Paul’s letter to the Galatians dates from the time of the early Jew/Gentile controversy. Paul is emotionally worked up. In fact, he is downright furious at misguided attempts to shackle the Gentile believers with Old Covenant Law.
Galatians was written to a group of churches in the region of Galatia (located in modern day Turkey). The Christians in that region had accepted Christ when Paul came to them with the gospel. Unfortunately, they have begun to think they need to live like the Jews in order to be truly saved (Galatians 2:4). In Galatians 3, Paul continues to make the case that faith in Christ is all that is required to be justified—”made righteous”—in God’s eyes. Paul also continues to write with great urgency. This matters deeply to him. Galatians is like a shorter, rougher version of Romans.
The Galatian Christians had been baptized into Christ (3:27) and were enjoying their freedom in Christ. Then a group of false teachers known as the Judaizers showed up. These men from Jerusalem believed in Jesus. However, they also claimed that, in order for non-Jewish people to truly be included in the family of God, the men must be circumcised and all must follow the Law of Moses.
Paul begins this chapter by calling the Galatians foolish for beginning to believe such teaching. He then presents three separate arguments for why it does not make sense for the Galatians to begin to submit to Mosaic Law.
First, Paul talks about the Galatians own experience of coming to Christ. Not only did they “see” Christ crucified in Paul’s teaching, they experienced firsthand the arrival of the Holy Spirit after they believed (3:1). Often in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit demonstrated God’s power in some supernatural way when coming to indwell new Christians. That had apparently happened to the Galatians. Perhaps they spoke in tongues or experienced some other supernatural event.
Paul asks them directly: Did the Spirit come from God as a result of your hearing the truth by faith or did it happen by doing works of the law? Since they had not done any works before believing in Jesus, the clear answer is that God sent His Spirit in response to their faith. What, then, do they have to gain from following the law (3:2–5)?
Second, Paul begins to quote the Scriptures. Perhaps the Galatians will be persuaded from the same parts of God’s Word the Judaizers are distorting to mislead them. Paul shows that the Scriptures have always pointed to God’s blessing coming by faith and a curse from God coming through the law. Paul states flatly that people of faith—not “people of the law”—are Abraham’s children. After all, Abraham was counted righteous—”justified”—for believing God (Genesis 15:6), and God told Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). Thus, those of faith are the ones blessed along with Abraham (Galatians 3:6–9).
Paul then quotes from the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy, Habakkuk, and Leviticus to show that the Law brings only a curse to those who fail to follow it in any way. Since all people fail to keep the law in some way, Christ had to pay the curse with His own life.
That’s how He redeemed those in slavery under the Law so that they could be justified by faith in Him (Galatians 3:10–14).
Finally, Paul presents to the Galatians a legal argument; covenants are legal documents. As such, the covenant God made with Israel, recorded in the Law, did not undo the covenant He made with Abraham. The promises of that covenant remained in place all the way until the arrival of Jesus, who legally claimed those promises.
Now all who are in Christ are entitled to share in that inheritance, regardless of race, social status, or gender (3:26-29) In fact, that legal transaction gives believers a permanent standing as God’s children, whether Jewish, Greek, slave, free, male, or female. All are one in Christ, since all are equal heirs to the inheritance God promised to Abraham.