Galatians 3:19

Galatians 3:19. What then is the law? Since the law has properly nothing to do with the Christian salvation, the question arises: To what end was it then given at all, what is its use and import? The difficulty leads the Apostle to a profound exposition or the relation of the Mosaic to the Christian religion.

It was superadded because of the transgressions. It was not the original scheme, but a subsequent addition to the promise for an interimistic educational purpose to prepare the way for the fulfilment of the promise in Christ by the development of the disease of sin which is necessary to its cure. Comp. Romans 5:20, ‘the law came in beside,' etc. ‘Because of,' or for the sake of, on account of. This is differently interpreted: (1.) In order to restrain or check transgressions; the law being a bridle to sin (a Riegel and Zugel) and preventing it from gross outbreaks (1 Timothy 1:9-10). The Jews were, indeed, more moral in their outward deportment than the heathen. But this did not generally predispose them more favorably for the gospel. And then Paul speaks here not of the general restrictive and detective significance of the law which it has to this day, but simply of its propædeutic office as a preparation for Christ (comp. Galatians 3:24 ff.). (2.) In order to punish the transgressor, and thus to quicken the moral sense and the desire for redemption. (3.) In order to multiply the transgressions (‘for the benefit of,' comp. the Gr. κάριν here used); the law acting as a stimulant on the sinful desire, and calling it out into open exercise (Romans 5:20; Romans 7:5; Romans 7:7-8; Romans 7:10; 1 Corinthians 15:56). This bad effect arises not from the law itself, which is good and holy (Romans 7:12; Romans 7:14; Romans 7:22), and which was one of the great blessings of Israel (Romans 9:4), but from the sinful nature of man whose bad passions are pricked and roused by the law, so that the very prohibition tempts him to transgression (Romans 7:13 ff.; Romans 8:3). (4.) In order to bring sin to light, and to make it appear in its true character as a transgression of the divine law, and thus, by the knowledge of the disease, to prepare its cure. Comp. Romans 4:15: ‘Where no law is, there is no transgression;' Romans 3:20: ‘By the law is the knowledge of sin;' Romans 7:7-8: ‘Without the law sin was dead.' The choice lies between the last two interpretations, which are, in fact, closely connected; for it is by the very development of sin in the form of transgression that its true nature is understood, the sense of guilt awakened, and the desire for deliverance increased.

The disease of sin must reach the crisis before the restoration could take place, and so far we may say that God willed the development of sin with the view to its complete suppression by the future redemption. Comp. Romans 5:20: ‘The law came in beside, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, the gift of grace did still more abound.'

The seed, i.e., Christ, as in Galatians 5:16.

Being ordained (or enacted) by angels (by the ministry of angels). According to Josephus and the Jewish tradition, the angels acted as the ministers and organs of God in the promulgation of the Mosaic law. The angels mediated between God and Moses, and Moses mediated between the angels and the people of Israel. This view is based upon the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 33:2 (‘Jehovah.... shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints,' to which the Septuagint adds: ‘on his right hand the angels with him'), and indorsed in two other passages of the New Testament (Acts 7:53; Acts 7:58, and Hebrews 2:2. It may be inferred from the general mode of divine revelation which is mediated through agencies.

Through the hand of a mediator, i.e., Moses, who received (on Mount Sinai) the tables of the law from God through the angels, and brought them down to the people. Hence he is often called Mediator in Rabbinical books. There were thus two intervening links between Jehovah and the people, a human mediator (Moses), and superhuman agents of God (the angels). This double agency may have been mentioned here either for the purpose of lowering the law in comparison with the gospel where God spoke in his Son directly to men and invites them to commune with Him without the mediation of man or angel; or for the purpose of enhancing the solemnity of the enactment of the law as a preparation for the gospel. The view we take of this design, depends somewhat on the interpretation of Galatians 3:20.

Most of the ancient fathers falsely refer the passage to Christ, misled by 1 Timothy 2:5. But He is the mediator of the gospel, not of the law. Comp. Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24. Here he would be coordinated with, or rather subordinated to, the angels and represented as a mere agent, which is altogether foreign to the mind of Paul. Some modern interpreters think of the Metatron, the Angel of the Covenant, who according to the latter Jewish theology instructed Moses in the law.