In order to keep the integrity of scripture I will use all of the thought of Galatians 3 beginning at verse 15 in this study. And it will include the thoughts of others like Norman Grubbs, Pastor Hoekstra and John Giles. I will be using the ESV translation and as always this dependency of the LORD, Christ within me. I am looking into the Law verses Grace because their are many who remain hooked by the deception of the self-for-self of mans religion and the works of condemnation under the Law of Moses.
Faith that brings Righteousness:
Galatians 3:15-18, 19-22, 23-29 "To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ. This is what I mean: the Law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified (made by way of an Oath) by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is One. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the Law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus (we all are justified and) are all sons of God, through (the faith in Christ Jesus') faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's (spiritual) offspring, heirs according to promise."
"More on God's Promises and God's Law"
By Pastor Hoekstra
"What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions . . . Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." (Galatians 3:19, 3:21-22)
"In our previous meditation, we saw that God implemented His plan and purposes for salvation by making and fulfilling promises. His plan is not contingent upon man's ability to perform acceptably before His holy law. To put it another way, the law of God (given hundreds of years after the promises to Abraham) does not replace those promises.
This raises a very important question: "What purpose then does the Law serve? " If God's law did not cancel or rearrange His promises to Abraham, then, why was it added? "It was added because of transgressions." God wanted people to know that they had a major problem: sin. Man's sin needed to be clearly defined. "For by the Law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). The extent of sin would never be fully known apart from this Law. "I would not have known sin except through the Law" Paul stated in Romans 7:7. Also, God wanted everyone in this world to know that they were accountable to Him for their transgressions. Thus, this Law convicts the sinfulness of man, that "all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19).
This raises another important question. "Is the Law then against the promises of God? " The Law does not replace God's promises, but does it work against His promises? "Certainly not! " The law of God and the promises of God simply have different purposes (just as it is with law and grace). The law of God reveals the holiness that is inherent to the very character of God. At the same time, it describes the holy life that God wants His people to live. "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am Holy" (Leviticus 19:2). The promises of God become the means by which man deals with his unholiness, unworthiness and accesses God's holiness. This is what true spiritual life is about: forgiveness of sin and a life of righteousness in and through Christ. This cannot come by Law performance. "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by this law." Rather, the promise of life is entered into only by faith. "But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
Now for John Giles Exposition on the entire Bible.
Galatians 3:21
"Is the law then against the promises of God?.... If the law was added because of transgressions, and curses for them, and if the inheritance is not of it, but by promise, were it, it would not be by promise, then, says an objector, it is against the promises: these are contrary to one another, and God, in giving the one and the other, must contradict Himself: to which it is replied,
God forbid; a way of speaking the apostle uses, when he would express his abhorrence and detestation of anything, as here; for though the law and promises are distinct things, and have their separate uses, yet they are not contradictory to each other; the law has its use, and so have the promises; the promises do not set aside the law as useless on all accounts, nor does the law disannul the promises, but is subservient to them:
for if there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law; but the law cannot give life, spiritual life to a dead sinner; God only can do this, Father, Son, and Spirit; so far is the law from giving it efficiently, that it is not so much as the means of it; it is not made use of this way; God makes use of the law to kill, but not to make alive; He makes use of the law to strike dead all a man's hopes of happiness, by the deeds of it; but it is the Gospel He uses to quicken and comfort; that is the Spirit that gives life. The law requires as much of a dead sinner, as it did of Adam in innocence, but gave him no life, activity, and strength to perform; could it quicken him, and enable him to do all its demands perfectly, then there would be righteousness, and so justification by it, as by the promise; whence it appears that there is no contrariety in the law to the promises: the reason why there is no righteousness is, because it cannot give life, nor spiritual life and strength; and if so, then not eternal life; which is the free gift of God, and not the merit of men's works: this is directly contrary to a notion of the Jews, who cry up the law as a life giving law; say they (n),
"great is the law, שהיא נותנת חיים לעושיה, "for it giveth life to them that do it", in this world, and in the world to come:''
and elsewhere (o),
"the law is a tree of life to all that study in it,
למיהב לון חיי, "to give unto them life" in this world, and "to give unto them life" in the world to come.''
(n) Pirke Abot, c. 6. sect. 6. (o) Zohar in Gen. fol. 70. 3. & in Num. fol. 62. 1.
Now for Norman Grubbs:
ROMANS 6-8
By Norman P. Grubb
"NO SEPARATE SELF"
"When Paul tells us that we are no longer under that former outer Law of Moses, doesn't that mean that we shall be given over to a spirit of license? "God forbid," pronounces Paul. In our new life our human selves are motivated, controlled, and spontaneously express the nature of God, by His Spirit united to our spirits. Laying the foundation for this assurance in Romans 6:16-7:6, Paul there presents one strong evidence after another that there is no intermediate, "independent me" to be taken over, unless we foolishly believe it.
"First," he says, "we were always slaves; and a slave just obeys his owner." We had handed ourselves over to owner Sin-Satan, to express his sin-nature. Now, however, we have become God's willing slaves through the obedience of faith which takes Him at His word, and we express His nature of holiness.
"Put it this way," Paul explains. "We were free in our sinning, with no response to God's law. Now we are free in our right living, with no response to Satan's law. And there is no 'you,' with an in-between or independent life (of self-for-self) of your own (Romans 6:16-20)."
Next Paul introduces a second illustration…a fruit-bearing tree. He describes how we are now producing right, good fruit in our lives, whereas we were ashamed of the former fruit (Romans 6:21,22). He wants us to understand that we are only branches which have changed trees. We never produced fruit without a tree!
To sum it up, we learn through the slave and branch analogies that we never exercised any kind of in-between life as self-operators. We are slaves of either one owner or another, or branches of either one vine or the other. Therefore, the idea that we humans were self-operating selves and had a "nature" or quality of life of our own has been a vast human illusion -- there never was such a thing. We have been created to produce the way of life of our Deity Creator and Operator. Only first we had to experience and discard through Calvary that false deity operator, who produced that opposite, negative way of life.
In Romans 7:1-6 Paul uses one further powerful and convincing illustration…the law of marriage, which he speaks of here as the "law of the husband" (Romans 7:2). The wife is legally bound to her husband so long as he lives, and he is her "lord" (1 Peter 3:6); she receives his seed, conceives by it, and produces their family.
We humans were "married" at the Fall to our Sin-satan husband and became his sin family, he working in us the "motions of sins" which produced "fruit unto death" (Romans 7:5). We had to do this according to the law and demands of marriage, as any change of husbands would have been an "adultery." It looked hopeless; our husband was not going to die.
But there was One, representing the whole human family, who died as us. So the marriage was dissolved because we died "wherein we were held" (Romans 7:6). The dissolution of the first marriage and release from that husband meant that in Christ's resurrection we were immediately married to another, our risen Saviour, now our LORD and are now under His law.
The law of marriage in Romans 7:1-6 is therefore a continuation by Paul of his two illustrations from Romans 6. For just as we have always been slaves to an ‘owner,’ and branches producing the fruit of a tree, we have always produced the fruit of a husband. We have never been widows conceiving without a husband."
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