God’s Promise Makes Salvation Secure

Transcript

GR 2093
07/16/2017
God’s Promises Makes Salvation Secure
Galatians 3:15-18
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles, Galatians chapter 3 and when you get to Galatians chapter 3 leave a marker there. I want to take you back to a few Old Testament passages that give a little bit of a background, not directly but indirectly to what we are looking at in Galatians.

One of the greatest privileges and blessings we have as God’s people is His assurance that our God is unchanging character and His Word is sure and steadfast so that in every situation, every circumstance He can be trusted. His Word is sure and partakes of His character and its unchanging nature.

Come back to the book of Isaiah. We will just look at a few verses in Isaiah as a sampling of the emphasis in many of the Scripture passages. Isaiah chapter 26, note what God says in verse 3 and verse 4: “The steadfast of minds you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever. For in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock.” That surety, stability that we have in our lives because our confidence and faith are in the God who is an everlasting rock, that certainty, that surety we have in Him.

Come over to chapter 40 of Isaiah. The contrast here is with the transitory-ness of man, His glory. Verse 6: “A voice says call out and then he answered, what shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades (note this surety) but the Word of our God stands forever.”

In this uncertain world looking at it from the human level, inconsistent, changing, there is stability for us as God’s people. “The Word of our God stands forever.” Remember the previous verse: “For in God, our Lord we have an everlasting rock.” And His Word is a manifestation and revelation of His character. “The word of our God stands forever,” because it is the word of the eternal and unchanging God.

Look over to Isaiah chapter 41, look at verse 10: “Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you,” not to be unsettled and fearful because of what we see going on around us. “Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Then the psalmist just echoes the same truth. Psalm 119 verse 89: “Forever O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven. The promises of God are sure. They are settled. We hold on to them. The fact that the world is changing, things go up and down and turmoil and fear comes and what will the future hold and what will happen if this occurs and what will happen if this doesn’t occur and the Lord says, “Don’t be anxious about what you see when you look around you. There is stability in your faith in Me.”

Come over to the book of Galatians. That is what Paul is going to remind the Galatians of in the verses we are going to look at. What God promised cannot be changed even with the passing of centuries of time. Promises God gave to Abraham will not be altered, will not be changed by something that happens 400 years later. God’s Word is sure and settled and that becomes an issue in this letter to the Galatians.

The issue before them now as Paul is talking about the relationship of the Mosaic Law to their present situation; those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, His death on the cross, His resurrection. Their faith is in Him. But now they are confronted with those who would agree with them on the importance of faith in Christ, those we call Judaizers, Jews who have come and always unsettled. They seem we are in agreement on the Gospel but they don’t have the same Gospel as we started out in this letter, remember. It is a different Gospel. It is not the same Gospel that Paul was entrusted with and preached.

They were saying that faith in Christ and His work is not enough but you must place your faith in the Law and respond in obedience to it, be circumcised and keep the Law. Paul has used the example in chapter 3 of Abraham. Abraham is about 2,000 years before Christ. We have looked at what is quoted in verse 6 of Genesis 15, verse 6. “Abraham believed God. It was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

So be a true child of Abraham you must have the faith of Abraham which doesn’t mean Gentiles replace Israel. We have talked about that. But the only physical descendants of Abraham, Jews, who will inherit the promises given to Abraham are those Jews who have the same faith as Abraham, believing God and what He has said and what He has promised. Gentiles who believe God and what He has promised and what He has done become spiritual sons of Abraham. They don’t replace physical descendants of Abraham and the promises given to them as we partake of the same salvation blessings that were promised to Abraham. “Abraham believed God, God credited it to Abraham as righteousness.” That is what we need. We need the righteous of God credited to us.

So verse 9 of chapter 3 said, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer,” the one who placed his faith in the promises of God. That contrasts with the Law which required complete obedience to all the commandments God had given. Not just the Ten Commandments but all 613 commandments as they usually broken up in the Mosaic Law. Remember we looked at when you break one of them you have broken all of them. You broke the Law. It is a unit. It is like glass bowl. Well I broke part of it. Well when you break part of it you broke the bowl kind of picture.

So down in verse 13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having become a curse for us” (because the Old Testament says,) “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In order that in Christ Jesus the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” So there are promises for us as Gentiles. We noted in the Abrahamic Covenant, promises to the Gentiles were included. So we shouldn’t act like this is some new information in the sense that it could be now taken to re-interpret what God promised to Israel, Abraham’s physical descendants, because He had promised originally that verse 8: “That in Abraham” (included in that promise) “all the nations will be blessed in you,” that is part and parcel that there were specific promises to Abraham’s physical descendants who have his faith. There are also blessings promised to those who were not his physical descendants but will be blessed in Abraham. That is where Paul is going as we pick up with verse 15, the salvation blessings that come to both Jews and Gentiles because both Jews and Gentiles, as we looked back in the book of Romans, for example, have been shown to be sinners. We need God’s righteousness.

So he picks up with the word ‘brethren’ in verse 15. This is a harsh letter. The general agreement is this is the harshest of Paul’s letters. It started out very strongly pronouncing anathema on anyone who proclaimed an altered Gospel from Paul’s Gospel which he said could bring no salvation. It is anathema. It could only put you under a curse that condemns you to hell. He said strong things. He started out in chapter 3 as we have it: “You foolish Galatians (unthinking) who has bewitched you?” Those are strong rebukes. They are unthinking. It is like you are living like you were put under a spell. He is speaking firmly, strongly to them but here he calls them brethren. This is the first time since back in chapter 1, verse 11 where he said, “I would have you know brethren that the Gospel which was preached to me is not according to man.” So he used it once in chapter 1 and now not at all in chapter 2 but now in verse 15. To call them brethren softened what he has been saying. “I am speaking to you as those I love, as those I count as fellow members of the body of Christ, my spiritual brethren.”

So in these rebukes as harsh as they have been, Paul thinks of them as believers and addresses them as believers. He is going to use brethren seven more times in this letter. Just pick it up with me. Look in chapter 4, verse 12: “I beg of you brethren, become as I am.” Down in verse 28 of chapter 4: “And you brethren like Isaac are children of promise.” So you see there ‘brethren, you are children of promise.’ So he sees them and has confidence even though he has concern that they had truly trusted Christ and they share in that relationship with Christ together.

Down in verse 31 of chapter 4: “So then brethren we are not children of the bond woman but of the free woman.” In this context we basically are not under Law so we share that together. We enjoy the freedom that we have entered into in Christ.

Chapter 5, verse 11: “But I brethren,” in that warmth of expression. Verse 13: “For you were called to freedom brethren,” only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

Down in chapter 6, verse 1: “Brethren,” and that about if a fellow believer does stumble, fall into sin. Verse 18 get to the end of the letter, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren.” That doesn’t mean he’s not going to have some firm or harsh things to say. He will. Back in chapter 4, verse 11: “I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

He calls them brethren but there is an unsettledness here. if you continue on this road, on this path of moving to follow the teaching of the Judaizers I will have to come to the conclusion you were never saved, that my labors there didn’t produce the fruit of salvation.

Down in verse 16 of chapter 4 he is going to ask them, “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Well if they are fellow believers that won’t be so. Believers respond to the truth. Believers have the spirit of truth dwelling in them, Jesus talked about in the Gospel of John as He prepared the disciples for His departure.

In chapter 5, verse 7 he will say, “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” So there is this mixture of warmth. It is something like when you are dealing with one of your children and you have to sternly rebuke them and correct them but you also remind them of your love for them. That is what Paul is doing in that balance. He has just not written them off. He is not lumping them in the category of those in chapter 1 upon whom he pronounced anathema for the corrupting of the Gospel but there is a concern permeating here. Like we would have for those professing to be believers and enjoyed fellowship with them but we see them drifting and wandering into doctrine that is contrary to the Gospel. We talk to them. I am concerned for you and your testimony for Christ and we explain to them the error of the way. If they continue down that error and some examples I have shared at times, some of those began to drift in well-known positions and continued on to the adopting of false religion.

I was reading one professor in an evangelical seminary. A student he had gone on to be a professor then eventually just continued to drift off into a pagan religion. The testimony of that professor was, “it grieved me to say ‘I have no conclusion I can come to but his salvation was never genuine.’”

So Paul has that possibility in mind but he has seen enough evidence, he is confident they have just been confused by the false teachers.

So come back to chapter 3, verse 15. He is going to give an example, an illustration. “Brethren I speak in terms of human relations.” So this is just an example from everyday life that will set up what he wants to say and the point he wants to make. “I speak in terms of human relations.” What we deal with, the normal flow of our everyday life. “Even though it is only a man’s covenant yet when it has been ratified no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.” The point here is a legal document. You will see some would call this translated covenant, a will or testament, diatheke, it is a covenant but in the context, a will a testament, a legal document is basically what he is talking about and the application will be with a covenant but it is a legal document. When you enter into a legal document, a binding contract you can’t agree on it, and then it has been ratified, notarized, whatever and you don’t decide with the passing of time, you know, I think I am just going to change that. I am going to make alterations. Well we have a binding contract. You know you purchase something, you sell something. I decided after thinking about it and looking at what has happened after a year I am not going to do that. Sorry, it is too late. You can’t change it. That is the simple point. We deal with that all the time. They did in Biblical times, in Old Testament times. There were procedures you went through to make a binding contract a covenant.

Alright, that being the case even though it is only man’s covenant, in other words this only happens on the human level. It is still, we understand, the principles that are operative. You can’t change it. So even though we are just making an illustration here, the point is clear.

Now where he is going, verse 16: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham.” So here is the connection. What he has been talking about with Abraham and, of course, these Judaizers prided themselves on a connection to the Abrahamic Covenant and that is where it could become confusing to believers. Well these are Jews, God’s chosen people, His covenant people. He gave the Law to them. They understand that Jesus is the Messiah and His death on the cross is crucial but they are also saying you must keep the Law. Maybe they have an understanding and a clarity here that we don’t have. It seems they have a point that the God who gave them the Abrahamic Covenant also has given the Law. So perhaps Paul didn’t give us the whole picture.

The point is of great importance because it is built on the fact he is going to take up with Abraham and remember Abraham becomes the key because he is Father Abraham who is the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham. No Jew disagrees with that. He is the foundational person. What he is saying and we will move into it and it will prepare ourselves, God established a covenant with Abraham. You can’t change the provisions of that covenant at a later time. Once God established that covenant it cannot be altered or changed. This is a crucial point beyond just the Judaizers right down to our day. The point that he is making here, God established a covenant with Abraham. Everyone would agree.

Come back to Genesis 15 and the original provisions of the covenant are given in Genesis chapter 12 but clarity of it as a covenant comes in chapter 15. God appears to Abraham as the chapter opens up. “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, ‘Do not fear Abram, I am a shield to you. Your reward will be very great.’” And Abraham’s response to God is, “God, I appreciate this but I don’t have any heir. So all the promises You give me will dead end with me. You know You have given me no off-spring. “So when I die (verse 2) since I am childless, my key servant, Eliezer of Damascus will inherit what I have.” There is nobody physically connected to me to inherit them so he will be my heir. I don’t have a child.

Verse 4: “No one born in my house is my heir. Then behold the Word of the Lord came to him saying, ‘This man will not be your heir. One who comes forth from your own body will be your heir.’” “Look to the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants” (your seed, that word is going to become key in verse 16 of Galatians in a moment, your seed) “so shall your seed be.” It can be singular, it can be collective. Obviously He is talking about his physical descendants here for sure because he talks about these have to be those who become connected to you, a physical descendant. It may become important because if God would have had other of you He could have told Abraham, “Well physical descendants don’t matter Abraham, only spiritual descendants. So it is not important you have a physical descendant. All you need are spiritual descendants.” Some would basically be teaching that even today but the point is it is important. You are not only going to have a physical heir, the end result of your physical line is going to be innumerable descendants, seed.

So that is when we have that statement we saw earlier in Galatians 3: “He believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” and the promise, verse 7: “He said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it.’” So I am not only going to give you all these descendants, I am going to give you this physical land to belong to you.

Verse 8: “So how will I know this Lord?” God says, “Well, we will sign a covenant, a contract” if you will. Verse 8: “O Lord God how may I know that I will possess it?” God doesn’t rebuke him and say, “It is enough I told you.” He accepts this as a request from Abraham for confirmation from God. So He tells Abraham you bring these, a heifer, the female goat, the ram, the turtle dove and all. What they do, they are going to cut a covenant, basically is the meaning. They divide the animals. They cut them in half and they lay one half on one side of a path and the other half on the other side and the way they confirmed the covenant is the parties walked down between these divided animals. We have a little different way of confirming our ratified contracts or covenants today but you go through an official process. That is what they are doing here.

Verse 10 they brought these, they cut them in two, each half opposite the other. Verse 12: “Now when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell on Abraham.” You ought to have that marked in your Bible from our previous study of this passage. Abraham is put to sleep. “Behold terror, great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abraham, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years but I will also judge the nation whom they serve. Afterward they have come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here. The iniquity of the Amorite is not complete.’”

So here is what He tells Abraham. “I am entering into a covenant, a contract with you that assures you that what I have promised will come true but you personally won’t experience it nor will none of your immediate descendants because it is going to be 400 years before they even come back to this land. They are going to go into a foreign land. They will be there for 400 years. They will serve there and come out with many possessions.”

So you see the contract becomes binding when it is made. You know it is like if you enter a contract to do something or to buy or sell something at a future date. So on July 31st we will complete the contract and its provisions will be fulfilled but the contract has been signed.

So it is important to see here it is a promise of God to Abraham but Abraham won’t possess it. He is going to die. Verse 15: “You will go to your fathers in peace, be buried at a good old age but your seed that I am giving, entering into this contract with you, this covenant are going to be out in the land for 400 years and then they will come back on the land.”

So important to see here all the provisions don’t have to become immediately operative but the contract is binding from this point. Verse 17: “It came about when the sun had set that it was very dark and behold there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, ‘to your seed I have given this land.’” And He lays it out. It is a physical land. It is from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates and tells the people that now inhabit the land. Important, this cannot be changed.

This is where Paul is going. The Law will be given later, hundreds of years later as we are going to see. It can’t change the provisions of the covenant. So it is a covenant given by promise. Verse 18: “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” From that day it is fixed and you probably have marked in your Bible the end of verse 17, “There appeared a smoking oven, a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.” You know there is one party to this covenant that isn’t walking through. It is good old sleeping Abram, verse 12. He is in a deep sleep. God represented and manifested His presence in the smoking oven, a flaming torch passing through the pieces. You know what He is saying? He alone is the guarantee of the fulfillment the guarantor of the covenant. It is on Him. They haven’t gone through this as two parties responsible. There are two parties to the covenant, verse 14. “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram” but God Himself is the one who has signed the covenant and guaranteed its fulfillment, amazing. It is like you sign a contract for something and say, “I will fulfill its provisions, no exceptions regardless of anything.” That is a firm covenant here.

Come over to chapter 17. You know God reiterates and repeats this. There is no excuse for any later misunderstanding where Paul is driving home the point. “When Abraham was 99 years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘I am God almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, will multiply you exceedingly.” I mean this is the promise. “I will establish, I promise, you know, I will fulfill this covenant. It is in force. I will do it.” “Abram fell on his face. God talked with him. “As for me, behold My covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.” We are well familiar with one, the firstborn son to Abraham but not with his wife, Sarah. It is Ishmael and then in chapter 25 after the death of Sarah, Abraham will father other children.

Keep your finger in chapter 17 and come to chapter 25. After the death of Sarah we are told in chapter 25, verse 1: “Abram took another wife whose name was Keturah and she bore him” and you see the names of the sons and they become the father of nations. So that will happen physically to Abram and he will also, if you will, be the spiritual father of believers and so people from all nations as we saw earlier in Galatians chapter 3.

Back in chapter 17, verse 6: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations from you. Kings will come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant.”

We sang the song, “The Everlasting God.” When the everlasting God gives His word and an everlasting contract it is everlasting. I just cannot grasp in my mind how people think this contract can be rendered null and void or changed. I mean how many times does God have to say something? I sometimes think that what Paul said to the Galatians applies to us – “You unthinking Galatians.” Why did we stop thinking? What did God say here? “This is an ongoing covenant with your descendants after you. An everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your seed after you. I will give to you and your seed.” That word translated descendants as you have in your margin is consistently the word ‘seed.’ Sometimes it will refer to an individual. Sometimes it will be used collectively to his descendants. Obviously that is here. “I will give to you and your seed after you the land of your sojourning. All the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God.” And then the sign of this covenant for Abraham and his physical descendants, Abraham now is the sign of circumcision. It is a sign of the covenant. It is an everlasting covenant. He will stress again. It comes down and he promises.

Come down to verse 19, still in chapter 17: “I will establish My covenant with him.” The son you are going to have with Sarah and I will even tell you what to name him, Isaac. “I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.” Now for Ishmael, since he’s your son and you have asked me to bless him, I will bless him. So there are blessings for Ishmael as a descendant of Abraham. “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac.” The Abrahamic Covenant only applied to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac, through Jacob, through the twelve sons of Jacob. In this discussion we talk about those in the Middle East and that part of the world as of the Abrahamic faith. It is a meaningless concept. It only applies to the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac, through Jacob, through the twelve sons. So verse 21: “I will establish My covenant with Isaac.” And we came to chapter 18, the birth of Isaac and that promise is reiterated.

Alright, we have to come back to Galatians. I haven’t forgotten. What does he do in verse 16? He just reminds them of this truth that we have seen and we could have looked at it repeated more often in Genesis to Isaac, to Jacob. We have done that previously.

“Now the promises, (Galatians 3:16) were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.” Here is where it gets tricky. He does not say “And to seeds” as referring to many but rather to one “and to your seed,” that is Christ. And that is in particularly Genesis 22:18. I should have told you, “Just remember that one verse.” We go back and forth as we saw between seed that referred to an individual like Isaac or it could refer to all of his descendants. When he says “your descendants, your seed will be like the sand of the seashore,” obviously he is talking about more than just Christ but here he says, “seed” in 22:18 of Genesis. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Here is talking about the provision that was part of the Abrahamic Covenant that goes all the way back to chapter 12. “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” That is part and parcel of the Abrahamic Covenant. Well that promise “in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed” is referring specifically in the singular because the blessings we as Gentiles have come through Christ. Salvation blessings come through Christ. That doesn’t nullify all the parts of the Abrahamic Covenant that are promised to the physical descendants like the physical land. All the spiritual descendants of Abraham, all the nations outside of Israel aren’t promised the Promised Land. You say, “Well now the land is not in view.”

I have to read you something to show how it goes today. This comes from a book which was recommended to me by a person who attended Indian Hills for many years but has changed their view regarding the covenant promises. So I read the book and now you have to put up with it, too. “The promises of a land, people, great name, blessings to the nations (what we have read under the Abrahamic Covenant he says) in prophecy that meant the people of God will return to the Promised Land and be great. The nations will come to share in the kingdom of Zion.” Now he has moved into incorporating beyond just all the nations of the earth being blessed. They also get other promises. Now he says how it is all fulfilled in Christ. “The land is to be the new Eden, the dwelling of the people with God. Jesus is that place as well as being God and the people. He is the light to the nations.” In other words the land was the place where God would meet with Israel. Now all people have become God’s people and where do we meet with God, in Christ. Therefore Christ is the land.

Now if that makes sense to you go back to sleep. What have we done? We have cancelled the Abrahamic Covenant and its promises by saying, “Well we just allegorize them. What does it mean that you will enter and possess the land? It means the people of God will return from a nation to the land of promise. What is the land of promise? “The land of promise is the place where God meets with His people and that is in Christ so Christ fulfills the promise to the land.” I take it that is the same error as the Judaizers. He is not focusing on it in the Gospel but we can change the promises of God. That is why we read this and say, “Oh that doesn’t happen.” That is a view taught in some of the churches in our city where this book is recommended. Well I say, “you are saying the promises can be changed. Their argument is when Christ came all the promises can now be reinterpreted.”

Come back to Galatians 3. Paul’s argument is, “once the covenant has been established you cannot change its provisions.” “You foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you?” What do we say to people. “You foolish people, who has bewitched you?” You can’t change the provisions of the covenant. You can’t say, “Well God said to Abraham, ‘you walk all over this land and everywhere your feet walk it is going to be yours.’” Well that just means you meet with God in Christ and there is no physical land promised and there is no promise particularly to physical descendants of Abraham. All of those now we go back and redo. In other words we change the provisions of the unchangeable covenant. You can’t do it. Got that? Ahhhh, I am going on vacation in a week.

Verse 16 of Galatians 3: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.” So that particular promise referring to salvation blessings, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” Those are salvation blessings. That provision of God’s righteousness will come to non-Jewish people who are spiritual descendants of Abraham, who “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Since he is the first person to have that specified with clarity, not the first person saved obviously in the Bible but that is the clear statement of Abraham believed God. God credited it to him as righteousness which demonstrates.

Now his argument is – what I am saying is this, verse 17: “The Law which came 430 later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to nullify the promise.” It doesn’t matter how much time has gone by. God has established a contract, the covenant. He has given His Word. He promised something; 400 years can’t change the provision of that covenant; 2,000 years with the coming of Christ can’t change that covenant. That is the whole argument. The covenant, its provisions are fixed from the moment of its establishing.

We saw what? Genesis 15 God’s presence passing through those divided animals. The covenant is established. Well what if Abraham fails? It doesn’t depend on Abraham. He is sleeping. God walked through the animals. It depends on One and one only. So you see verse 17 the whole point is you are trying to say the Law now changes the covenant. The covenant was made on the basis of a promise. All Abraham did was believe what God promised. God made the provisions. Now these Judaizers are saying, “Well now we add to that, the Mosaic Law.” The Mosaic Law had a place in Israel’s history but it never was for salvation. It was to govern the conduct of God’s people. It was a promise made clear.

Physical circumcision couldn’t save you if your heart hadn’t been circumcised by God which could only happen by faith because it was “the heart was deceitful and desperately wicked above all things,” Jeremiah the prophet said in chapter 17.

So what these Judaizers are saying never was true. Go back before the Mosaic Law 400 years plus to Abraham. Galatians 3 verse 6 quoting from Genesis 15 says, “Abraham believed God. it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” So now God enters into a covenant with Abraham, gives him promises, fixes them as a contract. I mean God doesn’t have to do that. His Word is good. He goes beyond that. He confirms it with a covenant and remember we kept reading, It was an everlasting covenant. How dare someone claim to be expositing the Word and say, “That covenant doesn’t include the land, doesn’t include this, doesn’t include that.” I have to question rather I am really dealing with a true believer. Can you just deny what God says so clearly, “I have entered into an everlasting contract but with the coming of Christ I fooled you.” That walking about that land and all those people indwelling that physical land that never was what was intended.” You can’t do that.

The Mosaic Law comes 400 years later. Now it is changed. These promises now depend upon your keeping the Law. No, they depend upon your having the faith of Abraham and like Jesus said for us today, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” He didn’t say “you enter into a relationship with Me by keeping My commandments but as a result of your relationship with Me, a love relationship,” is the result of Him first loving us. Now we love Him and we desire to obey Him. That should have been Israel’s history.

So the Law comes 400 years later. “It cannot invalidate a covenant, (verse 17) previously ratified by God, given by promise. For if the inheritance is based on Law it is no longer based on promise but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” That’s it. He gives Abraham a promise. How did Abraham get credited with righteousness from God?

Come back to Genesis 15 and I encourage you to read these chapters. It is good to go through Genesis. This is the beginning, it is foundational. This is in the context of what does God promise? Genesis 15 verse 4, the end of the verse: “One who will come forth from your own body he shall be your heir.” God takes Abraham outside, walks him out. “Look toward the heavens. Count the stars. If you are able to count them” he said. “So shall your descendants be.” You will see obviously there He is talking about seed in the collective. So Abraham he is going to die and be gone for hundreds of years before the Mosaic Law comes. All he did was believe what God promised. So God promises this, your descendants. “Abraham believed in the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” God then said, “I will give you this land” then God ratifies the covenant. It is a promise. That is the argument here. We are saved by believing the promise of God.

So God provides Christ, provides redemption, promises forgiveness to all who will believe in Him. If you believe you are saved because it is in Christ. That was inherent in what He promised to Abraham – “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Now you’ve got teachers coming trying to bring you back under the Mosaic Law that the Jews never could keep. They never were saved by keeping because it goes back to the father of the Jews hundreds of years before the Law. It was by promise, believing the promise. Any wonder why Paul says, “You unthinking Galatians. Somebody put you under a spell?” “I came and preached to you the Gospel, you believed it” chapter 3 started out “and you received the Spirit. Now you are letting someone tell you that you have an incomplete salvation. You have to keep the Law.” You understand Abraham never kept the Law because the Law wasn’t given for hundreds of years. Abraham is about 2,000 B.C. The exodus occurs in 1445 B.C. The Law is given a few months after Israel exits Egypt. Abraham’s body has turned to dust. He never kept the Law. How could he be righteous before God? “Abraham believed God. God credited it to him as righteousness and that was inherit when God said, “In your seed all the nations will be blessed.” He was indicating not only would it be necessary for physical descendants of Abraham, Jews to believe to be credited with righteousness, but there would be a provision in a seed, singular, of Abraham for all the nations and that’s the physical descendant of Abraham who is the Savior of Jew and Gentile alike.

Many other things could be said. I never did get to pages 3, 4, 5 and 6 but that’s alright. We will keep working through Galatians 3. These things have to be fixed in our mind. To me it is tragic that this error of denying the everlasting covenant, its provision continues in one way or another down to today. You cannot change the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant. You cannot add to it, you can’t take away and in that covenant is the promise of God’s provision of salvation. That salvation is provided in the Jewish descendant of Abraham, Jesus Christ and it will be the fulfillment of the promise made in that covenant of promise that “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed,” in your seed and thereby the direction of the Spirit seed for the blessing of all the nations was singular focusing on Christ so you Gentile believers in the churches of Galatia, the Law has nothing to do with you. It never provided salvation for Abraham. It never provided salvation for Israel. It has always been by believing the promise of God.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the truths of Your Word. Lord in many ways it is simple and clear. Lord we easily allow ourselves to be confused. Lord, thank You for Your Word that is sure, that is settled. It is trustworthy. Lord in our unsettled world, a world characterized by change and uncertainty we have stability. You the everlasting God are our Rock. Your Word is sure. Lord even theologically we see confusion and uncertainty. Lord may we take hold of Your Word. Thank You that our salvation comes to us simply by believing what You have promised. You have provided Your Son as the Savior, the One in whom all nations, all peoples everywhere have a Savior and they can be blessed with Your righteousness by believing in Him. Lord all the promises given in that wonderful covenant made with Your servant Abraham will be just as certainly realized and fulfilled. Lord we live every day of our lives holding on to the truth of Your Word. Use us in the days of the week before us to be testimonies of Your grace we pray in Christ’s name, amen.