The loud sound of the gavel striking its wooden sound block echoed through the courtroom. The pain, rejection, feelings of failure, brokenness, and confusion that come from divorce would echo through my mind for years. Life does not always take the path that we expect. Years before that failed marriage even started I spent two entire summers in Queretaro, Mexico. One was spent working in an orphanage and the other was spent living in a Bible school while helping build a church in neighboring San Miguel De Allende. These trips were just one of many instances that God used to place a promise in my heart. A promise that was often obscured from my view by life’s many twists and turns. Promise is at the heart of this post.

• Scripture: Galatians 3:23–29    
•  23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

 

There seems to be  four main ideas in Paul’s thought in Galatians 3:23–29. 

First, Israel was confined under the law, which functioned like a guardian (or tutor or governess). Until Faith came, this provided restraint and guidance but could never give the inheritance (3:18).

Second, A great movement of faith came with Jesus. 

Third, whenever and wherever men and women give their lives to Jesus they are justified, and become children of God, regardless of who they are. 

Fourth, therefore, we who have accepted Jesus as Savior are heirs of His promise to Abraham.

 

• Confined Under Law

 

The first point is taken in verses 23 and 24, “Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our guardian until Christ came.” The word translated as guardian comes from the Greek word paidagogos (pahee-dag-o-gos) and can be translated as schoolmaster/ custodian and refers to a servant of the family responsible to watch over the son, from the nursery to his entrance into manhood. He governs the child’s behavior and instruction until the child has the maturity to do what is right without external constraints. The child was not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood. However, No matter how important this person was, the paidagogos does not have the power to make the child’s heart good, nor can he give the child his inheritance.

That’s how the law functioned for Israel. It provided direction and restraint. It showed the way a mature child should behave. But it could not give Israel a new heart nor could it give the inheritance. And according to 

Hebrews 4:2 the reason the law did not benefit Israel was that it did not meet with faith. Faith is the mark of maturity, which the law prescribed, and so the law kept Israel under restraint until faith came.

 The purpose of the law was to instruct Israel how to live a faithful life in the promises of God but their response was more often than not rebellion. Israel, for the most part, did not humble themselves, and so the law functioned to expose Israel’s sin and hold them under restraint until the day when God began to take away the blindness and give them a heart to trust Him.

And the law works that way today, too. If you are not truly trusting God and relying on mercy, the law feels burdensome, offensive, like the assignments given by a harsh taskmaster. But if you trust God with all your heart and rely on his mercy, then the law will feel like a prescription from a wise Physician, like exactly what you need. What the law is for you depends on what you are toward the Law-giver. 

1 John 5:3 says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” 

 

• Faith Has Come

 

The second point in Paul’s thought is that faith has now come. It’s coming is simultaneous with the coming of Christ. Verse 25, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” What does he mean: “Faith has come”? He doesn’t mean that no one in Israel had saving faith before Christ came. Abraham did. Psalm 32 portrays a man whom the Lord reckons righteous by faith apart from works. Hebrews 11 gives a believers’ hall of fame from the time of the law. So Paul does not mean that no one had faith before Christ came, nor that justification was by works before Christ came. No one can earn it, it has to come by faith. There were believers who were justified by faith all along, 7,000, Paul says, in the time of Elijah in his letter to the Romans (11:4)

So what Paul means when he says that “faith has come,” is that by God’s grace a period in redemptive history has come in which great numbers of people, especially Gentiles, are responding to God’s Word in faith. “Faith has come” means that a great movement has begun whose members are marked by this above all else—they trust like little children in the mercy of God. When the law was preached, it met with very little faith. But when the gospel is preached, many people believe and are saved. This movement has spread around the world. The reason for this is not that the law taught men to earn salvation while the gospel offers salvation freely to faith. No, both the law and the gospel offer salvation freely to faith, and both describe the obedience that shows the genuineness of this faith.

The reason why the law seemed to mostly shut people up in sin while the gospel wins faith from large numbers is that the preaching of the gospel is accompanied by a powerful work of the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of the listeners. The cross brought a change in relationship between people and God while the Holy Spirit brought power. (Acts 16:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6). “Faith has come” means that God is fulfilling the promises of Ezekial 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. If God were not causing the gospel of Christ to be accompanied by the convicting, opening work of the Spirit, the gospel would shut us under sin just like the law did. But that was not God’s plan. And every one of us here who lives by faith in the Son of God is living evidence that by the sovereign, effectual grace of the Holy Spirit “faith has come”—even to us, and taken up residence in our hearts, and made us new. If you know the hardness of your own heart apart from renewing grace, you know to  thank God every day that you are a believer.

 

• United to Christ

 

The third point in the text is that faith in Christ so unites us to him that all the benefits he can give become ours. This harkens back to the picture of the loving father and the Prodigal Son. Though the son did not deserve it,  the love of the father wrapped the son in both his arms and His robes

That’s how it is with Christ. If you entrust yourself to Christ, and say you want to be his eternal guest, and wear his garments, and accept his customs, because of his love, Because of the cross, the father would be denying himself in the work of Christ to turn you away. And so all he has is yours. Foremost in verse 24 is justification—that is, acquittal of all guilt, forgiveness of all sin.

It is important to understand this is complete forgiveness without any restitution on our part. We understand justice has been served when someone has paid his debt to society such as doing time in prison, a fine, etc. We pay nothing, we have no requirements outside of faith for this justification.  However in this justification Jesus paid our debt to God on the cross. Then, as verse 26 says, sonship and daughtership becomes ours. To belong to Christ is to be a child of God with all the stupendous privileges implied in that relationship. The idea here of baptism is amazing. It is a deeper meaning than just having been water baptized.

The Greek Word Baptizo means to be immersed, and so Paul isn’t saying just to be baptized, but to be baptized in Christ, to be immersed in Christ. 

When we are immersed in Christ, we are changed. It doesn’t matter what we were before. The reason is we have put on Christ like a garment, again that image from the prodigal son where the father covers the dirt and filth with His robe, Jesus covers all of our filth with Himself. Verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.” Every possible ground for boasting is removed; every possible reason why we shouldn’t receive it is also removed. We are immersed in the cleansing and saving power of the cross and all who go through that power are changed and are part of the same family. Whatever our differences, racial, social, economic, whatever, we are all utterly dependent on the power and love of Christ, not the value of our distinctiveness. There is nothing more secure.

 

• Heirs to the Promise

 

Finally, the fourth point is simply this: we are heirs to the promise. Verse 29: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” To be a descendant of Abraham and to be a child of God are virtually the same in Paul’s mind. You become both when you entrust yourself to Christ and say, “I want to be yours.” I already mentioned the idea of sonship, with that comes inheritance. The promises of God are for those who are in his family. 

In Genesis 12 God told Abraham 2 I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you. 

Later this was established again in covenant when Abraham was 99 years old. We see this in Genesis 17 :  I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God. 8 I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God.

We are part of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham as well as recipients of His Promises to His people. If you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s heir. This place of high privilege comes according to the promise, not according to law or works.

Because of Christ, we are connected with the long line of God’s people assembled throughout all the ages.This promise is only for those united by the blood of Christ, and if we are Christ’s, then we find our place in eternity, because we are sons and daughters of God. 

 

 

 

 

Several years back while on a Walk to Emmaus retreat, God reminded me of  a night I was at a service in Mexico. I had come to think because of many reasons, the biggest being my failed marriage that though Salvation was there for me, I was damaged goods and not good enough to be used in ministry any longer. During this moment God reminded me of a night in Mexico when I was pouring my heart out to Him as a young man distraught with his own shortcomings and inadequacies looking into the face of what God wanted Him to do explaining why I was not the right man, in much the same way Moses did, God reminded me what HE told me then. I was never worthy or good enough to begin with. It has nothing to do with my worth and everything to do with His Grace. When He called me, He knew the path my life would take, and though I had free will, HE knew the choices I would make, and would give me promises anyway, promises that HE stood by, He wanted to know would I believe those promises and continue to walk toward them and lay hold of those promises. The journey of my life has taken shape in ways I never expected, there have been highs and lows and many in between that over time I am sure you will hear about as we grow in this new relationship. Yet through all of that nothing has changed regarding God’s promises.

The fact I am pastoring two churches, writing a blog, Doing ScriptureTalk Live!   (an online interactive bible study Mondays at 6pm Central time archived episodes is available) is all because of God’s faithfulness to his promises.

So we find our place in society, because we are brothers and sisters in the family of God, and we find our place in history, because we are part of God’s plan of the  ages. A plan that cannot be stopped by anything or anyone. 

God never goes back on His word or His purposes. I challenge you to dig into His word and see the promises that are written to you, if you are immersed in Christ, these are promises to you. Dust off the old prayer journal, what promises has God spoken over your life? What promises has He spoken over your family? This church? This city?  We are at least 3000 years from when God gave Abraham his promise, and yet God is still showing Himself faithful to that promise, do you think He is going to start being unfaithful now? No we are heirs to the promise just as we are evidence of the promise. Start laying a hold of those promises by faith and let’s look with expectation for what God is going to do next.