FROM CURSE TO BLESSING
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Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for your faithfulness, keeping your every promise throughout history and each day of my life lived in Christ.
Read GALATIANS 3:15-22
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Law and the Promise
15 Brothers and sisters, 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. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[a] meaning one person, who is Christ. 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. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 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 Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Footnotes
- Galatians 3:16 Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,/ and grace my fears relieved.’1
Paul continues his argument against ethnic qualifications or any human contribution being sufficient in attaining the acceptance of God. Though writing to gentile converts, he does so by reference to the Hebrew Scriptures. Abraham and Moses (the mediator, v. 19) are the key characters mentioned. The promise was given to Abraham, the law to Moses. You may find it helpful to consider the law as a tutor—one from whom we learn and receive discipline, but don’t live under. Luther, commenting on this passage, notes, ‘The simile of the schoolmaster is striking. Schoolmasters are indispensable. But show me a pupil who loves his schoolmaster.’2
In this section of the letter, Paul builds on the argument that he began earlier (v. 7) regarding the gentile claim to the promises of Abraham. God had promised Abraham that through his seed all the families of the world would be blessed.3 Paul makes it clear here that the seed, or offspring, of Abraham is not referring to a specific ethnic group of people but rather to a single person, namely Jesus Christ. Consequently, inheritors of the promise are those who are found in Christ. This is wonderful news to the gentile believers in Galatia— and to us too.
As in a covenantal agreement, such as a will, the promise of God is binding. Each one who has trusted in Christ for salvation has received the blessing of eternal life and the promises made to Abraham. The law has highlighted our need of Christ, but (as Paul remarks) it has pronounced us guilty. However, as Paul writes, ‘when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.’4
Apply
Consider what it means to be a recipient of the promises of God.
Closing prayer
Lord God, I thank you for your promises made to me and ask that you give me courage to take a firm grip on all that is mine in them.
1 ‘Amazing Grace’, John Newton,1779 2 Quoted from David Guzik’s commentary, enduringword.com/bible-commentary/ 3 Gen 12:7 4 Titus 3:4, 5
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