GOODNEWSLETTER Number 419 MAY 9, 2012
JESUS CHRIST RATIFIED THE LAW OF GOD
"Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it," Galatians 3:15 (All verses from the NASB translation).
To me, this Scripture is better and clearer for me when I use the King James translation. KJV uses 'CONFIRMED' for the Greek word, "Kuroo." The NASB translates the same Greek word, 'Kuroo,' as: 'RATIFIED'.
Further, Webster dictionary, written in 1952, gives the meaning of CONFIRMED AND RATIFIED as: 'to make firm; to add strength to; to settle or establish; to make certain; and, to verify.'
And, according to Greek scholar A. T. Robertson, the Greek word, "KUROO" means: 'to make valid, to ratify', from kuros (head, authority): pg. 217 in his Word pictures of the New Testament, Broadman Press, copywrite,1931.
So we are on the right track by using either, the KJV or the NASB. In the KJV version, Paul says that 'no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto" (Gal. 3:15). He makes this Scriptural point explaining that, even a covenant made between men has to remain the same. It doesn't change, at all. Any legal document cannot change!
One of Paul's strong points on the Covenants states that the PROMISE was before the LAW; and Paul is talking 430 years. Therefore, the LAW "does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise" (Gal. 3:17). Paul knows that the Law had to be removed. The Law had no effect on the promise and certainly, could it be added to "The PROMISE."
This Apostle knows his Scripture. Paul sees the harmony in the Word when he says that the PROMISE was never received by keeping the Law. Paul makes the point clear that the law is not against the promise that God gave to Abraham. The promise just had to wait "…until the Seed should come to whom the promise had been made, V 19.
Thus, Paul teaches all believers not to bring in the LAW or, freedom in Christ is lost. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery," Galatians 5:1.