This passage makes my head hurt. The law was added for transgressions… because we cannot be righteous, Moses was given regulations as a symbol, a sign and a way for reconciliation. But those we could not keep either.

And this reminds me of talking to an ethics committee: they have “gone electronic” with web based forms, and say you cannot modify the forms once submitted, and then complain about the spelling mistakes you did not see on the form. Or the grammatical errors. They forget that most of us print the final version, using word processors and every aide that exists, before sending them in. They changed the process and now complain: the contract has been modified by their regulations, but the role they should not have changed [1].

However, Paul refers her to human laws and treaties, ratified. Changing those causes wars or revolutions when done overtly: which is why one has to beware of the regulations being added to, by stealth or precedent.

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.

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until 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 had 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.

(Galatians 3:15-22 ESV)

We have many regulations in this world, and many are useful. We have posts with reflective markings on the side of our roads — designed to break if hit hard (and made of wood or very bendable plastic). There are lines painted on the road, and reflective markers embedded in it. In part, this is because New Zealand Roads do not have broad shoulders or areas where you can safely run off — many end and a cliff starts, without barriers, sans warnings but posts and paint. Which (together with the fact we drive on the left side of the road) freaks North American guests.

We build our roads and our houses to standard. The plumbing therefore fits together and the electrical appliances work (unless from North America. 240v 60 Hz kills US appliances when they are plugged in).

And for these things regulations are good. For the temple and for setting up means of sacrificial reconciliation, the law is indeed useful. But that did not trump relationship. For to not keep the law was to be cut off from the people: not in some regulatory fashion but a removal from the covenant that defined who was a Jew. For more than the Sons of Abraham escaped Egypt with Moses.

This leads to one obvious application: our promise is through Christ, and he bought a new covenant and relationship that had been promised to Moses. The regulations of the law are not part of this new covenant.

The second is more subtle and refers to the kind of problems that happen when we start to regulate with the motives that we can make our congregations better, by the sweat of our brow and the use of contracts. We lose humility, and we stop preaching the gospel as our base instincts leak out.

This guy is the epitome of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s a wannabe cult leader, not a man of God. Reading his words, I can scent the stink of feminist-appeasing, neighbor’s-wife-seducing sulfur. The joke, the evil joke, is him.

No man who runs around posturing as “the only man in the room” in this manner is a Christian leader. He’s an Alpha male, a pathological seducer who can’t stand the fact that there are women in the room who prefer another man to him. I can just about guarantee you that he would react very, very badly to me if I merely walked into his church with Spacebunny and stared at him. His sort of Alpha absolutely hates Sigmas because a) we tend to marry attractive women and b) we see their bullshit for what it is.

We are in a relationship with Christ, by a covenant. Sealed in his blood. Let no one produce regulations that place anything else in the way. Scripture is powerful, and cuts at the joints in our life, discerning the evil, and convicting us of our sin. None of us are worthy. None of us can meet those regulations. But Christ did: and the regulators killed him — the very thought that their regulations and legal precedents were based on something deeper offended them so much that they twisted the legal system to get him crucified.

So do not let your love of law keep you from Christ. Beware the regulators, and those who think they are self righteous. And like them do not be.