Ben Brown

© 2003

    "Indian Giver!" Do you remember saying that as a kid or hearing someone else say it to you? It's what we called other kids and what others called us when someone went back on their word. Why going back on a promise is unfairly associated with Indians, I don't know. This characterization is unfortunate. However, the moral value that came to be associated with the label "Indian Giver" was very important to us when we were growing up. We were taught that when we promised to give something to someone, we had better deliver. We learned that a promise is a promise and no matter what circumstances come up, we had better come through.

    Aren't you glad that God is not an "Indian Giver?" When He makes a promise to us, He is certain to come through. God will never go back on what He promised He will do. The Judaizers were suggesting that God did in fact go back on His word. They said that the promise of God to Abraham was changed when the Mosaic Law came into effect. When the law was established, they thought keeping it was a condition God added for receiving His blessing.

    Before we study Paul's response to the Judaizers' claim that God changed His promise, we need to review Galatians 3:6-14 to pick up the flow of the passage.

    You will remember that Paul went back to the Old Testament and used the example of Abraham to demonstrate that the blessings of God are received on the basis of faith alone and are not based on works at all.

    God made an unconditional promise to Abraham. Abraham responded to God's covenant promise by trusting Him to do what He said He would do. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham received God's blessing throughout his lifetime because he trusted God.

    Paul demonstrated that all people, both Jews & Pagans alike, who want to be identified with Abraham and share in the blessings God promised to him have to follow in his footsteps. They have to be identified with Abraham by trusting God as he did. The real "sons of Abraham" are not his physical descendants as the Judaizers would have had us to believe. The real "sons of Abraham" are people who trust God. God's blessing is received on the basis of faith.

    The Judaizers stubbornly clung to the law as the basis for pleasing God. They taught that to be acceptable to God and receive His blessing, you have to keep the rules. Paul corrected the Judaizers error by pointing out that all who rely on the law are under a curse. No one is declared righteous by obeying the law, nor is anyone made acceptable and pleasing to God by keeping the law. According to the law, we are all condemned because none of us are able to do everything written in God's law all the time.

    While law can't produce blessing because we can't keep all its demands, we can and will receive God's blessing on the basis of faith. All who have trusted in Christ are free from the curse of the law because Christ paid the price for us that we should have paid. Because of what Christ did, those who trust Him receive the blessing promised to Abraham. Through faith, we not only receive the blessing of being declared righteous, but also the blessing of a rich, abundant life that is pleasing to God.

    As was emphasized last week, we are faced in Scripture with an either/or proposition, not a both/and. Either we will trust Christ and receive God's promised blessing or we will try to make it on our own and find ourselves under the law's curse. There is no middle ground.

    Aren't you glad that receiving God's promised blessing is by faith alone and that God won't change His promise by adding more conditions later!?

    "Just a minute," the Judaizers would object. "God did change His promise. Faith isn't the only basis for receiving God's blessing. That might have been the case for Abraham, but when the law came into effect, things changed. Now, you have to have faith and keep the rules for God to bless you!"

The Judaizers' Claim:

    Abraham received God's blessing through faith,

        but things changed when the law was introduced.

    The Judaizers admitted that Abraham was declared righteous and that he enjoyed God's blessing by faith. However, they argued that this happened several hundred years before the law was given. When the law took effect, things changed.

    The Judaizers claimed that God's later revelation of the Mosaic Law was intended to add something new to the simpler basis by which God dealt with Abraham. The Law of Moses was added to the covenant with Abraham as a condition for receiving God's promised blessing. They would say, "If you want to have a life that is pleasing to God and desire to enjoy His blessing, you have to keep the rules."

Paul's response:

    Premise #1     People don't go back on their word (3:15):

                            No one changes a human covenant once it has been ratified.

        How people do things:    Once a covenant has been ratified:

                                                It can't be set aside.

                                                It can't have conditions added.

    To illustrate how human covenants usually work, the IRS has established a tax free trust fund called an irrevocable trust. When people put money into an irrevocable trust, they sign an agreement that they won't touch the funds and that they will be used only for the intended purpose that is defined when the trust is set up.

    What happens to a person who puts a large amount of money in an irrevocable trust and decides later that he wants to change the terms of the agreement? Can he change his mind? No. Once an irrevocable trust document is signed and the money is deposited, nothing about the terms of the agreement can be changed.

    If people don't change a ratified human covenant, then how could we expect that God could do something like that? People aren't "Indian givers," and neither are Indians, so how could we say that God is one?

    Paul builds on his first premise with a second premise in verse 16:

    Premise #2:    God has made a promise (3:16)

    God's promise was made to Abraham.

         Genesis 22:17-18: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as

    numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your

    descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through 

    your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have 

    obeyed me."

    God's promise was made to Abraham's seed.

         Genesis 22:18: " . . . and through your offspring all nations on earth will 

    be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

    Just as it is in the English language, the Greek and Hebrew term for seed, though it appears in the singular form, can refer to one seed or to many seeds, if it is used in a collective sense. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul explains the quoted passage from Genesis to be referring to a single seed and not many seeds.

    Why is it so important that we understand that seed is singular and not plural?

    It is critical because it demonstrates that a particular seed or individual was the one to whom the promise to Abraham was ultimately given and through whom this promise would ultimately be fulfilled. Paul identifies for us who this individual is--it is Christ.

    It was not through Abraham's physical descendants in general, but through Christ in particular that the promise given to Abraham and to us was ultimately fulfilled. Abraham's seed is Christ. Christ is the One through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed.

          Again Paul writes, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.

    The Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to

    your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ."

    How is it significant to us that the promise was made to Abraham and to Christ?

    Abraham's seed includes those who trust God as Abraham did. Because we are in Christ, we participate in the blessing God promised to Abraham's seed. In Christ, we are heirs of the promised blessings of God. Our receiving the blessing is not based on our keeping the law just as the blessing promised to Abraham didn't depend on the law. We receive God's blessing through promise on the basis of our faith in Christ.

Conclusion:

    A covenant previously ratified by God can't be revoked 430 years later (3:17).

    God made and ratified a covenant promise to Abraham and his seed, and to us. The law came 430 years after the final confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant with Jacob. If the law put conditions on the blessing promised by God, it would have rendered useless the promise God made.

    Again, going back to the analogy Paul started with, if human covenants cannot be set aside nor have conditions added to them once they are ratified, how could a covenant God makes be set aside? The fact is, God didn't, wouldn't, and couldn't do something like that. This was the false notion of the Judaizers; not something God ever thought of doing.

    According to how covenants work, nothing could have changed the promise made to Abraham, to Christ, and to us once it was ratified. When the law came into effect, its purposes did not change the unconditional nature of the covenant promise, nor did the law's purposes change the basis through which the covenant blessings are received--by faith!

    The law did have important purposes. Pastor Porter will explain these after the Missions Conference. However, the law's purpose was never to add conditions for receiving the blessing promised to Abraham and thereby render useless the promise God made.

    God's blessing can't be received based on obeying the law (3:18a)

    What if the Judaizers argued, "Why can't God's blessing be based on God's promise and on obeying the law?"

    Paul answers this question in the beginning of verse 18. To insist that blessing depends on keeping the law places the inheritance on an entirely different basis. The blessing of God would no longer be based on God's promise, but on our performance.

    To add law to promise nullifies the concept of promise. Law and promise are fundamentally different and cannot be combined as a dual basis for receiving God's blessing. The blessing of God depends on one or the other--law or promise. If the inheritance is based on obeying the law, it can't be based on God's promise. If the inheritance is based on God's promise, it can't be based on the law.

    God's blessing is based on God's promise (3:18b).

    How did Abraham receive the inheritance?

    The inheritance was freely given to Abraham through promise. It was not something Abraham earned, but it was his by God's grace and through faith.

    What does Paul mean by "the inheritance?"

    The inheritance refers to all the blessings God promised to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant. It includes the position of being counted righteous. It also includes the blessing of a rich, abundant life that is pleasing to God.

    How do we receive God's blessing today?

    Since Abraham received God's inheritance as a free gift through a promise, then his heirs must be given God's blessing on the same basis. The blessings of God are received through God's promise by faith and not through our performance of the law.

What are the implications of this passage for our lives today?

1.    God does not bless us based on our performance of the law. 

       God blesses us when we trust Him.

    Most of us at Pleasant View Bible Church understand that the inherited spiritual blessing of salvation; of being declared righteous does not depend on our performance. We understand that the blessing of salvation is ours through faith in Christ.

    However, as it relates to receiving blessing in our day to day lives, do we think that blessing depends on our performance? God's blessings come to us when we trust Him. They are not given or withheld depending on how well we perform in keeping the rules.

2.    Like Abraham, we can trust God to keep His promises.

    God's very integrity is at stake in regards to making sure that the unconditional promise made to Abraham and to us is kept. In the symbolic ceremony of ratification of the Abrahamic Covenant, only God passed through the two pieces of the sacrificed animal (Genesis 15:17-21). Ordinarily, both parties to a covenant would walk between the slain animal whose blood would symbolically ratify the agreement.

    The fact that only God passed through indicates He made the covenant. Abraham and God didn't both make the covenant. It was a unilateral covenant. God therefore accepts the obligation to fulfill the promise. It rests solely on Him. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant rests on God's promise, not on our performance; not on us obeying the rules.

    In the outworking of God's promise to Abraham and to us, God provided a son to Abraham and his wife, Sarah, even though they were well past child-bearing age at the time Isaac was conceived. In the outworking of God's promise, God told Abraham after having had him spare Isaac's life on Mount Moriah, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." The fulfillment of this promise was the provision of God's Son, Jesus Christ, who died to redeem us from the law's curse.

    In the future, God will ultimately fulfill the promise made in the Abrahamic Covenant though the fulfillment of the New Covenant that was inaugurated by Christ through the shedding of His blood. In fulfillment of the New Covenant, which the prophet Jeremiah mentions in Jeremiah 31:31-34, God will put a new heart in the people of Israel and bring them to a personal knowledge of Him. He will forgive the wickedness of His chosen people Israel and remember their sins no more. He will give His people the inner ability to obey His righteous standards so that they can experience the complete fulfillment of both the physical and spiritual blessings promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. We can trust God to keep His promise. He has perfectly kept His promises in the past and we can trust Him to continue to do so in the future.

3.    We have good news for those who live in constant fear, always feeling like they

       can't do enough to merit God's blessing.

    When people depend on their own performance to receive blessing rather than trusting God to do what He promised, they experience the incredible frustration of never knowing if they have done enough. Many live with fear wondering how much they must do to be able to receive the blessing of being declared righteous before God. Many others have made a decision to trust Christ, yet they live in fear, wondering how much they must do to please God with their lives today.

    We have good news for those who think that God's blessing depends on our keeping the rules. The good news is that God's blessing is based on promise and received through faith. The good news is that God's blessing can't be based on obeying the rules as many people think. This is good news for those who have tried to receive God's blessing by keeping the rules only to find themselves constantly feeling cursed. There are many people out there who need to hear the good news we have to share.

    Consider the following quote from a prominent religious leader that appeared in the New York Times:

         Church teaching is that I don't know, at any given moment, what

    my eternal future will be. I can hope, pray, do my very best--but I still

    don't know. Pope John Paul II doesn't know absolutely that he will go

    to heaven, nor does Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

                                                 (Cardinal O'Connor in the New York Times, February 1, 1990)

    Consider the responses of a couple of our neighbors here in Warsaw in answer to the following question: "Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, 'Why should I let you into My heaven?' What would you say?"

    One said, "I hope I have lived the life I should from His teaching." This person's hope is not hope at all. When we depend on what we do, there is no basis for confidence that we have done enough. In fact, there never will be, because we never can do enough to become acceptable to God.

    The hope we as believers have is so different than the false hope of those depending on their performance in keeping the law. The hope we have is a confident hope of what we know will happen because God promised and we trust Him.

    "Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, 'Why should I let you into My heaven?' What would you say?" Another neighbor of ours answered, "Good works, can't know for sure."

    Still another said, "Not sure, things I've done, how I raised my kids."

    When we trust our own performance and think that we must somehow earn the inheritance of God, we never know when we have done enough. We have good news for those living under this frustration. The good news is that while no one will ever be able to perform well enough or be good enough to receive God's blessing, we can receive His promised blessings when we trust Christ.

4.    If you have never done so, trust Christ in order that you might receive God's

       blessing.

    Stop depending on your performance of good deeds. Stop depending on your being "good" and keeping the rules. Your performance will only result in your being cursed and condemned. The law cannot make you righteous because you can't do all it requires all of the time.

    As we've seen earlier this morning, the promise to Abraham was also given to his seed, who is Christ, and ultimately fulfilled in Him. The only way to participate in the promised blessings to Abraham is through faith in Christ. When we trust Christ and belong to Him, it is then that we are heirs of the promised blessing of God. Trust Christ in order that you might receive God's blessing of being declared righteous in the sight of God.

Conclusion:

    God's blessing is received through faith. Law can't produce God's blessing because we can't perfectly keep the law. God's blessing is not based on our keeping the rules just as the blessing promised to Abraham didn't depend on his keeping the rules. God's blessing is received on the basis of promise. It can't be based on our obeying the law.

    God has made a promise of blessing to Abraham and to Christ and by extension to us who are in Christ through faith in Him. We can trust God to keep His promise. He will not go back on His word. The law didn't change His promise. Nothing is the past, present, or future will be able to change God's promise. God's promises are unchangeable. We can trust Him.

    When you have lost your job, when you are in financial crisis, when you are struggling with a difficult relationship, how do you respond? Do believe that God can use your circumstances, even difficult ones, to produce blessing in your life?

    When you are suffering through a trial, do you lay hold of the promises of God and trust that He will work in ways that will bring blessing? Or Do you have a legalistic understanding of what God is like? Do you think that He is somehow punishing you because you didn't measure up and that if you just try harder to keep the rules, then He might bless you?

    Stop thinking that God's blessing comes through your performance and start trusting God to receive His blessing. Rules keeping has never been the road to God's blessing and it never will be. God made a promise. He won't take it back. We can trust God to keep His unchangeable promise.