January 29 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: Galatians 3:19-21 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

We saw yesterday that the Law was given because of the sins of mankind. The Israelites were sinning against God and against their own conscience, but because there was no written law they could argue that they weren't really doing anything wrong. Thus, God established the Law to make their sins obvious. There was no longer any question as to whether a Jew was doing the right or wrong thing, because one could simply read the Law to find out. Verse 19 concludes by saying that the Law "was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator". There are two things seen here. First, even though it is not mentioned specifically in Exodus when Israel is at Mt Sinai, the Bible indicates that angels were involved in giving the Law to Moses. Several verses show this. In the Old Testament, Psalm 68:17 states,

"The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place,"

"The LORD came from Sinai...and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them."

"This is he (Moses), that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai",

"Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it."

"For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast".

Second, verses 19-20 speak of a mediator. A mediator is someone who stands in the middle between two people and brings them together. He is basically a neutral and trusted person in the middle, often referred to as a "go-between". The mediator in verse 19 is either Moses or the angels or both, since God spoke through them to give His Law to Israel. However, in verse 20 Paul appears to be saying that there is no mediator needed when there is only one person involved in an arrangement, and since God is one, there are times when no mediator is necessary in His dealings with men. This section is difficult to interpret, and some have written that there have been hundreds of interpretations given to this verse. My opinion of what is being taught here is this: Paul is giving another reason why the Abrahamic Covenant is superior to the Mosaic Covenant. He has already shown that the Law can not save and that the Mosaic Law can not annul the Abrahamic Covenant. In verse 19 he writes that the Law was only given because of the sins of the people, and that the Law was only temporary because it would be done away in Christ. Now he points out that, while the Mosaic Covenant required a mediator, the Abrahamic Covenant was an unconditional covenant, so it needed no mediator. The Mosaic Covenant was an agreement between two parties: God and Israel: if Israel obeyed, God would bless, and if they did not, He would curse (Joshua 8:34). In the Abrahamic Covenant, God was the only One involved in making the covenant. Abraham was a witness to the covenant and was a beneficiary, but he was not a party to it. He had no part in establishing or keeping the covenant. That responsibility was God's alone. Therefore, no mediator was required, and thus God's covenant with Abraham is superior to the Mosaic Covenant, and its promise of justification by faith alone stands true and unchallengeable.

Back in verse 19 Paul anticipated the question, what purpose does the Law serve? Now in verse 21 he anticipates the next question: is the law against the promises of God? The Judaizers' rebuttal would be that if Paul was correct then God had given a law to Moses that contradicted the covenant that He had previously given Abraham. Is this accurate? God forbid! We will look at this more in depth tomorrow.