Paul reminds the Galatians in chapter 3 of what they’ve seen, heard and received, They’ve seen the Gospel clearly presented, that Christ was crucified for them. They’ve received the Spirit. They know that their new life in the Spirit is founded entirely on Christ’s crucifixion and has been received by faith. So how can they so easily get deceived? As in Romans 4:1-8, Paul goes back to Abraham and points out that he was “credited righteous” by faith, through believing.
This is important because Abraham was the ancestor of God’s people and the initial Covenant was made with him. Jews identified their place in God’s covenant people to their lineage from Abraham. The circumcisers were in effect arguing that to receive God’s blessing, the Gentiles had to be connected into Abraham.
Paul goes on to insist that the issue is all about faith. There are two ways to live under curse or blessing. Righteousness brings blessing and is by faith but those who attempted to rely on the Law are under curse because if you break the law you come under its curse and no-one can fully keep it. Living by Faith means that we no longer live under the Law’s terms and conditions. Christ has “redeemed us”, he has bought us so that we are no longer under the Law’s Ts and Cs because he has fulfilled them by becoming cursed for us. It is through him and his work on the Cross alone that we are connected to Abraham.
In fact, this point is true for all people, Jews and Gentiles. That’s because it’s important to go back and read the terms and conditions of the covenant with Abraham. :Paul argues that covenants are permanent, binding and not to be messed about with. The Jews and the Circumcision Party would argue that this binding covenant was with Abraham and his descendants. However, Paul says “not so”, the promise was to Abraham and to his descendant (singular), in other words it was a promise of/to and a covenant with Christ. You cannot get into the covenant independent of Christ. That’s why elsewhere we see that those who lived before Christ were justified because they had faith in the promise. They were looking forward to Jesus, just as we look back.
Note, that the Law as a later covenant to the one with Abraham cannot annul or amend the Covenant with Abraham. If the original deal was that God made a promise to Abraham concerning his descendant Jesus, then the Law did not provide an alternative way of relating to God.
Paul concludes with two images. First, that of being imprisoned. The Law acted like a prison, keeping everyone captive to the curse because we were under sins’ rule. We needed to be liberated, set free. He also uses the image of a “guardian”. In Greco-Roman culture it was possibly for a son to be put under the guardianship of a slave who acted as their tutor-guardian until they came of age and then were in effect “adopted” back into their true family and fully recognised as sons and heirs.
Paul says that negatively, the Law acts like a prison and more positively like a guardian/tutor. Either, way, the day comes when we need to be freed from it. That’s what the Gospel does. It does this when we put our trust in Christ and belong to him, expressed in baptism.
The result of this is that in God’s people the old distinction markers between race gender and class are broken down so that we are one in him.
Faithroots 