How many of you have made out a will? How would you feel, after you have taken the time to make out a will, paid a lawyer, or had it witnessed and notarized, would later have the executor of your will throw it out and instead add his or her ideas as to the disposition of your estate? That would be disturbing, a betrayal of what your intentions were to be wouldn’t you agree?
That is what Paul was contending in the passages of Galatians we are studying. The Judaizers were attempting to change the will, the plan and purpose of God, to add what they thought would be the best way for people to find salvation, as if they had a say in the matter. That brings us to today’s passage, Galatians 3:15-22.
Reading from the New Living Translation, verse 15 says Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case. Paul is speaking from a situation which was common in everyday life. People make out agreements and expect those agreements to hold up. Legal documents are legally binding. A third party cannot come along and say there are things I don’t like, or there are things I want to add to what has been written, some new conditions. The legal document must be fulfilled the way it was written.
Making this point, Paul now continues to give a clearer understanding of the covenant God has made with mankind. Lets look beginning at verse 16…
God gave the promise to Abraham and his child. And notice that it doesn’t say the promise was to his children, as if it meant many descendants. But the promise was to his child--and that, of course, means Christ. 17This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. 18For if the inheritance could be received only by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God gave it to Abraham as a promise.
God set forth a covenant with Abraham which was fulfilled in the birth of God’s Son Jesus Christ, the Promised One. A covenant which was not just for Abraham but for all men women and children. A covenant is always made with 2 or more parties though it can be fulfilled by just one of the parties to the covenant.
What is this covenant with Abraham? Lets look at Genesis 15:1-7. 1Afterward the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, "Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great."
2But Abram replied, "O Sovereign LORD, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since I don’t have a son, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3You have given me no children, so one of my servants will have to be my heir." 4Then the LORD said to him, "No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you." 5Then the LORD brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that--too many to count!" 6And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD declared him righteous because of his faith. 7Then the LORD told him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land."
The response of Abraham was similar to what you and I might have. God lays something out, and our first response is when. Who here is waiting for a promise to be fulfilled? Have you talked to God about it? Abraham did and God brought the answers to the questions of his heart in verses 12-17 of Genesis 15. That evening, as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. He saw a terrifying vision of darkness and horror.
13Then the LORD told Abram, "You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. 14But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 15(But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.) 16After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, when the sin of the Amorites has run its course." 17As the sun went down and it became dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
The fulfillment, though Abraham will die at a ripe old age, will not be fulfilling in his lifetime but in the generations to come. God then sealed the covenant in the manner of that day. A animal was slain, the pieces of the carcass was divided in two, and traditionally both parties of the covenant would walk between the carcass halves to seal the deal and the blood which had been shed would symbolically ratify the agreement. This however was not the full case here. Abraham was asleep, seeing God working in a vision and at the end, God, and God alone took a solitary walk through the carcasses initiating an unconditional covenant where the total obligation for its fulfillment rested solely on Him.
This covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, as we read today, superceded the Mosaic Covenant, sometimes referred to as the Sinai Covenant. In fact, Paul points out it superceded it by 430 years. So, if God made a covenant with Abraham, fulfilled through the birth of Jesus Christ, the covenant made with Moses could not and did not amend the Abrahamic Covenant because it legally could not, they stand as two separate agreements. The Covenant made with Abraham is a Christ centered covenant.
When God have the covenant to Abraham, it was given referring to Christ, the Promised One who was still to come. And since Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant, it remains greater than the covenant of Law which leads to God’s greatest promise, the New Covenant in the Messiah, Jesus Christ which we remember each time we share in Communion.
Every promise given to Abraham was fulfilled in Christ and whether before or after He came to earth, salvation has always been provided by His sacrifice on the Cross. Those who lived before the Cross and never knew the specifics about Christ were nonetheless made right by God through faith in anticipation of Christ’s sacrifice and those who believed living after the death of Christ on the Cross were saved looking back to what Christ had done for them. In looking at this, I hope you can see how faith points forward and how faith points back in the life of believers.
Paul states then that in light of the fact that the Law came 430 years after the covenant with Abraham, that the Covenant of the Promise is not and cannot be voided by a new system initiated where people are to be saved by another means other than faith. Faith could not have been the means for 430 years and now changed for salvation to come by doing the works of the Law, the very thing the Judaizers were attempting to and doing quite well at convincing the believers in Galatia as the means of being a Christian.
Ambrosiaster, one of the early church leaders in the period following the death of the apostles, said, “Once the promise had been established, the Law was given subsequently, not so it could undermine the Promise but so that it might point to what was to be fulfilled and when it would come.”
Maybe its just me, but I have been amazed at how hard something as simple as salvation has by some people been made to be. Consider this. If the inheritance is based in Law, the Promise has been voided. Let me try to make this simple. If you receive an inheritance from someone, it is not because you have worked for it. You could have worked for lets say, your mom and dad, took care of them in their final years, and see their inheritance go to another sibling. The fact you worked did not earn you an inheritance because an inheritance is a gift given which the giver determines how it will be distributed. The person giving the inheritance gives from what they possess how they so desire to give. So, the promise given to Abraham, realized in Christ Jesus, salvation by faith, is freely given to those who believer in the giver of the gift and accept the gift given, eternal life with God. For someone to add to this free gift nullifies the gift by adding conditions to what was freely given. Does that make sense? The reality is, in the context of what Paul is telling us, salvation is through the free gift of grace and grace alone.
As we come to the conclusion of this passage, it begs the question, what then is the purpose of the Law. Paul wrote in verses 19-22, 19Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of the child to whom God’s promise was made. And there is this further difference. God gave his laws to angels to give to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. 20Now a mediator is needed if two people enter into an agreement, but God acted on his own when he made his promise to Abraham.
21Well then, is there a conflict between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could have given us new life, we could have been made right with God by obeying it. 22But the Scriptures have declared that we are all prisoners of sin, so the only way to receive God’s promise is to believe in Jesus Christ.
Most of the time in our daily life, you and I are oblivious to the law, that is, unless we need it. When I go home, the law isn’t doing anything for me unless I go home and find the front door pried open and all my possessions missing. Then I need the law so that when they find the person with my possessions, they can point out there has been a violation of law and the law shows the end result of being a law breaker. The law shows how far removed the person who has violated it has become with what is the accepted norm.
The law, given to Moses, shows how far mankind has stepped across the boundaries of God’s accepted norm. How far we have sinned and gone the wrong way from God’s plan for how we should live our life. The Law is a guidepost for how we ought to live and behave. The law cannot restore what is broken, only Jesus Christ can and that action is accomplished through faith by believing in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ can set us free.
Do we have any prisoners to sin, to wrong living in the house today? Let me read verse 22 again, 22But the Scriptures have declared that we are all prisoners of sin, so the only way to receive God’s promise is to believe in Jesus Christ. Are you tired of sinning and what freedom? The Law has shown you are a sinner, Christ, the Promised One shows you the way out of your sin. Romans 10:9-11 states, 9For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed."
It is said, Confession is good for the soul, why? Because it makes the soul right with God. Are you struggling with sin in your life? Are you ready to be set free? Take a step of faith, and confess your sin to Christ, He will not disappoint. Lets take time now to do that.
Altar
