What does God’s law do for us? As Paul says in verse 22, it imprisons us under sin: it thus shows us just how sinful we are and thus how desperately we all need a Savior.

And any honest reading of the Old or New Testaments has to yield this conclusion. For can any of us honestly say that we really love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength? That’s not just what Jesus commanded in Mark 12:30 – it’s also what Deuteronomy 6:5 says. Can any of us honestly say that we love our neighbors just as much and in the same way that we love ourselves? That’s not just what Jesus commanded – it’s what Leviticus 19:18 says. It has always been impossible for human beings to keep the Law of God, as Paul says in verse 21.

But even in Old Testament times, God provided a way of salvation, accounting Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). And God promised that Abraham would have offspring, a seed in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). And in verse 22, Paul explains that faith in Christ, the Seed of Abraham, makes us the recipient of all the promises God made to Abraham.

And the good news is that it doesn’t matter who we are or what we’ve done. Verse 26 says that we are all the children of God through faith in Christ. Our ethnic group doesn’t matter. Our worldly condition doesn’t matter. God doesn’t care if we are male or female: all kinds of people are welcome, and all who trust in Christ become one with Him. And because Christ has received all the promises God made to Abraham, those who are joined to Him by faith receive those gifts as well: they are declared righteous by the grace of God, and they will inherit not just the place we now call Israel, but the whole world.

So, stop trying to earn God’s forgiveness. Receive it by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And then, as children of God, live in the freedom you have been given to love God and love others as He has loved us.

Galatians 3:18-29 (NASB)

18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.
20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.
21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
22 But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.