Forming Faith Blog

Is the Law So Bad? (Galatians 3)

Posted on May 20 2025 by Gregory Rawn

Paul seems to be critical of the Law (Torah). But perhaps it’s not the Torah he is negative about, but the way it was being misused: to create a wall between Gentiles and Jesus.

A close-up shot of a sefer Torah (scroll of the Law)
Photo by cottonbro studio

It’s a bit hard to believe, but the Narrative Lectionary year is almost over. That also means that summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) is upon us. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on you, but it does mean that your NL faith formation resources are almost done. If you are looking for something to do over the summer, check out our Learning Together series, a set of short, five-lesson curriculum units on a variety of topics (currently eight, including our newest one, Celebrations). These inexpensive, easy-to-use, and inclusive units can be used as a VBS curriculum, intergenerational events, camps and retreats, and Christian ed classes!

The Birth of the Church

Okay, enough advertising. We are in the midst of a series of readings we call the “Birth of the Church,” which is really what everything post-resurrection is in Scripture. It is the beginning of this thing called “the Church,” which is both the mystical Body of Christ on earth and a group of people with tons of problems.

We have been looking at one of the problems that the early church dealt with as it grew from a small Jewish movement into the wider world: What do we do with the Gentiles? As I discussed previously, some believers looked to Scripture and argued that to become a part of the Body of this Jewish Messiah, Gentiles would need to first become Jews. The other group, led by Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and others, saw the new thing that God was doing, breaking through the old ways toward radical inclusion of all people.

Law or Torah?

Frankly, because of Paul (at least in part), the Jewish Law had gotten a very bad reputation among Christians (the vast majority of whom now come in on the Gentile side of things). Martin Luther and the other Reformers came out of Christian traditions that were (in their experience) legalistic in their approach to God, faith, and salvation. While the theology gets more complicated (of course), we most often hear of “law” versus “gospel.” God gives us the law to show us our sin and our need for Jesus (technically the “second use” of the law). This is definitely not a pleasant thing. Even in our modern, secular world, “law” is most often associated with “punishment for doing bad things” than anything else.

I’m certainly not going to argue that that is wrong. But it tends to mischaracterize the Jewish faith traditions (and even the Roman Catholic one). That’s why I prefer to use the Hebrew word torah when possible. While Torah certainly means “law” and can refer to the body of rules and regulations of what God wants people to do and to avoid, it also means “instruction” (and what we call the Pentateuch, but that’s not relevant here). The Torah was not, indeed, provided by God to be a curse but a gift.

All of this is to say that the words we use matter.

What Was the Torah For?

If the Torah was (and is) a gift from God, what did God intend for it? One part is that the Israelites were moving from enslavement under a set of repressive laws to a new nation. How does God want this nation to be run?

A second (related) purpose is that the Torah points toward the world as God intends it to be. This image of God’s kingdom (as Jesus calls it) is obscured by the reality of broken and selfish people. But as many Jewish rabbis (including Jesus) summarized the Torah, it is about love. Specifically, loving God and others. This is what God’s kingdom looks like: a community defined by God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for everyone else. This describes shalom, God’s peace, where all people have everything they need to thrive. Shalom is the end goal of justice (and righteousness). And what can be more joyous than this?

Right Tool, Wrong Use

But if the Torah (Law) is so awesome, why is Paul so down on it? The problem isn’t with the Torah, it’s how it was being used. Paul doesn’t seem so negative in Romans when he writes:

The commandments… are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:9-10

The Torah is given to help us show love to God and our neighbors.

What’s wrong is when the Torah is used not as a tool to build up but as a weapon to harm, chains to bind, and a wall to divide. Especially when the parties divided are God and the people. Guidance on how to act in a relationship presupposes that relationship; it doesn’t bring it about. The Torah didn’t create the relationship between God and the people of Israel. God had already formed that relationship, and for better or for worse, God wasn’t going to let go, no matter how horribly the people treated God and each other.

Likewise, the Pharisee Jesus-followers in Acts 15 and here were using the Torah to keep people from God, to make a very high wall with a very narrow gate. As Peter and Paul described at the Jerusalem Council, the Holy Spirit was breaking down these walls and forming relationships with everyone, regardless of Torah-obedience or not. I’m not convinced that the “pro-circumcision” group was trying to supplant God’s work of grace with human obedience, but intentions matter less than results. And the results were exclusion, self-righteousness, hopelessness, and a rejection of the Spirit. To Paul, that was anathema, the very rejection of God and the work of Christ.

A hammer is essential if you want to hammer in nails, but quite harmful if you need to stitch up a wound. That’s not the hammer’s fault; it’s ours for not matching the tool to its intended use.

Grace over All

As I mentioned in my blog reflection four years ago, it is very easy for us Protestants to reject works-based righteousness in favor of faith-based righteousness, but we often actually mean belief-based righteousness. In a works-based system, you attain a right relationship with God by following a set of rules. In a “faith” (belief)-based system, you attain a right relationship with God by believing the right things and trusting enough. 

But what I believe Paul is arguing for can perhaps best be called grace-based righteousness. Our relationship with God is not based on what we do or what we believe. It’s based on God’s free gift. God is the one establishing the relationship. And there isn’t anything we can do or believe, right or wrong, that can stop God from doing what God wants to do (or make God do anything God doesn’t want to do).

So, the Law isn’t so bad after all. But if we try to use it as a wall to exclude people from God’s kingdom, we had better be prepared for the Spirit to knock it down.

In God’s amazing grace,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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During the main Narrative Lectionary year (September 8 to June 8), we provide a free resource download from one of our products to help you in your faith formation ministry. This week, download the activity “Blob Tag” from our Living the Word: Kids Mini Lessons (NL) curriculum (2024-2025) and (2025-2026). Yes, it might be weird, but it really does connect to the passage!

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Planning for the 2025-2026 program year? Our Narrative Lectionary (Year 4, 2025-2026) and Revised Common Lectionary (Years C & A, 2025-2026), not to mention our non-lectionary Living the Word: Classroom (PK-2nd, 3rd-6th) resources are online and ready to order, with the Fall (and some Winter) lessons available for immediate download! If you don’t have much time for full-length children’s Christian education, then check out our Kids Mini Lessons for the NL and RCL.

Are you looking for resources for VBS, family/intergenerational events, or Sunday school? Check out our newest Learning Together unit: Celebrations!

Celebrations is a recommended VBS curriculum by Building Faith (and the only curriculum they reviewed from a small, independent publisher)!!!

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