Galatians 3:19

The Purpose and Use of the Law in relation to the Justification of the Sinner

19. If then the promise is not affected by the law, so that no new condition of justification is imposed by it, the question naturally arises, -Why was the law given?" To this the Apostle has an answer ready. It was not given to limit, much less to supersede the promise. The promise and the law are like two circles, which touch, but do not intersect each other: each perfect of its kind, because both alike Divine in their origin. But in answering the question which he has anticipated, St Paul shews the inferiority of the law in several particulars to the earlier and -better covenant" (Hebrews 8:6). (1) The law condemns: it cannot give life, because no man can fulfil its conditions. It provokes transgression, convinces of sin, and denounces punishment. (2) It was superadded as a parenthetical and temporary dispensation, commencing with the national life of the Jewish people, and terminating with the Advent of the Seed to whom the promise was given. (3) It was not delivered immediately, like the promises to Abraham, but mediately by Moses in the presence of Angels as attesting witnesses. (4) It was a contract between God and man, life depending on the fulfilment of its terms, and was therefore conditional, and not absolute like the promise.

it was added Yet not so as to interfere with the promise. If any one man had succeeded in rendering perfect obedience to the law, he would have been justified, no less than they to whom the righteousness of Another was imputed by faith.

because of transgressions Dismissing the explanations, -to check" or -to punish" transgressions, we may make St Paul his own interpreter. In Romans 5:20 he says that the law -intervened that the offence might abound"; in Romans 7:13, that the commandment was given in order that sin -might be shewn to be sin … that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful." Nay, he testifies that himself had not known sin -except through the law" (Romans 7:7), for -through the law is the knowledge of sin". And yet further, -the strength of sin is the law" (1 Corinthians 15:56). From a comparison of these and other passages we infer that the purpose for which the law was given was not on the one hand the restraint or punishment of sin, nor on the other the increase of evil in the world. The evil existed already and was active. But its real nature, as an offence against God, rebellion against His authority, was not felt until that authority was expressed in the form of command and prohibition, that is, of law. The barrier which obstructs the force of the stream does not add to its force; it reveals the force by the resistance which it offers.

till the seed should come This marks the limits of its operation.

the seed That is, Christ. Surely it was by no accident that the term employed in the Abrahamic covenant is the same which is used in the yet earlier gospel (Genesis 3:15). The seed of Abraham is the seed of the woman.

to whom the promise was made Lit. has been made. The promise was not annulled by the law. It continued in force, awaiting its fulfilment. This seems to be expressed by the perfect tense.

and was ordained by angels -having been enjoined, or enacted, by means of angels". In Deuteronomy 33:2 we read, R.V. -The Lord came from Sinai, And rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, And He came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At His right hand was a fiery law unto them." The expression, -with ten thousands of His saints" is, literally, -from (amidst) myriads of holiness", or -holy myriads." The R.V. -the ten thousands of holy ones" is not a literal rendering, but a paraphrase denoting the angels; and though the LXX. render the clause, -with myriads of Kades", they add (apparently from a different Hebrew text), -on His right angels (were) with Him". The older versions and -expositors generally agree in the common rendering". Lightfoot. That angels were present as attesting witnesses at the giving of the law was a common opinion among the Rabbinic teachers, and allusion is made to it not only by St Paul in this passage, but by St Stephen (Acts 7:53), by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. Galatians 2:2), and by Josephus (Antt. xv. 5. 3). Regarded as the retinue of the Supreme Lawgiver, the angels by their presence added solemnity to the occasion. But that very presence emphasized the fact that the law was of the nature of a contract, conditional, not absolute, a transaction between two parties, not the spontaneous revelation of mercy by Him who -is One".

by the hand of A Hebraism nearly equivalent to, -by means of" or simply -by". It is so used frequently in the O.T., e.g. Numbers 4:37, when Moses and Aaron are said to have numbered the people -according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses [27] ". See Acts 7:35.

[27] The LXX. translates, -by the voice of the Lord in the hand of Moses."

a mediator The noun thus rendered occurs in four other passages of the N. T. (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24), and in all of them refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. In the three latter He is expressly termed the Mediator of the new or better covenant. Herethe mediator is associated with the first covenant. In the epistle to Timothy our Lord is a mediator -between God and man". Here the mediator is between God and the people of Israel, i.e. of course, Moses. These considerations, together with a due regard to the general scope of the passage, lead to the rejection of the view that in this passage the Mediator is our Lord indeed such a view may astonish us, though supported by such eminent names as Origen, Jerome, Augustine, and Chrysostom. Neither the noun nor the corresponding verb (see Hebrews 6:17) is found in the LXX., though its reference to Moses in the passage before us is confirmed by his own declaration, -The Lord our God made a covenant with you in Horeb.… I stood between the Lord and you at that time to shew you the word of the Lord", Deuteronomy 5:2; Deuteronomy 5:5. The -covenant" was the law of the Ten Commandments.