Galations 3

     3:1.  So, did Christ die needlessly (2:21)?  If we can save ourselves by a righteousness obtained through the Law, rather than the cross of Christ, that would be so.

     3:2.  But it is not so (11).  It was not our work, but the Holy Spirit quickening faith in us at the hearing of God’s grace toward us in Christ that justified us and filled us with the Spirit of life (2:16, 20).

     3:3-5.  Having been given life by the Spirit, does it make sense to turn back to the way of death by depending on the strength of the flesh?  No, for sanctification must be by faith and the power of the Spirit working in us.

     3:6-9.  In these verses, Paul proves by the OT Scriptures that the gospel is no novelty.  The Law was never intended to save us.  Salvation has always been by faith alone.  Abraham believed God’s promises, and by doing so was accounted righteous.  Just so, it is not by natural descent from Abraham that justification is conferred to his children, but by God giving faith like Abraham’s to whomever he wills, thus making all who believe God as Abraham did his spiritual sons, whether Jew or Gentile, just as God’s covenant with him promised (cf. John 3:5-8; 8:37-47, 56).

     3:10.  The Law itself reveals that all men, being sinners, are under its curse (2:16; 3:22; Ps.143:2).

     3:11-12.  This quote from Hab.2:4 is very important (11).  It is quoted in Ro.1:17 to prove that man is not just by nature, but by faith; here in Gal.3:11 to prove that man is not made just by the Law, but by faith; in Heb.10:38 to prove that the Christian must obtain hope and stability not by his senses, but by faith.  His senses see destruction, but faith sees salvation.  “A man confident in himself cannot be stable” (Wm. Gouge).

     3:13.  Take a moment to look at Deut.21:21-23, for Paul quotes v.23, making application to the cross of Christ.  Under this law, hanging was not the form of execution for the sin bearer.   Stoning was, and the body was hanged as a public warning, Deut.21:21 (cf.Josh.10:26).  Thus Paul publicly portrayed the innocent Christ as crucified (Gal.3:1), under the wrath and curse of God as our sin bearer, our redeemer paying the penalty demanded by Law for all who have faith that he died for them.

     3:14.  Those of whatever nation who like the blessed Abraham believe what God had done in Christ, have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, receiving the promise of the Spirit through faith.

     3:15-29.  Paul uses the example of a human will or testament to further show the contrasting purposes of the Law and the gospel of grace.  He shows that the Law is secondary, subservient, and temporary, while the covenant of grace is primary, free, and permanent.

     3:16.  This difficult verse comes from the same OT text as v.6, which is God’s covenant with Abraham in Gen.15.  See Gen.15:4-6.  God promised Abraham that one would come forth from his own body who would be his heir.  Of course he spoke of Isaac, but as revealed by Paul, mystically he spoke of Christ who was in Isaac.  Then God asked Abraham to look toward the heavens and count the stars, saying, “So shall your seed (margin) be.”  Paul says that seed is singular, because the many are in the one, i.e., in Christ.  So just as Christ is in Abraham, and in Isaac, etc., by natural generation, so are Abraham and Isaac in Christ by faith.  Christ is the eternal Son of God, his only Son, and the heir of all things (Heb.1:2).  The many are in the one, because the promise is made not just to Abraham, but from all eternity the promise is made by the Father to the Son. “Before Abraham was born, I AM” (Jn.8:58).  “Christ mystical, the head and members” (Thos. Boston).  Abraham would have understood far less of this than Paul, but he knew it would take a great miracle for God to keep his promise.  But it says, “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  It was on that basis that Abraham became a child of God, and an heir with Christ of all things.  See how all this fits with Paul’s summing up in vv.26-29.  We are all one in Christ Jesus.

     3:19-22.  Why was the Law given?  To hold men accountable.  To arrest and condemn the guilty (Ro.5:13; 1 Tim.1:8-11).  It could never be used by guilty sinners to save themselves by it.  But the gospel depends not at all on the efforts of the second party to the covenant.  Like a will, it is given by the grace of the giver alone, and given to those who believe the promise.

     3:23-25.  Before faith came; what Paul means by this is, before the true substance of the promise of God came to which the faith of the OT saints looked.  The Law was a tutor to conduct us to Christ, so that we could recognize and put our faith in Christ.  He it was who loved God’s Law, who took delight to do God’s will (see Ps.119).  Now that the object of OT faith has come, the tutor is no longer needed.  We look to Christ, not the Law.

     3:26-29.  As the OT faithful looked forward to the coming of Christ, so our faith looks back at his finished work on the cross.  We are by faith one with Christ Jesus, the true Son and heir.  Like Jacob, we come clothed in our elder brother to receive his due blessing (27; see notes at 2 Cor.2:14-17).  V. 28 was never intended to abolish the distinct roles the different members of the body are given.  By creation, and providence, distinctions remain.  The point is that all the members are nevertheless one body, Christ’s body, and no such distinctions can separate us from him or from each other.  We all belong to Christ, the seed of Abraham, and in him are heirs according to promise.  We are the Israel of God (6:16), Abraham’s seed (7). (Is.45:22-25).