Added Because of Transgressions

This claim carries a time limit, and the time limit comes from Paul.

“The law was added because of transgressions, until the seed would come. Paul says so in Galatians 3:19. The seed is the Messiah. The Messiah has come. So the law has done its job and gone.”

Like the claim about John in the last chapter, this one rests on the word “until,” and like that claim, it attaches the word to the whole law. So we will do here what we did there. We will read the sentence carefully, and then let the same paragraph show us what the “until” belongs to.

What the Law Is For

Galatians 3:19 Why the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

Paul opens with a question: “Why the nomos(law) then?” That is the question this verse answers. He is not asking when the law ends, but what it is for.

His answer is short: “It was added because of transgressions.”

The word for transgressions is parabasis παράβασις par-ab'-as-is. In Book 2 we met its verb, parabaino παραβαίνω par-ab-ah'-ee-no, to step across a line and press on past it. A parabasis is that stepping across, a going over the boundary. The law was added because of such crossings. It draws the line, so that a crossing can be seen for what it is.

Paul says this plainly in Romans:

Romans 3:20 Because by works of nomos(law) no sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) will be justified before Him, for through nomos(law) comes epignosis ἐπίγνωσις ep-ig'-no-sis(spiritual, complete knowledge) of sin.

Romans 7:7 What then shall we say? Is the nomos(law) sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through nomos(law); for I would not have known epithymia ἐπιθυμία ep-ee-thoo-mee'-ah(lust, desire, strong craving) if the nomos(law) had not said, "You shall not have epithymia(lust, desire, strong craving)."

“Through nomos(law) comes epignosis(spiritual, complete knowledge) of sin.” Paul then gives his own example, the commandment against epithymia(lust, desire, strong craving).

This, then, is the work the law was given “because of transgressions”: it exposes sin as sin. A line on the ground does not make anyone step over it, but without the line no one could tell who had crossed it.

What the “Until” Belongs To

What, then, does “until the seed would come” bring to an end? Paul does not leave us to guess. A few verses later, in the same paragraph, he names it.

Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the nomos(law), being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the nomos(law) has become our paidagogos παιδαγωγός pahee-dag-o-gos'(guardian-instructor) to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a paidagogos(guardian-instructor).

“We are no longer under a paidagogos(guardian-instructor).” That is what ends when faith has come and the seed has come. It is not the law itself, but one role the law held, the role of paidagogos.

The paidagogos was the household servant who walked a child to school and watched over him until he was grown. His supervision had an end date. What the child learned did not.

Think of a teenager learning to drive. For months he may drive only with a licensed adult in the passenger seat, who watches every turn and every stop and corrects him when he goes wrong. Then he passes his test and receives his license. The adult gets out of the passenger seat, and from then on the young man drives alone.

What ended that day was the supervision, not the traffic laws. A new driver who decided that red lights and speed limits had been part of the supervision, and had left the car along with the adult, would not keep his license for long. The laws he learned under supervision are now the laws he drives by.

Galatians 3 has the same shape. Before faith came, “we were kept in custody under the nomos(law).” Then the seed came, and the custody ended. The law that exposed sin and led us to the Messiah did not end when the custody ended.

The Law Does Not Fight the Promise

Someone might still ask whether the law, given “because of transgressions,” stands against the promise God made to Abraham. Paul asks that very question, and he answers it with his strongest words.

Galatians 3:21 Is the nomos(law) then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a nomos(law) had been given which was able to impart zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life), then dikaiosyne δικαιοσύνη dik-ah-yos-oo'-nay(righteousness) would indeed have been based on nomos(law).

Paul does not set the law against the promise. What he says the law cannot do is “impart zoe(life).” If it could, righteousness would have come by it. In other words, the law cannot justify, and that was never its work. It was not given to make a sinner righteous before God, for justification is by grace through faith.

Nor does the law cancel the promise.

Galatians 3:17 What I am saying is this: the nomos(law), which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a diatheke διαθήκη dee-ath-ay'-kay(covenant) previously ratified by God in Messiah, so as to nullify the promise.

The law came four hundred and thirty years after the promise to Abraham, and it “does not invalidate a diatheke(covenant) previously ratified by God.” The diatheke (διαθήκη) is the covenant God made with Abraham, and the later law does not overturn it.

Neither one cancels the other. The law does not annul the promise, and the promise does not annul the law. Each does its own work. The promise gives the inheritance, by faith, and the law exposes sin and leads to the Messiah.

Where the Law Lives Now

Where, then, is the law after the seed has come? It no longer stands over the believer as a custodian. It has moved somewhere closer, and Jeremiah said where:

Jeremiah 31:33 For this is the covenant (berit בְּרִית ber-eeth') that I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put My Torah within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

“I will put My Torah within them, and on their heart I will write it.” This is the new covenant. The Torah that once stood over Israel as a supervisor is now written on the heart of the one who belongs to God. The supervisor has stepped out of the car, and the law of the road has become the driver’s own.

The Paul who wrote “until the seed would come” is the same man who asked, “Do we then nullify the nomos(law) through faith?” and answered, “May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold the nomos(law)” (Romans 3:31).

“Until the seed would come” is true. The custody ended, and those who believe are “no longer under a paidagogos(guardian-instructor).” But the law that walked us to the Messiah was not left behind at the school gate. It was written on our hearts.