Galatians 3:15-29   

3:15 Paul uses a familiar example from everyday life; the making of a will. No one "can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established." Once a will is in place its terms are set. The same is true of the covenants made by God.

v.16 God made promises to Abraham and to his seed (Abraham's heir). Paul makes a special point here that the promises were to be passed on to only one "seed" not to many people or "seeds." This is important because Paul identifies that one "seed" as Jesus Christ.  

In other words, the promises God made to Abraham are passed down to Jesus.

v. 17 The Law of Moses that came 430 years later does not "set aside" the covenant God originally made with Abraham. The law does not "do away with the promise."

           430 years                                Jesus Christ       believers

Abraham ------ Law of Moses ------ Abraham's Seed -- Galatians

 promise                law                                                    faith

v. 18 The inheritance must depend on either the law or the promise, it cannot depend on both. Paul states that God gave this inheritance to Abraham through a promise (not through a law).

v. 19-20 If the inheritance could not come through the law then why did God bother giving them the law? "It was added because of transgressions" (sins), but only temporarily. The law was added only "until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come." The mediator of the law was Moses. He could represent the people to God but he could not adequately represent both parties because he was not God. When Jesus came He could serve as a better mediator because He was both human and divine, therefore, He could represent both parties.

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Romans 8:18-39     

Last time Paul told his readers that believers are children of God and this makes them His heirs. They are also co-heirs with Christ. As such they share in everything; not only in Christ's glory but also in His suffering. What did Christ suffer? He was rejected by His own people, mocked, slandered, falsely accused of sin, and many other things. His suffering involved much more than the hours He spent on the cross. Christ was described by the prophets as a man of many sorrows, acquainted with grief. Those who hated Jesus would hate the believers and those who loved Him would love them.

v. 18 The readers' current sufferings are not specified but Paul assures them that the coming glory will far exceed their pain. In class we showed the sufferings as a small dot on the whiteboard and the glory as a very large circle around it. Of course, when we suffer it seems as though the sufferings are the large circle and we don't even think much about some future glory. Paul says this glory is to be "revealed in" them. It's not something far away.

v. 19-22 The physical "creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." God subjected creation to frustration for a certain length of time. But this was done in the hope that creation would eventually be "liberated from its bondage to decay." Creation itself will be brought into the freedom experienced by the sons of God. Creation has been groaning, waiting for its release from this bondage to decay.

1. Creation was subjected to frustration. (past)

2. Creation groans while it waits for the sons of God to be revealed. (present)

3. Creation will be liberated and brought into the glory of the children of God. (future)