“Guard’s, Guides, and Grace”
Galatians 3:23-29
Introduction: The TV reality show “Biggest Loser” was pretty
well known around here for a time when the former youth pastor was a
contestant. The contestants had a couple of things that they probably hated at
times, but which were there to help them toward their goal: 1) the scale, which
spoke only the hard objective truth, and 2) a personal trainer, to instruct,
encourage, and urge them toward their objective.
These guides could reveal the need, and help them toward their
goal. The Law served that way for the
Jews, and for us, as it exposed our desperate need for a Rescuer!
Context: After setting forth his apostolic credentials Paul argued both
from the experience of the Galatian Christians in coming to faith, and from the
Scriptures that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus and His finished
work, apart from the works of the Law.
We’ve seen in Galatians 3 that God never intended the Law as a means of
salvation, in fact if the Law could save the cross would not have been
necessary and Jesus died for nothing.
Paul now uses another illustration from everyday life to show that God has
revealed clear boundaries to expose man’s sin and to guide us to faith in
Christ.
The Maine* Idea: The Law serves as a
disciplinarian, a personal tutor, urging us toward sonship which is through
faith in Jesus.
I. Humans were in bondage under the Law: The Law is compared to a prison where we were kept
under guard, and then to a disciplinarian which would correct and guide (3:23-24).
23 Now before faith came, we were
held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be
revealed. 24 So then, the law
was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by
faith.
The
Law as a “Guard” (3:23) “…we were
kept under guard…. And kept for faith…” The ESV says, “help captive…
until the coming faith would be revealed.” Remember the context, v.22 says,
“But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by
faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The NKJV
translates everything as “…all…” This must include Jews and Gentiles
alike. This refers to the Mosaic Law,
but also includes the broader revelation of God in nature (Rom 1:18-21) and
conscience (2:14,15). One of the
questions that comes up is what about those who were outside of Israel in the
period before Christ, or those today who haven’t heard the Gospel? The truth is that they will be convicted (and
condemned!) on the basis of the light of general revelation which they have
received, in nature and in their consciences. There is none righteous, no
not one… all have sinned… and in our more thoughtful moments we know
it.
Through the years I read to our
daughter at night, and one of the books we read together was Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s
Progress. There is one scene in that allegory that illustrates the idea we
are addressing here,
“…As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a
certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep; and as
I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed and
behold I saw a man clothed with rags standing in a certain place, with his face
from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked and saw him open the book and read
therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and, not being able longer to
contain he brake out with a lamentable cry saying “What shall I do?”
That is the desired effect of the
Law… through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Pilgrim’s burden is sin, and
the book in his hand is the Bible. Our desperate need is exposed. In Bunyan’s
story, a short while later the man encountered Evangelist, who asked him why he
was crying. Pilgrim replied, “Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand that I
am condemned to die and after that to come to judgment.” Evangelist pointed
to a hill in the distance, and said that was the way to light and life. The
Bible opens our eyes to our need, our lost and desperate condition, and it also
is the means that God uses to stir faith in our hearts: Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.
Not
only with respect to the history of redemption, but every human being either
continuously lives as a captive slave chained under the judgment of God’s perfect
and unchanging law, the demands of which he must pay by eternal death or hell;
or he lives by faith in Jesus, utterly free from judgment (cf. Rom 8:1-3) as a
redeemed child of God under his sovereign and eternal grace. Yet just like Cain,
men continue to insist on coming to God on their own terms and choosing for
themselves what they decide should be pleasing to God. God is God and we are
not! He gets to make the rules!
In
Philippians 3:5-9 Paul described his conversion from Law to Grace:
“…circumcised the eighth
day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as
to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as
to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the
Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever
things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ… I count all things to be loss in
view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may
gain Christ, 9 and may be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but
that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God
on the basis of faith.”
That last verse from Paul is the
message of Galatians in a nutshell! I can’t keep the Law flawlessly; my only
hope is being declared righteous through faith in Christ!
The
Law as a Guide (3:24). – Paul applies the idea of being “kept in
custody” to another situation that would have been readily understandable
in his first century context. Read again 3:24,
24 So then, the law was our guardian
until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
The “guardian,” or paidagogos,
in the Greek world wasn’t a teacher or schoolmaster, but rather he was a
household servant who was an attendant to the child from 6 to 16 years of
age. He would take him to school, make
sure he studied his lessons, and scold and even discipline as necessary. It was never permanent; it was for that
specific period of time. All of it, leading, disciplining, directing, lasted
only until the child reached the age of an “adult son.” Paul uses that as an
illustration of the nature and function of the Law. It has a restraining and
guiding function, and for the Jews before Christ it looked forward to the
coming of the One who would rescue those who believe.
The main purpose of the Law, God’s
divinely appointed pedagogue, was to provide boundaries, to give guidance, to
show people their need, until the coming of Christ, that they might be
justified through faith in Him. After a
person comes to him there is no longer a need for external ceremonies and
rituals to act as guides and disciplinarians, because the new inner principles
operate through the indwelling Christ in who is “hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). The Law
in a ceremonial sense is done away with, though in the moral sense it remains, revealing
the character of our Father, and His desire for us. Tim Keller said,
Law and grace work together in Christian salvation. Many people
want a sense of joy and acceptance but they will not admit the seriousness of
their sin. They will not listen to the law’s searching and painful analysis of
their lives and hearts. But unless we see how helpless and profoundly sinful we
are, the message of salvation will not be exhilarating and liberating. Unless
we know how big our debt is, we cannot have any idea of how great Christ’s
payment was. If we think that we are not all that bad, the idea of grace
will never change us. The law shows us as we really are. And so the law
points us to see Christ as He really is: our Savior, the One who obeyed the law
on our behalf and then died in our place so that we might receive the promised
blessing.
The law serves as a
disciplinarian, a personal tutor, urging us toward sonship, which is only through
faith in Jesus Christ.
II. In Christ, by faith, we are sons; we’ve been set free! Sonship is a gracious gift, received by faith (3:25-29). Paul now unfolds the results of being rightly related to God
through faith in Jesus Christ….
25 But now that faith has come, we
are no longer under a guardian, 26
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. 29 And if you are
Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
What does Paul mean: "Faith has
come" (25)? I don't think Paul is saying that no one in Israel had
saving faith before Christ came. Abraham clearly did, Paul is using him as an
example (3:6)! Indeed, the New Testament
teaching about faith is based largely on quotations from the Old Testament! Hebrews
11 surveys Old Testament history and gives examples of faith from the past. The
reformers didn’t invent the phrase, “The just shall live by faith,” it
came from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk! So, Paul does not mean that no
one had faith before Christ came, or that justification was by works before
Christ came. Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. That has always been
true. What does he mean then?
Paul
must mean, when he says that "faith has come," that by God's grace, a
period in redemptive history has come in which God sent forth His Son,
the One who is the object of faith. The Rescuer has arrived (Gal 4:4,5)! When
the gospel is preached, people believe and are saved. The movement has spread
around the world, the word of Christ is being fulfilled when He said, “I
will build my church.” Every one of us here who lives by faith in the Son
of God is living evidence that by the sovereign, effectual grace of the Holy
Spirit "faith has come"—even to us, and taken up residence in our
hearts, and made us new. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live is the flesh, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved and gave himself for me.” That
was Paul’s testimony in chapter 2, and if you know Him, in some way, it is your
testimony as well.
Now that “faith has come”
(v.25), we are living in the age of grace, under the Gospel, the full and final
revelation of God in Christ. So, we have moved from the position of children
under the direction and discipline of a custodian, to being Sons of God
(vv. 25,26). As we think about what we
are in Christ, contrast that with what we were without Him. Apart from faith in
Christ, all men are enemies of God (Rom 5:10) and children of wrath (Eph 2:3). Like the self-righteous Pharisees in
Jerusalem, every unbeliever, according to Jesus, is in reality a child of the
devil (John 8:44). In that condition of utter darkness, a Light shone – Jesus, the
Light of the World. And He is the only way (Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12). Is that an exclusive
message? Yes… There is no other way to God, but through faith in Christ.
Period.
There are implications to this: Because
all believers are in Christ, our unity with Him implies a positional unity
with other Christians (27-28). There's no room for pride, or prejudice, rather there's a call to being
forgiving and gracious.
We says we were “…baptized into Christ…”
(27), Paul makes a similar reference in Romans 6:3-5, which is primarily a
reference to our spiritual identification with Christ…
3 Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? 4 We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life. 5 For if we have
been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him
in a resurrection like his.
Christ
is in us, and at the same time, we are in Christ. Paul affirmed that in
Galatians 2:20,21 and he is assuming here in Galatians 3. If we are in Christ
and He is in us, we are His, and He is ours! He also says we have been “clothed with Christ…” enveloped in his
presence, his righteousness….
Another implication,
spiritual equality. Read again v. 28, “There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” That is a radical statement in the context of
the 1st century, asserting absolute spiritual equality regardless of social
status, race, or sex! Coming from Paul, trained as a Rabbi and Pharisee, this
seems to be a conscious rebuttal of a common prayer of the Pharisees at that
time: “Lord, I thank you that I was not born a slave, a gentile, or a woman…”
Such was the discrimination of that time!
Paul is saying, before God, all humans are equal. All spiritual
blessings, resources, and promises are equally given to all who believe unto
salvation (cf. Rom 10;12). Paul later writes in Ephesians that the dividing
wall of partition between Jew and Gentile has been abolished in Christ, he
counsels his friend Philemon to receive back his runaway slave Onesimus, no
longer as a slave, but now as a brother in Christ. He commends women such as Phoebe and
Priscilla for their service for the Lord (in the context of the roles He has
established in Creation and affirmed in the NT).
It also means that we are heirs of the
promise (see v.29). Since we are “in Christ,” the promised Seed, we too are
joint heirs, and share in the spiritual promises given to Abraham. Through
faith.
What is God saying to me in this passage?
The Law served as a temporary disciplinarian, a personal tutor, urging us
toward sonship through faith in Jesus.
John Stott commenting on these verses said: “We cannot come to Christ
to be justified until we have first been to Moses to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses, and acknowledged
our sin, guilt, and condemnation, we must not stay there. We must let Moses
send us to Christ.” The Gospel is clear: Grace alone, through faith alone,
in Christ alone.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage?
For those of us who struggle with our weight, the hard, objective truth presented
by a scale can sometimes hurt, but if it’s the truth, we would do well to pay
attention! The Bible is Truth, and it
will show us our need, it will point out how far short we fall and how hopeless
we are in and of ourselves. But it doesn’t leave us there. It also serves
as a kind, encouraging tutor, a personal coach, to point us to Jesus and His
amazing grace. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and he did it
by taking our sins in his own body on the Cross – He drank the cup of wrath to
the dregs, so that our cup, the cup of blessing, could be filled to overflowing.
That is Amazing Grace! AMEN.
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