Why a promise?

After Galatians 3:15-25 

One wonders: why make

a promise? Why tell

a childless old man

that his offspring

would be countless, like

grains of seashore sand?

What did a promise, 

when to could have been

simply a matter of doing it?

 

Perhaps it is a plan,

the plan unfolding over

time, designed with

a purpose an aim. First,

the promise. Then, the law,

serving as guardian. Then,

the promise fulfilled,

the guardian no longer

needed, the guardian

replaced by faith

indwelled.

 

It is a plan all along.

The earth shook,

the prison doors blew

open. Faith has come;

the promise is fulfilled.

 

Photograph by Pinakeen Bhatt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A guardian

After Galatians 3:15-25 

The promise comes first;

the law follows. The promise

remains; once made, it’s

inviolable. The law comes

as a guardian, the guardian

who protects. The law isn’t

a promise; the law doesn’t

supplant the promise. It

serves as a guardian,

until the time when

the promise is fulfilled,

when faith comes 

in One. When faith

comes, the need 

for a guardian passes

away.

 

Photograph by Benjamin Wedemeyer via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A promise is a promise

After Galatians 3:15-25 

A promise made is

a promise kept.

A promise made

to one man becomes

a promise to his

offspring. Once 

the promise is made,

no one annuls it,

no one cancels it,

no one abrogates it,

no one reverses it.

When the law comes

later, 430 years later,

to be exact, the promise

stands. The law did not

replace it; the law did

not void it. The promise

is made, and the promise

is kept.

 

Photograph by Karsten Winegeart via Unsplash. Used with permission.