To trust the law for your salvation means disregarding Christ. You cannot trust both simultaneously.

When we choose not to trust the promises of God and attempt to fulfill them in our own power, it brings difficulty and heartache into our lives. God’s promises bring freedom while attempting to do things on our own or through our own strength leads to captivity (spiritual).

As Paul continues his letter to the Galatians, two things are seen in this passage. One, we are set free from the bondage of the law through Jesus and two, even though he is harsh, Paul loves these believers and desires to see them hold true to the Gospel and walk in the freedom of the Gospel.

Paul says that the law does serve a purpose. It’s purpose is not to save us, but to point us to Jesus who is our salvation

Continuing his assault against the law as a means of salvation, Paul says that our inability to fulfill the demands of the law leaves us cursed but that we were rescued from the curse through Jesus, not the law. To defend salvation by grace through faith, he discusses the covenant made to Abraham how it was not fulfilled in the Jews, but in Jesus and those whose faith is put in Him.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul began by defending the gospel and Jesus as the source of the gospel and his apostleship. Now, Paul starts attacking the faulty belief that salvation be earned by the law. In this passage, he does this by reminding them that their righteousness was gifted through faith, not works of the law.

Justification comes through faith, not the law. Sanctification comes through faith, not the law. Paul writes this because Peter had turned his back on the truths of the gospel and back to the law out of fear of Jewish leaders. Paul has to confront Peter to remind him of the Gospel and why we are dependent on it.

Paul started Galatians confronting the Galatian churches about them abandoning the Gospel for the false gospel the Judaizers had introduced. In this passage, Paul defends the authenticity of the Gospel he preached by defending his apostleship and by showing the Galatians that the Gospel did not come from man or the disciples, but from Jesus Christ.

In this passage, we look at God's promise to encourage and build up those who have been suffering for their faith.