Paul continues to pound away at the counterfeit gospel spread by the Judaizers in the Galatian churches. In essence, these spiritual snake oil salesmen have duped these new disciples into believing that Jesus may have brought them into His kingdom but its up their own rule-keeping to stay there.
Let's face facts. We continue to fall for this scam 2,000 years later. That's why the apostle's letter to the Galatians is so very, very important for us today.
After contrasting God's law with God's promise (Gal 3:10-19), Paul demonstrates that these two things are not opposition but working together. "Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not!" (v21).
After following his previous argument, it would be very easy to dismiss God's law as something bad, something to be avoided, something to stiff arm.
But the apostle let's us know that is not the case at all. He responds to his own question with an unequivocal answer. This is the absolute strongest language he can use. He literally says, "May it never be!" Heaven forbid that the law and the promise would ever be seen in opposition!
The big idea here is that God can never be in opposition to Himself. That's completely impossible for the Lord to do one thing and then turn around to do something against that. That's completely foreign to His nature.
While we might not understand His ways (let's face it, they ARE mysterious!), we don't see things from His omniscient perspective. God never contradicts Himself. Ever. Take that to the bank.
Paul tells us that God's law doesn't give life because that's not why He gave us the law. "For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (v21). The law is not the tool to create life. That's not it's purpose.
Think of it this way. If Dr. Frankenstein hooked his monster up to the Mosaic law, the creature would still be on the slab. The maniacal doctor can scream, "Give my creature life!" all he wants. The law is NOT a source of life.
Since we've gone down the horror movie path, let's take it a step further. Trying to follow the law in order to find life only transforms us into spiritual zombies. The Walking Dead. Only without all that nasty brain eating.
Paul goes on to conclude that if the law could give life, "then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (v21). If we could become righteous, holy and perfect by simply obeying the law then there's no reason for Jesus.
No need for Him to live the life we could never live. No need for Him to die the death we should have died. There would be no point if the law brought life through righteous and perfect obedience.
The apostle goes on to give us the two-fold purpose of God's law. "But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin" (v22). Understand that when Paul refers to "the Scripture," there was only the OT at the time.
At the moment he put pen to paper, the only NT book written at this point was James. So he's talking about the Torah. The Law and the Prophets. The Jewish Bible.
He let's us know that one very important thing that God's revealed Word does is to let us know that we're all sin-sick. Every last stinkin' one of us.
Take a look around. Who do you see? They're all sinners. That includes the one in your mirror. Sinners. It's universal.
My wife and I just returned from a trip aboard the largest cruise ship in the world. The ship holds 6,200 guests and 1,500 crew members.
That's a total of 7,700 sinners. Every last person on that massive craft falls short of God's righteous standard.
That's the consistent message of the Bible (1Ki 8:46; Ps 143:2; Pro 20:9; Ecc 7:20; Is 53:6; Rom 3:9-23, 11:32). You. Me. Everyone who has ever lived (with One marvelous exception!). Everyone who will ever live.
In other words, the first purpose of God's law is to diagnose our sin. It's to let us know just how completely jacked up I am.
God's law is our diagnostic tool. It's His MRI, CT scan, x-ray or ultrasound. It doesn't heal anything. It simply reveals our terminal condition.
The second purpose of God's law is to point us to His promise. "So that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (v21). In other words, God's law so devastates and destroys us that we come to see our desperate need for a Savior.
That's the Good News. The Gospel is His promise. We receive His promise by placing our trust in what Jesus did for us that we could never, ever do.
God's law could never give life. It could never provide righteousness. Not in a million years. The only source of life and righteousness is Jesus.
He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6). He is our righteousness (2Cor 5:21). The only way we truly live is to embrace what He has done for us (Jn 3:16; Acts 10:43). That's God's promise in Jesus.
Or we could try to gain life through the law. We are Frankenstein's monster, a lifeless corpse on the table. We are zombies, the living dead. I don't know about you, but I'll take the promise, thank you very much.
©2012
Jay Jennings
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