Do you see “righteousness” or “holiness” as something you need to earn? Is it something you need to strive for or measure up to? We are commanded in 1 Peter 1:16-17 “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” How do you feel about that command? How well do you think you measure up to it?
Passage: Galatians 3:15-24
Questions:
- How does Paul establish the superiority of the promise over the law? (Gal 3:16-17)
- What is the inheritance referred to in Galatians 3:18? What did God give Abraham based on his faith? (Gen 15:6)
- What was the purpose of the law according to Paul? (Gal 3:19-20)
- What does faith provide that the law could not? (Gal 3:21-22)
- How does the law lead us to Christ? (Gal 3:21-25)
Why is this written?
Paul wanted the Galatians to understand righteousness is not something they would receive by keeping the law. In fact, righteousness is part of their inheritance which will be given based on faith in God’s promise. The promise was fulfilled when the “seed” arrived.
The law was given as a “guardian” until the seed came. It could never produce the promise (righteousness)! The law was simply the “guardian,” providing instruction and discipline until the “seed” came. Once Jesus (the seed) came, through faith, they (and we) received His life in them. There is no longer the need for the guardian.
Application:
What is God saying to me through this passage?
Are you fighting a battle already lost, or enjoying a victory already won? Trying in your own strength to overcome the subtleties of sin is a battle you cannot win. It’s already lost! But, Jesus has already defeated sin and death and hell and Satan himself! Accept in Him the victory already won!”
What do I need to do as a result of what I have read?
Spend more time meditating on God’s promise, and your position in Christ, then on how well you are performing or what you should or shouldn’t be doing. JF Strombeck in “Disciplined by Grace” said; “To be occupied with endless questions of what should or should not be done, brings distress and enslaves the soul. But, to be occupied with Christ and his mercy and grace, brings freedom and conformity to His image!”
What’s your first step?
Verse by Verse Commentary
Galatians 3:15-24
Paul is continuing to show the Galatians how they have been duped into putting themselves back under the law. In the previous section he used Abraham as an example. Abraham was justified by his faith, before the law was ever given. Paul continues with another example.
Galatians 3:15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.
Paul turns to a practical example for his next argument, moral law. When a government, or a community defines a law, they go through a process to establish that law. It’s often in response to a societal issue that is causing problems. The law is created to keep order. Once established, you generally can’t add to it or take it away. If it were to be changed, it’s a long process. Like a speed limit for instance. Paul is saying, justification by faith is the same way!
Galatians 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
God promised to bless the world through Abraham’s seed. Paul explains that God was very specific in using a singular noun here rather than the plural. The promise God made to Abraham was a prophetic declaration. Through this promise God was naming, or singling out, Jesus as the ONE seed! Through that one seed, God planned to carry out His promise. Gal 3:7 Paul had already said, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham”
We said earlier that “God’s promise to Abraham to bless all the families of the earth was a promise to bless everyone who came to God in faith! Abraham was the first to be declared righteous by faith. He therefore became the “father” of everyone who is declared righteous by faith! Everyone who believes the gospel are children of Abraham.”
Galatians 3:17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
The promise made to Abraham is like a “duly established” law (Gal 3:15). The promise came first. Therefore it has precedent. The law, which came 430 years later, did not change the promise. It did not nullify, or alter God’s promise. It did not add conditions to God’s promise.
Paul had just reminded the Galatians what they received through faith, and NOT by trying to keep the law:
- (Gal 3:2) They did not receive the Holy Spirit by observing the law, they received the Holy Spirit by faith.
- (Gal 3:3) They cannot attain the goal of maturity by keeping the law. they will only attain maturity through God’s work in their lives
- (Gal 3:4) Everything God has accomplished in their life came through faith, not works. He is conforming them to His own image! He is making them righteous in their daily life!
- (Gal 3:5) The work of God through their life is God Himself at work, not the result of the work of their hands! He is doing the work of God through their life! God Himself is at work doing the work of God through, or with, their physical bodies!
The promise given to Abraham is passed on to all who come to God by faith. The statement in Genesis 15:6 is the first declaration of the gospel. Abraham was justified, declared righteous, by faith alone! And in the same way, everyone who has faith like Abraham, will be declared righteous, or justified, because of their faith! Both Jew and Gentile. The law did not change that! That has always been and will always be God’s plan for salvation!
Galatians 3:18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
The inheritance Paul is talking about is righteousness. (Gen 15:6) These false teachers were were trying to tell the Galatians that the promise wasn’t enough. That their righteousness, their right standing before God, no longer depends on God’s promise, but instead it depends on the law! But Paul is adamant! God in his grace gave, or declared, Abraham righteous through a promise! It had nothing to do with the law. It had nothing to do with Abraham’s ability to keep the law. It was a gift of grace, a promise, solely in response to Abraham’s faith.
Galatians 3:19a What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.
Paul is anticipating the argument of his listeners. “If righteousness comes through the promise given to Abraham, and it has nothing to do with the law. The law doesn’t add to or change the promise that was already established. Then what is the point of the law? What purpose does it serve?”
To answer this, let’s go back to the book of Exodus when the law was first given. In the early chapters of Exodus, we witness the incredible things God did to rescued His people from Egypt. God had said, Exodus 6:7 “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of Egypt.” Furthermore He had declared, Exodus 7:5 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against them and bring my people out.”
They had seen the 9 plagues that had decimated Egypt. They themselves had experienced God’s provision and rescue of their first born through the implementation of the Passover. They had fled their captors of over 400 years. They had crossed the Red Sea on dry land and seen the Egyptian’s drowned in the very waters God had parted for them. They saw God provide water in the desert from a rock, and manna from heaven like snow. After all of that, God had somethings He wanted to communicate with His people.
In Exodus 19:4 God declares why He did all of that. “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” He did all those things in order to draw His people to Himself, to endear them to Him. He was showing just how much He loved them and He longed for them to love Him back.
Exodus 19:5-6 “if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God wanted His people to be His representatives on earth. He wanted for them to display what He was like to those around them so that, just like He told Abraham, “all the families of the earth would be blessed through you,” (Gen 12:2-3) He longed, through them, to draw “all people to Himself.” (John 12:32) But, the only way that would happen is if they acted like Him. So, He gave them a guide and asked them to “obey it fully.” (Exodus 19:5)
God knew they wouldn’t be able to act like Him on their own. He knew they would need help. The promised Seed would be that help. But until the “helper” came, they needed a guide. (John 16:7-11) The guide described what God was like and how to live in a way that would display Him.
I like how Ian Thomas describes the relationship the law has with us bearing God’s image. Here is what he describes in chapter 6 of his book, “The Indwelling Life of Christ;”
“At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses that which we call the Ten Commandments, or the moral law. What is the substance of this moral law?
Well, among other things, “Do not lie.” You might respond, “Why not lie? Sometimes lying gets me out of trouble. Was God’s law given simply to make my life difficult?”
No, the law was given simply that you and I might know what the Holy God demands from the human beings He created to advertise His Deity. So when the law states, “Do not lie,” God is simply saying, “You were made to reflect My glory as God, and I am not a liar.”
When God’s law says, “Do not steal,” He is telling us, “I created you in My image so that all creation can look at you and know what God is like, and I am not a thief.”
His law states, “Do not commit adultery.” He is simply saying, “You are a creature to whom I have given a body to express the fact that your physical and visible form is inhabited and governed by the God who is Spirit and invisible. I designed it this way so that everyone, by looking at your behavior, will know how I Myself behave, and I am not an adulterer; I do not indulge in promiscuous sex.”
Now that is the law. It simply represents the minimal demands of a holy God, who has the absolute right to make those demands of those He created for the very purpose of revealing His character.”
Galatians 3:19b-20 The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.
Life Application commentary brings out that this statement continues, or enhances Paul’s argument regarding the inferiority of the law. “Paul explained that while God personally gave the promises to Abraham; the law, however, was given to angels to give to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. This was not a new idea made up by Paul; it was already a Jewish belief. Although it is not mentioned in Exodus, Jews believed that the Ten Commandments had been given to Moses by angels.” (see Acts 7:53; Hebrews 2:2).
Galatians 3:21-22 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
In Verse 19 Paul answered the question, “What is the purpose of the law?” Now he anticipates the next question. If the law was given because of man’s sin and failure, and righteousness does not come from the law, then, “Does the law oppose God’s promise?
Paul answers by stating, “Absolutely not.” In fact, the law strengthens the promise. If the law could impart life, and righteousness could be gained by keeping the law, then it would be opposed to the promise. But, the truth is, the reality is, the law has actually made us all prisoners of sin.
The only escape, the only way out of this prison, is by faith in the promise of God. God has promised righteousness to all who will come to Him, in faith, believing that He (the seed) is the only source for that righteousness.
Galatians 3:23-25 23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
There is no hope if the law is the only option. It’s a futile battle that we will never win. We are fighting a battle we have already lost. We are prisoners to a futile system. Paul says, “the law was put in charge to LEAD us to Christ.” God put the law in place to show us our utter inability to keep it. We will never be justified, or declared righteous, by keeping the law. It’s hopeless. The law was there lead us to Christ, our only hope!
The promise brought righteousness through faith. (Gen 15:6) But, until the promise was fulfilled, there was a need of a “supervisor.” (Gal 3:15)
The cultural roll of this “supervisor” is worth noting. Other translations use ; guardian (ESV), schoolmaster (KJV), tudor (NASB), trainer or guardian of a school child (AMP). Life Application commentary does a good job describing what this roll was:
“In Greek culture, a guardian and teacher was a slave who had the important responsibility for the children in a family. A wealthy family might have one guardian for each child. This slave strictly disciplined the child, conducted the child to and from school, cared for the child, taught the child manners, and gave the child moral training. The guardian’s role was temporary—he or she was responsible for the child until the child reached adult age (probably age sixteen).
The picture of the law serving as a guardian and teacher shows that the law was a temporary measure meant to lead us until Christ came. This leading was meant in the sense of the law watching over us until we could receive our “adulthood,” our full relationship with the Father, through Christ’s coming.
What was the ultimate purpose of the law? Paul repeated it in the last phrase, that through faith in Christ, we are made right with God. The law had its usefulness in pointing out the wrong and providing constant reproof. The law, through imprisonment and discipline, taught us (though negatively) that justification with God really is through faith alone.”
The law was there to point our wrong and to provide constant reproof or discipline. It was there to show a constant reminder of sin and failure, but it provided no hope for improvement. The law was like shackles on a prisoner kept in a dungeon. The only escape, the only way out of this prison is by faith in the promise of God. God has promised righteousness to all who will come to Him, in faith, believing that He (the seed) is the only source for that righteousness. The law was the guardian, providing instruction and discipline until the “seed” came. Once Jesus came, through faith, we received His life in us. There is no longer the need for the guardian.
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