Galatians 3

==Galatians 3:1==
1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
What Paul is indicating here is that the congregations in the region of Galatia had fallen into the same error that Peter had, which makes that example brought up in chapter 2 even more meaningful. It isn't disconnected. Some smooth talking Judaizers have come in and drawn them away from the teachings of Christ so obviously confirmed before them with miracles and taught from the OT scriptures. His death was made evident to them. They understood it and had converted to Christ because of it. Now they were implicitly rejecting that sacrifice. Paul is about to explain how they have done so.
==Galatians 3:2-4==
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
Here Paul begins a comparison in earnest between the law (of Moses) and the faith (the law of Christ).
How did you receive the spirit of holiness? This is another place where the word spirit should not be capitalized and doing so muddles the meaning of this context. No man receives the Holy Spirit by hearing the gospel. They either received it directly if they were an Apostle or Cornelius for special purpose (Acts 2, 10-11) or by the laying on of the Apostle's hands (Acts 8).
The law could not provide a spirit of holiness (Romans 8:1-6), only spiritual death (Romans 6:23). It is by hearing (listening and giving heed to, not just the physical hearing of the sound) the faith, the teachings of Christ that their spirits were renewed within them because in hearing they believed (Romans 10:17) and in believing they obeyed (Romans 6:15-18) and were reborn (Romans 6:3-5).
So then, having begun their new lives being spiritually minded, letting their spiritual self drive once it was conformed to Christ, Paul asks are they then going to go back to the flesh (the law of Moses) for completion, perfection, maturity? He is using the same metaphor with the Galatians that he did in Romans 7-8, flesh/spirit = OT/NT = Moses/Christ. If this is what they believed was true, why had they suffered so many persecutions on behalf of Christ when they could have just turned to Moses and avoided them?
Herein is a powerful yet subtle understanding. By comparing the law of Christ to the law of Moses then asking them about the sufferings under Christ that they could have avoided had they just turned to Moses, we see that the persecution of these churches is not at the hands of the Romans but the Jews. Why must this be true? Because turning to the law of Moses would have had no impact on a relationship with any alleged Roman persecutors.
==Galatians 3:5==
5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
He in this context is anyone who preaches the gospel to them in this first century setting. I don't believe it is a specific person to which Paul is referring, although he would certainly be included in the list.
So ministering the spirit (again not capitalized) is the preaching of the gospel, that which is able to save their souls, to give them the mind of Christ. Working miracles was always to confirm that what was preached (ministering the spirit) was from God, not man. Miracles themselves alone cannot produce faith because faith comes from knowledge.
Paul notes that the creation of the right spirit and the working of miracles in their lifetime are associated with the faith of Christ not the law of Moses. The time for the law of Moses was done, ended at the cross, and only the empty shell remained, useless and falling apart.
==Galatians 3:6-9==
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Just like in the book of Romans, Paul uses Abraham to show how salvation can be had outside of the law of Moses. 
Abraham could not be saved from his sins without Christ, but he believed God and because of his faith looking forward to the promise of the Messiah, God marked the ledger "good as paid" until Christ came and made paid it for real.
So then all those who put their faith in Christ, in He who was promised to be a blessing to all the nations, are blessed with Abraham. Herein is the solution to the great mystery of how the nations (gentiles) would be saved.
==Galatians 3:10-11==
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
To attempt to live under the law of Moses would only bring death to those who could not keep every commandment perfectly. Only Jesus did this in all of recorded history. Those who did not were cursed because the law of Moses, without the power to save, could only condemn. The law of Moses was a law based on types, on physical things, which pointed to the spiritual antitypes to come. Because it was based in physical things, it was not based on faith, for faith is based on things not seen, things of a spiritual nature, not physical.
The physical self is temporary and cannot be justified. The spiritual self, the part that is created in the image of God, is what is saved, what is made clean, and what can obtain eternity.
==Galatians 3:12==
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
The law of Moses is therefore not of faith being rooted in physical things. Yet if the Gentiles turned to them, they had rejected Christ and must live perfectly by the law of Moses that they subjected themselves to. Foolish because they were never under that law and did not need to ever be under it. They made their situation worse than before they were Christians by turning to Moses.
==Galatians 3:13==
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
In being crucified on the cross, Christ became the curse. He lived perfectly according to the law of Moses and could therefore take on Himself the failures of those who lived by that law imperfectly. By this, Christ ended the curse, ended the law itself. Redemption is therefore found in Christ.
To argue then that the law continued after Christ is to argue that for some the curse remained. This then is to argue that Christ was not made a curse for all. 
Paul's point to the Galatians is doubly made then. Not only were they trying to put themselves under a curse, they were doing so vainly because that didn't even exist any more. They were making their lives harder for no reason and rejecting Christ in the process. There isn't hope anywhere for them.
==Galatians 3:14==
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The blessings to Abraham included the promise of the Messiah, salvation to all nations. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that promise.
"that we might receive the promise of the spirit" - this is not a reference to receiving the Holy Spirit through belief in Christ. If it were, there are a number of issues to contend with:
# Nowhere is the Holy Spirit promised to anyone in the Old Testament.
# Those who teach Holy Spirit immersion is what saves, not water immersion, teach that the Holy Spirit comes before faith and enables faith. Yet here Paul would be teaching that the Holy Spirit comes through faith IF this is talking about the Holy Spirit at all.
I don't believe that this is the Holy Spirit (third person of the Godhead). I believe this is the renewal of the right spirit that David cried for in Psalm 51:10, a spiritual self that has the mind of Christ and is in the right relationship with God. This spirit of righteousness comes through the faith, the law of Christ Jesus, not through the law of Moses.
==Galatians 3:15==
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. 
Paul is going to put this in physical terms to help them understand. If this was a contract between men, confirmed before the law, then no man has the legal authority to add to it on a whim or disregard/reject/thwart. How much more then is a covenant between God and man unbreakable?
==Galatians 3:16-17==
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17 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 disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Paul explains further the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 17:7 where he would be the father of many nations and all the nations of the world would be blessed in his seed is Christ. This is the same singularity of seed as found in Genesis 3:15 when God told woman that her seed would bruise Satan's head, speaking of Christ.
From this time to the settling in the promised land (land of Canaan) was 430 years. I wrote an article covering what this time period spanned, that it was not just from Joseph to the Red Sea, so I will not spend more time here. That time was a period of confirmation, going from Abraham to the fulfillment of the land promise. That fulfillment was the confirmation that the greater promise would be kept in Abraham's seed, Christ.
==Galatians 3:18==
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
In that the inheritance of the law, the physical land, had already been fulfilled, the promise concerning all nations could not pertain to that. The promise concerning all nations was given before the law of Moses, outside of it, and did not pertain to it. That law pointed to Christ, but had nothing to offer in the way of what the promise offered.
Herein also is a lesson to be learned. Law does not grant things to us. That is not its nature. Law facilitates the fulfilling of contracts, keeps the parties involved honest and responsible. God made a contract with Abraham. The law of Moses provided facilitated the keeping of that contract (on the side of the Israelites since God always keeps His promises and is not subject to any law, being the source of law). The promise then was the Messiah, fulfilling the contract made to Abraham and the purpose of the law, which was to facilitate the contract.
An analogy might be made using our own laws (what is left of them) in America. The Constitution is a set of laws that protect our rights. Our rights come from God, not from the Constitution. The Constitution is a facilitator to keep those rights protected, to prevent mainly the government from infringing upon those rights, from breaking its contract with the American people to govern according to liberty and individual sovereignty. The rights are separate from the Constitution and superior to it.
==Galatians 3:19==
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
What then was the purpose of the law? It was given to handle transgressions that might have caused the failure of the completion of the promise. I don't know that many fully understand this passage. So I will do my best to provide a fuller explanation than I have yet heard these 40 years.
# God makes a promise of salvation to come through Abraham's biological line. That promise is of a single descendant, Christ, who would save the world.
# To do that, generations of descendants would come after Abraham before Christ, in between the two of them.
# These generations would sin. If this sin was without restraint, then they could end up wiping themselves out and destroying the vehicle through which the promise would be fulfilled.
# Because of this, God granted them the law of Moses to govern them, limit them, protect them long enough to fulfill that promise.
Like our own law, the Constitution, it is a limiting agent to facilitate the fulfillment of the promise, to protect what God has given mankind. In the case of the law of Moses, it was to protect the promise God gave Abraham concerning all mankind. In the case of our Constitution, it was to protect our natural rights given to all mankind by our Creator, Jehovah God.
This law was set in order by messengers like Moses and the other prophets of God who delivered the Old Testament to the Jews. Under this physical law, the mediator was a physical man, Moses. Like the law, he was limited and flawed in that he could not save, could not die for the people he served. He could only bring the message God had for the people to them and take their failings to God to ask what needs be done. Their sins could not be removed by the law of Moses or by Moses the man.
==Galatians 3:20==
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
A mediator, by definition, is a third party that arbitrates between two parties at odds with one another. This is certainly the case with God and "Israel" (a name which means "who wrestles with God").
However, God is singular, unified.
==Galatians 3:21-22==
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. 22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Paul then concludes that the law of Moses is not against the promise of God simply because the law of Moses could not have given life. If there was a way at that time for a law to give life, God would have done that instead of sacrificing His Son. Without Jesus Christ, however, the law alone is insufficient. It only set up limitations on the sin of that nation in order to protect it as the vehicle until the promise itself could be fulfilled. That way, the promise of salvation, the spirit of holiness/righteousness, that right relationship with God could be given to those who believed as Abraham believed, in God outside the law of Moses.
I want to be even more clear on a point that almost all I have ever heard discussing this verse get wrong. This verse does not teach that eternal life does not come by any law whatsoever at any time in any context. Too many times people take something in a limited context and make it universal. This is a selfishness that colors so much of the reading of the Bible. Paul is saying that in that time, without Jesus as a sacrifice, there is no law that could have given life. This is in contrast to after the cross where the law of Christ is certainly able to save our souls (James 1:21) and give us life (John 6:63). This law is now able to save because it is based on the sacrifice of Christ. There is NOW a law that can save, that can give life, and our righteousness is by that law (Romans 8:2; Gal. 6:2). Paul will even end his letter saying as much.
That is why I teach that the law of Christ, the gospel, the New Testament is wholly a part of God's Grace that saves.
==Galatians 3:23-25==
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Before the faith system, the New Testament, came the law "kept" them, shut them up (reined the Israelites in, limited them, prevented them from destroying themselves by creating a barrier around their actions). The law of Moses was a teacher, a tutor, a training manual to bring Israel (and through them, all mankind to Christ in order that Israel (and all men) could be saved by the faith system (not talking about individual faith here). But after that system of faith (the New Testament) had come, there was no more need for the tutor. Its purpose had been fulfilled.
This is Paul clearly and unequivocally saying no one is under the law of Moses any more, not Jew, never Gentile, and absolutely not Christians. For men today to argue that we are under the 10 Commandments or to refer to the law of Moses for authority for anything (often mechanical instruments) is to outright deny what Paul is teaching in this letter and explicitly in this verse.
Reading this and still arguing for such is not just weakness or ignorance, its willful rejection and stupidity, what Paul would call "foolishness".
==Galatians 3:26-27==
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Israelites were referred to as the children of God throughout the OT. This was a type, a pointer to Christianity under the NT. All men, not just former Jews, Gentiles included, are considered children of God spiritually according to the system of faith based on Christ, the law of Christ. Those who obey by that law are in Christ and saved. Those who do not obey are outside of Christ and lost. It's simple.
It is imperative to understand, especially for those who believe that immersion has not part in your salvation, that Paul is explicitly declaring here that what puts you into Christ is immersion. If you are not immersed into Christ, you are not in Christ, and therefore you are not a child of God.
Faith only salvation is a lie.
==Galatians 3:28-29==
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 
Once immersed into Christ, all physical identities become irrelevant with regard to salvation. Everyone partakes in that spirit of holiness equally, reflects Christ equally, is equally saved. Jew and Gentile doesn't matter. Slave or freeman does not matter. Male and female doesn't matter (notice nothing is said about the perversions of gender so prevalent in our society, only male and female are recognized by the Bible).
If we are all Christ's, then we are all one, all a part of that singular seed that is Christ because we are all a part of the body of Christ, and therefore heirs according to the promise, protected and kept safe by the law of Christ.
==Closing Thoughts==
Above I argued from scripture that laws are meant to encircle and protect a people form something, to keep them from something. In the case of the law of Moses, it was to protect the Israelite nation from destroying themselves and therefore the vehicle through which God would keep His promise to Abraham. In the case of the Constitution of the USA, it protects and preserves the natural rights of the people granted by God from a corrupt government wanting to take them away and by establishing that government (and its limitations) to protect the people of the USA from foreign governments wanting to take away our natural, God-given rights.
What then does the law of Christ protect and create a barrier between? Sin and Christians of course. While we walk according to that law, it is a barrier between us and sin. When we do not walk according to that law, we are outside the barrier and subject to sin. It's just that simple, folks.
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