Galatians 3 (reread)

This chapter feels more dense than the ones preceding it.  I will tell you what makes sense about this chapter.

Abraham

The discussion of Abraham does a lot of thing simultaneously.

First, it contrasts the reliance on Moses by the proponents of the law.  Abraham is a pillar in the Jewish story and so is Moses.  But Abraham precedes Moses.

Second, Abraham relied on faith.  The law had not yet been given since it came before the law.  In this example, faith is more powerful than the law.

Third, God promised Abraham to bless all nations through him.  All nations would include the Gentiles.  In contrast, the law of Moses was for the Jews.  True, people could baptize into Judaism.

Finally, Paul relies on it on a substantive level to show that it is the promise of Abraham that is returned with Jesus.  The verse that stands out to me the most to reflect this is 18 - if the law was required for inheritance, then the inheritance would no longer depend on the promise.

I think Paul is saying that requiring Gentiles to keep the law would nullify the promise to Abraham in that Gentiles would be blessed by the faith of Abraham.

Verse 27 - baptized into Christ

I like Stott's commentary about this and will do my best to paraphrase.  Basically, Paul notes that being baptized into Christ and clothing oneself with Christ are two separate events.  Otherwise, baptism would be sufficient for salvation.  Thus baptism would replace circumcision as another required work.

But here, they are separate things.

Verse 28 - neither Jew nor Greek....

Here, Paul takes our notions of categorization (ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status) and says that in Christ, they do not matter.  If they do not matter and Gentiles are heirs of the promise of Abraham through Christ, then Jews do not need to obey the law either.