ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Galatians 3

Gal. 3:1–5:12 Direct Appeals to the Galatians. Paul gives several reasons why the Galatians should resist false teachers.

Gal. 3:1–5 Paul asks the Galatians five questions. He is disappointed that they have listened to the false teachers. So he returns to their experience of how they first came to know Christ.

Gal. 3:1 Who has bewitched you? Paul uses the language of pagan magic to describe the false teachers’ activities. publicly portrayed. Paul’s presentation of the gospel to the Galatians was so vivid that it was as if they had been eyewitnesses of the crucifixion.

Gal. 3:2 Let me ask. Using rhetorical questions, Paul shows that it is illogical for the Galatians to seek a fuller Christian life by keeping the law. Receive the Spirit refers to the new covenant activity of the Holy Spirit that comes after saving faith. From the beginning of the Christian life, the Spirit sanctifies and empowers believers.

Gal. 3:6–9 Paul issues a second direct appeal to the Galatians: it is not just their own experience of receiving the gospel by faith that should teach them that salvation is not by the law but by grace. Rather, the OT example of Abraham also teaches that it is through genuine faith, not the law, that one is counted righteous (see Gen. 15:6).

Gal. 3:10 Those who rely on works of the law are under a curse. They are “cursed” (“condemned”) because they break the law (2:18).

Gal. 3:11 Habakkuk 2:4 shows that righteousness cannot be achieved through the law.

Gal. 3:12 Paul uses Lev. 18:5 to show that the law is not of faith. Paul probably means the same thing here as in Rom. 10:5 (where Lev. 18:5 is equated with “the righteousness that is based on the law”; compare Phil. 3:9). The one who does them shall live by them. See note on Lev. 18:5.

Gal. 3:13 The divine curse is the result of disobedience (v. 10). But the burden of the curse has been lifted by Christ’s work on the cross.

Gal. 3:14 The coming of the powerful Spirit—the living presence of God— is a key benefit of the new covenant (see Isa. 44:3; Galatians 5–6).

Gal. 3:15–18 A covenant or a will cannot be changed. The promises made to Abraham and to his offspring were not changed when God gave Moses the law.

Gal. 3:16 God spoke promises to Abraham on several occasions. Paul probably refers to Gen. 13:15 and 17:8. And to your offspring. Here Paul sees that the truest fulfillment of these OT promises comes to one “offspring,” Christ.

Gal. 3:17 came 430 years afterward. Paul is apparently referring to the Septuagint translation of Ex. 12:40, “The dwelling of the children of Israel . . . in Egypt and in Canaan was 430 years.” This would mean 430 years from Abraham to the exodus (the Hebrew text does not include “and in Canaan”). Another explanation is that Paul is not counting the time from the first promise to Abraham; instead he is counting from the last confirmation of that promise to Jacob before he went to Egypt in Gen. 46:3–4. This would then count the time in Egypt as the entire time from the “promise” to the “law.”

Gal. 3:19–4:7 The law was never intended to last forever. Now that the promised Messiah has come, those who believe in him are sons of God.

Gal. 3:19 the law . . . was added because of transgressions. This probably means the law was put in place to reveal people’s sinfulness and need for a savior. put in place through angels by an intermediary. Deuteronomy 33:2 states that God gave the law “from the ten thousands of holy ones” (compare Acts 7:53). Moses was God’s “intermediary” (Lev. 26:46).

Gal. 3:20 Because God is one, his ultimate revelation comes not through an intermediary but from him alone. This assumes that whatever comes from Christ comes from the one true God, for Christ is fully God.

Gal. 3:22 The law (the Scripture), instead of giving “life” (v. 21) with God, imprisoned everything under sin (compare Rom. 3:9–20). Rather than enabling all Israelites to receive the promise, the law was given so that the single “offspring,” Christ, would receive the blessing. Therefore the blessing is obtained by faith in Christ, not by obedience to the law. God was certainly not surprised that the Israelites were unable to obey the law. In fact, at the end of the giving of the law, Moses foretold that the Israelites would not obey it (Deut. 31:24–29). Thus the law confirmed the promise to Abraham, that justification would come only by faith (Gal. 3:6–9, 14, 18).

Gal. 3:23 before faith came. By “faith” Paul means new covenant faith in Christ (see v. 22). Since Paul uses Abraham as an example of justification by faith (vv. 6–9, 14, 18), he cannot mean that there was no saving faith before Christ came. He means that OT believers did not have knowledge of Christ’s finished work.

Gal. 3:24 The law, as guardian, had positive functions. It restrained and exposed sin and promised Christ’s coming.

Gal. 3:26 you are all sons of God. Life under the law was slavery. Life in Christ is marked by the freedom that comes from being God’s “sons.” The Greek word used for “sons” is a legal term used in the adoption and inheritance laws of first-century Rome. Here and elsewhere in Paul’s letters (compare 4:5–7; Rom. 8:14–16, 23), this term refers to the status of all Christians, both male and female. Having been adopted into God’s family, they now enjoy all the privileges, responsibilities, and inheritance rights of God’s children.

Gal. 3:27 Having been baptized, believers have gone down into death. They have died to the old era of law, sin, and death (Rom. 6:3–4; Gal. 2:19; 6:14). They have come up out of the water as participants in the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). put on Christ. As one puts on clothing. This suggests taking on a new life and purpose through being spiritually united to Christ.

Gal. 3:28 neither Jew nor Greek. In the new creation, the distinction between Jew and Gentile is removed (see Eph. 2:11–22). Certainly these Galatians do not have to become Jews to be Christians (see Gal. 3:14). There is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female does not imply that there are no differences in how these groups should relate to each other, for Paul elsewhere teaches slaves (“bondservants”; esv footnote) and masters differently (Eph. 6:5–9), and husbands and wives differently (Eph. 5:22–33). Rather, he teaches that old divisions and wrongful attitudes of superiority and inferiority are abolished, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The verse teaches unity within diversity, but not sameness.