He is the Promise / Genesis 3, Romans 3, Galatians 3
The Thin Page and the Great Wall
Usually, this is the time when I would say, “Hey, pick up your Bibles and turn to…” and then give you the passage. Tonight, I’m not entirely sure which single passage that would be, and I hope that doesn’t disturb you too much! You might be thinking, You’re teaching and you have no idea where we’re going? Actually, I do, but it’s not just one place. It’s a little bit different for us tonight.
If you’ve been part of The Well Community Church for any length of time, you know we typically go through a book of the Bible verse by verse. We’ve been going through 1 Corinthians, taking a brief break over the summer. Wherever we leave off, we pick right back up until we finish the book. But over these few weeks, we’re doing a topical study called He Is, looking at Christ in the Old Testament. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at Genesis 1:1 and John 1. Last week, we were mostly in Joshua 5. Tonight, we aren’t even staying in one book. If you’d like to follow along, you can tab three main places in your Bible. If you remember the number three, you can remember them: Genesis 3, Romans 3, and Galatians 3. We’ll touch on Romans 4 as well, but we’re going to kick things off in Galatians 3.
I love that we’re doing this series because whenever it’s time for me to teach, I feel like God says, Yeah, this is the one you need to do, because this is something you had to learn in your own life. Growing up in church, I looked at the Old Testament and the New Testament as radically different. That one page separating them—a very thin sheet of paper—felt like a massive, impenetrable wall to me. To my mind, it was the old way of doing things versus the new way of doing things. Even God looked different. There was the “Old Testament God” and the “New Testament God.”
In the Old Testament, He seemed pretty mean, angry, and judging—the righteous, holy God striking people down left and right. Then you turn that one little page, and suddenly He’s kind, gentle, loving, and good. As a kid, I honestly thought, Man, I am so glad I was born after Jesus, because I don’t know if I’d be alive today if I lived in the Old Testament!
One God from Beginning to End
Then I started reading Scripture for myself. First, I realized that the Old Testament spans about 4,000 years of human history, while the New Testament covers less than 100. It’s hard to make a direct comparison just based on scale. But more importantly, I realized that God truly is the exact same God in both testaments.
If you read through the Old Testament, you see a God who is profoundly loving, compassionate, forgiving, and patient. The nation of Israel deserved to be destroyed at least twice just on the journey between Egypt and the Promised Land, yet God held back. Why? Because He is forgiving, gracious, and loving. He waited hundreds of years for wicked nations to repent before bringing judgment, and then He waited even longer. When terrible, violent cities like Nineveh repented, God forgave them. Remember Jonah? He was angry at God specifically because he knew God was gracious and would forgive them.
Then you look at the New Testament. Yes, God is loving and gracious, but He is still holy, just, and righteous. You see that clearly in the book of Revelation. But you even see it in the book of Acts. Ananias and Sapphira lied about a piece of property, and God struck them down dead in the church. King Herod gave a speech, accepted the crowd’s praise that he was a god, failed to give glory to God, and was struck down and eaten by worms.
Acts 12:21-23 (NASB)
On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and [began] delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, ‘The voice of a god and not of a man!’ And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
He is the exact same God. He has always been the same God.
The Golden Thread of Faith
Once that wall started breaking down, I still had another misconception. I thought, Okay, God is the same, but the way we relate to God must be totally different now. I assumed that Jesus was a complete game changer in terms of the formula for salvation. As New Testament believers, we say we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We trust in God’s unmerited favor, hand our lives over to Him in faith, and rely exclusively on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
I used to think Old Testament believers were saved by trying to keep the law—saved by the law through animal sacrifices and rituals. Again, I was glad I didn’t have to sacrifice a lamb every time I sinned. But as I kept studying, God blew that idea completely out of the water. That thin page between the testaments shouldn’t even exist as a barrier, because people have always related to God the exact same way.
How were people made right before God in the Old Testament? Exactly the same way: by grace, through faith in the only One who can justify the ungodly, based on the work Jesus Christ was going to accomplish on the cross. We look back at the cross; they looked forward to it.
Look at Galatians 3, where Paul quotes the Old Testament to make this very point.
Galatians 3:10-11 (NASB)
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.’ Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’
Paul writes that anyone relying on the works of the law is under a curse, quoting Deuteronomy 27:26. If you want the law to make you right before God, you have to keep every single command, perfectly, all the time. Nobody has ever done that.
Deuteronomy 27:26 (NASB)
‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
I used to think the sacrificial system was designed to make up for breaking the law. But the sacrifices themselves couldn’t take away sin or undo guilt. Paul makes it unmistakably clear: no one is justified before God by the law. Then he quotes Habakkuk 2:4: “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Habakkuk 2:4 (NASB)
’Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.
Habakkuk was an Old Testament prophet living under the law, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he proclaimed that people are made righteous by faith. The Old Testament Scriptures testify that salvation has always been by faith.
Justified the Same Way: Abraham and David
Paul takes this further in Romans 4 when he examines the life of Abraham.
Romans 4:3-5 (NASB)
For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
When Paul wrote this, the New Testament had not been compiled yet. When he refers to “Scripture,” he means the Old Testament. He quotes Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:6 (NASB)
Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Abraham wasn’t declared righteous because of circumcision, rituals, or keeping the law. He was justified because he put his faith in the One who justifies the ungodly.
Abraham didn’t have as much detailed information as we have today. In Exodus 6, God told Moses that Abraham knew Him as God Almighty, but revealed His name Yahweh to Moses. Moses had more information than Abraham. David had more than Moses. Noah had what God revealed to him. But all of them put their faith in the only One who could save them. Today, we know Him fully through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the exact representation of God’s nature.
Hebrews 1:1-3 (NASB)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Paul also points to David in Romans 4.
Romans 4:6-8 (NASB)
just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ’BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. ‘BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.’
David wrote in the Psalms about the sheer joy of receiving God’s unmerited favor apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.” David understood God’s grace. Old Testament believers were saved by grace through faith.
What about “in Christ alone”? How does that apply to Abraham? In Genesis 12, 15, and 17, God made promises to Abraham, telling him that in his “offspring” all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Galatians 3:7-9 (NASB)
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, [saying], ‘ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Paul explains this in Galatians 3:16. The promise wasn’t referring to many offspring, but to one specific offspring: Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:16 (NASB)
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as [referring] to many, but [rather] to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ.
Abraham received the gospel in advance. He didn’t know the name “Jesus of Nazareth,” but he believed God’s promise that a deliverer would come through his line to bring salvation. Five hundred years later, the law was given through Moses. But as Paul points out in Galatians 3:17, the law did not cancel the covenant of promise made to Abraham.
Galatians 3:17 (NASB)
What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.
There is an unbroken golden thread running from Abraham, through the law, through the prophets, straight into the New Testament. Salvation has always been by grace through faith in Christ.
The Promise from the Garden to the Cross
This golden thread goes back even further, right into the Garden of Eden immediately following the first sin. When Adam and Eve fell, God pronounced judgment on the serpent, addressing the demonic power behind the creature.
Genesis 3:15 (NASB)
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’
God declared that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, while the serpent would strike His heel. That is the first promise of the Redeemer. From the very beginning, God announced that mankind could not fix their sin problem, but He was setting a plan into motion: a descendant of the woman would suffer a blow, but in doing so, would deliver a fatal death blow to Satan, sin, and death.
So how did God handle all the sins committed between Adam and the cross? Romans 3 gives us the definitive answer.
Romans 3:20-26 (NASB)
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, [I say], of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Paul explains that the law simply gives us the knowledge of our sin. It acts as a mirror, showing us the problem. Then, God demonstrated His righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, because all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
Notice verse 25: in His divine forbearance, God “passed over former sins.” For thousands of years, as people trusted in God’s mercy and promise, God demonstrated immense patience. He held back final judgment, waiting for the fullness of time. When Jesus died on the cross, God took all those sins He had passed over throughout Old Testament history and placed them on Christ. And in that same moment, God reached across all of future history, gathered every sin you and I would ever commit, and placed them on Jesus as well. Christ paid the full penalty for all sin—past, present, and future.
The 4,000-Year Lesson: Seeing Our Need
If God determined from Genesis 3 that Jesus was the only solution, why did He wait 4,000 years? Why make mankind journey through thousands of years of failure, the flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Mosaic law? Why didn’t Eve just give birth to the Messiah immediately?
Because human beings are stubborn and thick-headed. We need to see our absolute need before we will embrace God’s solution.
Consider Adam before the fall. In Genesis 2:18, God observed that it was not good for man to be alone and decided to make a suitable helper. God knew the problem, knew the solution, and possessed the power to create Eve instantly. But instead of creating Eve right away, God brought every animal before Adam to name.
Genesis 2:18-20 (NASB)
Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
God didn’t do that for His own education. He did it for Adam’s. Adam needed to examine every possibility and realize for himself that nothing in creation could meet his need. Only then did God create Eve.
Human history is that exact lesson on a global scale. In Genesis 5, the refrain repeats: he lived, and he died, and he died, and he died. Sin wasn’t going away on its own. Next, humanity lived according to personal conscience, and the world descended into such violence that God brought the flood. Freedom without God failed.
After the flood, humanity gathered at the Tower of Babel, attempting global unity without God. That collapsed in pride and arrogance. Next, God established a direct theocracy with Israel, providing perfect divine laws. Yet the law only exposed humanity’s complete inability to remain righteous.
For 4,000 years, humanity tried every possible alternative—conscience, self-governance, global unity, moral legislation—and none of it solved the human heart. Only when history had exhausted every option did Christ come at the exact right moment.
Living by Grace Alone Every Single Day
God operates the same way with us today. He is unbelievably patient. Many of us spend years trying other solutions to find life, peace, and purpose. We think, Maybe this career will fix me. Maybe this relationship will fulfill me. Maybe if I just get more disciplined, change my circumstances, or elect the right leaders, everything will be okay. And God is patiently waiting, asking, Are you done naming the animals yet? Have you realized that nothing else works?
If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, understand that there is no Plan B. Jesus has always been Plan A. He is the only One who can justify the ungodly and reconcile you to God. It is time to lay down your self-reliance and receive His gift of grace by faith.
For those of us who already follow Jesus, remember that “by grace through faith in Christ alone” is not just a formula for initial conversion; it is the blueprint for our daily lives. We don’t check off salvation and then rely on our own strength to figure out life. Every morning, we wake up and relate to God the exact same way: trusting in His grace, walking by faith, and resting completely in Jesus Christ.
Rip down that imaginary wall between the Old and New Testaments. It is one continuous testimony of God’s grace and our deep need for Jesus.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, thank You for the unity of Your Word. Thank You that the heroes of the Old Testament walked with You the exact same way we do—by grace through faith. Help us learn from the thousands of years of recorded history so we don’t spend our lives chasing empty solutions. If anyone here has not yet handed their life over to You, let today be the day they surrender to Jesus. And for all of us who know You, remind us daily to live by grace through faith in Christ alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.