Exposed by the Law
Galatians 3:19 – 22
Have you gotten a package tied up with some binding? You don’t a knife or scissor on you, and so you pull out your keys and tried to cut through the binding? It can work, but keys are not very good knives.
Have you ever been in a dark place and you’re trying to find something. There’s no light, and so you pull out your cell phone and light up the screen. Cell phones can give some light, but they’re not the greatest flashlights.
We can innovatively find uses for things that are not their original design. This can be very helpful in some circumstances, but it also can be very dangerous, particularly in spiritual things.
Last week we saw that a promise is a promise, and the law coming 430 years later doesn’t change the promise.
If this is all about a promise, then why do we have the law? If the law wasn’t added as conditions to the promise, then what is the law for? Using the law in ways that it was not intended is a dangerous thing. Why the law? Paul gives a simple answer: “It was added because of transgressions.”
The law was given to expose and increase our sin.
Paul talks a lot about the law a lot in Romans.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. . . .
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. (Romans 7:7-9, 13)
1. The law helps us identify sin (vv. 7, 13)
James calls it a mirror that exposes our shortcomings, exposes how we’re not following God’s law.
Charles Zimmerman made some points about confession (agree with what God says, admit what we’ve done, ask for forgiveness, accept forgiveness). We need to agree with what God says of me.
He mentioned how we go into a House of Mirrors (circus or amusement park) where there are all these silly mirrors that make us to tall or short, fat or thin, pear-shaped or otherwise. We look like look at the mirror that makes us look the most like the way we want to look.
But looking at the law shows us what God sees. What we think is “normal” God sees as sin. What we think is “excusable” God sees as condemnable. What we think is “being good” God sees as being rebellious.
Some of us have been studying the Sermon on the Mount.
We think murder is pretty bad, but anger is not that bad. Sometimes guys even boast about their anger. They wear their anger like a badge of power. Jesus says, “You have heard it said, ‘Do not murder.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry is subject to judgment.”
We think loving people is good. And we’re pretty happy if we can show love to our friends and family. “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
2. The law stirs our rebellious desires (vv. 8, 9)
The law was added so that the trespass might increase. (Ro 5:20)
There are two ways the law exposes and stirs our rebelliousness. [Parable of the prodigal son.]
A. We reject the law and live immorally [younger brother rebelliousness]
We kick against authority and rules. We don’t want to be told what to do. And if someone tells us what to do, we push back, we rebel.
“Wet paint” and so we touch it.
The story is told of 16-year-old Augustine stealing pears, but he didn’t even like pears. He stole them not because he was hungry but simply because stealing was wrong. He didn’t love pears, he loved sin. He recognized this rebelliousness in his heart.
See it in kids. “Don’t touch,” but they want to touch it. They test you. The have defiance.
If there was no law (“Don’t touch”), then the kid doesn’t have the opportunity to express his defiance. But now that there is a law, there is something to defy.
B. We embrace the law and live legalistically [older brother rebelliousness]
We follow the rules, we do the right thing. We use the law to find our own value, our own righteousness. We use the law and try to be a better person, apart from God.
Living by the law is a way of avoiding God, a way of not needing God. We can be our own savior. We can solve our own problems.
It is what we use as our weapon against God. We hold onto it and say, “God you owe me. I deserve better. You can’t do that to me. I’ve been good.” This is how we mis-use the law.
We use our “righteousness” against God. That’s why we feel like God should do what we want, that’s why we feel we have a right to be angry or bitter, that’s why we have some sense of entitlement.
We can think of the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day. And we can think of ourselves.
This is the issue here in Galatians. We use the law as a means of establishing our own righteousness. (2:18, rebuilding what I destroyed, proves I’m a lawbreaker)
This is where Galatians exposes our sin. We think our goodness is good. But we look into God’s word and it tells us that this “goodness” is rebelliousness: We take the law and say, God, I can do this. I can make myself righteous.
v. 19b and 20 are very difficult to understand, and to be honest, I don’t understand them.
I think our time would be better spent on the main idea our text today.
1. The law cannot give life. That was not its purpose. (v. 21)
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Gal 2:21)
It was mean to show us our bankruptcy and hopelessness.
2. The law was provisional and instructional. (vv. 19, 22)
v. 19 “until the Seed . . . had come” (provisional)
For a season which would end.
v. 22. Scripture showed us that we were under sin, in bondage to sin, no escape. We needed to know that we were in bondage to sin. (instructional)
Only after we understand our bondage to sin are we ready to we could receive the promise.
Only after we understand our bondage to sin are we ready to live by faith not effort.
3. The law was to point us to Christ and the promise. (v. 24)
We needed to see our sin so that we would abandon our self-efforts and turn to Christ.
More on this next week.
Seeing our sinfulness is necessary and good. This is why God has given us the law.
The law wasn’t there so we could keep it. It’s there to show us that we can’t keep it.
What does God want to do? He wants to expose our sinfulness.
We need to spend some time on this. We need God to give us the law, because we don’t see our sinfulness, and we don’t want to see our sinfulness. There is both blindness and avoidance.
Hebrews 3:13 talks about how we can be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Sin deceives and sin hardens our hearts. We become blind and hardened to our sin.
For those of us who are married, I think this is well attested, that we didn’t know things about ourselves until we got married. We didn’t realize ways that we were selfish and proud, uncaring and unkind, self-righteous and ungracious. If we’re honest, our thoughts are usually, “You’re the problem. If only you would change, all our problems would be solved.”
Or if our spouse points out some fault on our side, our response is “Yeah, but . . .”
We really think the problem is in the other person, and we are blind to our own sinfulness.
Calvin said we have tendency to remember all the good things we do and the bad things others do and we forget the bad things we do and the good things others do.
For roommates, we remember all the times we did the dishes, but we don’t seem to notice all the times the other guy did the dishes.
We tend to attribute external factors for the bad things we do
I’m stressed, I’m hungry, my boss is so mean, Philly drivers are so wreckless—we always have an excuse
But attribute internal factors for the bad things other people do
They’re rude, they’re lazy, they’re moody, they’re careless
We don’t see our sinfulness.
And we don’t want to. We have avoidance and coping mechanisms.
We’re so good at blaming others, coming up with excuses, playing the victim. In fact, we do almost everything else except say, “I’m in the wrong. That was my fault. I’m selfish, manipulative and vain.”
Think about any conflict you’ve had. We usually blame, attack, and defend ourselves. How hard is it for you to say and feel, “I’m sorry. I messed up. Please forgive me,” and “Please help me understand my problem better.”
We don’t think we’re at fault and we’re not trying to understand what our fault might be.
Dr. Zimmerman at the retreat mentioned how we need to admit our wrong (agree, admit, ask, accept).
We use euphemisms to make our bad things look good.
“Had an affair” is committing adultery
“Wandering eyes” is being a pervert
“Laid back” is slothfulness and laziness
“Big eater” is gluttonous
“Wardrobe malfunction”?! Stripping!
We don’t really want to admit our wrongs. We hide them.
We don’t want to see our sinfulness. Consider a spectrum.
Some of us are in denial. We don’t like looking at our sinfulness. We don’t like to think about it or try to understand it. We hide from it. Here the avoidance is obvious.
On the other side, some of us are quite introspective. We look and analyze it. We have some insight into our selfish, self-serving and proud we really are. But we end there. Somehow we feel better because we’ve analyzed and dissected it. We don’t really repent of our sinfulness, we pride ourselves in understanding our sin so well. Looking at our sin should produce genuine humility, but often these people become proud and critical and they look down on all the non-self-aware people who understand their sinfulness.
But the point is, we don’t see our sinfulness (blindness) and we don’t want to (avoidance). We have a self-protective instinct . . . that pushes us away from the gospel.
We need to see our sinfulness. That’s why God has given us the law. He wants to confront us, expose us. He wants us to see our utter and desperate need of His mercy.
We want to show God our righteousness, but God wants to show us our sin.
We want to show God that we good, kind, strong, caring people.
But God wants to show us our selfish, proud, rebellious, manipulative and idolatrous we are, and we don’t want to see that.
1. We need help in seeing our sinfulness.
We have this blindness and this avoidance. We can’t see our sinfulness by ourselves. That’s why God has given us His word, to show us our sin.
Let me add one more piece. This is why God has given us one another. We need loving and honest community. We need others to show it to us. We really can’t see it ourselves. Invite friends, family, people you trust to speak into your life.
Is there anyone who can honestly confront you from whom you could receive it?
We need others, community, the church.
2. We need to see our sinfulness and run to the cross, run to our Savior.
Next time you’re looking at pornography, don’t deny it or excuse it. It’s good for us to know and see our ugly our lust is. We want to show God our righteousness, but He wants to show us our sinfulness, so look at it.
And then repent and confess, cling to Christ and tell him how much you need His grace.
Next time you’re angry at someone (kids, spouse, parents, friend), don’t excuse it, don’t blame the other person. Take a look at why you’re so angry. 99% of our anger is sinful; very rarely is it ever righteous, God-honoring anger. You’re so angry because you take yourself so seriously, you think you’re so important, you’ve made yourself the center of your world and you want others to do the same. God wants to show us our selfishness, so look at it.
And then repent and confess, cling to Christ and tell him how much you need His grace.
“That’s why I need you Jesus.”
3. This is not just beating yourself up.
This is not just to make us feel bad about ourselves.
It’s possible to try to justify ourselves, produce our own righteousness by our own beating ourselves up. That may look like “humility,” but it is still rebellion against God. Instead of running to Christ, you are trying to atone for your own sin. You are still trying to be your own savior, still thinking that you can solve your own problem, still putting hope in yourself.
We take one look at our sin and 10 looks at Jesus.
4. We must look at Jesus.
You will not be able to honestly look at your own sin. It is simply too threatening, and our self-protective instinct will kick in. You need to meditate on His promises, look at His grace and love. Otherwise, you’ll never really be able to look at your sin.
It’s like admitting your sin to someone else. You need to know that the other person accepts you, cares about you, loves you, you need to trust that person, only then can you confess your sins and weaknesses.
You need to honestly see that God does accept you, cares about you, loves you, you need to trust Him, only then can you confess your sins and weaknesses. Repentance itself is an act of faith.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Ps 103:12)
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn 1:9)
And then as we see our sinfulness, we see more of God’s grace, kindness and love.
The point of seeing our sin is so that we can turn to Jesus. It’s not about seeing our sinfulness, it’s about seeing His grace. We’ll look at this more closely next week.