Galatians 3:15-29: The Law and the Promise

This portion of the study, Galatians 3:15-29, is where things start to get really interesting. While a lot of these things I already had a basic understanding of, reading so clearly what Paul laid out made everything make so much more sense. He really lays out the apologetic case for why salvation through faith is the way that God had always designed it from the beginning of time. I will say that going through the commentary for this section was considerably heftier than other sections so far but I promise that it is absolutely worth diving into. My goal is to make this make as much sense as possible, giving you the ability to dive into the topic for yourself.

I mean, I guess that’s always my goal but here especially so. It’s important to note that, while I study the book in sections as broken down by the ESV Bible, when Paul was writing, these sectioned off headings didn’t exist. He was just writing a letter. It was later that the letter was sectioned off by chapters, verses and headings. So when I say things like “Paul began this section by saying XYZ,” he didn’t actually section it off. It was others that did, breaking it up into more digestible portions of Scripture.

This post is part of a series. If you haven’t read the other parts yet, find all of them here!

A Promise That Can’t Be Changed

In Galatians 3:15, Paul gives a real-life example that the people clearly understood. This was to give the proper context to the Law that the Judaizers were so focused on. Paul was not only answering to things that were already being discussed, but he was thinking about their objections ahead of time. “Even if Paul’s opponents admitted that Abraham was justified by faith, those Judaizers might have argued that the Law, coming at a later time, entirely changed the basis for achieving salvation.”¹ He said that “even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”

“A covenant or a will cannot be changed, and neither can the promises made “to Abraham and to his offspring” be changed just because a law has come into the picture.”² This leads us into the next verse where Paul speaks about the promises that God made to Abraham. This is why we can’t ignore the Old Testament. So much of this will be missed if you, like I used to do, act as if the Old Testament doesn’t matter anymore. If you haven’t looked into what Paul is referencing, you’re going to miss the point that he’s making. “God spoke “promises” to “Abraham” on several occasions, but probably Gen. 13:15 and 17:8 are particularly in view.”³

Promises Made to Abraham

Let’s pause for a moment and look back at what these verses actually say. Genesis 13:15 says “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” Genesis 17:8 says “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” I’ll leave you to study those on your own, but you can already tell that there’s so much beauty here.

Let’s get back to Paul.

The Offspring Is Christ

Galatians 3:16 says “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” Paul isn’t just casually referencing an Old Testament passage, but he’s actually breaking it down for better understanding. He, “knowing that only in “Christ” would the promised blessings come to the Gentiles, sees that the most true and ultimate fulfillment of these OT promises comes to “one” “offspring,” namely, Christ.”⁴

Paul is literally highlighting the fact that God is referencing Jesus all the way back in Genesis. This means that Jesus didn’t just “show up” in Matthew – He’s been there since the literal beginning. Paul doing this, the “willingness to make an argument using a singular noun in distinction from its plural form (which occurs in other OT verses) indicates a high level of confidence in the trustworthiness of the small details othe OT text.”⁵ Don’t overlook Scripture, guys. Don’t write off the Old Testament as “before Jesus.” It all matters so much more than we think it does.

The Law Came 430 Years Later

In the following verse, Paul explains his meaning plainly: “the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void” (Galatians 3:17). When speaking about the 430 years, “Paul is apparently referring to the Septuagint translation of Ex. 12:40, “the dwelling of the children of Israel… in Egypt and in Canaan was 430 years,” which would mean 430 years from Abraham to the exodus.”⁶ Paul is saying that the Law came after the covenant made with Abraham. How could something introduced later matter more than the original promise made? It can’t.

Inheritance by Promise, Not Law

In verse 18 he continues, saying “for if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.” It can’t get much clearer than that. Those saying that the Law is required is saying that what God promised Abraham doesn’t matter. Paul, being a Pharisee himself, understood what their objections were going to be and answered them before they could. He was making sure to take the time to properly prepare the Galatians to defend themselves and also causing the Judaizers to rethink their position. This is Apologetics 101 and it’s fascinating.

There are so many times I wish I could go back to Bible times, this being one of them. I want to be in the room when this letter was read to the congregation. I want to see the face of the Judaizers as they possibly ripped it out of the leader’s hand, wanting to read it for themselves. To be able to see the heart change of some people would just be incredible to see. The Law couldn’t, and therefore didn’t, change God’s promise to Abraham because they’re different. They can’t be combined – they’re just different. “the inheritance (i.e., justification by faith) was given by God as an unconditional gift to those who believe. Contrary to the claim of the Judaizers, obedience to the Law was not necessary to gain the inheritance. God’s way of salvation has always been by grace through faith.”⁷

So Why the Law?

As we’ve talked about in past posts, the question of “why the law, then?” comes up. If it never actually impacted God’s plan, what was the point? The main reason was to highlight the fact that there were sins. “It served as a restrainer of sins by showing them to be transgressions of God’s Law which would incur His wrath” (see 1 Timothy 1:8-11).⁸ If the people were never made aware that what they were doing was wrong, they would never know not to do it. They would simply receive the wrath of God without having a clue as to why. That’s the mercy of receiving the Law. It showed that God’s mercy was necessary because we were all sinful beings.

The Law Was Only Temporary

It’s important to recognize that “the Law was temporary and served until the Seed (the Messiah; cf. Gal. 3:16) came, after which it was no longer needed.”⁹ Once Jesus fulfilled His purpose, there was no need for the Law. Jesus stepped in as the Law instead. That doesn’t mean that we’re to live like crazy people and get away with it. Jesus Himself says that we’re to listen to Him and do what He says. But it means that we no longer have to be separated from God, instead we can go right to Him when we mess up. We can repent directly to Him and receive forgiveness.

Also, how the Law was given matters, too. “the Law was inferior because of the manner of its bestowal. While God made promises to Abraham directly, the Law was established by a mediator. There were in fact two mediators, the angels representing God, and Moses representing the people.”¹⁰ The promise to Abraham was given directly by God, as was Jesus. God Himself took on the weight of sin through Jesus to make sure that we were able to have a real relationship with Him. “The Mosaic law was part of a temporary covenant never intended to last forever. Now that Jesus has come as the true offspring of Abraham, the Mosaic law is no longer in force. Therefore, circumcision is no longer required, since it is part of the Mosaic covenant.”¹¹

Imprisoned Under Sin, Until Faith Came

Verse 21 begs the question, “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” The reality is that yes, God gave both the promises and the law. But they were given for specific purposes and “it was not the purpose of the Law to give life. Theoretically salvation could have come by the Law if people had been capable of keeping it perfectly, but they could not.”¹²

The law doesn’t go against God’s promises, it was just given for a different reason than the promises. In Romans 7:12, Paul says that the law is “holy and righteous and good,” it was just unable to do what the promise could do, what Jesus could do. The law made it clear why the promise mattered so much, it gave us the opportunity to be reverent and grateful, so we knew why we should take the promise from God seriously.

Verse 22 continues this point by saying “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” This means that the law, the imprisonment, was paving the way for Jesus the whole time. Remember when John was crying out for people to repent, that he was making a way for the Messiah? That’s what the Law was doing. “When people recognize this and give up attempts to please God by their own works, the way is prepared for them to receive the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”¹³

No Strings Attached

Y’all, we don’t have to chase after God’s forgiveness. We don’t have to earn it – we’ve spent several posts of this series making plain that we can’t earn it. It’s a gift that’s freely given. I understand why that can be so dang hard to understand let alone accept. So many of us for our whole lives had to earn everything. We had to earn our worth, our love, our attention. Everything came at a cost. This is especially hard for people who have been offered gifts that claim to come with no strings only to turn around and have it used against them.

It can be hard to accept that there are truly no strings attached, that it is simply having faith in God, that He came down on earth as Jesus, loving us so much as to not only lower Himself to humanhood but to actually bear the weight of our sin and die for us. I pray, that if that’s you, that the Lord would reveal Himself to you in a way that you absolutely can’t doubt any longer.

I pray that your heart would begin to soften so you can see God for who He is and experience the love of Jesus for real. If this is new to you, this can sound dramatic and I get it. I used to make fun of people that spoke like this. But I’m telling you, after experiencing all of this for myself, I get it. I understand why people are so desperate for all to experience the love of Jesus because it is like absolutely nothing else I have ever experienced.

Sons of God Through Faith

Over the next several verses, Paul continues to lay the case for the law making the way for grace, for Jesus. Interestingly, in verse 24, he even says that “the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” The law literally was there to keep us safe until Jesus made a way. But beautifully we don’t need a guardian anymore. We simply need Jesus.

“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galations 3:26). “This is the crucial difference between old covenant and new covenant believers: life under the law was slavery; life in Christ is marked by the freedom that comes from God’s “sons.”¹⁴ Side note: both men and women fall under the “sons” verbiage. It is actually comes from a legal term, the Greek word “huioi” and is “used in the adoption and inheritance laws of first century Rome. As used by Paul here and elsewhere in his letters (cf. 4:5-7, Rom. 8:14-16, 23), this term refers to the status of all Christians, both men and women, who have been adopted into God’s family, now enjoy all the privileges, obligations, and inheritance rights of God’s children.”¹⁵ We all get to be free under Christ. We all get to experience Jesus first hand, calling ourselves God’s children.

Not Erasing Distinction, Just Removing Superiority

It’s also important to highlight the fact that Paul wasn’t saying that there’s no longer distinction between men and women. He talks about the differences between the genders many times in his letters. One isn’t better than the other, but both are different. “Some Jewish men prayed, “I thank God that Thou hast not made me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.” Paul cut across these distinctions and stated that they do not exist in the body of Christ so far as spiritual privilege and position are concerned.”¹⁶ Paul specifically pointed to the truth that we are all equal in the church. Not the same, but don’t have spiritual superiority over one another. “Paul did nonetheless make it clear that there is a headship of the man over the woman (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3) and that there are distinctions in the area of spiritual service (cf. 1 Tim. 2:12).”¹⁷

Baptized Into Christ

In verse 27, Paul says that “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Not only are we seen as sons, but we get to be baptized. “Being “baptized,” believers have gone down into death, dying to the old era of law, sin, and death and have come up out of the water as participants in the new creation.”¹⁸ We get to die to our old selves and our old life, fully receiving the gift of salvation, moving forward in Christ instead of bearing the weight of our past sin. We also get to “put on Christ.” This again points to the new life and purpose, getting to have our identity in Christ instead of the world.

Abraham’s Offspring, Heirs According to Promise

This section ends with verse 29, where Paul says that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” We get to inherit Abraham’s promise. The Galatians did not have to circumcise themselves or follow the Mosaic law in order to receive salvation. They simply needed to have faith in Jesus. All we have to do is come to Him and He will handle the rest.

This doesn’t mean that our lives won’t change. As I said many times across this series, walking with Christ will change you. When you die to your old self, the Lord will remove old patterns that aren’t good for you, old relationships that harm you. When He does, your life will change. You will change. That change comes after you’ve given Him your heart, not before.

I pray that this has opened your heart in ways you haven’t experienced before. I pray that the Lord would move in your life, remove the doubt and pull you into Himself. Jesus loves you so much and doesn’t want there to be any distance between you. As you continue to love Him, He’s going to do wildly incredible things in your life. Just watch.

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Footnotes

1. Donald K. Campbell, “Galatians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 598.
2. Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2250.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Campbell, “Galatians,” 599.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. ESV Study Bible, 2250.
12. Campbell, “Galatians,” 599.
13. Ibid.
14. ESV Study Bible, 2251.
15. Ibid.
16. Campbell, “Galatians,” 600.
17. Ibid.
18. ESV Study Bible, 2251.

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