True Christianity 14
The Purpose of the LAW?
Gal 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
The natural response to Paul’s argument would then be … “Why did God then give the Law to Israel, if it serves no purpose in His plan of salvation”?
It was added … to come alongside the promise because of transgressions …
In Adam, all people are sinful by nature.
In other words, because Adam sinned, all have received the inclination to sin in their souls.
However, without the Law being specific and direct … no one would have known that they were actually transgressing God’s Holiness.
Rom 3:19-20 NKJV
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom 5:12-14 NKJV
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned–
13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
The Promise of God … The Seed, was to come through the nation of Israel.
However, when He took them from Egypt, they were filled with the ways, traditions, cultures and practices of the Egyptians.
The Egyptians were idolaters, practisers of witchcraft, spiritism and divination.
It would have been natural for many of the Hebrews to integrate many of the Egyptian practices into their worship and culture.
Amo 5:25-26 NKJV
25 “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 You also carried Sikkuth your king And Chiun, your idols, The star of your gods, Which you made for yourselves.
Lev 17:7 NKJV
7 They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.” ‘
Deu 32:17 NKJV
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
Act 7:39-43 NKJV
39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, ‘MAKE US GODS TO GO BEFORE US; AS FOR THIS MOSES WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIM.’
41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
43 YOU ALSO TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH, AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD REMPHAN, IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP; AND I WILL CARRY YOU AWAY BEYOND BABYLON.’
Jos 24:14 NKJV
14 “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
Eze 20:6-12 NKJV
6 On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands.
7 Then I said to them, ‘Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’
8 But they rebelled against Me and would not obey Me. They did not all cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said, ‘I will pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.’
9 But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles among whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
10 “Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.
11 And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them.’
12 Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.
Eze 23:8 NKJV
8 She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt, For in her youth they had lain with her, Pressed her virgin bosom, And poured out their immorality upon her.
The idolatry, witchcraft and immoral behaviour of the Egyptians had been integrated into the Hebrew way of life … the land that the LORD was taking them to, Canaan, was filled with as much if not more evil.
It was because of transgression that the LAW was added to the Blessing.
The Hebrew nation had to be taught their left hand from their right … what is holy and unholy … what is right and wrong.
They needed a system of schooling that would enlighten them to the holiness of God and the ways of fallen man.
It was because of man’s inclination to follow the fallen nature and act sinfully that the LORD added the LAW to the Promise … to guide and protect the nation of Israel ‘til Messiah should come.
Paul continues in verse 19 to say that the LAW was given by means of angels and a mediator, Moses. However, when giving the Promise of and to the Seed through Abraham … there was no mediator … God in His Triune Glory made and sealed that covenant.