Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 8

We pause the ongoing story of Sha’ul to examine his Letter to the Galatians.

In our last post, we left off in Chapter 3:14 with Sha’ul describing the Law & Faith. In this post, he continues to explain his Doctrine of Justification.

Inheritance by Promise

¹⁵Brothers, let me make an analogy from everyday life: when someone swears an oath, no one else can set it aside or add to it.

Sha’ul made his point of the oath by illustrating a last will and testament. When executed legally, such a document cannot be changed.

¹⁶ Now^, the promises were made to Avraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “and to seeds,” as if to many; on the contrary, it speaks of one – “and to your seed” – and this “one” is the Messiah. ¹⁷ Here is what I am saying: the legal part of the Torah, which came into being 430 years later, does not nullify an oath sworn by God so as to abolish the promise.

The use of the singular seed is Sha’ul’s biblical basis for saying that Yeshua is the one who fulfilled God’s promises to Avraham. However, the Jews are still the physical seed of Avraham. Those in Yeshua are His spiritual seed (Galatians 3:29). Because of the nature of a covenant (v. 15 above), the Mosaic Law – and “the works of the Law” (Galatians 2:16) – cannot override the role of Yeshua in fulfilling the Avrahamic covenant or Avraham’s example of justifying faith.

 ¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes from the legal part of the Torah, it no longer comes from a promise. But God gave it to Avraham through a promise.

The exalted position of the Law with the Jewish teachers who had come to the Galatians did not fit the biblical teaching. God’s earlier promise made to Avraham was the proper basis for their spiritual inheritance.

Purpose of the Law

 ¹⁹ So then, why the legal part of the Torah? It was added in order to create transgressions until the coming of the seed about whom the promise had been made. Moreover, it was handed down through angels and a mediator. ²⁰ Now, a mediator implies more than one, but God is one.

The divine purpose of the Law was to clarify sin until Yeshua (the Seed) came. Acts 7:38 says that an angel was involved as a mediator, which was needed because the Law was a two-party contract, with both and Isra’el responsible for keeping it. The Avrahamic covenant was a one-party contract, as seen in the way the Lord ratified the covenant as the only active party (Avram was asleep) in Genesis 15:9–12. Such a covenant is unconditional.

²¹ Does this mean that the legal part of the Torah stands in opposition to God’s promises? Heaven forbid! For if the legal part of the Torah which God gave had had in itself the power to give life, then righteousness really would have come by legalistically following such a Torah. ²² But instead, the Tanakh shuts up everything under sin so that what had been promised might be given, on the basis of Yeshua the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness, to those who continue to be trustingly faithful. ^[1]

Sha’ul has shown the purpose of the Law in God’s plan. However, the Judaizers probably still objected, accusing the emissary of teaching that the Law was, in fact, evil in that it contradicted the excellent promise of God. Do the Law and the promise work against each other? Are they at odds? In competition?

Sha’ul says that the Law did its best work on behalf of the promise by convincing people that they were fully and wholly disqualified to spend eternity with God. No Law could have been given that could have imparted life – not because of something wrong with God’s righteous standards, but because of something essentially wrong with us! The Law revealed in Scripture “shut up everyone under sin.” The Law reveals the bad news about us – that we are sinners, separated from a holy God both by nature (Ephesians 2:3) and by personal choice (Romans 3:23).

So, the Law shows us our sin, but the Gospel shows us how to escape sin’s penalty and take hold of life. In that sense, the Law and the Gospel are complementary, like the two hands of God turning our attention toward Yeshua.

The Law and the Gospel are not two ways of salvation but how God points us to the one way of salvation, Yeshua.

In our next post, we will continue to explore Sha’ul’s Doctrine of Justification, starting in chapter 3:23.

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^[1] Galatians 3:15-22