sara, I began studying the book of Galatians this week, and this morning I found this, which I had somehow missed all these years.
Gal 3: 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
My comments.
The original covenant to man was given to Abraham and his seed, (all mankind) who was neither a Jew nor had the law.
This covenant was confirmed 430 years before Sinai, and the covenant with Moses and the people of Israel did not void or disannul that promise to Abraham.
18. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
My comments.
If the promise can be inherited by keeping the law, then it’s not a promise, nor is it what God had given to Abraham.
Then why did God give Israel the Law? Because with out it, they and the world were becoming so corrupt, and would have digressed so far, that by the time of Christ and the fulfilling of the promise, it would have meant nothing to anyone.
The Law of Moses given at Mount Sinai, was the Old Covenant.
The coming of Christ to bring the covenant/promise of Abraham to the believers, is the New Covenant.
V-23, But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
My comments.
We are now those people to whom faith has been revealed which could not have been realized while we were still depending on the law to save us.
We can not be Abraham’s, or inheritors of the promise, unless we do it the same way Abraham did it, by having faith, not the Law. The law got the world through until the time Christ was to come. Now we are back under faith, the New Covenant, but actually the Oldest Covenant, since it existed 430 years before the Law of Moses.
JH :-)
Consider this:
Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,
and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God.
You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:20-24)