this is your life

Galatians 3:19-20

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

            In Galatians 3:19, Paul is anticipating questions that the Gentiles may ask him. It says, “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 angles and entrusted to a mediator.” He knows that the Gentiles would question the necessity of the law because in Galatians 3:11 he writes, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’”

            Paul explains to the Gentiles that the laws from the Old Testament are no longer the model of how Christians should live, but they should live by faith in Jesus. Knowing that the Gentiles will question why the law was ever necessary, Paul explains that because of our sin, the people needed a way to live until the Seed, or Jesus, could come as a sacrifice.

The verse says, “The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.” This shows that God wrote every bit of the Old Testament and used angels to influence the people who actually wrote it down. The mediator the passage is referring to is Moses because God entrusted him with the law and it was he who spread it to the people.

            Verse 3:20 says, “A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.” If there is a mediator, there must be more than one party involved because there must be someone being mediated and someone doing the mediating. With God, however, there is only one party because He rules over all and is the only fair and just judge. 

1.   Who is someone that you would say is usually “righteous” ?

2.   What does it look like to “live by faith” ?

3.   What in your life needs to change for you to be “living by faith” ?

4. Take a minute and journal about this passage.

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Written by Hannah Pergolizzi