Galatians 3:29 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

NIV: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

NASB: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

CSB: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.

NLT: And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

KJV: And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

NKJV: And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Paul has just described the incredible position of his Christian readers in Galatia. They, like all saved Christians, are full children of the Almighty God. They have been baptized into God's Spirit. They have put on Christ and are so completely covered by Him as to be fully identified by the Father with Christ. Finally, in Christ, they have equal value in the eyes of God, no matter their ethnicity, gender, or social status.

Now he brings this part of his case to a close by bringing it back to his earlier statement that believers in Jesus are also Abraham's offspring and heirs of the promises given to him by God (Galatians 3:7–9). More specifically, Christ is the ultimate offspring of Abraham. All the promises of God made to Abraham and his offspring flow to Christ. That's why, by being in Christ, covered by Him, identified with Him, we also become Abraham's children and heirs.

Our position before God, Paul insists, has nothing to do with following the law and everything to do with being in Christ. We have everything in Him, and nothing without Him.

Galatians 3:23–29 summarizes the idea that God never intended the law to be the final solution for the problem of sin. Instead, it was meant to ''guard'' mankind, until the arrival of Christ. This freedom from the captivity of the law also transcends all other barriers: race, gender, wealth, health, and culture are all irrelevant to our relationship with the Savior. Anyone who belongs to Christ, by faith, is promised to be an heir.

Paul indicates the Galatian Christians are foolish for believing they need to follow the law of Moses to be right with God. He offers three specific arguments to support this. First, they received God's Spirit in a powerful way after believing in Jesus, but before doing any works of the law. Second, Scripture itself shows God's blessing coming by faith, and His curse coming by the law. Christ paid the price of that curse on the cross. Third, God's covenant with Abraham is like a legal document, and it cannot be revoked.

In Galatians chapter 2, Paul declared that we can only be justified—''made right with God''—by faith in Christ and not by following the law of Moses. In chapter 3, Paul offers three arguments for why that is true. He argues from the Galatians own experience, from the Scriptures themselves, and from the legal standpoint of a covenant contract. Finally, Paul answers what the law is for if it cannot save us from our sin. In part, it reveals our sinfulness and convinces us of our need to be saved by faith in Christ. The following chapter will expand on what it means to be an ''heir,'' spiritually.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.

Accessed 5/2/2024 9:14:23 PM