Ralph Porter

© 2003

    One of my favorite preachers is Henry Ironside. In his commentary on Galatians he tells about taking a Navajo Indian brother along on a trip to California. At one of the meetings there, they were discussing the issue of law and grace in Galatians. Ironside comments that after the participants had been rather unclear about the issue, they asked the Indian brother what he thought.

    He responded: When Mr. Ironside brought me here, we took a long railroad journey. We got out at Barstow, and there I saw the most beautiful railroad station I have ever seen, with a hotel above it. I walked all around and saw at one end a sign: "Do not spit here." I looked at that sign, and then looked at the ground and saw that many had spit there, and before I could think about what I was doing, I also spit there. Isn't that strange when the sign says, "Do not spit here"?

    I came to Oakland and went to the home of the lady who invited me to dinner today and I am in the nicest home I have ever seen in my life. I looked around at the beautiful pictures, at the grand piano, and I walked all around those rooms. I was looking for a sign: "Do not spit here." But I couldn't find the sign. I thought to myself, what a pity, when this is such a beautiful home, to have people spitting all over it. Too bad they don't put up a sign! So I looked all over that carpet but couldn't find that anybody had spit there.

    What a strange thing! Where the sign says "Do not spit," a lot of people spit; here where there is no sign, nobody spits. Now I understand! That sign is law, but inside the home it is grace. They love their beautiful home and want to keep it clean.

    We're going to consider the implications of a transformed life later in chapters 5-6, but we're not ready for that until we understand the importance of authentic Christian freedom--of getting rid of the rule book--of eliminating the performance-based mentality that I have to be "good enough" to make it with God!

    Paul spends twice as long emphasizing our freedom as he does talking about the transformed life, because more people are enslaved by trying to live by the rules!--and spitting where God says "Don't spit!"

    Last week we observed that our mind is like a computer. Teach people something long enough and enthusiastically enough, even if it's not true, and they will believe it until you come up with some way to erase the memory and record the truth in their mind. I wish I could erase some of the old ideas stored in our minds, and replace them with a new data base, built on what God has said!

    Years ago I was conversing with a professor colleague in Guatemala about the tremendous success of cults in Latin America, as well as other parts of the world, even among evangelicals. He responded that the basic problem is that many believers--even pastors--don't know what we believe or why we believe it.

    During the years that I served on the Evangelical Free Church of America Board of Ministerial Standing, I had the opportunity to read each new pastor's summary of what he believes and why. It's frightening to read the lack of clarity, even among pastors, on basic issues of faith! There's a lot of fuzzy thinking out there! People throw all kinds of things into the mix!

    Among those fuzzy ideas is the idea many people hold that to be spiritual, we have to "play by the rules"--we have to live by the law--measure up to the standards established in somebody's rule book. I have bad news! We will never live up to God's rules! The good news is: we don't have to! God has never saved anyone on the basis of their obeying the rules. Neither has anyone lived up to that standard in order to become acceptable in God's sight after we are saved. Our standing before God is based on what Christ has done for us, not on our performance.

    Galatians 3:19-22 points out that the Judaizers, like modern cults and even many evangelicals today, never understood the purpose of the law. Therefore Paul attempts to clarify that issue. Based on what he has already affirmed in previous chapters he now raises that question. If what Paul has been teaching is true, . . . . If the law wasn't given until after the promise--400 years after the promise, . . . . If it can't be added later as an amendment that changes God's promise, . . . . If our spiritual inheritance doesn't come through law, . . . .

         What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions 

    until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.

    Paul answers that the law "was added [alongside the promise] because of transgressions." The law is a temporary guide, to help God's people live in a lawbreaking society, in a way which is worthy of the holy God we worship. It demonstrates our need of a Savior, because we're all lawbreakers!

    Last week we saw three basic weaknesses of the law that demonstrate that it is inferior to God's promise and that it could never change or invalidate God's promise to His people.

1. The law was only temporary   3:19a

    The law wasn't supposed to stick around forever! It was given "until" something better came--until the true Seed should come, Jesus, the One to whom, and through whom, the promise was given. Once the true Seed came, the rules weren't needed any more. He replaced the temporary guide and removed the need for it.

2. The law was given through a mediator   3:19b-20

    The law depends on two parties. Both parties have to fulfill their part of the bargain. Since only one party is able to fulfill their end of the deal, the contract has been broken. However, God's promise has no mediator. It was a unilateral promise. It doesn't depend on us! We don't have to "keep our end of the bargain!" It only depends on the faithfulness of the One who made the promise. We can't count on Him to do what He said He would do.

3. The law could never give life   21-22

    Law, by its very nature, proves we're lawbreakers. Law never gives us power to do what it says. It just shows when we don't do it! If law could produce obedience and give life, it wouldn't have been necessary for Christ to die! We wouldn't need grace! But it was necessary for Christ to die and for God to provide salvation by His grace!

    Alongside of those three weaknesses, Paul points to three basic truths concerning the law. We considered these truths last week. Every believer ought to memorize and hang onto these three essential truths:

1. Law can't give life   3:21

    No law has ever existed, nor ever will exist, that will enable lost people to be saved, nor that will enable saved people to live in a way that pleases God. Law can't do that. If it could, we wouldn't need Jesus! But we do!

2. Scripture places all of us under sin   3:22a

    The law demonstrates that we're all sinners. We're secure, not because we don't sin, nor because our sins are small enough for God to accept us, but because we're "in Christ." Period!!

3. God's promise is for sinners who trust in Christ   3:22b

         But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so 

    that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might 

    be given to those who believe.

    The law was added alongside the promise. It was never given to take the place of the promise, nor to amend the contract! Law could never give life because nobody could keep it completely. Everyone becomes a law breaker! That's true, no matter whose rules we try to keep! No one lives up to the standard! Nobody! We all spit where we're not supposed to!

    Paul uses an illustration that everyone would have understood to demonstrate the purpose of the law: the Roman concept of adoption. Under that concept, a child was heir to all of his father's possessions. However, he was still legally considered a child, no matter how old he may be, until his father publicly acknowledged him as an adult child.

    This process reached its conclusion in a ceremony, before a judge, referred to as "adoption." At the adoption ceremony, a father formally recognized that his son is now an adult, with all the rights and privileges of a mature adult son. He changed his clothes, taking off the child's toga, and placing on him a man's toga.

    Until that ceremony, he was under the supervision of a "pedagogue." The "pedagogue" (literally a "child guide") was a trusted slave. He wasn't the child's teacher, nor even a tutor in the normal sense of the word. The pedagogue walked the child to school each day. He was responsible to protect him from danger. He helped him learn how to face life, teaching him practical skills he would need to know. The pedagogue's main responsibility was to protect the child and prepare him for the day of "adoption."

    That's what the law was for! Paul presents the contrast between adult life, which represents our life in Christ by faith, and a child's life, while still subject to supervision by the pedagogue. The Judaizers claim that they receive God's blessing by means of law. Paul teaches the opposite! The law stands between them and God's blessing, though it was intended to prepare them for it. Now it must be replaced by the true source of blessing.

    Based on this Roman concept of adoption, Paul suggests seven lessons for us to learn about the relationship between the law and our walk with God. He's still answering the question: "What's the purpose of the law?"

1. Law provides protective custody until we grow up   23

        Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up 

    until faith should be revealed.

    The Roman system made little difference between a slave or prisoner and a child. Children didn't enjoy free, independent action. They were under the protective custody of the pedagogue. So it is with us. Law isn't the basis of our maturity. Rather, law protects us until we reach maturity! As long as we try to live according to law, and until we find new life in Christ, we're kept "in protective custody" by the law. We don't enjoy the privileges of freedom as adult sons.

2. Law functions as a pedagogue, to protect us and prepare us to live as mature adult sons   24-25

         So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be 

    justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the 

    supervision of the law.

    Twice Paul refers to the law as a "pedagogue." In the New International Version the title is translated as "put in charge" or to be "under the supervision of." Other versions are more literal: "The law has become our schoolmaster [tutor or pedagogue] until Christ." "We are no longer under the pedagogue."

    Law can't make us mature. It just protects us until we arrive at a point of maturity. Wiersbe puts it this way: "Legalism is not a step toward maturity; it is a step back into childhood!" A child couldn't hang on to the pedagogue and enjoy independent, adult liberty at the same time! When we walk by faith, we don't need a rule book! Nevertheless we do walk in a way that pleases the Father!

3. Law is for children; faith is for mature people   26-27

         You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who 

    were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

    Living by the rules is for immature people, not for grown ups! The rule book is not for the mature in Christ! Mature people no longer need a list of rules! The Judaizers said just the opposite.

    From Paul's perspective, our identification with Christ is like the public "adoption" ceremony. He isn't talking about the ritual of baptism. He's talking about being identified with Christ. If we're identified with Him, we're clothed with Him. God sees us dressed in Jesus' clothes. We've put on His righteousness. Our standing before God depends on what Christ has done, not on us!

    Like the son in the adoption ceremony, we've changed clothes, and put on adult clothes, His clothes. Now we're adult sons in Him. We're free from all the rules of childhood!

4. Law creates distinctions that faith makes meaningless   28-29

         There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you 

    are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's 

    seed, and heirs according to the promise.

    The daily prayer of Jewish men reminded them of the distinctions, made on the basis of the law. They thanked God that He had not made them Greeks, nor slaves, nor women. Every time they went to the temple to worship they were reminded of these distinctions.

    Now, in Christ, we are all equally mature adult heirs. We are all Abraham's seed and heirs of God's promise. There's no longer a basis for making the distinctions. We are all heirs of God's blessings--Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female-- whatever your background may be! In Christ those distinctions are done away. It doesn't mean we are identical or that we all enjoy the same privileges. But we all come to God on the same basis.

5. Law produces a slave's life; not that of free sons   4:1-3

         What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different 

    from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians 

    and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, 

    we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.

    As long as the son is considered a child, there is little difference between the son and a slave. He passes his whole life under the authority and commands of others. He never makes his own decisions. "Guardians" supervise all his activities. "Managers" are administrators designated to care for all of his belongings. The child is not able to enjoy personal freedom nor independence. He is an heir, but doesn't enjoy the rights of an heir.

    When a person is declared an adult son, he receives the liberty from that which previously enslaved him. Just as the father could choose the appropriate time for the adoption of his child, so God chose the proper time to send His Son to free us from law and make us ready to receive our inheritance--the promised blessing.

    In our individual spiritual life, the law keeps us in the same state. We continue to live under the protective care of legalistic rules until we arrive at the maturity which is found only in Christ. Without Christ, we're enslaved under the "rudiments of the world", subject to the legalistic principles that dominate the world's thinking: "I can do it myself." Until we learn that we can't do it ourselves, we will continue enslaved under this legalistic system which will never be able to give us freedom nor peace.

6. The evidence of adoption as mature sons comes through the work of Christ, not by law   4:4-5

         But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, 

    born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights 

    of sons.

    Just as the father chooses the right time for legal adoption of his son, to declare him an adult son, so God declared the right time for us to pass from the slavery of the pedagogue to the liberty of mature adults in Christ. God accomplished this by means of the redemption that the work of Christ paid for us. Law had nothing to do with it.

7. The presence of the Holy Spirit produces the relationship of sons and makes us heirs   4:6-7

         Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the 

    Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; 

    and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

    Now that we're adult sons, the Spirit lives within us, we long to enjoy fellowship with our Father and call out to Him. This isn't about keeping the law--it's about a relationship. We call out to him as a child to a perfect, loving father: "Dad!" At last there is peace with God!

    Now that we're mature sons, we no longer live by rules. We're motivated by love for our Father and the hope of our inheritance! Why would you ever want to go back to living by the rules?!!

    This teaching can be applied to any legal system, whatever its source. God's blessing doesn't come from obeying rules! It doesn't depend on laws, not of Judaizers, not of cults, nor even those recognized by evangelicals!

    Legalistic standards keep us in a childish state. Law makes us slaves. Be careful about legalistic attitude: "I'm better than you because I don't do such-and-such!" God's blessing comes from Christ's completed work in us, from the Holy Spirit's presence in us, from walking by faith. God's blessing comes from God's work in our lives; not from our performance! As a result of this divine work, we can now draw near to God, as our own personal loving Father.

    We will only enjoy true freedom when we recognize:

         1. Law's limitations         2. God's provision

    Trying to be good enough leads to failure and frustration! As long as we think we can somehow be good enough on our own, we're asking for frustration. Even as believers, if we think we can measure up on God's performance scale of 1-10, and somehow make Him feel good about us, we're bound to fail! We will never even make it on our own performance-based scale, much less that of other people; forget about even trying to measure up on God's performance scale!

    But, the good news is, we don't have to perform! God loves us because we have come to him by His Son. We come through faith in Christ; not by our performance! On what are you basing your relationship with God? Your performance, or Christ's? Most of us have realized we can't save ourselves. Have you come to the place where you realize you can't perform well enough to please God now that you are saved either?

    J. Vernon McGee suggested a homey illustration that comes from our bathroom. The mirror shows us the spots but it can't cleanse them. That's what the law does! You can rub against the mirror all day long, but it won't clean the spots We have to go to the wash basin to cleanse the spots. That's what Christ provides. His blood cleanses us so that we receive eternal life. But it's also his blood that cleanses us when we confess our sin (1 John 1:9).

    Our relationship with God is based on faith-from beginning to end! It's based on what Christ has done--not on what we can do! Because we're in Him we can go to sleep at night. We can rest. There's peace at last!