The Promise Came First

Consider how it works even among men: once a covenant is ratified, no one annuls it or adds to it (Galatians 3:15). I appealed to something you already know, so that you might see the weight of what God did with Abraham. The promises were made "to Abraham and to his offspring" (Galatians 3:16) — and I pressed on that one word. It does not say offsprings, as of many, but offspring, one — and that one is Christ. The whole promise was aimed, from the beginning, at him.

Now here is the heart of it. The law came four hundred and thirty years after that promise (Galatians 3:17). A gift given, sworn, and sealed cannot be cancelled by something that arrives four centuries later. "For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise" (Galatians 3:18). Do you see the order? Promise first, then law — and the law never overturned the promise, never could, was never meant to.

Why the law at all, then? I asked it plainly: "It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come" (Galatians 3:19). The law was not given to make you alive — if any law could have done that, righteousness would indeed come by it (Galatians 3:21). It was given to shut every mouth, to lock the whole world up under sin, "so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22). The prison drives you to the door.

And I gave you a picture: the law was our guardian, the one who watches a child and disciplines him until he comes of age. "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian" (Galatians 3:25). The tutor's work is finished when the Son arrives and you are grown up in him.

For here is what you now are: "in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith" (Galatians 3:26). Not wards, not prisoners, not servants under a schoolmaster — sons. And clothed with him, the old divisions that ranked and separated us fall away: "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

So hear the end of the whole matter, and let it settle on you today. You spend so much strength trying to earn what has already been given. But "if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29). The inheritance was never something you climbed toward by your performance; it was sworn by God long before you drew breath, and it is yours in his Son. Stop laboring to buy what grace has deeded to you. Live today as an heir — because you are one.

Grace and peace to you.