Galatians 3:21-25 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 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.
Before faith in Christ and his works, we were all prisoners of sin, designated by the law for eternal judgment. None of us could escape this sentence of eternal damnation because the law revealed we were not perfect like God. Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) As the Pharisees learned through Jesus' teachings, even our thoughts must be perfect. After Jesus said He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it, He talked about the heart. He said, if we have murder, discord, anger, lust, greed, or any other sin in our hearts, we will be in danger of the fire of hell, and we will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (See Matthew 5) There can be no deviation from perfection in Christ if we want to be accepted by God into his family. The law not only exposes our imperfections, it imprisons us, for we cannot escape from its condemnation. It binds us to a sentence of death, rather than to the freedom of righteousness. We are known as prisoners of sin: none escape this designation. Why then the law? The law controls this cancer of sin the best it can. It cannot eviscerate sin from us, but it can help us to live orderly lives in our societies. The law cannot set us outside of our imprisonment to sin into the freedom of righteousness with God. The law can only dictate how we should live in this sinful world and show us where we fail. The law attempts to control our nature by saying, “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (Colossians 2-21) The stricture of the law helps to restrain our self-willed tendencies, which if allowed to go unabated would create untold misery and chaos in our world. As Sir John Acton, a member of the British Parliament, said in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The law is good for it attempts to ameliorate man's innate desire to design the world around himself, but it ultimately fails in that it cannot change the heart.
The law could not impart life: it could only describe what God desires in our lives. The law has no creative power: no power to cleanse from sin, to create new life. Life comes only from the Creator, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4) Without Christ in the formula of new life, we are hopelessly lost in our sins. We are still imprisoned within the laws of life, knowing our failings, yet unable to break away from our bondage. We are imprisoned in the laws of religion, culture, society, family, and the people around us. Outside of Christ, we will always be condemned, for we will never be able to please all these laws. Since we are earth-bound, laws are part of our existence, even the laws that we make for our own development. But these laws can bring us back into condemnation and judgment after we know Jesus, preventing us from serving God in freedom as new creatures IN CHRIST. We can imprison ourselves again by trying to please God through laws and obligations. Then, how do we live? How do we live as Christians? If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:18-21) We don't rebuild our lives around the law: what is right; what is wrong. No, we build our lives around Christ. Who He is, not who we are. Life, righteousness, holiness, self-worth, all come from him. He made us everything that we need to be acceptable to God. We are no longer imprisoned by condemnation, but we are free to live with God with our heads up high. A little later in our study of Galatians, we will read: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5:1) This is our inheritance in Christ
In our newly found state of freedom, what about our daily life? How do we walk out this life if we live IN CHRIST? We live by faith! As Paul wrote to the church at Rome: For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17) Faith transforms life. We know Christ's righteousness is our righteousness. Knowing this, we become lovers of God, loving what HE loves, holding fast to the promises of his grace and mercy. We know the truth: God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son; consequently, we love people because He loves them. We serve people He desires to serve. We go the extra mile because He goes the extra mile with them. We seek to be his image on Earth by loving the people around us. As Jesus was the servant to all, we become servants to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) We follow Jesus by listening to the Holy Spirit within us. For He is our blessed comforter and guide. We love the unlovely, we care for the hurting. We are a companion to those who are alone. None of this is driven by a set laws, WHAT WE MUST DO. Instead, we get up each morning, saying, "Lord, here I am, I am yours." This is how we live in the Spirit. Laws are not driving our lives; Christ, through the voice of the Holy Spirit, lives in us. All of this comes through faith. Faith is transpired through prayer. As we pray, faith rises up from our hearts, as a sweet aroma. Faith becomes a living substance God can use to move mountains. As we read in Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (11:1) We are no longer lost in sin and darkness: we have a living hope in a living Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe in Jesus Christ. We believe the living Word: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11) Arise dear friends and live!
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