Galatians 3:16-29 ONE SEED Four hundred and thirty years before the law was given by the Lord to Moses on Mt. Sinai, God spoke to Abraham and gave him the promise that He would make of him a great nation. This wasn't because Abraham was some special, super person, but the Sovereign God knew that Abraham was willing to see and believe, by faith. When he heard God speak, he obeyed what God had said. He believed in God. He didn't have a series of laws that he followed. He didn't even have the Ten Commandments to guide and control the movements of his life. He didn't need that. He had God. What God said, Abraham acted upon. A covenant was thus formed, not to produce faith, but because faith was acted on. That is what God expects from us. The death of Jesus on the cross as the full payment for our sins, is God's provision for our salvation. God has promised to save us when we trust Christ, believing His word is the means by which we hear His voice, and we take Him at His word. This is the basis of the Gospel and the heart of Christianity. It is not faith and some other additions. Salvation has been designed, carried out, and secured by God's grace alone, and nothing changes that. There is no reason for believing we need to add anything to that divine provision.
So why did God give the law? What point is there in having rules laid down by the law if they are impossible to keep? It gives us an understanding of God's standard of behavior. It reveals the will of God as to how He expects us to live and tells us what His will is. Besides that positive side, is the negative which reveals man's sin and how we cannot achieve that standard ourselves. A wall may appear at first glance to be upright and perfectly vertical. But when a plumb line is hung beside it, the truth of the matter is seen. The law is like a plumb line. A person may have some bad habits they have become used to. They are not really able to be charged with them being wrong unless there is some authority that says it is wrong. That is what the law is. The voice of authority, and has been established on unchanging principles of divine holiness. That is the grounds for acceptable conduct.
The "one seed" was the common source of life that was given to Abraham in the form of a covenant. Believe God. The law does not have that authority. It tells us what will happen when we don't believe in God. It awakens us as to the reasons we should believe in God. That law is in the heart of every human being. The moral laws and the ceremonial laws of the Jews were given in written form. The seed of promise was made long before that telling us that faith is how one comes to God. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." The law needed a mediator, and that mediator was Moses. Faith doesn't need a mediator. The work of a mediator is to bring two opposing parties together. The one seed established the fact that the basis of our covenant with God is faith. That is personal faith on my part in a living, personal, all-knowing God who is my Father.
God's grace justifies us and gives us life. The law condemns us and, by its righteous justice, kills us. It makes us realize how great our transgressions are. The law was a temporary definition of righteousness passed on through the mediation of angels and Moses. The "One Seed," our Lord Jesus Christ, has been made manifest and God's grace freely given, not because of anything we have or could do, but because of the promise of God alone. The law does not oppose the promises of God but defines the failure of men. When sin is thus defined, we are kept captive by it. Every person is under its grasp and there is nothing the law can do to free us. The law was like a guard to keep people from doing what was the common practice of the cultures around the people of God. In that sense, it was good in separating that which was of God from that which was in the world. But in order to have justice, its claims had to be met. And that is what Jesus did for us.
Now faith has a personal, real object that has been revealed to the world - a Living Savior. He is the One whose "day" Abraham saw, and "was glad" because of that promise. By faith, it was as good as already done. The salvation message, the reality of salvation through the substitution of an innocent victim was personal to Abraham. To us, the law is our teacher, like a child trainer, to teach us that there is a principle of faith by which we live. The law teaches us morals, respect for authority, and manners that are acceptable for living in an orderly society. The "child trainer" has the right to show what is right and to punish the wrongdoer. When a person becomes a Christian, that person is free from the law (the schoolmaster) to take their place as a free son. No longer are we limited by the constraints of the law, but now are identified by association with Christ. Our identification is not that of being of a particular nationality or religious belief. Our Identity is that of one who has been saved by God's grace through faith. Gender has nothing to do with our acceptance by God. Males and females are both equal in Christ Jesus. Women who were given a lower position in the Jewish tradition, and in most Gentile cultures, are recognized in the new covenant as equals with men, even though the public roles are different. This is not because of what we have to say about the matter but because both are "in Christ."
No longer is there placed bondage on the people of God as on immature children who do not know how to behave and need the threat of the law to keep in line with what is acceptable. A much higher motivation controls the actions of a child of God. That person is identified with Christ, and out of appreciation and love, does what is right. The one seed we got from Abraham, that of faith, guides our daily living and gives us the incentive to want to please God. As heirs of all of God's promises and blessings, our life takes on a new goal as far as the future is concerned, and also a new motivation for day-to-day living.