From Law to Grace Part II
Galatians 3:25-29 · Bob Wolford · Oct 5, 2025
Galatians (2025-26), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926194142205

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we're in part two of Galatians 3, 25 through 29. And before we get into that passage, we're going to go over a quick review. It's always good to keep everything in context. We're going to go clear back to the first lesson, first or second lesson we had on Galatians. Remember our original outline for the book of Galatians. It's easy to remember because it's pretty easy. It's pretty simple. It's just three parts. Paul's defense of his apostleship in chapters 1 and 2. And then Paul defends justification by faith alone in chapters 3 and 4.

We might mention not only is justification by faith alone, but sanctification, our daily walk, is by faith alone. And then 3, which we haven't got to yet, will be in chapters 5 and 6, where he applies all this doctrine that we're going to be picking up in chapters 3 and 4. We're in part 2 right now, the doctrinal section of Galatians, in chapters 3 and 4. We started off with the personal guilt to the Galatian believers in verses 1 through 5.

He said to them, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Then Paul went on to the history of the Abrahamic covenant in Israel in the Old Testament to support justification by faith apart from the law. Let's review what we studied up till now. Paul uses the example of Abraham to show that God's blessing comes by faith and not by the works of the law.

And this starts us on a journey throughout chapter three. And it's gonna start in verse six and it's gonna take us all the way down through verse 29. And we're gonna liken this to a road trip, traveling through time and through the chapter. We'll start off in verses six through nine, the promise to Abraham.

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, verse six. In verse seven, those of faith are children of Abraham. In verse eight, all the nations will be blessed through the promise to Abraham. And then verse nine, All who are of faith share Abraham's blessing.

And then 10 through 14, we look at the law's limitation. We're talking about the Mosaic law here. The law brings a curse as it is impossible to keep. Christ redeemed us from the law, becoming that curse for us in verses 13 and 14. And then we want to compare Abraham's promise to human covenants in verses 15 through 18. A promise or a legal covenant made by man cannot be annulled or changed once it was ratified. This is brought out in verse 15. Therefore, God's promise to Abraham and his seed, which is Christ, is binding. And probably I should have capitalized that word seed because it's singular. We're talking about Christ. We're not talking about all of his seeds.

The Mosaic Law, 430 years later, could not invalidate that. If that promise is based on the law, it is no longer a promise. Why then the law? And this is verses 19 through 22. The purpose of the law. It was added because of transgressions until the coming of the promised seed, which is Christ, in verse 19. The law was mediated by angels and Moses, whereas the promise came directly from God. The law is not contrary to God's promises. Rather, it exposes sin and imprisons all of us under sin.

We saw that in verse 22. Also in verse 22, this ensures that the promise would come only through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. And then we go back and take a look at the law once again. It was a temporary guardian in verses 23 and 24. Before faith, we were kept under the law and imprisoned and watched over by it. The law acted as a pedagogue or a tutor to lead us to Christ in verse 24. Therefore, the law became our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith.

Here's another way to look at it. which I had fun putting together. We're going to take a look at Abraham in 2100 BC, starting at verse 6, go all the way to verse 29, to today, having been clothed yourself with Christ. So this is our road trip. We're going to start off with the Abrahamic covenant, where all the nations of the world will be blessed. And I call this Roger's Roadster. He spent a lot of time in England, and I thought it would be appropriate to give him a fancy little roadster. Now, in conjunction with that, we're going to look at Wayne's Wagon. And this is the inferior law. Sorry, Wayne. We have a curse of the law. The law didn't really go anywhere as far as the Abrahamic Covenant was concerned. So we have Wayne.

I think the first thing Wayne ever did when he got that car going was he put a toolbox in the back of it. You don't go anywhere without that toolbox. Now Roger's Roadster, all he had was a nice pair of goggles and some grinding gloves. He didn't need any tools. That thing just buzzed right along the road. But Wayne, it just didn't work out for him. He had to get that toolbox out, start messing with it, try to get that thing going again. And he's laying under the car, working on it, getting oil and grease all over him. You don't know how true that is. But let's get back to Roger's Roadster, because it's buzzing down the road.

And we're going to bring us up to verses 13 through 14, Wolford's Wheels. And this is where we talk about redemption through Christ. And moving on to verses 15 through 18, we're looking at Courtney's cruiser. This is Abraham's seed, the coming of faith. Now this is a big turning point in chapter 3, the coming of faith, which is actually going to bring us back to Wayne's wheels.

Wayne has been working on that thing for some time, while all the other three cars, they've been buzzing right along. It's come to the point where there's nothing he can do to salvage that thing. So he called a tow truck. And that law was no longer needed. It's now become Wayne's wreck.

And that's in verses 19 through 25. And then, moving on, we get to Eccles Express. And this is the adult sonship we have in Christ. And this is where we're at in this morning's lesson. So our road trip in Galatians 3 started with Abraham in 2100 BC. All the nations will be blessed in you. And we arrive today complete in Christ, just like Echo's fancy red car. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.

So this brings us up to our passage today, verses 25 through 29. I'll read through that. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under that pedagogue or that tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. And that brings us right back to the Abrahamic covenant.

But you can forget about Wayne's wagon. It served a purpose. You're right, it did. That's Wayne. We're going to divide this passage up into five different sections. The first section, verse 25, our pedagogue, or our tutor, or a better term would be our guardian or our nanny. Verse 26, our sonship in Christ. Verse 27, our baptism in Christ. Verse 28, our unity in Christ. And then verse 29, our inheritance in Christ.

So we'll start off with the pedagogue. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. What exactly is meant by now that faith has come? We need to go back to verse 23. Paul was saying before faith in Christ was realized, the Jews were protected by the law until the coming of faith. We read in verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. In this phrase, we were in custody under the law, that's why Carolyn said, yes, it had its purpose. But now what does it mean, before faith came? Does this mean that no one in the Old Testament had faith?

No. Anywhere from Adam on can exercise faith. and does exercise faith whenever they learn anything and believe it to be true. That's faith. But Paul uses the word faith here describing what was said in verse 22. The promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So that term faith is a shorthand for the work Christ did on the cross to redeem us. And now that faith has come is in reference to the coming seed of Abraham, Christ's redeeming work on the cross.

Now that Christ has come, there's no longer a need for a pedagogue. Notice the word we in verses 23 and 25. Paul is referring to the Jews here in verses 23 and 25. He just told them that the pedagogue was a temporary function. Now that Christ has come, even unbelieving Jews are no longer under the law.

And this is something I think we don't always realize, that we're not under the law, but neither are the Jews. Whether they're believers or not, the law was temporary, but it's been done away with, and they're not even under the law. The Judaizers in Galatia, who insisted on following the law, even they were no longer under the law, even though they insisted that everybody else follow the law. Once the promise of Abraham was filled, the law was done away with for everyone, both Jew and Gentile. Once Christ came, He fulfilled the law, he established the promise, and the pedagogue was no longer needed. I don't want to get into this very far, but When Christ came, the promise was established.

Now, it won't be fully brought out until the millennium and after, but that doesn't mean we're in the millennium today. That doesn't mean we're in a spiritual millennium. The millennium has nothing to do with us, although the promise with Abraham, Christ's death on the cross did establish that promise that Abraham gave to Abraham, that God gave to Abraham. And that promise being that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. Now we do have those blessings, many of those blessings today, but it has nothing to do with the millennium, has nothing to do with the land, has nothing to do with the kingship.

The we in verses 23 and 25 will change to the word you in verses 26 through 29. There is a shift in verses 26 through 29 and Paul will now speak of the Jew and Gentile as one. This shift is very important in the development of Paul's message in chapters three and four. That shift where all the Jews and Gentiles become one is going to be brought out over and over again throughout the rest of the book, and especially next week and the week after when Myles gets into the first part of chapter four.

Our second part, our son's shift in Christ. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, verse 26. There are a few different words in the Greek for child or son. One of those words is technon, and it could be child, son, offspring. It could also refer to a male or a female of any age. Gwios is another Greek term for an adult son. This is the word used when describing Christ as the Son of God. Gwios is the word used here in verse 26.

Paul is making an important point comparing a child to an adult in the Roman family. And we went over all that last week. In the Roman family, the child is under the supervision of the pedagogue until his father deemed him mature around the age of 14.

He is then adopted into the family as an adult son. He has become a weos. This ceremony was called the toco virilis. He is then given all the rights, privileges, and inheritances of the father. The pedagogue, that is the law, has no part in our life as a believer. Once that son became an adult son, went through that ceremony, the toga virilis, then when before he was under the supervision of the pedagogue, now he is over the pedagogue, which was normally a slave. As sons of God, we now have all the blessings, privileges, and inheritance that Christ has. We have that today.

The idea of adoption is also seen here, although the word is not mentioned until chapter 4, verse 5. Adoption comes from the same root word as sons. I don't know if I can pronounce this. Wios is the word son and Thesis is a placing or setting or a position as a son.

So every son was actually adopted into the family at a certain age. Completely different than what we think of adoption today. And of course we went over all that last week. In the Roman family, anyone adopted outside the family could become sons with all the rights, privileges, and inheritance of the family.

I don't know how many of you remember the old movie Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston. Well, in that movie, the slave who is Judah Ben-Hur, was actually adopted by one of the Roman commanders. His name is Quintus Arius. He was a Roman naval commander who after being saved by Judah, Judah Ben-Hur, Adopt him as his son given Judah all the status power and authority that the commander had and if you saw that movie He was given a signet ring and he could take that signet ring anywhere in the Roman Empire And if he showed it to anyone That was his right to all the privileges that Roman commanders had at that time. So as an adopted son of the commander, he was actually ruler over many of his people after he even went back to Jerusalem.

So Heidi and I, we watched that movie again a week or so ago. And we got down to the end, and the end of that movie has Christ hanging on the cross. And then it says, the end. And we look at each other and said, what happened to the resurrection? I guess Hollywood didn't care much about that.

Now, this Roman adoption from outside the family further illustrates the fact that the Gentiles have now been brought into God's family with all the privileges that goes with it. The concept of sonship and adoption is further developed as identification with Christ by spiritual baptism. Which brings us to our third point, our baptism in Christ. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. This is the foundation of the spiritual life of the believer. This is where it all starts. It is known as positional truth.

In going back to chapter 2 verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. By being baptized into Christ, we are identified with His death, burial, and resurrection. And all this took place at the point of salvation. There's no second blessing, no baptism of the Spirit further down the road. All this took place at salvation.

This is briefly mentioned in Galatians, but it is fully developed in Romans. I've always thought that Galatians was an introduction to the book of Romans. I thought Galatians was a mini-Romans. Paul introduced Galatians as his first book that we find in the New Testament, the first book that he wrote to the Galatians. And then later on during his third missionary journey, he wrote to the Romans. So he took that book of Galatians and he just expounded on it and explained everything he was telling the Galatian people some 10 or 12 years earlier. But it's fully developed in Romans. And you find this in Romans chapter 6. And we'll be going through that probably in the next several Sundays.

Or do you know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus? Have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin under that pedagogue for he who has died is free from sin. Which brings us to part D, our fourth part, our unity in Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek There is neither slave nor free, slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. When Paul writes that, this, he is not erasing or getting rid of those differences. They're a fact of life here today. I mean, we still have men and women. We still have slaves. We still have free men. We still have Jews. We have Gentiles. People would like to see them eliminated, especially today the difference between men and women. We see that all over the news all the time.

We have been clothed with Christ and as such earthly distinctions have vanished. Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, those earthly distinctions which we do have today on this earth, they have vanished in Christ. Our life in Christ is now described from a heavenly point of view, not an earthly point of view. The earthly differences among people have nothing to do with our life in Christ. Colossians 3 brings this out. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

These distinctions were very important in Paul's day. To understand this, we need to go back to that dreaded concept of isogonies. I'll bet after last week, You probably hoped you'd never hear that word again. But it's a very important word in our Bible study.

The customs of the people and place and time in which it was written. In Paul's day, the Mishnah, which was established in about the third century B.C. as a way of keeping Jews from from committing sins of the law. It was a kind of a fence built around that law to keep them from going, disobeying the law. And the Mishnah, which today is called the Talmud, and in Christ's time, The Pharisees used the Mishnah to try to trap Christ in his ministry. And our Bible normally terms those as the traditions, the traditions of the people.

And Paul say the Mishnah required all Jewish men and women to start their day with the morning prayers known as the Barak Hashachar. How's that for a word? This is something that all Jewish men started their day with. They would get up, they'd brush their teeth, they would get breakfast ready, and then they would have morning prayers.

This was a series of 15 different blessings. And one of those blessings, the men would recite every morning, Blessed are you, King of the Universe, who has not made me a Gentile, who has not made me a slave, who has not made me a woman. Now, if they were in the bathroom at the double sink, brushing their teeth at the same time, he probably got to that last part and said, and who has not made me a woman. All three of these, Gentile slaves and women, were looked upon by Jewish men as lower class individuals.

And this was very common in that day. The women would pray the same prayer, except the last line would be, thank you that you have made me according to your will. This prayer has been modernized today, and they still, they don't normally use it every morning when they get up, but when they go to the synagogue on Saturday, before the Torah is taught, they will go through these morning prayers. And it's been modernized today to be in a more positive light.

They will say, thank you that you made me a Jew, thank you that you made me free, and thank you that you have made me a man, and they leave the other parts out. When Paul wrote verse 28, he had reference to this Jewish custom. Every Jewish man thought he was better than a Gentile, better than a slave, and better than a woman. Paul comes along and says, not in the family of God, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This is also brought out in Colossians chapter 3. In verse 11, there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian and Scythian, which is the Scythians were the lowest of lowest people in Siberia, slave or free man, but Christ is all and in all.

Which brings us to our last point, our inheritance in Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise, in verse 29. This takes us all the way back to verse 8. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in you, so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.

The covenant that God made with Abraham contained three promises. It contained a land promise, it contained a promise of a nation, and it contained a blessing. With the coming of Christ, which is the seed, and his work on Calvary, we now have that blessing. The land promise and the nation promise is still yet future, but we have that blessing today. Verse 14, in order that Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. As adult sons in Christ, we have an inheritance today that will last into eternity.

In the next two weeks, this will be developed even further by Myles in chapter four. An excellent way to sum up our passage today can be seen in this handout by Hal Malloy. Roger gave that to me a few weeks ago, a handout that he put out back in 1987. This includes many of the great things we have in Christ today. This is what that handout looked like. But instead of trying to read this, I re-typed it so it's easier to read. This was Hal Malloy back in May of 1997.

Seven present realities in the Christian life resulting from verses 26 through 29. Resulting in grace and not law. Reason. Every believer is a son of God. because of faith in Christ. Verse 26. Every believer was baptized into Christ, placed in a living union, or identified with Christ. Verse 27. Every believer can put on or clothe themselves with Christ. This is wrapped up in intimacy. Verse 27. Every believer has an identical standing or position before the Father. We see this in verse 28. No national distinctions exist between the Jews or the Gentiles. No social distinctions exist. There's neither bond nor free. No sexual distinctions exist. No male or female.

The reason? Because all believers' oneness or unity is in Christ. Every believer is Christ's cherished possession, in verse 29. Every believer is a spiritual seed of Abraham, in verse 29. And last but not least, every believer is an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. And this is found in verse 29. I have, I personally have a bit of problem with number seven, as far as every believer being an heir and joint heir with Christ.

And this has a lot to do with our standing in the millennium and the judgment seat of Christ, which me and Myles Stanford don't quite agree with, but if you want to talk to me about that later, we'll do that later. We're not going to bring that up now. So, that more or less takes care of our lesson for the day. Any questions or comments? Yes.

I had taught about adoption not that long ago, so I kind of recently found out that, if I understand correctly, Claudius, and then Claudius had kicked the Jews out of Rome in 49, and then Nero comes in, and he was not very nice to the Christians, but Nero was adopted by Claudius, and so they would have completely understood that whole Yes.

Many of the Roman emperors did not like their kids. They didn't like their cousins. They didn't like their nephews. And they would adopt someone completely out of the family. And this happened four or five times through Caesar's lineage. So they understood adoption. And it's nothing like our adoption today. And if you want to understand fully what Paul was telling to the Galatians, you need to understand that. That's why I spent all last week just talking about all of these customs. Anything else?

Okay, well, let's go ahead and close in prayer then. Thank you, Father, for this time that we could study your word. Pray that you might take it and apply it and put it into our hearts so that we apply it to our lives. And we thank you for your word. We thank you for Christ being the redemption for our sin and that we are all one in Christ. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.