Paul continues to dissect the counterfeit gospel of the Judaizers by using God's Word as his scalpel. These false teachers have infiltrated the Galatian church network and told them that Jesus saves us but it's up to us to keep the law in order stay saved (Gal 2:4; 3:2-6, 10-11).
The spiritual hucksters have made a huge mistake by trying to use the OT to make their case against Paul's true Gospel. Few people on the planet know the law better than this former Pharisee.
Paul says this all comes down to how God saves. Is it through His covenant promise to Abraham? Or is it through the law He gave to Moses? Which has priority?
Does what happened at Mt. Sinai have precedence over what happened on the way out of Ur? Is it the law? Or is it the promise? With apologies to Shakespeare, THAT is the question.
The apostle writes, "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" (v17).
Paul reminds us of the time line of the OT. God confirmed His covenant promise to Abraham 430 years before He met Moses on the mountain and handed him two stone tablets.
The span of 430 years actually indicates the time from God's confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant to Abe's grandson Jacob (Gen 46:2-4). This was just before Jake and his crew rolled into Egypt to escape the famine and join his son Joseph.
The writer of Exodus confirms the Israelites 430 year stay in captivity (Ex 12:40). The approximate time from God's original promise (ca. 2090 BC) until Mt. Sinai (ca. 1445 BC) was more like 645 years.
Paul tells us that God's promise to Abe takes precedence over the law given to Moses. Let's be clear. Both of these are covenants between God and His people. The Abrahamic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant.
But there is a HUGE difference between the two. According to John MacArthur, God's covenant with Abraham is unilateral (God made the promise to Himself), eternal (provides an everlasting blessing), irrevocable (never ends) and unconditional (depends on God, not man).
The Mosaic Covenant is completely conditional on the people's perfect obedience. I think we know how that worked out.
Paul reminds us that God personally ratified the covenant made to Abraham (Gen 15:9-21). Ancient near eastern treaties were ratified by walking between the bloody pieces of animal sacrifices. It indicated what would happen to anyone violating the agreement.
That's exactly the scene we witness in Genesis when "a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces" as "the LORD made a covenant with Abram" (Gen 15:17-18).
God is the ultimate Promise Keeper. The spectacular scene at Sinai doesn't void any promise the Lord made to Abraham. A promise is a promise.
If God says He will do something, we can take it to the bank. We can look back at the thousands of prophecies He's fulfilled to be sure that He will come through on absolutely everything He's pledged or promised to do.
Paul goes on to write, "For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer is by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise" (v18).
Again, he wants us to understand that we don't have access to our spiritual inheritance by obeying the rules. If that's the case, we're all completely out of luck.
This is a reminder of what the apostle wrote earlier when he pointed out that "it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham" (Gal 3:7). Our inheritance is based on faith in God not on self-salvation by law keeping.
The man from Tarsus would confirm this idea again a few years later in his letter to Rome. "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void" (Rom 4:13-14).
In other words, when we try to follow the rules to save ourselves, we throw both faith and God's promise under the bus. There's only One who kept the law. Jesus. Trust in what He has done that we could never do!
God kept that promise to Abe in the Person of Jesus. Christ is that descendent or "offspring" who embodied complete fulfillment of that covenant.
Somehow, someway, the man from Ur of the Chaldees got a prophetic glimpse of the radical Rabbi from Nazareth. "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad" (Jn 8:56).
The law devastates us. The law destroys us. The law dominates us. Its purpose is to make us realize that we need a Savior. Its purpose is to force us to understand that we could never do this on our own.
The law drives us back to faith in God's promise to Abraham. The law drives us to Calvary and the bloody Roman cross of Christ. It's only in His perfect life, brutal death and glorious resurrection that we have any hope at all.
So what will it be? Law? Or promise?
©2012
Jay Jennings
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