We are commanded to rightly divide the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15). Today, much confusion and all false religions are based on the failure to divide the Word correctly. Therefore, instead of looking within ourselves or looking to some scholar as to how to divide the Word, since God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), we should seek the wisdom of God.
Now, there are many Bible references that teach us how to rightly divide the Word. But, one chapter especially needs to be read and studied above all, which is Galatians 3. This chapter gives the right divisions of the Word based on the three grand divisions of the Bible commonly called Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations. These divisions are Scripturally known as the promises, the law, and the Gospel. The promises were made to Abraham 430 years before the Law of Moses came into existence. This law was “added because of transgression” (Galatians 3:19) until Christ should come with the
Gospel to fulfill the promise to Abraham.
Now, the Law of Moses was not added to the promise which God made to Abraham. The Bible says it came in besides, meaning, between the promise and its fulfillment (Galatians 3:23). This promise was that Christ, the seed of Abraham, should come, and
through Him all nations would be blessed (Galatians 3:8-14, 17, 19). Now, since the Law of Moses was added only until the seed should come, and the description of that seed is, “which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16), it follows that the Law of Moses automatically ended with the coming of Christ. The apostle wrote, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” (Galatians 3:24-25). The “us” as referred to there are the Jews.
In Galatians 3, when read and studied, it will make clear the right divisions of the Word of God, unless one stubbornly refuses to see. With this plain and proper division of the Word, Paul in numerous other references affirms the official cancellation of the Law of Moses. Some of the references in which Paul affirms the cancellation of the Law of Moses are as follows:
1. “We are not under the law” (Romans 10:4).
2. We are dead to the law and delivered from it (Romans 7:6).
3. Jesus Christ is the end of the Law of Moses (Colossians 2:14-16).
How much clearer could language be to prove to all mankind that no one is under the Law of Moses today? All who want to be saved today, are subject to the Gospel conditions of salvation which is only found in Christ (Acts 4:12). Thus, the Great Commission, recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the key to understanding the preaching of the apostles in the book of Acts.