NT Doctrine — Galatians 3

Notice a fundamental truth here: Paul is saying that the Covenant of Christ is not a continuation of Moses, but a continuation of the Covenant of Abraham. The Covenant of Abraham was reborn in Christ; He wasn’t merely the fulfillment of Moses, but of the promises of Abraham. And the Covenant of Abraham was a covenant of faith, not law. Moses was just a passage for faith. Abraham had more than one son, so having his DNA was not the basis of the promises. It was on the basis of election activated by faith.

It was the written form of an anguished cry Paul makes at the start of this chapter. Who has done this awful thing to you? Paul had been careful to lay out before them the meaning of the Cross. They surely understood that it was their cross, too. Their old lives were crucified. Did the Holy Spirit wait until they went back and complied with the Jewish identity, becoming “Sons of the Law”, or did He fill their souls the moment they heard the gospel? And having been born by the Spirit, were they now going to rely on the flesh to finish the job? If they had embraced the Law, the Jews would not have harassed them and stirred up Roman officials against them. They didn’t claim Christ’s miracles by the Law, nor the strength to face testing by the Law.

Paul does not bother to distinguish here between the bogus Talmudic law and the Covenant of Moses. At it’s very best, the Law did not produce faith, only a national identity. That was as much as it could do. Jews harped on being Sons of Abraham, but that doesn’t wash. Abraham didn’t just credit the promises; he invested his whole soul into them in faith. That was the basis for God calling him “righteous”, the substance of his covenant. It had nothing to do with genetics; the true children of Abraham’s covenant were children of faith. Indeed, the promise to Abraham is that every nation and tribe on earth would be blessed by his faith, not those who issued from his body.

In theory, the Law could grant you peace with God only if you kept it perfectly. No one managed to do that (not even Moses who presented the Law). Thus, the Law only confirmed the Curse of the Fall by making it painfully obvious that flesh was not capable of obeying God. The true standard of righteousness starts with faith. Christ absorbed the Curse of the Fall on our behalf; He extinguished the Curse on the Cross. This was the whole point of the Cross: to bring the Covenant of Faith to the whole world. That was the promise of Abraham’s Covenant, God’s plan from the very beginning.

Consider the authority of a covenant sworn by ordinary men. Once it is established and sealed, no power of government would dare set it aside. Even Rome enforced a man’s last will and testament who was subject to Roman authority, strictly by the letter. Paul makes the point that the promise to Abraham applied only to one line of inheritance, and that was by faith, not by birth. The Messiah was the named heir of Abraham, the one for whom the promise of faith stood.

So, when the Law of Moses came along 430 years after Abraham, it did not alter that Covenant of Faith. God Himself was the guarantor of that covenant, validated by Abraham’s faith. Whatever the Covenant of Moses could do, it did not include something previously locked up under the Covenant of Abraham. The promise of the final covenant of the Messiah was already sealed before the Law was ever given. The Law of Moses must yield to the Covenant of Faith as prior law.

Then what was the point of the Law? What did it have to offer? The Nation of Israel was like a minor who would inherit faith once they grew up. They were submitted to an appointed guardian, a nanny to raise them until they were supposed to be ready to inherit the promises of faith. It was essential the Israelis grow up to understand their sinful fleshly natures, and the necessity of redemption. The Law simply pointed out the need for faith. In this, the Gentile nations were the younger siblings under the same custody, and Israel was the firstborn who should have gotten there first. Paul notes in passing that angels were administering this custody arrangement.

Moses was the mediator of this custody. A mediator stands between two or more parties. God is one party, the senior party. Moses did not contradict the will of God. If Moses could have redeemed everyone, then the Covenant of Abraham was a fraud. No, Moses made obvious the need for the Messiah already promised in Abraham.

The Law was meant to awaken in everyone a desire for redemption and that redemption was coming. The Law is a tutor who trains us to understand and value Christ. The will has been unsealed and read; it is faith in Christ. The period of minority has passed. Everyone who has entered Christ has entered into the adult world of faith. Everyone in Christ has nailed their flesh to the Cross, and lives now by faith in Him. In baptism the Galatian Christians swore their allegiance to Him as Lord, and now wear the vestments of His authority. They have renounced their human identity; they are no longer Jews and Gentiles, not slave nor free, no longer male or female, etc.

In the Covenant of Christ, we have also entered the Covenant promises of Abraham. How could anyone possibly revert to their status as minors under a guardian whose mission has been fulfilled, and is no longer in authority?