How is your relationship with God today? Would you say that you completely trust God in every circumstance? Or would you say that you find yourself sometimes being suspicious of what God is up to?
In the book of Galatians, Paul is confronting the false teaching of legalism. There were some in the Galatian church who were teaching that the promises of God in salvation could only be obtained if someone also observes and performs the Law of Moses. In effect, these false teachers were trying to nullify the sufficiency of God’s promises.
Think about the importance and the power of a promise. Promises are an important part of any relationship. Promises kept will establish healthy relationships while unkept promises will destroy them. I am sure you have heard the phrase “a man is only as good as his word” or maybe you have even said something like, “people cannot be trusted; it is better to just do it myself.”
I was in a leadership training session recently where one of the trainers talked about the difference between trust and suspicion and how the extension of either of those can be healthy or destructive in a relationship. If I am constantly suspicious of everyone around me then I will constantly question their motives. But if I chose to extend trust to those around me, and if they are proven to be worthy of that trust, then our relationship is on a healthy foundation. The point is that every relationship requires levels of trust that must outweigh the suspicions I have, and those levels of trust will deepen as promises are kept.
This little relational exercise helps to illustrate Paul’s argument in our passage today. The main point Paul is arguing for is that God’s promise of salvation is irreversible because it has been fulfilled in Christ, and it is completely unaffected by the Law. We can trust that what God has promised in the gift of salvation is unchanging because it has been given to us as an inheritance through the work of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior apart from our performance – despite our keeping or breaking of the law.
Our understanding of God’s trustworthy promise is the very foundation of our relationship with him. If we are suspicious of him, we will try to go at it alone by attempting to earn our salvation through our good works. If we do not trust him because of the hardship we have faced in this life, then we might start living like the salvation that began with faith must be completed by our performance somehow. Look at the text with me…
15To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16Now 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,” who is Christ. 17This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
We must remember that Paul’s argument all throughout chapter three has centered on the truth that our justification (salvation) comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Scriptures alone for the glory of God alone. Justification (salvation) cannot be revoked, because it is a gift of God in Christ Jesus apart from any of our works. To make his argument clear, Paul begins with a legal argument illustrated by the use of manmade covenants or manmade agreements to prove that God’s promise is irreversible.
#1: GOD’S PROMISE IS IRREVERSIBLE (V. 15)
In verse 15, Paul says, “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”
This opening illustration in the original language paints the picture of a last will and testament along with the concept of an inheritance that has been promised.2 God promised an irreversible salvation for all who have trusted in Christ crucified, risen, and returning, apart from anything we do or do not do long before the law was ever given (more on that in a few moments).
We have to remember that the Galatians, Paul’s original audience here, had been infiltrated by false teachers – called The Judaizers – who were undermining the message of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith with their “Jesus plus works equals salvation” message of legalism. The Galatians were becoming confused and were beginning to believe that their salvation could only be secured by trusting in Jesus along with their good works; they were beginning to believe that their good works (or their obedience to the Law) would finish what their faith had begun.3
Paul combats this kind of legalistic thinking with his very simple human illustration regarding a last will and testament that leads to an irreversible inheritance; this kind of promise is absolutely unchangeable, it cannot be undone. God’s promise of salvation has been signed, sealed, and delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit through the shed blood of Jesus at the cross of Calvary. This is actually what Paul launches into next when he teaches us that God’s promise has been fulfilled in Christ.
#2: GOD’S PROMISE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN CHRIST (V. 16)
In verse 16, Paul says, “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,” who is Christ.”
The bottom line here is that Paul sees God’s promise of salvation being fulfilled in Christ Jesus for all who are in Christ Jesus through the gift of salvation.
There is so much that could be said here about this part of Paul’s argument. One thing that I think is really helpful to us is to realize that the promise of salvation in Christ Jesus was not some new-fangled idea that was being propagated only in Paul’s day as if Israel’s history throughout the Old Testament was now worthless as some modern-day preachers like to say (such as Andy Stanley who openly teaches that we need to unhitch ourselves from the OT).
Paul turns that notion on its head when he goes all the way back to Abraham (before the Mosaic Law was even given) so that he can make his point that God’s promise of salvation was always going to be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. This was God’s plan from before the foundations of the earth were even laid; before the Garden of Eden was a physical thing. All biblical history pointed to God’s promise of salvation in Christ’s finished work at the cross of Calvary.
One other important aspect of what Paul is saying here in this verse revolves around his use of the word “covenant” in verses 15 and 17. That word “covenant” is not a word that we generally use in our English speaking society. But throughout the Old Testament, God made covenants (some would say these were agreements) with various people such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Each of those covenants had a specific purpose at that moment in time and were always meant to point God’s people to the coming fulfillment of the promise of salvation in Christ Jesus.
Oftentimes, a covenant between humans – like a marriage covenant – would have two parts to it, like a contract that states “if you do this then I will do that”. But the covenants that God made with his people and especially with Abraham here, were one sided covenants that were full of language such as “I will” meaning that God will do something that he has promised to do regardless of what the other party does (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 24:7).4
The bottom line here is that God’s covenant with Abraham was a promise to Abraham and to his offspring – Christ – and that promise was for all who are in Christ or all who have received salvation in Christ. So, in this way, Paul says that the promise was to Abraham’s offspring, Christ and for all who are offspring in Christ.
In Christ we all receive the benefit of salvation if we have trusted in the promise of God in Christ crucified, risen, and returning. This promise is totally unaffected by the Mosaic Law that was given some 430 years after the promise. This is Paul’s final argument for us today.
#3: GOD’S PROMISE IS UNAFFECTED BY THE LAW (VV. 17 – 18)
In verses 17 – 18, Paul says, “This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.”
The simple point that Paul is making here is that God’s promise to Abraham came long before the Mosaic Law was put in place and that the Law does not affect God’s promise of salvation (salvation is the inheritance that was promised to Abraham and his offspring).
God’s promise to Abraham – to multiply his descendants like the stars through a promised Son – was a complete promise that did not need to be supplemented by future laws; the law does not complete the promise of salvation. The promise stands alone and is fully capable of accomplishing what it was meant to do – namely the salvation that comes by grace through faith (Gal. 3:1 – 14).
If the false teachers in Galatia were correct in teaching that we can only be saved by faith in Christ along with our obedience to the law, then the reality is that God’s promise of salvation is not a promise to be trusted; otherwise, Abraham would not have been justified (saved) by faith since the law did not exist when he received the promise.
The only way God’s promise of salvation can be trusted is if the promise is completely unaffected by the Mosaic Law which came 430 years later. The law did not supplement the promise, it was only meant to teach those who were saved by faith how to live in a way that honors God and puts clothing on their profession of faith.
Salvation leads to good works, not the other way around. Our performance earns us nothing except death since we cannot perform the law perfectly. This is why the promise of God in salvation is trustworthy (we do not have to be suspicious about this). God’s promise of salvation is not contingent on our behavior because it was and always has been contingent on Christ’s behavior. Christ’s perfect performance at the cross of Calvary is what makes the promise of the gift of salvation completely trustworthy. This is why the promise of God is completely unaffected by the law!
CONCLUSION…
So, in conclusion, we have learned that God’s promise of salvation is irreversible because it has been fulfilled in Christ, and therefore it is completely unaffected by our performance of the law.
So, I ask this again, how is your relationship with God right now? Do you find yourself struggling to trust in the promises of God sometimes? Do you catch yourself wondering if God can be fully trusted?
We live in a world that is full of broken promises. I am certain that we can all look into the past and see, not only people who broke their promises to us, but I am certain we can also see the times where we did not uphold our end of the bargain. This realization is what makes the truths of this passage so helpful and refreshing to us. In a world that is marked by the destructiveness of broken promises, we can learn to trust in the promise of God in salvation.
Our struggle with trusting in God is directly connected to our understanding of his promises. Intellectually, I think we find it easy to confess trust rather than suspicion in God’s promises. But at the heart level, the level of our emotions and desires, I think this is where we struggle the most. When we give in to sinful impulses and unhealthy emotions that flow from the heart, we behave in ways that are contrary to trusting in the promises of God.
A word spoken in anger, a lustful glance taken, a dishonest rendering of the facts, a moment of gossip, a season of laziness, a substance abused, a refusal to reconcile, cheating on our taxes… all these and more are outward expressions of not trusting in God’s promises and are therefore concrete proof that our relationship with God is in a difficult place. Our sin is the proof that we struggle to fully trust God and his centuries old promise of salvation in Christ Jesus. Our sin is not proof of not being saved, it is merely proof of our brokenness in humanity and our need for a Savior.
We can trust that God’s promise of salvation is absolutely irreversible because it has been fulfilled in Christ at the bloody cross, and the empty tomb, with the reality of heaven on the line, and it is completed trustworthy because it is unaffected by our performance of the law!
Isn’t that great news? What would the realization of this Good News do for your ability to fully trust in the promise of God? I think that our ability to receive this Good News will strengthen our trust in God more and more and will therefore deepen our relationship with God. The promise of God in salvation is irreversible because of the work of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior, and is therefore totally unaffected by our performance of the law! – Amen!!!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Philip, Graham, Ryken, Galatians, Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2005), 119 – 122.
3 Ibid., 126.
4 Ibid., 122, 125 – 127.