Galatians: 3:15-22
About this series:
Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia is a heartfelt defence of the gospel of God's grace; a fervent appeal to keep the gospel front-and-centre and to not allow anything to detract from it.
In this letter Paul sounds exasperated at some points - for example, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all” (1:6) and, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1), which The Message renders as, “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.”
Paul’s frustration and anger stem from a passionate concern that the churches he planted return to a full confidence that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that a person is justified by God and is included in God’s family. Nothing else is required. The message he preached to the Galatians, and which they had believed, is not so much a departure from their Jewish heritage, as the fulfilment of it. Thus, in this letter we have a window into life in early Christianity and especially some of the challenges the churches faced from false teachers as the church grew from its Jewish roots.
So in this series we’re going to get a big view of what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has achieved for mankind. And some very practical help on how we can stay true to Jesus, trusting him alone to put us in a right relationship with God, to keep us in that right relationship and to qualify us for membership among God’s people. ‘The central message of Galatians is that the freeness of God’s grace and love is not only the gateway but also the pathway of the Christian life’ (Dane Ortlund).
About this talk:
Paul begins, v 15 (literally), “I speak according to man.” In other words, “Here is a human example to illustrate what I have been saying (about salvation being a free gift of God for both Jew and Gentile on the basis of faith).” The example he gives is familiar to his readers as it comes from some of the best known parts of their Jewish history - from Abraham and Moses. The point of the example will be: “Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.” What he means is that the covenant of faith God established in the first place (with Abraham) has not been set aside with the coming of the Law (through Moses). God has never nullified his covenant with Abraham and never will (v 15) - it was and is a covenant of faith. Understanding how the Mosaic covenant interacts with the Abrahamic covenant is crucial to understanding the storyline of the Bible and how Christians are to relate to the Old Testament, particularly the Mosaic law.
So the promise was made to Abraham in around 2,000 BC - the promise, v 8, that, “All nations will be blessed through you.” This promise was to then be fulfilled through Isaac, Jacob and so on, but actually Scripture stated the promise would come not through the multitude of Abraham’s descendants (or seeds), but through one seed (singular, which is how the Hebrew text reads) - “meaning one person, who is Christ”
(v 16). It could never have been that all peoples on earth would be blessed through one ethnic nation located in one part of the world, so the fulfilment of the promise that “All nations will be blessed through you” (v 9), must be via a different route. ‘Paul realised that both the ‘land’ which was promised and the ‘seed’ to whom it was promised were ultimately spiritual’ (John Stott).
In v 18 he restates the prominence of the Abrahamic covenant - if inheriting the promise of blessing relied on obeying the Law then the Mosaic covenant would have replaced the Abrahamic one. But that cannot be the case because, “God in his grace gave it (first) to Abraham through a promise.”
Then, in vs 19-22, as any good writer or preacher does, Paul now anticipates some of the questions his readers may have.
Question 1 - v 19: “Why then the law” (literally)?
“Paul, if God never intended obedience to the Law to be the basis of receiving the blessing, why did he bother giving it, and requiring Israel to obey it, in the first place?”
Paul’s answer, as elsewhere in his writings, is that the law was given to expose sin, showing it for what it is, transgression - cf. Romans 3:20,4:15,7:7. Sin existed, of course, before the law, but only the law defines sin as transgression - see Romans 5:12-14.
But the Law was only ever intended to be a temporary measure, “until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” One commentator says that he has read over 100 interpretations of the difficult language in vs 19b-20! Angels are mentioned in reference to the giving of the law in Deuteronomy 33:2, Psalm 68:17, Acts7:53 and Hebrews 2:2. It would appear that they had some mediating role. Whatever is meant here, Paul is setting up a couple of contrasts:
Moses was the mediator of a covenant, which itself was mediated through angels, while Abraham received a covenant directly.
The covenant of law involved more than one party in that both God and the people needed to fulfil their respective parts, while the covenant of promise is dependent on God alone. Unlike the Mosaic covenant, it is therefore guaranteed to ‘succeed.
“God is one” (a famous statement recited daily by Jews) also possibly implies one covenant for all, Jew and Gentile - cf. Rom 3:30. ‘Since there is one God, there is one way of salvation’ (Tom Schreiner).
Question 2 - v 21: “Is the law then opposed to the promises of God?”
This question is similar to the one Paul counters in Romans 7:7: “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not!”
His answer here is exactly the same: “Absolutely not” (a phrase Paul likes to use as a definitive rejection of what has just been proposed - for example, Romans 6:2; 1 Corinthians 6:15; Galatians 2:17).
The law given through Moses was not opposed to the promise given to Abraham, but the people lacked the power to keep it, “because it was weakened by the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Here, ‘Paul paints a picture of imprisonment. The bars of the cell are sin, keeping us confined. The Scripture put us in the prison, because it pointed out our sinful condition. So we sit imprisoned by sin, and the law can not help us, because the law put us in the prison’ (David Guzik).
God’s goal all along has been, v 22, that, “what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” In other words, faith in God and his promise to Abraham, now fulfilled in Jesus, are what count; and they count equally for Jew and Gentile.
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