Galatians for Beginners, this is lesson
number eight if you're checking your notes there, lesson number eight. And we
will attempt to cover Galatians 3:23 all the way to chapter 4:31. Got to have an
objective, right? That's going to be our objective. Okay, so in our last lesson,
Paul the Apostle was explaining to his readers that God's faith system for
salvation was a basic teaching of Scripture. He wasn't introducing anything
new. Salvation was always based on faith. He also summarizes how both the law
system and the faith system, how they work together to bring us to Christ, and
the end result of that, the law system and faith system working together
to bring us to Christ, what happens when we finally arrived there. So in chapter 3,
verse 23, in these verses he's going to use the word faith in two different ways,
and you need to understand this if you're going to understand this passage.
The two ways that he uses the word faith: he uses one form of the word faith, which
means "to believe". I have faith in you, I believe you, I trust you. Faith in the
sense of trusting and believing. And then the other way that faith is used in the
Greek, with the article, refers to "the faith", or a body of teaching, or the
gospel, or the revelation of God's promise. So there's faith, I trust, I
believe. And then there's "the faith", which refers to a body of teaching or
doctrine, or the gospel. If you understand the difference between those two, then as
you read this passage it'll make a whole lot more sense. Let's start verse 23
he says, "But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut
up to the faith which was later to be revealed." He says, before faith, belief
faith, trust faith, before belief in Jesus resulting in salvation arrived, he says,
the law served as a restrainer; to guide, to mitigate, until the faith,
meaning the gospel, the teaching of Jesus, was revealed. Verse 24, he goes on
and says, "Therefore, the law has become our tutor, to lead us to Christ so that
we may be justified by faith." We need to understand the idea of the social
custom of the era. Tutors were usually well-educated slaves who were
responsible for the care and education of rich young Roman boys, Roman and Greek
boys. They were not the parents, but these tutors had the necessary authority from
the parents to discipline and to train those boys, those children. When manhood
came, the child was released from the tutor and he was free to receive his
inheritance and to be emancipated. That's how it
would work. Paul makes this analogy in reference to the law and how it trained
us and discipled God's people until they were ready for sonship and maturity, and
the inheritance promised by the Father in heaven. What this law has prepared
us for is to receive the promises, and to receive them how? Well, to receive them by
a system of faith, belief in Christ. When he says, so that we may be
justified by faith, well he's not talking about the faith, the doctrine. He's
saying we'll be justified by faith, by believing, by trusting. Verse 25, "But
now that faith has come we are no longer under a tutor." Now that, which faith is
it? Well, in the Greek it's now "the faith", meaning the gospel, the information
now that that has come, now that that's been revealed, it is the sign that the
tutor, which is the law, the law system, the tutor is no longer necessary. It has
served its purpose. You see the analogy between the social custom
of the tutor training young boys unto emancipation and the law being the
tutor of believers until they were mature enough to understand the gospel
and to be set free and receive the inheritance. We know what the inheritance
is, right? Eternal life. Alright, so the final summary and
results of God's work will be explained in verses 26 to the end he says, "For you
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Again, which
faith here, through doctrine or through believing? Well, it's through believing.
The principle is summarized, the essence of the promise
was that all would become sons of God and inherit the blessings that come with
the position of being a son of God, son or daughter of God. That promise is
obtained through the faith system and that faith system was originally
revealed to Abraham. The gospel reveals the one who demonstrated perfect
faith, obtained all the blessings for us and in whom we have our faith. And that
should be Jesus. Verse 27, the expression of this faith is now explained, "For all
of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." now
Abraham, if we remember the story of Abraham, Abraham expressed his faith
beginning with circumcision and ending with the offer of his own son Isaac.
We know that Abraham, he wasn't perfect, he failed in many ways, but his intention
was always to remain faithful, that was his intention. Our expression of faith
begins not with circumcision, our expression of faith begins with baptism,
and it ends with the offering of ourselves as living sacrifices in
service and purity. We don't offer somebody else the most
precious thing, we offer ourselves, that's what Paul's talking about in Romans
chapter 12, verse 1, when he says "I adjure you brethren, by the mercies of God to
offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." We believe in Jesus, right. And that first expression of faith is our
death and burial in the waters of baptism, then our ongoing expression of
faith is the offering of ourselves every single day to God in a variety of ways.
Now faith in the Bible has three components. It was interesting that Dayton,
Sunday night when I wasn't here, mentioned this idea, is part of this lesson,
faith has three components. Biblical faith it has the component of trust, the
component of obedience, and the component of acknowledgement. And the problem in
many people's theology today is that they see faith in the Bible as merely
acknowledgment, meaning, I believe it's true that Jesus is God. I acknowledge that
that is true. And I believe that to be true, but they leave out the trusting
part and the obeying part. Biblical faith, the faith that saves you, it has
all three components working. Abraham's faith, Paul says, is the model for this
kind of biblical faith. What did he do? He trusted God to provide for
him, he trusted Him. He also acknowledged God's presence in his life, and as we
know, he obeyed God's directive. His intention was to obey and to obey
perfectly. Now, he didn't always do this. He didn't always do the will of God, but
the purpose of his will was to do it, and thus, he was considered righteous. This is
why only God can judge, because only God can see the effort of the heart. Only God
sees what nobody else sees. Some people say, in order to have
Abraham's faith, do I have to offer my firstborn. I don't think I could
ever do that. The point is, if your faith develops to the point that
Abraham's faith developed, you could do it, if you had to. God doesn't ask you to
do it, but you could if your faith got to that point. What did Jesus
say, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to
this mountain, be thrown. Well if you had the faith that he requires of you, you
could. In verse 28 he describes the result of this faith system, he says,
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." That's the result of
the faith system, unity of believers through Jesus Christ. Men are still men,
women are still women, but now through this system of faith they can all have a
relationship with God and with each other on a spiritual level, which was not
possible before. This verse has been so mangled in our day and age. This verse
does not free the slaves, they were still slaves after. It doesn't give women
authority in the church, it doesn't eliminate cultural differences. We are
still what we are, and we still play the roles that we do. What it does do is
reveal that in God's eyes all those united to Christ are of equal value and
they are the recipients of equal blessings. The free person and the
slave, they're both equal in value to God. The male and the female, they're both
the same value to God, same reward, to God. That was the point.
That's the result of the faith system, that all become one in Christ. The
purpose of God's plan, what was it? He says, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise." God fulfills His original
promise to Abraham. And what was that? That all nations are blessed through the
seed of Abraham. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the seed of Abraham. For the Jews, who
knew the scriptures, the revelation wasn't that the Gentiles would be saved,
because if you understood the Old Testament, you understood that the
prophets often talked about the Gentiles being saved, being brought in. The
revelation, to the Jews, was that they would be united to the Gentiles, to form
one single saved group, that was the news to the Jews. And many of them were not
happy about that. They like the idea of the exclusive cultural
advantages that they had. Yes, you're the Gentiles, yeah they can be saved. Let them
go to their own churches. Oh, you mean they're going to be in our church? You mean, a
Gentile will be an elder in the church and have authority over a Jew? That's the part they couldn't take. So in this very long passage Paul has one objective,
and deals with three issues. His objective is to show that the promise
made to Abraham in all of its forms: sonship, righteousness, blessed this,
all of these were obtained through a system of faith, in the same
way that all of the other spiritual blessings are apprehended. The faith
system has always been the way that God has transferred blessings from Himself
to man, always the faith system, always. In this context he explains three things:
number one, the faith system is scriptural. It was what God required
of Abraham, and it is what God requires of everyone who was to come to Him, both Jew and Gentile. Both Jew and Gentile had to come
to the Lord through faith, there is no other system. Number two, the purpose of
the law, he explains the scope and purpose of the law, why God gave it and
what it could and could not do. Why did He give it? To prepare us for the coming
of Christ. And you couldn't change God's faith system or make men righteous
through the law. He explained that the purpose of the law was to prepare us
for the coming of christ and the preaching of the gospel. It couldn't make
you a better person, as a matter of fact, it showed you that you weren't a good
person. And it revealed to you what were the consequences of that. And
number three, how law and faith worked together. It's never one or the other, it's both of
them working together in harmony. He summarizes how the law worked to bring
us to Christ and then the result of the faith system. What's the result of the
faith system? Well, personal righteousness. I'm okay with God, why? Because I believe
in Jesus, that's why. Not because I get everything right, but because He got
everything right on my behalf. And also, the faith system provides unity and
Christ for everyone, regardless of culture or sex or social position,
whatever. Everybody is in the same unit. So we move on to chapter 4, and
the opening section of chapter 4 has two purposes: one, to summarize the
transformation spoken of before, from slave to son; and also, to provide a
bridge to the next large section, that's going to deal with the idea of freedom.
That's how Paul writes. He explains some things - he's
explaining, he's explaining, and then he builds a bridge. He uses a word
or an image or something like that, and then he crosses that bridge
and begins to discuss in detail the thing that he bridged to. And
he'll talk about that in detail, and then he'll pop up another image or another keyword, and he'll build a bridge with that key word
to his next idea. So that's exactly what he is going to do here. T hese two
ideas - the idea of the transformation from slave to son, that
idea, and the idea of freedom. He doesn't discuss it like I do in my notes,
number one, ABC, number two - he doesn't write like that. We - I write like
that, Western mindset is like that. It helps understand,
break down the ideas. He doesn't write like that. He takes the idea of sonship
and freedom, and he - it's like knitting, he knits these two ideas
together into one seamless narrative. If we understand the two
strands, it'll help us understand what he's talking about. All right, so as a way
to kind of prepare you for chapter four. So let's take a look at chapter four. He
says, "Now I say as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a
slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under the guardians and
managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children,
were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world." You
remember what he talked about before, sonship, and the tutor, the tutor
training the child, well, now he's getting into it, now he's explaining
this idea. And people understand, because this was the norm in that society - tutors
that train children until they were emancipated. What does he say,
he refused the idea of guardians that a son is placed under, he highlights that
even if the son is to inherit everything, he is no better than a slave while he's
under the tutor. Now the elemental things that he talks about, those are the ABCs
of knowledge, the physical applications and restrictions of the law regarding
food and sacrifice and social customs, and God's sons should
live above these kinds of things, he said, but until Christ came we were subject to them instead. Then in verse 4 and 5, he says, "But
when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman under the
law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive
the adoption as sons. Jesus comes into the world, He comes in the flesh
to suffer, to submit Himself to all the same restrictions under the law,
so that he could offer a perfect sacrifice of Himself and pay the debt
caused by the law, and thus free man from the bondage and the tutelage and the
tutoring of the law. We'e under the law, he says, and while you're under the law,
you got rules, you got Commandments. And the learning part,
is learning how to obey those things. And you find out, if you're under the law,
that you can never obey those things. If it wasn't for Jesus, you're always being
to the law and you'd end up as a fatality of the law, end up condemned.
He says, but Jesus comes along, He lives like you, in the flesh, He lives under the
rules, under the laws, but the difference is He obeys the law, He fulfills all the
things, every requirement of the law. He fulfills every - thou shall not steal, thou
shalt not commit adultery - He fulfills everything on our behalf.
It's as if He learned and performed all the lessons of the tutor and thus
fulfilled, on our behalf, all the requirements of the tutor, so that we
could have freedom from the tutor. Another way of saying it,
he comes and he writes our final exam and he gets a hundred percent, and we get
credit for it. Just a simple way of explaining what he's trying to - or what
he is doing here. Verse 6 and 7, he says, "Because you're sons, God has sent forth
the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Therefore, you are no
longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then, an heir through God." Once Christ
has accomplished the removal of the tutor and brought us into sonship, we are
prepared to receive the inheritance of the sons of God. And what is that? Well, he
says, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who brings us into mature intimacy with our
Father. In the end, people say, what is heaven going to be like? I mean, I
don't know, but from what I'm reading, from what I'm reading, it seems to
me that heaven is going to be my relationship with God, with no
interference from sin. That's heaven. That you should know God and His Son Jesus
Christ. Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that you should know God
and His Son Jesus Christ." Wait a minute, where are the harps? Where's the good food?
Where are the 72 virgins or whatever? So he says, in one sense this
is the nature of eternal life, you in a relation, an intimate
relationship, with God. And that just keeps on going. Why? Because God's eternal.
Remember when you first dated your significant other, at the very beginning.
Couldn't get enough, right? Stayed on the phone. Oh dear, that first date.
That first thing - you couldn't believe that such a wonderful person was there.
You're on the phone, okay, good night, no, you say goodnight. I love you, I love you, too. Okay.
Goodnight. Goodnight. You hang up first. No, you hang up. You know what I'm saying.
We can't get enough. We can't get enough. Imagine the type of relationship we will
have with God when sin is not in the way. Alright, so keeping that in mind, that's
the the essence of our inheritance, our gift. What does he say? How
do we get - how do we start getting to that? He says, you received the
Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do? He brings us into that intimate
relationship with God. He's the one that does that. Paul repeats that the one who has
this relationship with God, through the Spirit, made possible by Jesus, that
person is no longer a slave, that person is a son. Big difference. The pizza guy comes to my house. Yeah and I greeted, hi, how are you?
Thanks for the pizza. Here's your money, here's your tip. That's it. I'm
friendly. It's good. But my son, we sit down to eat the food together, we enjoy
the evening together. Two men, same pizza, same house, big difference in the
relationship. In the second section, or in the next section, Paul is
going to continue this line of thinking, but he's going to discuss the issue in
the light of freedom, rather than in the light of sonship. That's what he does, he
explains the same thing over again using another image. Freedom, he
says, we'll say, comes by sonship. How do you gain sonship? Being a child
of God. Through faith. Now he's going to say, well, if you're a son, you're
free. How does freedom come? By the same way, through faith. Having
established how they have obtained their sonship and thus their freedom, he
admonishes them for abandoning this precious gift and returning to bondage
and slavery. In other words, these guys want to go back to the tutor and he's
saying, are you out of your mind? You've been set free from - you've got your
inheritance through the spirit, and you want to go back to the tutor?
Now he switches the reason, he switches from sonship to freedom is that the idea
of freedom highlights how ridiculous it is to go back to the tutor. Verse
8, "However, at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those, which
by nature, are no gods." He reminds the Gentiles at Galatia that although the
Jews were slaves kept under the law, they, the Gentiles, were slaves to idols, which
was worse. The law was preparing, at least, the law was preparing the Jews for
Christ, the Gentiles, their idols didn't leave them anywhere, just to death. In
verse 9 to 11 he says, "But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known
by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless
elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe
days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored
over you in vain." He rebukes them for desiring to return to the type of
enslavement, to basic things, that characterized both Jewish and Gentile
past. And he's afraid that his work may not have been for anything. I can,
believe me, I can relate to this. And anyone who has, kind of, been in the
church for a long time or served in some capacity in the church - people that come,
you study with them, you encourage them, you're all kinds of things, you nurture
them in Christ, you bring them along several years, you pour your heart
into that relationship hoping that they'll grow and they do,
and then all of a sudden, poof, they're gone. They blow up, they get mad at
something, they become discouraged, I don't - whatever, whatever happens, and they
disappear, and they fall away. That hurts, because you've poured yourself
into that relationship. Not to gain anything. You've poured yourself into
that relationship to give something. I look at some of the ladies here who have
taught classes, the little children's class, and you have watched
these children, that you've taught and nurtured and mentored for years and
years and years, through VBS and teen class and camp, and then all of
a sudden, after a lifetime of training and teaching and loving you, they just
take off, they just disappear, they abandoned the church. Wow, that's a
heartache. That's what he's talking about here. Man, I've suffered, I've gone
to jail for you people, they've beaten me up because of what i'm trying to do with
you, and now you want to go back to where you were. So he rebukes them for this
type of thing. Now Paul makes an emotional appeal for them to remember
how enthusiastically they received him, when he first came to them. And to return
to that type of relationship with him, in that type of position. In verse 12 he says, "I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also
have become as you are. You have done me no wrong;" Paul, the Jew, under law, became
like them - Gentiles without the law, when he became a Christian. Now they are
becoming like he used to be under the law and he says, they should become like
he is now, like they were before, which is not under the law. I'm free, you're free,
now you're wanting to go back under the law. No. Stay like I am, freedom
in Christ. He holds no grudge against them. It's not his honor that's at stake,
it's their souls that are at stake. Verse 13 to 15 he says, "But you know that it
was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first
time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not
despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus, Himself.
Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if
possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me." In the
beginning, they received him with enthusiasm, even though he was sick. We
don't know of what. When he first met them, he was ill. This idea, I would
pluck out my eye, sometimes I hear people say, well, that means his
illness was - he had eye problems, but the the term "plucking out your eyes" that was
the expression, we don't use that anymore. But today we use the expression, he
would give his shirt off his back. We know what that means, right?
Somebody say, oh that part of, why she'd give you, he'd give his shirt off
his back. Meaning he would do anything, generous to a fault, do anything to help
you. Well that's what he's saying. Yeah, at the beginning, you would do anything to
help me. What happened? You're enthusiastic about the gospel, what
happened? Verse 16 he says, "So have I become your enemy by telling you the
truth? They eagerly seek you," remember, the false teachers, "they eagerly seek you,
not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.
But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not
only when I am present with you." He asks if they reject him because he is
telling them the truth, what they don't want to hear at the moment. The Judaizers
are pursuing them in an unjust manner so that the galatians will honor them. And
the way they are doing it is, by establishing themselves as the only
teachers that the Galatians will listen to and create, kind of, a desire for their
doctrines. They want to be the ones sought after and praised.
Paul says, it's good to be sought as a teacher, but for the right reasons; and
not only when he is there in person. He was sought by them when there, but they
have strayed in his absence. Continuing, verse 19, "My children, with whom
I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you - but I could wish to be
present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you." He
uses this tender language of an expectant parent who suffers as a child
whom she nourishes with her own body. The mother, of course, is fully formed. He
wishes he could be there in person to convey, also, by the tone of voice, what he
desires for them, because he's at his wits end. He's exasperated almost with
them, can't believe what's going on. Now we get to the final section of what
we're studying and that's an allegorical example. The allegory of
Sarah and Hagar, that he's going to go here now. There's a term that refers to a
story that, or the term "allegory", it is a term that refers to a story that
has a superficial and a deeper meaning. Sometimes, like in a parable or
something like that, has a top meaning and a bottom meaning. Paul tells the
Galatians the story of Sarah and Hagar, is an allegory with a superficial
and a deeper meaning that is pertinent in their situations. Let's read verse
21, "Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you
not listen to the law?" He now resumes his argument from his emotional appeal of a
few verses before. Those who claim that what they do is according to the law do
so in ignorance of what the law is really saying. And so he proceeds to
reveal the deeper significance of the story told within the pages of the law.
Verse 22 and 23, he says, "For it is written," when he says "for it is written",
he's talking about the law, "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by
the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born
according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the
promise." Abraham was promised the son, we know the story, by his wife Sarah. When
he, when the son didn't arrive, Sarah who couldn't conceive, gave Abraham, her
husband, her slave, Hagar, to conceive. This was a type of thing, in that society,
that was done at that time, to have children by your slave. They were your
children. We know the story. Hagar does conceive a son, Ishmael, but
eventually was put out of the house by Sarah. Once Sarah conceived Isaac, who was
the child of promise. The implication here is that the child that
came by the promise has preeminence over the child that came by the flesh. In
verse 24 he continues, he says, "This is allegorically speaking, for these women
are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to
be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to
the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children." Verse 26, "But
the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, barren
woman who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; for more
numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a
husband." Paul explains the meaning of this story. Hagar represents
the law, Sarah represents grace. Hagar represents the present Jerusalem, under
Judaism without Christ, under bondage to the law coming from Mount Sinai in
Arabia. That's where the law was given, the law was given on Mount
Sinai, with a lot of thunder and lightning, but Mount Sinai is not in the land of promise, it's in the desert. That's where
the law comes from. Then he talks about Sarah. Sarah represents the
Jerusalem not in Israel, the Jerusalem from above, God's spiritual Kingdom. Its
members are heirs because of grace. In other words, they receive it through
faith not through nationality, not through giving birth physically, like
Sarah, who gave birth because of God's grace. Remember, she had a child when she
was 90 years old. That's giving birth through grace. So Sarah, who gave birth
because of God's grace in fulfillment of what? A promise. He promised she would
have a child. Those who belong to the spiritual Jerusalem, do so because of
God's grace and because of God's promise in Christ, not because of nationality, not
because of law. That's what these Judaizers were doing. We're the real Jews.
We can trace our ancestry, we're from Jerusalem, the main city
where the temple is and the law, and the pomp and
ceremony. We're those guys, we're the legitimate ones. That was the
argument. Now he quotes Isaiah 54:1 at the end. Isaiah reinforces
that the descendants of Sarah, she was the one who is desolate, she was the one
who suffered because she couldn't have a child naturally for most of her life. So
the descendants of Sarah, the desolate one, will ultimately be greater than the
one who gave birth naturally while she was young
and while she was full of strength, that was Hagar. If you were a
betting man, back in the day, when they were both in the house, Sarah couldn't
have a child, Hagar, first try she has a baby, where would your money
lie? it to see how the promise was fulfilled that God had said you're going
to have numerous descendants, more than the stars in the sky.
Are you going to put your money on Sarah, who can't conceive a child, or are you going
to put it on Hagar - young, strong woman, who has this child right away.
So Isaiah is saying yes, but the children of the promise they're the ones
that are going to be greater than the stars in the heaven. Not the child of
the flesh, the natural birth one. Verse 28 to 31, "And you, brethren, like
Isaac are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to
the flesh persecuted him who is born according to the spirit, so it is now
also. But what does the scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son for
the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman so
then brethren we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman." So like
Isaac, Christians are children of the promise, not the law. They received the
promise through faith. It's not surprising that the Judaizers, who are, in
a sense, the descendants of the bondwoman Hagar, whose son Ishmael persecuted Isaac,
who was the son of promise, it's not surprising that these same people should
persecute Christians who are the son of the free woman, Sarah, in exactly the same
way. In Genesis, we know that Sarah cast out Hagar and her son when she
became pregnant. Paul says that in the same way, they should cast out any
attempt to displace them, any doctrine or person that tries to rob them of their
true position as free men and sons of the promise. And he repeats that in verse
31. A couple of lessons for this entire section, then we're done for
tonight. Lesson number one, blessings come through Christ. From the very
beginning, God promised that the spiritual blessing of righteousness and
the Holy Spirit and sonship and freedom, all of this would be given through what?
through the seed and the seed is Jesus Christ. No other religion, no other
Messiah, no other philosophy, no other method. Those things only come through
Christ. Number two, blessings also are obtained by faith in Christ. The
blessings were available to everyone who would be united to Jesus by faith. And of
course, as we've taught, as Paul taught, and that faith is initially expressed
through repentance and baptism. Lesson number three, the law, what's its
purpose? It prepares us for Christ. The law was introduced in history in order
to mitigate the evil of sin and prepare man for the coming of Jesus. It did not
have the power to confer any blessings. There are no blessings that come through
the law. And then, lesson number four, law keeping fails every time. Anyone who
attempted to gain these blessings through some form of law keeping would
fail. Anyone who taught this should be rejected and would ultimately be cursed
by God. Alright. Well that's a mouthful. I love Galatians. I love Galatians,
because it's all about freedom.
