To Protect and Serve
Galatians 3:19-25

God’s Law was given for a specific purpose. It was not to replace God’s promise to Abraham (and us!), but rather to support that promise. Here’s how:

1. The Law corrects (3:19-20)
2. The Law cooperates (3:21)
3. The Law confines (3:22-23)
4. He Law convicts (3:24-25) 

These verses in Galatians 3, beginning about verse 15 are truly what the book is all about. The apostle is going to go back in history, back to where these folks are familiar in the Bible and say, “God made a promise to Abraham. You’re invited to be a part of that. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing, Why would you opt for any other?”

Last week we talked about how wonderful the promise is, and we can just hear those folks in Galatia saying, “What do you do with the Law of Moses then?” That’s what these verses here are all about, helping us to understand where the Law fits.

Galatians 3
¹⁹ Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
²⁰ Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.
²¹ Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
²² But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
²³ But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
²⁴ Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

I’m pondering this business about the difference between keeping God’s Law in order to be right with Him and in just trusting Him in order to be right with Him. I am struck with the story of the rich young ruler.  In Mark 10, This young man came to Jesus and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

He’s a lot like many of us. He has some respect for God. He has some means. He does ok in life. He’s a good guy. He has some concern about heaven so he comes to Jesus thinking Jesus must have the answer. “What am I supposed to do to inherit eternal life? Remember Jesus’ answer, “You want to be right with God? Go after the Commandments.” The young guy says, “I’ve done all that.”

He was caught at that moment. “I haven’t had any trouble with adultery, murder, theft and all those bad things. But I don’t have any assurance that heaven awaits.” He’s convinced he’s ok. He thinks he’s fine. Jesus said you’re not fine. Jesus brought before this young man God’s Law, God’s holy standard of perfect righteousness. He said if you think you’re ok, how about this. Get rid of everything you have. Sell out and give what you have to the poor and then come follow Me.

The young man went away sad because he had a lot of stuff. What was Jesus doing? He said you may have been ok with this shopping list of rules, at least on the outside but you’re not loving your neighbor as yourself. You’re not willing to help your neighbor and you’re not willing to put God first in your life, you’re not willing to follow Me. So there’s two big ones where you fall short. I guess you’re not good enough for heaven after all.

That is monumental. We’re encouraged by the way the young man left. He went away sad. Good. Maybe that indicates that he’s going to ponder his lack and see how far short he actually falls and then simply cast his entire lot with Jesus. That’s what he needs to do.

Jesus used the Law as the Law was intended, of course. That’s what Paul wants the Galatians to do as well. What is it for? The Law does four jobs, four tasks. The Law, as Paul pointed out, doesn’t take the place of the promise to Abraham. God said to Abraham, “I will save. I will bless. I will populate heaven.” That’s a promise from God. The Law serves that promise in these four ways.

1. The Law corrects (3:19-20)

These verses get a little bit complex so we’ll try to work through them carefully and clearly. First of all, the Law corrects. That is fundamentally what the Law is all about. The Law is there to provide boundaries and parameters. The Law expresses God’s perfect will so that those who are in violation concede that they are in violation. Fundamentally, in an overarching sense, the Law corrects.

“Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions.” It was added to impose the moral will of a holy God on people who fall short. Let me read what Paul wrote to Timothy regarding the Law.

1 Timothy 1
⁸ But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,
⁹ realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
¹⁰ and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

In other words, the Law is for people who need the boundaries. The Law is for those who need it. It’s not for the righteous, those who are right with God. It’s to get those who are not right with God to see that they are not right with God and then to surrender to God in order to be right with Him. It outlines the parameters based on the moral character of a holy God.

It’s kind of like camp. Some of us have experienced Camp Utmost from the entire spectrum of all camp weeks of the summer. Fourth grade boys who go to camp need more rules. When you have orientation for 4^th grade boys there’s a list of rules right down to “Don’t forget your mother said ‘Be sure and brush your teeth.’” They don’t necessarily keep the rules but they need more rules. They’re more inclined to need the guidance.

By the time of family camp, there really aren’t any rules. Families police their own families. Rules aren’t necessary for those who have reached that point. They’re quite necessary for those who are inclined to go out of bounds. That’s basically how it is with the Law. The Law is there to correct, to show what the boundaries are, that people might not transgress.

Paul gives in verse 19 two features of this corrective Law. One, it’s temporary and two it is mediated. It’s an add-on and it’s there, according to verse 19, because of transgressions until the Seed should come. It’s temporary. Going back to Abraham, God’s promise to save, the promise to bless, the promise to populate heaven with God’s people -- that isn’t temporary. That’s for keeps. That’s forever. The promise isn’t temporary, the Law is.

Secondly, the Law is mediated. Particularly in the days of the Old Testament but on into the days of the New Testament, the Jewish people had a high regard for angels. Just part of their culture. They were keen on angels, you might say. They ascribed to angels an instrumental role in delivering the Scriptures to Moses.

You can read in Acts 7:53 where Stephen makes mentions of the angels having delivered the Law to a mediator. So we’re talking about the Law, as it was delivered, came mediated by angels through Moses. At Sinai, when God was initially giving the Law in Exodus 20 through 24, the people were afraid to go to the mountain. They said, “Let Moses go. Send Moses up there. Let Moses face God.” Moses was their mediator. Moses was their go-between.

What the Bible says here in verse 20, the mediator is not of one party. In other words, the mediator represents two parties but God is one. Remember when God’s promise came to Abraham in Genesis15, they cut the covenant, split the critters, and then God alone passed between. There was no mediation between God and Abraham. God just showed up and gave a permanent promise without any mediator, without any go-between, without any Moses, without any angels. God delivered the promise directly.

So the Law corrects. That is its fundamental overarching purpose.

2. The Law cooperates (3:21)

Secondly, the Law cooperates. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? Just because they’re not the same thing, does that mean it’s against? Paul, we seem to be in an antagonist relationship with you. You’re telling us that it’s salvation by grace plus faith plus nothing. Does that mean you’re against Moses’ Law. Does that mean Moses’ law is against what you’re standing for?

Paul says never, ever, in a hundred million years would that be true. The Law is not against the promise. Perhaps this is one of the best kept secrets in the world of all religions. The Law supports the promise, the Law serves the promise, the Law completely cooperates with the promise. The Law is a tool to see the promise worked out.

No, Paul says, it’s not against the promise at all.


²¹ Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 

Paul, in this verse, is using language to make the point just as strongly and as powerfully as he can. If the Law were given that was able to make a life (which absolutely could not happen), then righteousness would be by the Law, (which it absolutely is not).

It’s not against at all. It’s a cooperative effort, sort of like when you go to the doctor because you sense something is not quite right. The doctor offers a diagnosis. He says you have this wrong with you. Maybe it’s heart, maybe it’s liver. “Can you not fix it?” “Yes, I can, but what I’ve done is diagnose it.”

What the law does is diagnose the problem, leading to the cure, to the promise. Let me share a couple verses out of Romans chapter 7. The law is like diagnosis and normally diagnosis is like bad news. You can be told “you’re sick,” by a dozen doctors and that won’t make you well. What will make you well is the cure, and the diagnosis and the cure can’t be confused with one another.  That’s what he is saying.  Look at Romans 7. The Law is the diagnosis -- that’s my point.

Romans 7
⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."

The Law put its finger on what I’m doing wrong. The Law is the diagnosis of my problem. That’s what it’s saying. For instance, he said I wouldn’t have even known about coveting if the Law hadn’t said, “You shall not covet.” Then I find out I’m wrong. Diagnosis! -- The Law has put its finger on your error, in Paul’s case it is coveting.

¹² So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
¹³ Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me?  

No - it didn’t kill me. It just told me what was wrong with me.

May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

It’s showing me what’s wrong. Then what’s the cure? If what the Law does is tell us what’s wrong, how does it point us to the cure? The cure is in the lawgiver. The cure is in the promise. The cure is in surrendering to the One who holds out all grace. The Law hasn’t been given that will fix anything. The Law is given so that we will see profoundly our need for a cure. Is the Law then against the promise? Oh my, no! Paul says. Far from it. The Law works with the promise to show us the way to life. If it weren’t for the Law, we wouldn’t know what the boundaries are. We wouldn’t have a diagnosis. The Law cooperates.

This is true, bottom line theological stuff., but it helps us understand why we are the way we are, why we do what we do.

3. The Law confines (3:22-23)

²² But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
²³ But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.

The Law confines, that is to say, the Law entraps. It snares. It grips. It holds. This is how it happens. The Law is an expression of God’s perfect, holy, moral character. It stands absolutely solid. It will never change. It’s here to stay because God is here to stay and God will never change.

The Law underscores, emphasizes, the need for righteousness to be like God. That’s on one side. On the other side is us. It’s a mismatch. We have God who is absolutely holy, right, eternal and true and He will not change. He cannot change. He is the one with who we have to do. Then we have us and what we have in us are individuals created in His image but with a fallen nature.

The Bible says that we are naturally not God-serving, not God-honoring. We are naturally self-serving. We are naturally self-honoring. We really like us. God is on that side and we are on the other. The problem with being in a fallen state, self-serving, the Bible refers to as spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:3) “You are dead in your transgressions and sins.”

You don’t need me to tell you that, that which is dead does nothing, just stays dead. So we have on the one hand the holy God. That isn’t going to change. And a dead spirit. That isn’t going to change. Thus, we’re stuck. We’re confined. We’re held. We’re gripped. We’re not going anywhere. We cannot walk away from that situation. We cannot change those conditions. We cannot change God. We can’t wake up in the morning being spiritually dead and decide not to be spiritually dead any more. We’re stuck.

We have God on the one hand and ourselves on the other.

Romans 5 doesn’t pull any punches. It takes no prisoners when it talks about us being ungodly, sinners, hopeless and helpless, at enmity with God. When the Bible talks about us and God it doesn’t necessarily indicate that every person who was ever born, raises his or her fist and hates God with all of his heart. We are either anti-God, which I think is an extreme, or we’re just “instead of God” people.

The rich young ruler wasn’t against God in some sort of an adversarial active way, but he had a lot of stuff instead of God and that tends to be how we are and we are stuck there in our spiritual deadness. So the Law has a way of confining us. God says this is how I want it in His holy perfect way. We, in our anti or instead-of-God hearts, say “I don’t think so. I would rather have it this way.” And so we are at odds with God whether actively, passively, vehemently, or calmly.

This takes us in this entrapment. God speaks. I decide no. This takes us to Romans chapter 7, where the apostle Paul is describing a stuck condition. He is saying I know what God wants, but I know who I am and I’m losing. I’m trapped, stuck, I can’t get myself free.

Romans 7
¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

I know what’s right; I do what’s wrong. He’s talking about in his own flesh coming up against the holy standard of God, knowing in his head God is right, knowing in his heart he’s not about to go along with it. The frustration that follows just churns these verses. Finally he comes to the end and says:

²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.  

I can’t do it! I can’t be perfect. I can’t do it right all the time. I can’t make it. I can’t work my way. I can’t earn merit. I can’t. So Paul cries out:

²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  

God will set me free. We’re trapped. We’re stuck. The Law confines us. I’m stuck in futility. I’m stuck in defeat. The rich young ruler came up against God and said, “I can do that. I can keep the rules and be right with God.” Jesus said, “No you can’t. Here’s two -- try them on.“ He went away sad.

Anybody who comes up against God’s Holy Law thinking, “I can do this thing” will only come to frustration and an awareness that, “No, I can’t.“

The Law shows us our need, holds us until we see it. That’s what Paul is saying in these verses in Galatians chapter 3. Verse 22 and 23 says the Scripture holds all people under sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The words used here are words that speak of being entrapped, being held, being suppressed, under sin, as though sin were a heavy mattress and we’re underneath, held there. Forever? No, not forever. Until the promise by faith in Jesus Christ is given to them. The only way out of this is hanging onto the promise by faith. Entrapped until then! Before the coming of faith, he says, we’re all held under Law.

The only way out is simply by trusting in the One who makes the promise. Not in struggling to be really good and to keep all kinds of rules. The Law holds us there, makes us see ourselves, pins us like prisoners.

4. The Law convicts (3:24-25)

Finally, the fourth function of the Law according to these verses should make us happy.  The Law convicts. That word convict means convinces. The Law, I would suggest, is the primary tool of the Holy Spirit of God to access the heart of the one who is in prison and to make a change in it.

 ²⁴ Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Here’s how it works. Every human being, the Bible says, is created in the image of God. That means prior to the fall, prior to the curse, access to God was somewhat automatic. Every human being has personality, every human being has will, every human being has self awareness, every human being has creative ability, every human being is unique. We are made in the image of God. Only human beings are created in the image of God.

That image is tarnished, contorted, because of sin. It’s part of that “being in prison” problem. And yet the Bible says that God has, as part of this image of God, put eternity in the hearts of people. God has given every individual a conscience. Being made in God’s image means there is present, but not visable, to one degree or another in every single human heart, right and wrong. God’s will is there in every person.

Many are calloused to it, many medicate it, but it’s there. When the Law is presented, when God’s truth is presented from the Scripture, the Holy Spirit of God takes that truth and makes a connection between the conscience of the person and the truth of God’s Word. I don’t understand how it works, but the Bible is clear that it works.  That’s why God’s word is like a two-edged sword, capable of penetrating, separating, it’s possible, even the soul from the spirit. That’s how sharp and penetrating it is. God’s Word, God’s Law, the Holy Spirit uses that to get at the hearts of people, all of whom have a conscience.

In John 16, Jesus is telling His disciples that once He leaves, after His crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, He will send His Holy Spirit as His helper. He says the helper will come to you when I go.

John 16
⁸ "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

It is the job of the Holy Spirit to impress those who are in prison with the truth of God’s Word. Many of us remember that happening in our own lives when suddenly the light goes on and we find ourselves spiritually bankrupt, begging God to give us grace and He does.  That’s because the Holy Spirit has taken God’s truth and registered it in our hearts as only He can do.

Let me share how Paul uses this notion in the culture of the Galatians. The word in the New American Standard Bible is “tutor.” To us, a tutor is someone who shows up when you’re flunking and helps you get a better grade so you pass. It wasn’t exactly so in the ancient Greek and Roman world from which Paul is speaking. He uses the Greek word “pedagogue,” they haven’t changed the word much. A pedagogue was an individual who was on the payroll of the “more upper class” family. A pedagogue was something like a valet. He lived with the family and his job was to hang around with the kids, particularly the oldest son who stood in line to inherit everything and take it all over. He tried to keep the kid out of trouble among other things. He understood what the father of the boy wanted. A key part of the pedagogue’s job was going back to the father and saying, “This is what your kid did today.” His job is to rat him out so that the father could make needed corrections and fit the young person to be suitable for his adult responsibilities.

This tutor is a constant reminder of how far short we fall and how badly we need to be right with the Father. That’s the tutor’s job; that’s the job of the pedagogue. So Paul says that’s what the Law does. It constantly reminds us before the Father of our shortcomings and takes us to the only one who can offer a solution. The Father himself. He’s the one, by the way, who has made the promise.