Why Then the Law? (Gal. 3:15-22)

I am not a Jew; I was born a Gentile. I did not become a Jew when I was saved; I became a Christian. The Bible divides the world of mankind into three categories: Jews, Gentiles and Christians. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God" (1 Cor. 10:32). We must remember these distincions when we discuss the matter of the Mosaic Law. Being a Gentile, I have never been obligated to the Law of Moses. However, that does not mean I am lawless and have no obligation to God. Now that I am a Christian, I am under a new law, the laws of Jesus Christ. My rationale for this is that I am now identified with the with Jesus who is called "thy seed" (Gal. 3:16) and to whom the Abrahamic promise was given. But many people still claim that the Mosaic Law is important and must be followed. God's Word states that "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse" (Gal. 3:10) but "Christ [by his work on the cross] hath redeemed us from the curse of law" (3:13).

Why then the Law? (3:19). God gave it to heighten our understanding of His standard and the seriousness of transgressing that standard (Rom. 4:15). So, when God said, "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (Exo. 20:16), a lie was seen to be what it is: an overstepping or transgression of the law of God. A Gentile does not have the Law but he sometimes instinctively does the things that are in the law (Rom. 2:14-15). The reason for this seems to be that he is made in the image of God (James 3:9). Certain moral duties, imparted by that divine image are written in his heart and are manifest in his moral decisions and judgments. Having a conscience, he is obliged to respond favorably to God's self-revelation in nature and to fulfill certain basic duties that personal creatures owe the Creator, i.e. worship, gratitude, and service. When Paul preached to pagans, he did not use the Mosaic Law to bring them under the conviction of sin (Acts 14:6-18; 17:15-34; 24:25). Rather, he reminded them of their creaturehood (Acts 17:24-26) and their guilt of dishonoring God by neglecting to seek after Him (17:27) and by regarding Him to be less than what He is (17:24-25, 29). He also declared their duty to seek the Lord (17:27), repent and prepare for coming judgment (17:31).

Under New Management (Gal. 3:15-22)

When I was saved on January 4, 1953 several things happened to me that I later discovered as I grew in grace. For example, I learned that salvation was never granted on the basis of Law. I learned also that I had been justified before God on that day and thus any relationship to old Adam and to the law ceased; I was adopted into the Lord’s family; I was enrolled under a new rule, i.e. a new covenant. It became my first duty to obey my heavenly Father, not as a slave but as a child. In fact, I was to obey as a beloved child. It would now be an offense to Him if I intimidated His will in any way. Did He call me to seek fellowship with other Christians? Then it is at my peril if I neglected it, for I would be disobeying my Father. I was to do it, not because the law says, “Love thy neighbor,” but because Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and this is the commandment that He has given to me, “that ye love one another.” Did He command me to seek to become like Jesus? What a joy it became to do so as I studied His Word and spent time with Him in prayer. Was I told to distribute to the poor? Then I was to do it, not because love is a burden which I dared not shirk, but because Jesus taught, “Give to him that asketh of thee.” Did the Law say, “Love God with all your heart”? Then I could look into the very eyes of that demand and reply, “O commandment, Christ has fulfilled you already. I have no need, therefore, to fulfill you for my salvation.” But I did, and ever since have rejoiced to yield obedience to Him because God is my Father now and He has a claim upon me.

Redeemed from the Curse of the Law

Just what makes people think they are able, by their own efforts, to gain God's approval? While we're at it, let's ask another question and then answer them in the same order. What makes people think that Jesus, by His own effort on the cross, secured their salvation? We have both groups of people all around us. What say you?

First, let's talk about people who are good people and genuinely sincere in their belief that their goodness will earn them God's approval. There is a beautiful church next to our condo. But it doesn't stand alone and empty. Every day early in the morning neighbors flock there for their devotions. They really believe they are going to heaven because they are good people, even though they have rejected the grace way. Sadly they are not aware that God says, "As many as are of the works of the law [relying on rule-keeping to be justified before God] are under the curse." (Gal. 3:10) Unwittingly, they have placed themselves under the wrath of God because they have chosen a legal system that they cannot keep and they have rejected God's plan of gracious salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. In Galatians 3:10-12 Paul states that the Law cannot save.

The other group believes that Christ died for their sins and that His work, not theirs, is sufficient before God. They believe this because God said it was so. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree [Christ's cross]. (Gal. 3:13) In this verse I find four very comforting truths: (1) God justifies the sinner by being moved over his hopeless condition, (2) God justifies the sinner by providing Christ as his perfect substitute, (3) God justifies the sinner by removing his curse and, (4) God justifies the sinner through faith alone in Christ.

Salvation is by Believing, not by Achieving

This "justification by faith alone" doctrine that the Apostle Paul believed and preached, does it have any grounds at all in the Torah? Or is this a message that he made up? The Judaizers believed the latter; many of Paul's disciples in Galatia were heading that way too; but Paul is adamant. He sets out in Galatians 3:6-12 to prove that his doctrine is God's. It originates and is deeply rooted in sacred Scripture. It is a central theme, not only in the New Testament message, but of the Old Testament as well. We need to keep stressing this in our day as Paul did in his. Many today believe that Old Testament religion was a religion of law and not gospel. If the false teachers wanted to reach back to Moses, Paul could go back further to Abraham, the esteemed ancester of the Israelites. He lived in a period prior to the law, the temple, and circumcision. In fact, he was even a Gentile before God called him! There, in the first book of the Bible, Paul finds the patriarch simply believing God's promise. What distinguished him as a man of God is that he simply took God at His Word. On that basis God justified him (Gen. 15:6). He did not win right standing with God by his own efforts. It was given to him as a result of his faith. The implication is obvious. Abraham's children are those who, like him, are trusting God to do for them what they have given up trying to do for themselves. Then Paul appeals to Scripture for a further point. Not only was Abraham justified by faith, he is definitely linked to the Gentile peoples. "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3b). Reader, if you have never received Christ as your Savior, then hear this. The truth of justification, which was anticipated so clearly long ago, has now become visible and available in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, everyone who believes are even now blessed along with Abraham. They are enjoying God's favor because they are believing God just as he did. The only demand God makes on you in connection with salvation is the trusting attitude of faith.

Using Scripture to Deceive

It is hard to believe but it is nevertheless true that some preachers "lie in wait to deceive" their hearers (Eph. 4:14). They even use Scripture to do it by misinterpreting it. Satan used this tactic when he tempted our Lord in the wilderness. He had been defeated on each of the first two attempts and so the enemy said in effect, "O.K. If I can't win by opposing him then I'll win by joining him." And so he quoted Scripture, from Psalm 91. But, he conveniently misinterpreted it for his own advantage (Luke 4:10-11). The Lord recognized this ploy and warded off the attack with another Scripture.

This tactic was used by the Judaizers in the early church. They believed that faith in Christ, though crucial, was not enough for salvation; believers had to observe the ceremonial law to be approved by God and to be welcomed into the family of God. They used Scripture to teach this. Had not Abraham, who received the promise that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3), been commanded to be circumcised to be part of the family of God? (Gen. 17:10) This reference to Abraham and to Scripture made a lot of sense to the Jewish and Gentile believers. But, if the Christians of that day carefully studied their Scriptures, they would have discovered the deliberate misinterpretation. The Judaizers conveniently forgot an event that took place ten years after the promise and fourteen years before the command to be circumcised. At that time Abraham was challenged to believe that even at his advanced years, he would have a child who would be the seed of a great nation who would produce the Messiah. Scientifically, this was impossible. But faith takes God at His Word. "He believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). This means that Abraham was saved by faith alone - fourteen years before he was circumcised. Paul concludes, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham ... So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham" (Gal. 3:7, 9). Friend, don't give up precious gospel truth to people whose major self-appointed task is to lead you astray. They will even use Scripture to do it, but it will be abused.

A Personal Remedy for Deserting the Faith

In 1965 a teenager began to attend our church services. He showed an interest in the Bible and gave every evidence of salvation. However, he left us after several weeks to join with the Mormons who had convinced him that he needed more than just a trust in the cross work of Jesus Christ for his salvation. How tragic! His experience represents that of thousands who desert the pure gospel of grace for a false form of Christianity that presumes to improve on the finished work of Christ. Some look for a second work of grace; some, for a commitment to the Lordship of Christ some time after being justified; still others, the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is evidenced by one's speaking in tongues.


In Galatians 3:1–5 the Apostle Paul reminds his readers that a believer's experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of God the Father are uncontested evidence of having been graciously made acceptable to God through personal faith in the perfect, complete work of Christ, apart from any human supplement. John McArthur states, "Although experience in itself is not entirely reliable evidence of spiritual reality, it is nevertheless a powerful apologetic when closely linked with and built on scriptural truth. Because genuine Christian experience verities the gospel of grace, the inspired apostle was led by the Holy Spirit to use it as an effective means of defending the doctrine of justification by faith." In 3:6-4:11 he will deal with the scriptural truth but here in 3:1-5 he helps to draw us back to the pure gospel if ever we were to stray by directing us to a few questions. (1) Was I justified in any other way than by believing in the cross work of Christ? (3:1) (2) Did I receive the Holy Spirit, our greatest evidence of final salvation, in any other way than by faith in the gospel and at the same time as my justification? (3:2-4) (3) Did the Father grant me, as He had promised, the Spirt power for victory over Satan, sin and the world in any other way than by faith in the gospel of grace (3:5)? If not, then how could I hope to enhance any of that out of my own insignificant human resources?

Superficial Believers

I don't know what the percentage is, but I dare say that evangelical churches are filled with superficial believers. They live only to experience spiritual "highs." In seeking for good feelings, they have missed the truly joyful, happy, satisfying life. Make no mistake about it, there are wonderful feelings in the Christian life, but they are found only in knowing and obeying God's truth. True happiness comes as John McArthur describes it as the product of a "humble pursuit of God's truth and will and of conformity to it."

The first century had their share of such believers too. Paul speaks of them in Galatians 3:1-5. "O foolish Galatians!" (Gal. 3:1) "Are ye so foolish?" (3:3) "Foolish" is such a harsh word! But the Apostle was not calling them stupid. The word that he used here means "no mind" or "no understanding." The Galatian saints failed to use their spiritual intelligence when faced by the unscriptural, gospel-destroying teaching of the Judaizers. They were not using their heads. They were lazy! They had foolishly fallen into Judaistic legalism because they had stopped believing and applying the basic truths of the gospel that Paul had taught them and by which they had been saved.

We are neither saved nor sanctified in the Christian life on the basis of good feelings or attractive inclinations. Both are on the basis of God's truth in Christ. Christians who rely on self-oriented emotions instead of Scripture-oriented minds are doomed to be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Eph. 4:14). When they judge an idea on the basis of how good it makes them feel or how nice it sounds rather than on the basis of its harmony with God's Word, they are in serious spiritual danger.

Questions to Ponder:
1. What do you think attracts most people to cults: (1) They are intellectually convinced the doctrines of the cult are true. (2) They find its teachings and practices appealing. Support your answer.
2. Does Paul's appeal to the Roman saints in Rom. 12:1-2 apply to "foolish" saints today? How?