Galatians.
Chapter 3:19. “Wherefore then serveth the law?” Why was it given? If God gave the promise to Abraham as an act of free favor, why was the law given afterward? “ It was added because of transgressions [or, “for the sake of transgressions”], till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. We are told also: “Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Rom. 5:20.) Thus, by the giving of the law, all were proved guilty before God. When men had broken the known law of God, there could be no question left of their guilt, and need of a Savior. The law could have nothing to do with Abraham’s justification. For he had been reckoned righteous 430 years before the law was given.
Verse 21. “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Man was dead in sins. The law could only condemn him; it could not give him life. He was guilty; it could not give him righteousness, as we have said. Neither life, nor righteousness can be acquired by the law, that is God’s conclusion; on the contrary, “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin.” Yes, after man has been tried in every way, this is the conclusion. Have you accepted God’s conclusion? or have you been seeking righteousness by keeping the law? Well, this is God’s conclusion—you are under sin. Is this, however, that you may be condemned? No; but “that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Thus the law did bring out sin in open transgression, that grace might abound. Yes; the promise with all its eternal results, is given to them that believe. What a defense of the gospel is the principle of faith!
Now we see how the Jews were shut up, kept under law, until faith in Christ was revealed. They were, like children at school, learning what sin was, by open transgression. This was the purpose of God in it all. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” How often this scripture is perverted, as though it meant that Christians are under the law as a schoolmaster. So far from this being the case, it is the very opposite; indeed, it is the strongest contrast. Thus to put the Christian under law as a schoolmaster, would be to give up entirely Paul’s defense of the gospel. It would be a mark of those who say they are Jews and are not. (Rev. 3:9.)
No; the apostle says distinctly, that after faith is come, or the principle of faith, we Christians are no longer under a schoolmaster, but are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And as such, ye are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, and are one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, what can ye want more? “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Let us seek to understand this part of Paul’s defense. Man with a heart, or nature, utterly at enmity against God, placed under the law of God, would be like a slave or servant in bondage told to do a task he had no heart to do, and, in fact, could not do: see Rom. 7:5, 7-21. The very law of his nature is sin, and the law only brings out that sin in transgression. In contrast with this, here is introduced a delivered soul, a child of God—having the holy nature of God, a nature or new being which delights to do the will of God. “Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Such an one is no longer under the yoke of bondage, the old schoolmaster; but is baptized into Christ, has put on Christ. All that he was, whether Jew or Greek, is put off. He is a new creature, a son and heir of God.
Let us carefully pursue this contrast. The schoolmaster, the law, could only condemn the acts or transgressions of man in his carnal, evil nature. It could only, if alone, kill man. Man in that state could neither acquire life nor righteousness by the deeds of the law; for he is guilty before God. The conclusion is, that he is shut up under sin. And then comes death and judgment. Oh, how gracious of our God to give the promise 430 years before this testing of man came in!
But now Christ, the object of faith, the fulfillment of promise, is come. What a change! We are no longer under that schoolmaster. No longer is our sinful nature tried by law. No longer are we seeking life and righteousness by works of law: but are. children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. We now have, not are seeking, life and righteousness for evermore. And are we to give all up, and go back under the old schoolmaster?
Chapter 4. It is fully admitted that the Jews, the natural descendants of Abraham, were in bondage under the elements or first principles of the schoolmaster. “But, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
The great truth of redemption is now brought into the defense. Redemption from Egypt was a picture of this redemption. The Israelites were in bondage, bitter bondage under Pharaoh.
Nothing could give them deliverance until the blood of the lamb was shed. They were then brought out of bondage; they passed through the water of the Red Sea, as a figure of death; and then, through the Jordan, they entered the land. All this was of God. Now was this accomplished that they might serve Jehovah in the land of liberty, or that they might go back to the slavery of Egypt’s brick kilns?
If God sent Moses to affect that great deliverance, has He not sent His Son to effect the greater, the eternal redemption of His people, of His sons, by the blood of the Lamb? Now, is it that these sons are to serve the Father in holy liberty, or to go back to the slavery of the old man, under the old schoolmaster, the law? For Israel to have gone back to Egypt’s slavery would have been to give up their redemption. They could not be in Egypt and in Canaan.
For the Christian to go back under law is to deny his full redemption; and hence you never find a soul under law able to say he has and enjoys the known fact of redemption through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins. It is impossible to be on the two principles of law and of faith in Christ at the same time. Let it be remembered that every teacher, be he who he may, that seeks to lead souls under law, undermines the great foundation truth of redemption. It may seem strange, but it is no less true, that the truth of redemption was well nigh lost for many centuries. How could such prayers have been adopted, if redemption had been known? If a reader of these lines thinks this too strong let him find us a page in all the so-called Fathers, before the Reformation, that distinctly teaches what redemption is, as found in the scriptures. Or, if you do not know the Fathers, sit down and write two pages on redemption, and then compare what you write with the scriptures. Get a concordance, and read what you have written, and compare it with what you find in the word of God. You will find that, if you are under law by the teaching of men, redemption has no true meaning to you.
The Israelites could not possibly understand redemption whilst in the brick kilns of Egypt; neither can we, if still under the bondage of law. It is plain they must be redeemed from Egypt, in order to worship and serve Jehovah in the land of Canaan. It is equally true of us, we must be redeemed and have redemption, in order to worship and serve the Lord in the holiest.
Verse 6. We now come to another powerful argument in Paul’s defense. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” He had said before, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? “God had given this seal on the hearing of faith. And what a seal! But it was on them, not as bond slaves under law, but as sons of God! It was God who had done this, because they were His sons. And mark, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. Words utterly fail to set forth the superiority of this position or standing of the children of God, with a new nature, and the Spirit of the Son dwelling in our hearts; in contrast with the bondage of being in the fallen, sinful flesh under law. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2.)
How senseless, then, the charge, that the principle of faith, and deliverance from the law, means liberty to break it! If under it, we do break it, for it can only provoke the evil nature into active transgressions. In contrast with this, see the believer a child of God—as born of God, he delights to do the will of his Father. And more, he has the Spirit of the Son dwelling in his heart. And this characterizes him. He finds now in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, a law, a principle superior to the law or power of sin in the flesh, so that he is delivered from the old standing he had as a slave. “Wherefore thou art no more a servant [or a slave], but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
What a triumph over the efforts of Satan to get the child of God back under law. Well might the apostle speak with such vehemence: to go back to the law was to give up everything.