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By Faith, or by Works of the Law?
~ scriptures are from the Hebraic Roots Bible, and HBR Bible Notes in italics.
Gen 26:4 And I will increase your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I will give to your seed all these lands. And all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves in your Seed,
Gen 26:5 because Abraham listened to My voice and heeded My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My Torah.
~ Genesis 26:5 The reason stated here why Abraham was blessed to be the heir of the everlasting covenant was that in faith he kept the Torah and commandments of YAHWEH. This proves that the Torah was present here at the beginning of the covenant and was not added at Mount Sinai 430 yrs after the covenant was made with Abraham. Only the Levitical priesthood was added later, see below Gal 3:17; Gal 3:19.
Exo 24:12 And YAHWEH said to Moses, Come up to Me to the mountain, and be there. And I will give to you the tablets of stone, and the Torah, and the commandments which I have written, to teach them.
By Faith, or by Works of the Law?
Gal 3:2 This only I desire to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of Law or by hearing of faith?
~ Galatians 3:2 The works of the law as defined in also the Dead Sea scrolls were the animal sacrifices with the Jewish oral and ceremonial laws that went with it.
Gal 3:5 Then He supplying the Spirit to you and working works of power in you, is it by works of (Levitical) Law or by obedience of faith? Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham "believed Elohim, and it was counted to him for righteousness."
~ Galatians 3:6 Gen 15:6
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Gal 3:11 And that no one is justified by the Torah before YAHWEH is evident because, "The righteous shall live by faith."
~ Galatians 3:11 No one can be justified by the Torah because all humans have broken the Torah and are under the penalty of their lawbreaking. Hab 2:4
Gal 3:13 Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Torah, having become a curse for us; for it has been written, "Cursed is everyone having been hung on a tree;"
~ Galatians 3:13 The curse is for disobeying the Torah, there are only blessings for obedience. Deu 21:23
Gal 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant which was previously confirmed by Elohim in Messiah cannot be repudiated and the promise nullified by the (Levitical) Law that came four hundred and thirty years later.
~ Galatians 3:17 This can only be referring to the Levitical law and Not the whole Torah as when the covenant was made with Abraham 430 years before the Sinai covenant, Abraham had and obeyed the Torah and commandments (Gen 26:4-5). Only the Levitical law with the ceremonial rituals and sacrifices were added 430 years later as this scripture states.
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance is through the (Levitical) Law then it would not be as the fulfillment of promise; but Elohim gave it to Abraham by promise.
Gal 3:19 Why then the (Levitical) Law? It was placed beside (The Torah) for the sake of transgressions, until the Seed should come, to whom it had been promised, being given by promise in a mediator's hand.
~ Galatians 3:19 Paul cannot possibly be talking about the whole Torah here, as he plainly states that whatever law was added, that it was not there 430 years previously when YAHWEH made covenant with Abraham, but Gen 26:4-5 clearly shows that the reason YAHWEH made covenant with Abraham was because Abraham obeyed and preserved His statutes, commandments, and Torah. The only law that was added to the Torah at Mount Sinai was the Levitical priesthood with its sacrifices, which was temporarily set next to the Torah for the Levitical priesthood to be a temporary mediator for Israel until the reality of the Melchizedek priesthood would come through Yahshua. The Levitical sacrifices could not take away the penalty of sin, but merely remind them of it. (Heb 10:1-4)
Gal 3:20 Now a mediator does not represent one alone, but Elohim is one (echad).
Gal 3:21 Then is the (Levitical) Law against the promises of YAHWEH? Elohim forbid! For if a law had been given which had been able to make alive, indeed righteousness would have been out of Law. Gal 3:24 So that the (Levitical) Law has become a trainer of us until Messiah, that we might be justified by faith.
~ Galatians 3:24 The Levitical law was added due to the sin of Israel and the golden calf, but was only a trainer to Israel to remind them daily of their sinful nature until Messiah would appear and replace the temporary Levitical order with the eternal order of Melchizedek.
Gal 3:25 But since faith has come, we are no longer under trainers;
~ Galatians 3:25 Paul is using a play on words here in the Aramaic for tutor “taraa”, contrasting that although the Torah is still binding and necessary for the New Covenant believer, that the oral traditions of the Pharisees was not.
Gal 3:27 For as many as were baptized into Messiah, you put on Messiah.
Gal 3:29 And if you are of Messiah, then you are seeds of Abraham, even heirs according to the promise.
Bible Commentries and TSK Cross References Galatians Chapter Three
Galatians 3:2 TSK Cross References
Received: Gal 3:5, Gal 3:14; Act 2:38, Act 8:15, Act 10:44-47, Act 11:15-18, Act 15:8, Act 19:2-6; 1Co 12:7-13; 2Co 11:4; Eph 1:13-14; Heb 2:4, Heb 6:4; 1Pe 1:12
by the hearing: Rom 1:17, Rom 10:16-17
Adam Clarke
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law - This may refer to the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, which were very common in the apostolic Church. Did ye receive these extraordinary gifts in consequence of your circumcision, and observing the Mosaic precepts? or was it by the hearing of the Gospel, prescribing faith in Christ crucified? It may also refer to the spirit of adoption, and consequently to their sonship.
Galatians 3:6
TSK Cross References
as: Gal 3:9; Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3-6, Rom 4:9-10, Rom 4:21-22, Rom 9:32-33; Jas 2:23
accounted: or, imputed, Rom 4:6, Rom 4:11, Rom 4:22, Rom 4:24; 2Co 5:19-21
Albert Barnes
Even as Abraham believed God ... - see this passage fully explained in the notes at Rom 4:3. The passage is introduced here by the apostle to show that the most eminent of the patriarchs was not saved by the deeds of the Law. He was saved by faith, and this fact showed that it was possible to be saved in that way, and that it was the design of God to save people in this manner. Abraham believed God, and was justified, before the Law of Moses was given. It could not, therefore, be pretended that the Law was necessary to justification; for if it had been, Abraham could not have been saved. But if not necessary in his case, it was in no other; and this instance demonstrated that the false teachers among the Galatians were wrong even according to the Old Testament.
Adam Clarke
Abraham believed God - This is quoted from Gen_15:6 (note); and St. Paul produces it, Rom 4:3-5. Abraham, while even uncircumcised, believed in God, and his faith was reckoned to him for justification; and Abraham is called the father of the faithful, or, of believers. If, then, he was justified without the deeds of the law, he was justified by faith; and if he was justified by faith, long before the law was given then the law is not necessary to salvation. It is remarkable that the Jews themselves maintained that Abraham was saved by faith. Mehilta, in Yalcut Simeoni, page 1, fol. 69, makes this assertion: “It is evident that Abraham could not obtain an inheritance either in this world or in the world to come, but by faith.”
John Wesley
Doubtless in confirmation of that grand doctrine, that we are justified by faith, even as Abraham was. The Apostle, both in this and in the epistle to the Romans, makes great use of the instance of Abraham: the rather, because from Abraham the Jews drew their great argument, as they do this day, both for their own continuance in Judaism, and for denying the gentiles to be the church of God. Gen 15:6
Galatians 3:19
TSK Cross Reference
then: Rom 3:1-2, Rom 7:7-13
It was added: Gal 3:21-24; Deu 4:8-9; Psa 147:19-20; Luk 16:31; Joh 5:45-47, Joh 15:22; Rom 2:13; Rom 3:19-20, Rom 4:15, Rom 5:20-21, Rom 7:7-13; 1Ti 1:8-9
till: Gal 3:16, Gal 3:25, Gal_4:1-4 by: Deu 33:2; Act 7:53; Heb 2:2, Heb 2:5 in: Exo 20:19-22, Exo 24:1-12, Exo 34:27-35; Lev 15:32; Deu 5:5, Deu 5:22-33; Deu 9:13-20, Deu 9:25-29, Deu 18:15-19; Psa 106:23; Joh 1:17; Act 7:38;
The Apostle, having just before been speaking of the promise made to Abraham, and representing that as the rule of our justification, and not the law, lest they should think he derogated too much from the law, and thereby rendered it useless - he thence takes occasion to discourse of the design and tendency of it, and to acquaint us for what purposes it was given.
John Wesley
It - The ceremonial law. Was added - To the promise. Because of transgressions - Probably, the yoke of the ceremonial law was inflicted as a punishment for the national sin of idolatry, Exo 32:1, at least the more grievous parts of it; and the whole of it was a prophetic type of Christ. The moral law was added to the promise to discover and restrain transgressions, to convince men of their guilt, and need of the promise, and give some check to sin. And this law passeth not away; but the ceremonial law was only introduced till Christ, the seed to or through whom the promise was made, should come. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator - It was not given to Israel, like the promise to Abraham, immediately from God himself; but was conveyed by the ministry of angels to Moses, and delivered into his hand as a mediator between God and them, to remind them of the great Mediator.
Galatians 3:24
TSK Cross Reference
the law: Gal 3:25, Gal 2:19, Gal 4:2-3; Mat 5:17-18; Act 13:38-39; Rom 3:20-22, Rom 7:7-9, Rom 7:24-25; Rom 10:4; Col 2:17; Heb 7:18-19, Heb 9:8-16, Heb 10:1-14
justified: Gal 2:16; Act 13:39
Adam Clarke
The law was our schoolmaster - Ὁ νομος παιδαγωγος ἡμων γεγονεν εις Χριστον· The law was our pedagogue unto Christ. The παιδαγωγος, pedagogue, is not the schoolmaster, but the servant who had the care of the children to lead them to and bring them back from school, and had the care of them out of school hours. Thus the law did not teach us the living, saving knowledge; but, by its rites and ceremonies, and especially by its sacrifices, it directed us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. This is a beautiful metaphor, and highly illustrative of the apostle’s doctrine.
F.B.Meyer
The Law leads to Christ The Mosaic law was not designed to be the final code of the religious life, but to prepare the soil of the human heart to receive Jesus Christ in all the fullness of His salvation. It was the tutor of the Hebrew people, to enable them to become the religious teachers of mankind. It could not, therefore, take the place of the great covenant of grace, which had been initiated with Abraham before he had received the rite of circumcision, and when he thus stood for all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile. The mistake of those against whom Paul contended was that they treated as permanent a system which was temporary and parenthetic in its significance. With many individuals now, as with the Hebrew race, there is often a period in which the conscience is confronted with the holy demands of God’s law, which men cannot keep; but when they discover the full grace of God in Christ, they no longer suffer at the hand of the schoolmaster, but become as children in the Father’s home. They put on Christ and stand accepted in the Beloved, and understand that they are in unity with all who believe. Theirs are all the promises that were made to Abraham, and as his spiritual children they claim their fulfillment. John Wesley Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ - It was designed to train us up for Christ. And this it did both by its commands, which showed the need we had of his atonement; and its ceremonies, which all pointed us to him.
John Gill
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ,.... So the words should be read, as they are by the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; for the words "to bring us" are a supplement of our translators, and have nothing to answer to them in the original; and the sense of the passage is, that the law performed this office of a schoolmaster until the coming of Christ; which shows that till that time the church was in its minority, that the Jews were but children in knowledge and understanding, and therefore stood in need, and were under the care of a schoolmaster, the law, by which the whole Mosaic administration is designed. They were taught by the moral law, the letter, the writing on the two tables, with other statutes and judgments, their duty to God and men, what is to be done and to be avoided, what is righteousness and what is not, the nature of sin, its demerit and consequences; but these gave them no instructions about a Saviour, and life and righteousness by him. The ceremonial law gave them some hints of the Gospel scheme, and the way of salvation by Christ, but in a manner suited to their estate of childhood; by sights and shows, by types and figures, by rites and ceremonies, by shadows and sacrifices; it taught them by divers washings the pollution of their nature, their need of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin; by circumcision, the necessity of regeneration, and the internal circumcision of the heart; by the passover, the daily sacrifice and other offerings, the doctrines of redemption, satisfaction, and atonement; and by the brazen serpent, the necessity of looking to Christ for life and salvation, and by various other things in that branch of the legal economy: but besides the instruction the law gave, it made use of discipline as a schoolmaster does; it kept a strict eye and hand over them, and them close to the performance of their duty; and restrained them from many things their inclinations led them to, threatening them with death in case of disobedience, and inflicting its penalties on delinquents; hence they that were under its discipline, were through fear of death it threatened them with, all their time subject to bondage: even the ceremonial law had something awful and tremendous in it; every beast that was slain in sacrifice was not only an instruction to them that they deserved to die as that creature did; but carried in it a tacit acknowledgment and confession of their own guilt; and the whole was an handwriting of ordinances against them. Moreover, the law being called a schoolmaster, shows that the use of it was but temporary, and its duration but for a time; children are not always to be under, nor designed to be always under a schoolmaster, no longer than till they are come to a proper age for greater business and higher exercises of life; so the law was to continue, and did continue, to be of this use and service to the Jewish church during its minority, until Christ came, the substance of all it taught and directed to: both the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan ben Uzziel, on Num_11:12 use the very Greek word the apostle does here, concerning Moses, rendering the words, as a "pedagogue" or "schoolmaster" bears a sucking child into the land, &c.
Rom 10:4 For Messiah is the goal of the Torah for righteousness to everyone that believes.
~ Romans 10:4 Many translations wrongly translate this word as 'end' bringing the false belief that the Torah is somehow ended. However, both in Aramaic and even Greek the word means “goal” or “end result”, and is showing that to the true believer “Yahshua is the goal” in how we should strive to be and He kept the Torah perfectly.
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