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Fall Quarter 2023: God’s Law Is Love
Unit 2: Faith Triumphs, Law Fails
Lesson 9
Sunday School Lesson for the week of October 29, 2023
By Craig Rikard
Devotional Reading: Gen. 12:1-9
Background Scripture and Text for Lesson: Galatians 3:19-4:7
Key Text: Gal. 3:26
Lesson Aims
- To understand the metaphors Paul employs to distinguish Law from grace.
- To understand the connection between God’s covenant with Abraham and the new covenant we have received through Jesus Christ.
- To understand what it means to be “a child of God through faith.”
- To understand what it means to be saved by grace and faith alone.
Supplemental Lesson for the Teacher’s Guide
Historical/Theological Background of the Text
Grasping Paul’s Style of Writing
If you find your ability to grasp Paul’s meaning in a doctrinal letter difficult, you are not alone. The epistles to the Romans and the Galatians often prove difficult for a teacher. However, his audiences grasped Paul’s intent, and his doctrinal letters have nurtured the church for over almost 2,000 years. We need to realize that Paul’s letters were to speak to an “eastern mindset.” We read it with “western eyes.” Thus, there are some cultural considerations that need to play a role in our interpretation of Paul. I encourage the teacher to read all possible on the historical context when the letter was written. It will illuminate some of the more difficult passages. It is also important to realize that Paul has a style of writing unlike our own. Here are some of the characteristics of Paul’s writing:
- Paul appears to become very repetitious in his epistles to the early churches. It is important to remember that Paul’s letters were only just beginning to be circulated among the churches. The problems the early churches faced were very similar. Most dealt with the uniting of the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. These churches also encountered the same types of false teachers, such as the Judaizers. In other words, Paul must be repetitious because he is writing to different churches experiencing some of the same problems. However, he often uses different metaphors to illustrate his point. He may have chosen his metaphors to speak to the culture in which the church exists. His message is the same, but the way he must communicate that message can differ from church to church. Also, though churches face identical or similar problems, there are other unique problems that particular church is experiencing. There is a great difference between the Thessalonian and the Corinthian letters. The early church in Thessalonica is very concerned with the question of the bodily resurrection. The Corinthian church is experiencing multifaceted ethical/moral problems.
- Also, the problems in the church at Rome and the Galatian churches must be addressed. The problems possess tremendous destructive power. The inability to meld the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians could leave the church in tatters. Therefore, Paul is emphatic in making his point. The churches are his children, his family. He writes with passion and the concern of a parent. Those of us who are parents understand the need to repeat a warning, as well as repeating the means of prevention.
- Paul, as I’ve written earlier, is much like a man who has more to say than he can say. His mind seems to race. He doesn’t change his point; he changes metaphors to illustrate his point. In our text, Paul uses the imagery of a jail with a guardian, of being an heir, and of being a slave. His major point is related to appreciating the purpose of the Law in our faith journey. He equips his reader with images and metaphors to which they can relate.
- He also presents us with varied descriptions of Jesus and his ministry. Jesus is the liberator who frees us from the Law. Jesus is the one who grafts us into the spiritual lineage of Abraham and Sarah. Christ is the one who makes us an heir of all God has for us. These images of Jesus Christ are used in the differing metaphors to best impart his message. These metaphors and images were, again, written to a people at a different time in history. They understood what we cannot. Certain metaphors and images may prove difficult for us in the modern age. However, the unchangeable, knowable truth in and through Christ lives beneath and through all of Paul’s images and metaphors. Thus, we can know and grasp the message the Holy Spirit reveals through the writing of Paul no matter what time we live in history.
Galatia
Galatia is a geographical area in what we know today as northern Turkey. Paul is not writing to one church but to seven churches located in the area. His letters will eventually be circulated. Galatia was a part of the Roman Empire. The churches consisted of converted Gentiles, most likely of Celtic descent. A Jewish settlement also existed in Galatia. It is believed that Antiochus the Great founded this settlement and would send Jewish people to the area to colonize it. The churches consisted of both Jewish and Gentile converts. Paul founded the church, along with the help of Barnabas. Paul had grown ill while traveling through the area, and the people nursed Paul to health. Thus, Paul possessed a personal relationship with the people in the area.
The early churches consisted of both Gentile and Jewish converts. Though the area of Galatia was Hellenized, cultural and religious differences existed between the Gentile and Jewish populations. Therefore, the melding of the cultural differences into one family of God posed some difficulties. Creating one harmonious Christian church was made more difficult as the Judaizers began to evangelize within the new Christian churches of Galatia.
Judaizers
Judaizers were those Jewish leaders who believed Gentile converts must also become Jewish, and Jewish Christians must remain faithful to the requirements of the Torah. The Judaizers were able to influence the early churches because they did not attack Christianity. They “added to it.” In order to be fully saved all must adhere to the Torah, rites and rituals of Judaism, and have faith in Christ. The issue of circumcision became a major point of contention. The Judaizers taught that Jewish men could not fellowship with uncircumcised Gentiles. Thus, they greatly threatened the unity in the early churches. Eventually the Judaizers would attack the character and legitimacy of Paul and his ministry.
Paul recognized that requiring Gentiles to adhere to the requirements of Judaism could not coexist with Christianity. Judaism required obedience to the Law and Torah. No person could perfectly adhere to the Torah. Eventually a person realized the frustration of constantly falling short, followed by the feeling of being apart from God and the favor of God. Christianity, in contrast, was liberating. One could remain faithful to the Law by living the “One Law, the Law of Laws, the Shema.” Loving God with one’s entire being and our neighbor as ourselves fulfilled the Law. One could live in God’s love by accepting Jesus by faith and receiving the Holy Spirit. Those who love God and others, as God loves, do not steal, commit adultery, take the Lord’s name in vain, covet, etc. To embrace the love of God in Christ is to embrace a life of moral obedience and inner righteousness in contrast to the “works-righteousness” of Judaism. In Judaism we earn the favor of God through obedience to the Law. In Christianity we are given God’s favor out of God’s great love for us. God’s favor is a gift freely given to those who by faith receive Jesus. Jesus is God’s gift of love, forgiveness, and acceptance personified. Our moral life is a life of “response” to God’s gift of Jesus. In Judaism, one lived a moral life of obedience to the Law to earn the favor of God. In Christianity, one lives a moral life because God has revealed his love and favor in the gift of Jesus Christ. A gift earned is not a gift. A gift is received, and for those who humbly receive a gift from another, a life of thanksgiving and gratitude follow.
When the Judaizers attempted to impose Judaism upon Christianity chaos and disunity occurred. Works-righteousness often led to hubris and self-righteousness. Christianity led to humility and a moral life founded and built upon God’s love for us and the sharing of that love. The moral life in Christianity does not earn us righteousness, a moral life is our response to having been declared righteous through God’s love in Christ. Again, Paul recognized that Judaism could not save us, for no one could perfectly keep the Law. We could only be saved through a loving act on God’s part that provided forgiveness and inner righteousness. Being declared righteous is far different from working to gain righteousness. The term “declared” used by Paul is a judicial word in which the judge declared the accused innocent. The judge - in Christianity - declares the guilty innocent. In Christianity, we are guilty. We stand before God guilty of self-centeredness, the culprit behind our sins. We are so guilty and self-absorbed we cannot save ourselves or earn our innocence. Yet, through Christ, God declares us forgiven and righteous. Our moral innocence is returned through the forgiveness of God through Christ. We are “born again.” In response, we live a moral life out of gratitude, and because we recognize we have been loved by God, we in turn love others in the same manner. We do not require that others earn our love. We freely give love, unconditionally, because we were loved unconditionally by the Lord.
Can you make a list of the differences between Paul’s understanding of Christianity and the Judaizers? Can you make a list of the ways the teaching of the Judaizers actually hindered the unity of the Galatian churches? Why, in Paul’s inspired thinking, could Judaism and Christianity not be melded into one new means of salvation? How is the Law important in Christianity? What were the contributions of the Law to Christianity? How could the Law contribute to Christianity but not be “added to” it?
Walking Through the Text
The Guardian
Paul offers us a picturesque illustration of the role of the Law. Imagine a prison cell. The bars represent the Law and its requirements. A guard stands at the door. Their purpose is to keep us within the bars. However, initially, the prison bars are helpful. The guard is not doing us a disservice by keeping us locked within. Why? We need the bars to unite us and hold us together. The cell keeps us together within and keeps the destructive forces outside.
Assume we are not ready to leave the cell and enter the world. Outside the cell we would lose our sense of family and the benefits a family provides. We are protected within the prison and likewise protected by the Law. The world in ancient Israel was violent and polytheistic. Our sin and sin nature created the need for the Law. Our sin has made it difficult to grasp grace and liberty. In other words, we could not have understood the ministry of Jesus in the earliest years of our humanity. The Old Testament consists of “progressive revelation.” That is, God speaks to fallen humanity in a way we can understand in the time in which we live. The progressive revelations of God lead humanity ever onward through the ages toward the gift of Jesus Christ. For example, in the creation hymns of Genesis, we have no mention of atoms, molecules, h20, or e=mc2. Why? We could not see the atoms and molecules and thus could not understand their dynamics and behavior. We have progressively grown in our ability to see and to understand. We can see even subatomic particles and molecules and witness their actions and reactions.
After the fall from Eden, we could only witness God in what we could see. We could understand God is powerful through observation of mountains, seas, and the heavens. We could understand God loves beauty from the world about us. There is a design in creation we observe in the seasons and movement of stars. Through the Old Testament narratives, poetry, prose, and books of Law we grasped the fundamental truth about God. God has always been revealing the divine nature to us through life. However, there was one question that would one day give meaning to all revelations in the Old Testament: “What is God like?” We knew God was powerful, but was God personal? We witnessed that God appeared in a personal manner to some, like Noah, Moses, and Elijah. But what about the rest of humankind? We could not yet know the fullness of God or fully understand God’s motivation behind the Lord’s creative and redeeming actions. In our fallen nature we were seeing God in a manner we could grasp at the time. As we understood the basic attributes of God like omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, we were ready for more light.
Not only were we learning and growing in our understanding of God, we were also learning about ourselves. After the fall, the world, again, was violent. Creation was used and abused, as were people. The other tribes and nations created many gods of wood and stone to explain what they could not grasp. However, it was revealed to Israel, for the sake of the world, that there is only one God. The Shema begins in Deut. 6, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one.”
We were created with a special gift. We were gifted with a conscience. As we witnessed the violence, abuse, and use of others, our conscience would not allow us to be at peace with ourselves or others. Only through participation in the violation and abuses repeatedly did we become accepting of them. Paul would later refer to this condition as the “hard heart,” or “reprobate” heart. Yet, God refused to abandon us and continued to reveal the divine nature to us. Throughout history God has called us unto himself (generic) for the purpose of a relationship. Thus, through every revelation we witnessed and embraced over time, humanity grew to understand God’s desire for us. Still, we lived with continual conflict within our conscience.
We were thus given the Law. The Law is the gift from the one and only God. The Law reveals God’s desire that we live in life-giving relationships with one another. Thus, we do not steal, covet, murder, etc. The Law provided social order for a community. The Law held Israel together as a family. The Law provided the one necessary, powerful adhesive to keep Israel together as family. As the family of God, they were themselves to become an instrument of revelation. People were to see God in Israel’s actions and interactions. The Law also represented the highest moral and ethical statement in the world. In our fallen nature we struggled to keep the Law as it was intended. Yet, in spite of our failure, we still were learning about our God.
According to Paul, the Law, though a prison, contributed to our spiritual life in two ways. Again, it revealed the high ideal of moral behavior one should live before God and with one another. The Law gifted us with a spiritual connection to God and to each other. Secondly, the high ideals of the Law revealed our inability to keep it. Since we could not perfectly keep the Law, we could not know the fullness of life God desired for us. In Galatians Paul refers to the Law as our “school master.” It is our teacher. And what does it teach according to Paul? It teaches we are sinners; we are people who fall short of the high ideals of God, thus falling short of experiencing the meaningful relationship with God and others that God desires for us.
Therefore, we sit in the prison of the Law protected. We are protected against polytheism and against social chaos and disorder. Though living under the protective benefits of the Law, the cell, we remained an imperfect people. Again, the guard (guardian) is doing us a service by keeping us bound to the Law. Notice, Jesus never claimed the Law was useless. To Jesus, the Law was a gift that revealed God’s desire for us as a people. Though it revealed God’s desire for us, it could not actually lead us to embrace it.
Paul knew the Law did not save him. He knew the Law could not save him from his past. It could not undo the persecutions he had ordered and in which he participated. It could not establish a relationship with the Lord that was strong, meaningful, and loving. The Law instructed Paul in what to do and not to do; but it failed to help Paul understand WHY he did or did not do it.
Consequently, our life in the prison of Law meant a life of frustration, failure, and uncertainty. We would constantly work harder and ask, “Is God’s favor upon me? Have I been obedient enough? Have I kept the Law?”
In the words of Paul to the Galatians, “In the fullness of time God sent forth his son, Jesus.” Jesus was given to humanity in God’s perfect time. God’s progressive revelation has reached its great climax. God’s perfect time meant that we had spiritually progressed as far as the Law could take us. Now we were ready for the ultimate revelation of light. We were ready for THE LIGHT itself. Jesus is the Light of the World. Christ would reveal the heart, passion, love, and divine nature of God. Jesus revealed more than God’s power, design, beauty, and desire for us. Jesus revealed God is unconditional love. God’s love in Christ is the greatest power in the world. God’s love in Christ is more beautiful than we can fully comprehend. God’s love in Christ reveals the design of God. From the beginning, God has been drawing us to himself for a meaningful, life-giving relationship with Lord and with each other. It is also very important to remember that God acted upon us in love first. We could not save ourselves, but through his great love in Jesus, God saved us through the gift of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament, and especially the Law, had been leading us toward the moment when the guard was no longer needed. We would no longer need to be confined or restrained by the Law. We could step into the freedom of God’s grace and love. We could walk into with the world, with the Holy Spirit within us, and begin to see God and God’s redemption far beyond the Law. Jesus offered a pure heart, for the pure in heart shall see God. Our life is no longer a static spiritual existence attempting to remain perfectly obedient to over 600 laws. In Christ we step from the Law into a journey that is non-ending. We are walking ever onward and upward in Christ. There are depths of spiritual life awaiting us in Jesus. Above all, we are saved. We are saved from our past through the forgiveness of God in Christ. We are being saved from the anger and bitterness we carried in our heart when others wounded us. We are freed to lay down our bitterness and thoughts of revenge. Our hearts can begin to walk in the serenity of the Lord. Our minds are liberated to see and experience the great depth and breadth of God’s truth in all of life. Our understanding of life grows, as our understanding of Jesus and God’s will through Jesus grows. Today, I know far more spiritually than I knew 40 years ago. This spiritual knowledge opens my eyes to the fascinating working of God in my life and in the lives of others.
So, we are thankful the Law provides us with social order, with an understanding of how we are to treat one another in the various circumstances of life. We are thankful the Law allows us to continually seek God. Jesus dismissed the guard, for the guard was no longer needed. Jesus had provided us with all we needed to live in the greater life of grace. People no longer needed the constraint of the Law. We carry one law in our hearts that guides us in every moment, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, mind and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
Have you ever attempted to earn the favor of God? Have you ever “tried harder” in your spiritual life, only to encounter frustration? Why do you think we tend to exhaust ourselves trying to please God rather than bowing in humility to accept the gift of Jesus? Can you share how the Law of Laws, the Law of Love is at work in your life? In what way does the Law of Love give you a motivation and purpose in life? How would you contrast the Law and grace? Have you recognized God at work in your journey toward Jesus? Can you recognize the moments in the past that were instrumental in leading you to Jesus? Can you recognize where the Spirit of Christ has led you since accepting and following Jesus?
Baptized into Christ and grafted into the family of Abraham and Sarah
The covenant with Abram and Sari revealed God’s great desire for a relationship with humankind. This covenant was not just intended for Abram, Sari, and their descendants; it was intended for the world. Abram (later named Abraham) and Sari (later named Sarah) and their descendants were to become the expression of God as light, truth, and love in the world. The world would learn from the family of Abraham and Sarah what it meant to live in relationship with God and in a caring, nurturing, loving relationship with one another. The Law was later given to mold, hold, and shape the family of Abraham and Sarah. However, the children of Abraham would turn inward as opposed to reaching outward. They excluded rather than included.
The Holy Spirit led Paul to recognize that Abraham’s family was not created through bloodline. It was not their biological connection that made them “the family of God.” It was the perception of Abraham’s and Sarah’s descendants as the biological family with whom God established his holy covenant that led to their exclusive behavior. Again, Paul perceived God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah as being for the world. However, Paul must have asked, “If not through bloodline, then how would the world become the redeemed children of God?” The answer was clear to Paul: it was not blood; it was faith that created the family.
The covenant people required a righteous leader.
Abraham believed God. Abraham’s faith would lead him to wait for the coming of his child. Later, his faith would lead Abraham to bind his son atop Mt. Moriah and raise the knife. Paul taught, “It wasn’t Abraham’s biological descendants that are the family of the covenant, the descendants are people of faith!” Those who believe in God, trust in God, and have faith in God are the family of God. Therefore, the family of God doesn’t exclude anyone. Jew or Greek, male and female, or slave or free - all become one family through faith.
The covenant with Abraham and Sarah was fully fulfilled through the gift of Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the incarnation of God brought men and women, old and young into a meaningful relationship with God and one another. Since the special relationship with God has been kept among the Jewish people rather than sharing the promise of God with the world, the Gentiles were perceived by the Jewish people as “outside of the family.” Within Judaism, women had far less human worth than men. The gift of Jesus broke down every divisive entity keeping people from God and each other. Thus, through faith, the Gentiles were “grafted into” the family of Abraham and Sarah. All are equal children. Every person - male and female, servant and free - were equal and equally precious to God.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham by establishing the “new covenant.” This covenant was foreseen by Jeremiah in chapter 31 as the covenant “written on the heart.” The love of God in Christ internalized the Law through the Law of Laws. We carry the love of God in our hearts. That love guides, teaches, embraces and reaches. God’s love in us is the highest of all moral ideals. Paul, to the Corinthians, referred to God’s love as “the more excellent way.” (I Cor. 13)
Can you share the differences between the covenant with Abraham and Sarah and the new covenant? What do you think it means by having the new covenant written on the heart? How does love, as defined in Christ, stand higher, more radiant, more liberating, and more life-giving than the Law? Why do you think the early Israelites excluded the world and embraced the covenant only for themselves? What do you think happens to our witness as God’s light, truth, mercy, and love when the followers of Jesus exclude others from the family of God? Though no one can exclude people from God’s family we can create a perception among people seeking God that they are disqualified. Do you think we, as the church of Jesus, fully recognize our calling to enlarge the family of God through faith? In what ways do we fail? In what ways do you see the church as being a faithful witness to the grace of God?
The Contribution of the Law to our faith journey
Paul refers to the spiritual journey of the early covenant people of Abraham. Once again, we discover Paul did not want new Christians to perceive no value in the Law. The Law became an impediment only after the gift of Jesus. Remember, Jesus dismissed the guardian at the prison cell and loosened us into the larger world, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to remain in the cell after the door is unlocked and the guardian removed represented the denial and rejection of the great liberation offered through Jesus Christ.
Equally as destructive, or perhaps more so, was to walk into freedom after accepting Jesus and the Spirit, only to have those like the Judaizers call us to put one foot back into the cell with the other outside. We needed to become a Jew first before becoming a Christian. In Jesus we stepped beyond the Law. But according to the Judaizers, to be fully saved we need to maintain our life within the cell.
If Paul strongly claimed we were no longer in need of the Law for salvation, he could offend the Jewish Christians who had been reared in the Law. They were taught the Law was the gift of God, the one gift that separated them as people from the world, the one gift that made them special to God. However, Paul had to proclaim the truth: salvation is found in Jesus alone through faith. Therefore, Paul once again reveals the Law is indeed a gift, understood in its time, and in the revelation of God in human history. Paul speaks of us as the “underaged.” Prior to the gift of Jesus, we were still on a spiritual journey; we were journeying toward the coming of Jesus. The Law protected us, united us, and awakened us to the importance of a moral life. As the underaged, we needed the Law. We needed the “taskmaster.” The Law taught us and kept us in line, for that particular part to our spiritual journey.
However, one day the underage becomes an adult. The underage youth in Paul’s metaphor represents an heir. Judaism declares he is the heir of his father’s estate. The Law took care of and protected the heir. The care and protection were needed, for the heir was too young to comprehend what it meant to be the new owner of the estate. However, there always comes a day for the heir, having reached adulthood, to be freed from the Law and receive the gift his father passes to him.
In the early years of our relationship with God, we are as spiritual babes, spiritual children who only grasp so much of God’s revelation. Our fallen nature, again, impedes our growing into maturity. n order to receive all the father has for his child, they must step beyond the guardians and caretakers.
The coming of Jesus occurred at the perfect time. Paul wrote, “In the fullness of God, God sent forth his son, born of a woman.” The guardian and caretaker - the Law - had fulfilled its necessary purpose. It was now the perfect time. The Jewish people had lived beneath the protection and benefits of the Law. But now, the Law could not help them realize the covenant life God has provided. Thus, at this perfect time, God sent forth Jesus to dismiss the guardian, to release those under the Law to walk into the new life of grace through faith. The Law was necessary THEN, but they now were ready for grace. Instead of trying to maintain a relationship with God through obedience that eventually fell short, they were invited to humbly open their hearts and receive Jesus. Consequently, they would receive the abundant life Jesus promised.
In your social development as a child was the discipline and requirements of your parents necessary for you? How did the “law of your parents or guardians” help you into maturity? Can you recall a specific moment when you began to move out of their law and into their trust? What do you think would have happened to your life if you never left your parents and lived beneath their law? As an adult who has embraced the greater life once you stepped from your family home? How did the rules and laws of your parents prepare you for your adult life? In what ways does their requirements continue to contribute to your life even though you no longer need their specific rules and law? How can you relate your own development in your childhood home as the Jewish people living beneath the Law after the coming of Jesus? How do you think the coming of Jesus represents the walk into spiritual adulthood? Do you believe it is important to embrace what the Law did for us when we were “spiritually underage” now that we are living as adult?
Prayer
Almighty God, grant us hearts of gratitude for the ways you have been drawing ourselves unto you all of our life. Thank you for being patient when we failed to look for you and your truth in life. Thank you for the liberated life we live through Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. Thank you for helping us lay aside every obstacle the excludes. Grant us a larger vision of your family of faith. Empower us to share with all in our path that there is always more to come through Christ Jesus. And grant us the courage to move from the comfort of Law and into the wonder of a new life and continued journey towards depths of life we have yet to know. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Dr. D. Craig Rikard is a South Georgia pastor. Email him at craigrikard169@yahoo.com.
