Our living God, Pt 4: Law and promise

Galatians 3:15-22                  15Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life.  Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.  16The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.  17What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  18For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.  19Why, then, was the law given at all?  It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.  The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.  20A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.   21Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  22But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Established covenant

In ancient days, when life was highly agricultural and trade oriented, there was a certain procedure followed when two parties wished to enter into a contractual agreement.  This was called entering into covenant with one another.  The parties would bring a sacrificial animal and sacrifice it by cutting the animal in two along the spine, and the pieces were laid on the ground with a pathway between the two halves, and the parties to the covenant would walk along the pathway together with the butchered halves on either side of them. The butchered pieces would remind them that they were putting their lives at risk if they failed to keep the terms of the covenant.   Then the carcass halves were burned, and the rising smoke and aroma was a signal to all that agreement had been reached. 

When God entered covenant with Abraham regarding the blessing which was to come through his seed, he entered into a similar ceremony with Abraham.  Abraham brought the animal and sacrificed it according to custom, but then fell into a deep sleep.  Only God, in the form of a burning torch, passed through the pieces and then spoke the covenant to Abraham in a vision (dream). 

Because only God passed through the pieces, this was proclaimed as a unilateral, unconditional covenant as only God made any promises; Abraham didn’t have to do anything.  But nonetheless covenant between God and Abraham was duly made.  Because blood had been shed and a substitutionary death had taken place, a permanent covenant was ratified and was set for eternity and to which no change could be made.

The seed and the years

This covenant and its promises were made to one man (Abraham) on behalf of many men (his descendants) and specifically including another man (Jesus Christ).  Because it was an unconditional covenant, it was not breakable, and specifically not breakable by the giving of the Law.  The covenant was permanent, still exists 40 centuries later, and the Law, which was given approximately 400 years after the covenant, could not have superseded the covenant.

That seems to imply there was really no need for the Law at all, but this is certainly not the case.  The Law did not supersede the covenant, but it was still necessary.  The nation of Israel did not come to be immediately but developed over time as the population grew.  Initially Abraham’s descendants lived under the influence of a variety of nations and cultures and were even enslaved in Egypt.  After God brought them out of slavery to the Promised Land he gave them his Law on Mount Sinai.  This Law established godly life through the precepts of the 10 Commandments and subordinate rules and regulations.  It defined life under God’s direction and defined what sin was.

Locked up under sin

The Law was necessary to define sin, and to provide consequence for the breaking of the Law, but the Law could not bring life, and especially could not provide salvation.  The Law may have been in place, but remember human beings have a propensity to sin, that is, they have a sin nature, and just because a rule is in place doesn’t mean it is always obeyed.  No, the purpose of the Law was to point out sin, show that human beings have no moral propensity to obey it, and in fact can’t obey it. 

The result of all this is that the Law showed there was no way out of this dilemma.  Man is in prison and sin is the jailor.  The blessed answer to this dilemma is that the Redeemer was coming (has come from our perspective).

What about me?

All of this might seem horribly depressing; it might seem as if there is no hope, and that a person might as well give up.  Well, that is an absurd thought.  Jesus Christ is our Savior precisely because this ‘jail’ might seem inescapable.  Christ is the conqueror of sin and because of our faith in him we have freedom from it too.

20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

24“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1Peter 2:24)

Now I know that you are probably thinking something on the order of, “You have no idea of what I’ve done.  You don’t know me; you can’t possibly understand.”  Well, I can, actually.  I’ve been there.  And so has everyone else because we all have a propensity to sin, we all are evil in our own way, and we all fall victim to the lies of Satan at one time or another.  Don’t let him tell you this doesn’t apply to you.  No matter how many times you have done that thing, you can repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness.  He will forgive you 100% of the time.  If, in your weakness, you turn and do it again, he will forgive you again.  It is that simple.  Remember…

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)