All under sin

But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. - Galatians 3v22

The whole concept of the law is a difficult one to grasp. Since we are freed from the law does that make the law evil? Does that mean that the law was a bad thing? That cannot be the case for the law came from God. How then can we rejoice that we are free from something God gave?

Way back before the law God gave what is called the “promise of faith” to Abraham. “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” The promise of faith came long before that law. Paul points out that the promise of faith cannot be annulled by the law.

The law did have a purpose. It, along with the rest of Scripture, have “confined all under sin.” Every person who has ever lived is trapped, imprisoned, and confined. The only conclusion that can be reached by the Law is that no one is good enough to keep it. The Law was not a rule book. Instead it was God’s measuring rod to prove that no one could do anything on their own to please of satisfy His holiness. Under the Law there was no freedom – it proved that all were captive to sin.

Why? Why create a law that would only confirm how far short man falls? “That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

The law was not to replace our imprisonment to sin with an imprisonment to itself. It merely showed us that we were imprisoned by our sin and that faith in Christ is the only way out.