Galatians 3:19. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made,
Think together: How many of the Ten Commandments can you name?
Read together:
After the Israelites were rescued out of Egypt by God, He led them to a place called Mount Sinai. There, from on top of that mountain, God gave Moses and the Israelites the Ten Commandments. The Law. Over time, God would add more and more rules to “The Law.” In the end, there are 613 laws in the Old Testament that the Israelites were supposed to obey.
In the Book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul is making the case that obeying the rules in the law cannot save us. We are saved by faith, not by doing good things—even the good things that God tells us to do. If that’s true (and it is), then we might wonder: why did God give us the law in the first place? And that is exactly the question that Paul wants to answer—“Why then the law?” he asks.
His answer is a bit surprising. The law was given because of transgressions (which is a fancy word for sin). You see, the law wasn’t given by God to make us better; it was given to show us just how bad we really are. It is only because we love to sin and break rules that we need more rules. If all the students in your class were perfect, your teacher wouldn’t need any rules. If all the drivers on the roads drove safely all the time, we wouldn’t need any traffic laws. So we need rules to keep us from sinning, but not because we love the rules—rather, because we love not getting into trouble.
In other words, we usually obey because we love ourselves more than we love others. Yes, rules can make us be good, but if you only obey because you are afraid of getting in trouble, are you really obeying God by loving Him? No. Not really. You’re really just loving yourself. And this love for ourselves also breaks God’s law to love Him and love others more than yourself.
Hopefully, you can see how the law can’t help us. Not only does it show us how bad we are, it can even make us even worse when we love ourselves more than God and others. Thankfully, the “offspring” came to help us. Who do you think that is? Jesus? Yep, that’s right. Jesus will teach us to obey from love, not law.
Do something together: Play any simple game that your family loves. As you play add more and more complicated rules to the game. Ask: Is the game better or worse with more rules? Why?
Because of Jesus: We don’t have to obey all the rules to be saved.
With Jesus: We can see how good God’s rules are without being afraid of them.
Pray: Father, thank You that Your love isn’t a game with rules we have to perfect to win. Amen.
