Galatians 3
Paul’s Argument for Justification by Faith in God And Not through Mosaic Law Keeping
In this section, the apostle Paul launched into his rebuke of the Galatian Christians and a theological explanation for why he believed that requiring Gentile Christians to convert to Judaism (adhering to certain aspects of the Mosaic law) was equivalent to rejecting the grace of God offered through the gospel of Jesus.
Here begins the theological section of the epistle, which Paul led up to in his preceding historical account of his own conversion and calling, culminating in his confrontation with Peter over justification. - Thomas Constable
In Galatians 3, the apostle Paul will continue to describe this great gospel of Jesus. As he continues to describe the gospel, he will ask these Christians to consider their experience and consider the scriptures to know if returning to the works of the law is the means for justification for Gentile Christians. Remember that troublers have come into the Galatians churches teaching that Gentile Christians must keep the Law of Moses and be circumcised to be saved. - Brent Kercheville
Who Cast A Spell on You?
Foolish Galatians
Vs. 1 - You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
Paul regards his Galatian converts as having unwittingly come under the spell-the hypnotic effect-of the false teachers. - R.Y.K. Fung
Paul had clearly explained Jesus as the Messiah to these Galatian Christians. He was now shocked that they were so willing to add components of the Mosaic law to the gospel they had already accepted.
Receive The Spirit
Vs. 2 - I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?
Paul’s first argument in this section was from experience. He and these Gentile believers had witnessed the evidence of their justification through the miraculous gift of God’s Spirit when they heard and accepted the good news about Jesus. Luke recorded Peter’s description of this phenomenon when he addressed the church leadership council in Jerusalem.
Acts 15:7-8 - After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.”
So Paul asked the Galatians why, if they had already received the gift of God’s Spirit, did they now feel the need to add Mosaic law-keeping to their faith?
In the early Church converts nearly always received the Holy Spirit in a visible way. The early chapters of Acts show that happening again and again (compare Acts 8:14-17; Acts 10:44). There came to them a new surge of life and power that anyone could see. That experience had happened to the Galatians and had happened, said Paul, not because they had obeyed the regulations of the law, because at that time they had never heard of the law, but because they had heard the good news of the love of God and had responded to it in an act of perfect trust. - William Barclay
The Promise to Abraham
At this point in the letter, Paul began making his argument for justification by faith from the Genesis account of God’s call to Israel’s “father” of faith - Abraham. All those who seek the righteousness of God, Paul explained, will come to Him “just like Abraham” (3:6).
A helpful commentary on this section can be found in Paul’s letter to the Roman churches (Romans 3-4), where the apostle made similar arguments from the Abrahamic account for why the law of the Torah were given and why both Jews and Gentiles must come to a right relationship with God through trust in Jesus as Messiah and not through law keeping.
Faith Credited for Righteousness
Vs. 6-7 - just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness? You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons.
To make the argument that entrance into God’s covenant family (righteousness) had always been based on faith (credited) and not on adhering to components of the Mosaic law (like circumcision), Paul recounted the calling of Abraham, the father of Israel and the father of faith.
Genesis 15:6 - Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
This quotation from Genesis 15:6 is one of the clearest expressions in the Bible of the truth of salvation by grace, through faith alone. It is the gospel in the Old Testament, quoted four times in the New Testament (Romans 4:3, Romans 4:9-10, Romans 4:22 and here in Galatians 3:6). Romans 4:9-10 makes much of the fact that this righteousness was accounted to Abraham before he was circumcised (Genesis 17).
This was a strong rebuke to the Jewish Christians who tried to bring Gentile Christians under the law. They believed they were superior because they descended from Abraham and observed the law. Paul said that the most important link to Abraham was not the link of genetics and not the link of works, but it is the link of faith.
This would have been a shocking change of thinking for these particular opponents of Paul. They deeply believed that they had a standing before God because they were genetically descended from Abraham. At that time, some Jewish Rabbis taught that Abraham stood at the gates of Hell just to make sure that none of his descendants accidentally slipped by. John the Baptist dealt with this same thinking when he said, Do not think to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones (Matthew 3:9). Paul knocked down their blind reliance on genetic relation to Abraham and showed that what really mattered was faith in Jesus. - David Guzik
Justify The Gentiles
Vs. 8-9 - Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
Paul also noted from the Genesis account that God promised a blessing to “all the nations” because of Abraham’s faith.
Genesis 12:3 - all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Genesis 18:18 - Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
Paul argued that, if Abraham’s righteousness came through faith, and if all nations of the earth would be blessed through him, then the blessing of the gospel would come to all men through faith.
Vs. 14 - The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
The intention was to destroy the idea that a Gentile must first become a Jew before they could become a Christian. If that were necessary, God would never have said this blessing would extend to every nation, because Gentiles would have had to become part of the Israelite nation to be saved. The idea is that the gospel goes out to the nations, not that the nations come and assimilate into Israel. - David Guzik
The Gentiles receive “the blessing of Abraham” through faith in Christ Jesus. This places them in a position to receive the promised Holy Spirit. - A. Boyd Luter
Christ, The Seed of Abraham
At this point in the letter (3:10-14), Paul pivoted to describe the “curse” that accompanied the law (see commentary below) but then continued his train of thought on the worldwide blessing of faithful Abraham.
Vs. 16 - 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.
Here, Paul returned to the Genesis account of Abraham to further explain how God would bless the world through Abraham’s offspring.
Genesis 13:14-16 - After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
Peter Oakes offers an explanation of why he believes Paul interpreted Abraham’s “seed” as a singular reference to the Messiah through whom all of Abraham’s offspring would be both blessed and united.
The argument of 3;16 really surprises us. We know, and Paul knew, that, contextually, the referent of “seed” in its many occurrences in the Genesis Abraham narrative is to his descendants who, in fact, were promised as being innumerable (Genesis 13:16). One explanation of Paul's exegesis is that he sees the fine detail of the scriptural text as pointing in the same direction as his overall reading of the scriptural narrative, a narrative heading toward the Messiah and the bringing about of a people who are in the Messiah (cf. F. Watson 2004).
For Paul, the promises to Abraham “and to his seed” are being fulfilled in the diverse community united by their union in Christ. The community in Christ, even though it can be as many as the grains of sand on the shore, is one body. - Peter Oakes
Based on A Promise
Vs. 15-16 - Brothers and sisters, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to a validated human will. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
Paul then adds an illustration to show that God’s basis for justification (which, from the beginning, was faith) was not changed by the law. When people sign an important document, no one can alter its contents; when God makes a covenant, he does not change it. God made a promise that through the offspring of Abraham all peoples would be blessed. This was fulfilled in Christ, who gives salvation to all who have faith in him. - Don Fleming
Vs. 17-18 - My point is this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and thus cancel the promise. For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise; but God has graciously given it to Abraham through the promise.
The Judaizers were evidently teaching the Galatians that, to become Abraham’s children by adoption, they had to receive circumcision. This was necessary for pagan proselytes to Judaism. They may have said that God had declared the Galatian Christians righteous by faith while uncircumcised like Abraham. Nevertheless, now they needed to undergo circumcision as Abraham did. Circumcision would be a seal of their justification as it had been for Abraham. Circumcision would make them true sons of Abraham.
Paul argued that it was not circumcision that made a person a son of Abraham but faith. He treated circumcision as a part of the Law because, even though God instituted it many generations before He gave the Law, He reaffirmed it and incorporated it into the Law (Leviticus 12:3). - Thomas Constable
The Curse of The Law
In the middle of Paul’s explanation of the faith of Abraham, he pivoted slightly to explain the “curse” that accompanied the Mosaic law and how he believed that Jesus “redeemed” His people from it.
Everything Written
Vs. 10 - For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed.
Deuteronomy 27:26 - Anyone who does not put the words of this law into practice is cursed.
Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27 to argue that, if these false brothers wanted to require a few components of the law as necessary for justification, they would need to add the entire list of rules and ordinances. If they were going to turn the Mosaic law into a salvific requirement, it would need to be added in its entirety. Failure to keep every law resulted in a curse.
Paul's argument seeks to drive his opponents into a corner from which there is no escape. "Suppose," he says, "you decide that you are going to try to win God's approval by accepting and obeying the law, what is the inevitable consequence?" First of all, the man who does that has to stand or fall by his decision; if he chooses the law he has got to live by it. Second, no man ever has succeeded and no man ever will succeed in always keeping the law. Third, if that being so, you are accursed, because scripture itself says (Deuteronomy 27:26) that the man who does not keep the whole law is under a curse. Therefore, the inevitable end of trying to get right with God by making the law the principle of life is a curse. - William Barclay
“Living” By Faith or Law
Paul then quoted the prophet Habakkuk as further proof that righteousness comes through faith alone. The Habakkuk passage is quoted three times in the new testament - here and in Romans 1:17 and Hebrews 10:38.
Habakkuk 2:4 - But the righteous one will live by his faith.
Vs. 12 - But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.
The apostle then quoted a passage from Leviticus to contrast with Habakkuk, to illustrate how the man who would desire to be justified before God must “live” either by faith (Habakkuk 2) or by every statute of the law (Leviticus 18).
This passage from Leviticus 18:5 is another often-quoted principle from the Old Testament. Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:29) quoted it in his great prayer for Israel. The LORD Himself quoted it through the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:11, 13, and 21). Paul also quotes it again in Romans 10:5).
Leviticus 18:5 - Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live if he does them. I am the Lord.
The Law of Moses was given to show the world, through Israel’s failure, that even if God grants every privilege and blessing, you cannot keep all of God’s requirements. Therefore, the curse of law falls on every individual. - Brent Kercheville
Christ Became A Curse
Vs. 13 - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Galatians 3:10-12 left us all under a curse, but we are not cursed any more because Jesus bought us out from under the curse. - David Guzik
But Christ has redeemed us. Redemption is a picture of buying something back. It was a word used of slaves that they would be purchased out of their slavery. We have been bought out of our slavery to sin by Christ. Christ has redeemed us. How has Christ redeemed us? Paul explains that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. - Brent Kercheville
To further illustrate how Jesus removed the law’s curse from His people, Paul quoted Moses’ explanation of the public display of a criminal’s body in ancient Israel.
Deuteronomy 21:23 - anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
This passage did not refer to crucifixion (which the Jews did not practice), but to the hanging on a tree or wooden post of the corpse of a criminal who had been executed. But in the New Testament times, a cross was often called a tree and there is no doubting that that is what Paul has in mind here. - Morris
In the thinking of ancient Israel, there was something worse than being put to death. Worse than that was to be put to death, and to have your corpse left in the open, exposed to shame, humiliation, and scavenging animals and birds. When it says “hangs on a tree,” it does not have the idea of being executed by strangulation; but of having the corpse “mounted” on a tree or other prominent place to expose the executed one to the elements and supreme disgrace.
However, if anyone was executed and deemed worthy of such disgrace, the humiliation to his memory and his family must not be excessive. Deuteronomy 21:23 also says “his body shall not remain overnight on the tree.” This was a way of tempering even the most severe judgment with mercy. Significantly, Jesus fulfilled this also, being taken down from the cross before night had fully come (John 19:31-33). - David Guzik
By bringing these two texts [in Deuteronomy] together and interpreting the latter [Deuteronomy 21:23] in terms of the former [Deuteronomy 27:26], Paul understands Jesus’ death on the cross (to which a curse was attached according to Deuteronomy 21:23) as a bearing of the curse of God incurred (according to Deuteronomy 27:26) by all who fail to continue in obedience to the law. - R.Y.K. Fung
Christ’s death on the cross was the clear sign to all that he bore the curse of God. He suffered the death penalty on behalf of the law-breakers, so that all who believe in him might escape the law’s curse. - Don Fleming
Why Was The Law Given?
The Mosaic law played a monumental role in the daily lives of Jews for centuries, so it would only make sense, given Paul’s insistence that the laws were not necessary considerations for the Gentile Christians in Galatia, that the question of their purpose should be addressed. If these laws were so insignificant for Christians in the first century, why had they been so important for followers of God since the Jews left Egypt?
For Transgressions
Vs. 19 - Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come.
Paul provided two answers to his own question about the purpose of the law. The first reason he provided was that it was given “for the sake of transgressions.” Scholars interpret this phrase to mean that the law was given to either limit sin, reveal sin, or multiply its offense.
Paul made a similar statement in his letter to Rome.
Romans 3:20 - For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
If the law did not bring salvation, why was it given? Certainly, it was intended to be beneficial to those who received it (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 10:13), but it also showed people how far they fell short of God’s standards. In so doing, it encouraged them to acknowledge their sin and seek God’s forgiveness. Like a light switched on in a dark and dirty room, the law showed up the filth but could not remove it. It was a temporary provision that impressed upon people their inability to keep God’s commands, and so prepared them to welcome the Savior.
The law God gave to Moses neither replaced nor conflicted with the promise he gave to Abraham. The purpose of the law and the purpose of the promise were different. God never intended the law to be a means of salvation. It showed people God’s standards, but showed them also how helpless they were to meet those standards. It impressed upon them that they could receive life and righteousness only by the promised gift of God, and they had to receive that gift by faith. - Don Fleming
Vs. 19-20 - The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator. Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one.
What is Paul's thought here? An agreement founded on law always involves two people, the person who gives it and the person who accepts it; and it depends on both sides keeping it. That was the position of those who put their trust in the law. Break the law and the whole agreement was undone. But a promise depends on only one person. The way of grace depends entirely on God; it is his promise. - William Barclay
As A Guardian
Vs. 24 - The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
The second reason Paul provided for the giving of the Mosaic law was that it served as a “guardian until Christ.” Many commentators note that Paul’s language here conveyed the idea that humanity was in need of a temporary tutor, guide, or protector until the coming of the Messiah and the promised Holy Spirit.
Taken together, these descriptions show the law as a power designed to control the situation given the presence of the dangerous element of sin and that people being controlled had not yet reached the stage of being able to deal with the danger without the law’s help. The law was a necessary, temporary protection during a period of growth and learning in a dangerous world. - Peter Oakes
God had to give us His standard so we would not destroy ourselves before the Messiah came. - David Guzik
Vs. 25 - But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian
Interpretations vary greatly on the apostle Paul’s view of the ongoing role of the Mosaic law in his own life and the lives of Christian Jews. But it would seem, from passages like this one, that he felt that these laws had served their purpose at this time. They had been fulfilled by Jesus (Matthew 5:17). The shadows and symbols had given way to the Substance.
All One in Christ
Paul paused his argument in this section to summarize his primary point. The coming of the Messiah had united all people of faith into one diverse family.
Baptized Into Christ
Vs. 27 - For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
Galatians 3:27 is then explicit about the practical process leading to union with Christ. The verse also offers an analogy for understanding the significance of the process. The practical process is baptism, to which this is the earliest Christian reference. The context here implies that baptism was an entry ritual, rather than, say, a periodic purification. Many have called it an initiation ritual.
The term baptizo, “baptize,” implies that the ritual involved dipping in water. is probably made it quite daring for many members of the house church. Although bathing in public baths was common in the Roman world, it would be rather radical for a group of various statuses and both genders to engage in a process that probably involved something such as the group going to a river and the new member being immersed in front of the group. Whether this took place naked or clothed, it is a ritual that imposed quite a high entry cost, although crucially, it was a cost that anyone could pay, unlike circumcision. The ritual involves, at least to an extent, an element of semi-public degregation. The ordeal of the members’ degradation before the group and the physical discomfort of being covered in water makes this ritual a powerful marker of transfer of allegiance to the group. - Peter Oakes
Many commentators interpret the phrase “clothed with Christ” as an early Christian metaphor for the new identity that followers of Jesus would “put on” after baptism. To emerge from the “cleansing” waters of baptism was to be raised to live a new life of love and allegiance to God.
Divisions Removed
Vs. 28 - There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
When we say that Christ has abolished these distinctions, we mean not that they do not exist, but that they no longer create any barriers to fellowship. - John Stott
Here the argument flowing from Paul's decision to treat the threat of Gentile circumcision as a threat to unity between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles reaches its climax. Being “in Christ” means oneness. In the situation of the letter, this oneness is especially between Jews and Gentiles (here called “Greeks”). However, Paul then points out that the same is true for whatever other social polarities there may be.
Notice, though, that the aim of Paul's rhetoric is to preserve social diversity rather than to eliminate it. It is Paul's opponents who are seeking to eliminate diversity. They want Gentiles to adopt circumcision, to Judaize, to become Jews, losing their distinction and identity. Paul wants unity between Gentiles as Gentiles and Jews as Jews, all together in Christ. - Peter Oakes
Heirs of The Promise to Abraham
Vs. 29 - And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:29 ties the final pieces of argument together. Since, in Christ, these people are one (3:28), they qualify as Abraham's singular seed (3:16,19) And hence, plurally, can be “heirs according to the promise” (3:18). What would threaten being heirs is not uncircumcised Gentile identity, as Paul's opponents would have it, but their demands, which effectively drive a wedge between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, as has happened in Antioch. This would threaten the diverse group being “one” and hence heirs. - Peter Oakes
