Galatians 03 Round Two: A Really Old Babysitter

What if the rules were never the way to life, but the signposts pointing you to it? Galatians 3 flips the script on performance-based faith and shows how grace, not grit, changes everything. We walk through Paul’s bold claim that the law served as a guardian, not a savior, and that the Holy Spirit is received by faith rather than flawless behavior.

We start by clarifying what “the law” means in the Torah and why it could never make anyone righteous. From there, we trace the promise back to Abraham, where faith was credited as righteousness long before Sinai. That promise reaches its fulfillment in Christ, who bore the curse of the law on the cross so we could receive the blessing and the Spirit. Using the “old babysitter” analogy, we unpack how the law guided and restrained until Christ came, then stepped aside as the Son took the lead in our lives.

We also tackle a misunderstood line: “neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female.” It’s not an erasure of difference; it’s an announcement of equal access and shared inheritance. By faith, we are united with Christ, clothed in Him, and counted as heirs of Abraham. That identity reframes obedience: no longer a contract to keep, but a relationship to enjoy. If you’ve felt crushed by spiritual scorekeeping, this conversation will help you trade fear for freedom and effort for Spirit-empowered life.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Episode Setup
• 0:40 Community Shoutouts And CTA
• 1:33 Galatians Big Idea: Grace Through Faith
• 3:15 What “The Law” Means
• 4:36 Reading Galatians 3:1–9
• 6:23 Faith Versus Law Explained
• 8:08 Christ And The Curse Of The Law
• 10:09 Abraham’s Promise And Timing
• 11:28 Why The Law? Purpose And Limits
• 12:30 The Babysitter Analogy
• 13:49 Law As Guardian Until Christ
• 15:10 Neither Male Nor Female Clarified
• 16:24 Heirs Of Abraham And Israel
• 18:12 Takeaways: Saved By Grace, Walking Free
• 19:36 Prayer And Final Reminder

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Galatians chapter 3. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be A Really Old Babysitter. A really old babysitter. We're going to get into that in just a moment and talk about how the Bible kind of calls the law, the first five books of Moses, the Torah, a really, really old babysitter. And we'll get into that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, Sarah, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Leave us a comment down below. Let us know how you're engaging with God's Word. Also, if you are a podcast listener, I am so thankful for all of you. You're always and forever will be my favorites. Okay. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review. And it takes about 90 seconds, but comment on the podcast when you leave a five-star review. Let us know how it is helping you and helping you engage. And then also for everybody, we all join together over at the Facebook group, Bible Breakdown Discussion. And I just want to say thank you guys for engaging with us there as we are on the road to just create a community of people where we can read God's word, just enjoy God's word, and learn more about Him every day. And this is one of those chapters as well. We're going to learn a little something different about God's word that maybe we didn't know before. And so if you have Galatians chapter three, you want to open that up in your Bible, we're going to get started in just a moment. But to kind of catch you up with what's going on, is the overall theme of Galatians is that we are saved by grace through faith. In other words, we are not saved for good works. Or excuse me, we are we are saved for good works, not by good works. In other words, you can't earn salvation. Now, there is a great like divide between before you get saved and then after you get saved. So before you give your life to Christ, the goal is to give your life to Christ. And then after you are saved, that's when we start the journey of walking toward freedom, getting rid of the sin in our life and all of that. And we have to be careful that we don't get those two things intertwined and get them confused. After we're saved, of course we walk in freedom and get rid of the sin in our life because we now have the opportunity to do that. But we have to make sure we realize that we are not saved because of the good things that we do. We are saved because of the grace of God. And then afterward, we start walking in that freedom every single day. And that's what Paul is doing. Paul had a hand in planting this church in a city called Galatia. And then after he left, the Judaizers come in. These are people who say, Well, loving Jesus is really good and all, but you really got to be awesome if God's going to protect you and if God's going to save you and all of that. And Paul comes back and he's like, No, that is not how this works. You don't get to God by being perfect. If you could, why would you need Jesus? So, in other words, to come to Jesus, all you got to do is bring your sin to him, repent, and start following him. And then it's in the process of following him that we start to grow in freedom every single day. Well, now is going to come the question: if that's the case, then why in the world do we have the law to begin with? And to do that, I want to tell you a story to kind of help illustrate this. But before that, let's talk about what the law is, all right? Now, when I was a kid, we called police officers the law. You know, it was if you're gonna go speeding, it was like, hey, you better be careful, the law will get you. You know, and it was the idea of there was this, you know, person that was out there who is going to catch you if you were doing something wrong, right? That's kind of a good illustration of what the law is. But specifically, when Paul and the Bible's talking about the law, he's talking about the first five books of Moses. Specifically, the second half of Exodus, Leviticus, and then Numbers and Deuteronomy, really, Deuteronomy restates what he's already said. And it's really you could say the law is the Ten Commandments, and then the other parts of the first five books of Moses is commentary on what that looks like in real life. So it's the Ten Commandments, and then what it looks like in reality. That's what he means when he says the law. And the question becomes if we're saved by grace, by the grace of God, the mercy of God, through faith, then why in the world do we have all this stuff in the Old Testament? Well, that's what Paul is actually going to talk about. And when we get to it, I'll tell you a story about a babysitter. But first, let's get to God's word. Galatians chapter 3, verse 1 says this. Oh foolish Galatians, who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made clear to you as if you had seen the picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you one question. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not. You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? Paul ain't messing around, right? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? So pause. In other words, what he's saying is, Jesus didn't accept you because you were perfect. Far from it. It was because you had sin in your life that you became, you know, a candidate for the grace of God. So in other words, we're supposed to focus on relationship, not a some kind of contract. Verse 4, if you have experienced so much, have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? In other words, of course we didn't do all this just so you could forget about it. Here we go, verse five. I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not. It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. Now pause again. What does he mean when he's saying giving you the Holy Spirit? Well, one of the things we have to realize is that God exists as three in one, a triune Godhead, completely one, yet three in person. So one in essence, three in person. Sometimes like this. If you're a basketball fan and you go see your favorite basketball team play, let's say your favorite, I don't even want to say who your favorite basketball team is. I won't start that controversy. Let's say you go play. Do you go watch five people play a basketball game, or do you go watch one team play the basketball game? The answer is yes. You go watch one team made up of five players. Well, we serve one God made one in essence, but three in person Father, Son, and Spirit. And what happens is, is when we receive Christ in our life, the Holy Spirit is the part of God that comes and lives with inside of us. It's the Holy Spirit that points toward Jesus. Jesus points toward the Father. The Father points back to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit encircles them all. If that doesn't confuse you, you're not thinking about it hard enough. But the reality of it is still the same. And so what Paul is saying is, is when you received God into your life, we say received Christ, but it won't be extremely technical. Well, we received the mercy of Jesus and through the vehicle of the Holy Spirit. I know it's confusing, but you received the Holy Spirit, and he's saying, Did you do that because you were perfect? No, I did that because I believed that Jesus could wash away my sin and I gave him my life. He's saying that that was the deal. That's what you were supposed to do. Verse 6, he says, In the same way, Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. It was that believing loyalty that changed his life. Verse 7, the real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What's more, the scriptures looked forward to the time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, All nations will be blessed through you. So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. But those who depend on the law to make them right with God under the curse, but wait, but for those who depend on the law to make them right are under the curse. For the scriptures say, Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's book of the law. In other words, what he's saying is, is he saying, All those who obey the law are required to fulfill it. So that's a hard business to do. They couldn't do it. That's why Jesus had to come. So he's saying, but that's the problem if you decide you're going to obey all of the law in order to be righteous. Verse 11. So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the scriptures say, it is through faith that a righteous person has life. The way of faith is very different from the way of the law, which says it is through obeying the law that a person has life. But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he hung himself hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the scripture, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. So in other words, he's saying, for everyone who says that you the only way you can get to heaven, the only way you can be made right with God is by doing all the right works. Well, then if that's your ticket to get to heaven, you are now under a curse, which means you have got to do all the right things if you're going to get there. And it's not going to happen. It's impossible to be perfect. That's why we need a savior. And he's saying, but the way to actually get saved is to admit you need a savior and believe that Jesus can wash away your sins, and that's how you are forgiven and made right with God. Not by being perfect. We don't get saved by being perfect. We get saved because of the perfection of Jesus and because he washed away all of our sins. And we accept that free gift of grace where he says, I will wash away your sin so that you can be made right with me, and that's how we walk in freedom. Or we start the process of freedom. Verse 15. Here's the old babysitter thing. Dear brothers and sisters, here's an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case. God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the scripture doesn't say to his children, as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says to his child. And of course, that means Christ. In other words, one day Jesus was going to come. This is what I'm trying to say. The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. For the inheritance that could be received by keeping the law, for if it could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of finding acceptance in the promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise. Why then was the law given? In other words, what he's asking the question is, is if God promised Abraham that all the world would be blessed because of him and because of his descendants, then why do we need a law? Why would God send us this law? Which is a really good question. If we're blessed, and if God said he's going to bless us because of Abraham, then why do we need a law? Well, here it is. Why was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who will be promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now, a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham. Is there a conflict then between God's law and God's promises? Absolutely not. If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise for freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. In other words, the law was there to help us along and receive the promise. It was to show us how far off we were from the promise. It reminds me of when my girls were little, we had this babysitter for a little while. And this babysitter was a sweet old lady. And we would tell her, hey, listen, do the best you can. You don't have to teach them anything, you have to do anything. Just help them get to the promise. And the promise was if they would be good all day long, when we got home, they'd be fun. And so her goal was just to say, stay away from this, do this, and you'll be just fine. That's exactly what Paul is saying the law was all for. The law was there to say God's got a big idea for you. But in order to get that big idea for you, you've got to keep sin out of your life. Well, then the obvious question becomes great, what is sin? What are the things that are going to keep me from being able to be in the presence of God? And that's when God's word says, okay, here we go. Here's the law. You got to do all of these things. This is what sinlessness looks like. The problem was, is that it was impossible to do. That's why we needed a savior. All right, let's finish this up. Verse 23. Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under the guard, under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian, or like our babysitter, until Christ came. It protected us so that we could be made right with God through faith. And now the way of faith has come, and we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All who have been united with Christ in baptism have been have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. Now there is no longer either Jew or Gentile, slave, free, male or female. We're going to talk about that in a second, for all are one in Christ Jesus. And now you belong to Christ, and you are the true children of Abraham. And if you are his heirs, then you are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. We'll talk about three things guardian, neither male nor female, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. Here's the first one. When that word guardian is there, that word is going back to something that was very common in Roman culture that's kind of lost on us today. But what would happen is, is there would be a servant in the household of a rich person. That servant was basically what we would call now a live-in maid. And what that maid would do is throughout the lifetime of their kids, that maid was in charge of taking care of those kids, making sure they had all the food they needed, and providing their education. And as those kids would grow up, that maid would become kind of like a second mother to them. And it was a guardian, took care of them in all ways. And then, though, when those kids grew up and were ready to leave the house, many times what they would then do with that guardian is they would then let that guardian retire. That servant could then retire as one of the household and wouldn't have to serve anymore. They had done their job, they had raised their kids. And what Paul is saying is, is that the law was almost like one of those guardians. It was there, it taught us what was right and what was wrong. It kept us from being in this gray area. But then when the fullness of Christ came, the law was able to retire. Because now Christ leads us to do all the things in the law, but to do it from a sense of thankfulness, not out of fear of death. So that's the first thing. The second thing, I just want to make sure and do a little bit of an apologetic here, and that is it says, Now in Christ you are neither male nor female. I want to make sure you understand what that's saying. I've had some people get really confused because they would say, well, that means then that I can be transgender, that there is no sexuality anymore in the Bible, because see right there the Bible says there's neither male nor female. You have to understand the context, what Paul is saying. He is not saying that you don't have sexuality or sexual identity. What he's saying is, is it doesn't matter if you're male or if you're female, all now have equal access in Christ. This was a pretty profound statement in the culture because unfortunately in the culture, women were deemed as second-class citizens to males. And so what Paul is saying is he's saying, not in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, all have equal access. So that's this does not mean that we don't have sexual identity in the kingdom of God. It means that all have equal access to Christ. And then here's a third one. It says, you are now heirs of God's promise to Abraham. When we come to Christ, we are now no longer seen as Jew or Gentile, but we have now been adopted into the family of God. We're going to talk about this a little bit tomorrow. But this is why I will always support the nation of Israel. Now, that doesn't mean I necessarily support the government of Israel. Doesn't mean I always support the politicians that are part of Israel, but I will always support the Jewish nation because it was through Abraham, the beginning of the Jewish nation, that God started the process of blessing the whole world through that line. Eventually, Jesus would come. And that promise goes through there. And now spiritually, as a Christ follower, we have been grafted in and adopted into the promise of Abraham, who is the beginning of the Jewish nation. So I want to make sure you understand the difference. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a pro-Israeli government person, but I'm always going to be a, I'm always going to bless the nation, the people, the Jewish people, because that is where God chose to send his blessing. So I always want to make sure there's a difference. It's okay if you don't like some of the policies of the Israeli nation or whatever that is, but you should always support the Jewish people, because it was through the Jewish people that God sent his blessing. And they are now our spiritual brothers and sisters. And that's important because I know in the culture we live in right now, there's a lot of that that's going back and forth where they say that the church has replaced the Jewish people or whatever. That's not true. The God, God's people, chosen people, has always been and will always be the Jewish nation. The great news is that Christ followers, as Christ's followers, we have now been grafted in to be the chosen people as well. But it doesn't mean that they are no longer God's chosen people. So I hope that helps you just a little bit. Well, what can we get out of this as we get ready to end our time together? Here's the thing. We are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift of God. And when we were saved by grace through faith, we look at the Old Testament and go, why is that there? Well, the reason why that is there is to show us the sinfulness that we have. And look at that and realize, man, I could never get to God on my own. Looks like I need a savior. That's why you could look at the entire Old Testament as telling the story of Jesus, because it's telling the reason why Jesus has come. But now, because of Jesus, we receive the gift of the gospel, which is yes, we cannot forgive our own sins. We can't live perfectly. But thank goodness Jesus came. And because he came, we have forgiveness. And now we don't live with fear, saying we have to be perfect enough for God to receive us. Instead, we go because of Jesus, we can now walk toward freedom every day. And now our affections are slowly changing. We no longer want To live in sin, we want to live in fellowship with God. And it's a supernatural thing that occurs, and because of that, we now live for Christ every day. I think that's amazing and wonderful news to realize we are that loved by our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together this morning. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you that you're with us and you're for us. Thank you, God, for the good news that we are not saved because of our good works. We could never get there. We're saved because of you. And as we live closer to you every day, we walk in your goodness and we get to know you more every day. Thank you for being our Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, don't forget, God's Word says in Galatians 2, verse 16, we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. Remember, Jesus wants a relationship, not a contract. And the more we get to know him, the more freedom we walk in every day. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Galatians chapter four.