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Observe here, 1. An argument drawn from contracts among men, to prove the fixedness and stability of the covenant made by God: if one man makes a covenant with another, signs it, seals it, and delivers it before witnesses, it becomes irrevocable and irreversible; much more then must the covenant of grace and mercy made with us by God, be perpetual and immutable, since it is a covenant established by oath; and when God swears, he cannot repent.
Observe, 2. The apostle proves, that the covenant of God can never fail, in regard of the wisdom and invariableness of him that made it: so it can never expire for want of parties that have interest in it, and advantage by it, for want of a seed to whom it is made: for as long as Christ hath a church and members upon earth, so long shall the promise be of force: not only to Abraham, but to his seed, were the promises made: not to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ; where, by one, we understand one mystically, and in the aggregate; not only personally and individually: And by Christ, the whole church, consisting of head members, believing Gentiles, as well as Jews.
Observe, 3. That the apostle having confirmed the truth of his doctrine by arguments in the foregoing part of the chapter, comes now, in the latter part of it, to answer objections which some might be ready to make against his doctrine. The first we have, Gal_3:17, This I say, that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul. The objection lies thus: Some might say, "when two laws are made, whereof the one was expressly contradictory to the other, the latter doth, in common presumption, abrogate and disannul the former: But here we find, that four hundred and thirty years after the promise made to Abraham, there was a law published extremely contrary to that promise, a law without mercy or compassion, a law both impossible and inexorable, a law which can neither be obeyed nor endured, a law which denounces a terrible and severe curse to the transgressors and breakers of it: therefore, it should seem as if some cause had happened, to make God repent and revoke his former covenant promise made to Abraham."
To obviate this objection, our apostle shews, first, what the purpose of the covenant promise to Abraham was; namely, to give life and salvation by grace and promise. Secondly, what the purpose of the latter covenant by Moses was not; namely, to give the same life by working, since, in those respects, there would by a contradiction and inconsistency in the covenants, and so by consequence, instability and unfaithfulness in him that made them. That, therefore, which the apostle here drives at, is this, that the coming of the law hath not voided the promise, and that the law is not of force towards the seed to whom the promise is made, in any such sense as carries contradiction to, or implies abrogation of, the promise before made: from whence it follows, if it be not to stand in contradiction to, it must stand in subordination to the gospel, and so tend to evangelical purposes.
Learn hence, 1. That although God might have dealt with mankind as an absolute Lord and Sovereign, yet he doth not govern them barely by a law, but by a covenant, which has promises and threatenings annexed.
Learn, 2. That after the covenant of works, made with man, before the fall, was broken by Adam, God was pleased to enter into a covenant of grace with fallen man, to deliver him out of an estate of sin and misery, and to bring him into a state of salvation by a Redeemer.
Learn, 3. That though the former and latter covenant did differ in some considerable circumstances, yet they are one and the same in substance, and do fully agree in all the essential parts of both.
Learn, 4. That God's intent in giving the law, and urging exact obedience to it, under the penalty of the curse, was not to take us off from seeking righteousness and life only by the promise, but to encourage us to seek it; for, says the apostle here, The law could not disannul the covenant made with Abraham, nor make the promise of no effect.