Galatians 3:21-25 - Homiletics

The Law designed to be subservient to the promise.

Though the Law is inferior to the promise in the four points already suggested, it is not antagonistic to it.

I. THE LAW IS NOT ANTAGONISTIC TO THE PROMISE . "Is the Law against the promises of God? God forbid."

1 . The Law and the promise are equally of Divine origin — two distinct parts of the Divine plan, each part with its own distinct purpose to be carried out inside the Divine plan. The distinction between them is not that the one is good and the other evil; for" the Law is good if a man use it lawfully," while the promise is self-evidently and essentially so.

2 . There would be antagonism if life came by the Law . "For if there had been a Law given that could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law." In that case, the Law and the promise would have come into competition as two diverse methods of salvation. In the one case, salvation would have come "of debt;" in the other case, it actually comes "of grace." If life came by the Law, there would, in fact, be no room for free gift at all.

3 . The Law was absolutely incapable of giving life. If it could have done so, it would have been chosen as the method or' salvation, because, in that case, man had only to use his faculties to accomplish it, and the agony of the cross would never have been necessary. But the thing was impossible; salvation is a Divine work, and, if it comes at all, it must come from the quickening power of the Spirit.

4 . If life could have come by the Law , its result , which is righteousness , would have come in the same way. But the apostle has closed up the way of righteousness through the Law by many strong texts.

II. THE TRUE EFFECT AND DESIGN OF THE LAW . "But the Scripture shut up all under sin, that the promise by faith in Christ might be given to them that believe."

1 . The Law shuts up men under sin. The Scripture, rather than the Law, is here represented as doing it. It pronounces all to be guilty before God, but solely in virtue of the condemnation pronounced by the Law. The phrase here employed is very expressive. Men are, as it were, closed in, or shut up, on every side, with only one way of escape—with no way left open but that of faith.

2 . There is a gracious purpose in this legal incarceration. "That the promise by faith in Christ might be given to them that believe."

III. THE JEWS IN WARD UNDER THE OLD DISPENSATION . "But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed."

1 . The old dispensation described as the age " before the faith. "

2 . The wardship of the Law in the old dispensation. The apostle identifies himself with the whole body of believers under the old economy, and represents them as under the strict surveillance of a rigorous janitor, who held them firmly under the discipline of the Law, with the design, however, that the very severity of their bondage might lead them to look believingly for escape to the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 . The design of this wardship. "Shut up under the Law unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed." There was thus a gracious purpose in the very Law which was thus seen not to be "against the promises of God." The Law still brings conviction of sin and shuts men up to the faith of Christ. It is not to be supposed "that the faith had not been revealed" from the earliest ages of the world—for Christ was the promised Seed to Adam—but there was a veil upon men's minds till it was rent in the death of Christ. The faith revealed in due time was the faith of Christ incarnate.

IV. THE LAW OUR SCHOOLMASTER FOR CHRIST . "Wherefore the Law has become our tutor for Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Thus we see how "Christ becomes the end of the Law for righteousness."

1 . The symbolic ritual of the Law pointed expressly to Christ. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." The sacrifices had no meaning apart from their typical relationship to Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews is the best commentary on the Book of Leviticus. The Law with its sacrifices was always leading the Israelites to the" Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

2 . The moral Law was always leading to Christ ; for it revealed sin, which deserved God's mighty condemnation.

3 . The spiritual insufficiency of the Law was its constant preparation of the soul for the faith of Christ.