THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

                                                THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

Introduction

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The giving of the law does not cancel God’s covenant with Abraham and his Seed. Christ Himself was the promised Seed. And that since it was Him who won our salvation by crushing Satan’s head as promised, it would be conceited for us to think we can somehow contribute to our own salvation. We are simply the prize in the cosmic struggle between Christ and the devil. However, as we shall see, each of us is engaged in a struggle of sorts. This struggle has to do with God’s Law and its use.

The Law was given 430 years after the Lord promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that all the nations would be justified by faith. The promise was made to Abraham (Gen. 22:18). The same promise was made to Isaac (Gen. 26:4). The same promise again was made to Jacob (Gen. 28:14). The promise is, “In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gal. 3:8b).

The heart and soul of this blessing was that all the nations would be justified through faith in Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

So then, the question necessarily arises: If the saints in the Old Testament were justified by faith the same as us today, then what purpose does the law serve? That’s what we’re trying to discover.

The general gist of the following is that the Law was given to drive us to faith in Christ.

Dungeon

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We’re told in Galatians 3:22 that “The Scripture has confined all under sin...” In other words, all of mankind is in a prison of sorts. This prison doesn’t have Woodford or Wacol written on its heavy iron gate! On the gate of this prison is written the word SIN. SIN is a maximum security prison, and, unlike Alcatraz, there have been no escapes. Not even Clint Eastwood can escape from this prison! Everyone in this prison has been condemned to death. All the prisoners here live by the sweat of their face. They have been given a life of hard labour until it is their turn to die. For death is the penalty the Lord promised Adam in the Garden if he broke God’s covenant with him.

Adam had the Ten Commandments written on his heart (Rom. 2:15). And he broke every last one of them by disobeying God (James 2:10). And since Adam was our representative in that covenant relationship with God, every last one of us has broken God’s Law as a covenant of works (Rom. 5:12). Therefore, every last human being is under the Law of God as a covenant of works. And since we have broken that covenant we are all confined or prisoners of SIN. SIN is the name on the wall of our jail house – not Sir David Longland, nor Barlinnie, nor The Don Jail, but SIN.

Now then, it was while father Abraham was in this prison (the same prison as us), that the Lord came to him and revealed His covenant promise to him. The promise was that all the nations would be saved in the exact same way as was Abraham. All the nations would be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Of course, Abraham believed in the LORD, he believed in the promise (Gen. 15:6; Gal. 3:6). Abraham believed in the promised righteousness to come.

Abraham had been condemned to death along with the rest of humanity. He was sitting in prison on death row when the LORD arrived. The LORD revealed to Abraham the righteousness he needed, if he was ever to receive a pardon and get out of prison and escape certain death. This revelation is good news. It is the gospel.

Abraham was told that the righteous One would come from his loins. And when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah his wife was 90, they saw in the birth of their son, Isaac, the future coming of Messiah. The One promised was coming to set the prisoners free from the dungeon of SIN. He was coming to smash the gates of Hell and set the prisoners on death row free.

The Promised One was coming to possess the gate of His enemies (Gen. 22:17). Abraham could see all of this because it was all included in the Promise made to him. He knew that the way to escape from death row was to believe in the Promise. He knew then, that to believe in the Promise, was to be declared righteous. For the gospel is the revelation of Christ and His righteousness. The gospel reveals how Christ and His righteousness is received, i.e., through faith alone.

Abraham, then, was brought out of the dungeon by faith in the Promised Seed.

Discipline

In Galatians 3:24 we are told that “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.” The purpose of the law, then is to tutor us. The task of the law is to lead us to Christ. The LORD brought His people out of the dungeon and placed them under guardianship, viz. the law. The law then, is our guardian, our instructor, our tutor. And if we looked closely, we’d see that this tutor is a strict disciplinarian!

Now then, the LORD had promised to make Abraham a great nation. And He promised him land in which the nation would dwell (e.g., Gen. 12:1-2). We know that these promises have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Eg, “For all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

But meanwhile back at the ranch! God, as promised to Abraham in Genesis 15:14, released, i.e., redeemed, Abraham’s physical descendants from captivity in Egypt. Just as the LORD called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, so the LORD called Abraham’s descendants out of bondage in Egypt.

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So, the picture is of the LORD taking His people out of prison and putting them to work on a road gang. What would you do if you had a few million ex-convicts out on the road? You’d lay down the law in no uncertain terms, wouldn’t you? You’d spell out the law to the minutest detail so that there would be no misunderstanding! Thus, verse 19, “[The Law] was added because of transgressions.” But the law didn’t add anything to the Promise. We’ve already seen that the law doesn’t change God’s covenant with Abraham and his Seed (3:15). Or to put it another way, the law doesn’t change the way we are saved. For the promise is that all nations will be blessed by justification through faith in Christ. Then why was the law given? It was given to prepare God’s people for the arrival of the One who was Promised.

So then, the LORD brought so many million out of bondage in the land of Egypt. And He’s got the people of Israel wandering around in the wilderness, a motley crew indeed! These were a pack of once condemned sinners, ex-convicts, out on the road. So, the LORD places them under guard as we see in verse 23. They were kept under guard by the law.

You wouldn’t leave bunch of people like this unsupervised, would you? These people were at one time on their way to Hell and here they are out walking around free. The LORD had redeemed them from prison. However, now they needed to learn discipline.

Now then, we know that God deals with humanity covenantally. He doesn’t just sneak up on you and say, “BOO!” If a whole bunch of people starting walking through your lounge room, you’d introduce yourself as the owner of the house, wouldn’t you? You might say, “Take off your muddy boots for the place you walk has been set aside as my living room!” Just as the LORD, the Angel of the LORD said to Moses as he stood before the burning bush, “Take the sandals off your feet, for the place you stand is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5), just as the Angel of the LORD said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place you stand is holy” (Josh. 5:15).

Faithful to His Covenant procedure: First the LORD identifies Himself. Then He reveals His will. Of course, nowadays He does this through the Scriptures. You wouldn’t have to go further than Genesis 1:1 to see what I mean, since, the whole Bible is the revelation of God’s Covenant of Grace to fallen man. Therefore, in the very first verse of the Bible God identifies Himself as the Creator. And the whole rest of the Bible is the revelation of why He created the heavens and the earth. And, as we all know, it has all to do with the everlasting covenant of the Triune God. This, of course has to do with the Son of God becoming a Man and dwelling on the renewed earth with His redeemed people forever...

Anyhow, did the LORD not identify Himself to Abraham in Genesis 15:7, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans...” But the thing we are most interested in tonight is the covenantal language God used when He gave Israel the law in the wilderness. “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exod. 20:1-2).

The people of Israel trembled at the bottom of the mountain when Moses went up to receive the law of God. The ground was holy ground for we are told, “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with an arrow” (Heb. 12:20). Apparently there were angels present and the mountain shook and trembled. There was fire and there was thick black smoke and the sound of a trumpet. The LORD gave the law to discipline sinners.

It was the law’s task to remind the inmates who they were. They were sinners whom the LORD had brought out of bondage. They were all sinners from a jailhouse community with a jailhouse mentality. But the law was sent to discipline them. And the law would let them away with nothing.

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The sinners were to live by ten rules written on clay tablets. These ten rules were applied to every facet of their lives. There were rules how to treat God, and there were rules how to treat their neighbour. There were rules for what they could eat, and rules what they could not eat. There were rules for what they could and couldn’t wear. There were rules for who could wear what. There were rules stating who got to do what. There were rules for what to do with those who broke the rules.

The law was Israel’s hard taskmaster. The law was like a loud sergeant-major at bootcamp yelling at the rookies. If something was to be made of these sinners, they needed to learn discipline. They needed to learn who and what they were. They were sinners. The Law teaches us what sin is. The Law is like a magnifying glass. It shows you what sin is.

Could you imagine what it would have been like to have lived in the period from the giving of the Law until the incarnation of Christ? You would have been screaming out for a Savior to come and set you free! You would have been so conscious of your sin that you would be saying along with Paul, “O wretched sinner that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). And if you couldn’t say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”, then you wouldn’t have a leg to stand on come Judgment Day!

The law was given to them to break the people of God. It was given to discipline them for the coming of the object of our faith. The people of God were brought out of the dungeon in Egypt. They were given the law to discipline them.

Stephen in his address as recorded in Acts 7:38 refers to the people of God at this time as “The congregation, the church in the wilderness.” This was the juvenile church – the church under age. This was the church looking forward to the Christ who was yet to come. Therefore, the law was also given to provide direction.

Direction

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The Law was given to direct sinners to Christ. In among all the rules and regulations of the law was the sacrificial system. This showed that the sins of the sinners needed to be paid for. The law as a strict disciplinarian showed them how much they were sinners. And the law as a director showed them how their sins were to be paid for. There was to be no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. Cattle, sheep, goats, blood poured out here, and blood sprinkled on there.

The shed blood was also a reminder of the broken covenant with Adam. The broken Covenant of Works needed to be paid for. For Adam was promised death as the wages of sin. However, the shed blood also pointed to the blood of the new covenant. It directed sinners to the blood of the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. It was a constant reminder of the promise of God.

The keeping of the feast, circumcision, the ceremonial laws, the sacrificial system were all good news to the juvenile church. Every time they saw a lamb sacrificed, they saw the gospel. They had it drummed into them that there is no remission for sins without the shedding of blood. Even the priesthood spoke of the great High Priest to come.

Everything to do with the law was a pointer to the Messiah to come. If you remove the gospel from the law, then you’re as good as saying there was no grace of God during this period. And I don’t have to tell you that many people see law and gospel as complete opposites. And certainly any attempt to keep the Law as a means of attaining salvation is opposite to the gospel. For we are told in verse 21, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” And who more than the Apostle Paul was qualified to make that statement? He said of himself, “Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:6).

But the Law didn’t function as a means of obtaining righteousness through its keeping. Rather it was designed to reveal your own lack of righteousness. It prepared you for the Gospel in which sinners are justified by faith and not works. If you wrench the gospel away from the law, all you’re left with is the religion of the Pharisees. And this sadly is the way many Christians today view the Lord’s church in the wilderness. They claim that it was the LORD’s intention to give Moses the Law as a Covenant of Works. Look again at verse 21, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been given by the law.” Therefore, the Law was never given as a means to earning salvation. But rather, the Law was given to shatter any foolish idea that a man could be saved by his own keeping of the Law as a covenant of works. For isn’t this the very reason why sinners flee to Christ for salvation?

They also forget that the giving of the Law to Moses didn’t change a thing. They forget that God’s covenant with Abraham remained with the church even in the wilderness years. They forget that the gospel was constantly before their eyes. They forget that they too were justified by faith just as we today are. The Apostle Peter even says so in Acts 15:11, “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

Many Christians today forget that the law was given to direct us to Christ. For doesn’t verse 24 say, “Therefore the law was or tutor to bring us to Christ”? And why would the LORD give us His law to lead us to Christ? “That we might be justified by faith.” Therefore, I ask all those who hate God’s law: Do you know what sin is? If you answer Yes! then I need to ask you, who taught you what sin is? Would you agree with me that it’s God’s law that teaches us what sin is? If we are in agreement, then, you and I both have the same tutor.

We have the same tutor as the church in the wilderness. The main difference being that the law back then led them to the Christ who was to come. Whereas today the Law leads us to the Christ who has come. But either way, it is the Law which directs us to Christ.

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            However, now that the Promised one has come all the minutiae of the Law has passed. No longer is it do this, don’t do that! Why? Well, the church has come of age. We are no longer treated as juveniles because Christ has come. The church is now a light on the hill and not a shadow in the wilderness. As Paul speaking of the church coming of age says in verse 21, “But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” When a child becomes a man, the rod that was used to discipline him is put away. So, it was when the church came of age and so it is for each of us.

And just so no one misses the point, let me ask the question: When did the church come of age? It came of age when the Seed came to whom the promise was made verse 19. The Tutor had done his job. He had brought the juvenile church to the Teacher, Jesus Christ.

Now we ask what was the promise made to the Seed? It was that God would justify the nations by faith just as it was for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Just as it was for the church in the wilderness. The nations had to wait for Christ to come before they could receive the blessing. Because the Promise was made to Christ. The Promise was that Christ would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But first He had to go to the cross.

After He completed His work and ascended into heaven, He poured out His Spirit on all the nations. All flesh, all the nations, since Pentecost are being engrafted into the same church. The guy ropes of the tent of Israel have been lengthened to accommodate all the nations. “Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them...teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you...”

The church then, is no longer national, but international. And, as you know, the application of the law therefore changes accordingly. Now that Christ has come the Temple worship has gone. The sacrificial system has gone along with the priestly system.

And what was Christ coming to do? He was coming to save sinners from their sins. And what is the task of the law? It was given to reveal God’s righteousness and thereby show us our sins. Much, much more could be said...

So, as we tie things together, let me ask. what is the purpose of the Law for today? We’re talking about the Ten Commandments here, the moral law. Well, the use is threefold:

1.     The law serves the purpose of restraining sin and promoting righteousness.

2.     The law serves the purpose of bringing man under conviction of sin. It makes man conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In other words, the law becomes a tutor to lead man to Christ.

3.     The law is a rule of life for believers. It reminds us of our duties to God and our neighbour and leads us in the way of life and salvation.

            I’m indebted to Louis Berkhof here.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that the LORD has brought you out of the Dungeon. No longer are you on death row. His law has disciplined you to the point of knowing you are a sinner, and knowing that you cannot keep his commandments. His law has led you like a tutor to Christ. No longer are you condemned sinner. Now you are a sinner justified by faith in Christ. And it’s all enough to make you want to obey Jesus where He says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

GLEANINGS FROM GALATIANS

 The following is an Introduction to my Gleanings from Galatians, a book I hope to bring out shortly for your edification and reading pleasure.

Introduction

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            Probably the standout line in the whole of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is the verse that sets the letter’s tone, the words that show the utmost seriousness and folly of turning away from the gospel, is where Paul writes, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (Gal. 3:1).

Who, Where, and When were the Galatians

Who were these “foolish” and “bewitched” Galatians and where and when did they live? The Galatians were a body of Celts that had invaded Greece, Macedonia, Thrace from Gaul around 278 BC. This included much of modern-day Turkey.

Gaul is usually associated with modern day France. However, its borders extended over much of Western Europe, including much of Belgium Luxemburg, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Only pockets of these Celts remain today, such as Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, and Brittany. Their languages, customs and culture, like the ancient Galatians who became Hellenised by the Greeks and then Latinised by the Romans, are being absorbed by the invasive surrounding cultures, such as the English and the French.

Indeed, these nations, including the whole of Europe, are in danger of Islamification by invading forces. Therefore, like Paul’s rescue mission to Galatia, a full return to the clear teaching of the unadulterated gospel of Christ Jesus is crucial to the wellbeing and survival of the West, including North America, Australia and New Zealand. Obedience to the gospel is imperative, because to reject Christ is to lose all the blessings brought by the gospel and it is to incur its attending curses (Deut. 28). “…When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:7b-8).

The Celts

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Apparently, the etymology of the word “Celt” stems from the Latin word for chisel, as in a cold chisel.

Celt(n.) “stone chisel,” 1715, according to OED from a Latin ghost word (apparently a mistake of certe) in Job xix.24 in Vulgate: “stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel celte sculpantur in silice;” translated, probably correctly, in KJV as, “That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever.”[1]

Interestingly, the Celts were very fond of raising memorial stones, like Stonehenge in England, the Standing Stones of Callanish and the Clava Cairns in Scotland, the Penrhos Feilw Standing Stones in Wales, and the Carnac Stones in France. The Stone of Scone, An Lia Fàil, a.k.a., the Stone of Destiny, upon which the ancient kings of Ireland were crowned, and then the kings of Scotland, and presently the kings of queens of Great Britain, is also known as Jacob’s Pillar (or pillow).

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.  So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

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And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 28:10-14).

Cephas originates from an Aramaic word meaning rock. When translated into Greek, Cephas becomes Petros, as in Peter. With the Celtic propensity for chiselling out and raising stone pillars, Paul’s possible allusion should not go unnoticed where he writes, “But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised” (Gal. 2:7-9). Surely, it is no accident that Paul invokes Peter’s name three times, i.e., rock, rock, and rock, on the third occasion using Cephas to drive it home and appeal to their culture. Rock and pillars? Coincidence? Perhaps, but very interesting. (In Scottish Gaelic the word for echo is literally mac-talla, son of the rock, also, mac-talla-nan-creag.) Add to this that the word translated as “portrayed” means “engraved” in the original language. “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed [engraved] among you as crucified” (Gal. 3:1).

The Spread of Christ’s Gospel

            “All the families of the earth” have been and are being and will be blessed by the ultimate Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ as His gospel spreads to all the ends of the earth. Along with the English Magna Carta (1215), the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) was consulted before the writing of the American Declaration (1776) and the Constitution (1789). These have brought gospel blessings with them. Giving a little bit of history for Celtic Scotland the following is written in the Declaration of Arbroath,

 

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"Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Iberia among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today."

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            Scythia is mentioned in Colossians where Paul says, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11). It was these Scythians who are said to have brought Jacob’s Pillar with them as they journeyed. 

        There are other standing stones in the Bible, “Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel” (Exod. 24:4 NIV: cf., Deut. 27:2-3). The surrounding pagan nations had done likewise, “You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars” (Exod. 23:24), and the wandering Celts continued this custom of raising memorial stones all over Europe, even chiselling words and pictures on them.

The Galatians, then, were Gaul-atians. They were cousins of the Q-Celts, like the Gaels (Gael-atians) of Scotland, Isle of Man, and Ireland, and the P-Celts, like the Britons of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. However, there also had been an influx of Jews to Galatia, which may help in understanding the corrupting influence of the Judaizers. Says J.B. Lightfoot,

 

More important is to remark on the large influx of Jews which must have invaded Galatia in the interval. Antiochus the Great had settled two thousand Jewish families in Lydia and Phrygia; and even if we suppose that these settlements did not extend to Galatia properly so called, the Jewish colonists must in course of time have overflowed into a neighbouring country which posses so many attractions for them … The country of Galatia afforded great facilities for commercial enterprise … With these attractions it is not difficult to explain the vast increase of the Jewish population in Galatia…[2]  

When was Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians Written?

Though scholars differ, the generally accepted date for Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is circa AD 50. George S. Duncan connects the Galatian Epistle to the Jerusalem Assembly,

 

They wrote this letter by them:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment—it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth.  For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Farewell. (Acts 15:23-29).

Says George S. Duncan, “A probable date for the Apostolic council (Acts xv.) is 48, which may therefore be taken also as the date of our Epistle.”[3] William Hendriksen says,

Galatians was written after the Jerusalem Council, for it describes Paul’s relation to the other leaders at that great meeting. The journey to Jerusalem mentioned in Gal. 2:1 must be identified with the one indicated in Acts 15:1-4 … I can see no reason, therefore, to deny that the epistle to the Galatians was followed soon afterward by I Thessalonians, which, in quick succession, was followed by II Thessalonians, all three having been written from Corinth about the year A.D. 52.[4]

By the AD 50s, the Hellenising forces would have affected the Galatian’s speech, alphabet and customs. However, the gospel does not destroy cultures, it develops them – if only we would obey it!

The Importance of Getting the Gospel Right

If the West is to survive and thrive, she must return to obedience to the gospel. If we may be permitted to tweak Paul’s reprimand to the “foolish” Galatians, we may instead ask, “O foolish Western nations! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (Gal. 3:1).

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Eventually the Galatians disappeared and Islam replaced Christianity as present day Turkey will attest. The same is happening to Europe. The removal of the gospel during twentieth century due to secularisation brought the two world wars and countless others. With its persecution of Christians and the sidelining of Christianity, secularism has left the West open to the invading forces of Islam, often siding with Islam to overthrow the pillars set up by Christian culture, such as the family, the church, and the state. No longer are these defined in terms of God’s Word but have been redefined in terms of neo-Marxist theories. Islam takes advantage of the social disorder that rejection of the gospel brings. Christ or chaos!  

May God be pleased, even in some small way, to use Gleanings from Galatians to assist in the West’s return to the gospel and its attendant blessings. 

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[1] Etymonline: Celt - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

[2] J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, (MacMillan and Co., London, England, 1910), 9-11.

[3] George S. Duncan, The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, (The Moffatt New Testament Commentary, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1948), xxxii.

[4] William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary – Galatians, (The Banner of Truth trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1974), 16.

TWO WOMEN/COVENANTS

                                                                 TWO WOMEN/COVENANTS

^{Galatians 4:21} Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, ²⁴ which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— ²⁵ for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— ²⁶ but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren,

You who do not bear!

Break forth and shout,

You who are not in labor!

For the desolate has many more children

Than she who has a husband.”

²⁸ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹ But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. 

Introduction

            If we use Christ as our key, we can easily unlock all of Scripture. Think about, Christ was circumcised but was also baptised. He partook of the Passover meal, and He partook of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus straddled both administrations of the covenant, the old covenant and the new covenant. He was “born of a woman, born under the law” (4:4). He came to set us free from the condemnation of the law (Rom. 8:1).

All the promises God made to Abraham have been fulfilled in Him and by Him (2 Cor. 1:20). Indeed, all these same promises that were made to Abraham were also made to Christ (Gal. 3:16). If we keep in mind that a covenant, at its very basic level, is a conditional promise, we will see clearly how the law failed. It failed because no one was able to keep it perfectly. Thus, it brought only condemnation – until “when the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (4:4-5).

Jesus perfectly kept the law on behalf of those who could not, He received the condemnation of the law on behalf of those the law condemned, and, by so doing, He redeemed or bought back everyone who trusts in Him and His redemption. This, of course, it the very heart of the gospel, the same gospel the Galatians are on the verge of rejecting.

To be an adopted son of God means that you are no longer a child of the flesh but are now a child of the promise. A son was promised to Abraham. Isaac was that child of promise. However, what Isaac typified, Jesus was the antitype. In other words, the promise that Abraham would have a son was totally fulfilled in Jesus, who, as to His flesh, is descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We, along with the believing Galatians, have been adopted as sons of Abraham, not according to the flesh, but according to the promise.

 Paul uses an allegory, a symbol, to teach the Galatians this truth, that believing Gentiles are also Abraham’s children.

Two Women

Though her name is not mentioned, the “freewoman” is Sarah, and the “bondwoman” was Sarah’s servant, Hagar. To be born of Hagar is to be born of a servant or slave. To be born of a freewoman is to be born free. Though Jesus was born of a woman, He was also born under the law, which the bondwoman is symbolising. However, because He perfectly kept every jot and tittle of the law, He demonstrated that He was in realty born of Sarah not Hagar. In other words, He was THE Child of promise, the promise God made to Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 15:4, 18:14).

Now, that this promise was to include both Jews and Gentiles, including those at Galatia, has already been made clear to Abraham, when God said to him “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). That blessing, of course, comes in, by, and through Jesus Christ and His gospel. It does not come through unbelieving Jews or Gentiles.

Some, in our own day, think that modern day Israel and those who follow the different forms of modern Jewish religion is what God is referring to with the blessings and curses in God’s promise to Abraham. However, Paul exposes that false idea by his allegory about the bondwoman and the freewoman.

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“For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all (4:24b-26). Hagar represents Jerusalem below and Sarah represents Jerusalem above. How plainer could Paul make it? Whether it is Jerusalem in Israel before AD70 or whether it is Jerusalem in Israel post AD1948, this Jerusalem is not the “Jerusalem above”! Whereas the Jerusalem below is the Jerusalem of the bondwoman and therefore those who are born of her are likewise in bondage, so those who belong to the Jerusalem above are born of the freewoman and therefore are free.

One woman equals bondage and one woman equals freedom. Which do you think represents curses and which do you think represents blessing? The Galatians, under the influence of the Judaizers, were contemplating placing themselves under the curse of the law!

Mount Sinai is where God handed down His law which included all its rules and regulations for Old Testament Israel, including both the ceremonial law and the judicial law which have expired now that Christ has come. The ceremonial law was essentially the gospel in picture form, and the judicial law was how Old Testament Israel were to conduct themselves as a corporate body. The writer to the Hebrews contrasts the old covenant with the new, the bondwoman with the freewoman, i.e., the then with the now:

 

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Heb. 12:18-24)

All are engrafted into one olive tree (Image from Web)

        The “heavenly Jerusalem” spoken of here is the “Jerusalem above”, the same one that John speaks of in Revelation, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). So, the “Jerusalem above” is both the bride of Christ and the place where the bride dwells. The question then becomes: Does God have two brides or one bride? “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29).

Yes, we are all one in Christ. The Judaizers where teaching the Galatians that they needed to become Jews to get right with God, but Paul was teaching that both Jew and Gentile get right with God through faith in Christ Jesus. Only those who belong to Christ are children of Abraham, children of the promise, i.e., children of the freewoman.

Two Covenants

Which two covenants is Paul talking about when he says, “For these are the two covenants…”? He is not talking about the pre-Fall covenant God made with Adam. Nor is he talking about the Noahic covenant. Clearly, the covenant of bondage is the Mosaic covenant.

It is not hard to see that the Mosaic covenant somewhat echoes the Adamic covenant and the Noahic covenant. The pre-Fall Adam was promised life for obedience and death for disobeying God. Yes, blessings and curses. Same for Israel after Sinai (Deut. 28). Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean animals (Gen. 7:2, 8:20), which would be incorporated into the ceremonial law as part of the sacrificial system. Of course, the sacrifice of these “clean” animals was foreshadowed in the covenant God cut with Abraham (Gen. 15).

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            So, we see two main covenants, viz, the Mosaic and the Abrahamic. The former was the old covenant that is now obsolete, and, as Abraham is the forefather of all believers, so the latter, i.e., the Abrahamic covenant, is the antecedent or forerunner or predecessor of the new covenant. In other words, God’s covenant with Abraham is the promise of the new and better covenant. The covenant is the same, only its administration changed when the new arrived. E.g., circumcision became baptism, Passover became Lord’s Supper.

If we keep in mind that the ceremonial law was essentially picturing what the promised Messiah was coming to do, i.e., the seed promised to Abraham, we won’t confuse the Mosaic and Abrahamic covenants. Though both are administrations of the covenant of grace, the Mosaic covenant emphasised works of obedience while the Abrahamic covenant emphasised God's grace through faith. The idea of the Mosaic covenant was not given as a means for Israel to earn salvation. It was given to teach Israel about the promised Messiah, the One who would bring salvation, the One who was promised to Abraham.

Confused? Well, so were the Galatians and so are many Christians today. Why? Because of false teachers. Salvation was never by faith plus works, even works of the law. It was always by faith alone, but a faith that was never alone. As James says, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). Good works are a fruit of faith, i.e., a fruit of the Spirit who gives the gift of faith. The Galatians along with some Christians today were thinking that it is works that produce faith and not the other way around. It’s covenantal.

The Mosaic law and the history of Old Testament Israel under that covenant demonstrated time and time again that no one could keep the law. It was given to show our need of someone who could keep that law on our behalf. Thus, the promise of the Messiah! That is why Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law.” He needed to be like us in every way apart from our sin which condemns and disqualifies us. The Mosaic covenant is about how we are adopted as children of Abraham.

Mosaic covenant is about the flesh epitomised in fleshly circumcision. The Abrahamic covenant is about believing the promise depicted by fleshly circumcision, “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer” (Deut. 10:16). How does one circumcise the foreskin of one’s heart? Do like Abraham the father of the faithful, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3). “How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also” (Rom. 4:10-11). The “foolish” Galatians were giving up salvation by faith alone for a faith plus works, a works righteousness.

Abraham did what Jesus commands us to do where He says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Wait! say some. There was no gospel in the Old Testament! Weren’t they saved by keeping the law? That’s what the Judaizers were erroneously teaching. However, Scripture begs to differ where it says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal. 3:8-9).

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            We see something of a lapse into a works righteousness taking place with Abraham himself under Sarah’s beckoning. Like the Judaizers adding to the gospel, Sarah took the initiative and added to the promise. Because she had not yet conceived and remained barren, she invited Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar, the bondwoman. This was a work of the flesh. It was not the work of the Spirit nor the fruit of the Spirit.

Hagar conceived and bore Ishmael. Subsequently, Sarah conceived and bore Isaac. Ishamel. In the process of time, “Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Hagar and her son were ejected from the camp. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac” (Gen. 21:9-10). This is what Paul is referring to where he says, “But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now” (4:29). The Judaizers are persecuting the Galatians who have been born according to the Spirit!

Because of the weakness of the flesh, the Mosaic covenant brought only bondage. Because of the power of the Spirit, the new covenant foreshadowed in the Abrahamic, brings freedom. Freedom from what? From bondage, from being a slave to the flesh and the works of the flesh. God doesn’t need a hand to save you. Therefore, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” And remember, “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.”

Conclusion

The old covenant was administered and kept by the shedding of lots of blood, of bulls, goats, lambs etc., and even human blood through circumcision, external ceremonies all representing what the promised Messiah was coming to do. The Old Testament saints were saved through believing these promises. Jesus perfectly kept every jot and tittle of the requirements of the law. The new covenant is administered and kept through unbloody sacraments representing the shed blood of Christ and the faithful proclamation of the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has done and our belief in His righteousness revealed therein.

Christ is the key to understanding Paul’s allegory of the two covenants. Hagar and her son were excommunicated. They were sent away. They were of the flesh, additions to the gospel. Sarah’s son was a child of the Spirit, a child of God’s promise. Jesus is the true Son, the One from whom all of God’s promised blessings to Abraham flow. Therefore, we must be done with all our feeble attempts to improve on the gospel and thereby be guilty of trusting in the flesh and not the Spirit. Trust only in Jesus!