Gal 3:15, 19 – How can additional clauses be added to God’s covenant with Abraham?

"[15]Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case ... [19] Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator."

If a human covenant is established then additional clauses cannot be ‘added’ or changed afterwards. God made a covenant with Abraham which promised him the birth of Christ. The Law was given 430 years after the Promise and therefore cannot disannul the Promise.

Paul explains that the Law was ‘added’[1] [to the Promise] because of transgressions. Earlier Paul had argued that normal human convention does not ‘add’ anything to a covenant once it has been ratified. In everyday life we would expect the involved parties to reach an agreement on terms and have the contract witnessed; after that point we would not expect the addition of extra clauses. Paul used this strategy to argue that the Law could not be ‘added’ to the promise – yet here he is saying the opposite ‘the Law was added’.

Unless Paul is contradicting himself another explanation must be sought.  The key lies in the word ‘confirmed’ (‘ratified’) – the Promise made to Abraham was effectively still open until it ‘was confirmed before by God in Christ’ (Gal 3:17). According to Paul then, the Law could not be ‘added’ to the Promise (like some extra clause) because although the Promise was given before the Law it was only confirmed by the resurrection (“And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Rom1:4).

Ratification of the Promise abolished the Law; therefore the Law was a temporary interlude. The Promise was therefore both prior and subsequent to the Law. The Law was never intended be God’s final word on salvation but “was added because of transgressions”. The Law, temporary in nature, functioned as a teacher and disciplinarian until the arrival of Christ. What could the Law teach? The only lesson that the Law could teach (and it did it superbly well) was that man could not save himself by his own righteousness.

[1] The verb ‘was added’ in v. 19 is different from the verb in v. 15.