Prisoner of the law

Galatians 3:23 says, "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed."




Yes, I know that this is the same verse I started with last time. It's just that as I read it something completely different hit me. It was the phrase, "we were held prisoners by the law."


I don't like that idea, the idea of being a prisoner. I think of it as being held against my will. But wasn't it my will that got me into trouble in the first place? Do I have two wills?


I think this is what Paul refers to in Romans 7:19, where he says, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." I am a prisoner of sin because of the law. For is I did not have the law, sin would not be sin. Sheesh!


So what does this possibly mean for me today? It means that I must be on my guard. It means that I must look to the things of faith and not of sight. It means that I must depend on God every moment of the day.


It also means that I have been set free. I am no longer a prisoner of the law if I live by faith.


I still feel like I am sometimes. But I am not.

Galatians 3:24-25 " So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

So praise God for the law. For without the law, I would not know sin, but without the law, I would also not know Christ. Had I not been a prisoner, I could not have been set free.