Paul Trask continues his study of the book of Galatians with an examination of chapter 3:21-25.
- Paul reviews the criteria Jesus and the Apostle Paul use to determine whether or not someone can rightfully be considered a “child of Abraham”
- These criteria present HUGE issues for today’s American Church, and claims for the modern state of Israel
- No provision of the Mosaic Law imparted any spiritual power to actually keep the Law – only penalties for violation
- The Law was “added” so that mankind would understand more fully the sins they were already committing, and had been ever since the fall of Adam and Eve. All mankind was thus declared, through statutes, to be trapped, as Paul says, in a “body of death,” inescapably sinful. We just can’t help it, and we just can’t stop it!
- The Law was also “added” so all mankind would then also know the deliverance provided by Jesus, by faith alone, as Paul says, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
- The law “was added” so we would understand our own inescapable sinfulness, while at the same time understanding more fully the righteousness of Christ alone. The righteousness which Jesus imparts to us by His own Spirit, when we humbly come to him in faith, asking Him to save us from ourselves.
- Since the “whole world” was guilty of God’s broken Law, all people were held in the same jail cell, prisoners of that broken Law: “so that the promise that is based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
- The “faith OF Christ” is distinguished from “faith IN Christ,” discussion of various modern translations, and their theological implications
- “The law, therefore, was our supervisory guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a supervisory guardian.”
- This supervisory guardian in 1st century Roman culture was far more than a mere tutor, or schoolmaster; it was an actual surrogate for parents, with complete, comprehensive responsibility for raising a child, including, but not limited to teaching and discipline
- Vital implications of this kind of supervisory guardian, which Paul is likening to the Mosaic Law:
- it is always a temporary arrangement, and is acknowledged as such right from the beginning as temporary
- it has a goal or purpose in mind, the proper disciplining, training and education of the child, who would otherwise flounder without it
- it ends when the goal has been established, and the child has reached the age of majority, and has become mature, and can be trusted to run his own life as an acknowledged adult
- and it is a one way road, once maturity has been reached, there is no possibility of going backward, which should be abundantly obvious from this example – and that’s why we are spending so much time plumbing the depths of it – it’s vitally important
- My theological translation: “The Mosaic Law, then, was Israel’s ‘supervisory guardian,’ a temporary arrangement from the very beginning, until they were brought to full maturity, the age of majority, by the faith which was introduced by Christ, and now made available in Christ. And now having fulfilled its original purpose, all need for that ‘supervisory guardian’ has been obsoleted, being completed replaced by the faith of Christ, and faith in Christ.”
- “The law, therefore, was our supervisory guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a supervisory guardian.”
- “Justified” is a legal term, indicating a state of legal innocence, or being right in the eyes of the Law, i.e. Romans 8:4, through Christ the “righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us”
- Through faith in Christ, Christians receive Divine Pardon, or Clemency
- God pardons us because of His great love for us, now made available to us through Christ
- Instead of looking for value in us, God’s great love creates value in us
- “Some things are loved because they are valuable, but some things are valuable because they are loved“
- Just as with romantic human love, which chooses to overlook faults, God looks at us, too, through rose-colored glasses, choosing to overlook our faults. And those glasses are rose-colored by the blood of His own precious Son, Jesus Christ. So when He looks at us, He sees His Son Jesus, and loves us.
(Ephesians 3; Colossians 1; Matthew 3:7-10; John 8:31–44; 2 Corinthians 3:13–16; Galatians 3:21-25, 10, 19; Philippians 2:5-11; Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 8:1–4; Romans 3:20–24; John 3:16–17)