Galatians 3 explained: Belonging by Faith, Not Law

Started by trusting, like Abraham (vv. 1-9)

Paul is exasperated because these non-Jewish believers received God's Spirit by trusting the message about Jesus' death, yet now want to finish by 'the flesh', which most readers take to mean circumcision and law-keeping. He points to Abraham, who trusted God and was counted as right with him (Genesis 15:6), and to God's promise to bless all nations through Abraham (Genesis 12:3).

The curse and the cross (vv. 10-14)

Paul quotes the law's warning that anyone who fails to keep all of it is cursed, and says Jesus took that curse on himself, since the law called anyone hung on a tree cursed (Deuteronomy 21:23). That law first concerned the publicly displayed body of an executed criminal, and Paul applies it to Jesus' crucifixion so that Abraham's blessing and God's Spirit could reach non-Jews.

The promise came first (vv. 15-18)

Paul argues that a settled agreement cannot be changed later, and the Greek word he uses can also mean a will, so the law given 430 years after God's promise to Abraham cannot cancel that promise. He reads the word 'seed', meaning offspring, as pointing to one person, Christ, even though the word usually means descendants as a group, which is how Paul himself uses it in verse 29.

Why the law was given (vv. 19-22)

Paul says the law was added 'because of transgressions' and only until Christ came; readers differ on whether he means it was meant to expose wrongdoing or to restrain it, and his brief remark in verse 20 about a go-between, probably Moses, is famously hard to explain. The law is not against God's promise, he says, but it cannot give life, so the promise comes through 'faith in Jesus Christ' (the Greek can also mean Jesus' own faithfulness).

The law as a minder (vv. 23-25)

Paul pictures life under the law as being held in custody, then as being in the care of the household slave who watched over a boy and walked him to school until he grew up. The two translations name this figure differently ('guardian', 'tutor'), but either way he is a temporary minder whose job ends now that faith in Christ has come.

One family in Christ (vv. 26-29)

Through faith they are all God's children, and Paul pictures baptism as putting on Christ like clothing, so being Jew or non-Jew, slave or free, male or female does not decide who belongs to Abraham's family and inherits its promise. Christians agree that verse 28 means equal standing before God, but they differ on how far it should change roles in church and society.

Key verse: Galatians 3:26

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on what Paul means by 'works of the law' and being made right with God: Protestants have traditionally heard a rejection of earning God's favor by any good deeds, many scholars today think he mainly means Jewish identity markers like circumcision and food laws, and Catholic and Orthodox Christians understand being made right as including real inner change, not only a declared verdict.

Something to think about

Where in your life does belonging feel like something you had to earn, and where does it feel simply given?