Generally, the last few verses of Galatians 3 would be broken into two sections with one section focusing on verses 19-25 and the purpose of the law and the other section being verses 26-29 and a believer’s present position due to justification by faith. Today, we will focus on the first part by looking at verses 19-25 and the purpose of the law.

The law’s purpose was never to save. Its purpose has always been to be a standard that would show us the magnitude of our sin, our need for grace, and, thus, lead us to Christ. The law was a temporary measure only until faith in Christ was inaugurated. Therefore, grace is superior to the law.

The account of the giving of the Law is impressive (Ex. 19). There were thunders and bolts of lightning, and the people were trembling with fear. Even Moses was trembling (Heb. 12:18–21). It was a dramatic event in comparison with the giving of the covenant to Abraham (Gen. 15), and, of course, the Judaizers were impressed with these emotional externals. But Paul points out that the Law is inferior to the covenant of promise in two ways: the law was temporary and it required a mediator.

The Judaizers argued that since the law came after Abraham, then the law had priority over grace (salvation by faith alone). To refute this point, Paul appeals to a permanently binding contract or will. Once a permanently binding contract is written and signed, it cannot be changed. Paul argues that God’s promise of salvation by faith to Abraham was a binding contract and that nothing, not even the law, could change it. This promise of permanence was made to Abraham and his seed, Christ. The singular use of seed (NIV, “offspring”) (compare Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7) was an allusion, not to Abraham’s many physical descendants, but to the coming Messiah who would be the conveyer of blessing (see Matt. 1:1)

The inheritance (i.e., justification by faith) was given as an unconditional gift to those who believed. Contrary to what the Judaizers taught, the message of justification given to Abraham is permanent and has priority over the later law.

In this section, Paul quotes Habakkuk, “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4; may also see “the just”). This statement is so important that the Holy Spirit inspired three New Testament books to explain it as mentioned before. Romans explains “the righteous” and tells how the sinner can be justified before God (Rom. 1:17). Galatians explains how the righteous “shall live”; and Hebrews discusses “by faith” (Heb. 10:38). Nobody could ever live “by Law” because the Law kills and shows the sinner he/she is guilty before God (Rom. 3:20; 7:7–11).

But a person might argue that it takes faith even to obey the Law; so in verse 12, Paul quotes Leviticus to prove that it is doing the Law, not believing it, that God requires (Lev. 18:5). The Law says, “Do and live!” but grace says, “Believe and live!”[1] Paul’s own experience (Phil. 3:1–10), as well as the history of Israel (Rom. 10:1–10), proves that works righteousness can never save the sinner; only faith righteousness can do that.

For the Christian to abandon faith and grace for Law and works is to lose everything amazing that the Christian can experience in their daily fellowship with the Lord. The Law cannot justify the sinner (Gal. 2:16); neither can it give them righteousness (Gal. 2:21). The Law cannot give the gift of the Spirit (Gal. 3:2), nor can it guarantee the spiritual inheritance that belongs to God’s children (Gal. 3:18). The Law cannot give life (Gal. 3:21), and the Law cannot give liberty (Gal. 4:8–10). So why would we go back to the Law?

Here Paul concluded the opening historical section of his letter by stating clearly that justification was not secured by human works of any kind but only through faith in Jesus Christ (2:16). This was the central thesis Paul was defending against certain Jewish-Christian missionaries who had come into Galatia insisting that Paul’s converts there submit to circumcision and other observances of the Jewish law in order to achieve a right standing before God.

The Judaizers pointed to the Law of Moses as the means to salvation. Paul demonstrates that Abraham, who preceded Moses by 430 years, was saved by faith and not self-effort. To further discredit the Judaizers’ emphasis on circumcision, Paul noted that Abraham was justified prior to his circumcision (Gen. 17:24). Therefore, the Judaizers could not argue that the law and circumcision were necessary for salvation because Abraham was saved apart from both of them.

Abraham’s real children are not his physical descendants but his spiritual descendants. His real children are those who believe God and are therefore justified by faith and not the law.

The sixty verses that make up Galatians 3 and 4 are some of the strongest writing that Paul ever penned. But, after all, he was in the middle of a fight! He was out to prove that salvation is by grace alone, and not by the works of the Law. His opponents had used every possible means to try to capture the churches of Galatia, and Paul was not going to fight them halfheartedly or let them win this important battle. Paul was no stranger to debates, and in these two chapters he certainly proves his abilities. His logic is indisputable.

Paul uses six different arguments to prove that God saves sinners through faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. He begins with the personal argument (Gal. 3:1–5) in which he asks the Galatians to recall their personal experience with Christ when they were saved.

It was obvious that these people had experienced something in their lives when Paul had first visited them; but the Judaizers had come along and convinced them that their experience was not complete. They needed something else, and that “something else” was obedience to the Law of Moses. These false teachers had bewitched them and turned them into fools. In calling them “fools” Paul is not violating Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:22), because two different words are used and two different ideas are expressed. Foolish in Galatians 3:1 means “spiritually dull” (see Luke 24:25), while the word Jesus used carries the idea of “a godless person.” Paul is declaring a fact; Jesus is warning against verbal abuse.

Verses 15-21 may represent the continuation of Paul’s confrontation with Peter, or it may represent a statement of the central point of his letter: that Christians are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

In verses 15-17, Paul is not denying that those who are Jews by birth are sinners, as are all Gentiles (rom 3:23). Rather, he is implying that Jews enjoy spiritual privileges (Rom 9:4-5) that should make them more knowledgeable about how to be justified before God (3:6; Gen 15:6). The Jews should have been more aware that no person could be declared righteous or justified by obedience to the Law of Moses (3:10-21).

Verse 16 is one of the most important verses in Galatians because in it Paul states the content of the gospel of grace. This is the first time Paul uses the word justified which means “to declare righteous.” Justification is the act of God, whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Jesus Christ.

In verse 21, Paul presents a brilliant conclusion. The very reason Christ died on the cross to pay for sin was because the law could not remove sin or impart righteousness. Grace provides what the law was powerless to provide—righteousness.

The simplest way to look at this section is that verses 15-16 are the transition to the content of the Gospel, while verses 17-21 show that grace does not promote sin.

Peter came from Jerusalem to Antioch. The first thing to note is Peter’s freedom then. He enjoyed fellowship with all the believers, Jews and Gentiles alike. To “eat with the Gentiles” meant to accept them, to put Jews and Gentiles on the same level as one family in Christ.

Raised as an orthodox Jew, Peter had a difficult time learning this lesson. Jesus had taught it while He was with Peter before the Crucifixion (Matt. 15:1–20). The Holy Spirit had reemphasized it when He sent Peter to the home of Cornelius, the Roman centurion (Acts 10). Furthermore, the truth had been accepted and approved by the conference of leaders at Jerusalem (Acts 15). Peter had been one of the key witnesses at that time.

In this final historical incident Paul related how he found it necessary to oppose even Peter, the reputed chief of the apostles, for conduct which threatened to compromise the gospel. The contrast with the previous section is dramatic. Paul had risked his life to carry the Gospel of God’s grace to the regions beyond, and he was not willing for the enemy to rob him or his churches of their liberty in Christ. It was this vigilance that led Paul into another dramatic encounter, this time with the Apostle Peter.

Having interrupted his narration of the Jerusalem meeting to describe the intrusion of the false brothers and the Titus test case, Paul now resumed the flow of his account he left off at the end of v. 2. In the Greek text vv. 6–10 constitute one long, convoluted sentence with several major ideas condensed into a difficult sequence of thought. The Jerusalem leaders added nothing to Paul’s message. They recognized that it was from God. They approved its truthfulness and completeness. They endorsed Paul and received him as a fellow apostle.

The two key themes in this first section of chapter 2 are the truth of the gospel and the unity of the church. In a moment of crisis, Paul found it necessary to stand adamantly, stubbornly, uncompromisingly against the heretical doctrine and illicit demands of the false brothers.

While chapter 2 continues Paul’s defense of his apostolic authority and the gospel he preached, he focused not on the source of his message but on its content. Further, whereas in chapter 1 he emphasized his independence from the other apostles, he now demonstrated that there was a basic unity between himself and them.

The chapter divides naturally into two major sections. In the first (2:1–10) Paul recounts an important meeting he had with the leaders of the Jerusalem church. The issue of circumcision, which now dominates the appeal being made to his Galatian converts by the false teachers, surfaced at this earlier meeting with reference to Titus, a Gentile believer whom Paul refused to have circumcised despite pressure from certain “false brothers.”

In contrast to legalism stands grace. The bag of grace has written on it the word faith. Under “faith” is written John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” In contrast to legalism, grace has no rules, code, or ritual. It is an invitation directly from the heart of God simply to believe and receive. It has no price tag. Paul states in another passage, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).

Paul stayed away from Jerusalem. Instead, he went to Arabia and then back to Damascus. His purpose in going to Arabia was to pray, study, and be alone with the Lord. It was three years before he went to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18). Interestingly, the apostles were taught by the Lord for three years; now it was Paul’s turn to spend three years also being trained by Christ. It was a dramatic change to go from persecutor to apostle of Christ. Paul needed this time to be taught by the Lord so his Christian theology could be forged.