The Law and the Promise
Tom Shrader works through Galatians 3:10–29, arguing that God's moral law cannot save anyone because it demands perfect compliance and instead condemns all who fall short. Christ redeemed believers from that curse by living a sinless life and dying as a substitute, exchanging His righteousness for human sin. The passage concludes with Paul's declaration that all who are in Christ — Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free — are equally heirs of the promise made to Abraham.
“God loves you — not based on your heritage, not based on anything you've done, but upon Christ and what He's done.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Galatians: Fighting for Grace
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 47 min
Themes: grace, law, salvation, faith, redemption, promise, equality, works, new believer, struggling with guilt, feeling unworthy, works-based thinking, doubting salvation, seeker, young adult, questioning faith
Scripture: Galatians 1:4, Galatians 1:6, Galatians 2:11, Galatians 2:14, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:10-29, Galatians 3:10, Galatians 3:11, Galatians 3:12, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:14, Galatians 3:17, Galatians 3:19, Galatians 3:24, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 3:27, Galatians 3:29, Deuteronomy 21, Deuteronomy 27:26, Habakkuk 2:4, Leviticus, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 3:20, Romans 7:7, Romans 7:24, James 2:2, James 2:10, Acts 5:30, Acts 13:29, 1 Peter 2:24, Ephesians 1:4-13, Ephesians 4
Theological Themes: justification, saved by faith, substitutionary atonement, the curse of the law, covenant, abrahamic promise, imputed righteousness, soteriology
Full Transcript
Introduction: The Stakes of the Gospel
The book of Galatians — today we are looking at a long passage: chapter 3, verse 10 through 29, that is, chapter 3, verse 10 through the end of the chapter. I want to remind you of this: Tim last week, as he was teaching, was reminding us that we are reading this and breaking it down. When the original recipients got this letter, it was really designed to be read straight through. But we are breaking it down because we want to make sure we truly understand it. Our conversations in the preaching collective and with one another are interesting in that we feel like we are saying very similar things week after week. The reason is that is simply the way the letter is written. It addresses a huge issue, and what is at stake is the gospel.
Remember what we looked at in week one? There was Paul's standard introduction, and in chapter 1, verse 6, he said, "I'm amazed how quickly you deserted him. I'm amazed how quickly you pursued a different gospel." What had happened is that Paul had gone to these churches, they had come to repentance in Christ, and churches were established. Then the Judaizers came in behind him and said: Paul did not get it right. Paul had only half the gospel. Paul was teaching that we are saved by grace through faith, and that salvation was utterly and completely a work of God. However, as the message spread to the Gentiles, the Judaizers were saying you need to become Jews to be real Christians.
So Paul takes this on deliberately. I will say — and I am not certain this is true — but I believe it is the only time that in his introduction, verse 4, he places the gospel right there: "Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sin, that he might deliver us out of this present age according to the will of God and our Father." What is at stake is this gospel. What is at stake is what it means to be — using Paul's word — delivered, or using words we will see today, justified and redeemed.
The Core Problem: A Barrier Between God and Man
Let us make sure we understand this, because it has been true since Genesis 3: God and man have been separated. When we talk about God and when we talk about man, we understand there is a barrier between us, and that barrier is sin — that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You are going to hear that same truth over and over again today. So the question becomes: how can a sinful man and a holy God be reconciled?
There are essentially two answers to that question, and Paul is dealing with both of them — and we certainly deal with them today. One is some version of man reaching to God. It may include Jesus, even His death on the cross, but it comes with some human effort attached. As we look at words today, it will be expressed as the idea of the law — keeping the rules, primarily God's moral law — dealing with law, behavior, and rules. The second way, biblical Christianity, is a holy God reaching down to sinful man, with salvation supplied by grace. One is about what you do; the other is about what God did. That is the whole essence of this book. That is the issue, that is the battle.
Paul's Confrontation with Peter and the Nature of the Gospel
This was important enough to the churches of Galatia that, if you remember chapter 2, verse 11, when Peter came to Antioch, Paul opposed him to his face, and verse 14 tells us he did it publicly and straightforwardly. Why? Because this is a gigantic issue. When the Judaizers come along, are they just tweaking the gospel, or is it still the gospel with something added to it? Paul is saying no. That is what we saw in chapter 1, verse 6 — it is a different gospel. Here is the gospel: Jesus died in your place. Put your faith and trust in Him, and you shall be saved, redeemed, and granted eternal life. You will be spiritually alive, where right now you are spiritually dead.
Justified by Faith, Not by the Law
A couple of weeks ago we looked at chapter 2, verse 16, where Paul states this negatively: "a man is not justified." Let us remind ourselves of the term. Justified means declared righteous in the sight of God, vindicated of any charges of sin — it is the opposite of condemned. So a man does not come into right relationship with God, vindicated of his sin, by the works of the law. Rather, he is justified by faith in Christ, by believing in Jesus.
That phrase "in Christ" becomes very important. We studied — and I am not the best with times and dates — but not long ago we went through the book of Ephesians, and I believe in just the first chapter, verses 4 through 13, we saw that phrase "in Christ" eight times. It appears in the book of Ephesians roughly 26 times, about 16 times in this book, and 35 or 36 times in the book of Romans. And that is just a brief count across three of Paul's letters. He comes back again and again to this idea of "in Christ."
What does that mean? It means I come to the point where I place my faith and trust in Christ, and now I am His. I am in Him. I am resting in Him. I am not resting in my works before God. I am not coming before God and saying, "Look what I have done." I am coming before God and saying, "Look what Jesus has done," and I am trusting Him. And then Paul goes on and says it again: "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."
Three Dimensions of Justification
He cannot be more clear. What we just did with that verse is essentially what we will be doing for the rest of today's passage. Paul states his point in three dimensions. In a general sense, verse 16 says a man is not justified by works of the law. In a personal sense, he says we were justified because we believed in Christ. In a universal sense, he is saying there is no way for justification by law to possibly take place — no flesh, none at all.
A quick word on terms as we move forward: when Paul talks about the law in writing to the Jews, he is talking about God's moral law.
The Curse of the Law
Works of the law represent our attempt to make ourselves acceptable before a holy God. Another word we encounter in this passage is "redeemed." In chapter 3, verse 13, Paul says Christ redeemed us. Redeemed is a word commonly used of somebody buying a slave's freedom. Christ bought us out of bondage — in this case, the bondage of slavery to sin.
Jesus came not to be served but to serve, and we understand that part. But the rest of that verse tells us He came to give His life a ransom for many — to buy His people back, to pay the price for our sin.
Six Key Verses
In working through this passage, the goal is to make sure we get the big picture. Going too deep into all the background risks losing the forest for the trees — that is what the study guide is for. This will be a complete study, but there are many ways to spend time in these verses, and what matters most is grasping the central argument.
In verse 10, Paul says, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law." That curse is divine judgment. Then in verse 11, he states that no one is justified by the law — no one is declared righteous before God on the basis of law-keeping. That point has come up repeatedly, and it bears repeating: justification is never by the law.
Living by Faith
Verse 11 continues: "The righteous man will live by faith." Paul is quoting from Habakkuk 2:4. The point is not only that I am justified by faith at the moment of salvation, but that I live by faith every single day. I must preach the gospel to myself daily, because every day I still sin.
When I sin, what I am essentially saying is, "God, I don't believe You. I don't trust You. At this moment, whatever this is, it is more important than You." So often that is driven by fear — fear of man, fear of what people think, fear that God will not provide. The answer is to stop and remember: there is no reason to be afraid of what God is doing.
Biblical Hope vs. Worldly Hope
When the Bible says we live by faith, it connects that to hope — but we use that word very differently than Scripture does. In everyday speech, "I hope" means something like "maybe it will happen, maybe it won't." It is far from certain. But when the Bible talks about hope, it refers to something future that is as certain to take place as things that have already happened in the past, because it is grounded in God's promises — not in something that may or may not occur.
Faith, Forgiveness, and Daily Life
Living by faith is a daily, moment-by-moment reality. Right now, you may feel lonely, isolated, beaten down, or guilty. Perhaps last night involved something you consider almost unforgivable — and yet God says you are forgiven. Here is where things get complicated for us.
When we sin, one side of us says we are forgiven and it is done. The other side says, "How could I ever let God down?" — and we wallow in guilt. The right balance holds both truths together: I know I am forgiven, and yet that does not produce a cavalier attitude. It produces genuine remorse, repentance, and sorrow before God — but not a debilitating sorrow. It is a sorrow that says God has forgiven me and will still use me. As Paul puts it, forgetting what lies behind, I press forward for what lies ahead and for the very purpose for which God saved me.
Christ Redeems Us from the Curse
Verse 13 states plainly: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." The law produces death, cursed judgment — and God, through Christ, redeems us from it. That redemption, however, raises an obvious question, which Paul addresses in verse 19: if salvation was always through promise and faith, then why did God give the law at all? The Judaizers were pressing exactly this point — you had Abraham's promises, and then along came the law. If salvation is found in the promise, what is the purpose of the law? That is the question the passage now turns to answer.
The Law Cannot Save
This becomes hugely practically important. Verse 24 tells us that the law is a tutor, and the tutor — how remarkable is this — leads us to Christ so that we can be justified by faith. Verse 26 says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus," and verse 27 references baptism. Paul uses the word "all" there, and what he is doing is addressing a real issue they faced: the separation and segregation between Jew and Gentile. Then verse 29, which will lead us right into next week's discussion, says, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise" — the promise to Abraham.
The point is this: your works or the law do not save you — they condemn you. You are justified, or declared righteous before God, based on your faith in Christ, not on anything you can do. That is always the battle.
Over the last three weeks, God has put me in some amazing situations. I have spent an enormous amount of time with men who would carry Bibles and go to church, but who, if you push them, I do not think they truly grasp this concept. The way I can tell — and I do not mean this in a judgmental way — is that when I present grace to them, they want to talk about whether you can lose your salvation.
I have had a great many conversations lately around that idea — the phrase we use is "once saved, always saved." These men engage in all kinds of theological gymnastics over it. I would say to them: the reason you even grapple with that is because you do not understand how you got into the relationship with Christ to begin with. If you understood how you entered that relationship, you would not be worried about getting out of it, because it is a one-way ticket that He bought, He paid for, He gave to you, and He guarantees. It is simply a matter of recognizing that you are in the family of God.
You are united with Him, and that union is inseparable. The vitality of that union can be challenged, however. Think of it in human terms — those of you who are husband and wife have a union that is designed to be permanent, but sometimes, if we are honest, it feels more energizing than others. Sometimes you feel so close to one another, and other times you are thinking something very different. It is almost impossible to operate at one constant level all the time. The same is true with Christ. I am in a union with Him that is unbreakable, though sometimes it is richer than others.
I did a great deal of reading in preparation for today — which, by the way, guarantees nothing other than tired eyes. There were moments this week where I was genuinely swept away for a half hour, an hour, even two, where I would lose track of time entirely. There were other moments where I read the text and thought, "Hmm, this must be the exception." That is just the nature of it. What we want is to understand that we are in that relationship, and to go forward from there.
Cursed by the Law
Verse 10 says, "For as many as are under the works of the law" — in other words, those who say to God: I just want what I deserve; You don't bother me, I won't bother You; give me what I deserve. That is the law. And the law is a curse. "Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all the things the law says." Paul is quoting here from Deuteronomy 27:26.
What he is saying is this: if you want to tell God that your relationship with Him will be based on your own terms, your own compliance with His law, then what you read in Deuteronomy 27:26 is that you are cursed. It is divine judgment, because the law cannot save anyone. Why? Because the law demands perfect, continuing compliance.
We all know this, even without knowing the Bible. Finish the sentence: nobody's perfect. What does that mean? We all sin. The point Scripture is making is that we as human beings want to grade that on a curve. When I was in high school, the standards were rigid — 93 to 100 was an A, 85 to 93 was a B, and so on down the line. If my average was 92.99999, the answer was: that is not 93, that is a B.
When I got to college, I got a test back marked 63 and thought that was not good — until I saw the letter grade beside it: C. I thought, I am going to like this. That is grading on a curve. The only thing better than grading on a curve, in my experience, was the honor system. Those were the great discoveries of college.
Now I come to God. We want to bring that same mentality — grade me on a curve, give me partial credit, let the average work in my favor. But the law does not work that way. The law demands perfect, unbroken compliance, and that is precisely why it cannot save us.
The Impossibility of the Law
When we establish standards and then discover nobody can pass them, what do we do? We lower the standards. That is what we do all the time. We come to the law and we say, "Is God serious?" He is serious. That is why there is a curse under the law. That is why your works will never be acceptable to a holy God. You come to Him saying, "God, look at this. I'll stipulate for purposes of discussion that I'm not perfect, but look at this bucket of good things that I did." And He is saying, no. As James writes, if you break one law, you break the law. Everything in us is contrary to that. It was just one little thing.
So then we can get into all sorts of discussions that sound like semantics but are not. How many sins do I need to commit to be a sinner? In reality, none, because I am born that way. But all of us have sinned. Under the law, the law is a tenacious taskmaster that demands complete compliance all of my life. Therefore, you are cursed under the law.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
In verse 11, Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2:4: "The righteous man will live by faith." No one is justified by the law before God. Righteousness before God demands faith. The law cannot save. Paul uses this quote from Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians, in Romans, and possibly in Colossians. The author of Hebrews — whether that is Paul or not, people differ — uses it there as well.
In Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul writes, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes," Jew and Gentile alike. Then in verse 17: "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, demonstrated, from faith to faith, for it is written that the righteous man shall live by faith." Martin Luther said that when he understood Romans 1:17, the doors of heaven swung open and he walked through.
Luther's Transformation
Luther was a Catholic monk desperately trying to find some sort of absolution for his sin. The pope declared that if you walked up a certain stairway in a church, this would remove you from the punishment of hell to come. It was believed that Jesus' blood was shed on that stair, along with all that goes with it. Luther's son writes about his father climbing that staircase and records this: as Luther repeated his prayers on that staircase, the words of the prophet Habakkuk suddenly came to him — "The just shall live by faith." Thereupon he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of all doctrine. Luther no longer believed that there was anything he could do to gain favor with God, and he began to live by faith in God's Son.
Luther himself later said, "Before those words broke my mind, I hated God and was angry with Him. But when the Spirit of God helped me understand these words — I live by faith — I shall be born again." That phrase comes up over and over again. The principle of the law is that I will do something, live by works, and please God. The problem with the law is that you cannot live up to it.
Luther also writes about God speaking to you and me in this way: "If you wish to placate Me, don't offer Me your works and merits, but believe in Jesus Christ, My only Son, who was born, who suffered, who was crucified, who died for your sins. Then I will accept and pronounce you righteous." That is the whole point Paul is making.
Works, the Law, and Condemnation
In verse 12, Paul quotes from Leviticus: "He who practices them must live by them." If you say you want to live by the law, you practice the law, you are under the law — and with it comes condemnation. You are relying on your own efforts for your salvation. Whether Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy, Habakkuk, or Leviticus, it comes to the same conclusion James reaches in James 2:10: "Whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at one point becomes guilty of all the law." And Romans 3:20: "By the deeds of the law there is no flesh that will be justified in God's sight."
The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it this way: "No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth break them in thought, word, and deed daily." What you think, what you do, what you say — they are all there. And all of this only covers sins of commission. It does not even touch sins of omission, which are the things you should do that you are not doing.
The Universal Problem of Sin
Paul's point, made over and over again, is that your sin — and therefore your works, because they are sinful works — is all you are presenting to God when you come before Him. All you are presenting to Him is your sinful work, and He is saying that is not going to work. The fundamental problem of humanity is sin, and it is universal.
It seems to me that if there is any doctrine in Scripture for which we find overwhelming empirical data when we look around, it is the sinfulness of man. Brothers and sisters cannot get along. Neighbors cannot get along. Nations cannot get along. Football teams cannot get along with each other. Basketball teams cannot get along. Our sin is all around us.
Redeemed from the Curse
I didn't like the guy. I didn't like the way he looked — that's probably not fair — but he had a self-righteous kind of smugness about him. I moved away and said, "What was that?" He said the man had just told him that he hadn't sinned in three years. So my assessment was accurate. Now, I'm not saying — maybe he hasn't. Let me do a little Paul Harvey here and give you the rest of the story. Six months later, his wife divorced him, so apparently living with perfection is very difficult.
We've all sinned. You did this morning, and you probably are right now. If the standard is to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul — have you done that for a day, for an hour, for a minute? That's the law. It just heaps condemnation on us.
Verse 13: "But Christ redeemed us from the curse." Paul quotes again from Deuteronomy 21: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, to give His life a ransom for many, to redeem us, to buy us back. The phrase "hung on a tree" would have been immediately understood by Jewish listeners as the fate of a common criminal — a punishment.
Acts 5:30 states: "The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging on a tree." Peter uses the same idea in 1 Peter 2:24: "Jesus himself bore our sins in his body and hung on a tree." Paul, in his testimony in Acts 13:29, also speaks of Jesus being taken down from a tree. For Jewish listeners, this was the sticking point — they would say this is blasphemy. Along comes this claimed Messiah, and you say He hung on a tree? That's the fate of a common criminal.
The Great Exchange
But what Jesus did in His life was to perfectly keep the law. In that moment on the cross, He encountered what Luther called a "fortunate exchange" and what my friend Larry Wright called the "great exchange." Jesus lived a perfect life. He, the exception, complied with the law. He was by nature God and sinless, and He maintained that throughout His life. When He died on the cross, in this sacred transaction, this great exchange, we trade our sin and receive His righteousness.
God declares sinful people to be holy in His sight based on what Christ did on the cross — not based on what we do. That is why Christ cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" At that moment this transaction was taking place. All the punishment and wrath that you deserve was given to Christ at that moment, so that now a holy God can declare you righteous. He doesn't look at your sinful works; He looks at Christ's perfect life and perfect sacrifice.
So Paul says here in verse 14 that in Christ Jesus we received this blessing of Abraham and the promise to come. And it's not just "we the Jews" — it's Jew and Gentile together. It's the promise of the Holy Spirit to come. It's that idea of being in Christ.
What It Means to Be "In Christ"
I would come back to you again and say there are people who say they want to do a Bible study on this. Find a good Bible program — you can get them for free online — and look up the phrase "in Christ." Take from now until Memorial Day, which is 99 days from today, and just look at that phrase and see what Scripture, primarily Paul, is telling us about what it means to be in Christ.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that we receive every spiritual blessing in Christ. He says it here too. The power of the Holy Spirit means that we have God — not just that we're in relationship with God, but that we are now indwelt by God. A few years ago there was a popular song by Bette Midler built around the idea that God is a distant God who watches us from afar and does not intervene in human affairs. The Bible teaches not only that He is involved in human affairs, not only that He sees the sparrow that falls and has the hairs on your head numbered, but also that He indwells His people. That is the promise of Abraham.
The Law and the Promise Contrasted
That contrast is what we get from verses 15 through 21 — the contrast between the law and the promise to Abraham. The promise to Abraham is a promise God makes. It is a covenant. A covenant is not like a contract; it is a unilateral document in which God says, "This is what I will do." Paul says that covenant, that promise, cannot be — verse 17 — invalidated. It was ratified; it cannot be amended.
The analogy breaks down a little when we apply it to a modern last will and testament, because in the United States a will can be established, redone, and modified. But in Greek law, once a will was declared it was done — finished. It became public record and could never be altered. That may be what Paul has in mind. What he is clearly saying is that God will not change His mind.
The law comes along and condemns. But God comes along with the promise to Abraham — not the land and all that, but the promise of the Spirit, the promise fulfilled in Jesus — and Paul says that is our promise. The law says "thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt." The promise says "I will, I will, I will."
Why Then the Law?
That leads right into the discussion in verse 19: then why the law? Why even have it? God has made this promise — why would this law come along at all? Paul says in verse 19 that it was added because of the transgressions. The law does not come to save you. It curses you if you say you want to live by your own human efforts, because you cannot do it.
Some of you are trying. You're saying, "I'm going to do the best I can." Some of you, even as you talk about coming to Jesus, say, "I kind of need to clean up my act first." How clean do you want to get it? Paul is saying you can't.
The Law Reveals Our Sinfulness
Unless you can get the law to perfect what you cannot do — because you have already failed. I understand, and I try to put myself in the place of those of you who are hearing this for the first time, either literally hearing it or perhaps with God opening your ears to it. It can feel really heavy. It feels desperate. And you feel that way because you are desperate — that is exactly why He gave you the law. He gave you the law to produce in you a sense of hopelessness.
In a sense, the law makes you sin even more, in that you now recognize what a sinful person you are. Romans chapter 7, verse 7: "If it had not been for the law, Paul wrote, I would not have known sin." Luther writes this — and the rest of this quote is why Luther didn't get invited to a lot of places: "Therefore the true function and the chief and proper use of the law is to reveal to man his sin, blindness, misery, wickedness, ignorance, hate, contempt for God, death, hell, judgment, and well-deserved wrath of God." So what the law does is stir up in us every desire to break it.
A friend came to private living — he came to the first service here on Sunday — and he had had a very serious shoulder operation about a month ago. He was walking around in a sling, but he found that every person who came by would want to stop and talk about it. So he put a big piece of white tape on his sling, and on it were the words "Do Not Touch." I said to him, "Has that helped?" He said, "No, it has intensified the number of people who come up and ask what is wrong."
Wet paint. You know how that works. That is, by the way, Martyn Lloyd-Jones's argument against certain approaches to sex education. When you tell a child not to do something, all you are doing is making the child want to do it — because they do not trust you, and they do not believe in everything that goes with the instruction. That is what the law does. The law comes along and all it does is reveal to me what a sinful person I am.
The Law as Tutor Leading to Christ
Here it is — Romans chapter 7, verse 24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death?" What can deliver him? Christ. The gospel. The promise that was made to Abraham.
The law, as verse 24 describes, is the tutor. Some translations — the King James and perhaps others — render "tutor" as "teacher" or "schoolmaster," but that is not the best translation. The tutor in the Greek or Roman world was a slave in the household whose role was to take care of the child and get him to school, but not to train him. He was the caretaker, the custodian. So what is the appropriate use of the law? Look at verse 24: "The law became our tutor for this reason, to lead us to Christ, that we will be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the tutor." I am not under the law anymore.
The law comes along and says: here is the bad news — you are cursed, you are separated from God, there is nothing you can do, you cannot make it right. For the third time, all you are doing is presenting your sinful works to God and asking Him to somehow declare you righteous. You cannot. But the law points us to Christ — the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
That is why we come back to this over and over again. There is a sense in which you think, "I don't know that I can hear that too much." I need to be reminded of that every day. I need to bask in the beauty, the joy, the love of it. The idea that God loves you — maybe you need to hear that today. God loves you. How do I know? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish." If I am under the law, I am cursed and I perish. But in Christ, I shall not perish.
No Partiality in Christ
This promise is not just for the Jews. Verse 26 makes clear that all of us are sons of God through Christ. All were baptized into Him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus." If I believe in Christ, I am His.
Let me make this as plain as I can: as God judges and looks at people in Christ, He is impartial. He shows no partiality. And then He says to us: you do likewise. Now, He is not saying there are no longer any distinctions — for example, between male and female — because God comes along in His Word and establishes the role of a man and the role of a woman. But we distort that. A man comes along and browbeats his wife, and that is a perversion of what God said. Then I have other men say to me, "I cannot work for a woman." Why? "Well, the Bible says..." What does the Bible say? It says a wife is to submit to her husband. Are you working for your wife? That is not what the text means. It is not saying men are better than women. He is saying that in the husband-and-wife relationship, there is a loving relationship where the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, and she is to submit to him for her good as she would submit to the Lord. It does not say that in the marketplace.
The Barriers Christ Shatters
What He is doing in this passage is shattering enormous barriers. Jews would have nothing to do with Gentiles, and the Greeks were not particularly warm toward Jews either. Here is what Socrates prayed: "I pray and thank God — and gods — that I was born a human being and not a beast; next, that I was born a man and not a woman; and thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian."
So what God is saying is: as He looks at men, women, Jew, Gentile — they are all equal before Him. He shows no partiality. You come white or black, rich or poor, male or female, American or French — I am stretching this as far as it will go — it makes no difference. So what does that mean for us practically? Here is what was going on in the early church, and this is instructive. James is writing in chapter 2, and he says that the church is getting this badly wrong in the way they treat one another. James chapter 2, verse 2: "If a man comes into your assembly..."
Distinctions God Doesn't Make
"If a man comes into your assembly with gold rings and fine clothes and a poor man comes in with dirty clothes, you pay special attention to the one wearing the fine clothes. You say, 'Sit here in the good place,' but to the poor man you say, 'Stand over there.' You've made a distinction among yourselves, and you're beginning to judge by motives. If you show partiality, you're committing a sin."
In that day, people would actually rent rings to wear, because rings were a sign of prosperity. So this person comes in with fine clothes and rings, and the church — which was not like ours, but basically a hall with perhaps a bench or two — directs this person strictly based on what he is wearing: "You sit up front. You, the poor man, sit over there." James is making the same point Paul makes, the same point God makes: you are making distinctions that God does not make.
We make those distinctions all the time. This person has money, that person doesn't — we value one over the other. And when you look back at Black History Month, when you look back at the way the United States of America treated Black men and women, it is an embarrassment. There is no way to justify it. I hear all sorts of explanations, but I cannot make it right, and we have to go forward from here.
The same question arises with immigrants, especially undocumented workers. Now, I understand the legal dimension — that is the government's responsibility. But your responsibility raises a different question entirely: what does it mean to love your neighbor? This immigration situation is deeply tangled, and Republicans, Democrats, and the government have all made it worse for their own benefit, and now no one wants to unscramble it. We just live with the tension in the middle of it, as with so many things — there simply isn't the fortitude to resolve it.
That is what James is saying: why are you making these distinctions? You cannot make those distinctions.
Heirs in Christ
Then James closes it out. He says that if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring and you are heirs. If you are in Christ, you are of Christ. John Stott says we find our place in eternity — first and foremost in relation to God and His sons, and in our society as it relates to one another in the world we see all around us.
And by the way, that idea is exactly where we go next week: what does it mean to be adopted? What is in that imagery? We get a sense of it in our culture, but we really see it in the Greek and Roman world. That imagery is tremendously rich.
What the Law Cannot Do
Here is the big point, in a nutshell. The law will never save us. We are separated from God, and there is nothing we can do on our own to remedy that situation. Anything we bring is sinful works before a holy God.
So if you are here today saying, "God, here's the deal — you don't bother me, I won't bother you. All I want is what I deserve. I'm an American. I pull myself up by the bootstraps. Rugged individualism." This culture really feeds into that, and there is something appealing about it. But that does not help when you go before God. When you go to God and say, "I pulled myself up by my bootstraps," He is going to say, "You don't have any bootstraps, son."
"I just want what I deserve." The wage of sin is death — separation from God. You already have what you deserve. But here is what God would love to give you: not something you have to earn, but something He will give you. Not something you do, but something He has done. It is eternal life.
Life by Faith
From a practical perspective, I now have what I truly want in life. Jesus said He came that we might have life and have it abundantly — that we find joy in Him. It is not that we will have every material thing we ever wanted, but it does mean we will have everything we ever need, and we will have Him.
So as we face all the things life brings, we now live by faith. There will be moments when it feels like God is far away, and the answer is: what I know trumps what I feel. He is not far — and that is why knowledge of truth anchors us when feeling fails.
Next week we look at exactly what it means to be a son of God, a child of the King.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the amazing truth that You love us and save us — not based on who we are, not based on our heritage, not based on anything we have done, but upon Christ and what He has done. God, help us live by faith and enter into a right relationship with You by faith. God, we love You, and even then it is because You first loved us. We worship You and praise You in Christ's name. Amen.