The Promise Trumps the Law
Notes
Transcript
Review: Paul against the Judaizers.
HCPT: The Promise trumps the Law.
What is the context here?
Paul has shown the two ways of life: law and faith. He has shown that Christ became a curse, the end result of the law, to bring to us the promised Spirit, which is the blessing of Abraham. The idea of these “two ways” is key for the rest of this chapter.
There is a lot of heavy OT here, and we need to wade through that to get at the nuggets in this passage.
Paul's entire point in this passage can be summed up in a simple phrase: the promise trumps the law.
3 reasons why
The Promise Came First (vv. 15-18)
The Promise Came First (vv. 15-18)
It cannot be altered (vv. 15-16)
It cannot be altered (vv. 15-16)
Verse 15
manner of men/human example:: if men do not change a covenant after it is sealed, how much more would God not change it.
No one disannuleth it:
disannuleth: ἀθετέω, make of no effect. No one makes a human covenant of no effect once it has been ratified.
The Abrahamic covenant was, essentially, a Gospel covenant that offered blessings in a way that could not be changed or superseded by a future covenant.
Verse 16
Paul is continuing to argue that the Abrahamic Covenant, with its Gospel promises, is superior to the Law, and now he is doing so on the basis of temporal realities.
The promises—Gal.3.14, the promised Spirit; this is synonymous with the Gospel: it is the way of God’s blessing based solely on what God does.
Seed—this is key to Paul’s point here. The emphasis by Paul is that the Covenant was made with Abraham’s “seed,” meaning that it was made with one of Abraham’s descendant, who is Christ. In other words, the Abrahamic Covenant was made with Christ.
Why does this matter?
Keep reading
It cannot be replaced (vv. 17-18)
It cannot be replaced (vv. 17-18)
This is still following after verse 15: a covenant cannot be changed after it is made. The Abrahamic Covenant, a promise/Gospel covenant between man, Christ, and God, was established, and thus it cannot be replaced.
Verse 17
Confirmed before of God in Christ
confirmed before of God—Ratified in advanced by God
In Christ—This covenant was made with Christ before He was born?
Dissannul—make void, revoke.
make the promise of none effect—The “promise” here is synonymous with the Abrahamic Covenant as a way of obtaining God’s Spirit . The law is a different way of obtaining the blessing of God’s Spirit.
Remember that this is held out as the key blessing of Abraham. Why is that?
How could an individual not want to have God’s Spirit? The agent of change, of renovation, of comfort, of assistance, of guidance, of joy, of peace, of happiness, of life itself?
Verse 18
For—Here is the reason the law cannot make the obtaining of the Spirit via promise a voided way.
There are two paths here: law and promise. God gives us two ways to Him, and only one is actually valid, and it is the one He gave to us first in Scripture.
Key here: the contrast is not between the law as the law and the gospel. It is between the law as a system of works righteous apart from faith and the gospel.
Transition: This leads to a natural questions: why the law. If the promise came first, and it cannot be altered or replaced, why even bother giving the Law? If we already had the Gospel, then why did we have to have the Law? Because, yes the promise came first, but secondly,
The Law Wasn’t Enough (vv. 19-24)
The Law Wasn’t Enough (vv. 19-24)
The Law had a definite purpose in the plan of God. It was not an extra addition. It was necessary.
It was needed because sin is real (vv. 19-20)
It was needed because sin is real (vv. 19-20)
Verse 19
Where…the law?—This is our natural question: if the way to God in Christ has always been by faith, then why did God seemingly give us a way to Him that was based on our obedience? What was the point?
because of transgressions—the law, with all its commands and threatening, was added because of sins. It was added to detail to us what sin is and its consequences.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
till…made—the law’s reign was meant to last until the One whom the Abrahamic Covenant was made had fully come.
ordained…mediator—This appears to be referencing the Mosaic Covenant.
Verse 20
Though this verse might mean that the Law is inferior to the Promise because it comes from God indirectly whilst the Promise comes without intermediary, St Paul probably means that the Mosaic covenent was a bilateral alliance involving a mediator (Moses) and the possibility of the covenant failing through the transgression of the Jews, whereas God’s Promise was unilateral, unconditional, indefectible, and could not be modified by the Law.-Dom Orchard
The law was established by Go-betweens. The Promise to Abraham was established between God and Abraham (cf. Gen. 15). That is what shows how superior it is. The Law was temporary, and it was given because sin was real. Second,
It was needed because sin must be known (vv. 21-22)
It was needed because sin must be known (vv. 21-22)
This is the natural question: if the law is theoretically another way of salvation, is it opposed to God’s way of salvation? No.
It is explained why in the second half of verse 21: the law was only a theoretical way of salvation. What actually happens with the law is in v. 22.
All are under sin so that the promise by faith in Christ may come to all.
The law was added because of overstepping: it made Plain what was already going on.
so that--Seems to be result here: here is the result of the law's condemnation.
The law was not intended to discover a way of justification, different from that made known by the promise, but to lead men to see their need of the promise, by showing the sinfulness of sin, and to point to Christ, through whom alone they could be pardoned and justified.—Matthew Henry
It was needed because is real, because sin must be known, and third,
It was needed because Christ had not come (vv. 23-24)
It was needed because Christ had not come (vv. 23-24)
Before faith came—in time or in the believer’s experience?
kept under the law—living under it? This rests on the previous phase’s meaning.
The last phrase seems to indicate that this is all speaking temporally: before Christ came, we lived under the law, which only showed us our sin.
shut up—imprisoned until faith, that is the object of faith, came.
Wherefore—because of how the law kept us in prison until Christ came and only pointed to our sin
schoolmaster—the slave who went with a boy from home to school and back again, a kind of tutor
The word for schoolmaster is paidagogos, meaning a “child conductor,” one who takes a little child by the hand and leads him to the school. The Law is our schoolmaster, our paidagogos.
J. Vernon McGee
The idea of the law as a kind of period of underage living is here introduced. Schoolmasters are only for children: here, it was only until Christ came and was for the purpose of pointing people to Christ to have faith in Him.
Ill: SpurgeonThere is a story my old friend Dr. Alexander Fletcher once told me. He said he was passing by the Old Bailey, or some other jail, and he saw a couple of boys turning somersaults, standing on their heads, making wheels of themselves, and all sorts of things. He stopped and said, “Why, boys, whatever are you doing? You seem to be delighted.”
One of them said, “You would be delighted too if you had been locked up in that jail three months. You would jump when you came out.” And the good old doctor said that it was very likely he should. If he had been a prisoner there, he would hardly know how to express his delight in getting out.
If a man has been once pummeled by the law, he has felt his sin and misery and the impossibility of obtaining any relief by the way of human merit. When he comes to see that Christ has kept the law for him, he comes to know that he is saved, and saved perfectly by an act of faith in Jesus Christ. From that time he lives under new conditions. He is not under the law but under grace, and he knows the sweets of liberty. \
Transition: The Promise came first, the Law wasn’t enough, and thirdly
Christ Makes Us Sons (vv. 25-29)
Christ Makes Us Sons (vv. 25-29)
We are sons by faith (vv. 25-26)
We are sons by faith (vv. 25-26)
after that faith is come—after the object of our faith, Christ, has come
we are no longer under a schoolmaster—under the law as a way of living that is a constant reminder of our sinfulness and inadequacy of saving ourselves
For ye are all children of God—we are not under a schoolmaster because we have “come of age” and now experience the fullness of sonship.
For…put on Christ—we are children by participation in Christ’s sonship. It is our identification with him that results in our adoption, an identification that does not eliminated us as individuals.
Rom.13.14 As always there is the status and the standing relationship here.
We are clothed by faith (v. 27)
We are clothed by faith (v. 27)
How does baptism relate here?
The results of our oneness with Christ via baptism is oneness with one another: there is nothing more fundamental, no matter how real it is. We are in Christ, which makes us the children of Abraham, sharing in the same salvation promise as he did.
We are one by faith (vv. 28-29)
We are one by faith (vv. 28-29)
We are one, no one has to earn this.
Even the nasty visitor who has never showered before and who might need an extra baptism, if they claim Christ, we are one.
My Favorite Illustrations Church/God’s People
Every church should strive to be a little bit of heaven on earth. It should be a place where its people can find a haven of rest from the dog-eat-dog atmosphere of society where everyone is out to get his, regardless of what it does to others.
