“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, TILL the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” Galatians 3:19, the unusual red print indicating today’s Text!

“Till” here (“achri” in Greek) simply means “until” in English, as you would suspect.

People are NOT to serve the Law!

The LAW was given by God TO SERVE the PEOPLE!

The Law was a needed “addition” to God’s overall Plan, man having sinned as he did. Sinned serially, again and again! The Law reveals God’s Holy Standard of proper behavior! His “Code” of Righteousness!

Romans 3:10 … “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” This is Paul at his best, on the subject of the Law!

Romans 7:17 … Paul’s personal testimony even! “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

Wow!

And all this … “UNTIL THE SEED SHOULD COME!”

What Seed, Who is this coming One?

I certainly believe it is JESUS, God’s Darling Son!

The One who could remove the transgressions the Law so clearly revealed!

But get this about Jesus, about the True, Ultimate Seed of Abraham … yet God the Son as well … “till the Seed should come … to Whom the promise was made!”

God made Jesus a Promise?

Yes.

About His Saviourhood, I think.

That if Jesus would come to earth and die, a Body of people would believe on Him and make Him Lord of their lives! Peter speaks of a Lamb, of Christ … “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.” (1 Peter 1:20) And in Isaiah 53 Jesus is prophesied to (at Calvary) … “SEE HIS SEED (future Believers), He shall prolong his days (His Resurrection), and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant JUSTIFY MANY; for he shall BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES.”

Praise the Lord! 

The Law … effective to show humankind their sins … TILL Jesus came and died for those sins! (And now, for the Christian, Jesus IS the Law, the Everything we need!)

Soul winners, it is still appropriate to use the Law of Moses … to show people how far “short” they have come of the Righteousness (the Glory) of God!

Then, once the lost man is convicted of his dangerous position … point him to Jesus as Saviour!

Wow!

What a Plan!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Maybe today, in a single clause, Paul is teaching us that the Law (the Old Testament Legislation given by God on Mount Sinai to Moses) would have never been necessary … had man not sinned in the Garden of Eden. (Or sinned repeatedly since the Garden, for that matter!) Forget the “maybe” I just used, this is a “fact!” 

Galatians 3:19 … “It (the Law) was added because of transgressions ….”

Wow!

Eve and Adam sinned around 4,000 BC, Biblical conservatives believe. So did their children and grandchildren! All their posterity have sinned … egregiously! (Including you and me, their rather distant relatives!)

The Law was given (roughly) 1,500 BC, years and years after the first human transgression. Twenty-five centuries later! 

Still … Paul claims it (under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit too) … “It (the Law) was added because of transgressions ….”

That Greek word “added” is interesting. It is a blend of a preposition and a verb, really … “pro” + “tithemi” … meaning “to place” something right “in front of” a person! God “dropped” the Law on Israel because they needed to know some Standard of His Righteousness! A “direct hit,” you might say!

By the way, the noun “law” is “nomos,” meaning “anything established, a custom, something that has been acknowledged by lots and lots of accepted “usage!” These many precepts (613 of them) of the Law reveal God’s (normal, approved) Way of conducting human life!

Wow!

It is as if man needed some sort of “yardstick” (a gauge”) to show him how far short he was living in respect to God’s Perfect Standard! 

The Law is NOT a means of salvation!

It is a means of showing us what dirty sinners we are, in God’s Eyes!

How terribly we fail in being really “godly!”

In this sense, the Law is good!

Now tomorrow morning we shall learn of a precious Adjunct to this “why-we-need-the-Law” proposition, Declaration.

Sort of a Termination (better word, “Fulfillment”) to the Law!

One might almost say … JESUS IS THE LAW, anymore!

But now, I am getting ahead of myself.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today I merely plan to “introduce” our Text verse. We shall return to it again Monday morning, the Lord willing.

And the Verse?

Galatians 3:19, pivotal in several ways!

“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”

This Saturday, just that opening question!

“Wherefore then serveth the law?”

Paul seems to have “downplayed” the Law for nearly three (in Galatians) chapters now. And here (surprisingly) he suggests it does have some value! 

The verb “serveth” is purposely “italicized” in our King James Bibles. Look at your Copy and you’ll see what I mean. The King James Translators (all scholars in their own right, back in the early 1600s) were thus (by italicization) showing us a word (sometimes a group of words) not in the original (Greek or Hebrew) Text. They did this for the sake of clarity, lucidity in understanding the “intent” of the Scripture verse at hand. (Hundreds, if not thousands of such italicized instances occur within our Bible’s 1,189 chapters.)

So … “Wherefore then serveth the law?”

But they (the team of translators who worked on Galatians) sure did a good job!

Paul wants to tell us what the Law is really designed to do, the “service” it performed in God’s overall Plan, in God’s Will!

The Greek here is “tis oun ho nomos.” 

Literally, “WHY THE LAW THEN?”

Or, “THEN WHY THE LAW?”

Paul will answer that question immediately, at least partially so.

He adds other reasons for the Law’s existence elsewhere in his Corpus, his Writings.

A Christian is never to “bad-mouth” the Law of God, within itself.

It is our Friend, when properly used.

But it is a horror when preached as a means of salvation!

Never minimize God’s Word! (And do remember the Law of Moses essentially spans Exodus through Deuteronomy, a lot of Bible Territory!)

Every Line (yes, of the Law too) divinely inspired!

Just be careful to rightly divide it!

As I’ve said, more Monday morning, the Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Meanwhile, thank God for His marvelous Grace! 

 

I do not mean anything disparaging by the title to today’s Bible Study Lesson.

But Paul has by now, particularly in Galatians, said over and over again … “The Law of Moses does NOT save a lost soul from Hell!” 

And in our Text this morning, he is at it again! Bravo for Paul! Champion for the Grace of God!

“For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Galatians 3:18

Abraham was to be the inheritor of many a blessing, “innumerably so,” even including “Eternal Life!” But he did NOT have to earn those blessings, not a single one of them! He did not have to obey the “Law” in order to have good standing in the Eyes of God!

No!

All those things were given to Him (by the Lord God in Heaven) “by promise!” 

That’s the essence of today’s Verse!

“God gave it (the Inheritance) to Abraham by promise.” Galatians 3:18b, amazing!

All Abraham had to do was believe!

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3, quoting Genesis 15:6 … “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

Wow!

One more time, in one more way … Paul has harped on (re-emphasized) the fact that God’s PROMISE does not require the God’s LAW to “kick” it into place, to make it “effective!”

Pauline logic at its best … “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

Amen!

Saved … by Grace!

It is not what I have done, or could ever do!

It is what Jesus did! Period!

Praise the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Yes, watch Paul the student of history!

Numerically proving that salvation is “by grace”, and has been “by grace” (meaning by the “Promise of God,” just as well say the “Gift of God,” to an undeserving humanity) … since the days of Abraham!

Which would have been, in matter of time, hundreds of years before Moses ever received the Law from Almighty God! (And Paul is about to tell us exactly how many years, Paul the “mathematician” as I indicated in the Lesson title!)

Now here’s today’s Bible Text: “And this I (Paul) say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Galatians 3:17

God the Father and God the Son (long, long ago) entered into “Agreement,” into “Covenant” concerning the salvation of us lost souls!  (That verb “was confirmed before” is “prokuroo,” meaning “lorded into existence!” Yes, it utilizes the very Greek word for “Lord,” spelled “kurios!” Plus … this verb is only used here in all the Bible! Very significant!)

Salvation (the Cross of Calvary) was settled as a Fact long before the Law ever existed! Or existed on Stone, anyway!

“Of God in Christ” with the Holy Ghost being the Executor! That is the Plan of salvation to the lost! Who upon hearing, if faith is exercised … are born-again into the family of God!

How long ago did this great Agreement take place? This Covenant “of God in Christ?” Peter says, “before the foundation of the world!” 1st Peter 1:20, King James Version.

Wow!

So … Paul’s “point” today is that the way of salvation, the means of our being cleansed from sin, and our names written down in Heaven … was settled four centuries before the Law was given on Mount Sinai! (Precisely, 430 years, says Paul the Holy Spirit inspired mathematician!)

And that being the case, Paul argues, the Law (all 613 of its commandments) can NEVER render void God’s pristine Plan of salvation!

The verb “disannul” is “akuroo,” can not “repeal!” (Can not “kick off the throne,” can not “un-lord!”) A beautiful word!

The Law can not “make God’s Promise of none effect,” Paul continues! Paul reemphasizes! Here the verb “make of none effect” is “katargeo,” meaning “to render idle!” In the King James Version this rare word is translated as: “destroy” (5 times), “do away” (3 times), or “abolish” (3 times)!

The Law cannot overpower God’s GRACE!

Hallelujah!

Therefore Paul can write again and again: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9, no Mosaic Law mentioned!

Galatians 3:17, truly one of the earth-shaking verses of Scripture! 

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Lord willing, another fresh Lesson tomorrow morning.

I am loving Galatians, afresh and anew!