Then we have the passages in which the word law is used in a negative sense. One of the ways to tell that the term law is being used negatively is to watch for expressions like "under law" and "of the law." In Romans 6:14, Paul said, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." In Galatians 5:18, Paul says "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." In Romans 7:23, Paul said, "I see another law at work in the members of my body." (There law means something like a principle or a predictable behavior pattern). But let's continue. He said this "law is against the law of my mind." (that's principle again), and "making me a prisoner of the law of sin." Prior to this he said that the law made him aware of sin.

When the Bible speaks negatively about law, it is not talking about law's ability to regulate behavior; it is talking about law's inability to bring about justification.

Being "under law" means we were in bondage to the guilt that occurs when we violate law and there is no power that any law has to release us from guilt. Law, when viewed in terms of commandment, requires obedience and pronounces punishment for transgression without any provision to offer forgiveness.

So how is Paul using the term law in Galatians? He uses it in different ways. The term appears about 30 times in Galatians. About 20 of those times there is no definite article in front of law in the original language. In other words, there is no "the" in front of law. The trouble is, the English translations aren't always consistent in the way they handle that term. In the text we are currently studying, the term law appears five times and the definite article does not occur at all, in fact there is no article at all. A literal translation would make the two uses in verse 16 read "by observing law." Verse 19 would read "For through law, I died to law." And verse 23 would read, ". . . if righteousness could be gained through law, Christ died for nothing."

So why does it matter? Because we tend to think that Paul is talking about the law given on Sinai. That can't be the case because later on in 3:21, he makes a clear reference to the law given at Sinai and says ". . . if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by that law..." We have a tendency to think that one law system has been replaced by a superior law system. Instead of seeing the gospel as an upgraded and modernized version of Moses' law, Paul sees it as a totally different way of relating to God. To appreciate that we need to take a brief look at the subject of justification.

JUSTIFICATION

Justification means being declared innocent. It means that no charge can be against you because you are innocent. You're like a popular ice cream in our area - you are "guilt-free." That condition cannot come about under a system of law, because we are not only charged by the law, we are indicted, proved guilty and deserving of condemnation. Yet Paul dares to say in our text that we are justified.

In verses 15-16, he said,

We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ.

There are some who believe that "faith in Christ" should be translated "faith of Christ," making it Christ's faith and not our faith that save us. Greek prepositions are tricky and we need to be wary of building entire doctrinal systems on obscure rules of Greek grammar. However, in Romans 4:3, Scripture says that "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." In verse 16, Paul says that the promise is given to Abraham's offspring, "who are of the faith of Abraham." That verse makes it sound like our faith does for us what Abraham's faith did for him, so I have no problem with the translation that says we are justified by faith in Christ.

However, the faith of which Paul spoke is often misunderstood. To some people faith means intellectual assent - simply agreeing that Jesus is the Son of God. Others would says faith means you put your trust in God, but there are verses like Romans 1:5 which speak of the "obedience of faith." We are not justified by any performance on our part. We are justified by the blood of Christ. If we could be justified by keeping any law, why would we need a Savior? To be justified by faith means that we accept the offer of justification by responding to the blood of Christ through a trusting, active faith.

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