Galatians 3 (5)

Opening Prayer: Psalm 119.25-27.
My soul clings to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.
I have declared my ways, and You answered me;
Teach me Your statutes.
Make me understand the way of Your precepts;
So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.

Sing Psalm 119.25-27.
(Festal Song: Rise Up, O Men of God)
My soul clings to the dust; revive me by Your Word!
My ways I have declared to You; teach me Your statutes, LORD!

Make me to understand Your precepts and Your ways,
as on Your works I meditate with wonder and with praise!

Read Galatians 3.1-25; meditate on verses 19-25.

Preparation
1. How did Paul refer to the Law?

2. How does the Law function in this role?

Meditation
The Law of God did not negate the promises of God’s covenant (v. 21). Instead, it enriched the covenant by giving us more specific guidance in how to lay hold on the promises. Because the people were all sinners—just as we are— the Law was added to God’s covenant to show them (and us) how to love Him and our neighbors (v. 19). We don’t have to rely on our own best guesses about how to fulfill this calling.

But, again because they were (and we are) sinners, they (and we) could not keep the Law. But the Law remains, and God’s people kept trying to keep it throughout the Old Testament, which they should have done. But not to earn their salvation; rather, to discover that they can’t save themselves and they need God to come to their aid in this. They still wanted God’s promises, but they were learning from God’s Law that they couldn’t gain the promises on their own. Only when the promised Seed (Gen. 3.15) should come would the promises come to them in human form. And the Law, their faithful tutor, kept pointing them to that day and to the coming Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Like the people of God of old, we can’t be made righteous by the Law. The Law shows us our sin at the same time it lights the path to the promise. The Law of God is written on the hearts of all people, even those who do not believe (Rom. 2.14, 15). Thus it serves as a “guard” to human morality, though most people do not acknowledge this (v. 23).

When Jesus came and fulfilled the Law (Matt. 5.17-19) the way into God’s promises was finally lighted for all who will believe. The Law points us to Jesus. Believing in Him, we embrace Him as the Way, and we learn that Jesus’ way is to follow the Law (1 Jn. 2.1-6), not to earn righteousness but to express it, the righteousness we have in Jesus and which the Spirit works out in us. As we do, He Who is the Promise of God transforms us and bears witness through us, so that we are filled with gratitude, wonder, and joy.

The Law is thus no longer our tutor. Jesus is (Matt. 11.28-30). And Jesus teaches us to love God and our neighbors according to the glorious precepts and principles of His Law (Matt. 22.34-40).

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified by faith…no longer under a tutor” (Gal. 3.24, 25).

Now the Tutor, Who kept the Law perfectly, is walking beside us to guide us into all Truth.
We do not fear Him as we would a tutor with a ruler whacking our knuckles for stupidity;
but we fear Him because He is the Royal King, the Ruler, the Word Promise, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Ps. 2.12). “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn. 1.3).

Jesus loves the Law and wants us to live within its parameters:
“Stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you” (Jude 1.21TLB).
“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14.15).
“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (Jn. 15.14).
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22.37-40).
“I AM the LORD your God…you shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourselves a carved image…you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not covet” (Ex. 20. 1-17).

We obviously cannot keep this Law perfectly, especially since Jesus clarified that it is equally wrong to commit these sins in our hearts and minds (Matt. 5.21-34).

But we are meant to live within the Law through the power of the Holy Spirit because as Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5.17). And in this same discourse to the multitudes, He said: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5.20). And how best to be righteous? Keep the Law. It is the way The Creator of the heavens and the earth proclaimed that life is best lived. The instruction manual for making the least mess of it.

“The Law points us to Jesus. Believing in Him, we embrace Him as the Way, and we learn that Jesus’ way is to follow the Law” (1 Jn. 2.1-6). The law as tutor brought us to Christ; now we serve the Tutor who is
Christ—in His way, according to His plan, by His protective and loving Law.

“Oh, how I love Your law!” (Ps. 119.97).

Reflection
1. In what ways has the Law of God been a tutor, leading you to Jesus?

2. How does Jesus, as Your Tutor, help you to know the value of the Law of God?

3. How does keeping the Law, following the example of your Tutor, help you in realizing the promises of God which are all Yes! and Amen! in Jesus?

The grammarian, when he has trained a boy, delivers him into the hands of another, who conducts him through the higher branches of a finished education. In like manner, the law was the grammar of theology, which, after carrying its scholars a short way, handed them over to faith to be completed. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Galatians 3.24

Pray Psalm 119.28-32.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Thank the Lord that His Word leads you daily to Jesus. Call on Him to help you run the course of obedience to God’s Word.

Sing Psalm 119.28-32.
(Festal Song: Rise Up, O Men of God)
My soul weighs down with woe, I need Your strength, O LORD!
Remove from me all lying ways; grant me Your holy Word!

I choose the way of truth; Your judgments I proclaim.
Your testimonies I embrace, LORD, put me not to shame!

Command my course, O LORD; Your gracious truth impart.
I cling to You and know You will enlarge my seeking heart.

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.