Chapter 3

3:2: Paul was the teacher of the Galatians and the preacher of the Galatians. After finding out that they had started to fall into this Judaizer heresy, he brought to their attention the fact that they did not labor in receiving the Holy Spirit in their own works rather they merely received the Spirit by hearing with faith.

3:3: Paul was rhetorically asking the Galatians a question. Nobody should expect to be perfected by following the fleshly ordinances of the law. Nobody can or will be made perfect if they are dependent on their own ability rather than on the Holy Spirit of God.

3:4: Paul was telling them that if they were perfected by the law and if the law was their salvation, all the persecution and affliction they had suffered was suffered in vain. It was for nothing.

3:5: It is by hearing with faith that we are given the Holy Spirit of God and that miracles are worked among us. Doing the works of the law cannot result or consequence in miracles and the Holy Spirit. It is by faith alone.

3:6: Verse 5 is here answered plainly and simply. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Just as Abraham was justified before God and counted as righteous not as a result of works but as a result of faith, God gives us the spirit and justifies us not as a result of works but out of faith.

3:7: All who believe are spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham regardless of race or ethnicity.

3:8: Salvation has always been by faith. The good news was proclaimed to Abraham before the coming of the law and it was known that the Lord would justify all nations by faith and faith alone.

3:9: Faith, not ethnicity is the factor that determines whether someone shares in the blessings of Abraham.

3:10: The curse of the law is perfect obedience. Without perfect obedience to the law we are unjustified before God. Everyone who does not abide by all things in the law, while being under the law, is condemned. Those who try to justify themselves will be unjustified but those who lean on the faithful and efficient grace of God will be wholly justified in Christ alone.

3:11: While it may appear on the surface that works justify men before other men, no works or obedience to the law can justify man before God. God is a righteous judge that requires perfection and this forensic or "legal" righteousness can only come through faith in Christ. The righteous shall live by faith but in this life and in the next. Our faith in this life, our daily course of living in faith as the foundational condition, will prove to bring us eternal life by Gods grace.

3:12: The law is not of trusting or depending on God, it is of doing. The one who submits himself to the law must do it.

3:13: We as followers of Christ no longer submit to or are under the law but rather we live by faith in Christ. We have been redeemed from the law as Christ became a curse for us. Everybody has fallen from or failed the law in one way if not in all ways and we are all equally incapable of fulfilling the law's righteous requirement. Christ brought us out from under the bondage of the law, and all who trust in Him rather than in their capability to fulfill the law will be justified before God. Christ became a curse, being cursed, for all those who hang on a tree are cursed. (Deuteronomy 21:23)

3:14: Christ became a curse that we as Gentiles might become righteous through faith and receive the Holy Spirit according to Christ's redeeming work in us.

3:15: Paul is appealing to the fact that even a human covenant is not added to or broken after being confirmed and "ratified". If a human covenant is considered heavily important and is not added to or set aside, how much more important are the covenants of God!

3:16: The promise of Abraham is given to us through Christ. All who are in Christ are Abraham's spiritual seed and "sons of Abraham".

3:17: Because of the unchanging nature found in a Covenant, the law does not override the promises of Abraham.

3:18: The inheritance of promises and blessings inherited by Abraham's children are not inherited by obedience of the law or works but are of promise.

3:19: The Law was given because of the trespasses of man. The purpose of the law was to define sin before man and be a "schoolmaster" before Christ came.

3:20: WIP

3:21-22: Is the law which is from God against the promises of God? No. If the law had been able to impart life unto men, justification and righteousness would have been through the law but since the law is unable to impart eternal life to any man who is dead, we know that righteousness comes by faith in Christ Jesus alone and is given to all those who believe.

3:23: WIP

3:24: WIP

3:25: WIP

3:26: All who place their faith in Christ are not only sons of Abraham but also sons of God. We are adopted into God's family through Jesus Christ, and to this we have been predestined since before the foundations of the earth. (Ephesians 1:4)

3:27: All who have put their faith in Christ have been made dead to themselves and alive to God, and they have been clothed with Christ, being one with Him and unified with Him.

3:28: Those who are in Christ are not distinguished in class from one another. All are sons and daughters of God in Christ. As there is not any distinction in the Lord's perspective, here on earth and in the Church we are not to make distinction from one another based off race or ethnicity or looks. There is no male, female, Greek, Jew, slave, or freeman for all are united in Christ.

3:29: WIP