Faith or Works of the Law
3 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? [In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.] 4 Have you experienced [Or suffered] so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[Gen. 15:6]
7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”[Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18] 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”[Deut. 27:26] 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”[Hab. 2:4] 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”[Lev. 18:5] 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[Deut. 21:23] 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
The Law and the Promise
15 Brothers and sisters, 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. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 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. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Children of God
23 Before the coming of this faith, [Or through the faithfulness of Jesus … 23 Before faith came ] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
NOTES:
3:1–14 Paul’s contention that justification comes not
through the law or the works of the law but by faith in Christ and in his death
(Gal 2:16, 21) is supported by appeals to Christian experience (Gal 3:1–5) and
to scripture (Gal 3:6–14). The gift of God’s Spirit to the Galatians came from
the gospel received in faith, not from doing what the law enjoins. The story of
Abraham shows that faith in God brings righteousness (Gal 3:6; Gn 15:6). The
promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8; Gn 12:3) extends to the Gentiles (Gal 3:14).
3:1 Stupid: not just senseless, for they were in danger of
deserting their salvation.
3:2 Faith in what you heard: Paul’s message received with
faith. The Greek can also mean “the proclamation of the faith” or “a hearing
that comes from faith.”
3:3 On the contrast of Spirit and flesh, cf. Rom 8:1–11.
Having received the Spirit, they need not be circumcised now.
3:4 Experience so many things: probably the mighty deeds of
Gal 1:5 but possibly the experience of sufferings.
3:6 Abraham…righteousness: see Gn 15:6; Rom 4:3. The
Galatians like Abraham heard with faith and experienced justification. This
first argument forms the basis for the further scriptural evidence that
follows.
3:7–9 Faith is what matters, for Abraham and the children of
Abraham, in contrast to the claims of the opponents that circumcision and
observance of the law is needed to bring the promised blessing of Gn 12:3; cf.
Gn 18:18; Sir 44:21; Acts 3:25.
3:10–14 Those who depend not on promise and faith but on
works of the law are under a curse because they do not persevere in doing all
the things written in the book of the law (Gal 3:10; Dt 27:26) in order to gain
life (Gal 3:12; Lv 18:5; cf. Rom 10:5). But scripture teaches that no one is
justified before God by the law (Gal 3:11; Hb 2:4, adapted from the Greek
version of Habakkuk; cf. Rom 1:17; Hb 10:38). Salvation, then, depends on faith
in Christ who died on the cross (Gal 3:13), taking upon himself a curse found
in Dt 21:23 (about executed criminals hanged in public view), to free us from
the curse of the law (Gal 3:13). That the Gentile Galatians have received the
promised Spirit (Gal 3:14) by faith and in no other way returns the argument to
the experience cited in Gal 3:1–5.
3:15–18 A third argument to support Paul’s position that
salvation is not through the law but by promise (Gal 3:1–14) comes from legal
practice and scriptural history. A legal agreement or human will, duly
ratified, is unalterable (Gal 3:15). God’s covenant with Abraham and its
repeated promises (Gn 12:2–3, 7; 13:15; 17:7–8; 22:16–18; 24:7) is not
superseded by the law, which came much later, in the time of Moses. The
inheritance (of the Spirit and the blessings) is by promise, not by law (Gal
3:18). Paul’s argument hinges on the fact that the same Greek word, diathēkē,
can be rendered as will or testament (Gal 3:15) and as covenant (Gal 3:17).
3:16 Descendant: literally, “and to his seed.” The Hebrew,
as in Gn 12:7; 15:18; 22:17–18, is a collective singular, traditionally
rendered as a plural, descendants, but taken by Paul in its literal number to
refer to Christ as descendant of Abraham.
3:17 Four hundred and thirty years afterward: follows Ex
12:40 in the Greek (Septuagint) version, in contrast to Gn 15:13 and Acts 7:6,
for chronology.
3:18 This refutes the opponents’ contention that the
promises of God are fulfilled only as a reward for human observance of the law.
3:19–22 A digression: if the Mosaic law, then, does not save
or bring life, why was it given? Elsewhere, Paul says the law served to show
what sin is (Rom 3:20; 7:7–8). Here the further implication is that the law in
effect served to produce transgressions. Moreover, it was received at second
hand by angels, through a mediator, not directly from God (Gal 3:19). The law
does not, however, oppose God’s purposes, for it carries out its function (Gal
3:22), so that righteousness comes by faith and promise, not by human works of
the law.
3:19 The descendant: Christ (Gal 3:16). By angels: Dt 33:2–4
stressed their presence as enhancing the importance of the law; Paul uses their
role to diminish its significance (cf. Acts 7:38, 53). A mediator: Moses. But
in a covenant of promise, where all depends on the one God, no mediator is
needed (Gal 3:20).
3:23–29 Paul adds a further argument in support of
righteousness or justification by faith and through God’s promise rather than
by works of the law (Gal 2:16; 3:22): as children of God, baptized into Christ,
the Galatians are all Abraham’s descendant and heirs of the promise to Abraham
(Gal 3:8, 14, 16–18, 29). The teaching in Gal 3:23–25, that since faith
(Christianity) has come, we are no longer under the law, could be taken with
the previous paragraph on the role of the Mosaic law, but it also fits here as
a contrast between the situation before faith (Gal 3:23) and the results after
faith has come (Gal 3:25–29).
3:24–25 Disciplinarian: the Greek paidagōgos referred to a
slave who escorted a child to school but did not teach or tutor; hence, a
guardian or monitor. Applying this to the law fits the role of the law described
in Gal 3:19–25.
3:26 Children of God: literally “sons,” in contrast to the
young child under the disciplinarian in Gal 3:24–25. The term includes males
and females (Gal 3:28).
3:27–28 Likely a formula used at baptism that expresses
racial, social-economic, and sexual equality in Christ (cf. Col 3:11).
3:27 Clothed yourselves with Christ: literally, “have put on
Christ”; cf. Rom 13:14; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10. Baptismal imagery, traceable to the
Old Testament (Jb 29:14; Is 59:17) but also found in pagan mystery cults.
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