Lesson 13: Clinging to the Right Promises
Read Galatians 3:1-29 - www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.3
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.


Today’s verses give us an interesting challenge to always do (what we also read in 2 Timothy 2:15) whenever we read the Bible – rightly handle the Word of Truth.

A few years ago I met a man who had changed his name to Abraham so he could claim the promises God had made to Abraham which are referred to in our verses today (see Genesis 15 and 22:18). This man believed if he only changed his name, then God’s promise would belong to him too.

When we read the Bible and claim the promises written there, we must do so with faithfulness and understanding. Not every promise made in the Bible is meant for everyone who reads it. This promise to Abraham is an example, as is God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:11-16.

To know which promise is made to only one individual and which promise is something we can claim, we need to pay attention to the context. This means at a very minimum we need to read the entire chapter in which the promise is made and understand the intent. For example, the promise made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 is a promise made to this couple, but with meaning for all of us throughout human history. While there could be only one woman who would bear the child-of-promise – Mary giving birth to Jesus – the enmity between Satan and every human ever born is true for all of us.

One other thing to pay attention to is to see if Jesus restated the promise from the Old Testament during His time here on earth. A great number of verses in Matthew 5-7, known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, are such restatements by Jesus. Matthew 5:1-12, often called the Beatitudes, are Jesus’ restatement of the Old Testament Law; but He has taken the commands from the action state into the thought state – telling us that simply controlling our actions is not enough; we must transform the way we think – see Romans 12:1-2.

*What is God’s greatest promise on which you rely every day?