Do you know a verse that you should memorize? I would urge you to commit Numbers 23:19 to mind, “God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and then not fulfill?” God is God – not a man. God says what He will do and He does what He says. He is faithful, and because He is faithful He is to be trusted. Let us trust Him EFC!
I want to pick up that line though: “Does He promise and then not fulfill?” God is a God who promises. He promised the seed of the woman would crush Satan’s head. He promised Abraham a child, and he promised the Seed of Abraham would bless the nations. He promised to deliver Abraham’s descendants from slavery in a foreign nation. He promised to bring blessings and curses on Israel based on their obedience.
In chapter 3 Paul explained in the first five verses that the Galatian Christians had the Holy Spirit because of faith in Jesus Christ, not the law.
- Then in verses 6-9 Paul explained that Gentiles who have faith in Christ are children of Abraham and therefore participants in the blessings God promised to Abraham, which is what God meant when he said to Abraham, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
- Then in verses 10-14 Paul explained that because of their faith in Jesus they were redeemed from the curse of the law. Not only redeemed, but he says again in verse 14, like he did in verse 9 that because of their faith they were blessed along with Abraham.
The certainty of those blessings is based on the promise of God to Abraham. When God promised those blessings to Abraham they were not conditioned on the law and obedience to it – as a matter of fact, the law wasn’t even given at that point yet. It was still hundreds of years away – which we’ll get to in today’s sermon. But the point Paul is making is that the promise God made stands – the promise of blessing to Abraham and his Seed stands and nothing can change that promise – not the law, not God’s changing character (because He doesn’t change), nor anything else. The One who promised will fulfill because He is the unchanging God. Lets go under 4 headings today:
- The Unchanging Promise (15)
- The Seed of the Promise (16)
- The Promise Before the Law (17)
- The Promise Based On Grace (18)
THE UNCHANGING PROMISE (15)
Paul brings up an illustration to help the Galatians understand his point. His illustration is a human covenant, “Brothers and sisters, 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.”
Paul is drawing a comparison between a covenant God made and human covenants. Paul makes the simple point that once a covenant has been properly established you cannot change it. You cannot cancel it and you cannot add to it. The terms are the terms and after it is all set neither party can alter it – and no one else can alter it. It is established.
The Galatians would be familiar with this idea just like we are today: wills and financial loans and business partnerships and more were all part of everyday life. Paul wanted the Galatians to think in terms of their own daily contracts they’ve entered into and how those terms once established cannot be changed. And then Paul wants them to realize that it is the same thing in regards to this covenant God made with Abraham.
This covenant is found in Genesis 15:7-18…. “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram…” This covenant was God’s promise that Abraham would have a son who would be his heir (4), additionally he would give Abraham physical descendents so numerous they would be more than the stars in the sky (5), and then he says that the land he brought him into – Canaan – would be given to his descendents forever (7, 18). But then in chapter 17 God describes this covenant and more of the blessings to Abraham he has in mind: increase his descendents (2), he will be the father of many nations, (4-6) and kings will come from him (6).
THE SEED OF THE PROMISE (16)
Paul focuses on seed of the promise. Look at verse 16 with me, “…..READ….”
Notice how God spoke the Promise to two people – both Abraham and Christ. When Abraham was alive and God spoke the promises to him, Paul is explaining that God was also speaking those promises to Abraham’s seed. Now Paul explains what “seed” meant: seed referred to Christ. All the commentators explain that this is whats called a “collective noun” which means the word seed is singular in form but its meaning is plural. In English we use collective nouns too: “family” is singular in form but its meaning refers to a collective of individuals. “Team” is the same thing – singular as one team but it means a group of people in a sport. Or “crowd” is a singular word but it means a plurality of people gathered together – like all of us here today. “Seed” is the same thing.
So how do we make sense of this? This is powerful for us as Christians today: Paul tells us that the promises were spoken to Abraham and Christ, his Seed. But the plurality comes into play when people all over the world put their faith in Jesus, the singular seed of Abraham. So when all of us, and everyone else, believes in Jesus Christ, what is the most common and precious way of describing us as believers? We end a lot of our emails and letters with it. “In Christ.” In 2:20 Paul said Christ lives in us, but now he is introducing how we are “in Christ.” We who believe in Christ are now positioned “in Christ.” We are no longer “in” our sin, but we are “in Christ.” And what that means is we are part of the “seed” of Abraham, we become united with that one Seed, and we form the plurality, the group aspect of the seed. This is why you see Paul really begin to bring up “in Christ” after this, such as verse 26, “So IN CHRIST you are all children of God through faith…” He even says in verse 28 how we are “all one in Christ.”
What we’re getting at is that God gave the promise to Abraham and his Seed, Jesus Christ. And anyone who has faith in the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, becomes united to him, and is a child of Abraham. And being united to the Seed, to whom the promises were spoken, we who believe are now participants in the promise God gave to Abraham.
Second, the historical placement of Abraham and Christ is important: they were on either side of the law. If you imagine a timeline you can see how Abraham was before the law (17) and you can see how Christ is after the law – meaning he ended the law (19, 23-25). Why point this out? Because in seeing how the promise was spoken to these two men, who came before and after the law, it shows us that the promise is not tied to the law. It is independent of the law. The promise is not conditioned on following the law, but it is conditioned on faith. Abraham had faith and that faith was the basis of his righteousness and his receiving the promise from God, and all this happened prior to him being circumcised and prior to the law’s existence. The promise was given apart from the law to Abraham, and it is given to all who have faith apart from the law.
THE PROMISE BEFORE THE LAW (17)
The third point Paul makes in verse 17 is that in history, the promise came BEFORE the law, and it is significant. Read verse 17 with me, “……”
First, the promise and the law are separate covenants. God established the promise with Abraham and his seed first in history. That covenant promise is ratified and set, and it cannot be undone and it cannot be added to. This is important because that means the law that came 430 years after Abraham could not touch the covenant of promise given to Abraham. It did not alter, it did not add the law to it and mix in its own terms to the covenant of Abraham. What God promised Abraham stood apart from the law that came later after Abraham.
Second, and it may be a little redundant, but I want to say it very clearly: the law is different than the promise. It is a whole other operation than what God covenanted with Abraham. It is not an addition to, an extension of, or a change to what God promised to Abraham in a covenant. By making the point that the law came 430 years later and by making the point that when it did come it did not do away with the promise God gave Abraham 430 years earlier, Paul is informing us all that the promise and the law are two separate covenants. The natural question then becomes: “What was the purpose of the law then? Why did God give it 430 years later? What was the reason for it?” Paul asks and answers that question beginning in verse 19, “It was added because of transgressions….” God gave the law because of sin and transgression. We have covered this a lot the last few months but the purpose of the law was to excite and expose sin, to show the true sinfulness of mankind so that the true need for salvation would be seen.
THE PROMISE BASED ON GRACE (18)
Here we have the most powerful, most forceful distinction between the promise and the law. The law is not based on grace, but the promise is. Follow verse 18 with me, “….”
First, notice Paul brings up the “inheritance.” It was by grace through faith that the Holy Spirit was received (1-5). Then we saw it was by grace through faith that the blessings are received (6-14). Now we see that it is by grace through faith that the inheritance is received (18). Paul is going to pick back up on this idea of inheritance again in verse 29, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and HEIRS according to the promise.” Then chapter 4 is going to open up the whole idea of being an heir and our expected inheritance.
What is the “inheritance?” It is the blessings God promised to Abraham. There are blessings for Israel through Abraham, and then there are blessings for all nations through Abraham. We’ve covered them before, but again they are:
- Righteousness (3:6)
- Justification (3:8)
- Blessings (3:9)
- Redemption (3:14)
- The Holy Spirit (3:14)
- Eternal life (3:21)
- The whole world (Rom 4:13). We mentioned this one several weeks ago, but there’s an interesting point on this. Abraham’s physical descendents – Israel – were promised the land. And Abraham, Romans 4:13 says, was promised more than just that land – he was promised to inherit the whole world. The children of Abraham from Israel will take possession of the land and all of Abraham’s children from all nations will take possession of the whole world.
So here Paul is turning attention to inheritance.
Secondly, Paul says the promises are given and will be fulfilled on the basis of God’s grace. Here – as in all of Scripture – grace and law are presented as opposites. The inheritance either comes through the promise or it comes through the law. And Paul firmly states it is not through Law. Notice how Paul says that the law has plays no part in the inheritance. “For IF the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise, BUT God in His grace gave it [inheritance] through a promise…” This means not one ounce or one inch of inheritance is going to be received by anyone for following the law. It also means every single inch and every single ounce of inheritance given will be because of God’s grace.
Law and promise/grace are not the same and are not compatible. Galatians 2:21 did it too: “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” Referring to Christians turning to the Law of Moses in 1:6, Paul contrasts law and grace again, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” – a gospel that mixes law in with faith.
APPLICATION: Do not confuse the grace you have in Christ with following the law. Law and grace are opposite, they are not the same. They are entirely different in nature: the covenant of the law is based on merit and works and earning. But the covenant of promise is based on God’s grace, his giving what is not deserved, our receiving humbly what we didn’t earn.
APPLICATION: Your faith glorifies God. Faith magnifies the greatness of God’s grace and exults Him for His glorious kindness to us that we could never merit. Relying on the Law can never do that. Always understand that your faith glorifies God.
CONCLUSION: Rely On God’s Grace
This grace is the grace of God – that cherished characteristic of our God that underlies all the blessings we have, not the least of which is our salvation. And His grace is the fount out of which all the blessings to be inherited will spring. In light of God’s grace, and all that God promises out of His grace, turn from any law or works you have been relying on and turn to the grace God has for you in Christ Jesus. This means that you throw aside your vain attempts to prove to God that you are worthy of His acceptance and eternal life, and instead you finally look at the proof God has given you:
- Proof you are guilty of great sin before His law and deserve condemnation
- Proof that He loves you because He sent His Son to die for you even while you are a sinner.
- Proof that your works could never come close to the standard God set, but the work Jesus did for you was perfect in God’s eyes.
- Proof that all you have to do today is confess your sin humbly to God, believe that Jesus died for all your sins to wash you of them all, and in that belief God accepts you and gives you everlasting life.
Believe today and see that God’s Promises Stand!
SILENT REFLECTION