Galatians Chapter 3:15-18 reads, "Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."
Last week, we were considering that the pathway of legalism leads inevitably to a curse, so that Paul could say in Galatians 3:10, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." But we saw that although that is the pathway of the law and legalism, there was One who kept the law perfectly and yet endured the wrath of God and the curse of the law against Him for us. And that was none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And He did this according to Galatians 3:14 of this passage, so "that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through faith, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
And now we come to Galatians 3:15-18 this morning, and Paul shows in this text, in fact spanning all the way to verse 25, he shows that the law is not contrary to the promises of God. Verse 19 opens with a question that helps us understand what he's trying to do in this section. He says, "What purpose then does the law serve?" So he's saying the law serves a purpose, but it does not serve the purpose of our justification. And he's going to go on to explain that, and we'll look at that next week. But in verse 21, he also affirms what the purpose of the law is not. He says, "Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law." And so he says the law is not contrary to the promises of God, but it has a specific purpose in relationship to the promise of God. But salvation is by the promise of God and not by the law.
And Paul, in verse 15, addresses these people that he addressed as foolish Galatians in verse one, as brethren. He is affectionate for them and desirous of their understanding to be improved and to be corrected. Now, you could imagine, because Paul has been talking a lot about Abraham lately, you can imagine that he, and he is most likely dealing with an objection here that was probably raised by the Judaizers. Paul is talking a lot about Abraham, and he could probably hear and preempt what they're about to say. "All right, Paul, I understand what you're saying. Abraham was before the law; we get that. That's fine. So fine, we can have salvation by grace through faith in the time of Abraham, but the law has come now. You see, 430 years past since Abraham, and now we have the law of Moses. What do you say to that? Where in your theology, Paul, is there a place for the law in giving us life?" And Paul's intention is in this section to break down that misunderstanding where they are conflating law and grace and not understanding that we are to keep them distinct, yet both serving God's purposes in the redemption of historic redemption and the redemptive history.
And in Galatians 3:15-18, which we look at this morning, Paul has two main thoughts here. He's showing, firstly, that God's purposes are noncontradictory. So if God establishes the law 430 years later, and He made a promise to Abraham, these things are not going to be contradictory. And secondly, what he is saying also is that God's purposes are unchangeable. So that what God does with Abraham was not like God then looked down the track and said, "Oh no, I didn't account for what's happening at Sinai here, quick, steer the ship," and so then it's like, "Hang on, you contradicted yourself." No, no, that's not how it works. Paul's saying God's purpose and plan is one, and all that God does in redemptive history has a purpose to the end to which He desired to achieve, which was the coming of the Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, and redemption through His Son.
And Paul uses an illustration in Galatians 3:15-17 to help the Galatians understand that God's purposes are unchanging and noncontradictory. In verse 15, look what he says here, "Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it." When he says, "I speak in the manner of men," he's saying, "I'm speaking after a human example. Let me talk to you about how things are done regarding what's happening among men." And so he uses a human example, and he uses an example of a promise that humans make to one another; here he calls it covenants, which is most likely reflective of a will and testament. People have discussed whether this is talking about an actual covenant or a will and testament, but a covenant and a will and testament are the same. And what I mean by that is that when God makes an unconditional promise, it could be equated to a man that sets out a will for his children and basically says, "This is what will be your inheritance once I pass." And he uses that example of a will or a covenant or promises that someone might make to another, and why I believe this is referring to a will rather than a contract is because of the words here, "inheritance," and the way in which Paul is bringing this out, showing that this is what God has promised as an inheritance.
And what Paul does, he argues from the lesser to the greater. He wants the Galatians to understand if this is how it works among men, why would you interpret it any differently with regards to how it works with God? So if a man makes promises with regards to his will and testament that are fixed and unchanging, so that the inheritance will go to the desired people that the person has set out in their will, why would it be any different with the promises God has made to Abraham? He argues from the lesser to the greater; he uses a human example first, a man-made covenant, and he goes on to say in verse 15, "I speak in a matter of men: though it is only a man's covenant, even though it's a man-made covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it." It's fixed. Once it's confirmed, once it's ratified, there is no changing. Now for the Greeks, that was as soon as you took your will to the public office, it was done. Which means no adjustments later on. For the Romans, it was probably similar to how we have it in our Western culture, is that your will is fixed once you die; that's when it's ratified, and therefore it's unchangeable once you die. And so this is the illustration that he's using to help the Galatians understand that God's purposes are unchangeable and they are fixed. He has made promises that cannot be altered or added to. There are no codicils to the promises of God. Codicils are the amendments or the additions that you might add to a will as you get closer to your dying day. But they're not so with God. And Paul wants the Galatians to take two key takeaways from this illustration. The first, which I've mentioned very clearly, is that no one adds or annuls that which has been promised in a will. And therefore, the will is an unalterable document. Secondly, he wants us to understand that a will is gracious. And where we get this from is in verse 15, he says here that it is firstly a covenant, which you've been looking at as that are gracious, but beyond that, he talks about it in terms of a promise. Verse 18, he talks about it in terms of an inheritance. No children upon the passing of their parents open up the will and find a list of do's and do's and do's and do's, and maybe one day you'll get the inheritance if you fulfill the stipulations perfectly. They are expecting grants, bestowals, gifts, things that come to them by the gracious disposal of their parents that are passed down to them by promise, by inheritance, not by their works. And Paul wants the Galatians to understand this, that a will is both unalterable and a will is both gracious, and this is exactly the same with the promise of God.
So he moves from the lesser to the greater, and he applies the illustration in verse 17, and he says, "And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect." He's saying, "And this is what I mean: God's promises are unalterable. God made promises to Abraham regarding a land, regarding offspring, regarding blessing. He promised Abraham an inheritance. He promised Abraham a blessing." And what Paul is saying here is, "And that is not going to be changed. The conditions by which those blessings were to come to him by the promise of God is not going to be altered by anything. Anything that comes later." And he's saying in verse eight, from what we read here, it says in the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." So God made promises to Abraham, gospel promises, and nothing would change the freeness of the gospel promise that God made to Abraham and gave to him as an inheritance, and to his Seed forever. Nothing shall add to it. Paul is saying, nothing shall nullify it. It is an unalterable promise of God. Even though the law came 430 years after the promise that was made, it was not a codicil. It was not modifying the promise. It was not changing the promise or adjusting the promise. It was given for a different purpose to the promise. Even though the law was given by God and the promises were given by God, God wasn't contradicting Himself. God was the one who declared the law from Sinai, and it was not God contradicting Himself because He was not giving the law for the purpose of eternal life. And what Paul is saying is that there is no contradiction nor conflict between Abraham and Moses. Gospel and law are distinct, and if the gospel and the law are not distinct, and that the law modifies the gospel 430 years later, Paul is saying in verse 18, then it is no longer an inheritance. Verse 18: "It is no longer a promise. It is no longer the gracious disposal of God given to the Seed, but rather then the gospel is a right earned by obedience and by a reward given to you for your faithfulness." What Paul is saying is if you think that the law modifies the promises made to Abraham, the gospel promises made to Abraham, then what you are simply saying is that you change the nature of the very gospel itself, and it no longer is the promise of God to save sinners by His unconditional love, but rather now it is conditioned on our obedience. And he's saying to the Galatians, "Don't be fooled by that."
And then he goes on to show in verse 16 that ultimately these promises that were made to Abraham were pointing way past the law. This is very important to understand. He's saying that the promises did not concern ultimately Abraham and Isaac and his seed, Jacob, and following. But ultimately, the promises made to Abraham had reference toward Christ. And look at verse 16, he says, "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." Now, if you're struggling with the inspiration of Scripture, you need to look closely at this text. You say, "Why?" Paul hinges an entire argument on the letter 'S.' He says it wasn't as the promises are made unto seeds, as of many, but unto your Seed, which is Christ, and he's basically saying here, understand this, that Paul's argument is hinging on the letter 'S.' What he's simply saying is we say every word of God is important, inerrant, infallible; the entirety of Scripture, or even the letters, my friend, are important. And Paul basically is showing here that God's promises to Abraham had reference ultimately to the one. And that one was the Seed of the woman, who was the Seed of Abraham, who was the Seed of David, who was none other than the Christ.
Now, you could hear the objection being raised. Paul uses the word seed in plural form elsewhere, and the word seed itself can be both used as plural or without there being any, without using seeds. You can use seed in that way as well. So the question then arises, do the promises concern the many, or do they concern the one? Well, the beautiful thing what Paul is showing here, and his whole argument, is to show that the many are blessed through the one. And what is beautiful about that is that is only possible through the work and person of Jesus Christ. Paul's entire argument, look with me in verse 29, and this will make sense to you here. It says, "And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Seed there is obviously plural. You're belonging to Abraham. "But if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And what he's simply saying is the promises were made ultimately with regard to Christ, and all who are in Christ are the children of Abraham, the true children of Abraham, and all who are children of Abraham are blessed with faithful believing Abraham.
So as a Gentile, this is what's just gobsmacking these Judaizers: a uncircumcised Gentile can believe in Jesus Christ and be a true child of Abraham because the promises regarded ultimately Christ and not Isaac, Jacob, and the physical descendancy. But the legalists and the Judaizers were hung up on the physical lineage, on the outward forms, and did not see that God's promises had to do with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Seed of Abraham. Therefore, the inheritance that was promised to Abraham comes to all those that are in Christ. The promises reach the Gentiles without the law. The promises come to all those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let's learn some lessons from this passage because what Paul is doing here is that he's rebuking by implication. He said, "I don't see any rebuke here." Well, this is corrective; this epistle is corrective; this section is corrective; he's trying to correct the misunderstanding of the Judaizers and of the Galatians. And what Paul is simply saying here by using this human illustration and saying that God's ways are unalterable and fixed, what he is simply saying to them is, "Don't you understand how God works? Are you gonna simply say that God made a promise to Abraham, then made a promise to Moses, and now God's contradicting Himself? Or do you think that God is changeable? That somewhere along the lines, God had to just change gears because He foresaw something coming that He did not prepare for?" Paul's saying, "If you interpret Scripture the way that you're interpreting Scripture, oh Judaizers, what you are simply saying is that very thing. That a man's will is more secure than the promises of God." But what he's simply saying to them is, "No, no, when you interpret the works of God in God's world, you must interpret it according to His character. That this is a God who's immutable."
You see, God is not like our computer programs that need software updates and bug fixes or revisions or reconsiderations after years of trial and saying, "It hasn't really worked that way; let's adjust this and adjust that." God doesn't operate like that. His purposes are fixed; His purposes are final; He does not change His mind. What He says, that will He perform; He doesn't, as I said, look forward and say, "Oh no, Sinai is coming, how did I plan for that? So let's modify what I said to Abraham so we can now include salvation by works plus faith." No. And what Paul is saying to the Judaizers and to the Galatians is, "If you view God in that way, you are simply saying that God is not immutable, God is changeable, and that His purposes are not fixed." And what he's saying indirectly and by implication to these churches here is saying, "You need to interpret the scripture theologically." What he's saying is, "You need to consider the character of God when you handle God's Word. You cannot look at the letter of the law without looking at the one who gave us the law. You cannot zero in into one little part of redemptive history and focus on Moses and the law and all these things at the expense of all the rest of the revelation of God. But somehow, you have to honor God by His word by understanding that what happened with Abraham and what happened with Moses and what happened with Christ somehow all harmonized together in the purposes of God, lest you say that God is changing or lest you say that God has to modify His word and His purposes." And he's basically teaching the people here that you must be careful how you handle the Word of God and understand the scriptures theologically.
This is the problem of the Pharisees. What did Jesus say to them? The Sadducees, when I talk about the resurrection, He said, "You are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God." You see, they did not consider the scripture in light of the power of God. Their questions on the resurrection and their doubts concerning the resurrection were not made in light of the character of God who has power to raise the dead. And neither did they understand God's purposes in His plan to raise from the dead. The same is true in Matthew 9:13 when Jesus challenges the Pharisees about their misapplication of the Sabbath day. He says to them, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." See what's happening here? The Pharisees are handling the Word of God. The Sadducees are handling the Word of God. The Jews are handling the Word of God. The Judaizers are handling the Word of God, but they are not handling the Word of God according to the character of God, understanding the purposes of God in Christ Jesus. They're coming to the Word of God apart from the revelation of God Himself.
And secondly, Paul's rebuke also to them is simply this: "Don't you see Christ?" He's saying, "What you read about Abraham, and that's all you see, is Abraham. Can't you see what God is doing in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Could you not make the connection between the promise of the Seed with Adam and Eve and the promise of the Seed with Abraham? Could you not make the connection between the law and the prophets, all pointing to Jesus Christ, and now this side of the cross, can not you see Jesus?" The Judaizers had a Christless theology because they thought you could have the life of God through law. But what Jesus is telling them, "You need to consider Christ, and when you read the Bible, you don't need to interpret it theologically, but Christologically; you have to see Jesus. We must see Jesus in order to make sense of God's redemptive purposes throughout history."
I love what He says of the Pharisees in John 5:39. He says, "You search the scriptures; there you go, they're handling the Bible, searching the Bible, even for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of Me." Here are people stooped in the word and in tradition, and they're reading and looking at commentators so-and-so and this and that and the rest of it, and what Jesus is saying, "You think you have eternal life because you're handling the book, but don't you understand the book speaks of Me, who is life eternal?" So how are you interpreting the scripture? Obviously not Christologically. You see, the Jews and the Judaizers were blinded to the promises of God with regards to Christ; they couldn't see Christ in the law; they couldn't see Christ in the prophets or in the Psalms. Oh yes, they may have seen Him as a conquering king, but not as a conquering king over sin and death and hell through His crucifixion and His resurrection. And so what happened is they had sacrifice but no Seed, not looking at the Seed in regards to the sacrifice. They had law but no gospel, why? Because they were blinded to all that the law was pointing them to, and that was Jesus Christ Himself. And what Jesus simply said, or Paul simply saying here, "You should interpret the scriptures, therefore, Christologically. See Jesus."
You know, for many of us, we are no different to those Judaizers and those believers at Galatia that were being caught up by this false teaching. We're kind of like those people on the road to Emmaus, who Jesus said of them, "Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." And so Jesus, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. He cannot but wonder whether or not we're in the same position this morning. We come to the infallible, inerrant, perfect Word of God. We have all of its 66 books before us, and therein we find an innumerable amount of the wonderful promises of God, but when we look at those promises, they're empty to us. They don't have the forcefulness that they should have in our hearts. They do not have the effects upon our minds and our consciences that they should have in our lives, and the reason, perhaps most likely, is because when we look at those promises, we do not interpret them in light of the character of God and in light of the character and person and work of Jesus Christ. Who is it that says, "Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more"? Is it not the Lord who changes not? Who is it that says, "Your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more"? Is it not coming to us through the blood of the covenant of His dear Son that was shed for our remission of our sins? God says it, but does He mean it? We may wonder to ourselves. Look at the cross and ask yourself whether He means it.
And what happens is we handle this word day in, day out, week in, week out, as part of our spiritual disciplines, but do we ever see God and Christ in it? Do we interpret it in light of who this one that makes the promises is and what His Son has actually done for our redemption? You see, many of us approach these scriptures emotionally; we approach them man-centeredly; we approach them flippantly; we approach them legalistically; we approach them self-servingly, and what we do is we press certain truths at the expense of other truths, and we do not read and interpret the scripture in light of what the other parts of the scripture say about the God who's saying what He's saying in this part of scripture, and we come muddled up and confused. The next thing we know, we are treating our relationship to God as if it is one based upon law works because we're looking at places of scripture that actually commands our obedience, but you do not interpret it in light of the one who was obedient for us. You don't look at the passages that demand your obedience, and yes, you see that, but do you see it in light of the forgiveness of God? Do you see it in light of the mercy of God? Do you see it in light of the God of grace who both works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure? Do you see it in light of the one who never fails in His mercy and covenant compassion to forgive us? Or do we look at those commandments of God and say, "That's it, I'm done, I'm a failure, it's all over," and the very word that promised us this life ends up leading us to our death because we handle it in such a way that doesn't consider God and Christ and interpret it in regards to His character and His person and work?
It was John Stott that said these words, "Every heresy is due to an overemphasis upon some truth without allowing the other truths to qualify and balance it." Every heresy is due to an overemphasis upon some truth without allowing other truths to qualify and balance it, and it is a shame to us as God's people to feel that we cannot learn with regards to the scripture and to feel that we have mastered it entirely so as not to hear the word of God in any other part of the text of scripture. And we deceive ourselves as to think because I feel that that's what the Bible is saying, therefore it must be true. Because what ends up happening is we deceive ourselves, but the question is, how does this relate, this text of scripture, relate to the other parts of scripture? Has it relate to the character of God, the person of God, the work of Christ, the person of Christ? And we end up in a muddle because we are not diligent students and prayerful students of the word of God. I say prayerful students because what happened there on the road to Emmaus was followed up in verse 45 with the disciples of Jesus, where He said, "And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures." He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. That means it's possible to come to the text of scripture and be blinded in the very light of the word of God itself. And so we should make this our prayer, "Lord, open up my eyes," as the psalmist says, "that I might behold wondrous things out of Thy law."
How many of God's people swing all the way, being anti-law entirely, because of a few texts of scriptures that regard the grace of God but not understanding the purpose of the law? And they go on to create license for sin. How many of God's people, on the other side, look at the holiness of God and the character of God and the righteous law of God, and they look at those texts of scriptures, and they do not see it in light of the redemptive work of Christ and how the purpose of the law then should serve us, and they become legalistic? How many of us come to the text of scripture, and we look at text after text after text, and we misinterpret it because we are simply looking at the letter of the law and not looking at the God who gave us the word itself?
You see, the controlling principle in interpretation for the Judaizers was the law. Moses was the controlling principle of all their interpretation; everything was filtered through Abraham, circumcision, Moses, but they would not see God in Christ. But we should interpret the scripture in a God-exalting way, in a Christ-exalting way, where the controlling principle of our interpretation is the glory of God and the honor of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain for our redemption. This is what we need in preaching; this is what we need in our personal Bible reading; this is what we need in our material; this is what you need to be careful of when you listen to things on YouTube. You need to be asking yourself, how do these doctrines and these teachings magnify God and His Christ, or is it merely man-centered, self-serving, tradition, just merely reason and logic, but not the true revelation of God?
Christians, we have a God who speaks unalterably and non-contradictory. As the hymn writer says, "Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God; He whose word cannot be broken formed you for His own abode. On the Rock of Ages founded, what can shake your sure repose? With salvation's wall surrounded, thou mayest smile at all your foes." Where do we get that confidence from to stand in the face of our enemies when shaken and oppressed on every side? It's because we have a God whose word cannot be broken. The politicians of our day break their words; our friends, our family, our spouses, our bosses, our leaders all speak fallible words that may at certain points in time fall to the ground, but we have a God whose promises are unchanging, that are unalterable. It doesn't matter if 430 years pass and the law is introduced, or it doesn't matter if it goes on forever because heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away, says God. He cannot lie. We have to be careful of our weakness at this point, where we fail to understand the scriptures both theologically and Christologically, and so my encouragement to you this morning, in closing, is look on God and on Christ as you read your Bible. Look on God and on Christ as you come to the text of Scripture. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What does that mean? Believe, yes, I get that, but who's saying this? God is saying this. Who's He saying it concerning? Christ. Who is Christ? He is the Lord. What is Christ? The anointed one sent by God. His name is Jesus. What does that mean? He shall save His people from their sins. "Believe on Him, and you shall be saved."
Jesus said, "He who comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Maybe this morning you feel like, "I can't come to Him. If I do, He's gonna look at me and reject me and kick me out," or maybe Jesus will love me one day but not the next. Interpret these promises in light of His gracious compassion because He bled on the cross that He might say, "He that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Will He cast you out when you come to Him, when He died for you, when He was hanging there on that cruel cross for our redemption? And somehow in our minds, we feel like, "If I come to Him, He won't receive me." Do not you understand that this is Jesus Christ crucified saying these words?
You say, "I'm struggling, that I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make it, and survive, and you know, this is... you know, financially things are difficult, they're hard, we have needs, I need a spouse, I... I need a car, I need a job, I... I need all these things. How about you interpret 'My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus'? I... I know that promise." No, no, do you know it with regards to the character of God? Does it fall upon your ears with regards to the person and work of Jesus Christ? Because the Bible teaches us that He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? And we wonder whether it is in the power of God to supply our needs when He spoke the world into existence. We're talking about this Jesus that turned water into wine, and that took five loaves and two fish and fed 5,000, and do you really think He can't take care of your needs?
Oh, but I feel like I'm still lacking. Ah, the unalterable purposes of God. This is exactly what He has designed for you, this very moment, so that He might conform you to the image of His dear Son. His promises are not failing; they are not being modified; they remain forever. And church, our worship of God will be shallow if our knowledge of God is shallow, and if we do not give ourselves to understanding the Scriptures Christologically and theologically, and give time and energy and effort to understand the Word of God according to the character of God and the personal work of Christ, our worship of God will also be shallow.
It was Paul that contemplated these amazing realities of the gospel from chapters 1 of Romans to chapter 11 of Romans, and he's talking about all these things: justification, propitiation, all these big words, you know, sanctification. He's talking about all these wonderful things that God has done and does do and has done through His Son, and Paul, in Romans chapter 11, verses 33 to 36, says this: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
You know, this is not Paul just trying to write a nice piece of poetry at the appendix of the end of chapter 11 before he gets into the practical part of these epistle. You know what's happening here? Paul has seen the glories of his God and King and the wonders of His grace, and this is worship. "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" Why? Because he looked upon that same text of scripture that the Judaizers and the Jews looked at with no color, dead letter, and all Paul saw was Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and he can talk about Abraham and praise God, and he can talk about Moses and worship God, and he can talk about all the law of God and somehow see Christ and God, and because of it, his worship rises to the highest height that we read a text like this and we think, "Wow, what was going on in his brain that moment?" I reckon he felt like his head was going to explode with joy and his heart was bursting forth with praise. What happened? God opened his eyes that he might understand the scriptures, and he looked at the Word of God but theologically and Christologically, and all he could say is, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all you creatures here below. Praise Him above, you heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
May God help us to approach His holy and sacred word with that very same attitude, lest we become legalists and pit Moses against Abraham and one text against another and not see God and Christ and His unalterable purposes in redemption. Let us pray.