The Gospel and the Law of Moses: Galatians 3:15-29

Welcome to this second episode of Series 2 in our study of the book of Galatians. It is great to have you with us for our continuing studies.

Recap and Background

Series 1 was all about Paul’s relationship with the Galatian church. It was very much his story: how he came to Galatia, what happened when he was there and all his interactions with the other Apostles and leaders and some of his opponents who came after him. It is important to remind ourselves of that story as we continue. In Series 2 Paul is now explaining in much more detail the theological ideas that are the foundations of the gospel; why the gospel is so new, so revolutionary and why the gospel cannot be compromised by adding in other teaching, philosophy, or in the case that we are studying here in Galatia, adding in the Old Testament Law of Moses and mixing the two things together. Paul was absolutely clear we cannot do this. It is going backwards; it is taking our focus away from Jesus Christ and everything that he has done.

In this particular episode, Paul deals more clearly with the question of the place of the Law of Moses. What was it there for in the first place? To whom was it given? What is its function now for the Christian Community in the New Testament era - for the Galatians - and also for you and me as Christians in the 21st century? How do we understand the Old Testament? How do we understand the Law of Moses? How do we understand the gospel? These are the things that Paul is keen to emphasise in this episode.

In the last episode, as we began Series 2, he started with a really challenging statement about what had gone wrong in Galatia. In Galatians 3: 1 he says: ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified.’ They had taken their eyes off Jesus and his great salvation that has been given to us through his death on the cross and his resurrection. People had come along and started introducing other religious ideas; ideas about the Jewish faith in the Old Testament, lots of rules and regulations and the Galatians were confused and troubled. They were stepping back from the gospel and Paul is addressing them very firmly.

In the last episode, he also introduced to them the importance of Abraham. There had been a lot of discussion about Moses and the Law of Moses, but he introduced the fact that Abraham is the father of our faith. Abraham was before Moses, and God established a covenant with Abraham that is even more important than the covenant he established with the Jewish people at the time of Moses. He is now going to develop this idea and explain to us why Abraham and his relationship with God and the things God promised to him, are so important for us. Here we are in the 21st century but Paul says, for all Christians this is important.

God’s Covenant with Abraham

“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. 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. 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. 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.”

Galatians 3:15-18, NIV

Paul here is now focusing on God’s dealings with Abraham. These took place approximately 1,900 years before Christ. The covenant with Moses, as he says here, was over 400 years later. The first covenant is very important. I have referred to the story of Abraham on a number of occasions as we have gone through Galatians, and also we studied Abraham significantly in the Word Online collection on Romans, especially Romans 4. Paul is very interested in Abraham as the father of all who believe, whatever their racial background.

But what did God say to Abraham that is so significant? What did he say that relates to what Paul is talking about here? What is the promise that Paul is talking about? What was God doing when he called Abraham? We find the story in Genesis 12, at the time when Abraham is called to look for a promised land and to leave his country. God said to him three important things at this time, one of which is directly significant for what we are talking about today. He says in Genesis 12: 2 - 3: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” He promises to Abraham a name, a nation, and a blessing. ‘The name’ is a reference to him having a son miraculously conceived - Isaac. The story is told in the Old Testament of how Abraham and Sarah, his wife, were too old to have children and yet miraculously Isaac was born. Abraham was granted a son out of whom came ‘the nation’ - the nation of Israel, the people of Israel in a land.

But the part of the promise that matters for Paul here, is that Abraham was promised that he would be ‘a blessing’ to all the nations of the earth. In the last episode, Paul identified what this means. In Galatians 3: 8, ‘Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”’ Paul sees that all nations are blessed through Abraham’s descendant, Jesus the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, who would give the gospel to all the nations of the earth. Paul felt that in his own ministry that is exactly what was beginning to happen, and these Gentile believers in Galatia were amongst the first Gentiles to come into the blessing of the promise of Abraham, delivered through Jesus Christ - his death on the cross and the salvation that came.

Paul is saying is that we need to remember this is the foundation. The whole Jewish nation, everything that God did amongst the Jews, is built on this foundation. They were going to be a nation, a special, holy, called nation in a promised land. But from the Jewish people, will come the gospel which will go to all the nations of the earth. That was many hundreds of years later, in the time of Jesus the Messiah that this was fulfilled but this is the foundation that Paul is building on.

The second covenant with Moses was designed by God to build the Jewish nation, so that when they come to their land they know how they must live. The Laws of Moses were designed for the Jewish people living in the Promised Land, to know how they should live in their religion; in their agriculture; in their family life; in their civic life; and in their different tribes. That is what it was there for. It came many years later and Paul argues that the function of the Law of Moses has now come to an end. It is no longer needed because a New Covenant has come to replace it. It doesn’t make any difference to the foundational promise of Abraham. That is what we should be looking at: God promised Abraham the gospel and the Gentiles are now receiving the gospel. They are not receiving the Law of Moses; they are receiving the gospel that came from the promise to Abraham and this promise is not made redundant because another covenant came to Moses 400 years later. It is still the foundation; it has not been abolished or superseded.

God’s Covenant with Moses

“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. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 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. 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.”

Galatians 3:19-22, NIV

Paul is addressing a difficult question, ‘What is the purpose of the law?’ He goes back to the promise to Abraham which referred to a Seed, the offspring, the descendant. This Seed, this individual person, is Jesus Christ - a biological descendant of Abraham.

But what was the purpose of the law? In the original context it was to help create the nation state of Israel but here Paul adds in more reasons why the Law of Moses came, and explains its function. First of all, it was to help us understand the depth of sin. The law continually made people aware that they were falling short of full obedience to God, and Paul implies that this was its actual purpose. In other words, to give us a much more realistic understanding of how separated we are from God. This is a theme that Paul comes back to many times in his writings and it is developed extensively in the book of Romans – from Romans 1:18 to 3:20 – where Paul explains that sin is not just some individual actions that displease God. Sin is a spiritual power that controls our life, leading us to live independently of God and against his ways and that this sin is present in all types of people, whether they are Jews or Gentiles; they all live in sin. He believes that it is very important that people understand their need of the cross in order for them to believe. If we feel we can please God on our own terms, by living a reasonably good life, we won’t look to Christ for our salvation. If we think that rules and regulations will lead us to be right with God, we won’t look to Christ. Paul is encouraging people to believe that there is no way out of sin apart from Jesus Christ. The law helped to identify and focus on the significance of sin in people’s lives.

God’s Way of Dealing with Sin

It also helps us to understand the way in which God deals with our sin. In the Law of Moses, God set up a mechanism - a way of dealing with sin - which was seen in the sacrificial system in the tabernacle, and later the temple. Jews were called to sacrifice animals in the place of themselves, in the sense that the animal would be taking upon itself the sinfulness of the person giving the offering. This way of understanding sin, God was building into the Jewish people in order that we can understand the death of Jesus at the time that he came. In the Law of Moses there is a summary of this principle in Leviticus 17:11, which says: ‘For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make an atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.’ Blood represented the life of the creature. The blood shed represented the death of the creature and God said that he had given, in the blood, the symbolic power to take away sin. That was the principle of atonement - a sacrifice that is also a substitute. The Old Testament law reveals this principle very clearly. It reveals that we need help to be reconciled to God, - sin is a real problem - and it also reveals the way in which God is going to resolve the problem of sin. These things, in Paul’s mind, point towards the coming of Christ. They indicate the need of an ultimate sacrifice - a once and for all sacrifice - that takes away our sins, and we don’t have to repeat the animal sacrifices and the rituals of the Old Testament era. That is why Paul says the law was important. Once Christ has come, the law is no longer needed. Indeed, it will become confusing if you go back to the Law of Moses.

The Law as a Guardian

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:23-29, NIV

The Law of Moses, says Paul, locks us up into spiritual bondage and need. The Jewish people realised under the Law of Moses that they couldn’t fulfil all its terms. The Gentiles, as they understand the Law of Moses, see in the Law of Moses that they are excluded; they are not part of that system. They are also in a situation of spiritual need and bondage, according to Paul. The law, says Paul, is like a guardian.

Here he introduces the idea that before we come to Christ, we are like children in a family. He is thinking of a family in Greek or Roman society that is reasonably wealthy, live in a nice house and have servants. A son in that family who, as a child, is under the authority of not only the parents but also a guardian. A guardian might be a servant in the household responsible for looking after the children in the house; they are not free to make their own decisions but are under the control of that household. In the same way, Paul says, before Christ comes, we are under the control of the Law of Moses - either we are directly under it, if we are Jews, or if we are Gentiles, we are excluded from God’s purposes because we are not involved at all and so we are outside of salvation. The function of the law is to give way to Jesus Christ when he comes. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it, to bring its purpose to completion through everything that he did, so that we no longer need it in the same way.

All One in Christ Jesus

Galatians 3: 26 – 29

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”.

Galatians 3:26-29, NIV

Paul ends this section in this chapter with some wonderful words. He wants to reaffirm the foundations of their faith, and remind them it is nothing to do with the Law of Moses; it had just confused them. Here are the basic truths, says Paul: you are children of God through faith; by faith in Jesus, in his death on the cross, you have been adopted into God’s family, you are part of his family. Everybody, irrespective of who you are, if you are baptised, which is a sign of your faith and a sign of your belonging to God, according to Paul.

He said here, that the divisions and the barriers between people that existed in their society are overcome in the Church. He mentioned three of the greatest barriers that existed in their society. First of all, the barrier between Jew and Gentile. This was a very significant social division. The Jews lived in separate communities. The Jews behaved in a different way; they did not worship at the temples of the idols and gods of the Greeks and Romans; on their Sabbath day they had special religious services in their synagogues that was entirely separate; and generally they didn’t socialise fully with their Gentile friends because of the restrictions on what food they were allowed to eat. So, the Jews and the Gentiles were separated. Paul says, in Christ they are joined together, so we mustn’t allow anything to separate them in the Church. They are all equally the children of God.

Likewise, he mentions the difference between slaves and free people. As I have mentioned in previous episodes, Paul is often thinking about the concept of slavery, which was such a big reality for everybody in that society. Slavery wasn’t based on any particular race, or the colour of your skin. You could become enslaved through poverty, through warfare, through difficult circumstances, and through violent capture. All sorts of different situations brought about slavery. The biggest one was when the Romans conquered your territory and took people from that territory into slavery. Slavery took place in different forms: some people were in industrial factories; some were rowing in galleys, the ships of the day; and others were working in domestic service, which is what Paul is talking about here. Many slaves worked as domestic servants in rich households and these are the people who are likely to be attending the church community. You could have people from the same household, one of whom is the master, the other whom is a slave. Paul says, when you come into the church meeting you are actually equal: the Jew and the Gentile are equal; the slave and the free are equal; and also the male and the female are equal. We all have, in other words, equal status before God, equal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

We are all Abraham’s ‘seed’. The word seed is used here, both in a singular sense, and in a plural sense. The same thing applies to the use of the word in the book of Genesis. In the Hebrew language, the word seed, or offspring, can mean one individual person or it can mean a large company of people. For example, if I had a son and I invited you to my house and my son was married and had five children, I could say to you, coming into the house, ‘Here they all are, my son, his wife, my wife, and five children,’ I could also say, ‘Here is my offspring’. I could mean two different things. I could mean, ‘Here is my son’, or I could mean, ‘Here are my descendants’. Paul uses the word here in both senses in the same passage. There is a sense in which there is an individual Seed - the key person is Jesus Christ - and here, seed meaning we are all the family of Abraham and the family of Jesus Christ. We are the spiritual offspring. We have come into God’s family. This is a complicated but important passage for us to understand.

Reflections

As we come to our time of reflection at the end of this episode, we are reminded that it is very important to understand the Old Testament covenants and how they relate to us in the Church. There are five covenants that God makes with humanity in the Old Testament.

The first one is the covenant he makes with Noah after the Great Flood, as recorded in Genesis 8 and 9. This is a covenant with all of humanity in the created order, where God promises that there won’t be another universal flood, that there will be stability in the natural world over the passage of time. That covenant is still in place and is a blessing to us in this world but it doesn’t bring salvation. It is not a covenant that relates to faith or salvation; it relates to God’s provision for humanity in the earth.

The second covenant that God makes is the one we have been thinking about most in this episode - the covenant with Abraham. This is the beginning of God revealing his salvation purposes to first the Jewish people and then to the world. The Abrahamic covenant is the foundation upon which all salvation exists. You therefore become the children of Abraham; you are in the same faith relationship with God that he was.

The third covenant is the covenant with Moses on Mount Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 19 onwards in the Old Testament. This is a covenant with the Jewish people to set up their state, their nation, in the Promised Land. We know from Paul’s teaching here that this covenant is no longer applicable because it has been replaced by the New Covenant.

In between those two covenants is a fourth covenant. A covenant with David, where God promises to King David, in 2 Samuel 7, that his kingship would be repeated in the distant future with a greater king, a Messiah, the Son of David, and Jesus fulfils that covenant.

The fifth covenant is the New Covenant which is promised in Jeremiah 31: 31 onwards. Paul is thinking about that framework when he is addressing the Galatians here. He is only talking about a small part of it but he is explaining that, as far as salvation goes, the covenant with Abraham is our starting point and it is still in place. The covenant with Moses has now become obsolete because Christ has come.

In our reflections, hopefully we will be able to be clearer about how to understand the Old Testament, and how to make sure that we don’t compromise the centrality of Jesus dying on the cross, rising again for us, and the salvation that he bought for all of us.