THE PROMISE KEEPEER(Galatians 3:15-22)

THE KEY CALLED PROMISE

ME

In Bunyan’s great story, Pilgrim’s Progress, the incident is related of how Christian decides to leave the Main Highway and follow another Path which seemed easier.

But this Path leads him into the territory of Giant Despair who owns Doubting Castle.

Eventually he is captured by Giant Despair and kept in a dungeon.

He is advised to kill himself. The Giant said there was no use trying to keep on with his journey.

For the time, it seemed as if Despair had really conquered Christian.

But then, Hope, Christian’s companion, reminds him of previous victories.

So it came about that on Saturday about midnight they began to pray, and continued in prayer until almost morning.

Now a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half-amazed, broke out in passionate speech,

“What a fool am I thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well be at liberty.”

I have a Key called Promise that will, open any lock in Doubting Castle.”

Then said Hopeful, “That’s good news. Good Brother, pluck it out and try.” And the prison gates flew open.

WE

As people we will experience times of despair and tragedy. Temptations will come a long and tell us to doubt what God says and who we are according to His Word.

In this life we will have people who will lie to us, who will twist the truth, who will try to deceive or manipulate us for their own personal gain.

It even happens in the Church. The good news though is that we have a God who gives us so many precious promises.

We can trust Him too! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In His unchanging character, God cannot lie

Paul’s opponents, and especially the Judaizers, could still be expected to raise the questions “Why did God give the law?” and “What purpose then does the law serve?”

Paul’s arguments could sound as though he believed the law had no purpose whatsoever and that he was actually opposed to it.

So Paul explained the true purpose behind God’s giving of the law and its place in the plan of salvation.

George Swinnock said The Law is a court of justice, But the Gospel a throne of grace.

I.THE PERSON—vv. 15–18

15 Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.

16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

The law could not change the fact that righteousness always comes by faith in God’s promises (3:15–18)

1.Covenant—v. 15. God will always keep His Word.

Even if we were speaking only of a man’s oath and covenant, says Paul, when it is once confirmed and established, it is permanent in the form in which it was made.

Future developments do not change it either by adding to it or by making it of no effect.

In ancient times, when there was less government and less enforcement of law, much more dependence was placed upon oaths and covenants than now.

And good men still hold a covenant or promise as sacred.

If this is true of man, how much more firm and unchangeable is God’s promise to Abraham.

As nothing can take from it, so nothing need be added to it. The way of faith and promise is the way of salvation.

2. Centrality in Christ—v. 16. Promise to Abraham and Christ.

3. Confirmation—v. 17. This promise would come true.

God kept his promise to Abraham; he has not revoked it, though thousands of years have passed.

He saved Abraham through his faith, and he blessed the world through Abraham by sending the Messiah as one of Abraham’s descendants.

Circumstances may change, but God remains constant and does not break his promises.

He has promised to forgive our sins through Jesus Christ, and we can be sure that he will do so.

4. Conversion—v. 18. Salvation not gained by works.

There is yet another reason why salvation cannot be through law, or through faith plus law.

The words law and promise are opposites in nature. Like oil and water, they cannot be combined. Inheritance here refers to believers’ enjoyment of what they receive through the promise: salvation, eternal life, and removal of the curse.

so, if our salvation and enjoyment of God’s gifts depend on obeying the law, then they cannot depend on a promise, for it cannot be both ways.

People do not need to work to attain what has been promised to them.Instead, God in his grace gave it to Abraham

let’s read…verses 19-22

II. THE PARDON—vv. 19–22

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 3

19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.

21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.

22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

1. Sin—v. 19. The Ten Commandments given later.

The law had two functions.

First, it had a negative function: It was added because of transgressions (meaning that God had given the law to punish sin).

Second, it had a strong positive function: The law reveals the nature and will of God, and it shows people how to live.

so, it had been given to restrain transgressions by helping people recognize wrong behavior and thus refrain from it.

Negatively, the law points out people’s sins and shows them that it is impossible to please God by trying to obey all his laws completely.

It was given to reveal transgressions, causing people to realize their sinfulness and their desperate need of a Savior.

God’s intent was that by starkly spotlighting sin, the law would drive us toward Christ

2. Saviour—v. 20. Christ is our “middle man.”

To have a mediator obviously means that more than one party is involved.

A mediator works between two or more parties to aid in communication, effect an agreement, or settle a dispute.

Moses, implied in 3:19, was the mediator who communicated between God and Israel. God (through angels) mediated the law to Moses, who then gave it to the people.

The law could be compared to a contract, which is valid only as long as both sides keep their sides of the agreement. While God kept his, the people of Israel could not keep theirs.

However, when God gave the promises to Abraham, he did so directly, without any mediator. The promises were given and would be kept by God, regardless of the actions of people.

Thus, the promise is superior to the law because the promise is from God alone, meant for eternity, and would not be broken.

The law and its mediator, Moses, were temporary, preparatory arrangements designed to confirm the truth of God’s ultimate desire to relate directly with his creatures.

Paul did not put down Moses, but showed the primacy of Christ’s way of faith over the law.

Christ is called a mediator between God and people:

“There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human” yet Jesus is himself God, so even while dealing through Christ, God himself is dealing with his people.

In addition, the phrase “God is one” was part of the great Hebrew creed (Deuteronomy 6:4), basic to their belief about God. No Jew would argue with Paul here.

God revealed the doctrine of the Trinity to the one people on earth most passionately convinced of the oneness of God.

We who live centuries later are so used to thinking in triune categories that we are in danger sometimes of completely separating the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But the perfect single-mindedness of God must be included in our understanding of his dealings with us.

The three-personed God worked in flawless harmony to bring about our salvation by grace.

The Mosaic law was not designed to be the final code of the religious life, but to prepare the soil of the human heart to receive Jesus Christ in all the fullness of his salvation.-F. B. Meyer

3. Scripture—vv. 21–22. All men are sinners.

ALL People naturally recoil at being labeled sinners.

Even when they accept the term, they usually state conditions, such as: “I’m not that bad of a sinner,” or “Well, since no one is perfect, I guess I’m a sinner too.”

The resistance stems from two serious errors about the human condition:

The Error of Comparing: When we view our moral state by comparing ourselves with others, we may feel a mixture of despair (in seeing others who are “better” than we are) or pride (in noting those who are failing worse than we are).

Suppose, however, that God’s standard of perfection were the distance from earth to the moon; then squabbling over who is closer to perfection, those in the gutters or those at street level, would make no sense.

We can’t excuse ourselves because somebody is worse than we are. We are unable to gain a proper sense of our common lost condition before God by comparisons with others.

The Error of Using Scales: When people think of good and bad actions as weights added to one or the other “side” of life, they are not thinking as God thinks.

In this distortion of reality, people visualize God keeping a record of the balance of good and bad in our lives and allowing people into heaven based on which outweighs the other.

This is truly a terrible way to live and a terrifying way to die.

For if every good action is nothing more than what is expected of us, then there is no “extra merit” from our good actions that could be charged or “weighed” against the evil we do.

Our good deeds would have no effect on the balance. Jesus described this very problem to his disciples. When we have done everything we have been told to do, we still have only done our duty. Only Jesus Christ can eliminate the terrible weight of sin.

APPLICATION

EXCHANGING GRACE FOR LAW

This passage in Galatians explains how we exchange life under the law for life under grace:

We realize that we can’t obtain righteousness and eternal life by keeping the law

• We discover the sufficient grace of God given through faith in Christ

• We abandon our own efforts for trying to gain merit with God