Series on Galatians
II The Apostolic Assertions
D The Promise
Text: 3:15-22
Introduction
Everything in the Bible is about promise. The covenant of Grace is another term for the promise of grace. The two parts of your Bible are called testaments, and they are the old promise and the new promise; two stages in which the original promise is sustained, but the form changes. Centuries ago in England people depositing gold coins in the bank received “running cash notes.” These receipts were made out in the name of the depositor and promised to pay him on demand. Many also carried the words “or bearer” after the name of the depositor, which allowed them to circulate in a limited way. Repeated gold shortages caused by wars forced the Banks to issue denominations of notes. Ultimately the promise was broken and they were left with paper. When I was a boy some of the paper money we had said you could exchange it for gold or silver and they looked similar to money today, but people called them silver certificates and gold certificates. Eventually they were removed from circulation and nobody got any gold or silver in exchange. The promise was broken. In 2008 it was estimated that 40% of all marriages ended in divorce and thus more broken promises. Promises in advertising and business are often broken, and in politics promises have become a running joke. I mention these things so that we can appreciate a promise, God’s promise that cannot be broken.
I The Promise
The inviolability of the promise is Paul’s theme in verse 15, Brothers, 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. My wife and I live in Florida and we have what is called a living trust. This is in our names and we also name parties to administer it after we die. This is called a revocable trust because as long as we are alive we can change it. There is another kind of trust known as an irrevocable trust. If you set up that kind of trust no one can change it. If you name certain beneficiaries they cannot be removed later because they were bad and fell out of favor. You cannot change the terms of the trust. When irrevocable trusts are set up for young children they cannot later be removed because they failed to fulfill some set of prescribed conditions and no longer merit the benefits. When parents die no matter what kind of trust it is, the children receive the stated property or assets simply because the deceased parent has declared it to be so. Thus, the bequest cannot be both a wage and an inheritance at the same time. Now a promise is a trust, is a covenant, and is a testament. God’s trust involves a death and it is the death of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:16 tells us, In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it. And this passage is talking about our redeemer because we read in verse 15, For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Those living in the Old Testament were heirs because the covenant is irrevocable, and those living now, including us are obviously heirs because the one making the promise has died so that we can inherit the blessing.
II The People
In verses 16-18 Paul examines the human party to the covenant, that is, the recipients of this promise, The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 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. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. We must clarify first that the entire “inheritance,” is the result of God’s promise, a covenant-promise that could not have been abrogated by Sinai’s law, which did not enter into the picture until much later. Many in the history of the church have developed theologies that make law and grace alternate ways of salvation. I love Paul’s language here, He says the law was added, and the question is, “Added to what?” The answer is added to the covenant but not as a means of salvation.The covenant already guaranteed the salvation. This is the fundamental point. Salvation is not the result of law or law-observance. Neither is it possible to combine the two, as if law and promise, merit and grace, were twin sources of eternal bliss for God’s children, if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise. Sarah Patton Boyle wrote,”Never before had I believed only in God. I had been so wealthy in beliefs that an implied wall stood in front of my Christian creed.” But the question arises about who the recipients are. Clearly Paul understood that the word “seed” could of itself be either singular or plural. Neither was he using some ingenious rabbinical casuistry here. From the beginning it has been clear that the seed was singular. The first gospel promise in Genesis 3:15 speaks of the seed of the woman trampling the seed of the serpent. Surely no one thinks of that seed as preeminently plural. Christ is the seed of the woman for the son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. When Cain murdered Abel according to Genesis 4 God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth and it is written in verse 25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Again when God rejects Ishmael, Abraham’s son by the handmaid, Hagar, we read in Genesis 21:12, And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. It is clear throughout God’s revelation that the seed can be either singular or plural depending on the context and Paul is explaining here that we are to understand the seed of Abraham as singular in Isaac and singular in his descendant Christ. They are successively the heirs of the promise. That is why we are called joint heirs in the New Testament.
III The Purpose
The question of the purpose of the law is now raised in verses 19 and 20. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. The law cannot nullify the irrevocable covenant of grace, so why was it added? I love Paul’s language here. The law in no way replaced or changed the covenant of grace made with Abraham which was based solely on promise. It was simply an addition that changed none of the original terms of the will or testament. It served only to let people know how much they needed the promise because of their sinful condition. Furthermore the inferiority of the law may be seen in the difference in its delivery. The promise was delivered directly by God to Abraham. However as Hendriksen points out, A human intermediary may be ever so important, but he is, after all, only a third party acting between two other parties. Moses and the angels served as a links between God and the people. Such intermediaries lack independent authority. God, however, is One. When he made his promise to Abraham—and through him to all believers, it was not second hand, but first hand, and He did this on his own sovereign account, directly, and personally. Thus the promise takes precedence over the law.
IV The Pronouncement
The pronouncement is that the law cannot bring forgiveness and salvation. This can only come through the promise. So we read in verses 21 and 22, 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. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. This is a striking and solemn figure, which is veiled in the authorized King James Version by the translation “concluded under sin.” Literally the Greek says “shut-up” or confined and tells us there is a vast prison-house in which mankind is confined. The New International Version correctly translates it as “the whole world is a prisoner of sin,” but leaves out the word “under.” Literally we are shut up under sin. It is a double metaphor for not only is there a great dungeon but there is a heavy weight pressing down on the sinner. All this is accomplished by the law. The law does not make us sinners, but it makes us more guilty, and it declares the fact of human sinfulness as no other voice has ever done. It reveals our deplorable condition. And there is only one way out because we deserve to be oppressed and imprisoned. The law convicts us and so it cannot free us. We could have life by the law if we could keep it but we cannot and we did not and so we suffer the results and only the mercy of the judge can free us. Only the promise can open the prison doors and lift the heavy burden. Only the Savior, Jesus, the Son of God, can save us by taking our punishment in our place. When we believe in Him the prison doors spring open, that is, we are justified. As Ian Maclaren wrote, “ We are gathered together in a common doleful destiny, that we may become recipients of a common blessed salvation.”
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