The Purpose of God’s Law | Galatians 3:15–25
Paul holds up the Law of God and the promises of God side by side throughout Galatians 3, letting us see what each was actually built to do. This episode asks the question underneath the whole chapter: what was the Law for, if it was never meant to save us?
What Holds Us Back:
The Law is like a compass or a thermometer — both are diagnostic instruments, not curative ones. A compass doesn’t create true north or carry you there; it just shows you when you’ve drifted. A thermometer doesn’t cure a fever; it tells you one exists. Religious legalism is trying to climb the compass like a stairway to heaven, or swallowing the thermometer hoping the fever will go away. The opposite error — dismissing God’s Law altogether — is just as destructive; true freedom was never “anything goes.” The Law is good precisely because it’s diagnostic. The cure is grace, found in the person and work of Christ.
How Christ Sets Us Free:
No one is justified by the Law (3:11) — no one keeps it in full. The Law says “Do this and live”; the promise says “Christ has done it all — believe in Him.” The Law was never meant to replace the promise; it serves it. This is the great exchange of 2 Corinthians 5:21 — Christ took on our sin on the cross, and robes us in His righteousness in return.
Where We Can Stand:
“Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (3:25). The Law did its job — it brought us to the end of ourselves and to the beginning of Christ. That’s not failure; that was the plan. Our confidence isn’t in our observance of the Law, but in Christ alone.
My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.
—Edward Mote, “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” (1834)
How We Should Walk:
Where are you still using the Law as a ladder to climb rather than a thermometer to read? This week, dwell on what Christ has already done — his faithfulness in your past, his strength for your present, his hope for your future — rather than on your own religious performance.
