Kaleo San Diego Church > Sermons

Galatians 3:15-22

David Fairchild
Sep 24, 2006
Series: Galatians

TEXT

Galatians 3:15-22: "To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 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. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 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. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."

INTRODUCTION

This is not an easy passage. It can seem very obscure. When you first read this section of Scripture, nothing may jump out and grab you. I have read this for years and it never brought a tear to my eye or caused me to rethink how I live my life or consider my relationship with God. But, this isn't a problem with God's word, this is a problem with my finite and dull-headed understanding of this passage in the past.

If you and I take the time and put the effort into digging and going a bit deeper, we are going to find some real gems. Most times we attempt to clarify the big issues of the Scriptures and not get bogged down into a ton of detail for the sake of everyone present, yet there are times when the detail, when traced, can provide a very substantial shift in how we think and feel. This is definitely a more advanced message, and we should consider it a more 201 or 301 lesson rather than a 101 primer. This is going to require some thought from you.

I would even go so far as saying that to unlock this passage is to unlock the entire Bible. This is a place in Scripture where Paul tells us how to understand the entire Bible and make sense of it.

Coming to the Bible at first can seem like a pathless jungle with overgrown thickets. It seems like a jumbling of ideas and concepts that almost seem to contradict themselves. But when you really study the Scriptures and see how the pieces fit together, it can be pretty breathtaking. It has astounding coherence. And what we have in this passage is Paul showing us the coherence of the entire message and purpose of Scripture.

As a recap, we have the Apostle Paul who planted churches in southern Galatia and senses a responsibility to see that the Christians in Galatia understand the Gospel. Paul is writing a doctrinal letter to refute a false gospel and false doctrine, which if followed would not only lead to peril, but perhaps to ultimate demise if never clarified and understood. Now, many of us have a hard time with the idea of refuting false doctrine or bad theology since it seems so arrogant or authoritarian to do so. Yet we combat false doctrine and theology almost on a daily basis. How about when a friend calls to tell you they are a loser and want to commit suicide? What do you do? Do you say, "well, I don't want to sound authoritarian and arrogant, so I'll let them believe what they want"? Or do you say, "No, you're not a loser. You do have value and dignity and you're mistaken and have chosen to believe a lie about yourself instead of the truth and that's why you want to kill yourself"? How about when someone insults or bad mouths a loved one? Do we sit back and allow a lie about someone that we love to continue to be spoken, or do we tell the person they are wrong and what they are saying is not true?

Well, Paul is very concerned about the lies that have slithered into the minds of those he loves. He's combating false doctrine because he loves them and because their well-being is at stake. Their very lives are on the line with this error.

The false teachers were teaching:

1- Believe in Jesus Christ
2- Obey the Law
3- Then you'll be saved

Paul teaches:

1- Believe in Jesus Christ
2- And you're saved
3- As a result you'll obey the law

Which is it? Believe, then obey, and be saved or believe, be saved, then obey? The point of this passage is to demonstrate that it can't be both. They are mutually exclusive and you either will follow one or the other.

The false teachers were teaching:

1- Faith and obedience work together and result in salvation

Paul taught:

1- Faith and salvation work together and result in obedience

Paul says in chapter 1 of this letter that this isn't some dry debate between two sects of Christianity. This isn't some in-house discussion over minor differences. Paul tells us that these are two entirely different religions. They have completely different results in people's hearts and lives, completely different motivational structures, completely different results in character, completely different spirits, completely different attitudes, completely different paradigms and completely different ways of viewing God and life. They are diametrically opposed and never the twain shall meet.

Paul isn't trying to introduce something new. He's trying to recover the original intention of the law and explain the true purpose and fulfillment of the promise. Nothing is introduced by Paul that wasn't already taught in the Old Testament. Therefore, Paul doesn't see what he's doing as writing the New Testament or some dismissal of the Old Testament. He doesn't even think in this way. Paul doesn't see the Torah as retrograde or old and outdated. The way in which he sets out to defend the Gospel is by teaching the Old Testament and in doing so, explaining the meaning behind the whole Bible. Paul doesn't see the Bible as a thick, convoluted morass. He is teaching us that if what he's saying isn't founded in every part of the Bible, then he's wrong.

STUDY

Paul tells asks a rhetorical question in verse 19, "Why then is the law...?" This is a great question. What he teaches us is that if we think that the law contradicts the Gospel, then we haven't really understood the Gospel or the law. Everything in the Bible comes together and testifies to the unity of the promise. Paul shows us the beauty of the unity and coherence of the Scriptures.

Paul goes about teaching the Christians in Galatia, and subsequently you and me, about the Gospel and the law by using two different figures, which are prominent in the Old Testament. He uses Abraham and Moses, promise and law. He shows us there is no contradiction between them, only agreement. If you're a new Christian or a non-Christian, I realize that most of what I'm discussing this morning is wrapped in a ton of Christianese. I apologize on the outset, but I'll try to dig out some meaning behind what seems obscure so that everyone benefits by the beauty and richness of the text this morning. This is definitely more advanced and requires thought, but there are no naked facts in Scripture. All of God's words are inspired and are intended to show us God and bring us into relationships with Him. Everything must be seen in Scripture in this way so we don't dismiss large portions of the Bible that seem at first pass irrelevant, only to find later that they are the hidden treasures which will bless us if we'll only put some thought and humility into our studies.

Let's look at the two figures and see what Paul says:

First, Paul deals with Abraham. This began at the beginning of this chapter and continues down into our text this morning. Back in verse 8, Paul says that, "the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed'" (Gal. 3:8).

Paul then picks this up in verse 16 where he says that, "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 is saying that this promise is for Abraham and his "seed," not many but one.

What promise is he referring to? The promise in verse 8. God makes this promise and repeats it in different ways throughout Genesis with slight variations: in Genesis 12:2-3, 13:15-16, 17:8, and 24:7. What is it? Basically God says to Abraham that He promises to make him a great nation, and He will give to Abraham a land which will nourish his descendents who live there, and in Abraham's seed all nations of the earth will be blessed.

He says, "seed," which is a common word for offspring. But Paul pulls this issue of singularity rather than plurality out to explain what God is ultimately promising to Abraham. Paul tells us that this promise was not made to Abraham and his seeds, but to seed, meaning one-this offspring is Christ!

We're told in verse 14 that the blessing of Abraham will come to the Gentiles, and that blessing promised to Him is the Spirit. He's saying that what was promised to Abraham is something more important than just an earthly plot of land. The promise was something more cosmic and significant. How could the blessing, if it was nothing more than just great farmland the size of Rhode Island, be a blessing to the whole world? It must mean more than just the land.

The word blessing is a very strong religious word. The idea of blessing in the Bible is to see God and experience God. It is a very strong word that is loaded with more than just getting something nice. So even in the passage dealing with the blessing, it would be very difficult to just confine it to Palestine and to a physical land. Of course there is a kind of blessing that can be just a land where there are great crops to grow strong people so that the wisdom of the Jews can bless other nations. That is partially true. But what Paul is driving at is more significant than that. How could this promised blessing to Abraham be emphatically spoken of again and again as some incredible cosmic blessing to all nations of the world? Is it more than just great land? Yes. This is why Paul points out that when the promise is given, it isn't about a plural grouping of people that will be the blessing to the world since the word is "seed" not "seeds." It is "offspring" not "offsprings." One seed, one descendent.

What is the blessing?

The promise to Abraham is partially fulfilled in the physical fulfillment and physical people who were blessed with a physical land. But, its ultimate fulfillment is cosmic and is not found in a group of people, but in one person: Jesus the Christ. That blessing and inheritance is not a mere physical one, but a spiritual one. The blessing of Abraham to all the nations couldn't possibly be farmland because the great blessing of Abraham to all the nations is God Himself. They don't get land as a blessing; they get the Creator of all land. He owns everything, not just a little strip of property in the Middle East, He owns the whole universe. The promise of the Spirit in verse 14 is not some little accessory or pick-me-up for when I'm blue. It's God's Spirit, and therefore it's God Himself!

Paul is saying that there is first a physical example of this fulfillment in the land and people, but the ultimate fulfillment will be in one person who created and owns all the land, Jesus Christ.

How do we get this blessing?

Paul then teaches us how this blessing comes to Abraham. He tells us that it is through the promise. Verse 18 teaches us, "For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise." So what's the big deal? Well, it's very important, but really quite simple.

If I wanted to give you something by a promise, I could tell you that you that there is a $1,000,000.00 check waiting for you up here in our treasure chest and in order to receive it you need to believe my word and then you could take receipt of it. Some of you might laugh and say that I was tricking you and refuse to believe. But the condition is that you can't have it unless you believe that there is nothing you can do to earn it other than believe. If you believe it, you'll get it; if you don't you won't. That's giving something by promise. If I wanted to give you something by law, then I could say that I'll give you that $1,000,000.00 after you've taken care of me in my later years of life and performed certain duties as a nurse to my satisfaction, then when I die you'll get the inheritance.

The difference is that in a promise agreement, everything is dependent upon the one who makes the promise and has nothing to do with the one receiving the promise. All you have to do is believe the promise. In a law agreement, it is dependent upon you doing certain duties and then for me to give you what you've earned as a wage or reward. If you don't perform your duties in a law covenant, you won't get the money. The responsibility is put upon your shoulders to meet up to the expectations. You can either have an inheritance by promise or by the law. It can come upon the basis of the one who promises or upon the basis of the one who is given the reward by law. If it's a combination of the two, it's still a law, and not a promise.

Paul is saying that God came to Abraham and told him that He is going to give Him the blessing and inheritance through the promise. Now, Paul's thinking is based upon what He said in verse 6 and that is found in Genesis 15 which we'll need to turn to so that we see how important this promise was. Without Genesis 15 you won't understand Galatians 3 and you really won't understand the whole Bible. It is one of those texts that strikes us when we understand it, and gives us a beautiful lens through which to see the rest of God's word. This is why the Bible must interpret the Bible.

Genesis 15:5-18: "And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.' 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, ‘I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.' 8 But he said, ‘O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?' 9 He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.' 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces."

He doesn't tell Abraham what to do, He just says to go get them and Abraham immediately cuts them in half. Why? This is the way you would go about to make an agreement. Then you wouldn't sign something, you would take an animal and you would cut it in two and walk between the pieces. What in the world does passing through dead animals which were cut in half mean? Jeremiah 34 gives us the answer:

Jeremiah 34:18: "And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts-"

That horrible and gory routine that you would go through to make a covenant would be to do this very thing: kill and animal and cut it in half, then you would walk between the pieces. This was intended to signify identifying with the animals and the severity of the agreement. You would do this to show that this covenant was sealed by the death oath of the parties involved. God was telling the leaders in Jeremiah 34 that they broke their oath and God was holding them responsible for their breaking the covenant.

In Genesis 15, we're told that Abraham did this and then sat and a dreadful darkness fell upon him and a deep sleep came over him. Abraham was probably thinking that God wanted to make a covenant with him, so he immediately laid out the pieces of the animal. But instead of walking through the pieces, God sends a dreadful darkness and sleep upon Abraham so that he didn't move.

To our utter shock, the next scene is this smoking fire pot and flaming torch, and instead of Abraham passing through, the torch and smoking fire pot pass through. God then declares to Abraham that he and his people will possess the land promised in the Covenant to Abraham. God will give him descendents and He will give him a seed and he will possess the Promised Land.

Abraham would have been totally amazed, and Paul picks this up and shows how incredible this act was. It wasn't Abraham that was on the hook to keep the promise, it was God Himself. God put His own word and person on the line to keep the promise.

What does this mean? God is saying that He is identifying with His own creation and He will keep His word contained in this promise, and that if necessary He will be killed and cut off. What is so amazing about this is that God never asked or intended for Abraham to make an oath to Him in response. In this time, when a king was to conquer and take over another kingdom, he would go through this same covenant act by taking the animal or animals and laying them out, and either the conquered king or both kings would walk between the pieces. This would put into effect the treaty. But God passes through the pieces and doesn't allow Abraham to bind the promise by his own oath and blood. It is one way declaration of faithfulness, not by the conquered king, but by the true King who is ruler over all.

There is no other place in Scripture that so clearly teaches that salvation isn't a cooperative agreement between two people, but faithfulness by the One. God shows that He will do what He promised, He will bless us (to have Him), He will give us His Spirit, He will save us, and He will be the one to remain faithful even if we are faithless. You can trust Him since He bound Himself to this covenant and God never lies, even if you do. God will never forsake you, even if you've looked away from Him. Even if God has to be killed to show us His fidelity to this agreement, He will.

Well, guess what? He was killed. 2000 years later a dreadful darkness came down again and Jesus cried out upon the cross "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" Isaiah tells us that He was cut off from the land of the living. There is no stronger place to show us that salvation isn't by the law, but by the promise, and Paul is eager to correct the Judaizers who totally misunderstand the Scriptures.

The only thing you need is the One who made the promise. All you need is need, and all you need is nothing. And that's why so many people don't get the Gospel. It's because they still rely on something.

How much faith do you need to have to be saved? Enough to believe that salvation isn't dependent upon how much faith you have. How content must you be to be saved? Content enough to show you that your salvation doesn't depend upon your contentment. How pure do your motives need to be to be saved? Pure enough to show you that your motives are not pure and that the purity of your motives can't save you.

If you were slipping off the side of a cliff and were about to plunge to your death, and while you slowly slid down the side you saw a single branch close to you, how much faith do you need to have in order to grab the branch? Only enough to grab the branch! Why? Because even if your faith is small, if it's enough to grab the branch, what you quickly realize is that it isn't the depth or the amount of your faith in the branch that saves you, it's the branch itself. You don't say to yourself, "I need to work up enough faith to reach out and grab it," you just reach out and grab the branch and rest in its strength to save you. The beauty is that once you've placed whatever faith you have in the branch so that you've grabbed it, your faith in the branch becomes greater because it proves it can save you. If the branch is strong enough to save you, you're saved.

I use this example because people in the church are constantly asking, "what do I have to do to be saved?" "How much faith do I need to have?" "How much surrender do I have to have?" This is how much surrender you need to have: enough surrender to show you that your surrender will never save you. We all try to bring something to the finished work of Christ and add to it all the time because our hearts are always trying to bring us to a law agreement and not the promise.

Is salvation by promise or by law? It's by promise, trust Him.

This is why Paul beats home that God made the covenant a promise. He made the agreement, we did not. He passed through pieces of death, we do not. And the promise agreement simply asks that you trust the faithfulness of the one making the promise to receive it. That's it.

If you hear the Gospel and tell yourself either by words or actions that you still need to do something, you are disbelieving the Gospel because you not only disbelieve the promise, you disbelieve the One who made the promise and you're calling Him a liar who is not good for His word.

Paul shows us in verse 17 that the law came after the promise and that the promise made to Abraham can't be changed 430 years after it was made. It doesn't annul the promise and make it void. The promise came before the law, and not the other way around! Moses isn't contradicting Abraham and the promise with the law. The law is showing us how significant the promise is so that we're not tempted to be saved by our own efforts or by our own promises.

This point is continued in verse 19 when Paul says, "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary."

By the way, we're not really sure what Paul means by the angels comment unless he's referring to the angels on the Ark of the Covenant. But that's not really the point in the text. The question is, "why do we need the law if salvation comes by promise?" That's a good question.

Verse 20 says, "Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one."

This is another obscure passage connected to the angel comment. We think it might mean that we aren't to put Abraham and the promise against Moses and the law as if they nullify or contradict each other. We think this because of the next passage which says:

Verses 21-22: "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. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."

Paul is saying that though we might not think that the law and promise could go together, the truth is that God didn't change His plan for the salvation of mankind. It was the promise in Genesis 3:15 and history is a working out of that promise in the Garden.

When God walked through the pieces and committed Himself to death to keep the promise, He hadn't come into the world and accomplished that yet. The promise-certainly now since the death of Christ in the time Paul wrote this letter-is not only still in effect because it was always God's plan, but the one who made the promise has now died upon the Cross, and we know that you can not change the last will and testament of someone once they have died. Once they have died, that's it. This is what Paul is getting at in verse 17.

The purpose for the law was to show us our transgressions. The purpose of the law is to show us our need for the promise and the promise shows us the scope of the law.

If you really listen to the law, the law never promises that you'll be saved by keeping it. It shows you how you ought to live, but the weight of the law shows you that you'll never live up and keep it the way you should. You were created to live in honor and glory to God by living your life in conformity to His perfect will and character. The law shows you that you are neither perfect nor holy and that you need the promise of the One, the Savior. The law says loudly, "obey me!" and then gently shows you that you'll never do it.

When you read the law and see what it truly demands, you realize you can't keep it. If you think you can, you really don't understand it.

Not only did God give the 10 commandments to Moses, He also gave the laws of the Tabernacle for the sacrifices. Now, if you could be saved purely by the moral law, why would a sacrifice need to be made? The sacrifice shows us our need to have our sins atoned for since we'll never keep it the way we should. Why else would sacrifice be needed? Paul is teaching us that the law is there and it's true and right. We should obey it, we should give our entire heart to God without any competing idols, we should love our neighbors, we shouldn't lie, we shouldn't cheat, we shouldn't steal, we should honor our parents-but from the very beginning we are shown that we will never be able to obey it and be holy before God. The law is showing us that we need salvation by promise. Christ teaches us in the sermon on the mount that if we think we're doing well outside in keeping the law, God sees the hidden motives of our heart and it condemns us just as well. If we've looked at a woman or man with lust, we've already committed adultery. If we've been angry or insulted someone, we're murderers at heart and liable to the judgment of hell. Who can bare this? Only those who see that the law is great and deep and that it plumbs the motives and attitudes of our soul, but that salvation is by promise and only now can we dare listen to it.

The law points us to the promise and shows us our transgressions so that we cry out for the promise and trust in it. If you listen to the law without the promise, it will bind you up, imprison you, throw you to the ground and utterly condemn you. It will only tell you that you need something besides it to have favor with God.

We are the only ones that can take the law seriously because we now can learn the true scope of the law. This is why we can read the sermon on the mount and rejoice in our salvation in Christ because we know there is no way we could possibly fulfill all that Christ taught by the law.

Only if you know that you are saved apart from your works will you be able to admit the demands of the law. Without the promise, you will never go deeper to see the demands because it will crush you. You'll lessen its impact and only look at it superficially.

David says, "I love the law, it's sweeter than honey to the mouth." No it isn't for those who don't understand the promise. Unless you understand the Gospel, that is just not true. Only those who understand the Gospel can truly rejoice in the law.

You can only read the law and find it sweet when you see that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you don't understand this, you'll always feel crushed and guilty. The law is a whip to drive us back to the Gospel when we fail to live by the Gospel.

You may object to this by thinking, "if the possibility of losing my salvation isn't there I'll lose my incentive to obey." The Gospel would teach you that if you lose your motivation to obey when the fear of losing it is gone, then your only motivation to obey was fear and not love. If you live by the promise, you'll honor the law. And if you understand the Gospel, the law will be the way in which you thank God for His goodness and kindness towards you as you live to honor Him with everything you have for no other reason than you love Him and are filled with gratitude.

Without the Gospel, you'll never understand the Bible. Abraham and Moses are both pointing to the Gospel promise. Lastly, since you can never ultimately fail in Christ, you have the freedom to attempt great things for God. Once you were gripped by fear, but now you're not. You're free to try to honor God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And when you fail, you'll look to Christ and thank Him for never failing. You're now free to try and fail. You can try like you've never tried before because you're already are loved and accepted.