The Greatest Promise

You are part of God’s family by the promise – don’t go back to the law!

Intro

Have you ever been somewhere where you’ve been made to feel like you don’t belong?

Maybe you’ve been at a concert and you’re chatting to a fan you meet there and when you share that you’ve only listened to a couple of songs from the artist they tell you that you’re not a real fan unless you’ve listened to every song from every album they’ve put out – and so they make you feel like you don’t belong at the concert, that you’re not a true fan.

Or maybe you’ve gone out to a restaurant for dinner, without realising how fancy the place was and you suddenly notice that you’re underdressed compared to everyone else. Maybe you’re kicked out and refused service, or maybe you just receive glares from the staff and other patrons, I’m not sure which is worse, but either way, you’re made to feel like you don’t belong.

My wife, despite the thick northside accent on her, and that she grew up in Ireland her entire life, is often made to feel like she doesn’t belong by some people because her parents are Nigerian. To be Irish you have to be born and bred here AND be white, otherwise you don’t really belong.

The gentile Christians in Galatia were being made to feel like they didn’t belong in God’s family by the Judaizers. To truly be part of God’s family they needed to live like Jews, to be circumcised, and follow all the laws of the Mosaic Covenant.

In the previous passage in Galatians we see Paul is baffled by what the gentile Christians are doing in Galatia. He reminds them that they began their walk as Christians by the Spirit, by faith – and wonders why they have now decided to live by the law instead.

And so in this passage which we will look at this morning, Paul wants to explain to the Christian their relation to both the promise given to Abraham and the law given to Moses so that they will understand why they need to rely on the promise of God alone and not submit themselves to the law.

And so as we read God’s word in this passage we’ll see – firstly: why the promise is greater than the law. Secondly: why then we have the law. And finally: how we as Christians should relate to the promise and the law.

1 - Why the promise is greater than the law

So, first, let’s look at why God’s promise is greater than the law. Look with me from verse 15:

Galatians 3:15–18 · ESV

¹⁵To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. ¹⁶Now 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. ¹⁷This 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. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

When my wife and I got married a bit more than a year ago, we made vows to each other – promising to love each other, in sickness and health, share everything, the usual. These were unconditional promises that we made to each other in our marriage covenant. And so because these were promises, I can’t now say to Okiki after I’ve already made those promises to her “You must cook me dinner every day and if you do then I will look after you when you get sick.” That would be to make what was an unconditional promise, into a conditional law that must be followed in order to have the benefits.

Because then when she gets sick and I do take care of her, either I’m doing so because of what I promised not the command I gave later, in which case the law was pointless, or I’m doing so because I’m following the terms of the law, in which case I’m a liar because I’m not following the promise that I had made to her previously.

And so this is how Paul wants to explain the relation of the law to the promise given to Abraham. And he uses the example of human covenants, just as in marriage as I’ve tried to explain, to show that if this is the case with man, that a subsequent law cannot nullify or add to a previous promise, then how much more is it the case with God, who cannot lie.

But what exactly is the promise and the law that Paul is talking about in this passage? Because in order to see fully what Paul is getting at we need to understand what the promise is, and what the law is. And he’s already given us a hint. Paul has used man-made covenants in his example, because what he is referring to are God-given covenants.

Firstly – what is the promise? Verse 16 reads: 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.

You see in the Old Testament, all the way back in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham. You can read about this starting from Genesis chapter 12. And as part of the covenant God made three promises to Abraham. The first two we read of in Genesis chapters 13, 15, and 17 are God promising to make Abraham’s descendants, or offspring plural, as numerous as the stars, and to give them the promised land. And at this time in history these promises had been fulfilled, Israel was numerous and had been living in the land promised to them.

But God also made a third promise to Abraham. In Genesis chapter 22 God says to Abraham: in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

Sound familiar? This is the gospel that was preached to Abraham that Paul mentioned previously in verse 8 of this chapter in Galatians. This time the word offspring, as Paul explains in verse 16, is singular, a singular descendant of Abraham, who, as Paul goes on to say, is Christ.

And so Paul is clear. While the first promises to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant are to be fulfilled by Abraham’s numerous carnal descendants, the promise to bless the nations is to be fulfilled in just one, Jesus – and this is the gospel. The blessing of the nations is to have God as their God, to be in a right relationship with him, and to have life in him.

What then of the law? Look with me from verse 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. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Paul here uses the term ‘the law’ as what linguists call a synecdoche, if I’m pronouncing that correctly. From what I understand it’s when you use a part of something in order to refer to the whole. For example you might say “Oh, Mark is the brains of the operation.” The brains are not the whole person of Mark, but are being used to refer to him because they are the important part of his being with regards to his intelligence, which is needed for the operation.

Paul uses ‘the law’ here in Galatians to refer to the Mosaic Covenant, when God gave the law to Moses, which came years after Abraham. The critical part of the Mosaic covenant for Paul’s argument in this passage is the law aspect, the civil, ceremonial, and moral laws.

And Paul shows that this second covenant which came 430 years after the promise made to Abraham, does not nullify the promise to bless the nations, that is not its purpose. Because if the blessing to the nations came by following the laws of the Mosaic Covenant, then it doesn’t come by the promise made to Abraham. The Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of works, but the promise given to Abraham is just that, a promise. If the promise was fulfilled by following the Mosaic Covenant then God would be made to be a liar, as his promise would not have been a promise at all.

And so already Paul is showing the Galatians why they do not need to live like Jews. If the promise to bless the nations in Abraham’s offspring does not refer to the Jews themselves, even though the promise of the land did, then it cannot be a requirement to submit yourself to the Mosaic Covenant and live like a Jew in order to receive the blessing.

The promise is greater than the law, because as Paul says in verse 8, the promise is the gospel! It is received by faith, and those who have faith like Abraham are blessed.

2 - Why then we have the law

So then, if the promise is greater than the law, why was the Mosaic covenant given? If the promise is greater than the law, why do we need the law at all?

Let’s look from verse 19: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

This is the first reason that Paul says the Mosaic Covenant was given, and the laws therein. Because of transgressions, because of sin. But notice as well what Paul says. There is a time limit on the law. It was only added until the offspring should come, until Jesus came. Now we know that this cannot mean that the law refers only to God’s moral laws, as for example murder was morally wrong far before the Mosaic covenant when Cain killed his brother Abel, and we know is still wrong today. So it must be a continuation of what we’ve seen, the law as the whole Mosaic Covenant.

So if the law, the Mosaic Covenant, wasn’t given in order to fulfil the third promise to Abraham, to bless the nations, why was it given? It was given because of sin. The law was given to prevent the nation of Israel, God’s visible covenant family, from sinning. It was instituted to restrain the natural inclinations of their hearts for wickedness. It was to prevent them from experiencing curse, it was to allow them to fulfil the promise to be numerous and to inherit the promised land.

And it was to allow them to be a witness to the nations that they were God’s people. Remember this is what the Judaizers in Galatia were harassing the Gentile Christians about. They wanted the gentiles to live like Jews, follow the Mosaic laws, as that was how they would truly belong as part of God’s family. As Israel lived under the laws, not freely as the other nations did, but obeying God’s commands they were to cause the surrounding nations to be jealous of them and their God. This was to be visible through circumcision, their Sabbath practice, their ceremonial and civil laws, and how they treated one another, which was supposed to be that of mutual love.

So why then the time limit? Well because now that Jesus has come, has lived life under the law, fulfilled its entirety, died and risen again, he has instituted God’s new covenant, and his new covenant family – the Church. The church is now the visible family of God which is to be the envy of the world. And now all people, Jews and Gentiles, can be part of God’s family and all share as heirs of the blessing and the promise. There is no need to live like a Jew, as that is not to identify yourself with God’s family in the time of the new covenant. You only need to have faith.

Let’s continue on with the end of verse 19. To my shame, this is the type of verse that if I was to read in my own devotionals, I’d probably just think “huh, that’s a weird sentence,” and move on; but being forced to consider it when I was asked to preach on this passage, I actually think that it’s quite important for Paul’s argument. Look with me.

Galatians 3:19 · ESV

¹⁹and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

The law was put in place in the Mosaic Covenant, by a mediator – Moses. Why the angels? Well it was part of the Jewish tradition that the law was given to Moses by angels to deliver to the people.

Now usually, a mediator means that there are two parties, in this case it would be Party A – God, Moses the intermediary, and Party B – Israel, corporately, and individually. But not in this case – why?

Well because if Jesus, as the offspring of Abraham, and the one who fulfils the Mosaic law, is the one to whom the law is given, then Moses isn’t a true mediator. Because as we’ve seen a mediator needs two parties, but Jesus is himself God, and God is one. For every other descendant of Abraham Moses does mediate successfully, but for Jesus, he is not needed.

Why is this important? Because not only did the law serve its purpose of restraining transgressions until the promised offspring, the Messiah, should come, but Jesus is the one who fulfils the whole Mosaic Covenant.

He is the true King, he is our Great High Priest, he is the perfect sacrifice for us, the lamb who was slain, he obeys the whole law, loving God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving his neighbour as himself. He pays the curse of the law for us, dying on a tree.

When Katie Taylor represents Ireland in the Olympics, fights through the different qualifying rounds, the quarters and the semi-finals, and eventually is victorious in the final, her victory is Ireland’s victory. We don’t all need to also go out and beat up the same person she did, no, her victory is for our whole nation.

We don’t need to fulfil the law as Jesus already has. We don’t need to experience the curse because Jesus already has. If we are in him, if he is our representative, his life under the law is given to us.

This is the gospel. If we are under the law ourselves, if we are under the law by works – then we are doomed. We must pay the curse, we cannot have life. But if we have faith in Jesus, if his life under the law is ours, then the good news is that we are saved by faith alone.

This gospel is so much greater than the law. Where the law is given by a man, the gospel is given by God directly to Abraham in Genesis. Paul receives the gospel directly from Jesus himself. When we read these very words, we are reading God’s words for us.

And so having explained one reason why the law was given, despite the fact the gospel comes by the promise, Paul anticipates the argument that the Judaizer might throw back at him.

Verse 21: Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? If the law is not how the promise is received, if it comes by a mediator instead of from God directly, does that make it then against God’s promise? “Certainly not!” is Paul’s emphatic response.

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. The Mosaic Covenant was not designed to give life, because otherwise we would be able to get righteousness from it. It is a good covenant given by God, so if it was able to give life it would. Whether the moral, civil, or ceremonial laws, none bring righteousness. The law cannot make us be in a right relationship with God, because that is not its purpose – only the promise, God’s blessing, only Jesus can make us right before God, and restore our relationship as our better mediator, as our Great High Priest.

Paul continues verse 22: But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Instead the law aids us in obtaining the promise – it shows us that we are under sin and in need of a Saviour and representative. Jesus is that representative and we can trust in him for the promise instead. He is the promised offspring of Abraham, and we are Abraham’s spiritual offspring if we have faith in Jesus just as Abraham the man of faith did. It is in Jesus that we are God’s family – not by being under the Mosaic Covenant.

This is critical for us to remember, both for our own walks as Christians, and as we seek to share this great news, the gospel with others. How can we show people their need for a Saviour, how can we remember our own need for a Saviour, without the law?

The law shows us our sin. It shows us that we cannot get life or righteousness on our own merits. The Mosaic Covenant points forward to the better sacrifice, to our true King and representative, to the one who can obey the law. The law is good and holy and highlights our need for a Saviour now, even as it did when we first believed. Further, God uses his word, his commands, and his decrees to sanctify us – to make us more like Jesus.

The law pronounced Israel guilty by showing them their sin, revealing their wicked hearts to them, showing them that they were therefore guilty, and thus imprisoned them under sin as their judgement.

The Mosaic Covenant, the law, was sufficient for fulfilling the first promises to Abraham. It did produce numerous physical descendants, they did occupy the promised land. But it is not sufficient for the blessing of the nations, for life with God. And this is why Paul is so upset with the Galatians for accepting circumcision in this letter.

Circumcision is a sign of the Old Covenant. To accept it would be to say that you want the first two promises, but not the third. It is to say that you want to be part of God’s Old Covenant family, who were under the curse of the law, rather than being part of God’s new covenant family, the church, who through Christ are free from the curse.

The Mosaic Covenant couldn’t give life, it couldn’t give righteousness, it imprisons you under sin. To accept circumcision, to live like a Jew is to say that Jesus is not good enough, and to place yourself under the curse. No wonder Paul uses such strong language later in the letter about those who are telling the gentiles to be circumcised!

As Paul will go on to say later in the letter, to accept circumcision is saying that you are accepting to follow the whole law, because it is the sign of entry into the covenant which says you must obey the entire law or suffer its curses. Paul is amazed that the Galatians would want this, when he tells them that he knows that they began following Jesus in the Spirit and by faith and trust in the gospel, in Jesus and his finished work.

How they could want to reject the true life they had in Jesus, the freedom from the curse of the law in him, and go back to the law which could not give life, was simply unthinkable.

At the moment, Okiki and I are saving up to get a mortgage so that we can buy a house sometime in the future God willing. But imagine instead if a rich relative we didn’t know we had died suddenly, and left us an inheritance – they left us their house.

It would be unthinkable, for us having received this house freely, to then decide we would go and take out a mortgage to buy the house we already own. Why would we submit ourselves to trying to pay back a mortgage for something which we received freely? In fact it would actually be like if the central bank gave us a rare exception and the mortgage we took out was for an infinite amount of money. It would literally be impossible for us to pay back the mortgage to own the house. And no matter how hard we worked, or how much money we earned and paid towards the mortgage, we would never be able to pay it back, and would end up in prison.

And yet how often do we act like this, do we act like the Galatians. We know that we have the promise, we have salvation by grace alone through faith in Jesus, and yet we want to slip back on the yoke of the law to feel as though we earned it ourselves somehow. As if our works were somehow enough to pay back the infinite mortgage.

3 - How we should relate to the promise and the law

We’ve considered now both the reason the promise is greater than the law and why we then have the law. But what then should our relationship to the promise and the law be? How should we relate to the promise and the law?

Now, I can’t say for sure, as I don’t know you all here at Redeemer, but based on a representative proportion of people living in Ireland, it’s probably safe to assume that most of us here aren’t Jewish. I’d say most of us probably aren’t tempted to get circumcised or to follow all of the Mosaic law either. So what then? Was this passage just useful for the Galatians, or is it useful for us too?

I think our relationship with the promise and the law is very important.

Do we actually trust in Jesus alone by faith? Do we feel like we’re truly part of God’s family? Do we trust God’s promises and know we’re his family on a Sunday morning, but what about when we’ve messed up again with that sin we just can’t seem to get rid of? What about when you’re wrestling with doubts and fears, or are struggling to trust God amidst suffering? What about when you see those people who seem so devout and at peace who are worshipping false gods in pagan religions?

The gentile Galatians were convinced by the Judaizers to accept circumcision, and to live like Jews, because they wanted to be part of God’s family. To put yourself under the law is to make yourself a physical descendant of Abraham, but is not to make yourself part of God’s family, as in the New Covenant, God’s family are those who are Abraham’s spiritual descendants, those who have faith like him, faith in Jesus. To put yourself under the law is to say you are not in Jesus and thus are not part of God’s family, which is the unfortunate irony of the gentiles who’s desire was to be part of God’s family.

The corporate family of God now in the new covenant, is the church, not the nation of Israel. Paul will go on to show this later in Galatians, that in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith… There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male or female. God’s church is a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

How does how we think of church relate to how we think about the promise then?

Well if we think that going to church, or being baptised or a member of a church, or serving in church, or teaching in church, or going on a church plant is what makes us right before God, if we rely on that to know we are his family, then we haven’t understood that the promise is a promise. It comes by faith, not by anything we do. Each person needs to personally trust and follow in Jesus to be saved.

But at the same time, we should, like the Galatians, want to be a part of God’s visible covenant family, and that is the church. When we are baptised we are identifying ourself with the visible community of God’s people in the local church. When we gather together weekly, when we share in the Lord’s Supper we are a visible expression of God’s people, and that should encourage us, and comfort us. One of the reasons that church discipline is so important to exercise in the church is because it affirms, to the best of our human abilities, that we do recognise who is and isn’t acting as part of God’s people.

As Redeemer Dublin, as a new church plant, you are a witness to the world of what God has done, you are declared by one another to be God’s people, and that should comfort you when you are struggling. You don’t need any other sign that you are God’s people other than what he has given you, and what you are practising.

The signs and seals of the new covenant, of the church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper show visibly who is a part of God’s family. Paul will go on later in Galatians to talk about the works of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit, which are how we know that we are living by the Spirit rather than our own sinful desires. Those who are in Jesus, will, gradually as we experience the work of sanctification be made to be those who exhibit the fruit of the spirit, rather than the works of the flesh, and thus prove to ourselves and others that we are in Jesus, and in his family.

If you remember earlier, we called “the law” that Paul uses here in Galatians a synecdoche for the Mosaic Covenant, and we said that he uses that, because the law aspect of the covenant is the most important aspect for what he’s talking about in this passage.

And if you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering then, what is our relationship with the law? Is it all done like verse 19 says?

Well the law certainly did fulfil its purpose until Jesus came, but that does not mean that it is useless for us today. There are three types of law that Moses gave in the covenant, what theologians call the civil, ceremonial, and moral laws.

The civil and ceremonial laws are certainly done away with. They were laws relating to the governance of Israel as a nation, they covered how kings should behave, they covered the sacrificial system, and the work of the priests. All the laws under these categories were fulfilled by Jesus’ life and death.

But while we do not need to obey these laws, we can still learn from them as they point to Jesus, since as we have mentioned Jesus is the one who is the better fulfilment of these.

What then about the third category, the moral law? Does our allegiance to Jesus and our faith in him mean we don’t need to obey this too?

Here’s what Richard Barcellos says of the law:

The whole law of Moses, as it functioned under the Old Covenant, has been abolished, including the Ten Commandments. Not one jot or tittle of the law of Moses functions as Old Covenant law anymore and to act as if it does constitutes redemptive-historical retreat and neo-Judaizing. However, to acknowledge that the law of Moses no longer functions as Old Covenant law is not to accept that it no longer functions; it simply no longer functions as Old Covenant law. This can be seen by the fact that the New Testament teaches both the abrogation of the law of the Old Covenant and its abiding moral validity under the New Covenant.

Let me give you an illustration to help.

I drove here this morning in a car, my Opel Corsa. Now the purpose of my car is to transport me, and other people, and sometimes items, from place to place. Imagine if tomorrow I gave up my job, and became a taxi-driver, using the same car I have now. I’d probably stick one of those things on the top that has my taxi number, and maybe put some FreeNow stickers on the side, but it would ultimately be the same car. And it would have more or less the same purpose. It would be used to transport me, and other people, and sometimes items, from place to place – only this time in its function as a taxi. Suppose I then retire, take off the stickers, and go back to using it as I was before, same purpose again, but no longer as a taxi.

This is a bit like the purpose of the moral law. It existed before the Mosaic Covenant, and it exists now. But during the time of the Mosaic Covenant, it functioned not only as moral law, but as Mosaic Covenant law.

The moral law is binding on all humans at all times, but it was specifically binding on Israel to have the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant rather than the curses. And what’s more is that Jesus has fulfilled this law for us too. He lived the perfect life, never breaking the moral law, never sinning even once.

And so while we still should obey the moral law and are still obligated to, when we fail and do not, if we are in Jesus we don’t experience the wrath of God on us for our sin, but we are given Jesus’ perfect life. When God looks on us he doesn’t see our failings, but he sees the perfect life of Jesus.

But if we know that we can’t obey the moral law, why should we? Well, not to spoil the rest of the letter to the Galatians, but we’ll see that Paul says that if we live by the Spirit, sent to us from Jesus, that we can obey the moral law and do what is right. We can by the Spirit truly love God and our neighbours as ourselves.

We no longer need to see the moral law as something which is a yoke to us, something we cannot bear and that will bring us curse and death rather than blessing and life, but as something we can joyfully obey by the power of the Spirit living in us.

And as we struggle, and if you’re like me, often fail to obey the law, we should remember again our need for a Saviour, that we cannot live on our own strength and power. The law reveals to us our sin and weakness – and should cause us to rejoice and marvel in the Saviour who paid the price for our sins. What an awesome God!

And finally as we place our trust in Jesus and in the promise given to Abraham – we should remember the other promises that God gave to Abraham. God fulfilled those promises just as he fulfilled his blessing to us, to the nations, in Jesus. And those promises point forward to what is better.

The numerous physical offspring of Abraham are nothing compared to the number of his spiritual offspring, all the saints across space and time who are found in Jesus by faith.

The promised land is but a shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the new heavens and earth that we look forward to.

Conclusion

The gospel is not about us, or about anything we do.

These are the words of God to Abraham in Genesis:

Genesis 12:1–3 · ESV

¹“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“I will… I will… I will…” The gospel is what God has done. It is his promise. What do we need to do to be part of his family? Like Abraham the man of faith, the promise by faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who have faith.

Do you feel that you don’t belong in God’s family? Do you feel you need to earn your way in?

The gospel is based on God’s promise to us, not on the law. Whether you are jealous, or struggling, or doubting, or barely hanging on, brothers and sisters I want you to know that your place in God’s family does not depend on any of those. It doesn’t depend on how you feel or what you’ve done at any point. It depends on Jesus alone.

Jesus has paid the price. He has become a curse for us. Trust in him by faith.