3:14
Now a further factor is introduced. It was always God’s plan that all the world should be saved, Jews and Gentiles, as expressed in the promise to Abraham (Gen 12:3). This could never happen under the Law, for to have any chance of being justified by the Law one had to become a Jew. and even then, as Paul has said earlier, it is doomed to failure. So a way that was open to all had to exist, and that way, that basis, is the way of faith. Notice the emphasis again on receiving the Holy Spirit. Faith is only way by which anyone, and everyone, can be made right with God.
3:15
Paul is probably answering the question, whether hypothetical or actual, that the Law came after the promise and so supersedes it. Paul’s answer is that once an agreement has been ratified it cannot be annulled or amended. Covenants are serious agreements and cannot be amended. The whole basis of Paul’s theology is that the promise to Abraham, and the whole basis on which God dealt with Abraham, is the pattern for all of God’s dealings. It is the Law that is temporary, in so much as it is a basis for the relationship between God and His people. It was temporary, or only a shadow of what was to come, on two counts. One is that it was restricted to Israel, and the other is that it could not make sinful people righteous. Now this does not mean the Law is irrelevant, for it reveals much of the heart of God, and God’s ways have not changed.
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