Session 13 · Galatians 3:19-25
God’s Law, God’s Council
The law had a role in God’s plan, but it could not give life.
Book reading: Chapter 21
Read Chapter 21, then read Galatians 3:19-25 and Hebrews 2:1-4. Paul asks why the law was given and says it was added because of transgressions, until the promised offspring came. He also describes the law as put in place through angels by an intermediary. This gives the law a real place in God’s story without making it the source of life or the way people earn right standing with God.
In Heiser’s framing, the divine council witnessed the giving of the law at Sinai. He points to New Testament passages that connect angels with the law and describes the covenant as having supernatural witnesses. Galatians 3 itself mentions angels and an intermediary, while Hebrews 2 warns readers to pay attention to the message declared through angels and to the salvation announced by the Lord. The passages invite care: they say the law had angelic mediation, but they do not give a full account of every detail of a council scene.
Paul makes the central limit plain. If a law could give life, righteousness would come through law. But the law cannot do that. Instead, Scripture shows all under sin so that the promise may be received through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul calls the law a guardian until Christ came; now that faith has come, believers are no longer under that guardian. His point is not that God’s law was bad. It served a purpose, but it could not do what the promise does.
That distinction matters when obedience feels like a way to bargain with God. Galatians does not tell readers to ignore what is good. It says right standing comes by faith, not by earning it through law keeping. The law can expose sin and guide a people, but it cannot make a sinner alive. Christ is not an extra reward for people who have already succeeded. The promise is given to those who believe.
Read Galatians and Hebrews side by side. Note what each says about angels, mediation, and the message people must heed. Then notice what Galatians says about the law’s purpose and its limit. Separate what the verses state from what readers infer about the unseen setting at Sinai. This lets a reader take the supernatural language seriously while keeping the central gospel claim in view.
A practical response is to name one good action you have treated as a way to prove your worth. You can still do that good thing, but as a response to grace rather than a payment for it. Ask what faithful obedience looks like when you trust the promise instead of trying to secure God’s acceptance through performance. The chapter’s connection between law, angels, and council should lead back to Scripture’s stated purpose: the law had a role, and Christ brings the promised justification by faith.
Key idea
Galatians says the law was mediated through angels and served as a guardian, but it could not give life or replace the promise received by faith.
Questions to consider
- What do Galatians 3:19-25 and Hebrews 2:1-4 each say about angels and mediation?
- Where might you be treating obedience as payment for acceptance instead of a response to grace?
Journal prompt
Write what Galatians 3:19-25 says the law could do and what it could not do. Name one act of obedience you want to practice as a response to grace.
Practice
1. Read Galatians 3:19-25 and Hebrews 2:1-4. Make two short lists: what each passage says about the law’s mediators, and what Galatians says about the law’s purpose and limits.