Have you ever felt the tension between law and grace? There are things we’re supposed to do, but there is also the freedom we have from the finished work of Jesus. It can be tense for sure. You can see that same struggle in Paul’s day. The Galatians were confused and burdened. False teachers came in and messed up their faith in Jesus. Paul wrote to help them understand the freedom that comes through simple faith in Jesus.
The law is powerless in giving us spiritual life. The law cannot give us the Holy Spirit. It cannot make us righteous. It cannot justify us. It cannot cancel God’s promises. Those truths alone help us exhale a little. We don’t have to carry the pressure to perform perfectly that God never placed on us.
So why did God give the law?
First, the law reveals our inability to please God by our own good works. It reveals our sin and shows how far short we fall. Think of a speed limit sign. It doesn’t make your car faster or slower. It simply reveals what is expected. When compared with your speedometer, you are either a lawkeeper or a lawbreaker. The speed limit sign reveals. The law of God does something similar. It reveals our need for a Savior.
Second, the law reflects God’s holy and righteous character. It shows us who He is. But trying to live by the law as the way to be accepted by God only weighs us down. The constant fear of breaking a rule robs us of joy. It pulls us back into performance instead of grace. Remember, in Jesus we are free. We are forgiven. We are accepted.
The law had a temporary purpose. Paul says it was a tutor who guided us until we came to Christ. Like guardrails on a road, the law kept us from veering too far off. But once we put our faith in Jesus, we grow, we mature, and we learn to walk with Him personally.
Faith in Jesus brings us into a real, living relationship with God. When you and I are born again, we don’t need anyone or anything else but Jesus.
Faith in Jesus also removes the walls that once divided us. Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The categories that have separated us no longer define us. Jesus does. Churches today are filled with people from every kind of background. Yet when we come to Christ, we stand together as forgiven sons and daughters.
If you’re returning to the Lord after wandering a bit, remember this: God isn’t holding your past against you. He welcomes you like the father welcomed the prodigal. He’s glad you’re home.
You can rest today friend. Faith has set you free. Live in the freedom God has given you. Walk in His love. Share His goodness with those around you. And as you keep your eyes on Jesus, you will grow into the life He promised. His life is filled with love, joy, peace, and a steady assurance that you belong to Him. He will keep you by His power!
Enjoy your relationship with God, friend. He has done great things for you through His Son.
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Full Transcript
Open your Bibles, Galatians chapter 3. We’re gonna pick up where we left off last time, Galatians 3, verse 19. We are in a segment of Galatians where it is more theological, more Bible study oriented, as we are learning the foundations of covenants and promises, as Paul is reminding the Galatian believers of the significant promise and relationship God initiated with Abraham. Then remember, 600 years later, the law came, and they’re wrestling with where it all fits in their relationship with Jesus.
The Galatian believers were saved by grace. They were pagans. They were Gentiles. They had no relationship with the law whatsoever. So teaching the foundation of the law to them is important because they don’t know it. And I know that as you’re studying the Bible, there’s a lot that you’re learning that you didn’t know. And you wonder sometimes, why are we studying this? Like on Wednesdays right now, we’re going through the history of Israel in Exodus. And you’re just like, well, how can Exodus be relatable thousands of years later? And you’ll find as you come through Bible study, it’s very relatable. There’s an eternal message in the faithfulness of God, and learning again, the covenant that was given from Mount Sinai to the children of Israel, why it was given.
Paul’s doing the same thing with the believers in Galatia because they’ve been ripped off specifically with something they didn’t know a lot about. Again, they’re pagans, they’re Gentiles, they’re not really living in the Jewish world, they were just plopped out of their sinful life and dropped into life in Christ, and they’re enjoying Jesus until false teachers came and confused them. In the confusion, they go, well, maybe that’s what we need to do. We need to become Jews first, we need to get circumcised, and we need to follow all the laws. After all, we don’t know a lot about that.
Paul takes his pen in hand to the churches that he planted to correct the errors. He is exhorting believers to remain in grace. That is the message to us today. Learning, or for the Galatians, reteaching them the importance of God’s promises—how God keeps his promises. How God not only makes them, but keeps them and reveals his reliability through promises.
God made a promise to Abraham, another man that was a Gentile living in a pagan, idolatrous home. Yet God singled him out, related to him, and called to him, reached out to him and said, leave your country and follow me. And he gave him all those promises that we studied earlier. What was his response? He left home. He believed God. And what does the Bible say because of his belief? He believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Another way of saying that he came into relationship with God. What we would say today in the new covenant, he was born again, living life by following God simply by believing God.
Now Abraham believed God with nothing in his life. He had no Bible, no scroll, no law, nothing. And God met him with righteousness. What did that become? A gift of grace. Abraham experienced grace very early on.
Now, so far, just by way of review, so far in Galatians chapter three, we’ve learned four things. Let me lay them out for you so you can jot them down.
Number one, we learn what the law doesn’t do. The law, number one, doesn’t give you the Holy Spirit. The law is incapable of giving you the Holy Spirit. We learn that in verses one through five.
Number two, we learn that the law does not give you righteousness. We learn that in verses six through nine. The law cannot convey righteousness to you. It only reveals.
Thirdly, we learn that the law does not justify you. It can only condemn you. When you read through the law, it can only show you your failures.
And then number four, the law does not replace the promises of God. Or more particularly, we learned that the law does not replace the righteousness by faith in God’s promises.
Today, we’re going to take a more positive turn and learn, well then, we understand what the law hasn’t done, but what does the law do exactly? Why the law then? Why its significance?
Notice in verse 19, in Galatians 3, that question is asked. Paul anticipates a question and he asks it: “What purpose then does the law serve?” I know it doesn’t give the Holy Spirit. I know it doesn’t give righteousness. I know it doesn’t justify. I know that doesn’t replace God’s promises. So then what does it do? What’s the purpose?
And he says it was added, verse 19, because of transgressions until the seed—notice that singular. If you have a New King James, it’s capital S because the whole context is still Abraham. Remember, the promise was to Abraham and his seed. So that seed doesn’t refer to the nation of Israel, doesn’t refer to many Jewish people, it refers to one, one singular man. We learned last time that it refers to Messiah.
So he’s saying it was added because of transgressions till Messiah. If you want to write in your Bibles, you can just circle it so you can remember it. Write next to it, Messiah or Savior or Jesus. That’s who he’s referring to.
It was added because of transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
So he gives a two-fold purpose for the law. First of all, number one, the law was given to demonstrate to man, to show us that our inability to please God through our own good works. And it says there it was added because of transgressions to give definition for the failures in our lives.
It was added because of transgressions to give definition for the failures in our lives. Now we understand that we cannot earn God’s favor by our good works because we fail. We can’t offer to God perfection. None of us can. That’s been the theme of chapter three, that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one is able to earn God’s favor—none of us—by our own good works.
It was first of all added to show the depth of man’s sins. Jot it down in Romans chapter seven, verse seven. Paul would write this: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said you shall not covet.”
I mean, the law reveals sin generally, but one of the things the law does personally is reveal our own sin individually. Paul was reading the Bible and noticing “thou shalt not covet.” He said, “That’s in my life. That’s something I should avoid.”
With sin in the world, God now is giving definition to sin. It is a temporary means. The law is to reveal our own sinfulness.
We’ve used this simple illustration many, many times, but it’s the best one. As you’re driving, you notice the speed-limit sign. The speed-limit sign is revealing to you the law. As you compare the number on the sign to your speedometer, you are able to see whether you’re a transgressor or not. There is a request or a requirement on the street that you’re driving. This is the law. The law reveals to you whether you have transgressed it or not. That’s all the sign does. It’s there to reveal the transgression. There are others there to enforce it.
But there is a second part of the law that’s important. You have to look at it this way, because you may not have thought this second one. But I want you to understand it’s like a coin. It has two sides to it.
On the one side, the law is used to reveal our own sinfulness. But on the other side, the law reveals the holy, righteous standard of God—the holiness of God. He defines holiness. I don’t define holiness. You don’t define holiness. God defines holiness. His righteous standard. We learn about His nature and the will of God.
You could say it this way, if you want to use the coin. If you want to use both sides, here’s a simple way of why the law exists. One of the first reasons God gave us the law: the law reveals who God is and also who we are together. The law reveals the perfect nature of God and our imperfect nature.
The law was given to Moses—notice at the end of verse 19. It was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
The law was given to Moses to the people. It was an impersonal delivery. God Himself did not deliver the law in person. He gave it to Moses and Moses delivered on His behalf. He brings this out, Paul does, to show you the impersonal part of the law, where there is someone between us and the law.
In John 1, verse 17, it says, “…the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” This is a point he wants you to see.
Angels somehow—also it says—were involved in the giving of law up on Mount Sinai. But it was delivered to Moses. Moses delivered it to the people in an impersonal way.
Now, the law doesn’t bring intimacy. It brings despair. It brings difficulty, especially if you want to use it in the natural realm.
The law is very discouraging if you’re a speeder, right? If we’re using that sign and you’re a speeder, every time you see a sign, you’re worried. Maybe. I hope. Possibly. The Holy Spirit in you. Like you’re concerned. You see it going, and then out of the corner of your eye you see a police officer on the island, and what do you think? “Oh no. Oh no.”
By the time you see the police officer, it’s over. They’ve already got you. They already got the number, and they’re figuring out if you’re too… if you’re fast enough, if it’s worth them flipping a U-turn and pulling you. Like it’s already over. But the law—it bothers you because you’ve broken it, you’re currently breaking it, and you’ll probably break it tomorrow. The law bothers you.
There’s nothing that sign… all it reveals to you is the possibility of getting a ticket. It doesn’t really give you any peace. Even if you keep the law, it’s a reminder that you have to keep the law. It’s just a constant reminder that there are guardrails in your life.
Now if you take that and you apply it into your relationship with God, you could say this: legalism troubles you. Living life in a legalistic way and not by the grace of God separates you from God.
Now, I’m not saying you lose your salvation. I’m not saying that. It’s just you’re not enjoying life. You just don’t enjoy it. Like you wake up in the morning and instead of wondering and anticipating all that God wants to do in your life, you’re just worried about what kind of mistakes you’re going to make.
You’re worried about what kind of failures you’re going to have. Like maybe you’re really working on an area. You’ve been praying about it. And so this one area, this one area, you want to improve on. But now you’ve gone overboard. You’re like, well, I’m not gonna really be a good Christian if I don’t get this one area. And so that’s all you’re worried about. That’s all you’re concerned about.
Now you’re just focused on that area and not God. It’s replaced your relationship. Now you’ve got something between you and God.
Even on a good day, maybe you’re not trying to improve anything. You’re just trying to add something. So you develop a list of, “I just want these five things to be more characteristic in my life.” But the list has become so important to you that you see the list before you see God. There’s now a mediator—something between you and God.
When the Bible clearly says there’s one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And through Him, all of us get to come to God immediately. We get to wake up in the morning and we’re like, “God, what do you have for me?” instead of, “I better not sin today.” That’s a miserable way of life.
Man, “I hope I don’t yell today. I hope I don’t think bad thoughts,” instead of, “Lord, what do you have for me? I know I’m going to face this, and I’m going to go through this, and how do you want me to respond?”
I guess you could step back today and just say this: does your religious life give you life? How you’ve chosen to worship God—are you really living the fullness of life, the abundance of life, the enjoyment of life? Are you happy now? Is there joy in your life? Are you experiencing the freedom that’s yours from the bondage of sin? Are you living in the freedom that God has given you?
If you’re really born again and the Spirit is free in your life, then you don’t need to live in bondage. You don’t need to live in a perpetual state of self-condemnation, just beating yourself up for the failures in your life. You don’t have to live with an emptiness or a hopelessness.
I mean, because when you’re emphasizing your failure so much, then what happens is you just kind of give up and you go, well, if I’m a failure already, I might as well just fail more. Even more so, the reality of Paul picking this up in Romans—he goes, hey man, if through sin grace abounds, should we just sin all the more? And he says, no way. No way. We should live in such a way we’re enjoying the release and the freedom that God has given to us.
I met a brother last night. He just got out of jail, two years. He’s talking about the wrestlings, the difficulties, and some of the bondages that he’s experiencing in the real world. So I paused and I said, okay, let’s talk about what you just experienced. If I told you today that you should be in jail and I’m calling the cops right now and they’re going to take you back to jail, what would you say?
You’re looking at me because I shocked him with that question. He looks at me a little bit and goes, well, I’m not going back. I’m done. I signed the paperwork. Like, I’m done. They let me out. I’m finished. I’m not going back.
I know. But if I kept pushing you and I kept pressing you and the officers were here and they came, what would you say? It’s like, hey look, I’m free. You guys can do whatever you want to me, but I’m telling you, I’m free. I have paid my debt to society and I’m free, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
And I said, how do you know? And you know, he looked at me. It was great. It was wonderful. He’s going to walk in freedom because I think he got it last night. He looked at me, and I go, how do you know? And he just said, I know.
I’m like, that’s right. And I said, with that same confidence you have with your past physical incarceration, you have that right now in Christ. Exactly what you’re struggling with and wrestling with. I said, you have that right now. You need to leave here with the sense of, how do you know? I know.
And that sense of knowing actually gets translated into believing. And then you live in your freedom. Because that’s yours right now. The enemy would try to convince you that you need to go back to that bondage. I’m free. I’m free. I’m free.
I don’t live by a list of rules and regulations. I live by the freedom that Jesus Christ has given me. If I go off to the left, the Holy Spirit will convict me. If I go off to the right, the Holy Spirit will convict me. Because God lives in me by promise, and I live by faith. That’s what he’s saying.
Verse 19, verse 20: now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? And he answers again, certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, then truly righteousness would have been by the law.
But Scripture confines all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
With the law, a mediator was given. But with the promise to Abraham, it was direct. That’s the point he’s making. Again, he’s contrasting the promise by faith—Abraham—and the law that came 600 years later.
He’s saying with Abraham, God came personally. Promise. Grace. With the law, God came through Moses. Mediator. Middleman.
With Abraham, now he’s saying, there’s such sweet closeness that God has. He came to Abraham personally, which I’m sure was an amazing thing for Abraham, ministering to the things of his heart.
Remember we mentioned last time, not too long ago, that how can God reach people that we think aren’t reached? He can use dreams and visions. He can appear to people personally, speak to them, lead them, speak to the cares and concerns in their lives, even as we see in the book of Acts when he ministered to Cornelius. He was ministering to Cornelius as Cornelius was thinking about him, doing good things for him. He sent somebody to him.
This closeness and intimacy is something that God has given to us by faith.
It’s a reminder of us gathering together today. We kind of take it for granted to some degree because it’s regular and repetitious, but this gathering that we call church is a very important reminder of the intimacy that we have with God and with each other.
The church gatherings are times for the family of God to come together and worship God, to rearrange and reorient their entire lives toward God on the first day of the week, or for some, the last day of the week on Saturday, or for some, the middle of the week. It doesn’t really matter when we gather together, large or small. It doesn’t matter. As we come together, it’s a reminder of the closeness and intimacy that God has for us.
It’s kind of like a Christmas gathering or Thanksgiving where we’re anticipating, anticipating, and we get to like a family reunion. Even a family reunion has—you know, Uncle Harry’s going to be there and we know that we’re going to have to deal with him. You know, the church always… we all got those men and women that we have to deal with. Sometimes we’re the people that we have to deal with. But it doesn’t matter. We love them anyway. We’re family. We’re going to come together and enjoy the Lord together. We’re going to remember we’re not alone.
We are not alone in this upside-down, sideways world. There are many believers all around us, and we’re reminded when we gather together that we’re one family.
I mean, I think of this little church here where you’re coming in from Aurora, Denver, Wheat Ridge—wherever you’re coming, you’re coming together to worship, and you’re learning about how much God loves you and cares for you. You’re not getting that in the world, are you? The world, social media… I mean, think about your job.
Can you imagine—the thing that we share today that’s probably the closest to unity that we could possibly have is when we’re singing. Have you ever thought about that? We’re all singing the same thing, almost at the same time, sort of in the same melody, tempo, whatever all that is. But we’re like as close as we can be to unity.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t sing. It doesn’t matter if your voice is off key. The Bible says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord.” It doesn’t matter if you hum it, whistle it, bring your tambourine… no, no, no, don’t bring your tambourine. You can do that in the parking lot. But when you’re singing, there’s unity.
Can you imagine at work? Your boss coming in, “Okay everybody, it just feels like we’re all disconnected. Come into my office. Let’s sing a song together.” That’s weird. “And let’s sing to God this worship song.” And you’re like, yeah, I don’t know, because I live in the most God-hating place that I’ve ever seen on earth. I don’t ever see that happening.
I know. You’re not going to get this at work. And you’re not going to get this in the world. Now, I know you get glimpses of it, and I know you can put the radio on. That’s not what I mean. But you don’t get this. This is God’s gift to you and to me: closeness and intimacy where you’re guarded against this world.
Like you’re on edge in this world, aren’t you? Some of you are. You’re just on edge. You’re protective. You’re just like, man, you’re in war in this world. But you don’t have to be in war here. You can let your guard down a little bit. You can cry a little bit. Probably never in a million years would you cry in your cubicle, but you would cry walking into church because you know you’re feeling the presence of God.
It’s a place where… I mean, I was thinking back to a church gathering like this when I got saved. Actually, even before I got saved, it was in a gathering like this where I learned what it was like to be hugged by a stranger. And that was pretty weird, because they were doing the greeting thing and someone was like, “Come on…” I’m like, don’t hug me.
I didn’t grow up in a home like that. I didn’t grow up in a family like that. I mean, my home was filled with love, but it wasn’t demonstrative like that. There wasn’t a lot of “I love you,” and “Come on over son and let’s hug.” That’s not how my home was. And I walk into a church and some dude’s hugging me. Then we’re singing songs that were very different than what I was used to. The music I was used to was very vile and filled with nastiness and sin. Then I come into church and I’m singing.
This is where I learned how to let my guard down and enjoy relationship. Enjoy not only what someone could share with me, but also what I could share with others. I could learn the value of a hug or human touch on the shoulder or the laying on of hands in prayer. I learned a lot about intimacy and closeness.
The law couldn’t teach me that. Nobody could have handed me a list when I walked in the door and said, “This is how you get close.” That doesn’t work. It’s something you learn through relationship.
Legalism keeps you and me away from closeness. You have to understand this. When you choose to live in such a legalistic way—“Hey, why are you wearing that?” You just walk in and somebody’s, “Hey, why are you wearing that? We’re in church.” Bro, why am I wearing that? It’s the only thing clean in my… what do you mean, why am I wearing it? It’s all I own. Like, what? What does that mean even?
And all of a sudden, that’s the guy you want to avoid. The guy that’s asking you why you’re wearing something. Listen, just wear something when you come to church. That’s it. Just wear something, please. But you can see, if I approach you, “Why are you doing that?” and “Why are you saying that?” and “Why are you wearing that?” That does not foster relationship. Can I get an amen on that?
That’s separating us.
Sometimes you relate like God’s doing that to you. “Hey, why are you wearing that?” No, what God will do is, He’ll give you a conviction in your heart about what to wear. He’ll give you a greater love for others.
I mean, let’s say you’re wearing something that might be stumbling to someone. Like, then the Lord—like, “I’m just going to show my message. I’m going to put it on my T-shirt.” Okay. All right. It’s your T-shirt. But as you’re walking with the Lord, you find out, oh, you know what? That T-shirt is super offensive to people. It’s not helping with the gospel. You don’t even actually need anybody to tell you that. The Lord told you that. And before you know it, you don’t want to wear it anymore.
Like I think wearing a New York Yankees hat. That’s a problem.
Legalism separates us.
You know, God didn’t give leaders in the church—He didn’t give us pastors—so that we go around sniffing out every sin and trying to figure out what sin you’re in. That’s not why God gave leaders to His church. He gave leaders to His church to shepherd the flock of God, to help you get back on track.
Do leaders deal with sin? Of course we do. We have to. When it’s revealed, it needs to be dealt with biblically, honestly, and righteously, for sure. But serving in the church, enjoying a church family, it’s not about sniffing out everyone’s sin. It’s about helping people get their eyes back on the Lord. When your eyes are on the Lord, you have such a sweet life. It’s so good to enjoy Him.
As leaders, we’re here to help you grow, to help you understand the word, to teach it to you, to edify you, and to help create an environment where you can learn what it’s like to know closeness. Especially—you know—so many of us, we just didn’t have that kind of upbringing. We just didn’t live in that kind of family. But it’s a whole new thing in the Lord.
Are the law and the promises of God now in conflict? Paul says no. Because if the law could have made someone righteous, God would have given the law to make people righteous. But it is impossible to make you righteous. It has no power. It can only tell you the standard. It does not have the power. You have to agree with it. You have to follow it.
He says that we are all equal—you notice. We are all equal. We are all under the penalty of sin. All of us are. There is no law that could make us righteous. And that’s why the law is so important, as it reveals to us our sin.
That’s why I believe it’s important to use the law when you’re sharing the gospel. Now, you use it in such a way where it’s a revelation to someone about their sinfulness.
Now, you don’t have to take it and just lay it all out. Bam, bam, bam—your sin, your sin, your sin. You can do it very nicely, carefully, and kindly, as you’re talking to someone about the love of God. That’s beautiful. You’re talking about the love that Jesus showed in dying for your sins. It’s awesome.
You take them to the empty tomb and remind them that Jesus rose again from the dead. And then you work backwards and go, well, but we’ve all sinned. So why did He die and why… well, you know, “I’m not a sinner.” Okay, well, let’s just talk about that for a second. I respect your view of your life, and you don’t… but, you know, the Bible says—if we can just agree for a moment what the Bible says—the Bible… you can just take them to the Ten Commandments. You can just take them to one commandment. You don’t even have to use the whole thing.
You say, well, you know, in the Bible, it says that you shouldn’t lie. Have you ever lied in your life? “Well, absolutely not. Never.” And you’re like, you’re lying right now. So you can just have that conversation. But you know—they’ll have to admit, if it’s not lying, it’s stealing. Like, you’ll have to admit in their life at least one time, one time, they’ve crossed… remember what the law is—a revelation of the character of God. They have crossed God’s perfect, righteous law and requirements. And in that moment, they recognize, oh, okay. All right.
And you may be planting the seed. You may be watering it. Or you may be the one that gets to bring them to a place of saving faith. But it’s important you use the law because the law confines us all under sin. The law reveals to us our own failures. And when you turn your life over to Jesus, what a change takes place.
Notice now in verse 23: “But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law…” It was protective for us. “…kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.”
Therefore, verse 24, “the law was our tutor”—mark that phrase—“to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
So we first of all realized that the law was temporary and it had a temporary purpose. Actually two purposes mentioned here.
Number one, it was to guard us. It was to keep us on guard. We’ve used the illustration of a bowling alley. When your kids are bowling, what do they do? They put those guardrails up in the gutter so that when your kids are throwing the ball, the ball doesn’t go in the gutter. Those guardrails are the whole intent and purpose of getting the ball down the lane. That’s the whole point.
So the law now becomes those guardrails to get us moving forward. The law—we bump up to the left and we bump up to the right, but the whole goal is to get down the end of the lane. Number one: guarding.
But number two, the law is also a teacher or a tutor, right? We get greater instruction from the law because it’s schooling us. And what is it schooling us?
Number one, that we can’t earn God’s favor through our good works. And you’re like, well, I don’t understand. What do you mean? Well, if you choose to live under the law, in the old covenant, you had to watch the animals being sacrificed. You needed to see innocent animals die and their blood shed and offered as a sacrifice to God, which would remind you that there’s always a price for sin. And that price is for your sin. Not everyone’s sin, it’s for my sin.
It was teaching me—teaching me—there’s going to come a Lamb of God who’s going to take away the whole sins of the world. God promised it. He promised a seed through Abraham. It’s a promise. So the law even reminds me of the promise. It’s teaching me.
But more than that—this is one of those illustrations that speak right to the moment. So that word tutor is a technical term that the audience would be very familiar with.
The tutor was— in the Greek and Roman homes —a child was given over to the full authority of a tutor. This tutor was a slave employed by a Greek or Roman family. The tutor’s duty was to supervise young boys on behalf of their parents. They took their young charges to and from school, made sure they studied their lessons, trained them in obedience. They were strict teachers, disciplinarians, scolding and directing.
The role of the tutor, though, was never permanent. Because there was always that great day of deliverance, when the boy finally gained their adult freedoms.
That’s the same picture here. The law covered us while we were children. But when faith came—when the promise came—we don’t need the tutor anymore. You have freedom. You are now in that place where you have grown up.
For all of us, we were born into the new covenant because we were saved after Christ. So we look back now with eyes to learn from the law, but we didn’t need it, because God saved us after Jesus died in the new covenant.
The law says, “I’ve shown you your need. Now go to the cross.” That’s the summary.
I mean, pastors can take a Bible study and extend it—all these words—but here’s the study: the law says, “You need Jesus. Go to the cross.” That’s it. That’s all you need to know.
You come back to the law, “Well I’m going to keep—” because there are people today, you’ll hear them on the radio, you’ll see them on TV, “You’ve got to go back to the law. You’ve got to become a Jew. You’ve got to go through all the festivals. You’ve got to keep the Torah.” No you don’t.
By faith in Jesus Christ, He’s kept it all. By faith in Jesus, you walk in the power of the newness of life.
You look at your life and you go, man, I can’t believe—I live out the Bible. I even live out the parts I don’t even know. When you’re reading “covetous” now, you’re like, oh, that’s not a problem in my life. I’m glad that I’m not covetous. Or you have this thought of coveting something and the Holy Spirit inside of you says, no, don’t do that. And you go, well, why? And you know what the Bible says. The Bible says that’s not my righteous, holy standard.
Or as we learn, the Holy Spirit in you says, “We don’t do that. That’s not good for us. It doesn’t reflect God.”
Notice he says in verse 26 now—well, he says in 25, “After faith has come, we don’t need a tutor.” Verse 26: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs to His promise.”
You get all the blessings of Abraham by faith. You get everything that’s given to Abraham and his seed by faith.
In Paul’s society, there were sharp divisions. Even today, sharp divisions and walls of separation between people. These are some of them. These are some that still exist today. There are national divisions—Jew and Greek—and all kinds of countries. There’s slave or free, different segments of socioeconomic statuses in life that separate us. Male and female—that’s a big one that gets capitalized on or even tried to be erased.
And then the end says in verse 28 that you are all one in Christ Jesus. These have been wiped away by Christ Jesus. They’re all gone. No more racial lines. No more economic barriers. No more sexual distinctions. He sees us all as spiritual equals.
Now stand back for a second, for just a moment, because some will take you to this text and use it in such a way where the real distinctions have been done away with. Like, really, there’s no such thing as male or female anymore, and they’ll take you right here. Like, no, no, no, no—slow your roll here.
This is a spiritual statement, not a physical one.
You can look around the room right now, and you can say a hearty amen: there is a difference between men and women. I mean, it’s very clear. There is no ambiguity about that. So that distinction hasn’t gone away. Men are still men. Women are still women. You don’t even need the Bible to tell you that. Your eyes can tell you that. Science can tell you that. DNA can tell you that.
So this isn’t an erasing of what country you came from, your nationality. It doesn’t erase the color of your skin or how you think or what neighborhood you work in. What Christ does erase is all of this divisive nonsense that has us looking up or down to people or judging or criticizing.
We are all one in Christ no matter what our background is. That’s what he’s saying. That’s the grace of God. That’s the importance that we, as we come to the Scriptures, we’re like, yes Lord, look what you’ve done.
This room is representative of that. You know that. To think of all the differences in this room, all the backgrounds, all the nationalities, all the languages. I just think of one little thing. If we would have given you—and we didn’t—but let’s just say we gave everybody that walked in the door a piece of paper and said, “Write on that piece of paper the worst thing you’ve ever done in your past. And then turn it in because we’re going to read every single one of them in your church service.”
That’s all the sermon is. “Stole, lied, whatever.” And there’s going to be some bad stuff. If we still lived in that way, we probably wouldn’t have met each other. We certainly wouldn’t have ever been in this room singing together, hugging. We would never be together.
But in Christ, look what He has done. Look how far He’s brought you.
Even those of you today, it’s like, well, you know, I didn’t really have a bad past… I don’t have anything. I’ll give you a blank piece of paper. And what God has done in your heart has made you far less judgmental because now you know the grace of God—how much He kept you from. He kept you from that stuff.
Some of us, we didn’t listen to God. So He delivered us out of that stuff. It doesn’t matter. We’re all one in Christ.
At the cross, who’s better than anyone else? Nobody. None of us. It doesn’t matter what we bring to the table. It doesn’t matter how much money we have. It doesn’t matter. It says by faith—it’s the great equalizer.
And Jesus just says to you today, “Come.” Just come to Him. You can hear the invitation: “Come to Me. Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I’ll give you rest.”
You don’t have to pay for your salvation. You don’t have to earn it.
I think for some of you believers here today, you had a season where you were walking with the Lord, and then you had a season when you weren’t walking with the Lord. And it really, really hurt because you got into really bad things. But now you’re back.
Now what do you need to do? You need to keep your eyes on the Lord. Keep going forward. You can’t look back.
“Yeah, but you don’t understand. I live with my past every day.” I know you do. But you live more by faith than you do by your past. God doesn’t define you by your past.
Like the prodigal son coming home—what did dad do? Threw him a party. “Welcome home.” I’m sure there were some stories and I’m sure there are some discussions, but I know that the prevailing emotion in that home was, “Glad you’re back, son. Glad you’re back. Missed you. Man, I didn’t know if you were going to make it. Didn’t know what was going on. But you’re back and I’m glad you made it.”
That’s faith.
It was the law—if you look at the parable of the prodigal son—it was the law that was in the other son. You see that man? He had two prodigal sons, not one. One left and one stayed, but they both left the love of their father.
So it’s time to come home. It’s time to be home. To come into that place where there’s unity and beauty—not by a list of external rules, legalism, but rather by faith.
You’re Abraham’s seed. You’re an heir of the promises of God. Just come and be a part of the family. God loves you. Knows your needs.
And today we get to celebrate that through communion. We get to remember all that God has done.
So Father, we pray as you shift our hearts and our thinking just a bit, in thinking of what you’ve done in our lives, the family you’ve put together. And just to think this little church is only a small little speck of the entire church around the world. And we get to be a part of it. We are a part of it.
And forgive us, God, for those divisive lines that we have drawn. Forgive us, Lord, for prejudging or living in a hypocritical way or as a Pharisee. A lot of modern-day Pharisees among us today, and a lot of that Pharisaical spirit seems to be in all of us.
And so we just pray, God, that you would continue that work and that transformation of our lives from glory to glory and strength to strength. That you would have your way with us as we yield to you and we remember your broken body and the blood that was shed for us. We’re so thankful for grace. And again, we lavish in your love and your grace and mercy today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
