EXPIRATION DATE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the Child who was promised. God gave His law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when He gave His promise to Abraham.

Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 

But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.

Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

Galatians 3:19-25 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As the Gospel was spreading across points outside of Judea and Samaria, spawning the creation of Christian churches, there were factions of Jewish people who were unwilling to let go of the old covenant God had established with Him. They had been His chosen people, distinct and set apart from the Gentiles but then Jesus came and everything changed. Salvation was now just as available to the non-Jew as it was to the Israelite. All anyone had to do was believe in God’s only Son, the promised Messiah, and they would gain eternal life (John 3:16). This was the new covenant and it superseded what had been before it.

But as we have seen in particular within Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, Jewish influence moved in after Paul had established the Christian churches and departed, influence that sought to mislead the Galatian Christians into thinking that there were more requirements than the one God had set forth through Christ. This was something that angered and concerned God’s chief Apostle and he wasn’t about to just stand by without doing something about it.

As we see in today’s passage, Paul continues to build his case against the false teaching of the Jews and their perversion of the Gospel truth. In these verses, Paul doesn’t condemn the Law. It had been given by God through His chosen mediator Moses for a very precise purpose and for a set period of time. The Law wasn’t intended to last forever; it had an expiration date.

When would the Law become obsolete?

The scriptures tell us it was when Jesus came from heaven to earth to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham and all mankind. He was the Savior of the world, the promised Messiah, and the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. He was also the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who can bring someone to everlasting life with God the Father (John 14:6).

So what was the purpose of the Law, intended from the very beginning to be a placeholder until Jesus came?

It accompanied the promise given to Abraham 430 years earlier so to show people their sinfulness and absolute need for a Savior, divine intervention to intervene and intercede against the judgment and wrath of God which would come on sinners. The Law showed God’s people that they couldn’t save themselves because no one could perfectly keep all His commandments. It also served to show people how God wanted them to live, ways that would be righteous and right in His sight.

Once Jesus came on the scene, He was to be the focal point, the sole source of justification, redemption, and salvation. He was also the greatest role model that had ever lived, the only One who thought, spoke, and behaved perfectly without sin. The Law had reached its expiration date and was no longer needed because Jesus was now the Way.

This was Paul’s point to the Galatian Christians as he urged them to not be swayed from the legitimate Gospel he had taught them.

Today, Jesus is still the only thing we need and we should place our full mind’s attention and heart’s affection on Him and Him alone. If we live like Him, we will be a rich blessing to God and those He leads us to serve until that day when the salvation promise of God is kept and we leave this world behind for the best life ever with God and Jesus forever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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