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It is an exciting thing to discover that you are an heir, to know that someone wants you to benefit from their assets when they die.  The promised legacy may be large or small, but the fact of being an heir can be an encouraging thought and in some cases it can be life-transforming.  Such is the case with regard to the salvation of the people of God.  We now consider Galatians 3:26-4:7 Heirs of God

1. The status of believers

The conclusion of Paul’s argument – ‘You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus’ (v26).  Here is the new status that obedience to the law could never confer.  ‘Sons’ does not exclude women but indicates they have the same status spiritually as men.  Paul asserts the fundamental equality of all of God’s people – ‘all’ embraces Jews and Gentiles.  There are no ‘second class’ Christians.  All believers are united to Christ, a fact which is depicted in baptism (v27).  By faith we enter a covenant union with Christ in the Covenant of Grace – having ‘clothed yourselves with Christ’, a very vivid description.  Worldly distinctions no longer matter (v28).  They are irrelevant to our spiritual standing.  Our spiritual link to Abraham is restated in v29 – we are ‘Abraham’s seed’ united to Christ the Seed, and ‘heirs according to the promise’.  All the blessings of God’s covenant await believers.

2. The liberation of believers

            (i). Our slavery.  As Paul has stated in v23, before conversion we were ‘held prisoners by the law’.  Now he uses the illustration of an heir who is a minor and cannot yet receive his inheritance.  We were subject to ‘the basic principles of the world’ – its belief systems which offer only slavery.  Only in Christ can we be set free.

            (ii). Our redemption.  Liberation is possible ‘when the time had fully come’ (v4) – the coming of the Saviour, sharing our nature (‘born of a woman’), rendering perfect obedience to God’s law in our place, with the goal ‘to redeem those under law’ (v5).  We are redeemed – bought out of bondage – by the blood of Jesus shed for sinners (1 Corinthians 6:20).

3. The adoption of believers

Our adoption as God’s children is the supreme blessing, the highest privilege we receive:

(i). Full rights.  Though faith in Christ we have the status of adult sons, no longer minors, enjoying all the rights and privileges of belonging to the family of God.

            (ii). The Holy Spirit.  God makes rich provision for his children – he ‘sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts’ (v6).  He is ‘the Spirit of adoption’ (Romans 8:15), who enables us to enjoy God’s blessings and equips us for life in the family of ‘Abba, Father’ whom we love.

            (iii). Heirs.  The transformation wrought by grace is summed up in v7.  We are sons of God and therefore heirs.  We are ‘heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:17).  The blessedness of Christ is shared with us, in God’s infinite love and grace.

Small children cannot be allowed to wander wherever they choose – they will get into danger and may injure themselves.  It is an act of love for a parent to set boundaries for their child, even though it may seem to be the opposite.  The idea of setting boundaries and limiting freedom provides an illustration for Paul as he considers the difficult issue of God’s law in relation to salvation.  We now consider Galatians 3:19-25 Why the law?

1. Law and sin

The legalist opponents of Paul relied on law-keeping to be right with God.  Hence the vital question – what is the significance of the law of God in his plan of salvation?  In v19 Paul asks, ‘What was the purpose of the law?’  He never questions the status of the law as God’s gift – it cannot simply be dismissed.  Paul’s replies, ‘It was added because of transgressions’ (v19) – added by God.  This indicates more than the role of the law in restraining sin.  Its main function is to expose the reality of human sin as an offence against God.  Romans 3:20 tells us that ‘through the law comes knowledge of sin’.  The law also showed up man’s guilt with the goal that people would realise their need of Christ – ‘the Seed to whom the promise referred’.  In v20 (a very difficult verse) Paul shows the superiority of the promise over the law, since the promise is entirely the work of God.  Thus he answers the legalists.

2. Law and promise 

Do the law and the promise conflict, as competing ways of salvation?  Paul is adamant – ‘Absolutely not!’ (v21).  There is a conflict only if the law is accorded a role and power that it does not possess.  There is no law that ‘could impart life’ (v21).  The law exposes sin and demands obedience but has no power to change the heart.  The law has a different purpose, related to the covenant promise – it declares that ‘the whole world is a prisoner of sin’ (v22), leaving sinners no escape from guilt and thereby driving (enlightened) sinners to Christ.  In contrast, salvation is provided in the promised Saviour – ‘so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe’ (v22).  He alone is able to give salvation.  Here is the answer to any kind of dependence on law or works.  We have the promise of a Saviour in whom we must believe.

3. Law and faith

Paul now draws the contrast between the role of law and the role of faith.  The coming of Christ and his fulfilling his redemptive ministry is crucial.  ‘Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law’ (v23).  The demands of God’s law for perfect obedience leave sinners no escape route from responsibility before God for their disobedience.  But, as Paul has been showing, the condemning role of the law has a positive purpose when God’s grace is at work.  The law ‘was put in charge’ (v24) – Paul actually uses the word ‘pedagogue’ – the slave who took the child to school.  There is in this an element of harsh discipline, yet the law has a gracious goal, namely ‘to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith’.  The law drives sinners to Christ and through him justification is received.  Then ‘we are no longer under the supervision of the law’ – we are freed for loving obedience.

Prof Robert McCollum

As Christians reading the Old Testament, if we are to understand it properly – we need to ask the question, ‘Where is this going?’  In itself the OT is incomplete – it looks forward to Someone still to come, who will bring it to fulfilment.  As Paul shows in his discussion of Abraham, that ‘Someone’ is Christ.  We now consider Galatians 3:15-18 Law and promise.

1. The inviolable covenant

Central to Paul’s answer to the legalists are God’s dealings with Abraham, a figure highly revered by his opponents.  In v15 he takes ‘an example from everyday life’, using something familiar to his readers to teach a profound spiritual lesson, a method often used by Jesus.  Paul is concerned with God’s gracious covenant with Abraham.  In v15 Paul reminds readers that just as a human covenant (or ‘will’) cannot be tampered with nor can new terms be smuggled in, so God’s eternal covenant is inviolable.  It is established by an eternal, unchanging God.  Then Paul makes the crucial point that ‘The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise’ (v17).  The Mosaic law is a ‘late-comer’ and cannot be the basis for enjoying the covenant blessings of salvation.  The heart of that covenant is the gracious promise of God.  Works cannot replace God’s gracious promise and rewrite the covenant.

2. The promised Seed

Paul then states, ‘The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed’ (v16).  The content of the covenant is the promises of salvation (eg Genesis 13:15-16).  The high point comes in Genesis 22:18, after the provision of a ram for the sacrifice: In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed’.  Who is the seed?  Paul argues in v16 that it is singular.  The word itself can be singular or corporate – it is in the wider context of the OT that the singularity of the promised seed becomes clear.  This will be the Messiah, who fulfils Genesis 3:15, and so the reference to ‘your seed’ points to Christ.  The promises of the covenant are not to all the physical descendants of Abraham.  It is in Christ that the promises are fulfilled and the benefits are for those united to Christ by faith.  This was (at least in part) understood by Abraham, so that Jesus can say, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day – he saw it and was glad’ (John 8:56).  No works brought the covenant blessing to God’s people.

3. The abiding promise

The law could not change or subtract anything from the covenant with Abraham, which was brought to fulfilment by God’s grace in the work of Christ.  The principle is stated in v18 ‘if the inheritance depends on law, then it no longer depends on a promise’.  There is a fundamental incompatibility between the principle of law and the principle of promise in relation to salvation.  This can also be stated in terms of works and faith.  The two cannot be combined, as Paul said in 2:16.  At the end of v18 Paul sums up his argument against the legalists: ‘but God in his grace gave [the inheritance] to Abraham through a promise’.  Here is the biblical gospel – salvation by grace through faith in Christ.  Salvation by works is impossible.  The law cannot save.  We are thus freed to believe in Christ for salvation.