— 21st of Bul, 181 JE —
E.J. Waggoner has some very enlightening commentary on Galatians 3, especially concerning when faith comes in Galatians 3, and I wish to share it with you, followed by some of my own commentary. Let’s start with Verses 18 to 21 (LITV):
For if the inheritance is of Law, it is no more of promise; but GOD has given it to Abraham through promise.
Why the Law then? It was for the sake of transgressions, until the Seed should come, to whom it had been promised, being ordained through angels in a mediator’s hand.
But the Mediator is not of one, but GOD is one.
Then is the Law against the promises of GOD? Let it not be! For if a law had been given which had been able to make alive, indeed righteousness would have been out of Law.
“But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of JESUS CHRIST might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto CHRIST, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of GOD by faith in CHRIST JESUS. For as many of you as have been baptized into CHRIST have put on CHRIST. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in CHRIST JESUS. And if ye be CHRIST’S, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. iii. 22-29.
All Shut Up in Prison .-Note the similarity between verses 8 and 22. “The Scripture hath concluded [that is, shut up], that the promise by faith of JESUS CHRIST might be given to them that believe.” “The Scripture foreseeing that GOD would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” We see that the Gospel is preached by the same thing-the Scripture-that shuts men up under sin. The word “conclude” means literally, “shut up,” just as is given in verse 23. Of course a person who is shut up by the law is in prison. In human governments a criminal is shut up as soon as the law can get hold of him; GOD’S law is everywhere present, and always acted, and therefore the instant a man sins he is shut up. This is the condition of all the world, “For all have sinned,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one.”
“Under the Law.” -“Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.” We know that “whatsoever is not a faith is sin” (Rom. xiv. 23); therefore to be “under the law” is identical with being “under sin.” Let us get this clearly in mind. The Scripture hath shut up all under sin. What for?-“That the promise by faith of JESUS CHRIST might be given to them that believe.” Thus we see that those who are shut up under sin are those who are not of faith. But until faith comes, we are kept shut up under the law. Now since we are under the law until faith comes, and whatsoever is not a faith is sin, it is evident that to be under the law means to be under sin. Those who are under the law, therefore, are those who are transgressing it.
The Law a Gaoler .-“So that the law hath been our tutor unto CHRIST, that we might be justified by faith.” Verse 24, R.V. The words “to bring us” are marked both in the old version and the new as having been added to the text, so that we have dropped them out. It really makes no material difference with the sense whether they are retained or omitted. It will be noticed also that the new version has “tutor” in the place of “schoolmaster.” The sense is much better conveyed by the word that is used in the German and Scandinavian translations, which signifies “master of the house of correction.” The single word in our language corresponding to it would be gaoler. The Greek word is the word which transliterated is “pedagogue.” The word has come to be used as meaning “schoolmaster,” although the Greek word has not at all the idea of a schoolmaster. “Taskmaster” would be better. The idea here is rather that of a guard who accompanies a prisoner who is allowed to walk about outside the prison walls. The prisoner, although nominally at large, is really deprived of his liberty just the same as though he were actually in a cell. But without stopping longer over words, we have the fact stated that all who do not believe are “under sin,” “shut up,” “under the law,” and that therefore the law acts as their gaoler. It is that that shuts them in, and will not let them off; the guilty cannot escape their guilt. GOD is merciful and gracious, but He will not clear the guilty. Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. That is, He will not lie, by calling evil good.
Only One Door .-CHRIST says, “I am the Door.” John x. 7, 9. He is also the sheepfold and the SHEPHERD. Men fancy that when they are outside the fold they are free, and that to come into the fold would mean a curtailing of their liberty; but it is exactly the reverse. Outside of CHRIST is bondage, in Him alone is their freedom. Outside of CHRIST, the man is in prison, “holden with the cords of sins.” Prov. v. 23. “The strength of sin is the law.” It is the law that declares him to be a sinner, and makes him conscious of his condition. “By the law is the knowledge of sin;” and “sin is not imputed where there is no law.” Rom. iii. 20; v. 13. The law really forms the sinner’s prison walls. They close in on him, making him feel uncomfortable, oppressing him with a sense of sin, as though they would press his life out. In vain he makes frantic efforts to escape. Those commandments stand as firm as the everlasting hills. Whichever way he turns he finds the commandment which says to him, “You can find no freedom by me, for you have sinned.” If he seeks to make friends with the law, and promises to keep it, he is no better off, for his sins still remain. It goads him and drives him to the only way of escape-“the promise by faith in JESUS CHRIST.” In CHRIST he is made “free indeed,” for in CHRIST he is made the righteousness of GOD.
…Every fiber of man’s being cries out for CHRIST. Men do not realise it, but CHRIST is “the Desire of all nations.” It is He alone that “satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Only in Him can relief be found for the world’s unrest and longing. Now since CHRIST, in whom is peace, “for He is our peace,” is seeking the weary and heavy-laden, and calling them to Himself, and every man has longings that nothing else in the world can satisfy, it is evident that if the man is awakened by the law to keener consciousness of his condition, and the law continues goading him, giving him no rest, and shutting up every other way of escape, the man must at last find the Door of safety. In CHRIST alone will the sinner find release from the lash of the law, for in CHRIST the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and by Him it is fulfilled in us. Rom. viii. 4.
Faith Emancipates. -When faith comes we are no longer under the goaler, no longer in prison. “For ye are all the children of GOD by faith in CHRIST JESUS.” No longer slaves in chains, to be cast out, but sons, to be received into the FATHER’S presence as rightful members of the family, and heirs of all that He possesses. Faith is freedom, for the Spirit is given to all that believe (John vii. 39); Eph. i. 13), and “where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. iii. 17).
When Does Faith Come? -Strangely enough, many have supposed that there was a definite time fixed for faith to come. This passage has been “interpreted” to mean that men were under the law until a certain time in the history of the world, and that at that time faith came, and then they were henceforth free from the law. The coming of faith they make synonymous with the manifestation of CHRIST on earth. We can not say that anybody ever thought so, for such an “interpretation” indicates utter absence of thought about the matter. It would make men to be saved in bulk, regardless of any concurrence on their part. It would have it that up to a certain time all were in bondage under the law, and that from that time henceforth all were free from sin. A man’s salvation would, therefore, depend simply on the accident of birth. If he lived before a certain time, he would be lost; if after, he would be saved. Such an absurdity need not take more of our time than the statement of it. No one can seriously think of the idea that the apostle is here speaking of a fixed, definite point of time in the history of the world, dividing between two so-called “dispensations,” without at once abandoning it.
When, then, does faith come? “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of GOD.” Rom. x. 17. Whenever a man receives the Word of GOD, the word of promise, which brings with it the fullness of the law, and no longer fights against it, but yields to it, then faith comes to him. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and you will see that faith came from the beginning. Since the days of Abel, men have found freedom by faith. The only time fixed is “Now,” “To-day.” “Now is the accepted time.” “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
How Great Is This Freedom? -What is the freedom that comes by faith? That is easily settled by a few texts of Scripture. CHRIST dwells in the heart by faith, and makes one comprehend “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of CHRIST, which passeth knowledge.” Eph. iii. 18, 19. This is the “large place” in which CHRIST causes the believer to walk at liberty. The whole universe is His. “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.” 1 Sam. ii. 8. “For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.” Ps. cii. 19, 20. For “GOD, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with CHRIST (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in CHRIST JESUS,” “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.” Eph. ii. 4-7; 1:20, 21. This is “the glorious liberty of the children of GOD,” the liberty to which the law shuts us up, and towards which it drives us. So emphatically is it true that the law is not against the promise.
Putting on CHRIST by Baptism. -“As many of you as have been baptized into CHRIST have put on CHRIST.” “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into JESUS CHRIST were baptized into His death?” Rom. vi. 3. It is by His death that CHRIST redeems us from the curse of the law; but we must die with Him. Baptism is “the likeness of His death.” We rise to walk “in newness of life,” even CHRIST’S life. See Gal. ii. 20. Having put on CHRIST, we are one in Him. We are completely identified with Him. Our identity is lost in His. It is often said of one who has been converted, “He is so changed you would not know him; he is not the same man.” No, he is not. GOD has turned him into “another man.” Therefore, being one with CHRIST, he has a right to whatever CHRIST has, and a right to “the heavenly places” where CHRIST sits. From the prison house of sin, he is exalted to the dwelling-place of GOD. This of course presupposes that baptism is with him a reality, not a mere outward form. It is not simply into the visible water that he is baptized, but “into CHRIST,” into His life.
One in CHRIST, the Seed. -“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in CHRIST JESUS.” “There is no difference.” This is the keynote of the Gospel. All are alike sinners, and all are saved in the same way. They who would make a distinction on the ground of nationality, claiming that there is something different for the Jew than for the Gentile, might just as well make a difference on the ground of sex, claiming that women can not be saved in the same way and at the same time as men, or that a servant can not be saved in the same way as his master. No; there is but one way, and all human beings, of whatever race or condition, are equal before GOD. “Ye are all one in CHRIST JESUS,” and CHRIST is the One. So it is that “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is CHRIST.” “But ye are all one in CHRIST JESUS. And if ye be CHRIST’S, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” There is but one seed, but it embraces all who are CHRIST’S.
CHRIST not for Himself. -CHRIST did not live and die for Himself. It was not necessary that He should bear the curse of the earth in order to possess it as GOD; for it never passed out of GOD’S ownership. CHRIST came as the SON of man, to win back as man, for man, that which man had lost. “He taketh on Him the seed of Abraham.” Therefore it is that it is impossible that the seed should be complete in JESUS alone, as a single individual. He is the representative man. GOD’S purpose is to “gather together in one all things in CHRIST.” Eph. i. 10. So the seed includes every soul who can be induced to accept the LORD JESUS, and become one with Him. And this gives the glorious assurance that whatever He has is ours.
“Until the Seed Should Come.” -It needs not many words now to determine what is meant by the phrase, “till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” We know what the seed is,-all who are CHRIST’S,-and we know that it has not yet come in its fulness. To be sure, CHRIST was once manifested on earth in the flesh, but He did not receive the promised inheritance, any more than Abraham did. Abraham had not so much as to put his foot on (Acts vii. 5), and CHRIST had not where to lay His head. Moreover, CHRIST can not come into the inheritance until Abraham does also, for the promise was “to Abraham and to his seed.” The LORD by the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the inheritance at the time when David ceased to have a representative on his throne on earth, and He foretold the overthrow of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, in these words: “Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze. xxi. 26, 27.
So CHRIST sits on His FATHER’S throne, “from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” Soon will He come, but not until the last soul has accepted Him that can by any possibility be induced to accept salvation. When He comes to execute judgment, and to slay those who said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” He comes “with ten thousands of His holy ones.” Jude 14.
Then will the Seed be complete, and the promise will be fulfilled. And until that time the law will faithfully perform its task of stirring up and pricking the consciences of sinners, giving them no rest until they become identified with CHRIST, or cast Him off altogether. Do you accept the terms? Will you cease your complaints against the law which would save you from sinking into a fatal sleep? and will you in CHRIST accept its righteousness? Then, as Abraham’s seed, and an heir according to the promise, you can rejoice in your freedom from the bondage of sin, singing:-
“I’m the child of a KING,
The child of a KING,
With JESUS my SAVIOUR,
I’m the child of a KING.”E.J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, 3/24/1898
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There are a couple of points I would like to add. Firstly, faith is to come to us not just at conversion but on a daily basis. Baptism in the Holy Spirit by faith is to be a daily occurrence, especially after we have become aware that we have sinned as the Torah pricks our conscience. Then, after we are born of the Spirit, we “cannot sin” (1 John 3:9), as long as we continue walking in the Spirit. How? By unceasing prayer, where our heart is continually open to GOD’S stream of love flowing into, and out of us.
…Why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit? Why do we not talk of it, pray for it, and preach concerning it? The LORD is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. For the daily baptism of the Spirit every worker should offer his petition to GOD. Companies of Christian workers should gather to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to plan and execute wisely. Especially should they pray that GOD will baptize His chosen ambassadors in mission fields with a rich measure of His Spirit. The presence of the Spirit with GOD’S workers will give the proclamation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give.
E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 50
The second point I want to bring out is the coming of the Seed, which is the MESSIAH with His body, the Assembly. The text says that it will come, but where does it come to?
The previous verse has it:
“For if the inheritance is of Law, it is no more of promise; but GOD has given it to Abraham through promise” (Gal. 3:18).
What is the subject of the sentence? The “inheritance.” And what is the inheritance? Where the promises are given in Genesis—where the current country of Israel is and some of the land surrounding it. The Seed in whole will be gathered there, specifically above and about the Mount of Olives where the MESSIAH departed and will return. And the original Torah—the Tables and the scroll—will be present there as well, since it will be brought up from the cave where it currently resides. For more details of these last events, please read Discovering Mysteries of the Lost Calendar.
With the Torah, not only is sin made apparent but is made exceeding sinful, for without the types in the Torah (something Jones and Waggoner didn’t see, in only referring to the Law as the Decalogue) that play out at the appointed times, the sacrifice and atonement of the MESSIAH cannot be understood. Both the Purity Parable in the Torah as well as the commandments we are to observe today contain us in a place where we can receive the promise of the Spirit, which fulfills all the righteousness described in the Torah.
The Torah is the place where the written Word is, and faith, when it comes, allows us to see every command as a covenantal promise. And Romans 10 teaches us that faith is to hear GOD speak to us by the Word (mentally as we hear the words of the Torah, and spiritually as we hear GOD speaking it to us). As we hear, we are to believe that GOD raised up His SON to raise us back up (to bring us back to the path of holiness, of faith, of unceasing prayer) by His righteous Spirit, and as we believe in our hearts, we are to acknowledge the LORD JEHOSHUA with our lips. And I think it would be well for us to exercise this every time we repent from a commandment we have broken. Then the place (the Torah) that imprisoned us is the very place we are freed unto the MESSIAH.
At the end of the millennium that the redeemed are in Paradise, they return back to the Mount of Olives on the Day of Dividing (the 21st of Abib) after traveling during the holy week. This is the day that the Red Sea was divided, and it is the day that the Mount of Olives shall likewise be divided. A great plain forms from the splitting of the mountain, and it is sanctified. It covers the entire Promised Land (according to the measurements given of the Holy City in Revelation) and the New Jerusalem is set there—the earnest and capital of the inheritance. Yet the rest of the earth is unsanctified, with the resurrected nations upon it as the Battle of Armageddon resumes. The Great White Throne judgment comes on Pentecost and all the wicked are judged, and the hellfire burns until the earth is purified on the Day of Shouting—the very day that 1000 years prior the 144,000 were gathered to establish the Kingdom. Then finally the Promised Land will physically expand to the whole earth where the saints will dwell in country homes.
Let us not despise the Torah and its appointed times. Why the Torah? Because it holds us right where we can receive faith until we receive it. It shows us our sins that we would not otherwise see so that we can receive by that faith the righteousness to fulfill the Law—the righteousness of the MESSIAH that He lived for every one of us on the cross. Even after faith is come, we are still to guard every commandment as a promise of the covenant. We are to read the Torah, as well as the rest of the Scriptures through and through, treasuring the righteousness described in the Torah. Then it is not our works of Torah that saves us, but the righteousness of the MESSIAH that produces the works in us, so that they are His works and we are just His vessels to glorify GOD through Him.
Amen.
