WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.679 Galatians chapter 3. We've been seeing all the way along in this letter that there is no other 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:13.419 gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in this section, Galatians 3 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:20.219 verse 15 to 25, we're going to see that we're saved by God's promise, not by God's law. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:27.339 So Galatians chapter 3 verse 15 to verse 25. Let's hear God's word together. 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:36.119 So, brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:42.780 covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham 00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:50.000 and to his seed. The scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:59.799 meaning one person who is Christ. What I mean is this, the law introduced 430 years later does not 00:00:59.799 --> 00:01:06.519 set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:14.000 inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise. But God in his grace gave 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:20.980 it to Abraham through a promise. What then was the purpose of the law? It was added because of 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:27.200 transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:33.819 through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party, but God is one. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:41.879 Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:48.259 could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the scripture declares 00:01:48.259 --> 00:01:54.979 that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus 00:01:54.979 --> 00:02:03.319 Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, 00:02:03.939 --> 00:02:09.859 locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:18.900 that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:29.540 of the law. I'll leave our reading there. Let's begin with a question. Why do we have laws? 00:02:31.480 --> 00:02:38.540 In a family, we don't call them laws, we call them rules. Rules that govern behavior, 00:02:38.539 --> 00:02:48.620 and words and how we use them, and our diet. And we have those rules because they set, 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:57.759 for us and especially for children, boundaries and expectations. But all of us will have come to 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:08.180 discover that family rules do not create a motivation to obey. What about law in general, 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:16.520 terms? We have rules in a classroom about cheating and plagiarism. We have rules that are applied in a 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:26.540 courtroom about fraud and murder. Law exists due to wrongdoing. And again, the law is there in an attempt 00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:36.860 to curb wrong behavior, to put people off bad behavior. But we discover again that laws do not change 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:46.680 change desires. And then we come to think about God's law. What is the purpose of God's law? 00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:53.280 And maybe especially for us, since the coming of Jesus, since the age of grace, how do we relate to 00:03:53.280 --> 00:04:02.479 the law of God? We find ourselves in the middle of this letter that Paul is writing to a church in 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:10.439 Galatia, because this church is hearing two different views of the law. And so Paul is writing against 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:17.040 false teachers in this letter. And he's saying to them, here is what the law does not do. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:24.620 Here is what the law cannot do. So they really need to hear this. And we really need to hear this. 00:04:25.140 --> 00:04:31.020 How does this section, which can sometimes seem a bit remote perhaps, how does this relate to us 00:04:31.020 --> 00:04:39.600 today? Well, again, we'll see that it's essential to defending the gospel. It's an essential foundation 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:47.660 to this truth that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But perhaps it's also 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:53.560 going to be relevant to us if you're here today and you're thinking, is Christianity one of those 00:04:53.560 --> 00:05:01.500 religions that's all about rules? Maybe that's your question today. Or perhaps your line of thought, 00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:05.960 maybe you've been in church for a while, maybe a long time, and your line of reasoning goes, 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:13.259 well, I need to prove myself to God before God will accept me. If these are our questions and 00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:20.639 these are our thoughts, then hopefully what we read today will help us to process God's Word. So 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:27.099 there's two things I want to draw our attention to this morning. First of all, God's law does not 00:05:27.099 --> 00:05:35.219 override God's promise. That's taken from verse 15 to 18. In verse 15, 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:42.660 Paul says he's going to use an example from everyday life. And that example is the example of a last 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:49.680 will and testament or a will. And we know this because it's still our practice that you cannot 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:59.800 alter, you cannot add to a will once it has come into force. The terms of that will are binding. 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:11.240 And so Paul says, if that's true in human covenants, how much more is it true of God that he must always 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:20.000 keep to his covenant commitment? And then in verses 16 to 18, we're brought back once again 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:29.019 to Abraham. So let me read from verse 16. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. 00:06:29.019 --> 00:06:35.459 The scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:42.500 who is Christ. And then he says, what I mean is this? The law introduced 430 years later does not 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:48.879 set aside the covenant previously established. It does not do away with the promise. So here he takes 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:56.120 us back in our thinking to the Old Testament, to the book of Genesis. And in Genesis 12 and in Genesis 15, 00:06:56.120 --> 00:07:04.000 God enters into covenant, makes a covenant promise to Abraham. He says, I will make your name great. 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:10.220 I will give you a great land, make you a great nation, and through your offspring, through your seed will come 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:19.560 blessing to the nations. And in Genesis 15, God does something remarkable in terms of binding himself 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:28.939 to keeping his promise. So in Abraham's day, there was a covenant cutting ceremony. And so two people 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:34.840 that were making an agreement, they would take some animals, cut the animals in half, create a pathway, 00:07:35.340 --> 00:07:42.980 and both parties in that agreement would walk through as if to say, if I break my covenant promise, 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:51.740 let what's happened to the animals be done to me. God enters into covenant with Abraham. Abraham has a 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:59.860 vision. And what he sees is that as there is this pathway through the sacrifice and slaughtered animals, 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:07.860 it is only God who walks through. This is God taking the initiative. This is God saying, 00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:15.500 if I ever break my promise to save by grace, let it be done to me as has happened to these animals. 00:08:16.020 --> 00:08:23.199 It was confidence for Abraham to keep trusting in God's promise. And Paul points out that this 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:31.379 happened, verse 17, 430 years before the law. And he does that to say, the law does not change God's 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:40.059 commitment. As the faithful God, he must keep that promise that he made to Abraham, which was absolutely 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:47.000 binding. And that's the point of verse 18. If the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.840 depends on a promise. But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. You can't have it two 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:58.679 ways. Either God accepts us by law keeping or by the promise and by grace. And Paul says, God's never 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:07.339 changed the way he deals with us. It's always been promise and grace and not law. There's an amazing 00:09:07.339 --> 00:09:16.239 detail that Paul points to us in verse 16. Who are the promises? Who are God's promises given to? 00:09:16.859 --> 00:09:23.079 Well, we see clearly that they're giving to Abraham in the first place, but then we're also told that 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:33.920 these promises are given to your seed who is Christ. God gives his promises to Jesus. This promise that 00:09:33.920 --> 00:09:44.139 began with Abraham is realized in Jesus. The source of our spiritual inheritance, the way for us to have 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:53.060 access to all God's promises is through trusting in the Lord Jesus. To get into covenant relationships, 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:59.440 with God, Paul is reminding us we need to get into Jesus. We don't need to be trusting in ourselves. 00:09:59.740 --> 00:10:06.060 We need to get into Jesus and have faith that all God's promises are fulfilled in him. 00:10:07.920 --> 00:10:14.540 Paul's point, I think, is really clear. Against some of the thought of his day, and perhaps against the 00:10:14.540 --> 00:10:22.400 contemporary thought of our day, the newer is not always better. Here what we see is that 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:30.879 God's promise 430 years before the law is the better way. In fact, it's the only way to be saved, 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:40.399 to be brought into fellowship with God. God's law is not salvation 2.0. It's not that he started 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:44.439 dealing with people on the basis of promised grace, and then at some point he decides, no, I need to 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:51.540 introduce law in order for people to come to me. The law does not update. The law does not replace. 00:10:51.660 --> 00:10:59.980 It's promise, promise, promise all the way through. We've been playing a lot of top trumps. This might 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:07.380 be a nostalgia trip for some of us. Top trumps, the card game where you have categories, and each card 00:11:07.379 --> 00:11:14.639 has different values for different categories, and you play cards against each other, and the highest card 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:27.360 always wins. Here is Paul saying to us, promised grace always trumps God's law. Always trust in promise, 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:34.940 not in our law keeping. And this is the point that Paul is making to wavering Christians. They'd started 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:40.820 with Jesus, but now they're thinking, if I really want to be accepted, if I really want to be saved, 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:46.980 I need to keep religious ceremonies, and festivals, and dietary laws. And here is Paul saying God's law 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:55.740 was never given as the basis for enjoying God's acceptance. Let's think for a moment about 00:11:55.740 --> 00:12:02.480 birthday presents. It's been another theme in our household this week. When we give a birthday present 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:14.720 to our family members, I hope we give as gift and not as reward. What I mean is that we give 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:23.840 graciously. We don't give on the condition that somebody earns that gift. That we don't say to our 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:30.700 children, you can have your birthday presents or your Christmas presents if you manage to live well 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:39.460 this week. We give gifts. We give gifts out of grace, out of loving kindness. And what Paul is making 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:49.540 clear to us is that knowing God's love is about receiving that as a gift of grace, not trying to earn it as 00:12:49.540 --> 00:12:59.759 reward. And this is very different to the message that we hear from the alternative saviors that we are 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:06.159 offered in our society. Those saviors that make demands and suggest that they can reward. 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:11.819 What is it that people look to to save them, to give them a sense of meaning and significance? 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:19.399 We can think about money perhaps. Money says, I can give you security and joy, but you must serve me. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:25.879 You must work hard. You must fight hard to be better than others and to get those promotions. You must give 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:32.220 up a lot. You must become single-minded and greedy and maybe one day you'll have enough to have true 00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:41.539 security and joy. Or popularity. Some people live for approval, but that too makes demands. You need to 00:13:41.539 --> 00:13:49.720 wear this and go there and be seen at this party and make those witty comments. And it's exhausting and 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:55.080 there's always new fashion and there's always new places opening up and there's never quite that sense 00:13:55.080 --> 00:14:02.320 that we can rest in people's approval. When we take it to religion, religion based on works, 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:10.240 well, if you perform well enough, if you discipline yourself, if you're really committed, you may find 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:16.180 acceptance from God. You can never know because what if you start failing and falling? 00:14:16.179 --> 00:14:25.959 So here's where Christianity is unique. Because Christianity is an invitation to rest. To rest in 00:14:25.959 --> 00:14:34.879 what Jesus has done for us. To rest in his finished work. To rest in that grace. To trust in Jesus, 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:44.299 not to trust in ourselves. So Paul says to us, God's law does not bring God's blessing. Jesus does. 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:52.019 Now the second half of what we read, I think what Paul is saying to us there is that God's law does 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:59.579 not give life. Jesus does. Now we need to remember here that Paul is still focusing on this big 00:14:59.579 --> 00:15:07.319 question. How is a person justified? How can I be made acceptable? How can I be declared accepted in 00:15:07.319 --> 00:15:13.539 God's sight? So there was one group that were saying, well, you need Jesus and you need all these laws and 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:22.399 ceremonies. And Paul is saying, you need to trust by faith in Jesus and Jesus alone. And so he's 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:28.679 responding negatively again to the law, saying here is what the law does not do and cannot do. 00:15:29.839 --> 00:15:35.539 We just need to bear in mind that there are other times where Paul has a positive picture of the law. 00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:43.779 The law reflects the character of God and the values of God. So it is right and good. And as we are in the 00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:50.500 family of God, it then gives us our ways to live. But here he's saying, here is what the law cannot and 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:55.639 does not do. And he does that by asking two key questions. First of all, in verse 19, there's the 00:15:55.639 --> 00:16:02.439 question, what was the purpose of the law? What is the law for? And then in verse 21, is the law 00:16:02.440 --> 00:16:11.240 opposed to the promises of God. And the big idea here is that actually the law, we're going to see 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:19.320 the law serves the promise. The law serves the gospel by making it sound like the life transforming 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:27.460 good news that it is. That the function of the law is to show us our need of a savior. It points out our 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:36.019 sin that we might run to Jesus to be saved. So to take that first question, what is the law for? 00:16:37.560 --> 00:16:46.780 In verse 19, it was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. 00:16:47.660 --> 00:16:56.600 So the law exposes our sin and prepares the way for Jesus Christ. Now this is key to the gospel. We talk 00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:02.899 about the gospel as good news, that Jesus is good news. But first we need to recognize there is also 00:17:02.899 --> 00:17:11.519 bad news when it comes to ourselves, that without Jesus, the Bible is clear that we are spiritually 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:20.920 lost, indeed spiritually dead. Paul will use the language of being a slave to sin. We are unable to 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:29.240 break free to know God. We are unable to save ourselves. We are unable without Jesus to please God. We are unable 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:39.160 to enjoy eternal life with God by ourselves if we are not trusting in Jesus. And so that is part of the gospel 00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:50.539 that God's law actually makes really clear to us. Because as we read God's law honestly, it begins to show us 00:17:50.539 --> 00:17:58.659 our guilt. It begins to condemn us and it encourages us to run to Jesus for forgiveness and mercy. 00:17:59.299 --> 00:18:07.839 To use the language here in verse 19, the law shows up our transgressions. The law shows when we go out 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:16.539 of bounds, when we trespass into forbidden territory with regards to God's law. So we think we're doing 00:18:16.539 --> 00:18:24.220 okay. Paul says this in Romans 7, you know, I thought I was doing well and then I remembered what the law 00:18:24.220 --> 00:18:28.859 said about coveting and all of a sudden I felt really convicted that I was somebody who coveted. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:34.359 We can feel that we're doing okay until we're exposed to God's perfect law that says don't be angry and 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:40.519 don't tell lies and don't be jealous and all those things. Because our tendency naturally as people, 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:47.900 I think, is to justify our behavior. We start that as children. We don't necessarily grow out of it very 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:56.379 quickly. Well, I did it because they did it to me first. Or, you know, I was provoked or, you know, 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:02.460 I was just having one of those days. Or that's just the way it is. There's nothing I can do. But we tend 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:09.960 to justify or minimize our wrongdoing. We like to compare with others and say, well, I'm not as bad 00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:16.059 as that person over there, rather than comparing with God's perfect standard. And so one of the 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:23.819 things the law does is it seeks to explode in us that self-deception that is in our hearts. 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:28.600 I think one of the most powerful books I've read in recent years was written by 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:35.959 Jerry Bridges called respectable sins. And he was addressing those sins that in, I guess, 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:41.019 in Western society have become completely acceptable. Even in churches among Christians, 00:19:41.139 --> 00:19:48.119 things that we don't necessarily see as being a big deal. Things like gossip and greed, jealousy, 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:56.480 pride, a lack of thankfulness. All of those being addressed so as to drive us to see the beauty 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:02.000 of God's grace in sending Jesus to be Savior. We need the law for that purpose. 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:09.120 There's an interesting, a difficult in some ways section, the end of verse 19 and into verse 20, 00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:15.380 says the law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent 00:20:15.380 --> 00:20:24.319 just one party, but God is one. It seems to be here that Paul is saying that the promise 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:31.279 is superior to the law is superior to the law because when God revealed it to Abraham, he spoke directly, 00:20:31.779 --> 00:20:38.279 firsthand. Whereas when God gave the law to Israel, Paul is saying it came through the angels, 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:43.500 it came to Moses, and then it came to the people. So it's another way of saying the promise is superior 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:51.000 to the law. But the key point in that paragraph is that the law exposes our law-breaking. Or as John 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:59.819 Stott puts it, the law lifts the lid on our human respectability. So in that way, the law supports 00:20:59.819 --> 00:21:07.180 the promise because the law is constantly saying to us, don't look to me. I can't save you. Look to 00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:16.339 God's grace in Jesus for your hope, for your security, and for your salvation. And then we get to that second 00:21:16.339 --> 00:21:23.740 question. Is the law opposed to the promises of God? Is the law opposed to the grace of God? 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:31.299 How does he answer in verse 21? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that could impart life, 00:21:31.379 --> 00:21:36.839 then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. In other words, the law is not opposed to the 00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:44.199 promise because the law was never a pathway to life with God. The function of the law was always to point 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:52.539 us to salvation in Jesus. I think that's something where maybe if we've been in churches for a while, 00:21:52.600 --> 00:21:58.700 we perhaps need to pause and reflect. How do we think about the Old Testament? How do we think 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:06.160 Old Testament Israel became the people of God? Because sometimes I think we can find it really 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:11.920 hard to figure how does grace and law work in the Old Testament? That was certainly true of the 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:18.900 religious leaders in Jesus' day. They were persuaded that they would be the people of God if they kept 00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:32.200 God's law rigidly. Were Israel God's people because they kept the law? You just need to think about the 00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:39.940 book of Exodus, and the answer is no. Think about that song that Moses sang and the people sang in Exodus 15, 00:22:39.940 --> 00:22:48.080 celebrating the fact that Israel was saved by God's grace alone. They became the people of God 00:22:48.080 --> 00:22:55.299 at God's initiative and by God's grace and mercy. So God, again, never changes his approach. 00:22:55.820 --> 00:23:02.160 In the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's only one way to be saved. It's the way of grace and 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:08.120 trusting in God's promised salvation. For them, they trusted that these sacrifices that they offered were 00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:15.000 pointing to something greater. We know that was pointing to Jesus. For us, we're trusting in Jesus as our 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:27.019 sacrifice. There's huge logic in verse 21 as Paul drives home the reality that if there was any other way 00:23:27.019 --> 00:23:37.819 of salvation, the cross of Jesus does not make sense. God's eternal plan to lovingly send his son on a 00:23:37.819 --> 00:23:44.359 rescue mission. The sacrificial love of Jesus. The sacrificial love of Jesus really makes no sense if by law 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:52.519 keeping, I can make myself acceptable to God. So Paul, again, is saying to us, the law does not give life. 00:23:52.779 --> 00:24:01.819 Only faith in Jesus does. And to help get that into our minds, he uses two pictures to highlight this point for us. 00:24:01.819 --> 00:24:08.679 So in verse 22 and verse 23, we see that the law of God is like a prison. 00:24:10.179 --> 00:24:17.619 The scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin so that what was promised, 00:24:18.259 --> 00:24:21.899 being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:26.019 Now, here's a surprising description of the Old Testament scripture. 00:24:26.019 --> 00:24:35.500 What Paul is saying is that as we read, as we read about God's holiness and God's perfect standard, 00:24:35.660 --> 00:24:43.279 we see that we are unable by ourselves to keep that law. That we are therefore prisoners to sin, 00:24:43.579 --> 00:24:51.759 unable, even if we wanted to, to live perfectly. So we are unable to be acceptable in God's eyes by 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:59.960 ourselves. So scripture imprisons us. The law and the commands function like armed guards that surround 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:06.240 us. It's like we're held prisoner. We know there's freedom over there, but we just can't break through. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:15.079 The door's locked and the guards are in place. Why? Because the law would say to us, 00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:23.639 do this, do this, do this. You can know God's blessing if you can keep God's law perfectly from 00:25:23.639 --> 00:25:31.279 from birth to death 100% of the time. And we know that we can't do that. So the law is a dead end. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:37.279 It's like running up against a brick wall. And so here's the irony of Paul's day. You've got false 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:44.359 teachers and they're saying, come and join us. Come and keep the law in order to be truly free. 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:53.480 But they're speaking from inside a spiritual prison. And they're calling people who are free to give up 00:25:53.480 --> 00:26:02.279 freedom to return to slavery if they wander away from trusting in Jesus alone. Where does freedom come 00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:10.939 from? What is the key that unlocks the door of the prison so that we can know God? What does it say 00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:23.860 in verse 22? It's through faith in Jesus Christ for those who believe. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:26:24.080 --> 00:26:32.960 Faith in his finished work on our behalf. Faith that he is the perfect sacrifice given for us. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:42.259 Trusting in, depending on him alone, submitting to him as Lord and Savior. That's the only pathway 00:26:42.259 --> 00:26:51.319 to freedom, not the law. And then there's a second picture showing that the law is not the way to life, 00:26:51.420 --> 00:27:00.819 but Jesus is. In verses 24 and 25, there's the idea of the law as a demanding tutor or supervisor. 00:27:00.819 --> 00:27:09.839 Some students will be groaning at this point. Verse 24, so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:19.279 that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:26.200 the law. So here's the picture from Paul's day. If you were a wealthy family and you had children that 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:33.080 you wanted to be brought up to follow the ways of the family, you would often use an older servant. 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:39.420 And that older servant's job was essentially to beat family values into a person until they came to 00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:47.680 maturity. Their job was not to love. Their job was to ensure discipline and expose failures. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:56.820 Paul is saying the law functions like that in our lives. It rebukes us. It exposes the sin in our hearts 00:27:56.820 --> 00:28:07.240 and our lives. And it instills in us a need for Jesus in order to be justified by faith. 00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:18.740 So again, the law is not opposed to grace and promise because the law was never set up as an alternative way 00:28:18.740 --> 00:28:28.819 to be saved. Rather, the law works alongside the promise, pointing people to trust to what God has promised, 00:28:29.500 --> 00:28:36.000 to trust in grace that comes to us in Jesus. That the law shows us we need our faith 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:47.660 to rest in Him. So as we conclude, what is the relation of the promise to the law? Well, Paul has 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:55.559 shown us that we need the law to show that we need the promise of Jesus. I like the way John Stott puts it. 00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:03.420 He says, only against the dark background of sin and judgment does the gospel shine forth. 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:13.380 The law shows us the darkness in our heart. Without that, we think we're basically okay and God should be glad to have us. 00:29:13.880 --> 00:29:20.200 But when we see the darkness in our hearts and our lives, then the beauty, the perfection of Jesus, 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:26.560 the salvation that He offers, strikes us, shines on us as truly good news. 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:33.519 And again, Paul is writing to these Christians who are beginning to move away from that. 00:29:33.940 --> 00:29:42.519 And he's concerned for them. Because to get that wrong is to undermine the death of Jesus as the only way to be saved. 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:47.319 It's to say, well, the cross is fine, but I need something else on top of that. 00:29:47.319 --> 00:29:54.159 And if we begin to do that, then we'll begin to lose security and joy. 00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:02.139 If we think that it's up to us to add to the finished work of Jesus by keeping the law. 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:07.659 When we think about how non-gospel religion works, 00:30:09.159 --> 00:30:12.039 there is always, maybe some of us have had this experience, 00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:15.740 there's always a sense of slavery. 00:30:16.879 --> 00:30:22.319 You must do, do, do in order to live, is how that logic works. 00:30:23.740 --> 00:30:29.700 In that kind of system, God always comes to us in a remote and impersonal way. 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:35.659 Perhaps we think of God as a judge, but we would never dream to call on Him as a loving Father. 00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:42.100 And when our religion is based on works and not the finished work of Jesus, 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.580 there'll always be anxiety about our standing. 00:30:46.360 --> 00:30:47.720 Have I done enough? 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:51.620 This day, this week, this month, this year. 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:56.019 And so Paul points out to us that the law leads us to Christ 00:30:56.019 --> 00:31:00.460 as the fulfillment of God's promise and the only way to life with God. 00:31:01.060 --> 00:31:03.680 That He's the only one who's obeyed perfectly for us, 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:07.440 and He died to take the curse for a broken law. 00:31:07.980 --> 00:31:12.920 So once again, we're being reminded by Paul that we're saved by grace alone. 00:31:13.600 --> 00:31:19.759 And so once again, we have this invitation to trust in Jesus Christ alone.