The Purpose of the Law

abrisaac-blake

“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.” Galatians 3:19

Was the Law just a stop-gap measure to hold things together until Jesus was born? Was the Mosaic Covenant just a “parenthesis” between the “graceful” Covenant with Abram and the “graceful” New Covenant?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 9:02 pmand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “The Purpose of the Law”

  • Mike Bull Says:
    October 27th, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    Tim Gallant (who knows his Greek) made some helpful comments on the text:

    “Tangential in this context, perhaps – but a ‘paidagogos’ is not a tutor, but a child custodian. (Actually accents the immaturity/maturity angle more.)

    The text does not say that the law brought ‘us’ (i.e. Israel) to Christ, but that the law was our child custodian unto (i.e. until) Christ.

    To wrinkle things further, I would also add that ‘through faith in Jesus Christ’ is probably ‘through the pistis of Jesus Christ,’ not a reference to faith with Christ as its object.”

  • Travis Finley Says:
    October 27th, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Mike,

    Does your footnote answer this question, Did Abraham rise from the dead in AD 70? Or is that metaphor?

  • Mike Bull Says:
    October 27th, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    Yes. Read on…