December 10, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Shelf Life of the Law

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Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, when things are dark, let what You have done for me in Jesus Christ be a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.

Read Galatians 3:15-22

[15] Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. [16] The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. [17] What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. [18] For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. [19] Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. [20] A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. [21] Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. [22] But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

Advent is about waiting, looking, hoping. The Old Testament People of God looked for the Seed, the Deliverer. We look and yearn for the Returning Triumphant Lord.

A church I know has a pair of stained-glass windows representing the Old Testament and the New. Their names are “Law” and “Love.” Christians sometimes draw a very stark contrast between these two phases of God’s work, yet Paul sees continuity too. He sees the Old Testament as a story without an ending, yearning for a promise that waits beyond the horizon. The Old Testament is thirst; the New is water. The story of Abraham in Genesis is part of Israel’s longing for a “seed,” a coming son who would make God’s grace seem real in an intense and new way. In him God’s promise would be fulfilled. Hope would take flesh, and, as we read yesterday, the blessing of Abraham would reach out to the families of the world.
The Law that Moses brought, a few centuries after Abraham, could not deliver that hope. The Law had a purpose, certainly. It was given “because of transgressions” (19). It named and defined sin and pointed plainly and positively towards right patterns of conduct, but it carried a built-in frustration, because rigorous law is always difficult to obey. This seems to be what Paul means by “a curse” (Gal. 3:10). Israel’s journey with the Law had proved a wayward and winding road, rather than a straight and sure path. Her history had included disaster as well as delight. Now the “curse” had been lifted—absorbed and nullified by the death of Jesus (Gal. 3:13).
Paul thinks of God’s purposes moving on, not from law to love, but from a provisional arrangement to a longer-term and firmer promise. The Law was given “until the Seed… had come” (19). Now its job was done and the boundary it had put around Israel was being broken open by the Good News of Jesus.

A church I know has a pair of stained-glass windows representing the Old Testament and the New. Their names are “Law” and “Love.” Christians sometimes draw a very stark contrast between these two phases of God’s work, yet Paul sees continuity too. He sees the Old Testament as a story without an ending, yearning for a promise that waits beyond the horizon. The Old Testament is thirst; the New is water. The story of Abraham in Genesis is part of Israel’s longing for a “seed,” a coming son who would make God’s grace seem real in an intense and new way. In him God’s promise would be fulfilled. Hope would take flesh, and, as we read yesterday, the blessing of Abraham would reach out to the families of the world.

The Law that Moses brought, a few centuries after Abraham, could not deliver that hope. The Law had a purpose, certainly. It was given “because of transgressions” (19). It named and defined sin and pointed plainly and positively towards right patterns of conduct, but it carried a built-in frustration, because rigorous law is always difficult to obey. This seems to be what Paul means by “a curse” (Gal. 3:10). Israel’s journey with the Law had proved a wayward and winding road, rather than a straight and sure path. Her history had included disaster as well as delight. Now the “curse” had been lifted—absorbed and nullified by the death of Jesus (Gal. 3:13).

Paul thinks of God’s purposes moving on, not from law to love, but from a provisional arrangement to a longer-term and firmer promise. The Law was given “until the Seed… had come” (19). Now its job was done and the boundary it had put around Israel was being broken open by the Good News of Jesus.

Apply

Were there stages in your walk with God from which it was right to move on? Did anyone get to know God better as a result?

Closing prayer

Lord, in this broken and shattered world, may the Good News of the Gospel do its healing, reconciling work.

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