21 Is the Law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore, the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (NKJV).
We saw in our last lesson that the Law served as a necessity because of “transgressions.” The establishment of the Law was so that a “Holy God” could minister to an “unholy people.” This necessity was established until the “fullness of time” came. Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
The Promised Seed was always the plan. We understand this from the creation of man to the calling of Abraham, down through Abraham’s descendants leading to the “fullness of time” and the birth of Christ, the “promised Seed.” (see Galatians 4:4).
Paul settles the issue of the Law in any way being against the promises. His statement is emphatic, “Certainly Not!” He goes on to explain, “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” The Law does not give life. It gives way to accessing God if one is obedient to the Law. Therein lies the problem. No human can be absolutely “obedient” to God’s Law. It is Holy, and we are “dead in trespasses and sin.” The Law is a constant reminder of this fact, verse 22, But the scripture has confined all under sin. End of case. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “There is none righteous, no not one.”
Oh, but Paul goes on to say, “that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The promise by faith! Which promise, the one made to Abraham, “that in your Seed the blessing will come. Abraham, by faith, saw the Seed, Jesus Day. John 8:56 scripture
We must see as Abraham saw, through the eyes of faith. Faith is not blind. Faith sees through “hope,” a hope that is not a “maybe, but a “sure expectation” of what is being promised. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Believing is not simply a mental exercise, but rather it is an action that many times has RISKS involved. I experienced this reality in 1965 concerning God’s call upon my life for ministry. I had made my preparation for schooling to help me reach my goal of being ordained to pastor a church. The plan would take about eight years to complete. As I walked to my car, parked on the College Campus, the Lord spoke to me. To be clear, it was not in an audible voice but a powerful impression. The impression was to stop the direction I had planned and that the Lord would take me in a completely different direction.
I cannot take the time here to give you all the details. I will say that I obeyed what I believed to be the word of the Lord. I prepared for the ministry without a formal education. I was ordained in 1n 1972. My first call in ministry was to teach in an accredited Bible College. I had not been to Bible College, but God opened the door and gave me gifts in the Holy Spirit to fulfill the call. Many things happened after that, planting and pastoring several churches. I did not receive my degrees until 1995, more than thirty years after the Lord changed my direction. I obeyed and He was faithful to fulfill His word to me.
Verse 23, But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. For the people of God in the Old Testament, before faith came, the requirement was that they were “kept under guard by the law” In other words, God was their God and their protector, and their redeemer. He kept His people until faith became the key in the revelation of the Seed, that is, in Christ. It is the same kind of faith that Abraham exercised before the Law came. “Faith that was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.” What faith? “He blessed God, evidenced by obedience.
Therefore, the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Isn’t that interesting? Abraham was seen as righteous because of faith. Then 430 years later, the Law was given to the descendants of Abraham by a mediator, Moses. The Law instructed those descendants of Abraham for around fifteen hundred years until the promised Seed came. The purpose of the Law was to bring a whole nation to Christ. Christ became the “fulfillment of the law.” A majority of Abraham’s descendants rejected Abraham’s faith. A remnant believed as Abraham believed.
25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Faith was manifested in a man. It is His faith that saves us. It is His obedience to the Law that brings salvation. It is through His blood that was shed, His body broken, that faith became the standard. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The Book of Hebrews chapter 11 is known as the “honor role of faith.” Those that learned to walk in faith while “kept” by the Law.” They set the standard in the Old Testament until the Seed had come.
Consider some of these saints that walked a life of faith, even though some were under the Law. Consider Able, and Noah who built an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. We have spent a great deal of time speaking of Abraham. What about Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Yes, she is also among those of faith. In faith, she received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged Him faithful who had promised.
Hebrews records that they all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11:13). The list continues with Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Consider the act of faith hiding Moses for three months. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Many more acts of faith in Moses’s life are rehearsed. What of Gideon, Barak, and Samson, Jephtha, also of David and Samuel and the prophets. These through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to fight the armies of the aliens, all through faith.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still, others had the trial of mocking and scourging’s, yes, and of chains and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. All of these the world was not worthy.
“And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Hebrews 11:40).
In the New Testament, we chose to die to ourselves and receive Christ’s resurrected life through the Holy Spirit. It is a life fully lived by the “faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us” (Galatians 2:20). The Law reminds us of God’s holiness and His righteousness, and it reminds us of the weakness of our flesh. He points us to Christ as a tutor. We cease trying to live righteously in our strength because we can’t. Instead, we fully embrace Christ by allowing His life to now govern us and, through the Holy Spirit, live acceptable unto God (see Romans 12:1-2).
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (NKJV).