THE FOUNDATION OF THE PROMISE (GAL 3:15-18)

SERIES: FREE AT LAST, PART 10

GCEFC: JANUARY 3, 2010

INTRODUCTION

1. Today we resume our study in the Book of Galatians. Paul has been talking most of this chapter about Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. And the prime example in the Bible of a person saved by the grace of God through faith in God’s promise.

2. Paul has just made the argument that even though it may appear that Abraham was saved by being a good man, an obedient man, and a keeper of God’s law—this was not the basis of his salvation.

3. God told Abraham that even though he was a very old man, and his wife was elderly, and they had been childless their entire adult lives—that he was going to bless the entire human race through one of his descendants.

4. We’re told that Abraham believed this highly unlikely promise of God. And because he believed God’s promise—God declared him righteous—he was saved.

5. Paul is countering the argument of the false teachers who had convinced the Galatian Christians that their salvation was not based on faith in Christ alone. But based on faith in Christ AND in keeping the law of God.

6. In the four verses we’re looking at this morning, Paul continues his argument that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

7. His argument is not difficult to follow—but it’s powerful and convincing.

A. COVENANTS ARE UNCHANGEABLE

1. V15: Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.

2. One of the most effective and time-honored ways of conveying knowledge is by comparing a well understood truth to a less understood truth.

3. Whether we call it an analogy, an illustration, an example, a case in point, or a comparison, the method is very old, very common, and very effective.

4. Jesus employed this method repeatedly through his use of parables. In his parables, Jesus took everyday, commonly understood principles—and used them to help his hearers comprehend spiritual truth that was not so commonly understood.

a. So he compared responses to the Word of God to the sowing of seed.

b. He compared obeying the Word of God to building a house on a firm foundation.

c. He compared the joy in a sinner’s repentance to the finding of a lost sheep.

d. He compared God’s love for his people to the love of a father for his rebellious son.

e. He compared short-sighted perspective in life to a rich fool.

5. Paul, as a trained rabbi and a man of deep understanding of spiritual truth, also used easily understood concepts to explain things that were more obscure.

6. His first example is the concept of a covenant. We all know how a covenant works. Generally, a covenant is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action.

7. A covenant is either conditional or unconditional. A conditional covenant is an agreement that’s binding on both parties for its fulfillment. Both parties agree to fulfill certain requirements or conditions.

8. An unconditional covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has a requirement to do something. Nothing is required of the other party.

a. We can probably most relate to 3 kinds of covenants. One is a marriage covenant. When a man and a woman (man and woman), promise certain things to each other.

b. To have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and health, to love, honor, comfort, cherish, and be faithful to each other as long as they live.

c. A marriage covenant is conditional—something is required of both parties.

d. Then there’s a mortgage covenant. Where you promise to send the bank a certain amount of money each month for a certain amount of time. When you complete your part of the covenant, the bank lifts the lien on the property and it’s really yours.

e. Then there’s a last will and testament. In a will, the testator leaves a written description of how they want their estate to be distributed upon their death. A will is an unconditional covenant.

9. The main point the verse makes is that you can’t set aside or add to a covenant once it’s established. Though covenants can be broken—they can’t be changed unilaterally.

10. You cannot change the marriage covenant you made with your spouse. You can’t wake up one day and unilaterally remove the part about being faithful.

11. If money gets tight, you can’t decide to send the bank only half of your monthly mortgage payment. If you do, they can legally take the house away from you.

12. And only the testator can change their will. The heirs can’t do it. The lawyer can’t do it. And once the testator dies, no one can do it.

13. So, Paul is saying that just as with human covenants, they are set and to be followed and honored by the parties who agree to them. You can’t take away from them, you can’t add to them—you must honor them.

14. In the ancient world, there was a very specific way that covenants were established.

a. When the two parties agreed on the terms, one or more animals were slain and cut into two halves. This emphasized the solemnity of the covenant.

b. Then the halves of the animals were placed on opposite sides of a path between them.

c. Then the 2 parties walked down the path between the animals, sealing the agreement.

d. But when the Abrahamic Covenant was made, it was not your typical agreement. Abraham did not make a covenant with God—God made a covenant with Abraham.

e. The covenant was entirely one sided. There was nothing for Abraham to do. There were no conditions for Abraham to meet. It was all about what God would do.

f. In fact, when it came time for God and Abraham to walk between the animals to ratify the covenant—Abraham was asleep!

g. In GEN 15 we read: As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land…’

h. The smoking firepot was God passing through the animals without Abraham—symbolizing that this covenant was unconditional. God would keep his part of the covenant fully—but there was no part for Abraham to keep.

15. Now, Paul is saying, if a human covenant is solemn and binding, and cannot be altered after it’s set—then how much more so with a covenant God himself initiates and seals with his own Word and Name.

B. THE PROMISE IS FULFILLED IN CHRIST

1. So that’s Paul’s first illustration or case in point. That any covenant God himself establishes is permanent and reliable like no other covenant can ever be.

2. We've been reminded that God’s covenant with Abraham involved the promise of land. But it also included two other major elements.

3. The covenant God established with Abraham was comprised of 3 main provisions.

a. A land

b. A seed

c. A blessing

4. The land was Israel. The seed and the blessing we’ll look at now.

5. V16: The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.’

6. We’re to understand that when God made a promise to Abraham through his seed—he meant seed in 3 ways.

a. First, God meant that the blessing would come through Abraham’s direct seed—that is—through Isaac, his son. The NIV translates the Hebrew for seed as offspring.

b. Second, God meant that the blessing would come to Abraham’s descendants—his seed or offspring, that is, the children of Isaac onward.

c. Third, God meant that the blessing would come through one particular seed in the descendants of Abraham—meaning Christ Jesus.

d. This is why the genealogy in MT 1 is so important. It reads: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.

7. Paul makes a point of the word “seed” in V16. He’s trying to show that the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham is not in the descendants of Abraham generally, but through the one descendant, Christ, in particular.

8. His argument is based on the singular vs. the plural form of the word “seed.” He’s saying that if the promise was for the many descendants of Abraham, it would have said seeds.

9. Because it says seed, it refers to one person, that is—Christ. But this is a bit problematic, because the word “seed” (as in offspring) is used for both singular and plural.

10. It’s like our word “offspring.” I could say: Danny is my offspring, or Christina is my offspring, or Danny and Christina are my offspring. Same word in every case.

11. Likewise, the word “seed” would have been used whether the reference was to many offspring or to just one offspring.

12. We can be assured that Paul was aware that the Greek word for seed meant singular or plural. The most probable explanation is that Paul wanted to indicate that the singular was meant—and that the word should be understood as singular in meaning.

13. It’s hard to know for certain because we can’t ask Paul. But his words are inspired, and the point he’s making is clear enough.

14. The promise is to many physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac. But the ultimate promise is to many spiritual descendants through Christ.

C. IT’S AN UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE—NOT A REWARD

1. V17: What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

2. He’s saying that God’s promise was free and unconditional. There was nothing to do for it. No works to do, no laws to obey, no merit to claim, no conditions to meet.

3. God said: I will give you a seed. I will give this land to your seed. And through your seed all people of the earth will be blessed.

4. God’s promise was more like a will than a covenant. It gave unconditional promises to a future generation that could not be changed, altered, or annulled.

5. In fact, V18: For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

6. It’s as if the false teachers were saying that the promise to Abraham was only temporary and that it was inferior.

7. So 430 years later God introduced the superior covenant of the law. This nullified the promise because the law was superior to it.

8. But Paul is saying NO WAY. How can the law set aside an unconditional covenant established by God Himself?

9. The law of God had an important purpose, which we’ll see starting in V19, but the law was never intended to replace God’s unconditional promise to Abraham.

10. He’s saying that if God’s promise (the inheritance) depends on keeping the law—then it’s not really a promise.

11. Suppose you were in line for an inheritance. And you go to the reading of the will and the will specifies that you are to inherit a piece of land and a house.

12. But when you go to sign the papers, you’re told that you’ll need to work 40 hours a week for 30 years in order to receive the land and the house.

13. You’d say: WHAT? I thought it was an inheritance. I thought it was a promise from my family. If I have to work for it, then in what sense is it an unconditional inheritance?

14. Answer: IT’S NOT! If the promise of future blessing through Christ, a descendant of Abraham, is an unconditional promise of God’s grace—then it can’t be something that we earn, merit, work for, or receive as payment for keeping the law.

15. V18: But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

16. The greatest news you will ever hear, is that your salvation is a gift of God, promised 4,000 years ago through an unconditional covenant with Abraham, that you receive by virtue of your spiritual relationship to Abraham by way of your spiritual relationship to Christ—who is the seed of Abraham.

17. God’s blessing to the world would not come through the descendants of Abraham, but through one descendant of Abraham—the man, Christ Jesus, our Savior.

18. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. It was by grace through faith before the law came. It was by grace through faith after the law was introduced.

19. And our salvation remains by grace through faith to this day. In Jesus Christ, the promise to Abraham finds its ultimate fulfillment.

20. This is why Paul ends the chapter with these words: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.