Galatians 3:19-20. 19Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
If the law doesn’t nullify faith, and if it doesn’t add to faith, then why the law? This is the question that Paul anticipates from his readers, especially the Jews. By asking and answering this question for us, Paul is showing us the proper use of the law. If we can understand why God gave the law, then we can know how to use it. Paul’s answer to his own question is quite shocking—”because of transgressions.”
The answer the Judaizers would give would sound more like this: “The law was given gloriously ‘through angels by Moses’, our great leader, to make us righteous before God and to set us apart as His holy people.” Nope. Try again.
The law was given because we are transgressors. Sinners. Rule breakers. Only rule breakers need more rules, and that is what all of us naturally are—rule breakers. Paul’s argument throughout all his letters is that the law is only able to expose sin. At best it might restrain sin, and at worst it can even increase sin. But the law has no relationship to our righteousness, our justification, or our sanctification.
You see, when God gave Israel the law, He gave them everything they needed to keep the law, except one thing—the heart. The Mosaic Covenant, the law, can never change the heart. Only the New Covenant will do that. How? By the Spirit of Promise given to us in Christ. Now we deal with God directly. Not through angels and not through an intermediary. Even our mediator, Christ, is God, and “God is one.”
Whenever God puts the law in front of us, it is not to speak gospel, but rather to “speak doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). The law can reveal these things, but it cannot change the heart. Only the gospel can do the quickening work of mind renewal and heart transformation.
Whenever we speak the law to someone, especially a fellow saint, it must never be to bring change, for the only change it will bring is a disastrous one. Like a mirror, the law’s only work is that of exposure. But we don’t wash our face with a mirror; we need the living water of Christ for that.
You: Do you ever try to use the law to clean yourself up? Has it worked?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ now give us everything we need to obey God?
Christ in you: Now we deal with God directly. Would you say this is how you live your life? In direct contact with God by the Spirit?
Prayer. Father, remind me of my identity in Christ when I am struggling, not the law. Help me to remind others of the same when they are struggling too. Amen.
