“Why Then the Law?” Paul's Answer to that Question in Galatians 3:19-22

In Galatians 2:16, Paul makes his case that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” He goes on to ask the Galatians that since they began the Christian life “by the Spirit,” why were they foolishly trying to be perfected in the flesh (Galatians 3:2-6)? The apostle then spoke of the curse imposed by disobedience to the law, and again of how God’s people are justified through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:10-11). Paul also made the case that the Sinai covenant does not supersede the Abrahamic covenant (i.e., the covenant of grace), although the law was given 430 years after God’s covenant promise was made to Abraham (Galatians 3:15-18).

No doubt, Paul’s understanding of redemptive history raised a significant question in the minds of those Galatians who had been taken in by the Judaizers. If obedience to the the law cannot justify, and if the covenant promises God made to Abraham are not annulled by the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai, why then did God give the law? What role and purpose does it serve? In Galatians 3:18-22, Paul offers five reasons why God gave the law to Israel.

First, Paul addresses the effect of God’s giving the law upon sinful people (“because of transgressions” v. 18), literally “to make wrongdoing a legal offense.” Paul provides the context which tells us that in disobeying God’s commandments, we are self-consciously sinning against a known commandment revealed to us by God.[1] The law was not given to us to help us correct our sinfulness, so that we cease from sin and do works of law. Paul is not interested in self-help techniques, spiritual technology, or principles of Christian living. Rather, Paul says, the law was given for a very specific purpose–to expose and provoke our sinfulness by making clear we are sinning against God’s law, thereby increasing our guilt and eventual punishment in the wrath to come. When we sin, we are sinning against the Holy God.

The realization of the guilt of sin resulting from disobeying God’s law is a frequent theme throughout Paul’s writings. The law exposes our sin and brings our disobedience to light as a transgression of God’s will on the one hand (Romans 3:20; 4:15; 5:13), while on the other, the law stimulates sin within us to even greater rebellion and increasing guilt than when law is not present. As Paul explains in Romans 7:7; “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, `You shall not covet.’” The law was given to show us what sin is (an act of rebellion against God), as well as to excite and exacerbate sin within us (the flesh). This is why legalism of the sort championed by the circumcision party in Galatia completely distorts the gospel. Failing to understand that the primary purpose of the law is to expose our sins distorts the message of what God has done for us in Christ, turning it into an exhortation of all the things we must do to earn sufficient righteousness to be declared “right” before God on judgment day.

Legalism (in all its forms), is ineffective in combating sin, as Paul reminds us in Colossians 2:20–23:

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The law which is holy, righteous, and good (cf. Romans 7:12) was given to us by God to show us how sinful we really are by provoking our sinful nature to even greater levels of sin. More emphasis upon law keeping and good works is not going to help us refrain from sin, nor will this help us make progress in our sanctification. Replacing the gospel with the law is like pouring flammable liquid on hot embers.

Second, Paul says, the law was added for a specific period of time, from the time of Moses “until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made” (v. 19). The covenant God made with Moses (including the revelation of the Decalogue) has a definite beginning–Israel’s exodus from Egypt and the subsequent journey to Mount Sinai. The law of Moses was in effect for a specific time, until the offspring (Jesus) came. The law also has a definite end (cf. Romans 10:4,”For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”). The law remains in force only until Christ comes.[2] It was also given for a specific purpose, so that the trespass might increase. But in what sense? To put it simply, the law provokes the sinfulness already hiding deep inside us into acts of disobedience. It shows us that we must trust the promise, (the gospel) and not seek righteousness through works of law. Obviously, none of this reflects the non-gospel of the circumcision party.

Although the covenant with Israel was in force for a limited time, from Moses to Christ,[3] and for a specific purpose (to excite sin), all ten of the commandments revealed at Sinai are reaffirmed in the New Testament as binding upon the Christian.

Third, Paul says, the law “was put in place through angels by an intermediary” (v. 19c). There are two “inferior” parties mentioned, the angels and a mediator, the latter a reference to Moses. According to one commentator, “the role of angels as God’s assistants in the promulgation of the law is employed in Jewish and early Christian tradition to enhance the glory of the law (Dt. 33:2, LXX; Acts 7:38, 53; Heb. 2:2). Here in Galatians, however . . . it is used to show the inferiority of the law as that which was given not directly by God but only through angelic mediation.”[4] Paul is setting up the contrast he will make in verse 20. Whatever role angels played in the giving of the law, their mention demonstrates the inferiority of the law to the promise which was given directly by God.[5]

As far as the mediator goes (the “intermediary”), Paul certainly has Moses in mind, especially in light of the comments made about Moses’s role as mediator for the people of God throughout the book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 5:5, 23-27, as well as Exodus 20:19).[6] In the context of refuting the specific arguments of the Judaizers, Paul is pointing out that the law was given to the people through indirect, intermediary means, rather than directly from God, as in the case of the promise made to Abraham in which YHWH swore the covenant oath. In this sense, Paul says, the law is inferior to the promise, under-cutting a possible claim being made by the Judaizers regarding the significance of the role played by angels.

The fourth reason Paul gives in verse 20, is that “an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one,” which is variously and problematically interpreted. Given the obvious reference to the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), Paul is likely correcting the erroneous notion that the idea of mediation implies that there are two equal parties who participate in the transaction, as when the people of God swear the oath in response to the giving of the law. Rather, in the Abrahamic covenant, God sovereignly imposes the terms and swears the oath himself, therefore the promise is superior to the law.[7]

The fifth reason Paul gives comes in verse 21. “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” As is his custom, Paul asks a rhetorical question, the answer to which is self-evident and exposes the folly implied in the legalism of the Judaizers. Is the law opposed to the promises of God? If the law is inferior to the promise, does that mean that law somehow contradicts the promise to Abraham or even nullifies it? This question peels back and exposes the serious error underlying the Judaizer’s understanding of the role of the law in terms of its relationship to God’s covenant with Abraham. Paul’s answer to this is the emphatic “absolutely not” (μὴ γένοιτο). In Paul’s argument here, as elsewhere in Galatians, the law has both a positive and a negative function.

Negatively, the law cannot impart life, because the law is contrary to faith and brings the full weight of God’s curse down upon every violation of any one of its stipulations. But we can say the law is not contrary to the promise when we recognize that the true purpose of the law is not to bring life but condemnation. The problem in the Galatian church is that Judaizers were misrepresenting the law’s true purpose. They were arguing that keeping the law brings life which was never the reason why God gave the law!

The positive purpose for the law is spelled out in verse 22. “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” In this case, the law serves to imprison the world under sin–i.e., making clear to all image bearers what God demands of his creatures. God, who speaks through the Scriptures,[8] “locks up all men under the condemnation of sin, providing them with no possibility of escape.”[9] God gave his law to show that all men and women are the biological and federal children of Adam (i.e., fallen), who constantly and consistently, whether in thought, word, or deed, willfully violate the revealed will of God, thereby becoming captives to the bondage of sin. This is what the law does, it renders all of us “prisoners” of sin in desperate need of redemption from its curse.

Note: this is taken and edited for publication here from my exposition of Galatians, For Freedom, which is the text for episode seven of the Blessed Hope Podcast series on The Book of Galatians -- Episode Seven: "Why the Law?" (Galatians 3:19-29)

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[1] Moo, Galatians, 234.

[2] Moo, Galatians, 232-33.

[3] Meredith G. Kline, “Gospel Until the Law: Rom 5:13-14 and the Old Covenant” in The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Vol 34, No. 4 (December 1991), 433 ff.

[4] Fung, Galatians, 161.

[5] Bruce, Commentary on Galatians, 177. Longenecker adds, “Such a mediatorial role for angels in the giving of the law seems to have been part of the widespread attempt in early Judaism to assign a role for angels in all the major revelatory and redemptive events of Scripture. In rabbinic Judaism, however, there was a rather strong reaction to seeing angels intervening at the critical moments in Israel’s history, with many rabbis arguing that it was God alone who acted for the nation at these times.” Longenecker, Galatians, on 3:19.

[6] Moo, Galatians, 235.

[7] Moo, Galatians, 237.

[8] Scripture is the “graphe,” i.e. the Old Testament is God’s speech. See B. B. Warfield. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1948), 299-348.

[9] Fung, Galatians, 164.