Gal. 3:26-29

“Fulfilled In Christ”

The Galatian Church, primarily filled with Gentile believers, is struggling with the question of how they are to receive the promises that were made to Abraham.  How are they to be incorporated into the people of God and to receive the promises of salvation?  Paul originally explained that the promises are fulfilled through faith alone in the work of Christ alone.  But along came a group from Jerusalem, known to us as Judaizers, who said that if Gentiles are to receive the promises they are to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law. 

Basically these were Jewish men who had come to believe in Jesus as the Christ and thought that they way into the New Covenant was through age-old Jewish proselytizing methods.  According to Judaism, when a Gentile wanted to convert to their religion, they would have to come by circumcision and begin to live according to the Mosaic Law. 

But Paul (2:14), and latter Peter (Acts 15:10), makes a strong point from the very beginning, how can these Jewish Christians impose upon the Gentiles a yoke that even Jews were unable to bear.  Peter says:

“Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”

The Judaizers were claiming that before a Gentile could receive the promises of Abraham they had to first become a Jew and submit to the Law of Moses. 

But Paul argues that the purpose of the Mosaic Law was never ultimately to give the promises.  He argues that though the Mosaic Law theoretically held out the promise of life upon obedience to its commands (3:10, 12) God never intended the Law to give life because He knew that Israel could not fulfill it (3:21).  Rather, the promises to Abraham were always given through faith alone.  Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (3:6).  In fact, Paul argues that if you come to Christ by faith alone, then you are the true sons of Abraham and you have been blessed with the promises along with him (3:7, 9, 11).  You have been justified before God, not by the works of the Law, but by faith alone in Christ alone. 

So why then the Mosaic Law?  Paul argues for three reasons:  1.) to reveal and awaken Israel to sin (3:19; cf. Rom 3:20; 7:7); 2.) to increase the level of sinning by enticing Israel to commit more sin (Rom. 5:20); 3.) to imprison Israel in their sin to ultimately drive them to Christ (3:23-24). 

Sometimes, these verses are applied to all people, including Gentiles, saying that the purpose of the Mosaic Law is to drive all men, everywhere to Christ.  But note, that is not Paul’s argument.  He is dealing with a specific people, Israel, not all people in general.  No where does Paul argue that they way Gentiles are brought to faith in Christ is by first being imprisoned by the Law of Moses.  Surely, they are convicted by the eternal moral Law of God that both predates the Mosaic Law and is subsumed under the Mosaic Law.  For Paul argues in Rom. 2:14-15:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts . . .

In 1 Cor. 9:21, Paul also argues:

To those who are without law, (Paul lives) without law, though (Paul understands that in the New Covenant he is not lawless) but under the law of Christ.

Nowhere do you find Paul arguing that Gentiles are to be shut up under the Law of Moses in order to be driven to Christ.  Paul strongly opposes any such thinking.  And no where do you find Paul using the Mosaic Law in such a manner in his evangelism to the Gentiles. 

Rather, Paul uses the grace of the Gospel and the weight of the Law of Christ, which we find in the Sermon on the Mount and the gospel imperatives of the New Covenant, to draw men to Christ.  Paul’s gospel is directed toward compelling men with the “love of Christ” not the Mosaic Law.  If Paul does choose to warn unbelievers about their imminent destruction it always centers on Christ and His coming, not on Moses.

Notice, that in Paul’s argument, the Mosaic Law has a beginning point and an end point:  it was added 430 years after the promises were given to Abraham (3:17) and it comes to an end when it finally serves its purpose in the life of Israel with the coming of Christ (3:19, 25).    

The Mosaic Law has served its purpose.  It hasn’t been simply abrogated, its been fulfilled.  It’s reached its goal in Christ.  Now, that eternal, moral law that was the foundation of the Mosaic Law never changes and is carried over into the Law of Christ.  But the ethic of the New Covenant believer is no longer centered in Moses, but in Jesus Christ.  This Paul will explain more fully in chaps. 5 & 6.  But for now, Paul wants you to understand that the Mosaic Law has been fulfilled and you are no longer under its obligations. 

When Paul says that the Law of Moses “has become our pedagogue to lead us to Christ” he is using personal pronouns which at first seem to contradict what I have just said.  It seems as if Paul is arguing that the Mosaic Law was used to bring us, as Gentiles, to Christ.  But notice that Paul’s whole argument is dealing with the order of salvation for all mankind, but he is looking at the purpose of the Mosaic Law within redemptive history.  And because Israel, under the old covenant, is in covenant relations with the church of Jesus Christ, they are our people.  We find our history, as believers, in their history.  In covenant union, we were Israel under age.  There is covenant continuity with the people of God.  There is only one people of God who are in covenant with Him through the promises of Abraham.  This is why Paul argues in v. 29 that we ARE Abraham’s descendents.  There aren’t two separate people of God:  an earthly people and a spiritual people.  Through Christ, the New Israel, we have become united to the fathers of our faith.  This is why Paul can say in 1 Cor. 10:6 that Israel’s history happened for us.  Why?  Because we are Israel.  Through the fulfillment of Jesus Christ, as the New Israel, we have been incorporated to faithful Israel and have become the New Israel in Christ.  This is Paul’s whole argument in Eph. 2:11-22 <READ>.

In union with Jesus Christ, all the promises that have been made to God’s covenant people of old are fully ours.  This is the purpose of these final verses found in chap. 3.

Notice Paul’s emphatic assurance to these Gentile believers by the use of “all” (vv. 26, 27, 28).  You “all” have been made “sons of God.”  Why?  Because through faith you have been united to God’s only-begotten Son.  Jesus is uniquely the Son of God.  The eternal Son became flesh, that through that incarnation, you in your humanity might also become sons of God.  Notice that Paul is speaking to all believers in the church, both male and female.  Even the women of the church have become “sons.”  Why?  Because it is the “son” in this culture that inherits the blessings of the father.  In Christ no one is left out of the inheritance.  The daughters are equally treated as sons in that they too receive all the blessings of the Father.  In Christ, you are all “sons”; you are all one together in Christ (v. 28). 

Notice how Paul’s whole argument is coming into focus here.  How is it that you are all sons of God?  Is it, according to the Judaizers, through the Mosaic Law?  No!  It is only through faith in Christ.  Please see the radical transformation that has taken place in the New Covenant.  No longer are the promises given to those who obey the Law, but rather because we have the One who has come and obeyed the Law perfectly for us, because we now live in Christ, we have received the promises.  We have become full sons in Christ. 

For Paul this union with Christ is not merely some sort of metaphysical exercise that takes place in the spiritual or Heavenly realm alone.  Rather, it is pictured and sealed to us through a very tangible, concrete act upon us.  Notice again Paul’s use of “all.”  Baptism is a true means of grace that God has given to us to assure us of our union with Christ and being therefore incorporated into all the promises of the New Covenant. 

Baptism is not something the church does in response to Christ.  It is not a means of “our” profession of faith.  Rather, baptism is what God does to us.  We don’t baptize ourselves anymore than we put Christ on ourselves.  Baptism is God’s means of grace to incorporate us into the family of God.  It is God’s means to make us sons by uniting us to His Son.  Just as Jesus Christ received a common baptism in the Jordan, we know receive baptism into Him. 

Our Confession of Faith looks at baptism this way:

Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world (WCF 28:1).

Notice that our Confession doesn’t try to qualify baptism anymore than Paul does.  Very simply, it is means of grace, not only uniting us to the visible church, but also to Christ.  

Paul speaks of baptism figuratively as our clothing.  It means that in baptism God has clothed us with Christ in the sense that we have taken on His person and His identity has now become ours.  His life is now ours.  That is why you are now called “sons.”  Because Jesus alone is the unique Son of God, you have now taken on His identity so that before the Father you too have now become “sons of God.”

What a glorious picture!  Paul therefore ends his argument on how Gentiles are given the promises made to Abraham.  Since you now belong to Christ and solely because you belong to Christ, then you “are” Abraham’s descendants, which means you are true heirs of the promise.  The promise made to Abraham was ultimately made to True Israel, the promised Seed.  Originally, from the very beginning, God had Jesus Christ in mind as the true fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.  He was the Seed that would receive the promise.  It is only because of this Seed, Jesus Christ, that Abraham and his true sons received the promise.  The shadow of Christ’s fulfillment was cast thousands of years back upon Abraham as the fulfillment of the promise.  Even Abraham received the promise solely on the basis of Jesus Christ alone. 

But what was true of Abraham is also true of us.  We now have received that same promise through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.  We have been united to this Promised Seed and therefore we have taken on His life.  Just as He was the heir of the promise, so now in blessed union with Him, we have become the heir of the promise.  (cf. 2 Cor. 1:18-22)

Amen!  - SDG -