Alright!
Galatians 3:2 asks, “did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” You can’t get the promise of the Spirit through the law—it is a promise, and we only receive it by faith. But it appears that now people in Galatia are being turned toward the circumcision group way of thinking, and trying to be perfected by the flesh (3:3). But we are descendants of Abraham because of faith.
If you count on the works of the law, and are therefore under it, you are cursed—you will die because you sin (3:10). And what is sin? We know what it means to sin, because the law came, as it says in Romans 7:7 "... I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet'" (NASB). The law, then, tells us what sin is and when we break it that IS sin. Therefore, the curse of the law that Yeshua did away with, as was stated above, was the punishment due us by our own transgressions of the holy and perfect law of Yahweh, not the law itself! Yeshua took our place, and made us free from the condemnation that we deserve. We were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20). Not only that, but he gave us the Holy Spirit. In essence, you can’t save yourself, as the circumcision group was teaching that you could.
It should have always been clear that “no one is justified by the Law before God,” because we have been clearly told that "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH (3:11; see Hab. 2:4)."
Then Paul tells us that the law is not based on faith (Gal. 3:12). It is fact that “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM (see Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezek. 18:9, 20:11; Luke 10:28)." This is actually a good thing, even though it is often distorted to mean something bad; that is the distortion that if we practice the law, me MUST live UNDER it. We need faith to follow it, and with faith we receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, which reminds us of the Word and guides us to follow it. We’ve already looked at this with Romans 10:5. That the Word is living and sustains us is a good thing. You don't live on bread alone, but on the Word of God!
Paul speaks of a promise to Abraham, and shows that the promise Abraham received of being made into a great nation (Gen. 12:2), to be a blessing to others (Gen. 12:2), to have the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7, 13:14-15, 17:8), to have descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky (Gen. 15:5), and so forth was given because of his faith.
That the law came 430 years after Yahweh’s promise to Abraham is very interesting to me. Abraham knew Yahweh, and somehow he had an understanding of Yahweh’s will. Remember this? "4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws (Genesis 26:4-5; NIV, 1984).”
Abraham’s covenant hasn’t been invalidated (Gal. 3:17). It still stands. We have been redeemed so that we may receive the “promise of the Spirit through faith” (3:14). What is the promise we are able to receive through faith? The Spirit.
We do not receive the Spirit from the law—it cannot be obtained from the law (3:18). We receive the promise of the Spirit from faith. Faith comes first. So, why do we have the law (3:19)? Because of transgressions, and it was given “through angels by the agency of a mediator (Moses), until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made” (3:19).
Something interesting is going on in this verse with the word “seed,” Strong’s 4690, “sperma.” Now, “seed” can refer to the seeds of a plant, but that doesn’t make sense here. It can refer to sperm, and therefore offspring, but that doesn’t fit well either. It can also be the “Holy Spirit operating within the soul by which we are regenerated.” To use a verse as a comparison to make this usage of “seed” more clear, let’s look at 1 John 3:9 briefly: “9No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed (4690, Spirit) abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (NASB).
With that in mind, let’s look again at Galatians 3:19. “19Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator (Moses), until the seed (Holy Spirit) would come to whom (that’s us!) the promise had been made.”
In Galatians 3:22, we read, 22But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This is consistent with what Paul said in Romans 11:32, that "32 God has given all people over to their stubborn ways so that he can show mercy to all" (NCV). We are reminded of our shortcomings in the law, and fortunately Yahweh’s covenant doesn't depend on us being perfect. Rather, we are brought into his covenant through faith.
Paul is speaking to those who have been impacted by the circumcision group, when he says, “before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (Gal. 3:23).
Faith has always been around, as we have just seen with Abraham. Also, take a look at the impressive list of men of faith in Hebrews 11. (You really should read Hebrews 11 before you talk more about faith not being around in the past.)
24Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Some Christians jump to the conclusion that no longer living under a tutor is equal to no longer following the law. First of all, where does faith come from? "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17; NIV, 1984). Do you remember reading about “hearing with faith” in Gal. 3:2,5? What Word of Christ do you think they are hearing?
The word “tutor” is very much worth looking at. It is Strong’s 3807, and means:
“a servant whose office it was to take the children to school,’ … ‘a guide,’ or ‘guardian’ or ‘trainer of boys,’ lit., ‘a child-leader;’ ‘a tutor,’ is translated. …In Galatians 3:24, 25 (KJV), ‘schoolmaster’ (was used), but here the idea of instruction is absent. In this and allied words the idea is that of training, discipline, not of impartation of knowledge. The paidagogos (3807, tutor) was not the instructor of the child; he exercised a general supervision over him and was responsible for his moral and physical well-being.”
Did you notice that in Galatians 3:24, 25 that the idea of instruction (and therefore understanding) is absent? The “tutor” provides a general supervision. The tutor gives basic training and discipline, and this gives us an image of what we needed before we ‘grew up’ in faith and became able to stand/walk/run. Before understanding faith, we listened to the tutor, which taught us how to make the right choices. Being ‘under a tutor’ is not quite the same as being ‘under the law.’ When we are ‘under a tutor,’ we are given training and discipline, and we grow up and are given the gift of faith because we are His chosen heirs and we listened to our tutor. Now that we have faith, we can really stand/run because we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us, and motivates us to follow what has been written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33) to obey Yahweh with love—not something based on outward appearances and compulsion, as the circumcision group was teaching. We still follow the law, but with understanding, which we receive through the Holy Spirit once faith has come.
Let me give you an example of this from everyday life—I’m sure you will be able to relate to this story! When I was a child and I did something my parents didn’t approve of, such as taking a cookie from the cookie jar before dinner, they said, “You can’t do that.” I would then say, “But why?” The response was, “Because I’m the parent,” or “Because I said so.” The discipline and training was there, and it was for my best, but I didn’t have understanding. It was only when I grew up that I was able to understand that eating a cookie before dinner would ruin my appetite, and it was important for me to fill-up on healthy food, and not junk. When you are a kid, you don’t understand that there are such differences between foods. However, now that I have grown up, I still follow their wisdom, but with understanding.
Another way to think of it is like this: the end of the training session, when one is given faith and the Holy Spirit, can be seen as getting involved in your father’s business at the end of the ‘education.’ You don’t stay in training forever. You are expected to take your proper place in the family ‘business,’ and with the exercise and training, you can now skillfully use all the things you have learned. Your training is second nature and your body as a whole is now well practiced with what to do, so now you can even help others.
Or, if you want to think of the tutor as also teaching with the training (which is likely), you don’t leave all the things he taught you. You don’t quit using good grammar because you graduated from high school. You will use math all your life, you will use your problem-solving skills, etc. So, although you are not still in school, you are using all your resources now as you have taken your proper place in the family of your Father.
To no longer be “under a tutor” doesn’t mean you never look at the law again. Remember that the Spirit now guides you through it. The Spirit unlocks the meanings of what you have been trained to do. The law is the solid food the book of Hebrews speaks of: “14But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14; NASB), and we will press on to maturity if God permits (Hebrews 6:3).
The circumcision group was teaching false doctrine, and without the Spirit, we can't even follow the law (see Romans 8:7). The law isn’t supposed to lead us to think we can be justified by the law as the ultimate end. It is supposed to lead us to Christ, to show us that our attempts at “good,” especially when we don’t have circumcised hearts, is without fail going to come up short. We can’t be justified by our own efforts. We can only be justified by faith in Yeshua, and it has ALWAYS been by this faith that followers of Yahweh have been saved.
In short, the “promise” for us in Galatians 3, aside from the promise of Abraham, is the Holy Spirit. We can’t get the Holy Spirit through the law—we receive it by faith. That is not to say that Yahweh’s Word is nullified (remember, His Word will never pass away--Matt. 24:35), but now we can obey Him with our circumcised hearts and with the Holy Spirit, not counting on our pitiful flesh to save us, which we could never do anyway.
Hope this helped!
-Allison
Galatians 3:2 asks, “did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” You can’t get the promise of the Spirit through the law—it is a promise, and we only receive it by faith. But it appears that now people in Galatia are being turned toward the circumcision group way of thinking, and trying to be perfected by the flesh (3:3). But we are descendants of Abraham because of faith.
If you count on the works of the law, and are therefore under it, you are cursed—you will die because you sin (3:10). And what is sin? We know what it means to sin, because the law came, as it says in Romans 7:7 "... I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet'" (NASB). The law, then, tells us what sin is and when we break it that IS sin. Therefore, the curse of the law that Yeshua did away with, as was stated above, was the punishment due us by our own transgressions of the holy and perfect law of Yahweh, not the law itself! Yeshua took our place, and made us free from the condemnation that we deserve. We were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20). Not only that, but he gave us the Holy Spirit. In essence, you can’t save yourself, as the circumcision group was teaching that you could.
It should have always been clear that “no one is justified by the Law before God,” because we have been clearly told that "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH (3:11; see Hab. 2:4)."
Then Paul tells us that the law is not based on faith (Gal. 3:12). It is fact that “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM (see Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezek. 18:9, 20:11; Luke 10:28)." This is actually a good thing, even though it is often distorted to mean something bad; that is the distortion that if we practice the law, me MUST live UNDER it. We need faith to follow it, and with faith we receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, which reminds us of the Word and guides us to follow it. We’ve already looked at this with Romans 10:5. That the Word is living and sustains us is a good thing. You don't live on bread alone, but on the Word of God!
Paul speaks of a promise to Abraham, and shows that the promise Abraham received of being made into a great nation (Gen. 12:2), to be a blessing to others (Gen. 12:2), to have the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7, 13:14-15, 17:8), to have descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky (Gen. 15:5), and so forth was given because of his faith.
That the law came 430 years after Yahweh’s promise to Abraham is very interesting to me. Abraham knew Yahweh, and somehow he had an understanding of Yahweh’s will. Remember this? "4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws (Genesis 26:4-5; NIV, 1984).”
Abraham’s covenant hasn’t been invalidated (Gal. 3:17). It still stands. We have been redeemed so that we may receive the “promise of the Spirit through faith” (3:14). What is the promise we are able to receive through faith? The Spirit.
We do not receive the Spirit from the law—it cannot be obtained from the law (3:18). We receive the promise of the Spirit from faith. Faith comes first. So, why do we have the law (3:19)? Because of transgressions, and it was given “through angels by the agency of a mediator (Moses), until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made” (3:19).
Something interesting is going on in this verse with the word “seed,” Strong’s 4690, “sperma.” Now, “seed” can refer to the seeds of a plant, but that doesn’t make sense here. It can refer to sperm, and therefore offspring, but that doesn’t fit well either. It can also be the “Holy Spirit operating within the soul by which we are regenerated.” To use a verse as a comparison to make this usage of “seed” more clear, let’s look at 1 John 3:9 briefly: “9No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed (4690, Spirit) abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (NASB).
With that in mind, let’s look again at Galatians 3:19. “19Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator (Moses), until the seed (Holy Spirit) would come to whom (that’s us!) the promise had been made.”
In Galatians 3:22, we read, 22But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This is consistent with what Paul said in Romans 11:32, that "32 God has given all people over to their stubborn ways so that he can show mercy to all" (NCV). We are reminded of our shortcomings in the law, and fortunately Yahweh’s covenant doesn't depend on us being perfect. Rather, we are brought into his covenant through faith.
Paul is speaking to those who have been impacted by the circumcision group, when he says, “before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (Gal. 3:23).
Faith has always been around, as we have just seen with Abraham. Also, take a look at the impressive list of men of faith in Hebrews 11. (You really should read Hebrews 11 before you talk more about faith not being around in the past.)
24Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Some Christians jump to the conclusion that no longer living under a tutor is equal to no longer following the law. First of all, where does faith come from? "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17; NIV, 1984). Do you remember reading about “hearing with faith” in Gal. 3:2,5? What Word of Christ do you think they are hearing?
The word “tutor” is very much worth looking at. It is Strong’s 3807, and means:
“a servant whose office it was to take the children to school,’ … ‘a guide,’ or ‘guardian’ or ‘trainer of boys,’ lit., ‘a child-leader;’ ‘a tutor,’ is translated. …In Galatians 3:24, 25 (KJV), ‘schoolmaster’ (was used), but here the idea of instruction is absent. In this and allied words the idea is that of training, discipline, not of impartation of knowledge. The paidagogos (3807, tutor) was not the instructor of the child; he exercised a general supervision over him and was responsible for his moral and physical well-being.”
Did you notice that in Galatians 3:24, 25 that the idea of instruction (and therefore understanding) is absent? The “tutor” provides a general supervision. The tutor gives basic training and discipline, and this gives us an image of what we needed before we ‘grew up’ in faith and became able to stand/walk/run. Before understanding faith, we listened to the tutor, which taught us how to make the right choices. Being ‘under a tutor’ is not quite the same as being ‘under the law.’ When we are ‘under a tutor,’ we are given training and discipline, and we grow up and are given the gift of faith because we are His chosen heirs and we listened to our tutor. Now that we have faith, we can really stand/run because we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us, and motivates us to follow what has been written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33) to obey Yahweh with love—not something based on outward appearances and compulsion, as the circumcision group was teaching. We still follow the law, but with understanding, which we receive through the Holy Spirit once faith has come.
Let me give you an example of this from everyday life—I’m sure you will be able to relate to this story! When I was a child and I did something my parents didn’t approve of, such as taking a cookie from the cookie jar before dinner, they said, “You can’t do that.” I would then say, “But why?” The response was, “Because I’m the parent,” or “Because I said so.” The discipline and training was there, and it was for my best, but I didn’t have understanding. It was only when I grew up that I was able to understand that eating a cookie before dinner would ruin my appetite, and it was important for me to fill-up on healthy food, and not junk. When you are a kid, you don’t understand that there are such differences between foods. However, now that I have grown up, I still follow their wisdom, but with understanding.
Another way to think of it is like this: the end of the training session, when one is given faith and the Holy Spirit, can be seen as getting involved in your father’s business at the end of the ‘education.’ You don’t stay in training forever. You are expected to take your proper place in the family ‘business,’ and with the exercise and training, you can now skillfully use all the things you have learned. Your training is second nature and your body as a whole is now well practiced with what to do, so now you can even help others.
Or, if you want to think of the tutor as also teaching with the training (which is likely), you don’t leave all the things he taught you. You don’t quit using good grammar because you graduated from high school. You will use math all your life, you will use your problem-solving skills, etc. So, although you are not still in school, you are using all your resources now as you have taken your proper place in the family of your Father.
To no longer be “under a tutor” doesn’t mean you never look at the law again. Remember that the Spirit now guides you through it. The Spirit unlocks the meanings of what you have been trained to do. The law is the solid food the book of Hebrews speaks of: “14But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14; NASB), and we will press on to maturity if God permits (Hebrews 6:3).
The circumcision group was teaching false doctrine, and without the Spirit, we can't even follow the law (see Romans 8:7). The law isn’t supposed to lead us to think we can be justified by the law as the ultimate end. It is supposed to lead us to Christ, to show us that our attempts at “good,” especially when we don’t have circumcised hearts, is without fail going to come up short. We can’t be justified by our own efforts. We can only be justified by faith in Yeshua, and it has ALWAYS been by this faith that followers of Yahweh have been saved.
In short, the “promise” for us in Galatians 3, aside from the promise of Abraham, is the Holy Spirit. We can’t get the Holy Spirit through the law—we receive it by faith. That is not to say that Yahweh’s Word is nullified (remember, His Word will never pass away--Matt. 24:35), but now we can obey Him with our circumcised hearts and with the Holy Spirit, not counting on our pitiful flesh to save us, which we could never do anyway.
Hope this helped!
-Allison
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