Continuing his tour through the OT, showing that the gospel is not something new that he dreamed up, Paul takes a minute to remind us why the law offers us no hope.

In these verses Paul links together six different OT passages to show that the gospel is an ancient promise.

The doctrines we have been discussing pertaining to God’s eternal decree are difficult. It their wisdom, the framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith reminded us that they are to be handled with care.

Through a series of rhetorical questions, Paul gets at the heart of the issue with the Galatians.

Paul makes clear. We are either justified by faith in Christ or by law. It can’t be both. These two propositions are mutually exclusive.

If we are dead to the law, how then do we live the Christian life? By faith in Christ.

The point of the law is to show us our sin and lead us to Jesus. If we don’t let it do that, but try to justify ourselves by our law keeping, we only make ourselves greater transgressors of God’s law.

We are always tempted to offer our works for our justification. Paul reminds us, that will always fail. We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

Here we have the difficult other side of the election coin. The key to this doctrine is recognizing that it is actually biblical.

Paul was committed to the gospel. He refused to have the truth if the gospel shaped by fear of man. When Peter made that mistake, Paul had something to say about it.