Galatians 3:15 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Justification is by Faith, not Works

1-14. The Apostle upbraids the Galatians with their speedy change from faith to legal observances, reminding them of the fact that their reception of the Spirit had not been through the works of the Law, but through faith, and appealing both to the testimony of their own consciences and to the teaching of sacred history in the parallel case of Abraham.

Paraphrase. '(1) You thoughtless Galatians have surely been bewitched. I told you plainly of Christ dying for your sins, and you accepted this salvation for your own. Why have you turned away from the Saviour? (2) Was it by obeying the Jewish Law, or by trusting in Christ, that you received those gifts of the Spirit which were so manifest among you when you first believed? (3) What folly, then, to desert the life of the Spirit for that of outward observance! (4) Why endure persecutions for the Gospel if you so lightly esteem it? (5) Have not all your spiritual gifts and the miraculous powers which are manifest among you been due entirely to your faith? (6) You read in the Scriptures that Abraham was accounted righteous on account of his faith, and your experience is an illustration of the same principle. (7) You want to be sons of Abraham. I tell you that his true spiritual children are those who have a faith like his. (8) In the promise made to him, because of his faith, you hear the principle of the Gospel announced in advance. (9) It is, therefore, those who base their lives on faith who share the blessing assured to him. (10) The Law, on the other hand, has no power to bless, but only to curse; for it pronounces a curse upon all who do not obey it in every detail. (11) How impossible salvation is on this principle the Scriptures plainly declare. (12) The Law does not rest on faith. It only justifies those who fulfil its works. (13) But Christ has come to redeem us from the curse which the Law pronounces; and He has accomplished that by taking the curse upon Himself, as His crucifixion makes evident. (14) And the purpose of His saving death was to secure that the Gentiles might receive through their faith the blessing which Abraham received through his, and gain the gift of the Spirit.'

Related Commentaries of Galatians 3:1

Galatians 3:1-29

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounteda to him for righteousness.

7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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.

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.