Galatians 3.19
“Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”
Paul has been making the point that God gave the promise to Abraham before he gave the law to Moses. He is emphasizing that just as Abraham responded to the promise by faith and was declared righteous, so also believers today respond to Christ by faith and are declared righteous. The law was not and is not a means of salvation, because the law cannot make someone righteous.
Paul knew that most Jews had lived as if the law was the foundation of their relationship to God, and they saw the Abrahamic covenant as only the beginning of the Jews’ relationship with God. The Jews believed that the law was primary. Paul’s assertion is that the promise to Abraham is primary.
Paul then asks the question that some would undoubtedly be asking: If the promise takes precedent over the law, why was the law given? If Abraham’s covenant (the promise) is the heart of God’s relationship with his people, what then was the purpose of the Mosaic covenant (the law)? Why did God give the law if Abraham’s covenant was primary?
Paul says the law “was added because of transgressions.”
God never intended the law to do what the Judaizers were trying to make it do. The Jews had distorted and perverted the purpose of the law and made it into a religious, social, and legal system that was oppressive and overbearing. The way the Pharisees and Judaizers used the law was not in alignment with God’s plan for his people. As Paul said in the previous passage, any attempt to rely on the law as a way to be saved, any attempt to use the law as a legal system for salvation, would only result in being cursed, because the law does not and cannot save.
The law does not make us righteous or holy. Rather, it provides direction and standards for how to live, and it reveals that we are sinners. The people of Israel were expected to make every effort to obey the law, but they were also expected to recognize and repent of their sin when they fell short of the law. The animal sacrifices in the OT law were a constant reminder of man’s sin, a constant reminder that sin has a cost, and a constant reminder of God’s grace.
The animal sacrifices in the OT law foreshadowed Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice who would pay the ultimate cost and remove sin for those that repent and believe.
In Romans Paul says that “through the law we become conscious of sin” (Rom. 3:20) and that when there is no law there is no sin (4:15). Romans 5: 20 states that “the law was added so that the trespass might increase.” The law, then, was a set of standards for the people of God. The law was a guidance system: Do this and don’t do that. It was also a convicting system, because it revealed that we simply cannot obey all the law all the time.
The second part of Paul’s answer on the historical purpose of the law is profound, powerful, and radical: “until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.” This is an incredibly important truth: the law was given to govern God’s people for only a certain number of years. In other words, God gave the law to provide guidance, to reveal bad behavior, and to foreshadow the Messiah, but only until the Messiah came. When Jesus the Messiah arrived, the purpose of the law was fulfilled.
Finally, Paul in this passage speaks to the circumstances of the giving of the law and suggests that the law is inferior to the promise because of those circumstances. The assumption is that an arrangement between people and God which involves mediators is inferior to an arrangement which involves no mediators. Paul is saying that the covenant God established with Abraham in Genesis 12 and 15 had no mediation, and that is an additional reason the promise to Abraham takes precedence over the law of Moses.
The law as a religious, social, and legal system was deeply embedded for the Jews. The law was everything. It was their identity. Thus to reframe how they viewed the law was extremely difficult; for most Jews, it was (and is) almost impossible. But there is power in the truth of the gospel; there is power in a faithful witness like Paul and other believers in the early church; there is power in the Holy Spirit. In response to God working through his faithful servants in the first century, there were a growing number of Jews (and Gentiles) throughout the Roman Empire who trusted in Jesus. Despite opposition and persecution, the church was growing rapidly.
Here is the summary statement: “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:21-22)
