The Epistle to the Galatians May 30, 2010 Bob Eckel 1 Faith Preceded Law: Galatians 3:17-18 Gal...

The Epistle to the Galatians

May 30, 2010 Bob Eckel 1

Faith Preceded Law: Galatians 3:17-18

• Gal 3:17,18 – NKJV ‘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 annul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.’

• Gal 3:17,18 – ILG ‘And this I say: A covenant having previously been ratified by God the after four hundred and thirty years having come into being law does not annul, so as to abolish the promise. For if of law the inheritance, no more of promise; but to Abraham through promise has given God.’




• Gal 3:17,18 – NASB ‘What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.’ – What am I saying – returns us back to Gal 3:15– What’s a covenant?

• A disposition, arrangement, of any sort, which one wishes to be valid • A disposition or a contract

– previously ratified and granted by God – perfect passive participle» Gen 15:18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,

saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—



Faith Preceded Law: Galatians 3:17-18» Genesis 17:7-9 ‘And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and

your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’ Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

» Gen 22:15-18 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only [son]-- blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which [is] on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

– Why does the NKJV say by God in Christ but this is omitted from many of the other translations?

• See Gal 3:16– What is this period of 430 years?

• Ex 12:40,41 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years--on that very same day--it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.




• Gen 15:13 Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.’

• Acts 7:6 But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.

• PNT – ‘According to Usher's Chronology, the promise was made to Abraham in B.C. 1921; the law was given at Sinai B.C. 1491; the interval is four hundred thirty years. ….The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament is the one usually followed by Christ and his apostles. Its translators, following the Hebrew copy before them, render Ex 12:12, "The sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years." …….His point was simply that the law was given many ages after the covenant with Abraham.’

• But there is perhaps another way to consider this interval.




• JFB – ‘On the day following the last repetition of the promise orally (Gen 46:1-6), at Beersheba, Israel passed into Egypt. It is from the end, not from the beginning of the dispensation of promise, that the interval of four hundred thirty years between it and the law is to be counted. At Beersheba, ....Jacob received the promise of the blessing, for which God had called Abraham out of Ur, repeated for the last time, on the last night of his sojourn in the land of promise.’

– What is the relationship between the Law and the promise? • Faith vs. works – it’s called Grace!• Gal 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be

justified by law; you have fallen from grace.• Did the law then not have a purpose?

– See Gal 3:19-24 to follow.

– And God is true to His word about the promise – Heb 6:13-18– What about Law (v 17) vs. law (v 18). – The inheritance – there’s a lot more to follow in the epistle to the Galations

• Gal 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.



Faith Preceded Law: Galatians 3:17-18• Rom 4:14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void

and the promise made of no effect,

– Inheritance – klēronomia• Thayer’s Lexicon

– The eternal blessedness in the consummated kingdom of God which is to be expected after the visible return of Christ.

– The share which the individual will have in that eternal blessedness.

– We are reminded of God’s promise to Abraham – Psalms 105:6-12

– As believers why should we ever be entangled with law

What promises are you resting upon?

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