Sermon Tone Analysis

1. We are liberated from the law.

(vs.

23-25)

Galatians (The Law’s Purpose (3:19–25))

Paul reinforces justification by faith apart from the law in 3:24 by underscoring the law’s temporary nature (cf.

2:16).

He identifies the law as a “pedagogue.”168

The ancient pedagogue had many functions.169

One of those functions was to serve as a temporary guardian over the child until the appointed time of the father.170

This seems to be Paul’s use of the pedagogue in 3:23–4:7, for he discusses the temporary nature of the law as a guardian from 3:19–4:7.

The law served as a temporary guardian until the coming of Christ into the cosmos to identify sin as transgression so that justification would be experienced by faith (3:24).

Although Paul is negative toward the law in Galatians, “the Law is not an adversary of God’s redemptive purpose; rather, God has used the Law to illuminate Israel’s condition—and therefore a fortiori, the universal human condition—of bondage to the power of Sin (Rom 7:7).”171

The law, then, temporarily imprisoned all under sin so that God would fulfill what he promised to Abraham through Jesus Christ, his offspring (cf.

Gal 3:16, 25–27).

2. We are one in Christ through our baptism.

(vs.

26-28)

3. We are heirs to the promise.

(vs.

29)