.

Abrahams faith was credited to him as righteousness before he ever actually did anything

But God’s grace, freely given, caused Abraham to respond in faith, believing God’s word, which produced in Abraham a lifestyle of radical obedience

That’s how it worked all the way back then and it’s how it continues to work today

We are save by the grace of Jesus, all we have to do is truly believe His Word, when we do that produces inside of us a lifestyle of radical obedience

This week we begin our climb of the 2nd mountain.

Last week was about the covenant between God and Abraham this week is about the covenant between God and Moses.

I’m going to be upfront with you this morning ok?

This message is a heavy one. This is a difficult mountain to climb.

If I were to have it my own way, I would say that last weeks message, this week, and next week really go best all together.

We just simply don’t have the time to do that.

But here is what I promise, get through this week and come back next week and you will be able to see and say that the heaviness of this week will make the beauty of next week that much better

This week will be difficult and heavy but when we get to the topic next week, it will make it that much better!

So, let’s read and then I will pray for us and we will begin.

Galatians 3:15–22 NIV

15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

pray

Ok. verses 15 & 16 Paul is telling the Galatians this, and this is really important for us to understand.

God’s covenant with Moses does not contradict His covenant with Abraham

In fact, God’s covenant with Moses complements His covenant with Abraham.

Paul is saying that the law God gave to Moses does not do away with the Abrahamic covenant and it doesn’t even replace it, it is meant to complement it.

This was an important point Paul was making because the Judaizers that came behind him that preached a different gospel to the Galatians thought about it differently

They saw the importance of the Abrahamic covenant but gave priority to the Mosaic covenant.

You could say it this way, instead of viewing the Mosaic covenant through the lens of the Abrahamic covenant they reversed it which caused them to put precedence over the mosaic covenant.

Now, what is the mosaic covenant? The mosaic covenant, in its most simplistic definition would be the covenant of the law.

So you can see the struggle. If you believed the law to be primary and faith to be secondary then you would be adamant about people who call themselves Christians, obeying the law first and foremost.

So what Paul is doing is showing the Galatians and us that while God’s covenant with Moses was really important, it did not nullify what had been promised through Abraham.

This is really important for us to understand, especially as we move into next week

Because it’s not as if God tries something with Abraham and then goes, yea that didn’t really play out how I thought it would, let’s try something different

These Covenants that we see do not nullify one another

Paul even goes a step further and says that what God establishes through moses helps us better understand what He did with Abraham.

The truth of it is, is that God saves His people by grace through faith and it has always been that way even under the law of the OT

So, I’m not saying that every covenant looks the same, or more accurately that we are bound to the same things

I’m not saying you have to obey every law under the Old covenant

But at the heart of each one is the same motivation

God, looking for a people to lavishly unleash His love upon and a people who radically obey Him and love Him back

The aspect of salvation from God has never changed

It has always been grace given from God through faith from His people expressed in radical blessings from God through radical obediance from His people

So the question then would be. Why did God even give the law?

Now, a point of clarity here that may not be vital but is still important.

When Paul is talking about the law he is not clumping together all of Scripture

He’s speaking specifically about the Mosaic law.

We’ve talked about this before but in the Mosaic law there are 3 primary forms of law

Moral law: 10 commandments for example

Law given that showed how to live morally

Ceremonial law: which showed you how to worship or sacrifice, what foods to eat, etc

Civil Law: showed the people different procedures when something were to happen. Punishments when laws were broken

And so all of these laws made up the Mosaic Law which is what Paul is specifically talking about here in Galatians

If we were to jump back to verse 10 from last week we would see that Paul begins to talk about what the law cannot do and what it was never intended to do

It can’t bring life

It cant bring righteousness

It can’t bring salvation

So then Paul asks the obvious question in vs 19. Why was the law given? what good does it do?

Why did God establish this law in the first place

What is the point of the law?

Paul’s answer is this: The primary purpose behind the law is to show the positioning of people.

What is our position in accordance to the law?

We are weak! Our flesh is weak!

We are futile!

We are dead! There is no hope for righteousness inside of ourselves.

When in comes to our nature apart from Christ this is what we find. All of us!

Galatians 3:10 NIV

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

We all think in our flesh, just like Adam and Eve did in the garden and every human since, that we are better gods than God himself and what the law comes to show us is that no, you are a terrible God.

You couldn’t keep a few simple rules if your life depended on it, nevertheless rule the universe.

You are a terrible, terrible god!

The law exposes our sin.

It doesn’t make us sinners, it just exposes it to us

When it comes to my 3 little girls, giving them an instruction does not make them sinners. Giving them instruction and them turning to me and telling me no exposes their little sinful hearts.

Under the law we begin to relate with Paul when he says

Romans 7:15–24 NIV

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

I’m not sure I could relate to Paul anymore than this

The things I want to do I have difficulty doing

The things I don’t want to do come to me so easily

What a wretched man I am!

This is what the law does

The principal point…of the law…is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it sheweth unto them their sin, that by the knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised, and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace. - Luther

That seems like really depressing news, and you can see why Paul is so astonished that the Galatians would rather look to law that does that rather than looking to the Spirit to provide something that we could never achieve on our own!

So the law exposes our sin but it also exposes the penalty of our sin

The law shows us that we are all deserving of the wrath of God

We are cursed beneath the law

So let’s remember, when God comes and establishes the covenant of Abraham it’s a covenant of blessings.

It’s grace, through faith expressed in radical blessings/promises

But it’s a little different when we read about the Mosaic covenant.

Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27 where we see a different scene.

Moses gives instructions to the people to split up and go to two separate mountains and face one another.

One of the groups is instructed to proclaim blessings on the people of God

The other group is instructed to pronounce curses.

The curses were pronounced on people who disobeyed the law.

So there were definitely blessings associated with the Mosaic covenant but also, very prominently there were curses as well.

Paul specifically quotes Deut. 27:26

Deuteronomy 27:26 NIV

26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

The law is given to show the people of Israel and to remind us that we are cursed under the judgement of God because we can not upkeep every part of the law.

It exposes our sin

It exposes the penalty of our sin

It also was intended to set God’s people apart

When the world is doing all that it does, God’s people have always been set apart

The law guides God’s people to holiness

Although it show us that perfect holiness is impossible for man

It did, in a sense, temporarily satisfy God’s wrath

And it shows us our reality

We stand condemned

We are cursed

And you may say, well that pretty depressing. I feel kinda helpless. How is it even possible?

Like if that’s what the law does then what’s the point?

That! That is the point!

The point of the law is to make us realize truth. We can’t do it!

If we walk around thinking that we are good, then why do we need Jesus?

If you even walk around thinking your pretty good, that there is some glimmer of hope inside of you then you diminish the grace and love of Jesus

The whole point is to show you that you don’t have a shot at this salvation thing.

Like you aren’t even close

The word for sin in the Hebrew is like a word picture

It’s this picture or thought of “missing the mark.”

So it’s like an archer who lines up at a target and misses his shot. It’s the same word used.

We like to think that if the target is God, He is perfect, that’s our aiming point, then yea ok, we aren’t perfect but we are pretty close.

What the law does, it shows us that we not only missed the mark, but we aren’t even close to the target.

It would be like aiming the completely wrong way

But listen, it’s not just to show us our inadequacies. But to show us our needs and for us to better understand the goodness of God

We used to have a pair of crutches that sat in our garage growing up. I guess when you have that many boys in one house you’ve always got to be prepared. But they sat in the garage and every day I would walk by those crutches and usually never think twice about them. Every once in a while we would grab them and play around on them but the crutches were really of no use to me. Until one day, I was at a football practice and I was returning a kick. I ran through the tunnel of blockers and guy to my left dove at my feet. His helmet hit me right square in my left leg. I heard a loud pop sound and I fell to the ground. I snapped my fibula in 2 and fractured my tibia. The dr put me in a cast and told me that I would need to be on crutches for several weeks. What once was something I would pay no attention to or at the least would just play around with now became a reality and something that I could not function without

The law shows us what we really need. It gives a diagnosis of our heart and it tells us that in order to function

In order to live life to the fullest

In order to have peace

In order to have hope

In order to have salvation

We have to have Jesus

THE LAWS PRIMARY PURPOSE IS TO SHOW US OUR NEED FOR JESUS

And he’s not something we can just put in the corner of our lives and take out once a week to mess around with

When we understand the law we understand that Jesus is not something we can live without

But unlike crutches, the more we lean into Him the more we want to

So yes, the law is there to show us our weakness and futility

But ultimately it’s primary purpose is to push up to our heavenly Father because there really is no other way