Galatians 3:19-20 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
Galatians addresses a misunderstanding of God’s law and freedom in Christ. So-called “agitators” (5:12) or false teachers said Christians need to be circumcised and do certain “works of the law” to be justified (3:1-2; 6:12 ). These legalists did not understand the purpose of the law. Paul’s attempts to clear up these misunderstandings and rescue both God’s law and the gospel from distortion. The law is not meant to be the means of salvation or to replace covenant but to prepare for salvation through Christ.
If salvation comes through faith in Christ (vv. 7-14), why, then, was the law given at all? The law was added to the covenant made with Abraham but did not replace it. It brought an awareness of transgressions. This word for sin means stepping over the boundary of God’s law, the standard for how we should live. The law has a negative and positive role with transgression. Negatively, it warns about the consequences for breaking the God’s commands. It shows our actions to be sin by making the boundary clear. We would not know what sin is unless the law told us (Romans 4:15; 5:13; 7:13). Positively, the law, especially Leviticus, provided the sacrificial system by which Israel could seek God’s forgiveness of sins through atonement.
The law was not permanent but had a temporary role until the Seed . . . had come. Paul used seed in verse 16 to refer to when Jesus came in the flesh. The promise refers back to God’s promise to Abraham in verses 6-9, that righteousness comes through faith and is available to all people, both Jew and Gentile. The role of the law was to point to Christ and not replace Christ who opened the way to God through his perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 9:14; 10:14).
The law was given through angels. The law had its origins in heaven with God as the source and the angels as the messengers. In many places in the Old Testament, when God speaks, it was through an angel (Exod 3:2). Possibly behind this idea is God’s transcendence—God as holy is separate from sinful humanity. Angels bridge this gap. Early Christians (like Stephen in Acts 7:53; see also Hebrews 2:2) believed angels had a role in God’s revelation. Moses was the primary mediator of the law because he received it on Mount Sinai and repeated it to the people.
A mediator between God and humanity was required because of sin. Any mediator of the law, such as angels or Moses, is only a spokesperson for God who is the true authority behind the law. God is one shows that God did not change his plan from the time of Abraham, to the giving of the law through Moses, and finally the coming of salvation through Jesus. This was all part of God’s plan.
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