-5-
One Way to Heaven
When a person receives Christ as Lord and savior, something completely invisible, yet completely real happens inside of that person. The scriptures point out that every human being needs salvation. Isaiah states that all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Not one single human has ever avoided ‘going astray’ other than Jesus after He came to earth. All of us have a sin nature. Jesus did not.
The invisible thing that takes place when we trust Jesus is this; The Holy Spirit comes into our body and generates life into our dead spirit. That constitutes the new birth. We pass from death … into life. From that point on we are alive in every sense. Our bodies and our minds were already alive, but now our spirit has also come to life.
That experience, passing from death to life, in our spirit, is invisible … and yet can produce quite an experience. We sense, in varying degrees, feelings like incredible relief that the sins of our past are all forgiven and removed.
We may filled with ‘joy unspeakable’. Tears of Joy sometimes course down as the person grasps the fact that Jesus died for them, personally.
Why am I reminding us of this? Simply because Paul has used this reasoning with the Galatians, and he has asked them, ‘Did keeping the commandments ever produce a feeling like this?’
Miracles had taken place within their churches. The sick were prayed for. People believed God could, and would heal, and He did. They rejoiced.
But Paul had to ask, 'Was it your law-keeping that brought on the miracle, or was it your faith in God that produced the action?'
Reminders like this should have been enough to bring the Galatian Christians back to their senses. By now they should have been realizing that the ‘slick’ teachers that had come from the Jerusalem church were wrong. They were wrong about the gospel. They were wrong to criticize Paul.
After Paul gets done comparing what it is that connects us to God; (law-keeping or an indwelling Spirit), he opens a totally new argument.
He asks them now, … “As far as getting connected to God is concerned … have you been told by these new teachers that the law came into being long before Christianity, therefore law-keeping is the real connector? Well, guess what came even before the Law?”
And Paul now proceeds to talk about how Abraham … years before the law was ever given … how Abraham became connected to God.
Why would he bring this up? Well the answer is really simple, God has always had only one way for a person to be saved or connected to Him. So if Abraham could come into right relationship with God, before the Law had come into being, then so can anyone else come to God for salvation … without the Law.
We begin reading in chapter 3 verse 6. Here it is in the Philips translation.
Ga 3:6 ¶ You can go right back to Abraham to see the principle of faith in God. He, we are told, "believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
Abraham was not a Jew. As a matter of fact, at the time Abraham was around, there were no Jews and Gentiles. Everyone was a Gentile. The word just means ‘race’. There were races of people … none was more important that any other one.
Abraham happened to be a person who did not follow after false idols or gods. And that is quite remarkable, seeing that his own father sold idols for a living.
Godly teaching was available, even back then. Even though the world had gotten very wicked before Noah was asked to build the ark, Godliness was still available.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam was a very Godly man. He raised his children to be Godly. He named his son ‘Methuselah’ for a reason. The name had a meaning; When he dies, it shall come. What was coming? The flood.
Methuselah died the year of the flood. Methuselah had children, one of whom was his son Lamech.
We have every reason to believe that Lamech was a Godly man. Lamech was married and had children, one of whom was Noah.
Noah preached about God and the coming judgment, and the need for people to repent. He was laughed at … but ended up being right … and everyone else ended up being dead.
The flood happened and a new world began. Noah had three married sons. Did they adopt their father’s faith?
We don’t have a lot of details, but from all indications Noah’s son , Shem was a man of faith. Abraham was a relative of Shem. But not only that, because longevity was characteristic of people who lived before the flood, Shem lived to be several hundred years old.
As a matter of fact he was still alive in Abraham’s time. Shem was alive also in the time of Isaac, Abraham’s son. So Godly teaching was available.
And yet this was hundreds of years before Moses would come on to the scene and be given the law from God.
Isn't it wonderful to know that we Gentiles have always been on God's heart?
But the point Paul is underscoring here is that, right standing with God was a possibility long before the law came into being. And there has always been only one way to come to God.
By the way, if you are of the opinion that salvation by grace through faith is a New Testament thing, and salvation by keeping the commandments was an Old Testament thing, … sorry, but you are wrong.
There is and always has been, only one way to salvation and right standing with God.
The Galatian Christians are being forced to let this sink in. These ‘teachers’ had came down to them from Jerusalem, claiming to have been endorsed by the apostles (they lied). And they had pushed onto the Galatians the teaching that law-keeping had always been the way to achieve right standing with God.
So Paul’s point? ‘No! Coming to God in faith supersedes the law by several hundred years’.
The next verse sums this up:
Ga 3:7 You may be certain, then, that all those who "believe God" are the real "sons of Abraham".
And Paul continues to sum up this part of his argument with these words:
Ga 3:8 The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles "by faith," proclaimed the gospel in the words spoken to Abraham, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."
All nations. As I stated already, all of us, not just the Jews, were in God’s heart right from the very beginning.
Ga 3:9 All men of faith share the blessing of Abraham who "believed God".
All men of faith … share the blessing of Abraham.
In simpler words, all Christians today are saved because of believing the Gospel, believing God, just as Abraham did - not by actions and works to earn a good standing with God … just by believing God.
But how do people get to hear the gospel? All down through time, getting the gospel message spread out has been a problem. People tend to keep to themselves. Even Abraham did not go from place to place knocking on doors to tell people about God.
And yet God wanted His message to be spread around.
So what was the solution? In His foreknowledge God envisioned creating a nation that would reach out to all other nations.
God chose Abraham’s grandson, Jacob to become the father of that nation. God even changed Jacob’s name to Israel … and the children of Israel would be that nation that should spread the message of how to become connected to God.
To some degree it worked, but, again, in the foreknowledge of God, He knew He would ultimately use a different method.
The nation of Israel was somewhat effective, but it was to serve another purpose. And likely we should say that this is the main purpose … and that is, to provide a people through whom God could come down and be born … to die. To die for our sins.
After that was accomplished, God moved on to His present method of sharing the gospel … and that is the church.
So in His foreknowledge God saw that He would have to reach out to the nations. He would do it first through a physical nation, but later through a spiritual one, the church.
He hinted at this when He said these words to Abraham … in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
But getting back to the Galatian Christians, Paul is pointing out another, very real problem with trying to find God’s approval through keeping the law.
He says
Ga 3:10 Everyone, however, who is involved in trying to keep the Law’s demands falls under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone which continues not In all things which are written in the book of the Law, To do them.
A curse?! This should cause them to really take notice.
The curse is on everyone who does not do ALL the things written in the law. Not just some of the things.
Paul repeats his point one more time:
Ga 3:11 It is clear that no one is justified in God’s sight by obeying the Law, for: The righteous shall live by faith.
Ga 3:12 And the Law is not a matter of faith at all but of doing, as, for example, in the scripture: He that does them shall live in them.
Paul asks a very relevant question;
Ga 3:19(a) ¶ Where then lies the point of the Law?
That’s a very good question. If we follow Paul's reasoning
-The law had not provided for us that wonderful experience of passing from death unto life.
-Law-keeping has not provided us with the ability to see miracles happen in our lives and ministries.
-Keeping the Law to stay saved nullifies salvation.
So the question is … what good is the law? Why did God even give it to begin with? The second part of the verse answers the question:
(b)It (the Law) was an addition made to underline the existence and extent of sin but only until the arrival of the "seed" to whom the promise referred. The Law was appointed by means of angels, by the hand of an intermediary. Ga 3:19(a)
Let's talk about the first part of the verse: an addition made to underline the existence and extent of sin
Picture this; We hear the message that we stand condemned, because all have sinned and fall short of God's holy requirements. We are convicted. We fall before Him and ask for forgiveness, made possible by Jesus, the one who died to pay our sin debt.
With joyful hearts because we have passed from death unto life … we go forward in our walk with God.
But then something happens. We start forgetting how sinful we were. Add to that, at the time we prayed to receive Jesus, we may not even have known how really sinful we were.
But when we look into the law of God, the deeper we look, the more we realize that we did things that we had no idea were sins against God. The effect is for us to think, 'Wow … I did that! God forgave me of that … I didn't even know it was wrong at the time. Thank you God. What a huge debt of sin you canceled for me!'
By the way, this is one of the reasons we are to observe communion regularly … not that it mysteriously adds something to our spirituality … no, it is to remember Jesus' death, and in remembering, we remember that it was our sin that put him there. It is designed to re-create appreciation of the grace of God … lest we forget.
The next phrase in this verse bears this out: until the arrival of the "seed" to whom the promise referred.
He has arrived. Now we look back each time we have communion and appreciate anew the payment He made for you and for me.
But, for a moment, put yourselves in the position of one of these Galatians. They have been made to think that the law of Moses is the ultimate treasure. That keeping it gives right standing with God …. (which, of course, it does not!)
Now the last part of the verse; The Law was appointed by means of angels, by the hand of an intermediary
The false teachers would have really built this up. They would have expanded on the story of how the angels delivered the law to begin with. They would have made a glorious story out of the whole thing.
Why? What was their reason? Simply to help 'sell' the Galatians on adding this to their gospel, and to discredit Paul who was the one to have brought them the simple gospel of faith to begin with.
But Paul adds the part of the 'intermediary', the angel that was used to do this. And he adds this part to show that the Law was never designed to be that glorious thing that would last forever.
He adds, Ga 3:20 The very fact that there was an intermediary is enough to show that this was not the fulfilling of the promise. For the promise of God needs neither angelic witness nor any intermediary but depends on him alone.
I like how Paul brings out that when it comes to salvation, God is not going to let anyone else handle it … He did it Himself, becoming a man, living without sin, dying for the sin of the world … and offering salvation to any who would take Him up on His offer. Praise God for His wonderful love and grace!
Some of Paul's readers may have still been a bit confused about why Paul is putting down the Law. So he asks this; Ga 3:21 Is the Law then to be looked upon as a contradiction of the promises? Certainly not, for if there could have been a law which gave men spiritual life then that law would have produced righteousness.
In case there are those who are objecting, and thinking, “But if the Law promised life … and you, Paul, are saying that it doesn't … did God contradict Himself?”
Paul's answer, “No … IF it had made such a promise, then it would have come through … but the Law never promised to give eternal life.” God never promised that Law-keeping would produce eternal life … so God has not broken any promise.
As a matter of fact … not only does Law-keeping not have the ability to give life … it has the ability to produce death.
Paul uses a new example now … rather than mention that it produces death, he changes the picture. He says that the Law imprisons us. He says, Ga 3:22 But, as things are, the scripture has all men "imprisoned" under the power of sin, so that to men in such condition the promise might be given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
For the next few moments, lets leave Jew/Gentile thing out of the picture totally. Lets look at this picture in terms of how it relates to each of us and our experience since we came into this world.
What I am going to say really puts a great emphasis on proper parenting.
God does not want anyone to perish but for all to come to receive eternal life from Him. (The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.) 2Pe 3:9
But the task of 'reaching all' is out of reach for us. But each parent … and I suppose I should include grandparents, can go alongside a child that is going through this whole process that can end up in salvation for our children and grandchildren.
As the child grows, more and more laws are added to his life. It started with a simple, 'No' from the mother or father. And that was when the child purposely reached for his food bowl, and pulled it off the table, watched it drop to the floor ...and then he looks into the eyes of his parents to see their response.
The first law? … “Don't do that!”
It quickly moves to this law, 'Thou shalt obey your father and your mother'. In the New Testament we read in Ephesians, Children obey your parents in the Lord Eph 6:1
Once that rule (law) is established, the child discovers other laws … don't steal or take what is not yours, do not lie, always share with your sibling (love your neighbor) and on and on do we pile more and more laws.
At some point, perhaps after a discipline experience, the parent lovingly talks with his child, 'loving him back onto his feet' so to speak.
He sympathizes with the child.
“I know there are a lot of rules that we expect you to know and keep. It is so easy to mess up, isn't it? Can you ever be perfect? We know you can't. And when you mess up … this is not just against mom and dad. This is called a sin … and it is against God. Did you know that? God wants you to be perfect, did you know that? When you say sorry to mom or dad and say that you will never do it again, what do they do? They discipline you, love you and forgive you. But will you do it again? You don't want to, but you will. God wants you to be perfect, and yet he knows that you will do it again, too. You can't help it. There are just too many laws to keep them all, right? But if you ever want to get into heaven you have to get in with no sins. How can you get rid of them? You can't pretend they never happened. They need to be erased somehow. The only way that your sins can be erased is for God to erase them. Then God can and will make you His child. As long as He sees all your sins … you are not His child.”
Let's read the next verses.
Ga 3:23 Before the coming of this faith we were all imprisoned under the power of the Law, with our only hope of deliverance - the faith that was to be shown to us.
24 The Law was like a strict tutor in charge of us until we went to the school of Christ and learned to be justified by faith in him.
There is the purpose of the Law. It teaches us the sinfulness of sin. It shows us the hopelessness of ever being able to live a perfect live. It shows that we need grace (mercy and favor).
We can only receive that mercy by faith … by believing, believing that Jesus really took my place. He really is my substitute. He died, not for His sin, but for mine.
25 Once we have that faith we are completely free from the tutor’s authority. 26 For now that you have faith in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God. Sons of God! And we always will be, because obedience to the law is not a requirement for remaining to be a son of God.
So once we have that faith in Him … we don't need to keep emphasizing the law at all. It served its purpose.
One way to heaven, One door to heaven and Jesus is that door, as we are reminded by John;
John 10:7 So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
Paul has more to say about our connection with Abraham, but we leave that for the next chapter.
The invisible thing that takes place when we trust Jesus is this; The Holy Spirit comes into our body and generates life into our dead spirit. That constitutes the new birth. We pass from death … into life. From that point on we are alive in every sense. Our bodies and our minds were already alive, but now our spirit has also come to life.
That experience, passing from death to life, in our spirit, is invisible … and yet can produce quite an experience. We sense, in varying degrees, feelings like incredible relief that the sins of our past are all forgiven and removed.
We may filled with ‘joy unspeakable’. Tears of Joy sometimes course down as the person grasps the fact that Jesus died for them, personally.
Why am I reminding us of this? Simply because Paul has used this reasoning with the Galatians, and he has asked them, ‘Did keeping the commandments ever produce a feeling like this?’
Miracles had taken place within their churches. The sick were prayed for. People believed God could, and would heal, and He did. They rejoiced.
But Paul had to ask, 'Was it your law-keeping that brought on the miracle, or was it your faith in God that produced the action?'
Reminders like this should have been enough to bring the Galatian Christians back to their senses. By now they should have been realizing that the ‘slick’ teachers that had come from the Jerusalem church were wrong. They were wrong about the gospel. They were wrong to criticize Paul.
After Paul gets done comparing what it is that connects us to God; (law-keeping or an indwelling Spirit), he opens a totally new argument.
He asks them now, … “As far as getting connected to God is concerned … have you been told by these new teachers that the law came into being long before Christianity, therefore law-keeping is the real connector? Well, guess what came even before the Law?”
And Paul now proceeds to talk about how Abraham … years before the law was ever given … how Abraham became connected to God.
Why would he bring this up? Well the answer is really simple, God has always had only one way for a person to be saved or connected to Him. So if Abraham could come into right relationship with God, before the Law had come into being, then so can anyone else come to God for salvation … without the Law.
We begin reading in chapter 3 verse 6. Here it is in the Philips translation.
Ga 3:6 ¶ You can go right back to Abraham to see the principle of faith in God. He, we are told, "believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
Abraham was not a Jew. As a matter of fact, at the time Abraham was around, there were no Jews and Gentiles. Everyone was a Gentile. The word just means ‘race’. There were races of people … none was more important that any other one.
Abraham happened to be a person who did not follow after false idols or gods. And that is quite remarkable, seeing that his own father sold idols for a living.
Godly teaching was available, even back then. Even though the world had gotten very wicked before Noah was asked to build the ark, Godliness was still available.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam was a very Godly man. He raised his children to be Godly. He named his son ‘Methuselah’ for a reason. The name had a meaning; When he dies, it shall come. What was coming? The flood.
Methuselah died the year of the flood. Methuselah had children, one of whom was his son Lamech.
We have every reason to believe that Lamech was a Godly man. Lamech was married and had children, one of whom was Noah.
Noah preached about God and the coming judgment, and the need for people to repent. He was laughed at … but ended up being right … and everyone else ended up being dead.
The flood happened and a new world began. Noah had three married sons. Did they adopt their father’s faith?
We don’t have a lot of details, but from all indications Noah’s son , Shem was a man of faith. Abraham was a relative of Shem. But not only that, because longevity was characteristic of people who lived before the flood, Shem lived to be several hundred years old.
As a matter of fact he was still alive in Abraham’s time. Shem was alive also in the time of Isaac, Abraham’s son. So Godly teaching was available.
And yet this was hundreds of years before Moses would come on to the scene and be given the law from God.
Isn't it wonderful to know that we Gentiles have always been on God's heart?
But the point Paul is underscoring here is that, right standing with God was a possibility long before the law came into being. And there has always been only one way to come to God.
By the way, if you are of the opinion that salvation by grace through faith is a New Testament thing, and salvation by keeping the commandments was an Old Testament thing, … sorry, but you are wrong.
There is and always has been, only one way to salvation and right standing with God.
The Galatian Christians are being forced to let this sink in. These ‘teachers’ had came down to them from Jerusalem, claiming to have been endorsed by the apostles (they lied). And they had pushed onto the Galatians the teaching that law-keeping had always been the way to achieve right standing with God.
So Paul’s point? ‘No! Coming to God in faith supersedes the law by several hundred years’.
The next verse sums this up:
Ga 3:7 You may be certain, then, that all those who "believe God" are the real "sons of Abraham".
And Paul continues to sum up this part of his argument with these words:
Ga 3:8 The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles "by faith," proclaimed the gospel in the words spoken to Abraham, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."
All nations. As I stated already, all of us, not just the Jews, were in God’s heart right from the very beginning.
Ga 3:9 All men of faith share the blessing of Abraham who "believed God".
All men of faith … share the blessing of Abraham.
In simpler words, all Christians today are saved because of believing the Gospel, believing God, just as Abraham did - not by actions and works to earn a good standing with God … just by believing God.
But how do people get to hear the gospel? All down through time, getting the gospel message spread out has been a problem. People tend to keep to themselves. Even Abraham did not go from place to place knocking on doors to tell people about God.
And yet God wanted His message to be spread around.
So what was the solution? In His foreknowledge God envisioned creating a nation that would reach out to all other nations.
God chose Abraham’s grandson, Jacob to become the father of that nation. God even changed Jacob’s name to Israel … and the children of Israel would be that nation that should spread the message of how to become connected to God.
To some degree it worked, but, again, in the foreknowledge of God, He knew He would ultimately use a different method.
The nation of Israel was somewhat effective, but it was to serve another purpose. And likely we should say that this is the main purpose … and that is, to provide a people through whom God could come down and be born … to die. To die for our sins.
After that was accomplished, God moved on to His present method of sharing the gospel … and that is the church.
So in His foreknowledge God saw that He would have to reach out to the nations. He would do it first through a physical nation, but later through a spiritual one, the church.
He hinted at this when He said these words to Abraham … in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
But getting back to the Galatian Christians, Paul is pointing out another, very real problem with trying to find God’s approval through keeping the law.
He says
Ga 3:10 Everyone, however, who is involved in trying to keep the Law’s demands falls under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone which continues not In all things which are written in the book of the Law, To do them.
A curse?! This should cause them to really take notice.
The curse is on everyone who does not do ALL the things written in the law. Not just some of the things.
Paul repeats his point one more time:
Ga 3:11 It is clear that no one is justified in God’s sight by obeying the Law, for: The righteous shall live by faith.
Ga 3:12 And the Law is not a matter of faith at all but of doing, as, for example, in the scripture: He that does them shall live in them.
Paul asks a very relevant question;
Ga 3:19(a) ¶ Where then lies the point of the Law?
That’s a very good question. If we follow Paul's reasoning
-The law had not provided for us that wonderful experience of passing from death unto life.
-Law-keeping has not provided us with the ability to see miracles happen in our lives and ministries.
-Keeping the Law to stay saved nullifies salvation.
So the question is … what good is the law? Why did God even give it to begin with? The second part of the verse answers the question:
(b)It (the Law) was an addition made to underline the existence and extent of sin but only until the arrival of the "seed" to whom the promise referred. The Law was appointed by means of angels, by the hand of an intermediary. Ga 3:19(a)
Let's talk about the first part of the verse: an addition made to underline the existence and extent of sin
Picture this; We hear the message that we stand condemned, because all have sinned and fall short of God's holy requirements. We are convicted. We fall before Him and ask for forgiveness, made possible by Jesus, the one who died to pay our sin debt.
With joyful hearts because we have passed from death unto life … we go forward in our walk with God.
But then something happens. We start forgetting how sinful we were. Add to that, at the time we prayed to receive Jesus, we may not even have known how really sinful we were.
But when we look into the law of God, the deeper we look, the more we realize that we did things that we had no idea were sins against God. The effect is for us to think, 'Wow … I did that! God forgave me of that … I didn't even know it was wrong at the time. Thank you God. What a huge debt of sin you canceled for me!'
By the way, this is one of the reasons we are to observe communion regularly … not that it mysteriously adds something to our spirituality … no, it is to remember Jesus' death, and in remembering, we remember that it was our sin that put him there. It is designed to re-create appreciation of the grace of God … lest we forget.
The next phrase in this verse bears this out: until the arrival of the "seed" to whom the promise referred.
He has arrived. Now we look back each time we have communion and appreciate anew the payment He made for you and for me.
But, for a moment, put yourselves in the position of one of these Galatians. They have been made to think that the law of Moses is the ultimate treasure. That keeping it gives right standing with God …. (which, of course, it does not!)
Now the last part of the verse; The Law was appointed by means of angels, by the hand of an intermediary
The false teachers would have really built this up. They would have expanded on the story of how the angels delivered the law to begin with. They would have made a glorious story out of the whole thing.
Why? What was their reason? Simply to help 'sell' the Galatians on adding this to their gospel, and to discredit Paul who was the one to have brought them the simple gospel of faith to begin with.
But Paul adds the part of the 'intermediary', the angel that was used to do this. And he adds this part to show that the Law was never designed to be that glorious thing that would last forever.
He adds, Ga 3:20 The very fact that there was an intermediary is enough to show that this was not the fulfilling of the promise. For the promise of God needs neither angelic witness nor any intermediary but depends on him alone.
I like how Paul brings out that when it comes to salvation, God is not going to let anyone else handle it … He did it Himself, becoming a man, living without sin, dying for the sin of the world … and offering salvation to any who would take Him up on His offer. Praise God for His wonderful love and grace!
Some of Paul's readers may have still been a bit confused about why Paul is putting down the Law. So he asks this; Ga 3:21 Is the Law then to be looked upon as a contradiction of the promises? Certainly not, for if there could have been a law which gave men spiritual life then that law would have produced righteousness.
In case there are those who are objecting, and thinking, “But if the Law promised life … and you, Paul, are saying that it doesn't … did God contradict Himself?”
Paul's answer, “No … IF it had made such a promise, then it would have come through … but the Law never promised to give eternal life.” God never promised that Law-keeping would produce eternal life … so God has not broken any promise.
As a matter of fact … not only does Law-keeping not have the ability to give life … it has the ability to produce death.
Paul uses a new example now … rather than mention that it produces death, he changes the picture. He says that the Law imprisons us. He says, Ga 3:22 But, as things are, the scripture has all men "imprisoned" under the power of sin, so that to men in such condition the promise might be given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
For the next few moments, lets leave Jew/Gentile thing out of the picture totally. Lets look at this picture in terms of how it relates to each of us and our experience since we came into this world.
What I am going to say really puts a great emphasis on proper parenting.
God does not want anyone to perish but for all to come to receive eternal life from Him. (The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.) 2Pe 3:9
But the task of 'reaching all' is out of reach for us. But each parent … and I suppose I should include grandparents, can go alongside a child that is going through this whole process that can end up in salvation for our children and grandchildren.
As the child grows, more and more laws are added to his life. It started with a simple, 'No' from the mother or father. And that was when the child purposely reached for his food bowl, and pulled it off the table, watched it drop to the floor ...and then he looks into the eyes of his parents to see their response.
The first law? … “Don't do that!”
It quickly moves to this law, 'Thou shalt obey your father and your mother'. In the New Testament we read in Ephesians, Children obey your parents in the Lord Eph 6:1
Once that rule (law) is established, the child discovers other laws … don't steal or take what is not yours, do not lie, always share with your sibling (love your neighbor) and on and on do we pile more and more laws.
At some point, perhaps after a discipline experience, the parent lovingly talks with his child, 'loving him back onto his feet' so to speak.
He sympathizes with the child.
“I know there are a lot of rules that we expect you to know and keep. It is so easy to mess up, isn't it? Can you ever be perfect? We know you can't. And when you mess up … this is not just against mom and dad. This is called a sin … and it is against God. Did you know that? God wants you to be perfect, did you know that? When you say sorry to mom or dad and say that you will never do it again, what do they do? They discipline you, love you and forgive you. But will you do it again? You don't want to, but you will. God wants you to be perfect, and yet he knows that you will do it again, too. You can't help it. There are just too many laws to keep them all, right? But if you ever want to get into heaven you have to get in with no sins. How can you get rid of them? You can't pretend they never happened. They need to be erased somehow. The only way that your sins can be erased is for God to erase them. Then God can and will make you His child. As long as He sees all your sins … you are not His child.”
Let's read the next verses.
Ga 3:23 Before the coming of this faith we were all imprisoned under the power of the Law, with our only hope of deliverance - the faith that was to be shown to us.
24 The Law was like a strict tutor in charge of us until we went to the school of Christ and learned to be justified by faith in him.
There is the purpose of the Law. It teaches us the sinfulness of sin. It shows us the hopelessness of ever being able to live a perfect live. It shows that we need grace (mercy and favor).
We can only receive that mercy by faith … by believing, believing that Jesus really took my place. He really is my substitute. He died, not for His sin, but for mine.
25 Once we have that faith we are completely free from the tutor’s authority. 26 For now that you have faith in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God. Sons of God! And we always will be, because obedience to the law is not a requirement for remaining to be a son of God.
So once we have that faith in Him … we don't need to keep emphasizing the law at all. It served its purpose.
One way to heaven, One door to heaven and Jesus is that door, as we are reminded by John;
John 10:7 So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
Paul has more to say about our connection with Abraham, but we leave that for the next chapter.