The Law and the Promises

Is the law against the promises of God? This is a very good question. Because the Apostle Paul has been showing us all along that we, as sinners, cannot be saved by attempting to keep the works of the law. We can only be saved from our sins by faith in the promise of God; that promise being completely fulfilled in, and by, the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our believing in the promises of the gospel. Therefore, the obvious conclusion would seem to logically follow, that the law is intrinsically against the promises of God. But this is not so. And Paul emphatically affirms to us that the Law is “certainly not” against the promises of God here in verse 21. In the NASB it says – “May it never be!” And in the King James Version it says – “God forbid!” So this evening I would like to open up to you the relationship between the law and the promises so you will see that God uses both the law, and His promises for very specific reasons. 1st – The law cannot give spiritual life or eternal life, but the promises are given to show us that faith in Jesus Christ will both justify and sanctify us. 2nd – One of the law’s main purposes was to be a tutor to lead us to Christ. And 3rd – Once faith in the promise has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for we are sons of God.