Study of Galatians Part 10 - Galatians 3:23-4:7

Last week, we heard Paul teaching again that our only hope for life, now and forever, is in the promises of God in Jesus Christ, brought by faith to those who believe in Him. The Law is important, but in showing us that everything, including us, is imprisoned under sin because of our inherited “original sin” and our own failure to keep all of that Law as we should. There is no Life in the Law - only a recognition of our sinfulness and our need for a Savior (Galatians 3:21-22).

Paul used similar terms for what the Law does in Galatians 3:23-24. He said that people were confined, held “captive,” “imprisoned” under the law, until the “coming faith would be revealed” in Christ. He said that the Law was like our “guardian until Christ came” and we could be “justified,” counted righteous, simply “by faith” in Him and what He did for us.

Twice Paul used a term that means “a leader of a child.” We get our English word, “pedagogue,” a teacher,  from this Greek word. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, though, the word meant something more like a “guardian” for a child, until he comes of age, with more adult responsibilities. See Paul’s comments a little later, in Galatians 4:1-2, about a child who is an “heir,” but is under guardianship and is little different from a “slave” until “the date set by his father” to receive his privileges as a son. A Greek dictionary defines such a “guardian,” as “usually a slave, whose duty it was to conduct the boy or youth to and from school and to superintend his conduct” - to try to keep him out of trouble and care about his physical well-being and give him a sense of right and wrong, for his own good.

The Law serves such purposes for us, too, as a sort of guardian for us. Our Lutheran catechism for children (and all of us) says that the Law of God primarily serves as a “mirror,” showing us our sins and our need for Christ. But it also serves as a “curb,” with warnings and judgments for us if we “jump the curb” and, in doing so, hurt or harm ourselves and others, by going where we don’t belong and doing what we shouldn’t do. The Law also serves as “a ruler,” showing us “the straight and narrow way” that is best for us and others and will do good - and reminding us that we sin even by neglecting to do the good that we should do.

Do you think that children of old always did what their “guardians” wanted them to do? Do you think the guardians themselves were perfect and always led in the right way? If you look in the mirror of God’s Law and compare it with the way our world looks or the way our own country looks or the way we ourselves look these days, how are we doing? All of us fall very far short of God’s expectations. The Law is about what we are to do, and we are not doing so well. The Law of God does not give us hope and comfort. When we really listen to it, we are also forced to say, with the tax collector in Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

That is why Paul, in Galatians 3:25-26, then takes us back to the Gospel, the Good News of what God has done for us and continues to do. There is our hope. Paul writes, to the Galatians and to us, “Now that faith has come,” that faith brought to us by Christ Jesus, “we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, we “are all sons of God,” children of God, “by faith.” While we were still enslaved in sin, following the sinful “principals of this world,” and not keeping the Law as we should, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” of God, children of God (Galatians 4:3-5).

It was by the coming of Christ Jesus and His perfect life, keeping all the Law in our place, and His death on the cross in payment for our sins, in our place, and His resurrection from the dead for us, that we “are no longer a slave, but a son, a child of God, and if a son, also an heir” of all that God promised (Galatians 4:7). Paul also added that this was all “through God” and all His grace and mercy for us (Galatians 4:7).

And how did we personally receive all these promises earned for us by Christ Jesus? Paul writes in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” God the Holy Spirit has also been at work, through the Word of God and that Word connected with water in baptism to bring us the gift of faith in the one true Triune God. We have Christ in us, and the Holy Spirit, too (see Galatians 4:6), and we are enabled to cry out in faith, “Abba, Father” - trusting our “Father, dear Father” as His dear children.

These are promises for all of us, as we are brought to faith and baptism. For our salvation, it does not matter if we are “Jew or Greek” or any other nationality. It does not matter if we are “slave or free.” It does not matter if we are “male or female”. We are “all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). And, Paul adds, “If we are Christ’s, then we are offspring (descendants by faith)) of Abraham, heirs according to promise, counted righteous in God’s eyes, simply by faith in our Savior, Jesus (Galatians 3:29).

Notice again that there is not a word in all that Paul has written about our good works somehow contributing to our salvation. It is not faith plus works, but faith alone that saves, as the gift of God’s grace. Paul wants the Galatians and us to know that as clearly as possible, and so he keep repeating the Gospel hope we have in Jesus.

The Lord’s continued blessings to you all, as you live confidently by faith in Him.