Galatians 3:19-22 Podcast
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19 Why, 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. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is 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. 22 But 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. (Galatians 3:19-22)
Our text today gives two reasons why God gave the law. First, it was added because of sin. Second, that the promise might be given to those who believe."
"The law was added because of transgressions" means the law identified the transgressions, and, as a result, it identifies them them as transgressions. The law requires obedience, but when we do not comply, hidden rebellion is brought out into the open. The rebellion of the human heart is identified when it meets up with the law.
In v.21-22 we read: "20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is 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." The law, which came 430 years after the promise to Abraham and his seed, does not annul the promise. As v.21 says, the law could not impart life to the believer. So, the purpose of the law was not to make people alive, but to hold us in sin until Christ came.
Christianity is the only "religion" that teaches "Original Sin" which means we were spiritually dead in sin at conception and because we were separated from God by our sin, we were without the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. However, when the Lord Jesus came and died on the cross, He made it possible for us to be "born of His Spirit."
The beauty of it all is seen in the fact that God told us in the Old Testament that He would do certain things so that we would get it. In Deuteronomy 30:6 we read: "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart . . . so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
Then in Jeremiah 31:33 we read, "After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts." And then in Ezekiel 36:26 we read: "A new heart I will give you (says the Lord), and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances."
This was the plan all along in the Old Testament, however, our hearts had to be prepared by the breaking that the law brings into our existence. The bad news is the law clearly breaks us by showing us who we really are, broken and separated from God. Then, we are prepared to recognize the utter beauty of the gospel. After being "born again", we out of gratitude pursue a meaningful, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Blaise Pascal said it well when he said, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus."
