Galatians 3:15-20 (NIV)
Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.
The concept of covenant is an important one. God made several covenants with His people over the course of history.
- The Adamic Covenant – Adam and all his progeny were commanded to multiply and fill the earth, and to conquer it. (Genesis 1:28)
- The Noahic Covenant – God promised never to destroy the whole earth and everyone on it with a global flood. Mankind was required to spread out and fill the earth, to not eat meat with the lifeblood in it, and to hold each other accountable for the blood of their fellow people. The sign of this covenant is the rainbow.
- The Abrahamic Covenant – Out of all the people of the world, God chose one man, Abram, to be the founder of the nation that He would call His own. God promised to make Abram the father of many nations, one of which would become His chosen people, and to use them to establish the nation of Israel after they had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years (Genesis 15:1-21). Abram’s name was changed to Abraham as a sign of the covenant, and his part was to walk before God and be blameless, and, as a sign of the covenant, to be circumcised, as well as to ensure that all his descendants after him were circumcised (Genesis 17:1-14).
- The Mosaic Covenant – This was the covenant that God made with the whole nation of Israel after He released them from bondage in Egypt. God promised to make them His people, to give them a land to live in, and to give them victory over their enemies. Their part was to worship Him only, and to obey His commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).
Paul notes that these covenants, each made by the eternal God, are eternal themselves. Each is intended to draw God’s people closer to Him, and to enable them to progressively know more and more of Him and of His character. But the commandments in the Mosaic Covenant don’t replace the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant. The promise to become a part of God’s chosen people is a covenant of faith. Abraham didn’t have the Ten Commandments or any of the rest of the law. Instead, he believed the promise God made to him, and then obeyed each directive that God gave him immediately out of love and devotion, and thus he stayed within the covenant.
The purpose of the law in the Mosaic Covenant was to reveal God’s holy character more completely to His chosen people. It was designed to help them to see how far they fell short of His holiness in their own strength, making them crave a deliverer. And it also continually reminded them, through the sacrificial system God instituted, how dreadful and costly sin was. Every sin required a death. And the failure of the sacrifices to remove sins from their hearts, even though they had to be made anyway, was designed to open their hearts more fully to their need for a deliverer who would not only remove from them the penalty for their sins, but who would give them power over sin so that it would no longer rule over them.
Father, we often see and study these covenants in isolation, seeing each as a replacement for the previous one. But each of these covenants is still in effect. And we are still enabled to become one of Your chosen people by faith, just like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all the people who followed the pillar of cloud and fire out of Egypt. Even the New Covenant, instituted by the sacrifice of Jesus, comes with yet a clearer revelation of You and Your character, and is to be entered into by grace through faith. And when we do enter in, we become one of Your chosen people who keep Your commands, not in order to earn our admission, but purely out of love and a commitment to live as Your people. Thank You for this light. Amen.