1. Our Identity
Where do you find your identity? How do you see yourself?
Some find it in what they do
Many seek to establish their identity in what they do in life. It’s the things that we do or achieve that define us. For some of us our identity is tied up with our work and doing well at it. We might be a lawyer or a doctor or nurse or tradie or in sales or finance or business and our self-worth and identity is somehow tied up with being these things. We like to see ourselves good at what we do.
Some find it in the role we play
For others our identity is found in the roles that we play with and around others. We might be a mother or father or the dutiful daughter or a son or the person that everyone goes to or leans on. It might be that our identity is wrapped up in the role that we play and feeling needed by others.
Some are just confused.
Of course, there is also just a whole lot of confusion around the issue of identity today. Increasingly we are being encouraged to tie our identity to how we feel about ourselves on the inside. But the solutions that we come up with to address how we feel on the inside often aren’t the answer.
In this passage today the apostle Paul talks about our identity in Christ. He does this because there were Jewish believers who were confusing the believers in Galatia by arguing that the Gentiles couldn’t truly be numbered Abraham’s children and heirs if they were not keeping the Law of Moses. They were arguing that to be justified (declared to be right with God) that the Gentiles not only needed to have faith in Christ, but they also needed be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.
In the first half of the chapter 3 the apostle called the Galatians foolish for even contemplating setting aside the grace of Christ by swapping horses mid-race as though they could start with faith in Christ and finish the Christian life by relying on the works of the Law.
Paul made it clear firstly that the works of the Law (keeping the law to be right with God) had no part in their experience of receiving the Spirit of God. It was through believing what they had heard that they had received the Spirit.
Secondly that the OT Scriptures themselves have made clear that even Abraham, had not been justified through keeping the law but through believing God and what he had promised him.
Thirdly, the Scriptures also made clear those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse which Christ redeemed us from by becoming cursed for us. And this was how God fulfilled his promise to Abraham so that the Gentiles along with the Jews might be blessed through faith.
But this brings us to the question that gets raised today in verse 19, the answer which Paul has given in the remainder of chapter 3 and some of chapter 4. If the law didn’t set aside the Promise of God making it obsolete or redundant and those who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse, why was the Law given at all?
2. The Law and the promise
This is what we want to consider now. If the Law didn’t replace the Promise and was never meant to be a way of making people righteous why was the Law given at all? What purpose did it serve and what is the relationship between the Law and the promise that was given to Abraham?
The Law was given because of transgressions
The first thing that the apostle Paul wrote in verse 19 was that the Law was added because of transgressions.
Galatians 3:19-20
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one[1].
What was the purpose of the Law?
Paul wrote that it was added because of transgressions. The word “transgression” was a word that originally had the sense of crossing a line or stepping over a boundary. Just imagine a sign up that says do not enter. For you to step over and cross over the boundary is to transgress.
But did the Law prevent transgressions or multiply them?
Often, I think that we think of the Law has curbing transgressions as though it would restrain people’s sinfulness so that things didn’t get any worse. But that isn’t how we see it working out in Israel’s history. If that was the case, then the equation would go something like…
Sinful nature + Law = Less trespasses = less sin
But Paul in Romans wrote that this was the case.
Romans 5:20
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…
The apostle told the Romans that with the Law transgressions increased. The equation looked more this…
Sinful nature + Law = more transgressions not less
It did curb sin. It didn’t restrain the sinfulness of people. Paul wrote that it was given to reveal and expose just how sinful people are so that we might understand our need of God’s grace. Paul wrote that if not for the law he would not have known what sin was.
Romans 7:7-8
I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.
It wasn’t that sin wasn’t there, before the Law was given, but that we didn’t recognise it for what it really was. But once the law said not to covet, sin produced in him every kind of coveting. Paul wrote later in the same chapter that sin used what was good (the law) in order that sin might be recognised as sin and that it used it bringing about his death so that sin might become utterly sinful (see Romans 7:13).
So instead of restraining sin, the trespasses multiplied highlighting revealing the sin within us…
You know that it is true. Sometimes, when children are young, as soon as we tell them that they shouldn’t do something, that often that is when they become most interested in doing it, even if they weren’t interested in it before. As soon as we tell them not to do it, as surely as night follows day, it will become the very thing that they want to do. As soon as there is a law to break because of our sinful nature, we are tempted to break it.
The Law reveals just how rebellious we really are and it should lead us to the seek God’s grace and the one that God has promised to deal with our sins. The problem is with us and all of us need to understand this. The Law is good it’s just that sinful people can’t keep it and that was what being under the Law reveals about us. That’s why you and I need to put of faith in Christ. That’s why you cant begin with Christ and end with going back to the Law.
The Law isn’t opposed to the promises of God
The second thing that Paul said about the Law to the Galatians was that it isn’t opposed to the promises of God.
Galatians 3:21-22
Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
The Law doesn’t compete with the Promise. It isn’t opposed to it. It’s not a challenger to the Promise so that in one corner you have the reigning champion, the PROMISE and in the opposite corner you have the challenger, the LAW which came 430 years later. For hypothetically, says Paul, if there was a law that could have given life, then righteousness would have come by or through the law. But the reality is that there is no such law and so it isn’t competing with the promise. It just has a different function.
The Law condemns sin and it consigns everything we do under the power of sin. It has locked up or imprisoned everything under sin. It does this confirming that the only way to be right with God is through believing the Promise. It makes it clear that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way that we be right with God.
The Law held us in custody until the coming of the faith
Paul goes on to explain that before the coming of this faith that the Jews had had been held by in custody under the law. The Law had been their gaol keep or guardian until the coming of Christ.
Galatians 3:23-25
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
The language of being held in custody and locked up or “imprisoned” as in the ESV probably best describes what happened to someone in Roman times who was either waiting for their trial to go before a magistrate or waiting for a sentence to be carried out. Long-term penitentiaries were not generally the custom in the Roman empire. Generally, in the Roman world prisons served as short term holding cells for those who were awaiting trial or execution. If you were a Roman citizen, you also could sometimes be detained in your own house under guard like Paul had been in Rome while awaiting his appeal to Caesar (see Acts 28:30).
The Law perhaps could be thought to have been holding the Jews under custody until the time came from what had been promised to come. It was short term thing. In verse 24 the apostle wrote that the Law acted as their guardian/custodian, watching over them, until Christ came so that they might be justified (declared to be right with God) by faith. In chapter 4 it is compared to guardians and trustees in charge of an underaged son who was waiting to come of age so that he might inherit his father’s estate.
Like a prisoner awaiting a trial they were held in custody under the Law until the time came when the Son of God would redeem them (or at least those who had faith) from the curse of the Law. As was explained earlier in the chapter, Paul wrote that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (3:13). It was through his death on the cross that the righteous requirement of the Law has been met. He died the death that Law demanded of sinners for us. Without faith that requirement/demand isn’t met and we are still dead in our sins. Through faith in Christ alone, we have been redeemed and set free from the penalty and the power of sin so that we might live for God (2:19).
3. Our identity in Christ
Paul goes on to say that God is no longer our judge, but he is our father for in Christ we have become children of God. That’s who we are now through faith. That is our new identity. We aren’t condemned sinners awaiting judgment, but beloved children and heirs (literally sons).
Galatians 3:26-29
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
We are all children of God
What Paul has made clear to the Galatians is that it didn’t matter whether they were a Jew or a Gentile, a slave or free or man or woman that through faith in Christ they were all now children of God (literally = sons).
It wasn’t matter of the keeping the Law, the Law was merely Israel’s custodian until Christ came. It highlighted their sinfulness, but it couldn’t never save them and make God’s children. Only faith in Christ can do that. Without faith in him you are still dead in your sins. You are still enslaved to the powers that rule this world. That’s who we are without Christ. That’s our identity when we set aside the grace of Christ. That’s why if you haven’t put your faith in Christ, I would urge you to do it today. It’s those who have put their faith in Christ who have been baptised into Christ who have clothed themselves with him and become children of God..
In the NT most scholars agree the way that baptism was practiced in the early church was by immersion and one of those scholars has written that this was “a vivid picture of being incorporated into Christ”. We belong to him and Paul explains in chapter 4 that this has come about when the time that God had set had fully come, by God sending his Son, born of a woman to redeem those who were under the Law.
Galatians 4:4-5
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
God sent his Son that we might be redeemed so that we might no longer be enslaved to the spiritual forces and powers of this world (v3), and so that we might receive adoption as his children and be given the gift of the Spirit. God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who enables us to call God, “Abba, Father”. And because we are God’s sons, we are also heirs. We are children of Abraham and more.
This is who we are by faith in Christ. We are to remember that we are no longer slaves to sin and the powers of this world. We have been freed and are now God’s adopted children who have been given the Spirit of God’s Son to live in us so that we might live a new life.
We are not to conform to this world, but we are now to live out who we are in Christ. As the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, we are to follow God’s example as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ love us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:1-2).
We are all one in Christ
But Paul doesn’t just say you are all children of God; he also says that you are all one in Christ Jesus.
We are not just united to Christ through faith; we have been united to one another in him. We are all part of the one family and that’s how we must live together. Paul said that the old divisions of Jew and Gentile (ethnic divisions), slave or free (social divisions) or male and female (divisions of sex) should not divide us from one another. We are all children of God and fellow heirs. We are all one in Christ.
This ought to change the way we treat one another. Later we will see that Paul writes that we aren’t to use our freedom to indulge ourselves, but rather we are called to serve one another humbly in love (5:13). We aren’t to bite and devour one another (5:15), but we are to restore people gently and to carry one another burdens (6:2). We are to be the sort of people that don’t follow our own selfish desires and do whatever we want to do, but people who are led by the Spirit and keep in step with Spirit who lives in us.
If you have put your faith in Christ, then realise that you are a child of God. God’s Spirit lives in you through faith in Christ. That’s who you are now. You are no longer condemned by the Law. You are no longer a slave to sin. You no longer belong to this world. You’ve been set free to belong to God as his child and that is how we are to live. That’s who you are. So, don’t forget who you are and try to be something else. Live as God’s beloved children.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture citations are taken from the New International Version. (2011). Zondervan.
