Paul insists that the Law is unable to make us right with God. He also insists that the original promises to God’s people were about faith and not Law. Does this mean that Law and Faith or Law and Grace are in competition?
A look at the text Read Galatians 3:23-29
So, does the Law contradict God’s promises? Paul insists it doesn’t. The Law cannot give life but it seems that this was never its intention because that would mean that we are made right with God keeping it. This would, in Paul’s mind contradict God’s promises (v21). Instead, what the Law does, is it sets things up so that the promise might be given. Scripture (referring here to the Torah and prophets), imprisons us under sin, in other words, what the Law does is it highlights our true state, we are like captives, helpless, unable to save ourselves, under sin’s abusive control. That’s why we need the promise of blessing, forgiveness and righteousness (v22 -23).
The law acts like a guardian, the imagery here is of a Roman household, the children are looked after by a steward, one of the slaves, they at that point have neither relationship to their father, nor status. They are supervised by the slave. Paul says that “this was our situation” speaking of the Jews and including himself with. That was until Jesus came in order to live, die and rise again so that they might be justified. Justification language is used here to point to a new relationship and a new status so that those who have faith are right with God. One faith comes, or once the Gospel has been effectively preached drawing the response of faith, the guardian loses control and authority. It is similar to the point when the son legally becomes his father’s heir and is no longer under supervision (v24-25).
“In Christ you are all sons.” Notice that despite the temptation to move to gender neutral language, the idea of sonship is important here. Sons were the legal heirs at the time. This is not just about joining the family but about inheritance. It is in Christ that we can inherit the blessings promised to and through Abraham (v26). We are in Christ because we have put him on, the imagery of clothing is used here. It means that we carry his identity. We might compare this with Jacob putting on Esau’s clothes so that he carried the feel and odour of Esau (v27). Then we have famous words, we are all one, united in Christ Jesus, the barriers of ethnicity, gender and class are removed through him (v28). We are reminded at the end that the promise is to Abraham and Jesus, so to be united to Christ is to be united to Abraham and to share in the blessings promised to him (v29).
Digging Deeper
Here, Paul shows that the Law is itself not bad, it’s not set up in conflict with grace. It doesn’t undermine faith and grace because it is designed to do something different. The Law acted as a guardian or steward caring for a minor until they came of age. It could not confer the benefits of sonship but it could help guide and teach so that people would learn about what it means to know God. It could rebuke and reprove to convict of our need for saviour.
However, the function of The Law is temporary in nature, until faith. I would suggest that this points partly to individual faith. There is a point in our lives when we trust Jesus. However, I believe that it is also pointing eschatologically towards the specific faith event, or event that produces faith, the coming of Jesus. At that point the Law’s function as guard and guardian comes to an end, God’s people are set free from its supervision.
The Law of Moses put divisions and distinctions in place on ethnic, gender and class grounds. The Gospel breaks down those barriers so that God’s people know what it means to be united to and in Christ.
A look at ourselves
It is highly likely that you did not grow up under Judaism. Most of us therefore, find ourselves in the shoes of the Gentiles as we listen in. Furthermore, we live this side of Jesus coming. This means that the Law does not have the same functional relationship to us as it did to Jews like Peter, James and Paul.
This does not mean that the Law is irrelevant to us. The Law is good and teaches what it means to be holy, to be people who live in God’s presence. Christians today will want to follow up on this to get a better understanding of what the Law says, means and what it does have to do with us.
However, Paul’s primary reason for making his point about the Law here is to emphasise that if the Law was not what made Jews right with God, even religiously zealous Jews like Paul, even the founding father, Abraham, then it cannot ever be the basis for how we are made right with God. How we come into faith tends to follow on with how we go on in faith and so what was true at the beginning is true now. We were made right with God by faith, we stay right by faith.
This may pose a challenge. There’s the fear that if the burden and restriction of Law keeping is lifted, then people will do what they please. Paul is keen in all his letters to show that this is not the case. There will be more to come on this in Galatians and so later on we will think more about what it means to live godly lives as believers.
The crucial point here is that a church that believes in the Gospel needs to reflect that in its practice. The Doctrines of Grace should lead to a culture of grace. A crucial mark of that culture will be that there will be unity and equality rather than division and hierarchy.
Faithroots 