The Law and the Promise

Spend time reading and marking up Gal 3:15-25
15Brothers, 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. 16The 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. 17What 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. 18For 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. 19What, 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. 20A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.
21Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Questions:
God gave humanity the law first, and then gave us Jesus only two thousand years ago. What does this tell us about the way he works—his timing and his methods, as well as his faithfulness to his promises?
Now that we have Jesus, what happens to the Law?

Things to reflect on:
We went from having a covenant of the law to now having a covenant of mercy and freedom through Jesus. Jesus has set us free from the law—“we are no longer under the supervision of the law”. But what does this really mean? Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mathew 5:17).
The Law is split into cultural and moral laws; the cultural laws had circumstantial purposes and are no longer useful. This includes crazy laws about lint and things like that. However, as Jesus said, the moral law is still very much in force. The change, then, is not so much a matter of what defines holiness, for that is not what it means to be under the supervision of the law. What the “supervision of the law” means is that the law was the method of attaining holiness. Thanks to Jesus, though, we have had our sins obliterated by his cross. Under this new agreement, we are given mercy and grace. Now, these are of course free. But no one who has truly received the gifts of mercy and grace is exempt from the great debt of love that we now owe Christ. The derives from the idea that when you love someone, what makes you happy is what makes them happy. Our obedience to the law now flows from this thankfulness, as well as from the power of the Spirit. If you ask me, that’s a lot better than “follow the rules or go to hell”. Praise God, he is good.

Spend some time in prayer

Tuesday: Pray for your family
15 Pray that God will provide for your family’s daily needs