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A man's will, diatheke (Gal. 3: 15-18).
An illustration from the ordinary laws of society, as they existed in Galatian cities, is
here used: "I speak after the manner of men." While diatheke in other places refers to
the covenant, old or new, here, "after the manner of men", it refers to the Galatian will.
The word is often found in this sense in the inscriptions. Paul speaks of this will as
though it were irrevocable, and it is this difficulty that has made the commentators on the
passage reject, almost unanimously, the sense implied by the figure of a will. They do
not try to determine what was the nature of a will among the Galatians, but assume that it
was much the same as it is to-day. Here, however, we are confronted with a legal idea
that the duly executed will cannot be revoked by a subsequent act of the testator. Such
irrevocability was a characteristic feature of Greek law. The appointment of an heir was
the adoption and was irrevocable. The testator, after adopting an heir, could not
subsequently take away from him his share in the inheritance or impose new conditions
on his succession.
Sir William Ramsay gives an array of proofs which we do not here stay to quote. We
pass on rather to the bearing of the law on the argument of Gal. 3: If, says the apostle,
a man's will among you is unalterable and never changed by circumstances that may
come about later, how much more God's Will!
"And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirm before of God in Christ, the law
which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect" (Gal. 3: 17).
Under the law, the heir and lord of all is likened to a child under tutors and governors,
but when the time arrives for him to enter into his possessions, he reaches his "adoption".
Now let us put together the two references to redemption that come on either side of this
argument concerning the covenant, promise and the law:--
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law . . . . . that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3: 13, 14).
"God sent His Son . . . . . to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption . . . . . God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4: 4-6).
All dispute as to the meaning of "the promise of the Spirit" is settled in the light of
this parallelism. "The promise of the Spirit" is "the Spirit of His Son", which is
explained in Rom. 8: 15 to be "the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father".
This is placed over against "the spirit of bondage", and so is closely allied to the theme
before us.
Faith and the Word.
We now return to Rom. 4:, realizing that promise is in an entirely different category
from law, works, flesh, and bondage. The introduction of law brings about instability, for