Paul reminds the Galatians that the law was really quite late on the human scene. Abraham lived long before the law even existed. God had made promises to Abraham and to those who through faith became children of Abraham through faith. The law, the late comer, does not cancel God’s promises at all. He argues that God’s promises to Abraham had been signed, sealed, and delivered. They were “ratified” by God himself in Genesis 15. The promise of the blessings to Abraham was pointing at the Messiah, not the whole nation that had its physical roots in Abraham. This is the way Paul explains it in Galatians 3:15-17, “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 off spring. It does not say, ‘And to off 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 afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.”
The blessing promised was specifically for Christ and then all those who are children of Abraham through faith in Christ. The blessings are mediated to mankind through the promised offspring. Those promises that God made to Abraham regarding Christ have come to pass. The promise has been ratified and nothing can change that. It is through Christ that every nation will be blessed just as God promised. The law, the latecomer, didn’t change that. The blessings are not doled out for obedience of a legal system that was established 430 years after the contract had been signed by all parties. The law changes nothing!
It’s obvious that the “promise” given to Abraham is far superior to the law that was given to Moses. As the author of the book to the Hebrews points out the Law was mediated through angels. The promises to Abraham came directly from God. Paul is going to spend some time explaining God’s purpose for the law. Far from annulling God’s promises to Abraham, the law serves the promises of God in several specific ways. The primary way as Paul will explain later, is that the Law pointed us to God’s promise by exposing our sin. By revealing our sinfulness it leads us to Christ. The law does not save us. It does not bless us in anyway. It merely condemns us. Why would we ever want to return to living under the law when we have God’s grace? In light of the finished work of Jesus, it offends God to go back to the law. Jesus is what we need. Jesus is all we need. Jesus paid it all! We worship Him because of who He is what He has done. Spurgeon said that God’s grace meet us where the law has left us. “If the sinner is dead, it gives him life; if he be filthy, it gives him washing; if he be naked, it gives him clothing. Is the sinner hungry? It feeds him. Is he thirsty? It gives him drink. Do the sinner’s wants grow even larger after he becomes a saint, or has he a deeper apprehension of them? Then the supplies are just as deep as his necessity.”