But first, Gal 3...
OK, Gal 3 is an important scripture, but what law is it referring to?
Gal 3:17 Were the Ten Commandments in force before Mt. Sinai? I issued a challenge in that other thread to find the Ten Commandments either in principle or stated prior to Ex 20:1. No one has taken me up on it. I gave the example of the Sabbath prior to Mt. Sinai and here is another…
Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
Gen 20:4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
Gen 20:5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Gen 20:6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
Gen 20:7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
The death penalty for adultery, and remember these verses…
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
So there was a law against adultery prior to Mt. Sinai? There certainly was, the Ten Commandments have been in force from the beginning.
How about murder? In your heart?
Gen 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And remember Rom 4:15 and 5:13.
One can easily find the other seven and that is not what I am addressing here. Now to Gal 3
Was the inheritance, the birthright obtained by Israel’s continued obedience?
Gen 26:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;
Gen 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Gen 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Only because of Abraham’s obedience and then the promises became unconditional…
Gal 3:16-18
Gen 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Gen 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Gen 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Gen 22:15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Gen 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Gen 22:17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
So, no matter what occurred 430 years later, the birthright was to be given to Israel and the scepter to Judah.
Gal 3:19
What was added?
Deut 5:22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Jer 7:22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
Jer 7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
Why would the law be added because of transgressions if it were speaking of the Ten Commandments? There is no transgression when there is no law…
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
If the Ten Commandments were not in force there would be no transgression. By the way, what is sin?
1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
If the law is done away, why do you need Christ? There is no sin for there is no law and therefore you do not need a savior? You do not really believe that do you?
Back to Galatians
Gal 3:21
Can the law give life? No. One hundred lifetimes of one hundred years each of perfectly keeping the law will not earn eternal life. It is the gift of God…
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gal 3:22
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
We have all sinned and earned death. No matter how perfect one is, the law does not give life, but breaking the law guarantees death. But we are saved by grace and faith…
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
But not our faith, the faith of Christ and the grace given to us.
Gal 3:23-25
Prior to Christ’s sacrifice what did one have to do that was of the law?
Exo 29:10 And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.
Exo 29:11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Exo 29:12 And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
Exo 29:13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
Exo 29:14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.
Exo 29:36 And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.
The entire fourth chapter of Leviticus deals with what to do in case someone sins.
Why did they have to do this?
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Sin requires blood, either yours or my blood or the blood of a sacrificial offering.
Heb 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
Heb 9:17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
Heb 9:18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Heb 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
Heb 9:20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
Heb 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Heb 9:25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
The entire book of Hebrews should be studied here on our knees. We do not realize the seriousness of sin and the price that had to be paid for us so that we do not have to die. Christ came to fill up the law, to give it a much deeper meaning, not to do away with it. If He came to do away with the law, then why did He have to die? Why not say Abracadabra and just do away with it. Then there would be no sin and no requirement for blood.
That schoolmaster that brought us to Christ was the law of sacrifices. The blood offered in our stead. Now that Christ has come and been hung on the stake, there is no more need for a teacher to show us what was coming, the reality is Christ and Him crucified. The law of sacrifices was not done away either, it was completely satisfied by the perfect Lamb of God…
Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Notice this verse does not say ‘which taketh away the law’, it says ‘which taketh away the penalty of breaking the law’.
This passage in Gal 3 is not referring to the Ten Commandments, it is referring to the law of sacrifices.