Heirs of Promise
8/15/25 Bible Thought (Galatians 3)
The Christian must never forget the ancient origins of their faith that reach far back into the Old Testament.
In Galatians 3, the apostle Paul continues his polemic against the Galatians and their desire to be under the law.
Paul points out that the law does not bring blessing but a curse! For all those who fail to keep the law in every point are cursed (Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26) and this is the case for all people as no one has kept the law perfectly.
Yet,
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13).
As we saw yesterday, the Lord Jesus Christ exhausted sin’s penalty and the consequences that should have applied to our disobedience!
With this, why would anyone want to be back under the law’s curse?
If the law brought about punishment for those who failed to keep it, and Christ kept the law perfectly in our stead, then why would any new covenant believer want to be back under its stipulations?
Paul concluded that the law was merely a guardian or schoolmaster.
Here, “The Greek word is paidagōgos, describing a slave in Hellenistic society who acted as tutor and guardian to children as well as imposing discipline.”[1]
However, this was a temporary office, for adult children no longer need a tutor. In like manner, the law was a temporary institution to help and guide the offspring of Abraham until the offspring, Christ, came.
Christ is the descendant of Abraham through whom blessing would come to all nations of the earth (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 12:3; 22:18). As such, now the blessing of covenant with God has come to Gentiles and is no longer reserved for Jews only.
This can only be true because the promise of faith preceded the law. Abraham believed God’s promise, even when naturally speaking it was an utter impossibility, and he was counted as righteous on the basis of that faith (Gen. 15:6).
Now, all who believe are children of Abraham—even more, all who are saved by grace through faith are now children of God.
Through faith our Creator adopts us into His family! What a confounding, awesome love of God.
People often celebrate the psalm where David penned, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Ps. 23:5a) but let us never forget that while we were enemies of God we were reconciled to Him by the death of His Son (Rom. 5:10).
We were brought in as members of His household and given a seat at His table.
Oh what a love! You cannot and will not find anything else that even begins to compare in the history of creation, in any other religious system anywhere, or amongst any other person.
There is no greater love than the inseparable love of God that He has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now, by a free gift of grace to be received through faith, we can be heirs of promise, something we could never have earned or deserved.
[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Romans to Philemon. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 284.