The Purpose of the Law

Galatians 3:15-25

Sometimes we can make a point so strongly and effectively that it sounds like we’ve obliterated the other side. That’s what it seems like that’s what Paul has done to the law in this letter. In his argument against false teaching, it seems as though he has made the law entirely obsolete, but is that what he’s done?

First, he announced his concern that the churches in Galatia were being influenced by a wrong view of the gospel (Gal 1:1-9). We call this view legalism. It teaches that you must obey certain Old Testament (OT) traditions and laws to have a right relationship with God.

He also described how he faced legalism pressures in his own life since he believed on Christ (Gal 1:10-2:14). Then he emphasized relying on Christ, not the law, through the power of the Spirit to be what we must be and do what we must do (Gal 2:14-21).

Next, like a prosecuting attorney, he revealed how legalism is a spiritual scam that cannot give you a right relationship with God, and he pointed to Abraham as our timeless example of receiving God’s favor by faith alone (Gal 3:1-9). Finally, he proves that the law brings a curse upon us, not a blessing (Gal 3:10-14).

All this in mind, we must ask an important question: “What is the purpose of the law?” If it has never given anyone a right relationship with God, if Abraham didn’t need it, and if Christ has brought to an end the authority of the law in our lives today, and if legalism overemphasizes it, then what purpose did it serve? How would you answer that question?

To answer this question, Paul reaffirms that the law has never been a means of salvation. The blessing of salvation has always come through faith, even before the law was given.

God gave his promise of blessing before the law was given.

This blessing refers to the promise God gave to Abraham of blessing his seed (or his offspring). “In you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). This blessing includes forgiveness of sins, a righteous standing before God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, all of which would be given to people through an offspring of Abraham – Jesus Christ.

Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. (Gal 3:15)

To explain how this played out, Paul refers to a human covenant. When such solemn covenants were made in those days, both parties were legally and morally bound to fulfill their end of the bargain. If they failed their end of the agreement or changed it in any way, then the covenant would be broken, and the failed party would face consequences.

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. (Gal 3:16)

But the promise of a blessed and right standing before God was even more unbreakable because it was ratified not between two humans but between a human and God, and God never breaks his promises.

What’s more, this was a one-way covenant that God initiated and ratified by himself, placing no conditions on Abraham. This covenant guaranteed that God would send Christ as an offspring of Abraham to bless people with salvation through faith alone.

And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. (Gal 3:17-18)

Paul argues, then, that when God gave the law to Moses, he did not invalidate or replace the promise he gave to Abraham 430 years earlier. Either salvation came through obeying the law or believing God’s promise. It was the latter and the law didn’t change that.

So, if the law didn’t change or modify God’s plan for how we receive salvation, then what was the purpose of the law given 430 yrs. later? Why did God give it to Moses? Paul gives us three functions of the law that show us its purpose.

Have you ever looked at some obsolete invention or technology and wondered what it is? I remember using cassette tapes to listen to music and record sermons or using 5.25” and 3.5” floppy discs to install programs and store information on computers.

• A 5.25” floppy disc held up to 1.2 MB of data and a 3.5” disc up to 1.44 MB.
• A cassette stored 12-15 songs while a CD stored between 100 and 150 songs.

Today we can store more than 1 TB of data on a single USB thumb drive and as many as 200,000 songs, making those old technologies obsolete. We would be silly to start using those technologies again, even though they helped us get to where we are today.

So, let’s ask the question, why was the law given in the past?

The law was given to increase our sins.

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. (Gal 3:19-20)

“It was added because of transgressions” explains a function of the law. This is a difficult phrase to understand because it’s somewhat vague, so it helps to compare the phrase to a similar discussion in Rom 5:20, where Paul says, “The law entered that the offense might abound.”

So, knowing our sinful nature, God intended for the law to increase the number of our sins. Why? So, we’d recognize our need for a Savior. 430 years had already passed from Abraham to Moses and another 1,500 years would pass from Moses to Christ, so the law ensured the awareness of our need for a Savior would not diminish.

In the military, drill instructors will raise the difficulty level of training exercises for the more experienced soldiers. Sometimes they’ll do this beyond what the soldiers will face in real battle, but they do this to prevent the soldiers from being complacent and thinking they’re okay. These exercises increase the soldier’s failures to intensify their sense of need.

Consider how the law forbids inherently sinful things, like adultery, murder, and theft, but it also forbids things that are only sinful because the law says so, like eating pork, wearing clothes with multiple kinds of fabric, etc. The law gave more opportunities to transgress or fail, increasing our awareness of the need for a Savior and ensuring we wouldn’t be lulled into thinking we were doing okay without a Savior. Yet this purpose would be temporary, “till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.”

Not only did the law serve a temporary purpose, but it was an inferior strategy – inferior to faith in Christ alone. Though it helped people see the need for salvation by faith in Christ alone, it was secondary to that end, not the end itself.

Paul demonstrates the inferior nature of the law by showing how God gave it through second-hand means – through angels, who then gave it to Moses, who then gave it to the people. Christ, on the other hand, was a promise given directly from God and a Savior who would come directly from God, because he was God.

Which academic award means more to you? The one a secretary prints in her office then mails through USPS, or the one your university provost hands to you in person at a commencement ceremony or your corporate CEO hands to you at an awards banquet? The law was given through a set of go-betweens, but the promise of salvation by faith in Christ was given directly by God himself.

The law was given to imprison us by our sins.

This was a second purpose of the law, and like the first purpose, it’s a little surprising.

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. (Gal 3:21-23)

Paul uses words like confined and kept under guard. They describe a prison cell and a prison guard. They show how God intended for the law to strengthen and fortify our sense of guilt before God. We know we are born in bondage to sin, but the law makes it obvious.

It’s as though our bondage to sin is invisible. It’s real but we can’t see it, so the law makes the walls and bars of our cell visible and concrete. It brings our sinful failures clearly into focus. Though this experience seems cruel at first, we should also recognize its value.

As Paul points out, this vivid prison that the law builds around us prepares us to want God’s deliverance when it comes through Christ. If we don’t feel like we’re in prison, then we don’t want deliverance when it comes our way. The law makes our imprisonment painfully obvious in a way that’s hard to miss. How desperately we need to believe on Christ alone by faith alone for salvation.

The law was given to lead us to Christ.

This is a third way that Paul describes the purpose of the law. It (1) increases our sins, (2) imprisons us by our sins, and then (3) leads us to Christ.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Gal 3:24-25)

The word tutor here does not describe how we use this word today. To us, the word describes a teacher or teaching assistant who explains educational material to us. To Paul, this word describes a glorified baby-sitter.

Jewish babies often received a wet-nurse, then by a nanny after they weaned. At about 6 yrs., parents would hire a tutor to watch over the child until he or she became an adult. This person was often harsh, using painful methods like tweaking the ear, thwacking the knuckles, and more. They would punish a child severely whenever he or she misbehaved, correcting bad manners, taking them on errands, and leading them to and from school.

When parents believed a child was ready for adulthood, they would release them from their tutor, and that’s how Paul describes the purpose of the law. It was necessary because of the childishness of our sinful nature and our disobedience towards God. Yet when we finally realize that the only way to please God is to believe on Christ alone by faith alone, then we can finally move on from the harsh oversight of the law.

The law cannot save but it shows us how badly we need Jesus.

“Help!” a woman cried as she hung helplessly from the balcony of her 15-story apartment. “Can anyone reach down and save me?”

“Yes,” answered a fireman’s voice. “We’ll help you, but you have to let go first.”

“Let go?” gasped the woman. “But then I’d fall!”

“We’ll catch you,” replied the voice, as a group of first responders held out a safety net below to break her fall.

After a long pause, the woman called out, “Is there anyone inside who can pull me up?”

This story illustrates our difficulty with accepting God’s promise of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Rather than trust him alone, we have a strong inner desire to cling to our own legalistic and religious performance to “help God out” and to “earn his favor.”

Paul clearly taught the Galatians that faith in Christ was the only way, both today and in the past. The law had never been God’s way of salvation, though it did help us understand our need for salvation in an even clearer and obvious way.

Key Takeaways

Let your failed attempts at religious performance persuade you to trust in Christ alone.

To receive a right standing before God, we must let go of obeying the law. Trying to do that only proves that we fail. It increases our sins, makes our prison cell even more obvious, and treats us like a severe babysitter. We need to let go of the law and let Jesus alone save us. He is the Savior God promised. He is the one who can remove our sins, free us from prison, and graduate us on from the need for severe babysitters

Learn to read and study the OT law properly – with Christ in mind.

If the law increases our transgressions, what effect then should Christ have on our lives? Rather than increase our transgressions, he should reduce them. He does this in at least two ways.

• First, he reduces the number of possible sins we may commit by no longer requiring sabbath days, food laws, and other miscellaneous laws that are not inherently sinful.
• Second, he enables us to focus on the heart of the law – loving God with all our heart and loving neighbor as self – which is what matters, and he enables us to do these things genuinely from our heart.

When we read the OT law, we should understand that there is value there for us today (2 Tim 3:16-17). Yet this value is not a one-for-one correspondence of reading a command and doing it. Many of the commands themselves are obsolete as commands, but they teach us to appreciate Christ for (1) removing those commands and (2) enabling us to please God from our hearts instead.

If the law was a prison cell and prison guard, how should we respond to it after we’ve been freed? We should read the law to gain a deeper appreciation for the freedom that we have in Christ, much like a prisoner who's been released from his sentence then returns to tour his prison years later. When we read the OT law this way, we grow in our appreciation for the freedom we have in Christ.

If the law was a tough babysitter, then how should we respond to it now that we’ve followed Christ? First of all, we should be thankful. Some of the best lessons in life are learned from tough teachers, even if their classroom or bedside manners weren’t the politest. Some of our best and most valuable critics are indeed harsh or severe, but it’s the law that leads us to Christ and helps us appreciate the salvation that Christ provides.

That’s what the law does – it teaches us to trust and appreciate Christ.