Galatians 3:19–29 helps us understand that the law was given for purpose, “because of transgressions” (like crossing a boundary, or exceeding the speeding limit for example). The law was appointed through a mediator. Spurgeon helps us understand what mediator-ship means in that a mediator is not for one person alone; rather deals with two persons and is familiar with both their interests. In this case the persons are God and man. Also, a mediator is not for persons who agree with one another. In addition, a mediator comes “when there is a ground of difference which cannot be readily resolved.” Furthermore, there is no use for a mediator unless both parties are looking for reconciliation. Both sides must be ready to leave the matter in the hands of the mediator. We understand that as He mediates, Jesus pleads with both man and God. “He pleads with God for sinners, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ And then he turns round, and pleads with sinners for God, and bids them turn to him, and be reconciled to him, since he is their Father and their Friend!” Finally, the mediator must make the two parties one, or He has not succeeded.
[i]This makes sense now when we see that the law is not against the promises of God; rather, the law actually stands as guard over transgressors until faith comes. The law is the one who takes men by the hand and points to Christ, our justifier in faith.
This is why I use the law in evangelism. The law helps men see how God sees their hearts: helpless, kept under guard as transgressors. Since sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4), how can one confess his sins if he does not know what those sins are? The law points them out. Since the law points out man’s helplessness to save himself, it shows his need for the Savior all the more. The law reveals God’s wrath and gives grace and mercy a context in which they can be understood. This is why preaching judgment makes no sense. This is way telling people “God loves you” makes no sense. Ask an unsaved person what he understands God’s wonderful plan for his life to be and you will find he does not know. “The law reveals humanity’s utter sinfulness, inability to save themselves, and desperate need of a Savior—it was never intended to be the way of salvation.
[ii] Here is a great video, for illustration.
The human race is in big trouble. Not one person is able to keep the whole law. I was talking with a guy a while back (he had called a wrong number and I took the opportunity to witness) who told me he has never taken God’s name in vain, has always kept the Sabbath, always honored his parents, never killed (not even hated anyone, which the Bible equates with murder), never lusted/committed adultery, never stolen, never lied and never coveted. I thought I was talking to the rich young ruler! I asked him if He loved God above all else. He did not answer me and hung up.
It was not until later I was reminded that he had indeed broken the 9th commandment in that the Bible says that there is none that seek after God, so either God was lying or he was, and since God cannot lie . . . it was then I realized that the guy had not only broken the 1st commandment, but had created a god according to his own understanding, thus breaking the 2nd commandment. He had no fear of God before his eyes and he really needed to hear about Christ. Point being: nobody is able to keep the law.
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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27)
A.J. Gordon wrote, “Not simply the righteousness of our Savior, not simply the beauty of His holiness or the graces of his character, are we to put on as a garment. The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a Christ-bearer but a Christ-wearer. We are so to enter into Him by communion, to be so endued with His presence and embued with His Spirit that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments when they look upon our bodies.”
Matthew 5:17-48 is a scathing passage for men who boast in their own goodness. Jesus points out that the outward keeping of the law requires also an inward keeping. Oswald Chambers explains how this is done: “The summing up of our Lord’s teaching is that the relationship which He demands is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work . . . The Sermon on the Mount is not an ideal, it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in a disposition like His own. Jesus Christ is the only one who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.”
[iii] C.S. Lewis wrote, “The command, ‘be ye perfect’ is not idealistic gas. Not is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command.”
[iv] Romans 6:23 shows the paycheck for lawlessness is death. The law keeps one under guard, like a death-row prison.
All this begs the question: “if one has never heard the law, do condemn people by taking it to them to show their need for Christ?”
First, John 3:18 says that the one who does not believe is condemned already.
Second, consider Romans 2:12-16: “
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
“Without knowing the written law of God, people in pagan society generally value and attempt to practice its most basic tenets. This is normal for cultures instinctively to value justice, honesty, compassion, and goodness toward others, reflecting the divine law written in the heart. Their practice of some good deeds and their aversion to some evil ones demonstrate an innate knowledge of God’s law—a knowledge that will actually witness against them on the day of judgment.”
[v]John Stott has written: “We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we have first been to Moses to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses, and acknowledged our sin, guilt, and condemnation, we must not stay there. We must let Moses send us to Christ.”
[vi]We must “put on Christ.” We must appropriate by faith what God has accomplished for us in Jesus, what we could not by ourselves through the law. God’s justice demands a payment for breaking His perfect law, and this is what Christ did through His death, burial and resurrection. The law shows man that from which he must repent. Repentance is not acknowledging the existence of sin and the fact that Jesus died in time and space; rather, repentance is seeing what the law exposes and forsaking those things and turning to the resurrected Lord by faith that He may have His full reign, to the praise and glory of God.
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[i] Spurgeon, Charles. “
A Mediator.”
[ii]MacArthur, John. Galatians: The Wonderous Grace of God. MacArthur Bible studies, Page 57. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000.
[iii] Chamber, Oswald. Sept. 25, “The ‘Go’ of Renunciation.”
My Utmost for His Highest.
[iv] Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: MacMillan, 1984. P. 174.
[v]MacArthur, John Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed., Ro 2:14. Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997.
[vi] Stott, John R.W. The Message of Galatians. London: InterVarsity, 1968, p. 102
