Why the Law?

 

Galatians 3:19-22

SUBJECT: GRACE AND LAW

THEME: regarding salvation by grace through faith, the Law’s primary purpose is to assist and complement the Gospel of grace in God’s plan of redemption for all people. 

INTRODUCTION: Paul reveals critical insight into the ways and purposes of Almighty God. He shows how the Law does not contradict the grace and promises of God, but rather that it complements and cooperates with the principles of Grace to fulfil the purposes of God.

While Law and grace seem to be contrary to one another, it is vital we look carefully to the Scriptures, where we will discover that they actually complement one another.

LESSON: Why, Then, Was the Law Given?

THE LAW WAS NOT GIVEN TO PROVIDE SPIRITUAL LIFE (v.21).

Galatians 3:21, Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.  (See also Gal. 2:21; Rom. 3:20– the law brings death-{Gal. 2:19; Rom. 9:31-32})

   1.  It Could Only Regulated Sinful Lives.

Certainly the Law of Moses regulated the lives of the Jewish people, but it did not and could not provide spiritual life to the people. (Gal. 3:21 should be matched with 2:21.) If life and righteousness could have come through the Law, then Jesus Christ would never have died on the cross.

Galatians 2:21, I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Galatians 5:4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Romans 11:5-6, Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

   2.  It Could Not Give Righteousness and Life.

But Jesus did die; therefore, the Law could never give the sinner life and righteousness.  It was “worship of the Law” and misunderstanding its purpose that led Israel into a self-righteous religion of works, the result of which was the rejection of Christ (Rom. 9:30-10:13).

THE LAW WAS GIVEN TO REVEAL THE NATURE OF SIN (vv. 19a, 22).

It is here that we see the way that Law and Grace cooperate in bringing the lost sinner to Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:19, Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Galatians 3:22, But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

    1.  Law Shows the Sinner His Guilt, and Grace Shows Him the Forgiveness He Can Have in Christ. The Law is "holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:12), but we are unholy, unjust, and bad. The Law does not make us sinners; it reveals to us that we already are sinners (see Rom. 3:20). The Law is a mirror that helps us see our dirt and filth (James 1: 22-25)-but we do not wash our face with the mirror! It is grace that provides the cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ (see 1 John 1:7b).

Whether through the written law of Scripture or the inward law of conscience, until a person acknowledges his basic sinfulness and inability to perfectly fulfill the demands of God’s law, he will not come repentantly to seek salvation. Until he despairs of himself and his own sinfulness, he will not come in humble faith to be filled with Christ’s righteousness. A person who says he wants salvation but refuses to recognize and repent of his sin deceives himself. Salvation is deliverance from sin, and a person cannot: want to keep his sin and at the same time want to be free from it. He cannot truly want the new Christ-life of righteousness without renouncing the old self-life of sin. (See James 4:7–10 for a clear delineation of the proper elements of saving faith.)

    2.  There Is a Lawful Use of the Law, and There Is an Unlawful Use (1 Tim. 1:8-11).

       A.  The Lawful Use Is to Reveal Sin and Cause Men to See Their Need of the Savior. There is an appropriate and biblical usage of the OT Law for today. Not only are its principles a moral compass, but it is an extraordinary tool for evangelism. The Lord Jesus used it this way and so did the apostles. You see the Law helps the sinner see he is a sinner by an absolute and objective standard of righteousness. Once the Law has done its work to reveal our guilt before a holy God, the Gospel and the Law together point the sinner to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation. But, Christians observing the Law as OT Law is not required; we are not Jews/Israel or a government entity. We cannot enforce the associated penalties of such a Law; this simply is not New Testament Faith. Without official enforcement it is not actually Law. The spirit of the Law reveals our sinfulness and God’s righteous character, and points us to Jesus Christ as the only solution.

       B.  The Unlawful Use Is to Try to Achieve Salvation by the Keeping of the Law. When people claim they are saved by "keeping the Ten Commandments," they are revealing their ignorance of the true meaning of the Law. The Law “Scripture” concludes "all [men] under sin" (Gal. 3:22), Jews and Gentiles alike. But since all are under sin, then all may be saved by grace! God does not have two ways of salvation; He has but one---faith in Jesus Christ. 

In light of Paul’s convincing argument up to this point, the obvious question would be, ‘Why the Law then?’  If salvation has always been by faith and never by works, and if the covenant of promise to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, what purpose did “the Law” have?  (Gal. 3:19)

Paul’s answer is direct and sobering: “It was added because of transgressions” (stepping over the boundary). The Law was intended to reveal sin in its true character as transgression. The purpose of the Law was to demonstrate to man his total sinfulness, his inability to please God by his own works, and his need for mercy and grace. Certainly, sin existed before the Law was given but man did not recognize sin as going beyond God’s boundaries until God stated the boundaries. Transgression is the violation of a known law.  “The Law … was added” to show the depth of man’s “transgressions” against God. It was given to drive him to desperate guilt and the awareness of his need for the Deliverer, Jesus Christ. The law demonstrated the unworthiness of any man to receive free and unconditional salvation and blessing. If man is to be blessed, it must be by the grace of God. If a person is to be saved, it must be by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

CONCLUSION:

Some try to come to Jesus without first meeting Moses. They want to skip the Old Testament, to inherit the promise of justification in Christ without the prior pain of condemnation by the law. We need the law to lift off the lid of our respectability and disclose what we are really like underneath—sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God and helpless to save ourselves. Not until the law has humbled us even to Hell will we turn to the gospel to raise us to Heaven.

There are some, however, who go to Moses and the law to be condemned and stay in this unhappy bondage. They are still living in the Old Testament. They are marked by labor and are heavy laden! Their religion is a grievous yoke, hard to be borne. They have never come to Christ to be set free.

Our faith is a logical faith and can be defended on rational grounds. While there are divine mysteries in the faith that no man can fully explain, there are also divine reasons that any sincere person can understand. The purpose of the Law of God is among them.