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To give a human example, brethren: no one annuls even a man's will, or adds to it, once it
has been ratified. 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,"
which is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years
afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise
void. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise; but God gave it to
Abraham by a promise.
the law on which the locomotive of the Spirit is pulling us to glory in the Pullman car of faith,
and lifts that track up on end, and turns it into a ladder on which to climb to heaven by works
the person who does that with God's law is under the law's own curse (2:18). For such a
misused law (legalism) is not based on faith, but the law of Moses taught faith and
condemned the pride of works. Yet, even though we are all under a curse for the sin of pride,
Christ came precisely to redeem people like us from the curse of the law (3:13). He became a
curse for us. And the result, in verse 14, is that instead of a curse we now inherit the blessing
of Abraham; that is, we receive the Spirit when we trust Christ.
In other words, in all three paragraphs so far in chapter 3 the point has been: you can't
become a complete, sanctified Christian, you can't become a child of Abraham, you can't
enjoy the promise of the Spirit, if you are living by "works of law" instead of by faith in the Son
of God (2:20). The effort to keep the law as a means of obliging God or man to bless you is a
transgression of the law itself (2:18), and it brings a person under the law's curse (3:10). So
the Judaizers are wrong to teach the Galatian Christians to supplement their faith with works
of the law, and Paul is bending all his efforts in this book to cure Christians of such deadly
legalism.
A Human Analogy
He begins in verse 15 with an analogy. "To give a human example, brethren: no one annuls a
man's will, or adds to it once it has been ratified." Of course, to us that sounds incorrect
because we can change our wills and add codicils. But there were Roman and Greek and
Jewish laws under which this statement would have been precisely accurate. What's important
is that there were (and are) kinds of testaments or dispositions of property or inheritance
arrangements or oaths which cannot be cancelled or changed by addition. Paul sets this up as
an illustration of how the Mosaic law must not be interpreted as an annulment or alteration of
the terms of the Abrahamic covenant.
Verse 17 gives the application of the analogy: "This is what I mean: the law, which came four
hundred and thirty years afterward [i.e., after the promise to Abraham], does not annul a
covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void." Paul agrees with the
Judaizers that it was God who spoke the promise to Abraham and it was the same God who
gave the law to his descendants. He agrees that in both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants
blessing is offered to Israel under certain conditions (Genesis 12:13; Exodus
20:24;Deuteronomy 7:12, 13; 30:1620). But Paul will not allow the Judaizers to put in his
mouth the assertion that the way God offered blessing to Israel through Abraham and
the way God offered blessing to Israel through Moses were contrary ways. If, in the law, God
were telling men to earn their way to blessing by works, then the covenant with Abraham
would be annulled. If God were adding stipulations so that people could supplement their faith
with their own effort, then the promise to Abraham is void. For God's dealings with Abraham
showed that divine blessing is freely given only to those who have faith (3:7, 9), not to those
who try to earn it through works of law. Had he taught something contrary to this, his integrity
would be jeopardized.
Abraham. Faith (Exodus 14:31; Numbers 14:11; 20:21;Deuteronomy 1:32) as evidenced in its
fruit was the requirement of both covenants. So Paul seems fully warranted in saying that the
law, which came 430 years later, did not nullify or basically alter the covenant ratified with
Abraham. They are in perfect harmony.
Holy Spirit, salvation) comes only by Jesus Christ. He is the promise without which no one can
attain the inheritance.