Symbols of the Covenants III: The Tutor
Scripture: Galatians 3:1-29
I. Review of Parts I & II as well as Mount Sinai experience. (If you have not read pats one and two of the series it may be helpfull if they are read first.)
II. Let us start today in Galatians 3:1 Here Paul begins to address a problem with the Galatians, whom he had worked with in the past, bringing them to Christ, bringing them to faith.
A. (Read vs. 1) In Paul’s ministry his goal or focus is uplifting Jesus. To portray Christ and his Character. Especially his character of love as displayed and revealed in the Cross. Because that has a very powerful influence. Here Paul is concerned because the Galatians are slipping away from the experience in Jesus through faith.
B. (Read vs. 2) The Galatians are slipping back into a Law focus and he is trying to draw them back to the experience of Faith. He asks them “Did you receive the Holy Spirit by being really good and following the law or by asking Him to come into your life through Faith?” Of course the answer is, they began in Faith. Just like Abraham began in faith.
C. (Read vs. 3-5) Is it because you keep the Law that God does these things or is it because you have faith in him?
D. (read vs. 6-9) In Paul’s teaching Faith is the key. God requires one thing of us, and that thing is faith. If you have faith everything else comes in its trail. We can not please God by coming to the law and through the flesh, without faith, trying to keep and do the law.
III. He goes on now and tries to explain or make clear to the Galatians why it is bad to be law focused without faith, trying to keep the law through the power of the flesh.
A. (read vs. 10) Is there anyone here who has always done all things that are written in the law? Only the unfallen beings of Heaven can qualify to that. If we come to the law in the flesh, without faith, with out Jesus Christ, the Law only has one thing to say to us. "You are lost, you are cursed!"
B. (read vs. 11) That is a primary theme of Paul. This is the text that Martin Luther discovered. “The just shall live by faith.” Martin Luther was part of a very legalistic system. When Luther came across this text. He learned that salvation came by faith, and not by penance and all the works that were set out. And when he got up from his study he had a new message, “Faith.” He risked his life to preach this message, as did many of the early Christians, as did Paul. The Jews of this time were also very law focused and refused to hear this message of faith in Jesus Christ.
There is nothing new under the sun.The devil knows he can cause Christians to be lost in either of two ways. One, make you throw the law out completely saying it was nailed to the cross so I don’t have to keep it. Two, get you so focused on the law that you fail to look at your only hope against the law and that is Jesus Christ and him crucified. His plan hasn’t changed that much today.
C. (read vs. 12) If you want to be saved by the law then go ahead. Go out there and try it. But you better have always done it all!!!
D. (read vs. 13) Jesus stood in front of the law with yours and my sins and took what the law had to give. “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus took our sins, he took them to the cross, and he was killed by the requirements of the law. And that is what will happen to you and I if we don’t come to faith as Abraham did.
E. (read vs. 14) It is important that we have the Holy Spirit. Abraham’s experience was by faith through the Spirit. It was only by a miracle of the Spirit of God that a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman could have a son.
IV. Now Paul here is trying to make this Promise or covenant clear.
A. (read vs. 15) He uses a human illustration. God’s covenant is similar to when we make a contract. When that contract is signed and confirmed, no one comes along to change it or annul it.
B. (read vs. 16) Now Paul is trying to make it clear but this is a rather complicated thing to explain. The promises were made to two people, Abraham and Jesus. The promises weren’t made to us. There are no promises made to us. The promise was made to Abraham and his Seed, Not seeds. Jesus is our only hope!
C. (read vs. 17-18) Now we need to think carefully about what he is saying. God made the promise to Abraham and his seed. It even came to Abraham through Christ, that in the future Christ would fulfill his part of the covenant. The law didn’t even come on the seen till 430 years later. And once the promise is made to Abraham through Christ the law coming 430 years later doesn’t change anything. Just like when we sign a contract something coming along later doesn’t change it. Only if the two people in the contract agree to cancel the contract. But the contract is between Abraham and Christ, and we know neither of them are planning on changing the contract!
V. Now again Paul is in danger of making the law look like it is unimportant. Like it has no place. So he asks another one of those questions. “What purpose then does the law serve?” Well that’s a good question. Lets read and see.
A. (read vs. 19-20) That, is quite a mouthful. Peter says “Paul writes many things that are hard to understand, and those who are unstable and unlearned twist to their own destruction.” I believe this is one of those. But lets try and work it out.
Paul is saying here that the law was added because of transgressions. Things had gotten to the point that God had to bring the law in to meet this unique situation where things had deteriorated.
It was added through a mediator. When God dealt with Abraham he didn’t need a mediator; he dealt face to face. You know when you have two people who have a conflict, or disagreement you bring in a mediator to help communication and to bring reconciliation. God didn’t need that with Abraham. But now when we come down 430 years after Abraham, things had deteriorated so badly, people were living so deeply in sin that God needed a stop gap measure he needed to bring in some kind of mediation to reach the people. So through the angels God brought the law in because of transgression but it was only temporary until the seed would come.
B. (read Romans 2:13-15) Abraham was a gentile. That sounds strange, but he came from the land of Ur, from the land of the Chaldeans, you could say he was a Babylonian. He was a gentile who knew not the law but by nature did the things written in the law. Because God was speaking to his heart. He was surrendering to God and God was working in his life. (insert illustration of someone who keeps the law without knowing about the law) God was writing the laws in Abraham’s heart. He didn’t have the law, the law came 430 years later, but God was doing the same thing for Abraham, as he wants to do for us through the Spirit by faith. The law may help us, when we get down and deteriorated, we may need to hear the law. Hopefully we don’t stay there and live our Christian experience through the law. Why do we want to go back there, “Oh foolish Galatians,” when we could be living through faith with the Holy spirit communicating with our conscience and changing our hearts. Helping us to want to do the things written in the law and not doing them out of fear or desire for a reward. Its a whole lot more fun to do something you want to do than it is to do something you don’t.
C. (Galatians 3:21) I’ve heard it said that God saves Jews through the old covenant and Christians through the new. That doesn’t make any sense at all. In fact it says that the new covenant is for the house of Israel. There aren’t two different ways to be saved, through law and through faith. There is only one way to be saved, and that is through faith. That is how it is, how it has always been and how it always will be!
D. (read vs.22-25) I believe that the word tutor can actually be better translated as Truant officer. A truant officer was a person that when you sent your children off to school would follow them with a whip and make sure they did what they were supposed to do. Like the law, when it really is not in our heart, it is not our desire to do these things so the law is dogging us until we learn how to do it.
Illustration: You know a good illustration of this is children learning to brush their teeth. Why do children brush their teeth when they are little and just beginning. Maybe you buy them bubble gum flavored tooth past so they like the flavor. Or maybe you threaten them, “Brush your teeth or else your gonna get a spanking.” That’s what the law does. Hopefully your children will grow up and have it in their heart to brush their teeth. Hopefully your children aren’t 30 years old and you are calling them up every night saying, “you better brush your teeth.”
That is absurd but that is what the law does, “don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t commit adultry.” Isn’t it a shame that God has to sit his people down and say such things? That shows us what is going on in the family. Can you Imagine husbands or wives having to sit down at the table every morning and saying to your spouse, “Now no adultery today!” This was the condition of the Israelite people,of God’s people. Do you think God wants to chase us around the universe for the rest of eternity saying “don’t do this, don’t do that!” Do you want to do that to your children? It must be in our hearts to do the things of God. It must eventually be in our children’s hearts to brush their teeth.
Final Illustration: When I drive down the highway I see these little white signs with numbers on them “65”. As soon as I see them I check the horizon and my rear view mirrors. Is it in my heart to drive the speed limit? No it isn’t. But just think, if it was in everyone’s heart in America to drive safely and conserve gas, would we need those signs? No! the principle would still be there but it would be in our hearts not on the signs.
VI. Conclusion
(Read vs.26-29) Praise the Lord that through faith we can become one with Christ and thus be able to claim the promise. We don’t need to be under the truant officer always whipping us and pushing us to do what we don’t want to do. But instead we can live with the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds changing us into the image of God. I look at my life and see how God has changed my desires so much. The sinful things I used to desire I don’t desire anymore and the spiritual things I used to hate, I now desire. Now by no means am I perfect or have I been completely changed but I see what he has done, how far he has brought me and I have confidence that he who began that good work in me will be faithful to complete it. Let us continue in that promise together, encouraging each other and stirring up good works within each other. As we studied last week forsaking not the gathering of ourselves together.
Disclaimer: I appolagize that the series is a work in progress I have only completed the first three sermons in the series and there is more to come. This series may be slightly unclear if only read in part. It only becomes clear as one looks at some of the other aspects. Each sermon only covers a fraction of the whole and the whole series could never hope to fully make it clear. God’s plan of salvation is somehow beyond human attemts to fully comprehend it.
