Faith and Freedom:

Introduction: Theme Verse

Why is faith so important?

Stop elevating the Law. It’s important, but it was given to restrain sin and not give life.

Abraham’s response was more significant than the giving of the Law (which was given 430 years after)

Faith is Foundational

Point: Covenant was about Faith originally. Law wasn’t part of the original covenant. It was always about faith.

Introduction: Theme Verse

Theme of our Passage:

v.14: In Jesus, blessing of Abraham might come to everybody so that everybody might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Paul is going to argue how, in Jesus, belief or faith was always part of God’s plan for salvation!

Doing the Law of Moses, that was a plan built on God’s original intent that we are saved by faith.

So Paul is going to do some more compare and contrast between faith and the Law of Moses.

Does so by comparing the Covenant God gave to Abraham with the Covenant given to Moses

Two Parts in Understanding the Dynamic Between Abraham and Moses

Paul is going to argue how and why this is true

Two Parts in Understanding the Dynamic Between Abraham and Moses

vv.15-18: God’s Promises to Abraham were Always Eternal

vv.19-29: The Law Given to Moses were Always Temporary

Today: God’s Promises to Abraham were always Eternal!

v. 15: No One Can Annul a ‘Last Will and Testament’

No One Can Annul a ‘Last Will and Testament’

15 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.

Paul is using a common analogy to help us understand how the Abraham Covenant worked.

Man-Made Covenant: Reference to a Will

A will contains all the things you want to happen if you were to die.

Who takes the kids

How will our assets be divided up?

My parents joke about who will inherit my dad’s stamp collection, apparently worth some money.

‘Man-made covenant’= Will ‘Last will and testament’

‘Man-made covenant’= Will ‘Last will and testament’

Paul’s Point:

Can’t change the Will once they are written in stone.

Can’t change the agreement once they are written in stone.

Can’t change the covenant and the promises associated with it.

Why is this important? v.16 clarifies

Can’t change the covenant and the promises associated with it.

Can’t change the covenant and the promises associated with it.

v.16: Promises of Abraham Don’t Change

16 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.

v.16: Offspring

Just as a will can’t be modified or ignored, the Promises given to Abraham can’t be changed by anything that comes later.

Promises are written in stone.

But what are these Promises?

Getting to know

: Call of Abraham. God Promises to be

2“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

Not a covenant, but promises are made:

I will make you great.

I will bless.

I will make your name great.

I will bless others who bless you and curse those who curse you.

All peoples on earth will be bless through you.

2. : Royal Land-Grant Covenant

Unconditional Promise to Inherit the Land

18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Sign: Sacrificing a Heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon

Sun went down

Abraham: Deep in sleep.

Smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

UNCONDITIONAL: IF I don’t live up to my side of this agreement, I will take on the path that these animals took.

UNCONDITIONAL: Israel will get this land

3. : Suzerain-Vassal Covenant

Suzerain: a land-lord, feudal Lord

Vassal: Dictionary: “A person under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he has vowed homage.”

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision

CONDITIONAL: I will be your God and you will have the Promised Land forever!

SIDE BAR: Baptism isn’t a ticket to heaven. Fulfillment of circumcision but is conditional based on response to grace.

But now let’s see what Paul does with and Galatians 3:16

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring (seed)”

Now the promises were made to Abraham (we’ve focused on them…)

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.

and to his offspring (seed). (not only to Abraham, BUT ALSO TO ABRAHAM’S FAMILY)

(BUT HOW DOES PAUL INTERPRET ABRAHAM’S FAMILY?) It does not say, “And to offsprings, (seeds)” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring (seed),” who is Christ.

Paul completely bipasses Mosus and the Law and all the stipulations of the Covenant given to Moses and makes a direct link between the promises given to Abraham to Christ.

‘Seed’ of Abraham was Israel (thereby making it difficult for anyone to make the cut into this new Jewish religion). Seed of Abraham is Christ himself, making those who receive the promises all on ‘equal’ playing field.

In other words:

‘Seed’ of Abraham was Israel (thereby making it difficult for anyone to make the cut into this new Jewish religion). Seed of Abraham is Christ himself, making those who receive the promises all on ‘equal’ playing field.

‘Seed’ of Abraham was Israel (thereby making it difficult for anyone to make the cut into this new Jewish religion). Seed of Abraham is Christ himself, making those who receive the promises all on ‘equal’ playing field.

Nationalistic Israel and what made Israel distinct and unique as a political, religious nation is being bipassed so that what is emphasized is the promises given to Abraham!

It’s almost as if Paul is saying: Y’all are emphasizing Moses, when you should be emphasizing Abraham! Because I just made a direct link between the promises given to Abraham to Christ.

It’s Abraham’s Covenant that focuses on grace, God coming down to take Abraham out of spiritual oblivion and made him and His seed the center of attention!

: The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

It’s Abraham’s Covenant that focuses on the necessity of FAITH before anything required through the Law of Moses. Even circumcision was a sign of the covenant, it wasn’t a stipulation of the Law, it was the way covenants were made! It wasn’t a way to salvation it was to seal the agreement of grace.

And so God’s Covenant with Abraham emphasized grace and faith, and, you may not, SACRIFICE!

Remember , where a smoking pot and a piller of flame travels between those died carcasses? Remember, that was about God’s responsibility of the covenant: If I don’t live up to my side of this agreement, I will take on the role these animals took on. And so Jesus, as the direct SEED of Abraham, as God-made-flesh, agreed to take on that sacrifice. Not because HE broke covenant with us, but because WE broke covenant with HIM!

Jesus continued to promises given to Abraham so that, for these Galatians Christians, they don’t need to concern themselves with Moses at all! That was for Israel.

JUST because the Laws of Moses were added later, doesn’t annul the original covenant of Abraham.

What’s required by them is faith in Jesus. That’s it. Faith in Jesus. Receive his promises!

Not land, but a person

Not physical prosperity, but eternal life.

F

v.17: Application of the Analogy

v.17: Application of the Analogy

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.

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.

The Law, given many years later, can’t take away the power and the force of the original promise.

Problem with 1st Century Judaism:

Moses: Law, Nationalistic Israel

Abraham: Promise and Faith and Universal Offer

What were those promises?

Offspring

Blessing

A Great Name

Blessing and Cursing

Blessing of the Gentiles

God being God to his people

Kings descending from Abraham.

3 Covenants:

Circumcision

Sinai

New Covenant

Problem with 1st Century Judaism:

Elevated Abraham over Moses. What’s the problem with that?

No other Last Will and Testament can take away power and force of Abraham’s covenant. Does not make it null and void.

Law= Doing

Promise= Faith

Paul to Galatians:

Get it right! You’re free from what Israel had to do. You have nothing to do with that whole project! That was unique to them! God had his reasons, and we’ll get into those reasons next week, but Paul is telling these Galatians: Stop worrying about them so much!

“Christian religion is the religion of Abraham and not Moses, of promise and not law; and that Christians are enjoying today the promise which God made to Abraham centuries ago.” John Stott

Leap frog over the Law, and go directly to the promise= Christ!

Why is this all Important for Us?

If we don’t get covenants, we don’t get God.

God is a God who initiates relationship.

Sets up a formal agreement with humanity, built on grace and faith.

If we don’t understand covenant, we don’t understand how God is in relationship with us.

Umbrella statement of the first Covenant to Abraham: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

Incredible statement of grace: “I’m choosing you, Abraham, to be mine.”

We belong to a Covenant making God changes how we behave:

If we don’t get covenants, we don’t get swaths of the Bible.

Covenant is a major Biblical theme. It’s not something that Reformed Christians impose or read into the text. Covenant Theology is the story of the Bible.

Like, this morning wasn’t exactly exciting. I didn’t share one story. I didn’t have one application up to this point. Why? Because we had too much Bible content to deal with! In order to understand what Paul is saying to 1st Century Gentile Christians, we had to dig through a major plot of Scripture found thousands of years earlier!

If we don’t get covenants, we don’t get swaths of the Bible.

Need to know the Bible!

If we don’t get covenant, we won’t act covenantally together.

Just as God acts loyally and lovingly towards us, we ought to act loyally and lovingly towards others. God’s pattern in Scripture sets the pattern for us.

When we live in covenant with a covenantal God, we will treat one another as if we are related to one another: BECAUSE WE ARE!

If we don’t get covenants, we don’t understand the Gospel.

If we don’t get covenants,

Why did Jesus come to die?

To die on the cross for all my sins.

Yes, that is a good answer. And the right answer, but it isn’t the whole story?

He came to also initiate a New Kingdom to set up a new covenant!

He became the obedient child that Adam and Eve couldn’t fulfill in their Covenant.

He was tempted in every way, but without sin!

This New Covenant is a fulfillment of both Abraham and Moses!

Jesus because the eternal High Priest promised to Pheneus in

He became both the officiating priest, but also the sacrificial lamb

He was the spotless lamb.

Jesus became the eternal King promised in a covenant made with King David

He initiates a new Royal Land Grant, but without a promise of land. He promises himself as our King in a Kingdom filled with faith, love, mercy, justice, hope, compassion, gentleness, and humility.

He was the Scape goat.

Jesus became the Promise given to Abraham: I will be your God.

Why else do you think Jesus’ last words to the disciples were: I will be with you, even to the end of the age!?

He was the Holy Place.

He was the Temple!

When we get covenant, we understand that the Gospel doesn’t begin with me and my sin- it begins with the New King who loves his subjects beyond our imaginations. It’s a Gospel that reminds us of all the benefits we receive: Forgiveness, life-eternal, and relationship with God!

It’s a blood mess.

It’s given to the seed of Abraham.

It’s a sign of being cut off from the rest of the world.

It’s a sign of being severed

v.18: God gave the inheritance by a Promise

How do you attain the inheritance? Through the original promise, not through works of the Law.

By Grace through faith, and not by Law through doing.

Put positively: To inherit the promises of God is to believe in God.

Put negatively: One nullifies the promises of God if one tries to inherit the promises through Law-Abiding

What was so special about the Abrahamic Covenant?

One of FAITH, not works of the Law (even though God commanded Abraham to be circumcised).

Abrahamic Covenant= Promise

Promise, Grace, Faith

hannahlee: Empty Nesters Group

Sinai Covenant=Law

Law, Commandments, Doing