Raise you up from the evil sleep, make you all the breath of dawn, make you All right, everybody, welcome to Chester A.R.P. Church devotional podcast. Listen, I'm so glad you're with us. Clint Davis, your host. We jump into Galatians chapter three this morning, beginning in verse 15. This is what Paul writes to the church in Galatia. To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and to all springs, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterwards, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by law, it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise of faith, or the promise by faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Now before faith, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you were baptized into Christ to put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are a Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Now Paul here, continuing in this line of reasoning, saying that the promise of God was given to Abraham by faith, and therefore we are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the offspring of Abraham, the one to whom the promise pointed. He was the great offspring, the one in whom the world would be blessed. That goes back to Genesis chapter 12. Paul's main argument has been, so far, if you have been saved by grace through faith, why put yourself under the law? If you put yourself under a portion of the law, you put yourself under the whole law, and you are now accountable to fulfilling the whole law perfectly, even if you say that there are portions of it you must adhere to. Well, Paul now takes that argument a little bit further and says, originally, The promise was given to Abraham and received by faith. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham acted on faith. God says, go and follow me. I'm gonna take you. I'll give you a great land, a great name, and I'll give you descendants and make you into a nation. And Abraham followed the Lord. He believed God and he followed him. And as he followed him, he went into the promised land. That's the beginning of the Jewish faith or the understanding of the Jewish faith that we find in Genesis chapter 12. Now Paul says if God gave that promise to Abraham and Abraham was justified by faith, made right before God by faith, the law can't change that promise, that covenant promise that God made with Abraham because that covenant promise was ratified with Abraham and it cannot be added to later by someone else. And 430 years passed before the law, as we understand it through Moses, came to the Jewish people. They were saved by grace through faith from the hand of the Egyptians. God chose them, brought them out. He took them to Mount Sinai. He took them on top of the mountain. And then he gave them the law through the intermediary, who was Moses, who received the covenant law of God that was to give to the people. But that law begins with, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who brought you out of the house of bondage. The law is a response of gratitude, a response of thanksgiving to God for the work of salvation he has already worked within them. The law's purpose then is to show us where we fall short and to be a guardian, as it were, as we prepare to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. For years, the Israelites followed the law to keep them in line, to keep their depravity from being so great, and to point out to them the reality of their sin and their need for a savior. And so as the law was lived out, it was pointing them of the coming Messiah. So if it was the ceremonial law, it was pointing them to the coming sacrifice, the coming high priest. If it was the moral law, it was showing them where they fell short, but showing them they need one who kept it perfectly. and the point of the law was to guard put guardrails and to lead but it was never to save we cannot be saved by the law we are saved by grace through faith in the lord jesus christ that's why paul says we're all sons and daughters of abraham by faith and if by faith there's neither jew nor greek nor gentile nor slave nor free etc because we are one in Christ, meaning all of us have the opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him. It doesn't mean our ethnic differences go away. It doesn't mean our gender differences go away. By no means is that what Paul is saying. What Paul is saying is that is not what distinguishes us any longer, for male and female have the opportunity to become children of the living God, sons and daughters of Abraham. And we are children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we walk with Him. That's an incredibly strong and encouraging thing for us to think about. You are the Lord's, and you are the Lord's by faith in Him. Don't go put yourself under that law. It does no good for you when it opens you up and makes you adhere to it in its fullness, holds you accountable to it in its fullness. But secondly, it can't save you. It's there to show you your sin. It's there to show you what you need. It's there to show you that the Savior is coming and it is to point you to the great Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. You guys have a good day. God bless you. Trust in Jesus. I'll catch you next time.