Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed… The best commentary on this whole passage is perhaps to be found in St. Paul's own words: "All the promises of God in Him are "yea," and in Him "amen," to the glory of God by us." Christ is the foundation and the accomplisher of every good thing that God has decreed for man: in Him alone is enjoyment or blessing to be obtained. When creation's fair beauty was marred by the dark shadow of sin, the voice of prophecy rang forth with promise of future deliverance; but the promise was, in reality, a promise to Christ. Later on, when one race was singled out for special notice and peculiar privilege, their faith was sustained by a great inspiring promise; but again, that promise was centred in Christ — "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." With grammatical and logical accuracy, the apostle proves the point he is arguing. He shows that the true explanation of the singular number being used where the plural might have been expected, is to be found in the fact that God was speaking of one collective seed according to the spirit. The Inheritor of the promise made to Abraham was Christ: not Christ as an individual merely, but Christ the anointed Head and Representative of His people — Christ the Elder Brother in a united family-Christ and all who are incorporated with Him in that spiritual Body which includes Abraham and all the faithful of every age and race. "For ye are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise." Having made it clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ, believed and received, puts men in possession of the inheritance promised to Abraham, St, Paul goes on (in ver. 17) to deal with the question that naturally rises to the mind: "What relation, then, does the law of Moses bear to the promise made to Abraham?" To this he replies, that whatever the law does it cannot for a moment be supposed to abrogate and annul the promise which existed so long before it: it was not a codicil, cancelling or limiting the promissory document of earlier date. Totally distinct and separate are the ideas involved in law and promise respectively: the one is a gift, the other a contract. If in the wise ordering of God's providence they both come into play, there must be arranged for each its proper place and function — neither trespassing upon the domain of the other. And this is just what has been arranged. The Covenant of Promise and the law of Moses, so far from being opposed to one another, are parallel lines which gradually converge until they meet in Christ. (J. Henry Burn, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. |
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