{"id":13,"date":"2007-10-30T07:13:24","date_gmt":"2007-10-30T13:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=13"},"modified":"2007-10-30T07:13:24","modified_gmt":"2007-10-30T13:13:24","slug":"galatians-315-eternal-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-315-eternal-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 3:15 &#8211; Eternal Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\" alt=\"Ministry of Grace\" height=\"58\" width=\"472\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: maroon\">Galatians 3:15<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><sup><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: red\">15<\/span><\/sup><em><span style=\"color: navy\">Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though <span>it is<\/span> only a man&#8217;s covenant, yet <span>if it is<\/span> confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Truth to Learn<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">God has made a contract with us to give us eternal life if we believe His truth. Nothing and no one can change it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">When Paul says: \u201c<em><span style=\"color: navy\">I speak in the manner of men,<\/span><\/em>\u201d it does not mean that this truth is not from God. It means that Paul is about to use an example of an event that occurs between men. The word translated \u201c<em><span style=\"color: navy\">confirmed<\/span><\/em>\u201d is a form of the Greek word \u201c<em><span style=\"color: maroon\">kuro\u014d,<\/span><\/em>\u201d a word that refers to \u201c<em>authority<\/em>.\u201d This particular word is in the perfect tense, meaning this is past completed action with a present continuous effect. Hence, the word that Paul uses here refers to: \u201c<em>something that been made authoritative or that has been established as valid and now continues to be authoritative.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Meaning Explained<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">When any two people today make a legal agreement with each other, it involves a contract signed by both parties. Typically, after the contract is signed, two copies of it are made and each retains one of the copies. From this point on, neither party can cancel or change the agreement unless both parties agree and, either mutually amend the contract or create a new one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">God\u2019s contract with Abraham was:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 6pt 0.25in 0.0001pt\"><strong><span style=\"color: maroon\">Galatians 3:6<\/span><\/strong><span>  <\/span><strong><sup><span style=\"color: red\">6<\/span><\/sup><\/strong><em><span style=\"color: navy\">just as Abraham &#8220;believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">In other words, Abraham received righteousness in God\u2019s accounting book in exchange for believing what God told him. This is the agreement\u2014the contract\u2014which God made with Abraham and it can never be changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">But there is another agreement that Paul has told us about in the preceding verses: Those who are of faith, those who believe God\u2019s Word as Abraham did, are blessed (declared righteous) by God just as Abraham was. The curse, that we earned by our failure to live up to God\u2019s righteousness, was taken on by Jesus at the cross. Our curse has been taken away and Jesus\u2019 righteousness has been given to us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><span>This contract, just like a human contract, cannot be annulled or changed by anyone. When we confess our sins and accept Jesus\u2019 payment for those sins with his own blood, God makes a binding agreement with us. This agreement, as we saw in the previous verse, says that we have been purchased by God and taken off the market. Hence it is an eternal contract. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">So What? <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">Have you made this agreement with God? Have you accepted Jesus blood as payment for your sins? If so, you are no longer for sale. You belong to God and He has declared you righteous forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">You can\u2019t add to it by good works and you can\u2019t annul it by sinning. You are saved eternally!<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">  <span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">Why not thank Him for this gracious contract.<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>In God&#8217;s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/signature.gif\" alt=\"signature\" height=\"35\" width=\"63\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: NuptialScript\">Copyright \u00a9 2007<span>  <\/span>Will<span>  <\/span>Krause.  All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Galatians 3:15 15Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man&#8217;s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Truth to Learn God has made a contract with us to give us eternal life if we believe His truth. Nothing and no one can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-3"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}