The Promise still stands!
Peter Neilson
September 12, 2024
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Galatians 3: 15-22 (MSG)
15-18 Friends, let me give you an example from everyday affairs of the free life I am talking about. Once a person’s will has been signed, no one else can annul it or add to it. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. You will observe that Scripture, in the careful language of a legal document, does not say “to descendants,” referring to everybody in general, but “to your descendant” (the noun, note, is singular), referring to Christ. This is the way I interpret this: A will, earlier signed by God, is not annulled by an addendum attached 430 years later, thereby negating the promise of the will. No, this addendum, with its instructions and regulations, has nothing to do with the promised inheritance in the will.
18-20 What is the point, then, of the law, the attached addendum? It was a thoughtful addition to the original covenant promises made to Abraham. The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ (the descendant) came, inheriting the promises and distributing them to us. Obviously this law was not a firsthand encounter with God. It was arranged by angelic messengers through a middleman, Moses. But if there is a middleman as there was at Sinai, then the people are not dealing directly with God, are they? But the original promise is the direct blessing of God, received by faith.
21-22 If such is the case, is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God’s will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.
Imagine you are making your will. It will contain some clear statements of intent — promises to your family or other beneficiaries. It may have some specific instructions about the age at which grandchildren might benefit. The intentions are clear. The conditions simply guide the intentions.
That is the essence of Paul’s argument here. God made a promise of blessing through Abraham. The Law was given later to guide God’s people towards that blessing, not to override it. That promise stands, ready to be received by faith.
Paul pushes his point with some finely tuned use of language – that Abraham’s promise was to his “descendant” (singular) not his “descendants” (plural). The literal translation distinguishes the use of “seed” and “seeds” in a way that may feel contrived, but he wants to make the point that the original blessing promised to Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the true “seed”, who has opened the blessing up beyond any tribal or nationalistic claims to all people who trust what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
We are dealing with the promise-making, promise-keeping God who is faithful through the generations and whose promised purpose is to bless all nations. That includes you and me in 21st century Scotland (and everywhere else in the world we are) even in the face of deep-rooted secularisation and dramatic church decline. The promise still stands. Trust the God of Abraham.
Prayer:
Faithful God, keeping faith with us through generations
Help us to keep faith with You in troubled times.
Take your church, broken and weak, and bless her afresh
Not to be strong in her own terms, but resting on your strength
Living joyously by your grace, your strength made perfect in our weakness.
Take our land, drifting away from You, and bless her afresh
Turning her again to You, hungry again for Your Words of Life,
Thirsting again for the living water of Your Spirit.
May we keep faith with Your faithfulness
Till we see Your goodness and justice blossom among us. AMEN
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