Chapter 2 ends with Paul explaining to the Galatians how the death of Christ rendered the law unnecessary. Now he proves his point from the angle of how they received the Holy Spirit.
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Paul, still simply exasperated at their variability regarding the gospel, calls the Galatians foolish.
I say this, he explains, because I preached very clearly to you the death of Jesus on the Cross. Now though, it seems like you have been bewitched because you so easily were misled by the Judaizers false promises.
He asks them point blank: How did you receive the Spirit?
For believers of all the Galatian churches, there would be no doubt about when they received the Holy Spirit. They experienced for themselves the filling of the Spirit after believing Paul’s preaching of the gospel.
He then asks another simple questions: If you started your life with Christ with the Spirit, why are you trying to complete it in your own power by obeying the law?
That is foolishness!
He continues to question them, trying to make them logically think through what they are believing.
He asks, Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? NO! It’s because you have heard the message about Jesus and believed it!
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He then gives them an example from scripture to help them understand. He demonstrates that even the Old Testament teaches justification by faith.
Abraham believed God and was accepted as one who was right with God – because of his faith, not because of anything he had done. Therefore, the children of Abraham are those who have faith, whether they are Jew or Gentile.
The Scriptures foretold that God would justify the Gentiles by their faith. Even back then, he told Abraham He was going to use him to bless ALL the people of the earth, both Jew and Gentile. Abraham believed this and was blessed and because of his faith, all who believe are blessed.
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Those who depend on the law to earn salvation, however, are under a curse. He was referring to Deuteronomy 26:27, which says “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them…”
Since it is impossible for imperfect humans to obey the law completely, it is clear that no one can be made right with God by the law.
The law doesn’t depend on faith. It depends on complete obedience to its commands. If we disobey in any manner, even just one of its commands, we are cursed. But Jesus came to take away that curse.
He took our place on the cross. Now, if we believe in Him, we will have the Spirit that God promised.
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Paul then explains God’s promise to Abraham through an illustration from modern day life.
He states that when two people make a covenant or agreement with one another today, no one can add to it or take from it once it has been confirmed.
God promised Abraham that all people would be blessed through his seed or offspring. Paul makes sure to clarify that here, seed is singular, and refers to Jesus. Therefore, God promised all people would be blessed through Jesus.
This promise was made 430 years before the law ever came into existence. Therefore, the law cannot nullify the agreement or change God’s promise.
Furthermore, if God’s blessings could be earned by the law, they would no longer be from a promise and God gave them to Abraham by a promise.
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After fully explaining why the promise of God is superior to the law, Paul then poses an obvious question. “Does that mean the law is contradictory to the promise?” Of course not, he replies and then proceeds to tell the Galatians how the law and the promise work in harmony with one another.
He explains that if a law had been given that could give life, then indeed we could be made right by the law. But that is not it’s purpose. We find over and over in scripture that the law reveals to us that we are hopelessly bound by sin. It points to faith in Jesus as the only way to be freed from this sin.
Paul then compares our relationship with the law to a schoolmaster or guardians relationship with a pupil. (John MacArthur explains that the Greek word for guardian denotes a slave whose duty it was to take care of a child until adulthood. These guardians were often very strict disciplinarians. Thus it left the pupil longing for something else.)
In other words, “the law was our tutor which by showing us our sins was escorting us to Christ.”
He concludes by showing the Galatians that we are all truly one in Christ. We have all been baptized into Christ and clothed with him, therefore we area all God’s children.
It doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman, if we have trusted in Christ, we are Abraham’s offspring and thereby heirs of the promise of God!
Final Thoughts
I love how Paul so slowly and carefully explains to the Galatians the difference between trusting the law to save you and trusting Christ to save you. Even though he has already explained the gospel to them before, and is exasperated with them for their foolishness, he shows how much he truly cares for them by re-explaining things even more clearly than the first time.
May we all be so loving and patient with those who are young and still growing in Christ.