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Writer's pictureJonah Mcelhaney

The Paidagogos and The Promise of Abraham

Galatians 3:10 “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law, and do them.’”


There is much debate on what “works of the law” actually mean. Some say it was the Jewish identity markers such as circumcision, sabbath observance, and the food laws (dietary restrictions). Others say this is the Law of Moses. I think a good argument can be made for law to refer to the Mosaic Law in Pauls writing and that will be the position I take in this blog post.


Paul in Galatians 3:10 quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the peoples shall say, Amen.”


One thing that is important to understand about the Law is that it prescribed both blessing and cursing. Look at Deuteronomy 28:1 and 28:15, v1 “If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”


V15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”


The law is not something we can pick and choose from, it is an all or nothing command. If you obey fully, if you carefully follow ALL of his commandments, you will be blessed. The promises of the law were conditional, they were dependent on the obedience of the people. Likewise, if one did not obey fully, they would be cursed.


James mentions this in his letter also, James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” It is an all or nothing proposition. If you were able to keep 612 of the 613 laws in the Old Testament, you would still be a transgressor of the Law.


That is what Paul is drawing from here in Galatians 3, backing up to verses 1-9 we see this clearly.


“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain - if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham ‘believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”


Paul is rebuking the Galatians for accepting Christ initially by faith, but now they are trying to be perfected by works of the law. Paul is drawing a contrast between works of the law and faith, it would not make much sense to make this a distinction between one type of work with another type of work, especially when taken along side the rest of Paul’s writings.


Now we end up here in verse 10 where we started, Paul is quoting Moses and saying “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.” In the following verses Paul makes this even more clear.


Galatians 3:11-14 “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ; The one who does them all live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ - so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith."


In this section of verses Paul quotes several Old Testament passages. First, Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith,”, second, Leviticus 18:5 “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”, and finally Deuteronomy 21:23 “His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”


Paul is showing that you can either live by the law, or by faith, but not by both. He quotes Habakkuk saying the righteous shall live by faith and contrasts that with Leviticus 18:5 that says that if a person keeps the rules and statutes and does them, he shall live by them. There is no way to understand this any other way, either we can live by faith in Christ, or we can live by the law.


Next, Paul shows that due to the conditional promises of the law, and the curses that come from disobedience, Jesus actually fulfills this requirement on our behalf. He says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” This is what Christ came to do, to fulfill the law.


Paul touches on this again in his letter to the Colossians,


Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”


The record of debt against us is the curses the law prescribes to disobedience. None of us have obeyed completely, all of us were guilty of punishment but Jesus took our sins and the record of debt with its legal demands and requirements and he nailed them to the cross, canceling the debts that we owed.


Galatians 3:15-18 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.


This is where things get interesting! Paul is contrasting the promise given to Abraham with the law that was given to Moses. Abraham received a promise from God 430 years before the law was given. The law doesn’t have the power to annul the promise of Abraham that came through faith, why? Because the offspring that the promise was made for is Christ! Once Christ came he came fulfilling and receiving the promise of Abraham.


In order to truly grasp what this means it is important to step back into the book of Genesis and find out what this promise looked like.


Genesis 15:5-6 “And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”


Paul references this story a lot in his writings. How was Abraham justified before God? By believing. But there’s something else in this story that I think is vital to us understanding the point Paul is trying to make to the Galatians.


Genesis 15:7-20 “And he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him… When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,..”


This is a covenant ceremony between God and Abram, in a covenant ceremony they would cut the animals in half, place them on each side, and each person involved in the covenant would pass through the animals signifying that if they break the covenant they would be like the animals that were cut in half. Notice that before Abram could pass through to hold up his part of the covenant, a deep sleep fell on him and the Lord passed through by himself.


This is important! The text says, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” But how did this covenant work if Abram didn’t pass through it? Look at Hebrews 6:13 “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,”


Keep reading, Hebrews 6:17-18 “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”


What does this all mean? Because this was a covenant made by God, swearing on himself, and not between man and God, it is something that is unshakable. This means that unlike the Mosaic covenant, which was a conditional covenant, based on Israel’s obedience to the Law of the Lord, the Abrahamic covenant is one that is not conditional. Why? Because it is God who swore by himself. This means that there is nothing humanity can do that can unwind it or cancel it, because the only one who has to uphold it is God. This is the covenant that Paul is talking about, the covenant that the Gentiles are grafted into.


This is what Paul means in Romans 11:17 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,” What is the nourishing root? Abraham and the covenant God made with him.


Obviously, this whole idea brings many questions. Luckily Paul anticipates this and answers them before they are even asked.


Galatians 3:19-23 “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, util the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law have been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.


This is important, the law was never intended to give life. It was given because of transgressions. Paul goes on and makes this abundantly clear.


Galatians 3:24 "So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.


The Greek word used for guardian is 'paidagogos'. it comes from two Greek words that mean "child" and "leader". In a well-to-do Greek or Roman household, the parents would assign someone, usually a slave, to watch over their son. It was his responsibility to keep the boy safe, and keep him out of trouble. He would exercise discipline and teach him good manners.


The paidagogos was not actually the teacher who provided formal instruction. His job was to make the boy showed up on time for class and paid attention during the lessons. He would walk the kid home to prevent any unexpected detours.


The "child-leader" spent much time with the child, playing an important role. However, there were two other people who were even more important. The teacher and the father. It was always a mistake to let the paidagogos overshadow the others.


The apostle Paul found it necessary to warn believers twice about the risk of overrating a "child-leader".


Some within the church of Galatia began teaching that you had to observe the Old Testament law to be a Christian, teaching that believers needed to be circumcised and observe the sabbath.


Paul writes and explains that he law was merely a paidagogos, intended by God to bring us to Christ. Like the slave who made sure the boy went to class, the law prepared mankind for salvation.


The authority of a paidagogos only stayed in effect while the child was growing up. When the young man became an adult, he was no longer under those restrictions. Paul explains in Galatians 3:25, "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a paidagogos.


Galatians 3:26-29 “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is nether slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.


Paul wraps this up by pointing out that if we are in Christ, we are also including in the promise of Abraham and his offspring. We are heirs according to the promise. We are no longer being guided by the paidagogos, no longer under the guardianship of the law, because he are now in Christ, the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.


Paul continues into chapter 4 verses 1-7 finishing up his idea on the law and the paidagogos. In Greek thought, the child as long as he was under the paidagogos was considered a slave. He had to listen to the paidagogos and obey until he reached the age of maturity.


Galatians 4:1-7 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, thought he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those were who under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

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