Our Law-keeper

Our Law-keeper

Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary

Scripture Text: Galatians 3:13 and Matthew 3:13–15

Series: Comments on Galatians

Today's Scripture Jigsaw

God has turned the tables on law-keepers everywhere. Christ is the law-keeper. Christ Jesus is our law-keeper. He is our law-keeper because we are joined to him. We would read the commandments as things we must do in order to be righteous but it is Christ alone who fulfills all righteousness. Christ Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness, even our righteousness. We do not do it; we cannot do it. Christ alone is the fulfiller of the law. 

In Matthew 3, Jesus comes to the Baptist to be baptized. John reacts as one would expect. He behaves as we would. He would have refused baptism for Jesus. You do not need to be baptized! Jesus, of all people, did not need John’s baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. He had nothing to repent of for he did not sin. 

Jesus was not there because he needed to be baptized. He was at the Jordan that day because he came to save sinners, and that salvation required him to be fully identified with sinners. That does not mean that he was on their side or that he understood our weakness. It means that he who was sinless was made the sin of sinners so that sinners might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Even in baptism, Jesus became our law-keeper, being joined to us and our sin so fully that he truly took it to the cross. 

We should try to keep the commandments but we should never lose sight of Jesus at the Jordan, being baptized for the sake of sinners. In that water, he turned the law on its head. The commander has become the keeper of the commandments. Christ in God has done for us what we never could do (Acts 15:10). 

Log in to add a comment

Click Here For Content Archives