The Role Of The Law

A sermon preached on 10th July 2022 by Pastor Enoch Awuku Anti

Audio🎧

Galatians 3:19

Throughout this series in Galatians, you may have constantly heard me say things like the “law cannot save”, “the law cannot justify”,  “the law cannot bring anyone to salvation”. Indeed the whole of the argument in Galatians is about the contrast between law and faith ( Galatians 1:8-9; 2:15,3:11.) So, so far, up to this point, we have all agreed or I hope so that we have all agreed that we are justified or made right with God only by faith. Have we agreed on this matter or there are some here who hold contrary view?

Now seeing that the law cannot save or justify anyone, we may rightly ask why was the law given? What’s the purpose of God giving something that cannot save? Why must we bother ourselves at all about something without the power to make us right with God? This brings me to the title for our sermon this morning. I want us to look at what I have titled The Role Of The Law. When Paul asked “why then the law? (Galatians 3:19), he provided answers and those answers obviously tells us Why The Law. So from Paul’s answers, I will want us to examine the role of the law under these three headings. The Law Reveals The Holiness Of God, The Law Reveals our Sin and The Law Restrains Us From evil.

One of the characteristics of the writings of Paul is that, when he addresses a subject, he anticipates objections and questions and so asks those objections and questions people may have and proceeds to answer them. For example when he addressed the subject of the richness of grace in Romans Chapter 5, he anticipates a question and asks it in Chapter 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? He didn’t just ask a question, he answers it in v.2 “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? This is a consistent pattern in Paul’s writing. Again, in Romans 9 when Paul addressed the subject of election, he anticipated objections. So he raised those objections and answered them (Romans 9:14-19).

In the text we read, we see Paul anticipating objections to everything he has said and so asked questions and answered them (Galatians 3:19-21). Paul defends why the law cannot justify because in his argument, the law was not given to replace the promise God made to Abraham to be received by faith. That’s the point of Galatians 3:15-18. The Jews cannot set aside the promise to Abraham to be received by faith and expect to be justified later by works. Paul’s point is that once God made a covenant with Abraham, nothing was going to replace it. In other words, faith, right from the beginning was God’s scheme of saving humanity. The law never replaced this faith.

Why Then The Law? Paul asked (Galatians 3:19a)

The Law Reveals Our Sinfulness 

Paul’s first answer to the question why the law is that “It was added because of transgressions.” So we see our first answer for why the law. Because of transgressions. The word transgressions simply means to overstep our boundaries. Or to break a given law. Or to do that which we are not to do. Simply, the law was given to reveal to us we have sinned against God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines sin as

Any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (Q&A 14).

There are two things in the definition of sin: “want of conformity” That is an old English expression which simply means lack of conformity. It is our inability to conform or adhere to the law of God. The second also speaks of “transgression of” This also means we have actually done the things we are forbidden to do. So sin is simply we falling short of God’s standards and doing the things we are commanded not to do. This is what the law does, it reveals to us our transgressions. Without the law, none of us will come to the understanding that we have sinned. Paul says in Romans 7:7 that “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet”. So in the law we understand our sinfulness. The law condemns all of us as sinners. That’s the divine verdict of God and nobody can exonerate themselves.

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin…Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith will be revealed (Galatians 3:22, 23)

You see, the law was given to reveal to humanity that we have broken God’s law. If God had not given the law, we wouldn’t know our sinfulness. But because of the sinfulness of humanity, God gave the law to reveal to us our sinfulness. In the requirements of God’s law, our sinful nature is exposed. When God said you shall have no other god before me, it clearly points out to us the sin of idolatry and our natural tendency to worship other things apart from God. Every single retirement of the Law reveals our sins. The law condemns us.

If the Spirit of grace be absent, the law is present only to convict and slay us

— St. Augustine.

The Law Reveals God’s Holiness

Not only does the law reveal our sinfulness. In revealing our sinfulness, the law also reveals God’s holiness. By what standard do we know we are sinners? By the standard of God. The requirements of the law reveals to us a Holy God. God is Holy and he demands that we his people must be holy. Peter quoting Leviticus said in 1 Peter 1:15-16 that

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct since it it written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

What is meant in the text above is clear: God is Holy, So we must be holy. How are we going to understand what God’s holiness is so that we will also be holy? Unless God himself reveals to us his standard of holiness, we will by no means know what is required of us. But God in his mercy gave the law to reveal to us his nature and what is required of us.

The Law reveals to us the demands of God and as we go on in our discussion of faith and the law, I want to clarify that, we should not get the impression that the law of God doesn’t matter in our walk of faith. We are still required to live in obedience and in fact the demands of the law, especially the moral law, that is the 10 commandments is still binding on us.

You remember when God appeared on Mt. Sinai to deliver the 10 commandments, the people were terrified that they asked God not to speak to them directly. This is a sense of the holiness of God described here. And the Scripture consistently tells us the terror those who saw the holiness of God experienced. In Isaiah’s vision of the Lord, he was struck by this sense of God’s holiness and he exclaimed “Woe is me!” (Isaiah 6: 5).

The Law Restrains Us From Evil 

The law of God is a guardian: In the law God has revealed to us his demands and requirements. So in the law we know what we are to do and not to do. When God gave the 10 commandments, there is a phrase that prefixed every commandment “Do not” or “You shall not.”

“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image (Exodus 20:4)

“You shall not bow down to them or serve them “ (Exodus 20:6)

“You shall not… (vv. 7; 13-17) all opens with you shall not

These phrases clearly pronounces some kind of restrain on us. But for the law of God which works on our conscience, we shall be worse people than we are now. The law restrains us because it reveals to us what pleases God. The law is a guardian: it guides us, it holds us in check. David speaking about the law of God says

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11).

I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. (Psalm

119:101)

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105).

Now despite these positive attributes of the law, the law itself cannot save us because God didn’t give the law to replace faith (v.21).

We say with Paul that the Law is good if it is used properly. Within its proper sphere the Law is an excellent thing. But if we ascribe to the Law functions for which it was never intended, we pervert not only the Law but also the Gospel (Luther commentary on Galatians) Also, the demands of the law is 100% obedience. Break one law and you have broken all the law. This is what Paul describes as the curse of the law (2:10). Since the law is not given for our salvation we cannot rely on it for salvation.

But when the law convicts and breaks us down, it reveals also to us the need of a saviour. So in one sense, the law reveals to us our need of a Saviour because of its weakness. And this Saviour is Jesus Christ. God sent forth Christ in whom the promise to Abraham is fulfilled (v.16, 4:4).

Sinners cannot look to the law to be saved. Sinners must look to Christ in faith to be saved.