Wherefore Then Serveth The Law?

Gal. 3:19

INTRODUCTION

We are saved by Jesus apart from the ‘law’. To those people that had been brought up under such, who had lived for generations under such, knowing it was given of God, what purpose?

LAW - ??

1. The Law - the Jewish law, the law given by Moses to the children of Israel,

a. contained the 10 commandments and the other laws -

b. all were the ‘law of God’ for that dispensation

2. NT usually uses this phrase without modifers to denote such - but also speaks of the "law of liberty’, the ‘law of faith’, ‘the royal law’, being ‘under law to Christ’,

The question asked in view of the faulty nature of the law -

1. Gal. 3:21 - not able to ‘make righteous’ -

2. Heb. 8:7 - had a ‘fault’ - the people didn’t keep it!

3. Not make righteous - for not take away sin - Heb. 10:1-4.

4. Hence the question - why was it given at all then? What purpose did it serve -

5. It was NOT worthless - for God did have a purpose for such!

GIVEN BECAUSE OF TRANSGRESSION

1. Gal. 3:19 -

2. Sin - has been here since Adam - and generation after generation, person after person has followed in such.

3. Nations have been destroyed by God because they were unfit (due to sin) to continue.

4. The law - a codified set of instructions on how to live - was to give wisdom and understanding to the people about sin - how God views it, what is will do, etc.

5. God was using the nation of Israel to bring the Christ into the world - would they be destroyed as other nations? (almost!)

KEPT ABRAHAM’S SEED A DISTINCT RACE

1. the promise was unto Abraham and his seed - Gal. 3:16-19

a. Gen. 12:3 - it was to be to HIS seed -

b. That seed was Jesus - the son of Abraham -

2. The law contained provisions for not intermarrying - for keeping to themselves.

3. It was if you will - a ‘middle wall of partition’ - Eph. 2:14

THE MEANS TO THE END OF FULFILLING THE EARTHLY PROMISES TO ABRAHAM

1. The ‘PROMISE’ - make them GREAT - Gen. 12:2

2. The law was given 430 years after the promise -

3. As they obeyed this law, God granted unto them to live in the land and to be protected from their enemies.

THE LAW SHOWED THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN

1. Rom. 7:13 -

2. EACH sin was condemned - Ezek. 18:20

3. Each sin required a sacrifice -

4. Sacrifices were multiplied - year after year ----

A SHADOW OF GOOD THINGS TO COME

1. Heb. 10:1 - it was the ‘shadow’ - but not the reality

2. Sacrifices = Christ, highpriesthood = Jesus, Holy of Holies = Heaven, etc.

3. Yet, too many get caught up in the shadow and miss the body!

IT WAS A SCHOOLMASTER TO BRING US TO CHRIST

1. Gal. 3:24

2. The NEED was taught - for were taught that we NEEDED Jesus

3. The REALITY was taught - for it specified WHO and WHEN the Christ was!

HAVING FULFILLED ITS PURPOSE, IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE THEN WHY IT HAS ‘CEASED’ AS A LAW FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

1. TILL the seed should come -

2. We are now DEAD to the law - married to Christ, Rom. 7:

3. He ‘taketh away the FIRST, that he may establish the second’ (Heb. 10:9)

4. To ‘return’ to the first is to ‘fall from Grace’ - Gal. 5:4 -