The promise having once been given, no subsequent enactment like the Law can interfere with it. (Similarly Heb. emphasizes the priority in time of Melchizedek to Aaron.) Even in human affairs, a scrap of paper which records an agreement is not torn up without tragic and memorable consequences. (It has been thought that a will is specially referred to, and in the Gr. rather than the Rom. form; perhaps confirming the view that the epistle went to S. Galatia.) Elsewhere (Galatians 4:24) there are two covenants and (2 Corinthians 3:14) one is old (cf. Jeremiah 31:31, and often in Hebrews). Here, the Covenant OT promise or NT fulfilment contrasts with the alien institution of Law. (2) The very language of Genesis 12:3 (Genesis 18:18) points to Christ; seed in the singular, not seeds (plural); a rabbi-like subtlety the Heb. language never speaks of seeds. For the figure 430 cf. (Genesis 15:13) Exodus 12:40 (LXX, however, reads 215). (3) If the Law was the way of life, the promise falls to the ground; which is unthinkable. The true purpose of the Law is to increase human guilt [(a) by provoking more sins, Romans 7:7 ff., (b) by completing the conditions of account-ableness]. For a Jewish mind this is the hardest of all Paul's hard sayings; it occurs also Romans 5:20; 1 Corinthians 15:56. (4) In a sense, the Law bears the mark of inferior agencies. According to later Jewish theology it came primarily from angels rather than from God (Deuteronomy 33:2 [Heb. text, not LXX], Acts 7:53; Hebrews 2:2); hence the need of a human mediator (Moses) to act for the crowd of angels as single representative of their joint endeavour; God, being one, would have no similar need of an intermediary. (This is Ritschl's explanation. Heb. and 1 Tim. from a different point of view call Jesus mediator of the new covenant between God and man.) [Ritschl's view, which had been put forward by others, is very attractive, since it is that naturally suggested by the words, and it may be correct. It is open to the objection that Moses is not regarded in the OT as mediator between the angels and Israel. But this is perhaps not insuperable (cf. Acts 7:38). Lightfoot takes the first clause to mean that the very idea of mediation implies two parties for whom the mediator acts. The Law is a contract between two parties, valid only while both fulfil its terms. It is accordingly contingent, not absolute. The second clause asserts that God, the giver of the promise, is one; there are not two parties, it depends on God alone. He is all, the recipients nothing. The promise is therefore absolute and unconditional. This gives a fairly good sense, but Paul would probably have expressed it more clearly and in a different way. The passage is extremely difficult. B. Jowett says it has received 430 interpretations (Meyer says above 250). No confidence can be felt in any interpretation. Lü cke regarded the verse as a gloss, and this view has been revived by Bacon and Emmet. A. S. P.] (5) Yet the Law, though temporary and imperfect, is part of God's plan. It is in no antagonism to the promise. The suggestion shocks Paul; his words have given it no warrant! If one held that law saved, one would be undermining the promise. No; law drives to despair a second strange harmony between the rival religious systems.
Related Commentaries of Galatians 3:15
Galatians 3:15-21
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant,b yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.