THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 3:15-20 - MESSAGE 9 – GOD MAKES COVENANTS THAT ARE EVERLASTING. PROMISES AND THE LAW OF MOSES IN CONTEXT
[A]. PAUL LOOKS AT MAN MADE COVENANTS
{{Galatians 3:15 “Brethren, I SPEAK IN TERMS OF HUMAN RELATIONS: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, NO ONE SETS IT ASIDE OR ADDS CONDITIONS TO IT.”}}
The next 8 verses are fairly difficult for Paul begins drawing evidence out of events and using his logic to explain this. We will proceed slowly and see what we get. The verse above is the Apostle stepping into human activity, not spiritual matters. That is why he terms it as, “I speak in terms of human relations.”
He takes up the matter of covenant. These covenants drawn up between two people, or companies or nations are to be taken seriously. Once these legal agreements have been ratified, the parties are bound by the clauses in the covenant. As Paul states the simple facts all lawyers know, then that covenant in the domain of men, can’t be set aside or added clauses inserted into it. It becomes an agreement that is fixed and can’t be altered.
There is a very special covenant that will be drawn up soon that will NOT be kept. The Church is ready to go home, for the Lord will soon come to rapture us away, but not long after that there comes a wicked man who will seem to solve the world’s problems. He puts his finger on the Middle East and brings in peace. This man is known as the Antichrist or man of lawlessness, or son of perdition, or the beast of Revelation 13.
Look at the covenant he draws up with Israel to stop the fighting in the Middle East and bring peace to Israel – {{Daniel 9:26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come, will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood - even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined,” Daniel 9:27 “and HE WILL MAKE A FIRM COVENANT WITH THE MANY FOR ONE WEEK, BUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK HE WILL PUT A STOP TO SACRIFICE AND GRAIN OFFERING, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”}}
We can’t expound this today as it is long but suffice to say that in verse 26 “Messiah cut off” is the crucifixion. The “prince who is to come” is Antichrist. The “people of the prince who is to come” are Romans (the revived Roman alliance – it will be European). “Will destroy the city” is the Roman army in AD 70.
In verse 27, “he will make a firm covenant” is the 7 year peace treaty/covenant with Israel Antichrist makes, but in the middle (3.5 years) he breaks that covenant. Antichrist breaks his own covenant and no one prevents it for he is world dictator.
[B]. CHRIST IS THE PROMISED SEED AND THE COVENANTS ARE EVERLASTING
{{Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham AND TO HIS SEED. He does not say, “and to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” that is, Christ.”}}
Paul seems to be referring to these verses specifically – {{Genesis 22:17-18 “indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly MULTIPLY YOUR SEED as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies, and IN YOUR SEED all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice.”}}
Paul is saying that the promises were to be “in your seed” that is, in Christ, for Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham. It is not talking about seeds, for Christ is one, and also in Abraham’s seed who is Isaac. It is one.
God gave great promises to Abraham, and no matter what the delusional Muslims think, God’s promises stand firm. Israel is confirmed by covenants stretching back 4 000 years. And what is Islam? 600 A.D.
(a). THE PROMISE OF A GREAT NATION – {{Genesis 12:1-2 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you, AND I WILL MAKE YOU A GREAT NATION AND I WILL BLESS YOU AND MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT, and so you shall be a blessing.”}}
That nation is Israel stretching back to 4 000 BC. Israel may not seem to be a great nation today but in the future when God takes it up again, it will be the chief nation on earth when King Messiah reigns there.
(b). THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM IS UNBREAKABLE – {{Genesis 17:4 “As for Me, behold, MY COVENANT IS WITH YOU and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”}}
Apart from Israel, through incest and sin in descendants of Abraham, you got the nations of Edom, Moab, Amon. You can't expand that to try to include the United States or Britain and other modern nations like some want to do.
(c). GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM IS THE LAND FOR AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION – {{Genesis 17:7 “I WILL ESTABLISH MY COVENANT BETWEEN ME AND YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU throughout their generations for AN EVERLASTING COVENANT, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I WILL GIVE TO YOU and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, ALL THE LAND OF CANAAN, FOR AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION, and I will be their God.” God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, YOU SHALL KEEP MY COVENANT, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.”}}
There is so much in these three verses they would make a whole message but the wording is very clear. Canaan belongs to the Jews not the Palestinians or to Islam, and the United Nations and Biden and Albanese may fume all they like about it, but the land was given as an everlasting covenant to Abraham. And you know how much land is included; what the extent of Israel’s land is? Here, it is answered in this verse which is another COVENANT sealed by God – {{Genesis 15:18 On that day THE LORD MADE A COVENANT WITH ABRAM, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land FROM THE RIVER OF EGYPT AS FAR AS THE GREAT RIVER, THE RIVER EUPHRATES:”}}
The people of Covenant Theology also must take note of this. The land is Israel’s and God set it as an everlasting covenant given to Abraham. Everlasting covenants are never revoked. God will bless and restore Israel as all the prophets declare over and over. It is not an allegory. It is literal, just like Abraham was.
[C]. AN EVERLASTING COVENANT OVERRIDES ANY SUBSEQUENT RULING
{{Galatians 3:17-18 “What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, DOES NOT INVALIDATE A COVENANT PREVIOUSLY RATIFIED BY GOD, so as to nullify the PROMISE, for if the INHERITANCE is based on law, it is no longer based on a PROMISE, but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.”}}
Paul is fixing the covenant(s) made with Abraham as superior to any actions that might come in after those covenants. I am not a legal person, but in court, a lawyer may cite some previous case that might even go back 100 years as a precedence for the case he or she is defending or prosecuting and that precedent from then holds firm for the case being heard.
In his argument here the Apostle matches up Law and promise, the Law of Moses against the covenant promises given to Abraham. He is very strong about the outcome. The Law can not cancel out the promises given, and the promises to Abraham will triumph any Law that comes in later. I think he puts it precisely, in the words the NASB uses – “does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God.” Actually, I wish those of Replacement Theology realise that. The great promises of Israel’s future are not invalidated by Calvary and to change them to the Church or allegorise them, is a wicked thing to do.
Promise is very strong here. All the promises made to Abraham are valid and always will be. Promises were made about his offspring, the land, and the great nation that would come from him (which is Israel). Those promises will never be overturned because God will never break His covenants. People who write Israel off are those who tear up God’s covenants and try to write their own.
A lot of this terrible error began with Augustine in the fifth century who applied allegory to the scriptures to change the promises associated with Israel and that was adopted by the Roman Catholic church and then passed into Reformation acceptance. It is a horrible thing. God’s promises stand as firm as they ever did and they are so very close to being fulfilled. Once the glorious Rapture occurs, the stalled clock of Israel’s promises begins again.
Paul uses the word “inheritance” and it is a most important word. The promises are associated with inheritance, and to invalidate the promises of Israel is to strip away the inheritance for God’s people. That is what Hamas and the Iranian operatives, AND SOME OF THE CHURCH are trying to do, but they will never prevail because God’s promises are anchored in His character and that is an eternal one.
There is one more thing before I close this section. The 430 years that are mentioned. How do they connect with what we are doing here? When Jacob and all his moved to Egypt they were welcomed by Pharaoh and lived out their lives there, but in time a Pharaoh arose who put the people into slavery. That slavery lasted to the end of 430 years in Egypt until Moses led the nation out. It does not mean the Law came 430 years after Abraham but after the Jews were treated as captives. Here are further verses -
{{Exodus 12:40-41 “Now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years and it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”}} Moses’ record would be accurate. When Stephen was addressing the Council he said this which was the time in round figures - {{Acts 7:6 “but God spoke to this effect, that his offspring would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years”}}
[D]. THE LAW WAS NOT SUPERFLUOUS – IT WAS THE STANDARD OF GOD
{{Galatians 3:19 “WHY THE LAW THEN? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.”}}
Paul had just concluded why the promises of God He gave to Abraham were an everlasting covenant and nothing would dismiss them, or replace them. The promises stood firm especially the promise of his seed, who is Jesus Christ. If that is so, and we pass from Abraham to the Lord Jesus Christ, then why were the intervening years necessary? Those years from the time of the exodus until the cross were the years governed by the Law given to Moses on Sinai.
((1)). WHY THE LAW THEN? It is a legitimate question in light of what just went before in this chapter. So, why then, did God give the Law? Paul gives one answer, that it was given because of transgressions. Keeping crime in check.
I see another reason for the Law. It is God’s standard of perfection and man must know what God’s standard is. In our day most people can’t care less about what is the standard of God’s righteousness. They flout it and think any accountability to a higher power is fanciful. However, to the Jew the LORD made sure the standard of righteousness was known. There was another reason I believe the Law was given. It was to keep crime in check. If there was no standard or points of decency listed, then there would be no law and no accountability. People could do what they wanted and there would be mayhem and chaos.
Could man keep the Law? That was another problem for men and women could not keep the Law. Maybe they could keep most of it but failure in one point meant failure in all. We have a pertinent James passage – {{James 2:9-11 “but IF YOU SHOW PARTIALITY, you are committing sin and are CONVICTED BY THE LAW AS TRANSGRESSORS, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law”}}
Here James says at the start that even showing partiality will have the law/Law condemn you. That is used to teach that failure in one part is failure in all. Therefore, who can keep the whole Law? James adds more – {{James 3:2 “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.”}} He says we ALL stumble, but if we did not we’d be a perfect man.
Man could not keep the Law so why would God do that to a helpless and hopeless lot of sinners? Well, it would be unjust of God if he left the people stranded without hope. However God provided the remedy in the sacrificial aspect of the Law. Provision was made in many ways for the sin of the nation to the sin of the individual. Another verse from James is wonderful in how it ends – {{James 2:13 “Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGMENT.”}} God’s mercy triumphs over God’s judgement.
There are quite some parallels between Galatians and Romans and I will give a few:-
((A)). PROPER KNOWLEDGE OF SIN COMES THROUGH THE LAW. {{Romans 3:20 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for THROUGH THE LAW COMES THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN.”}} One purpose of the Law was to give an awareness of sin, just how bad sin is and that it separates from God. The Greek word for knowledge means “perfect knowledge”.
((B)). THE LAW HAS CONFIRMED THE RIGHTFUL CONDEMNATION OF THE SINNER. {{Romans 4:15 “for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation.”}} Think of this in medical terms. If a person has been getting heart pains, it is time for the doctor. The Law exposes sin and should have the sinner running to God.
(C). THE LAW TEACHES WHAT SIN IS. {{Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I WOULD NOT HAVE COME TO KNOW SIN EXCEPT THROUGH THE LAW, for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet,”}}. Correct knowledge does not lead to deception. God tells us, and we must seek God for spiritual healing because the serpent has bitten us.
Later on in this chapter Paul shows that the Law was doing something else – it was pointing the way to Jesus Christ, the tutor that led us into a perfect righteousness. We will not do that in this message.
((2)). ORDAINED THROUGH ANGELS. Let’s look at our verse again - {{Galatians 3:19 “WHY THE LAW THEN? It was added because of transgressions, HAVING BEEN ORDAINED THROUGH ANGELS by THE AGENCY OF A MEDIATOR, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.”}}
No mention of angels is given at Mt Sinai when God gave Moses the Law. Paul is probably alluding to this verse which Jude may have taken for his Enoch verse - {{Deuteronomy 33:2 and he said, “THE LORD CAME FROM SINAI and dawned on them from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and HE CAME FROM THE MIDST OF TEN THOUSAND HOLY ONES. At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.”}}. One more verse is in Acts – {{Acts 7:53 “you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”}}
((3)). THROUGH THE AGENCY OF A MEDIATOR. {{Galatians 3:20 “Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one.”}} This was Moses obviously. The verse makes it clear that the Law was temporary, until such times as “the seed should come”. That is, until Jesus Christ should come as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
That will end our study for today.
