Life is Grace not Law: Part 1
Galatians 3:25-29 · Roger Henderson · Jun 20, 2010
Galatians (2010), No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492627125481

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to continue on in Galatians. And I'd actually like to read, kind of back up a little bit, and cover a little bit of stuff that what Randy did kind of overlap. But I think you'll see it really, it's good to do that so we can kind of put it in context. So I was hoping for a volunteer to read Galatians chapter 3, starting in verse 22. So Galatians 3, 22-29. Lindy?

But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Thanks, Lindy.

Okay, so today we're going to be covering just actually the first three verses, 25, 26, and 27, but I'm actually going to start back in verse 23 to kind of get the context So this is leading into a section talking about some wonderful possessions of the believer, starting in verse 27. So let's just go back and cover this a little bit already with Randy. Let's look at verse 23.

It says, but before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shoved to faith, which was later to be revealed. So the faith in this section, the faith, is talking about the whole body of truth in the church age. You know, there's actually a great verse in Jude. Let's turn to Jude for a second. Whenever you see the faith, and then many times it will have the definite article there. It actually has it there, but it hasn't been brought across in the translation. It's actually the faith.

And in Jude it talks about this faith, which is been revealed in the church age. And in Jude chapter, there's only one chapter in Jude. It's actually verse 3. It says, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt it necessary to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints.

So this is a body of truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and faith in him. So this is kind of contrasting. It says before that total revelation came, you were kept custody. And this word, we were kept custody, is actually a military term. It's the idea of guarding or keeping guard as in a garrison. So the law was keeping us guarding us or imprisoning us. I'd like to ask you, Lindy, your translation of verse 23. Could you read your translation of verse 23? You had another... Before this day came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

Good, good. I think it's very descriptive. The law wasn't just a passive thing. It was keeping us in custody, locking us up, guarding us, which is in a very pretty picture. And what's interesting is that this word here, I'm not going to pronounce it, but basically it's a military term. It's used a whole lot. It's used a couple times in a positive sense.

In Philippians it talks about the peace of God guarding our hearts. And in 1st Peter it talks about the power of God guarding us. And there's one other usage, and it's actually in Corinthians, talks about the guarding of Damascus. So it's used kind of sparingly in scripture. But we were guarded under the law. And I have a little picture of a guard here and a guard shack. And that's kind of a picture of what the law is doing to us.

I'm kind of setting you up for this transition we're going to see in verse 25. And the contrast is that now in the church age, In Galatians, just turn over to Galatians chapter 5, we're going to see that we're no longer under law. Galatians 5. Can I get someone to read Galatians 5, verse 18?

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Right. So the life under grace is being led by the Spirit, not under the law. But before faith came, before this body of truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, we're kept captive. And you could also argue that before a person comes to know Christ, he's kept under some law system, right? It doesn't have to be mosaic law. He's developed some kind of system to live by.

I'm going to be a good person. I mean, that's where I was. I said, well, I'm as good as I can be. As an unbeliever, I'm as good as I can be. Which wasn't saying, but it sounded pretty good as a natural man. I'm as good as I can be. God said I have to accept what that is. Kind of, you know. strange logic, but it seemed plausible at the time, not having much interface with scripture, even though I attended a church and was baptized, and I never actually read the Bible. Anyway, that's a story for another day. But I'm very thankful the Lord showed me that I was a sinner in need of a savior.

OK, so now the second part of this verse is the idea of being shut up. And this is another term of enclosure, or captivity, or imprisonment. We were shut up, enclosed on all sides. And actually, there's a picture here. There's kind of a very interesting picture in the Gospel of Luke. And let's look at that, about this enclosing, being shut up, being captive, without any way out. 5 and verse 6, and then we'll read a little bit, get the context here, Luke chapter 5. Could someone read verses in chapter 5 verses 4, 5, and 6? When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But I will do as you say and let down the nets. When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. So the same word here, shut up, is translated enclosed. They enclosed, and that's a little picture of the fishermen, that net enclosing those fish. That's what the law was doing to us. Whether it's the Mosaic law or some law that enclosed us, prevented us from coming to faith in Christ. So it's not a very pretty picture.

We're in custody, we're enclosed, shut up to the faith. And I like the Weiss translation, which I use. It says, but before the aforementioned fate came, under the law we were constantly being guarded, being shut up with a view to the fate about to be revealed. So two aspects, we're shut up and we're in custody under the law.

So now let's go on to verse 24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. So we're going to see another aspect of what the law is doing here. The law has become our tutor, our guardian, and you know this is a very interesting word.

Heidagagas, and Wiest has this, he has a definition for this word. And this word is the idea of, the word designates a slave employed in the Greek and Roman families who had general charge over a boy in the years from 6 to 16. He watched over his outward behavior and took charge over him whenever he went from home, as for instance, to school. So what kind of picture do you get here of this paedagogos?

What kind of Do you really get the idea of a tutor, I guess is one of my questions. I struggle with that. Remember, this is a translation of that Greek word. Does tutor really capture you think that, or do you get a different idea of tutor? With that definition, what kind of picture do you get of this person that's guiding this boy around? I wonder if the boy was trying to lose the I can just see young boys trying to lift me up.

He can do what he wants to do. More of a guard. Didn't he make sure he got to school? He did, he did. I like the word guardian a little stronger. Some have actually had policemen. I mean, you know? And to be fair, there might have been some tutoring aspects in there. Some people have believed that this slave actually may drill the boy in his studies. I don't know. You could argue it was a slave that will educate him. I don't know.

And that's something. But it's interesting that a nanny, yeah. And our nannies, they may be well, they might be able to help as a tutor. But a tutor seems to me to be, I think guardian, to my mind, is a little bit And even go farther, maybe even a policeman.

You're going to go to school. You're going to be here. Boom, boom, boom. And this is what you're going to do. So it's trying to give a picture of the law. And I think that's the whole intent here. We're trying to get a hold of what. So another thing to observe here, do you notice here it says, therefore, the law has become our tutor. And then it has to lead us. It's in italics. What does that mean when you read your Bible, when you see something in italics? What does that tell you about those words in italics? Right.

And actually, my understanding is that, and this is where this word is so key. Paedagogos is so key. They looked at Paedagogos and they said, well, and they kind of want the tutor out, it seems to me. And they said, well, you know, that tutor is And so that is derived, my understanding is that Talidus is derived from Tudor. But you can read it as, therefore, the law has become our Tudor to Christ, or unto Christ. So actually, let's just go down here. So here's how Weiss translates that. the very bottom.

So the law has become our guardian, he doesn't need his tutor, until Christ. So what picture do you get here? Is the law telling us about Christ, do you think? Or is it doing something else? Pointing us to Christ. So how is it pointing us to Christ? showing us we're a sinner. Okay, okay, I like that. So, in the law directly, we have the very character of God in the law. The law is holy, righteous, and just.

But as far as information about the Lord Jesus, now you have to say, okay, there's more than the Mosaic law, there's the greater law, the Pentateuchs are the books of the law, right? So you could argue in there that there are things in the Pentateuchs that point toward Christ, right?

Sam? Well, I think, excuse me, when John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, no one would have understood that if they wouldn't have had the law and the Passover and all the feasts that led up to that point. And I think you can go through every feast that the Jewish celebrate and, you know, I've heard sermons Christ is in those feasts. Yeah, and I would agree. There's an aspect there.

Let's turn to a passage in Romans. Romans chapter 3. I'm just going to read verses 19 and 20 in Romans chapter 3. now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin so it seems to me that Argument for what's being said here is that the knowledge of sin is going to come. Therefore, the law has become expressing the knowledge of sin until Christ comes, or until Christ.

So the idea of Tudor, and people have argued that, exactly. There are pictures of Christ. But is that what a law system or the law was showing us? I think it was showing man that he couldn't keep it. And actually, if you look at this pedagogos, he was a slave driver. That boy was going to be there on time. So that's not a very pleasant picture.

And the law isn't a very pleasant picture, because the law is relentless. It's holy, righteous, and just, and there's no wavering. There isn't little sins and big sins. They're all sins. So the law is a taskmaster. And it's unto Christ. Okay, so that's kind of setting up where I want to go here.

And just actually back in Galatians 3.19, let's just look at that for one second, Galatians 3.19, it talks about, it's kind of a similar thing, until Christ comes.

Galatians 3.19 says, Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed, Christ, should come to whom the promise had been made. So the law was there, guarding us, enclosing us, a guardian over us or a tutor, until Christ. So that's the review. Randy covered parts of this, but I thought it was just good to kind of go back and look at it again. So any thoughts, I'm going to go to our first new verse for today. So basically, but now, here's the good news.

But now faith has come. We are no longer under a tutor. So once again, and it says, now faith has come or haven't come. In the Aorist tense, it's a fact. It's a past point fact. And faith again is a whole body of truth in the church age. We are no longer under a tutor. So I'm kind of translating tutor slash guardian to kind of cover all the bases here. And that's the law. We're no longer under the law.

And that we're no longer It's used in scripture in different contexts. One context is coming up in Galatians a little bit later on. It says in Galatians chapter 4, it says, But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Actually, that's not verse 7.

Galatians 4.7 says, therefore you are no longer a slave but a son. So that's the good news. We're no longer a slave but a son. And a son is an heir through Jesus Christ. So the good news is we're no longer a slave. No longer a slave to the law.

And then in Romans 6.14 it says we're not under law but under grace. So I have just a little summary here of what we kind of have summarized in the previous verses here. It says, we were kept custody by the law. We were shut to the faith by the law. The law was this tutor or guardian until Christ would come. So we're now under a new operating principle.

We're no longer under law, but we're under grace, as Romans 6.14 says. So that's the new principle of God operating with man under grace and not law.

And that's wonderful news because here's all the things that the law would do to you. Unmovable, unrelenting, So now, starting in verse 26, we're going to see, in 26-29, there's a set of truths about the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like, we kind of come here and it says, here's what the law does, it keeps you in custody, it shuts you up, it guards over you, covers over you, but now you're under grace. And here's all the wonderful things about your life in grace. So we're going to start and do three of those this morning, and then we'll finish the other four next week.

So under grace, the first point is, you are all sons of God. And this word all is this word pas in the Greek, and it means none excluded. There's not one single believer that's not a son. And sons, and that's both male and female. We're all sons of God. And R is this word ami, and it means the state in which something continuously exists. So we aren't just sons when we're good boys. We're sons when we're bad boys, too.

And this would be called a position of truth. It's our position, right? We may act differently in our condition. We may act like bad boys in our condition. We may act like sons. But positionally, we are a son of God, or sons of God. And in this construction, Sons of God identifies all us. That's our name or that's who we are. And of course, how do we obtain the Sons of God?

We just came out looking at all these law principles. We don't keep some set of rules. No, it's through faith or by means of faith. It's by means of faith in Christ Jesus. There's just several verses here. The phrase through faith is used. If you do a little search in your computer you can type in through faith and you'll get maybe a page or two of occurrences in the New Testament. So I picked out some of those. So let's just look through some of those. So these are some of the things that happen through faith.

The first one is in Romans 3, verse 22. May I get someone to read, actually we've read part of it. 3, 21, and 22. Yeah, Bonnie, if you can read it. But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. So here, through faith, we have we obtain the righteousness of God.

And then actually in Galatians 3.14, which we covered earlier, we have the promises of the Spirit through faith.

And then let's look at Ephesians 2.18.

Ephesians 2.18. Okay, someone to read 17 and 18 there?

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Actually I was looking back and it's actually chapter 2, sorry. That was very good, what you read was good too. It's good over here and it's good over here. 218. For through him we both have our access.

Actually I'm not sure that's even right. Okay, well I'm a little bit messed up here so I apologize. Actually, it's supposed to be, you have been saved through faith. Anyway, I messed up here. Oh, I know what it is. It's 2.8. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself is a gift of God. So you need to amend your handout there. That should be 2.8, not 2.18. And I try to check those, but sometimes it doesn't work. All right.

So that's the first truth that we see in these 26 through 29. So the next truth, which is a biggie, and this is one that we just talked about, we're going to talk about last week. For all of you who are baptized into Christ Jesus. Okay, so you guys listened to Vern last week, so you should be able to answer this question, no problem, right? This is a wonderful truth. I mean, if you haven't spent time contemplating this truth, it's just... So what does it mean to be baptized into Christ?

Okay. It's another... Okay. Keep going. Any other synonyms you want to put in there? Is water any part of this? No. Okay, so we're gonna go exactly into that. Okay, so the word is baptized as baptizo, to dip, to immerse, and it was used among the Greeks to signify the dyeing of a garment.

I remember how, I'm sure you guys who've been here a while, and Stan hasn't been here, how Malloy would do, he would come in, sometimes he'd spill it, but he'd come in here and he'd have underneath there, he'd have a cup of dye, he'd have a white cloth, And he would say, we're going to explain what baptism is. And I'm going to baptize this cloth. And he'd take his dye, his blue dye, and he'd dip it into the thing and it would come out and it would be blue. That cloth has been baptized. It's been immersed and it's changed. Now, you could argue, well, I can find something that would remove that dye, Roger. I can go down and get something, you know. white out, not white out, but you know, bleach it out.

Well, this is a permanent change, so it's a permanent change. And it's important here to realize also that, and it's something to look for, if you go through and if you have your helps and you look at the tense of the verbs and things, you'll find out that whenever you have baptized in the In the passive voice, and I haven't looked at every occurrence, but almost always it denotes the baptism by the spirit, not water baptism. That's one of the ways you can recognize that it's talking about baptism by the Holy Spirit. So basically, this is a reality. And it's actually in the aorist tense, it's aorist, indicative, passive. It's a reality. It's a past. It's a point fact. It's reality, it's true of every believer.

And water baptism follows spirit baptism as a picture of what has occurred in spirit baptism. So when we talk about being baptized into Christ, we're talking about baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you know, there's some folks that teach, they have all kinds of things that indicate baptism. You know, if you go into some churches, they'll ask you, have you been baptized? You know, stand. They'll ask you a question, walk in the door. Do you have the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they'll go off and do some kind of thing and this and that?

Scripture doesn't talk about that, so I can see. It just basically says, all of you who were baptized into Christ Jesus have been closed with Christ Jesus. Okay, so now, On the last page, this is a chart that Hal did. Actually, it's only part of a chart that he did. So, I'd kind of like to walk through this. I think he did a great job and really valuable for you guys to have.

The Holy Spirit baptizes or immerses us into the person and work of Christ. So, for starters, what's the difference between the person and work of Christ? What would you say In that term, I think it's kind of really important to kind of recognize, because things will happen, and Scripture will talk about something that happened in relation to the believer in terms of the person of Christ and the work of Christ. So what's the difference? And we're going to explain it here, but hopefully you haven't read ahead. Or if you know it, that's good too. So what's the difference between being baptized in the person of Christ and in the work of Christ? And if you don't know, we can... The work of Christ is what He did on the cross. Excellent. Excellent.

So we've got that part. So the person of Christ is that, you know, it says in the Gospels, I in you and you in me, there's this union between Christ and believers. So that's the person of Christ. So there's a two-fold aspect. Not only are we in union with Christ, we're in union with His work. And that's really critical, right? Because His work on the cross freed us from our sin. So it's important to be in union with the person of Christ and His work.

And we're going to see the two divisions here in this to follow. that we are baptized, placed in union with, and I think that thinking about baptism, you know, baptism, talk to some people and they get all, they think of the water, and that's, there's a picture of that, but that can be confusing, but thinking about this union, this living union is really, you know, I think so much, so helpful in understanding what baptism is all about. Placing the union into the person of Christ. Spirit baptism, immersion, being immersed or dipped into Christ is where the believer is put into a vital union with the person of Christ and never ever taken out. God has put Christ in us and we in Him.

So I like to think, you know, in the example, I've used this before, you know, we have Powell's example of the blue dye. Or imagine if you go up, one time I had an opportunity to share the baptismal ceremony This would be like, if you're a candidate for baptism, you go up and they put you in the water and they take you out.

Well, in spirit baptism, they put you in and you don't get to come out. It doesn't change. You're put in there and you're never taken out. It's a permanent union. So I don't recommend that for water baptism, that wouldn't be too good. Maybe we just shouldn't let people, maybe we just shouldn't allow to see them come back up. Maybe they should go down and then come back up. Okay, next point.

In this union we share his life. We have a new or divine nature. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. We have the very life of Christ. That's why baptism, or this union with Christ, is so important. A third point. Our old union with Adam is broken forever. So we've broken our old union with Adam and now have a new union with Christ.

So that's the part of being baptized in the person of Christ. now into the work of Christ. And as Ruth pointed out, it's his work on the cross. And there's like five aspects of that. In spirit baptism, we are immersed, identified with the work of Christ, and never taken out. And this is where we talk so much about identification. We're identified with him and his work on the cross. His first work is his death. He died. We died with him.

Co-crucifixion. You know, it's really kind of neat if you go through concordance or some kind of help, and you go look at the words, you'll see that the word is not just crucifixion, it's co-crucifixion. Co-burial. I mean, it's just so neat. You say, wait a minute. He just doesn't say that Christ crucified by himself. Like Ren said, it's a crowded cross. And that's so wonderful to realize. We were with him. We were co-crucified with him. In his burial, he was buried, we were buried with him. Co-burial. in his resurrection. He was raised, we were raised, for resurrection. In his ascension, he ascended, we ascended with him.

In his seating, he is seated in the heavenlies and we are seated in the heavenlies. So that's where we get our little picture that people like that little placard that Miles has. If you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, Keep looking down. People say, well, keep looking up for the Lord to come. No. We're seated with Him. We keep looking down.

And actually, there's one additional one I didn't, you know, Hal tried to use every, he was a good steward of of white space on a piece of paper. He didn't want to see any white piece of white space go to waste. He tried to jam everything. So there's actually one additional point is that we are also, Scripture also talks about, uses the word baptized.

We're baptized into the body of Christ, the church. So there's another baptism, which would be point C, which I didn't put on here, which is baptized into the body of Christ. And that's in several passages in Corinthians and in John. So hopefully now you can answer what spirit baptism is, right? So the last verse for today is the last part of this verse. The first part, for all of you who are baptized into Christ Jesus, have clothed yourselves with Christ. So that's the third, all of you have clothed yourselves with Christ.

This is kind of a very descriptive word here. Have clothed is enduo, signifies to enter into, to get into, to put on something, to put on a garment. And actually in Mark, it's like John the Baptist, He was clothed in camel skin. That was his clothing. And in Luke there, it talks about being clothed with power from on high.

And once again, this is another reality and fact. It's in the Aoris tense again. And actually, it's Aoris middle, which has the idea of being for our benefit. So we're clothed with Christ, and it's for your benefit. So that's the outfit we wear. We are clothed with the very person of Christ.

And let's just look here at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10. And it talks of a very similar kind of idea here. Let's just read verse 10. And having put on or clothed yourself, having put on the new self who is being renewed in true knowledge according to the image, the one who created him. And actually, OK, I'm sorry. I have it wrong. Actually, let's look down at verse 12.

Let's look at Colossians 3.12. I had a hard time this morning not getting the right verses in the right place here.

Colossians 3.12.

Actually, that was put on there, but another one is even better here. Alright, in verse 12. And also, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness. All right. And I like this verse here in 2 Corinthians. So let's turn to 2 Corinthians. And this is going to talk about another aspect of this clothing, how people see us. And this kind of came to mind as I was studying through this. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verses 2 and 3. I'll just go ahead and read that.

It says, and you are our letters, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifest that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, and written not in ink, but with the spirit of a living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart.

So this clothing is something that a believer has, as one of the words Jesus describes. He is clothed with the very person of Christ. Now he can act contrary to that, but that's what he has from the Lord. So next we're going to finish up. There's basically four more truths about the believer. Possessions that he had under grace through faith.

So any questions or thoughts before we close? Thank you so much for this day Lord, and thank you for the marvelous truths we have about who we are in Christ and what you've accomplished in each believer, Lord, and that you have placed us into a permanent union with the Lord Jesus Christ, never to be removed from that union, never taken out, never to lose that permanent union with our Savior. We're thankful for that, Lord. We pray that we would see that and that would guide us as we walk daily in our condition on this earth and we would see ourselves if you want us to see us in your beloved Son. We ask it in his name. Amen.