Galatians: The Life I Now LiveSample

Walking through Galatians should stir a very appropriate question in your heart: why did God give the law? If the law didn’t change God’s plan to save and bless people based on His promise, why did God give it at all? Surely the law was given either to help us get saved or to help us grow once we are saved? Paul does not see it that way. 

Here Paul gives both a reason and a time frame for the law. The law was given because of sin, and the law was given ‘until’ the promised Seed should come (v. 19). 

The reason the law was given was to highlight failure. As you read through Exodus and Leviticus you can observe a progression of the failure of God’s people, followed by the giving of God’s law, followed by further failure, and then more law. In 1 Timothy 1:8–11, Paul writes that there is a right way to use the law, and that is to identify sin. It is for the ungodly and sinners, not for the just. 

As we read through the Bible, the law shines a light on our failure to love God and live for Him. Does this contradict the promises of God to bless us through the coming promised Seed? Not at all, for the law was never intended to produce righteousness (v. 21). The law doesn’t contradict the gospel. It is just that the law is not the gospel. 

The time frame for the law becomes the focus in verse 22. Here Paul introduces the language of imprisonment, of being locked up. The law imprisons everything under sin so that we know we are trapped and need a rescuer. The law was given to prepare a sinful world for the coming of Christ: the Rescuer of those who believe and trust in Him. Those who weren’t looking for Jesus were imprisoned under sin. Humanity was in real trouble and needed to know it. 

Reflection

How convinced are you of your absolute hopelessness apart from Christ? For a few moments, ponder what you know of God’s law and how it shows you your sin, then turn your gaze back onto Christ and express your praise for the gospel!