Study Desk

So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by the law. The Scriptures say, "The one who is right with God by faith will live forever."

Because of what Jesus Christ did, the blessing God promised to Abraham was given to all people. Christ died so that by believing in him we could have the Spirit that God promised.

God made promises to Abraham and his Descendant. The Scripture does not say, "and to your descendants." That would mean many people. But it says, "and to your Descendant." That means only one, and that one is Christ.

This is what I mean: The agreement that God gave to Abraham was made official long before the law came. The law came 430 years later. So the law could not take away the agreement and change God's promise.

Can following the law give us the blessing God promised? If we could receive it by following the law, then it would not be God's promise that brings it to us. But God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise God made.

So what was the law for? The law was given to show the wrong things people do. The law would continue until the special Descendant of Abraham came. This is the Descendant mentioned in the promise, which came directly from God. But the law was given through angels, and the angels used Moses as a mediator to give the law to the people.

But when God gave the promise, there was no mediator, because a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is one.

Does this mean that the law works against God's promises? Of course not. The law was never God's way of giving new life to people. If it were, then we could be made right with God by following the law.

But this is not possible. The Scriptures put the whole world in prison under the control of sin, so that the only way for people to get what God promised would be through faith in Jesus Christ. It is given to those who believe in him.

Before this faith came, the law held us as prisoners. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming.

I mean the law was the guardian in charge of us until Christ came. After he came, we could be made right with God through faith.

You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham's descendants. You get all of God's blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, who was born from a woman and lived under the law.

God did this so that he could buy the freedom of those who were under the law. God's purpose was to make us his children.

In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real.

But now you know the true God. Really, though, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to the same kind of weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again?

My sickness was a burden to you, but you did not stop showing me respect or make me leave. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God. You accepted me as if I were Jesus Christ himself!

Abraham's son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.

This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.