The Promise And The Law.

THE PROMISE AND THE LAW.

Galatians 3:16-22.

1. The Changeless Promise.

Galatians 3:16-18.

In GALATIANS 3:16, the Apostle Paul demonstrates from Scripture that the promises that the LORD made to Abraham are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul makes much of the fact that the word “Seed” is singular, not plural, and must therefore refer to the Messiah.

GALATIANS 3:17 refers to the covenant as being “confirmed beforehand by God to Christ.” Such confirmation has the same effect as when a legal document is ‘sealed’ (cf. Galatians 3:15) - it cannot be annulled. So it would be ludicrous to imagine that “the law which was four hundred and thirty years after,” argues Paul, could disannul the covenant, and “make the promise of none effect.”

GALATIANS 3:18. There is a separation between the law and the promise. Paul goes so far as to argue that the promised inheritance which is ours in Christ Jesus did not come by the law, but God has, in effect, “freely and irrevocably given it to Abraham as a gift of grace.”

2. The Purpose of the Law.

Galatians 3:19-22.

So what was the purpose of the law? It was added “because of transgressions” (GALATIANS 3:19). The law brings to us ‘the knowledge of sin’ (cf. Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7). ‘Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound’ (cf. Romans 5:20).

The law was added “until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made” (GALATIANS 3:19). Here the promise is said to be made to Him in whom it is fulfilled. Christians, on the other hand, ‘receive (the fulfilment of) the promise of the Spirit through faith’ (cf. Galatians 3:14). In other words, ‘the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith’ (cf. Galatians 3:24).

The law was “ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (GALATIANS 3:19). It came from God, through angels (cf. Psalm 68:17; Acts 7:53; Hebrews 2:2-3), to Moses. In other words, it was not first-hand, nor even second-hand, but third-hand.

The enigmatic statement of GALATIANS 3:20 defines mediatorship as being necessary where there are at least two parties to whatever is being mediated. “But God is One” implies the superiority of the promise to the law, in that God spoke the promise DIRECTLY to Abraham.

Paul next asked, “Is the law then against the promises of God?” (GALATIANS 3:21). To which his emphatic answer is, “Certainly not: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, most assuredly righteousness would have been of the law.” Far from being able to make alive, ‘the letter (of the law) kills, but the Spirit makes alive’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:6).

GALATIANS 3:22. “But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” As we become convinced of our sinfulness, and the failure of the law to provide a way of salvation for us (cf. Galatians 3:11), we have no recourse but to ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved’ (cf. Acts 16:31).