Chico Alliance Church
“Why the Law?”
True freedom comes by grace through faith in Christ
I. Paul Possessed the Correct credentials 1-2
Paul taught only what he received directly from Christ Himself.
II. Paul Proclaimed the Correct Concept of Grace 2:15-4:31
Right standing before God comes only through faith in Christ apart from works.
A. The Gospel of Grace Introduced 2:15-21
B. The Gospel of Grace Argued and Illustrated 3:1-4:31
1. Faith Argued by clarifying interrogation 3:1-6
God operates on the principle of hearing with faith. The point of Paul’s letter is not really difficult to grasp so far. I (Paul the apostle) am teaching the truth as I received it personally from Christ not people. The only hope of establishing AND maintaining right standing with God is faith in Christ not keeping the law. The application of his letter thus far is not complicated either. What do you consider the basis of your salvation? Keeping a list of rules? Believing in the promise of God to accept us through Christ? What do you consider the basis of your sanctification or growth? Keeping a list of rules? Believing in the promise of God to continually accept us through His Son? Paul insists that the answer to both of these must be an unwavering confidence in Christ.
2. Genuine faith illustrated by Abraham 3:7-29
a. God blessed Abraham on the basis of his faith 3:7-9
Paul applied Abraham’s example in his letter to the Romans chapter 4. Paul vigorously declares to the Galatians that
“It is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”
“those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.”
b. The Law condemns all who don’t keep it fully 3:10-12
If you depend on keeping law to establish and maintain relationship with God then you must live by those laws. If you want to establish and maintain a relationship with a person by keeping certain laws, then keeping laws rather than relating will be the focus of your relationship. God does not want a relationship with the creatures made in His very own image on the basis of proud law keeping. If we choose keeping law as a basis of our relationship with God we must live that way When we fail to meet all the demands of the law we must also accept the consequences defined in the law – ETERNAL SEPARATION!
c. Christ was cursed so we could be blessed 3:13-14
Paul again emphasizes the work of Christ in relation to restored relationship with God. Christ became sin for us and bore sin for us that we might receive the promise of the life-changing Spirit through hearing with faith in the promise of God not through personal effort to keep the law.
Introduction
Paul cannot get any more emphatic about the basic truth that relationship with God, justification, righteousness can only be achieved by faith in Christ apart from the works of the law. He continues his attempt to defog the thinking of these believers regarding God’s work in them.
• He next addresses an argument of the Judaizers who would affirm Abraham’s salvation by faith but assert that God changed when the Law was given through Moses. 15-18
From the time of Moses it is necessary to relate to God on the basis of keeping the rules.
• He then addressed the purpose of the law. 19-24
If the law condemns us and is so difficult that no one can keep it, then why did God give us the Law and what good is it?
• He concludes illustrating the gospel of grace from Abraham’s experience by applying it to those who are in Christ. 25-29
d. The promised blessing is unconditional and eternal 3:15-18
The Judaizers would maintain that the Law of Moses now supercedes any covenant made to Abraham. Before, the blessing came through faith. God’s blessing is now conditioned upon keeping the law. This issue should be settled because there is a great difference between the two The covenant with Abraham was unconditional dependent on God’s faithfulness The covenant with Moses was conditional dependent on man’s faithfulness
God promised Abraham – “I will!”
God demanded Moses – “You shall!”
The covenant with Abraham was a relationship dependent upon God’s initiative.
The covenant with Moses was a law dependent upon mans’ initiative.
The promise centers on God’s plan, God’s grace, God’s initiative, God’s sovereignty, God’s blessings.
The law centers on man’s duty, man’s work, man’s responsibility, man’s behavior, man’s obedience.
The promise, was grounded in grace, requires only sincere faith.
The law was grounded in works, demands perfect obedience
In answer to the Judaizers assertion that the Law supercedes the promise made to Abraham, Paul clarifies the unconditional, eternal nature of God’s promise to Abraham through an illustration from every day life and experience.
Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.
First, Paul appeals to their cultural, everyday understanding of covenants. If he had in mind the Greek concept of a covenant, they would understand that no one could add to or alter the terms of the covenant once it had been ratified. Roman law became a little less rigid in that the agreeing parties could make changes. The point is that once ratified, we don’t have the option of arbitrarily changing wills or agreements.
In the case of God’s covenant with Abraham, God alone ratified it through blood sacrifice and fire. This was and unconditional covenant dependent on the promise and character of God. Abraham was not legally obligated to do anything but accept the blessing God promised. In fact, Abraham was asleep.
The promise was ratified by God
The second point refuting the Judaizers assertion that Moses supercedes Abraham
centered around who he made the promise to.
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.
The promise referred to Christ
God made this promise to Abraham and his seed singular. God made a promise to Abraham and to his seed Christ. Where was Christ at the time of the promise? He was right there! The fact that the Law came 430 years later did not nullify a promise made to Abraham and to Christ who was yet to come on the scene.
The prophecy of a seed from the woman that would bruise the serpent’s head was established in the very context of paradise lost. Everyone realized that the fulfillment to this promise would be realized in a single person. Everyone anxiously awaited their Messiah, the Christ in whom they would realize the promise of blessing made to Abraham.
Moses doesn’t supercede Abraham because you don’t change promises.
Moses doesn’t supercede Abraham because God promise the blessing to Christ.
The third point in this argument focus on the basis of the blessing.
18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
The blessing rests on a promise.
Inheritance is not based on keeping laws, if we work for it, then the inheritance is not a gift based on an unconditional promise but a wage based on conditional performance. God intended that his promised inheritance of blessing, love and grace, be a gift, not a wage based on personal merit. (he knew that no one would be blessed on that basis). God “granted” (perfect tense ) the blessing by means of a promise.
An inheritance by nature is received not earned. The blessing promised to Abraham and applied here has to do with eternally restored relationship with God by faith in Christ who would come to radically live in us. Does the giving of the law to Moses invalidate the promise made to Abraham? The terms of the promise have not changed.
Only God can change them and he hasn’t. The promise was made to Christ and concerning Christ. Every promise of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ. Only in Christ will we fully realize the promised blessing. Inheritance is based on promise not performance.
Next, Paul addresses a natural question or concern. If the law condemns us and is so difficult that no one can keep it and does not supercede the promise made to Abraham then why did God give us the Law and what good is it?
e. God gave the law for a specific Purpose 3:19-20
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.
The Law was added because of transgressions. If you put a dirt in a glass of water and let it sit undisturbed for a while, it will soon appear to be clean. Put in a spoon and stir the water and you discover just how impure the water really is. The spoon does not alter the relationship of the dirt and water, it simply exposes the dirt. Today perhaps a better illustration is the special light that reveals impurities and dirt. An examination of hotels revealed unimaginable dirt left even after cleaning. Did the light cause the dirt? No! The light merely exposed the dirt. So God gave the Law to expose the sin that already existed. Before the Law, man continually acted contrary to God’s moral law and character sin. Sin is not a transgression until there is a law. Not every moral violation is a legal violation. I.e. Drunkenness is a moral violation but not a legal one. During prohibition, it was also a legal violation. The law was given so that man would be unmistakably faced with a legal transgression. The law was given to expose moral violations as legal transgressions. The Israelites declared their proud intention to keep the law of God. God demonstrated that it was an impossibility. The Law continually condemned them and demonstrated their need for a Savior. The law was designed to expose sin until the promised seed and Savior would come. The law would clearly illustrate the need for the promise. The law makes sin exceedingly sinful. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Is the law evil then?
f. The law is good but limited 3:21-24
If the law stirs up sin is the law sinful? By NO means says Paul.
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. 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. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
Is the spoon that stirs up the dirt impure? Did the spoon cause the dirt? Is the light evil? No the light is actually good and beneficial. Paul clearly addressed this question in Romans 7.
The law is good and holy. The problem is with us. We can’t keep the law. We continually violate the moral law of God to our detriment and His disappointment The Scripture shuts everyone under sin. The Law is a tutor that graphically demonstrates our need to come to Christ for righteousness. The cannot give life. The law cannot keep us from transgressing. It can only expose our transgression and judge us accordingly. Paul says that the law is weak in that it cannot energize the flesh to keep the law. The dirty water is not cleansed by the spoon. It must go through the process of distillation to remove the impurities. The Law cannot cleanse or forgive. The law can only bring us to the cross. We must by faith submit to the regenerating process of the Spirit. Christ became a curse for us. He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4
The law serves to illustrate the futility of self-righteousness and the necessity of coming to God by faith in order to receive a new, heart, a renewed spirit, His righteousness. By faith in Christ we are declared righteous. Not guilty! But that is not all that happens when Christ redeems us from the curse of the law.
g. We, like Abraham are Blessed by faith in Christ 3:25-29
• We are no longer under the law now that faith has come
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Paul affirms that since we have been justified (point time action, passive verb) by faith in Christ, the law has no more jurisdiction over us. The focus is not our performance but His promise. The point is not rules but relationship. The power is not the flesh but life in the Spirit. The issue is not keeping the law but loving the law giver.
The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me.
It is walking with God as did Abraham. It is living the promise of God made to His own son that all the world would find blessing through Him.
• We are sons of God through faith in Christ 26
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Present tense verb here indicating the continuing nature of our new relationships with God. It is faith in Christ that establishes and maintains our relationships with God.
But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God. John 1:10-13
Next week we will explore the blessing of sonship from the next section.
• We bear the likeness of Christ through identification with Him. 7
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Paul speaks here not of water baptism but Spirit baptism. We are linked to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. In that process we are immersed in Christ. We are clothed with Christ. All who were baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ. God’s work in us completely centers around becoming like Christ. Christ likeness is the destiny of EVERY genuine believer. It is an critical component of the covenant.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. Romans 8:28-30
We are Christians because Christ dwells in us. If Christ dwells in us we are being made into His likeness!
See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don't know God, so they don't understand that we are his children. Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. 1 John 3:1-3
You see, the motive for the genuine Christian to walk with God is not law.
Law brings us to the Cross. The motive to walk with God is a new life, a new identity, a new power, a new heart, a new purpose, a changed life. This new identity in Christ not only effects our walk with God but our view of each other.
• We are united in Christ 8
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
There are no national, social or gender distinctions between us matter. We are Christians.
Since every Christian belongs to Christ, every Christian is related to each other in Christ.
We are truly one in the Spirit.
• We are heirs according to God’s promise 29
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise
Romans 8:15-17 Ephes. 3:6 Titus 3:5-8
APPLICATION
God commences his work in us on the basis of faith in Christ.
God continues his work in us on the basis of faith in Christ.
God completes his work in us on the basis of faith.
Again I ask what you trusted to bring you into right relationship with Christ?
Again I ask you what you are trusting to maintain right relationship with Christ and to grow into his likeness.
Hebrews 12 instructs us to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith.
Repent of your self-righteousness.
Believe him to do in you what you cannot do.
You cannot come holy before him on the basis of any work you do.
You cannot live holy before Him on the basis of any work you do.
Resist a works based thinking and living.
Later we will discover more about a spirit-based living.
Your relationship with God must be firmly founded on faith in the work of Christ, whether it is for justification or sanctification.
God said it and that settles it,
so I believe it
and
God brings it about!
