Trial and Judgement                                     Galatians 3:23-29

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody…locked up…” In this letter to the Galatians, Paul contrasts the restrictions of being in prison with the freedom we have outside it. Through this, Paul is showing the differences we have as followers of Christ verses being followers of the law. And to be clear, Paul is talking about the Ten Commandments.

The Commandments were holy and perfect, but as imperfect beings, the law of God created problems for us. Think of our laws. If we break one, stealing perhaps, then we will be tried by a judge and jury. If convicted, we will be jailed. And once jailed, many of our freedoms are forfeited.

God has given mankind the laws and rules he expects us to follow. “Thou shall not covet” is one of God’s laws. And what does Paul say in Romans 7:7, “For I would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

Paul knew our human nature, how once told not to do something, we seem to naturally want to do it. When I was a boy, if we saw a “stay off the grass” sign in someone’s yard, we would go right to the edge of the grass and put one foot on it. Soon we were hopping on and off the edge of the lawn, maybe building our courage to run to the middle of the yard and back again as fast as we could. The point is, we would never have given it a thought if there was no sign telling us to keep off.

Our sinful nature makes us susceptible to rebellion. As such we simply cannot keep God’s law. We lose the freedom to not act, thus putting ourselves in a prison of our own making. But the good news is Calvary, the grace of God offered through faith in his son’s sacrifice. Our question this morning is; if faith is the way to God, why then the law?

“We are held in custody under the law.” As we saw before, all mankind is in a spiritual prison we make ourselves. The way out is through faith. Think about a time when you may have tried to share this with someone. What was one of their first questions? I can tell you what I got asked. “What if someone lived on an island and never heard of Jesus?” Romans 2:14-15, “When unbelievers who do not have the law, do instinctively the things of the law, they are a law unto themselves. They show the work of the law is written in their hearts…”

Paul is saying that once the law was given to men, all mankind is bound by it. Whether Jewish and learning the law, whether Gentile and hearing of the law, or whether one never heard the law of articulated is immaterial. Many of us may think this is unfair, but the Bible tells us that if one never heard the law spoken, their conscience tells them the law. Their conscience tells them right and wrong. The law, verbalized or conscience given, is everyone’s prison. Therefore, the great promise of salvation also is everyone’s to acquire.

One great purpose of the commandments is to show that all mankind fails in obedience of God’s natural laws, and therefore, needs holy intervention through faith and trust in God.

As you probably know, one of my favorite sports to watch is football. Now I can imagine a player injuring his knee and even with the pain, insists on playing in the next game. The doctor gives him cortisone shots and pain meds. He plays the whole next game, but as a result, he now has permanently damaged his knee. The pain of his injury was his body’s warning system of something being wrong. Ignoring the pain caused serious and irrevocable consequences.

The second great purpose of God’s law is to warn us through his written word, and through our consciences, that there is something wrong in the way we conduct our lives. And if we ignore the warning, we cause irreversible consequences to our spirit, spiritual outcomes that cannot be undone after our death and its realization of what we’ve done.

Exodus 19:5, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant…you will be my treasured possessions.” God said this to Israel as they fled Egypt into the desert. The people just saw God send down the plagues. They were witness to the death of the first born and God’s Passover of them. They saw the Egyptians give them gold and silver and livestock for no reason as they left Egypt. And they saw the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea to allow their escape from Pharoah and his advancing army. They saw the power of Almighty God And, now that God is telling them I will care for you if you do what I say, what was their response? “God, we witnessed what you do to those who disobey you, we cannot do more than any other man. Please have mercy on us.” “God, you are all powerful and perfect. We are fallible, we have no hope in being perfect in our obedience. Please look kindly on us with mercy and compassion.” This would seem the sensible way to respond to God, but no, Exodus 19:9, “The people all responded together, ‘We will do everything the Lord says.’”

Without even waiting to find out what God wanted from us, mankind promised to do it. So, in Exodus chapter 20, God gave us the Ten Commandments. And because man couldn’t keep the Commandments, they made up more than 400 laws to try and help them keep the ten. And the more laws we made to help us keep the Commandments, the more we broke the original ten. The Commandments were meant to point out to us that we cannot live up to the standards of a perfect and holy God, and that we need help. We need a divine savior.

 Now, let’s think of the world in Paul’s day. There were Jews and Gentiles. There were the religious elite, the Roman conquerors, and societies outcasts. Today, we also have differences, gender, racial, and societal differences. Even among Christians we have denominational differences.

If we look at the Ten Commandments, we see the first four are about our relationship with God, the next six are about our relationship with each other. If you love God, you will put him above all else. If you love your neighbor, you won’t covet or steal his belongings. The Ten Commandments given through Moses are the source material for the two greatest commandments given by Jesus.

Our readings verse 28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The fourth purpose of the law is to point us to the freedom of faith in Christ. As believers we are one in him. There are no ethnic, social, racial, or cultural differences in God’s family. The one who joins with Christ joins with all believers.

God sent Jesus to us. But before Jesus, God sent the law. The law shows us we all are condemned by our sinful nature, but all are offered salvation through faith. The law is our warning system, telling us there is something wrong in our lives, and how ignoring the warning causes dire consequences. The law shows us we cannot live up to the standards of God, how we need help, how we need a savior. And how the law points us to freedom, for under Christ there is one ethnicity, one culture, one family we belong to as believers. Let us all pray the law opens the hearts of non-believers to Christ.

Glory to God, and may you all be blessed in your faith.

Amen