“If the plural of goose is geese, shouldn’t the plural of moose be
meese?” goes the popular grammar joke. And I believe it is a very logical
question. When I use the word moose you can’t know whether it is being used of just
one or of a whole herd. This kind of thing doesn’t just occur in English: the
Greek word sperma (sperma) and the Hebrew word urz (zerah) both mean “seed” and can be understood
as just one seed or as a whole group of seeds. This becomes very important in
the book of Galatians.
Galatians 3:15-18 says, “Brothers,
I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a
human covenant that has been ratified. Now the promises were spoken to
Abraham and to his seed. He does not say ‘and to seeds,’ as though referring to
many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is
Christ. And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not
revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the promise.
For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise;
but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.”
So at this point, Paul is deep into his proofs for dropping the law and
living solely by grace through faith. And in these verses today, he makes what
I consider to be his most compelling argument, even though some commentators
hold that it contains “a highly compressed ‘inset’ which somewhat complicates
the argument, [and] may be temporarily omitted without weakening it.”[1] I plan to write much more
extensively on this passage in the next year, so this post will be shorter than
some of the previous, but the main thing we need to know from this passage is
that Paul sees Jesus as central to everything and we should too. In fact, he
sees Jesus as so central to everything that he sees Jesus being promised as far
back as Abraham.
And it’s the concept of promise that he begins with. He draws a parallel
to contemporary Greek and/or Jewish life (even American life if you will).
Verse 15 says, “Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or
makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified.” We believe
that covenants/promises/contracts/vows are important to keep (though sadly
marriage is a place in which our culture seriously fails in this respect) and
that they shouldn’t be entered into lightly, because those in it will be held
accountable. Paul leaves his human illustration there, and then starts verse
16—where he spiritualizes it.
He explains, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.”
There are at least four different occasions at which these promises are spoken
to Abraham and his seed:
·
“Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to your
offspring.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him”
(Genesis 12:7).
·
“I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you
see” (Genesis 13:15).
·
“And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where
you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession, and I will be
their God” (Genesis 17:8).
·
“The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and
from my native land, who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘I will give this land to
your offspring’—He will send His angel before you, and you can take a
wife for my son from there” (Genesis 24:7).
However,
it’s Genesis 15:18 that fits Paul’s point here the best. “On that day the
LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘I give this land to your
offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.’” And it is very
important that this covenant that the LORD makes with Abraham here was a
one-sided covenant. Abraham was asleep throughout it (Genesis 15:12), so God
made this promise regardless of anything Abraham would do in the future. It was
a sure to happen thing; Abraham and his descendants would not be able to stop
it.
But then Paul continues, and points out something very important.
Galatians 3:16 continues, “He does not say ‘and to seeds,’ as though referring
to many, but referring to one, and to your seed.” Even though it can be used in
the singular in a collective sense, Paul here—under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit—says that this word was kept singular for a reason. The promise was not
made to many people. The promise wasn’t made to the people who followed the
law. The promise wasn’t made to the Jews. The promise wasn’t even made to the
church. In its truest sense, the promise was made to Abraham and to his
singular seed “who is Christ,” as verse 16 concludes.
There is a line of theological understanding that exists today that says
that all of God’s promises to Israel still have to be fulfilled literally.
There’s another line that says those promises are symbolically fulfilled by the
church. Paul argues here, and states it clearly in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that “every
one of God’s promises is ‘Yes’ in [Jesus].” Jesus is the one who fulfills all
of God’s promises. We don’t have to become Jewish to join this inheritance. We
simply must be joined by faith to the One to whom the promises were made and in
whom they were fulfilled.
It’s a mistake to say the Jews still have some special place in God’s
plan—other than the fact that they, like us, are humans and deserve to hear the
good news of the gospel just like everyone, so they can be eternally saved. But
it’s also a mistake to say that the church is the greatest thing on the planet
either. Jesus deserves the glory—not man, not even an eternally saved,
righteous through the blood of Christ group of people. Jesus alone is my focus.
Jesus alone was Paul’s focus. Is Jesus alone your focus? If you view anything
else more highly than Him, you’re guilty of idolatry; even very good things—the
church, the Bible, theology, relationships, marriage, etc.—can become idols if
we are not careful. But I’ll step off my soapbox for now.
Paul then writes, “And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later,
does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the
promise.” This shows, to those who were deceiving the Galatians—and to the
deceived Galatians themselves—that the law was not the answer. Something that
God brought 430 years after He Himself made an unbreakable (remember verse 15?)
covenant cannot undo the covenant. Paul will explain next time what the law
actually is for.
Verse 18 concludes our passage for today. “For if the inheritance is
from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham
through the promise.” God fails to keep His promise to Abraham and to his
seed—Jesus—if the way to the inheritance is through keeping the law. God can’t
fail to keep His promises, because He doesn’t lie (cf. Numbers 23:19). And
then, as if saying, “I got you; what you gonna say to that?” Paul says, “But,
God granted it to Abraham through the promise.” No law at all. Trust Jesus!
So that’s all I have for today. Jesus is where our focus should be. He’s
the Seed that’s been promised since Genesis 3:15. He’s the one who was promised
an inheritance as Abraham’s Seed. If we trust in Him, then we are in Him, and
thus a recipient of the promises to Abraham and his Seed. But we must never
move our focus off the original seed—Jesus. We don’t think about Him enough!
Let’s think about Him more this week.
Til next time. And due to preaching on the 7th, it will
probably be close to two weeks before my next Galatians post. Stay tuned for
other things though.
Soli Deo Gloria
[1] R. Alan
Cole, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries – Galatians, (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2008), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 147.
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