Galatians 3: Promise and Law Worksheet
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Read Galatians 3 in full, work through five question cards, then explain six links between neighboring sentences. This worksheet contains the complete reference material, exercise prompts, answer key, and reusable card. Write on paper or in your saved copy.
Study guidance · not Scripture. AI-assisted writing and automated content review; no individual pastoral endorsement is claimed.
Five completed question cards
| Question card | What this section asks | What to mark and how it connects |
|---|---|---|
| 1. 3:1–5 | How did the Galatians receive the Spirit, and how do they expect to continue? | Mark Paul's questions. They challenge a move from reliance on the Spirit toward a different basis for completion. Verse 6 introduces Abraham into that argument. |
| 2. 3:6–14 | How do Abraham, the nations, faith, and Christ's redemption belong together? | Mark quotations separately from Paul's explanations. The sequence moves from Abraham's faith and blessing to the law's curse, then to Christ and the blessing reaching Gentiles in 3:14. |
| 3. 3:15–18 | Can the later law cancel the earlier promise? | Mark the ordinary covenant analogy, Paul's identification of the promised offspring with Christ, and the 430-year comparison. The inheritance is attached to promise in 3:18. |
| 4. 3:19–25 | Why, then, was the law given, and is it opposed to God's promises? | Mark both questions and their answers. Paul speaks of transgressions, an interval until the offspring's arrival, confinement, and the law's temporary guardian role. |
| 5. 3:26–29 | How does the argument identify those who belong to Christ? | Mark faith, baptism into Christ, shared unity, and inheritance. Verse 29 returns to Abraham and promise rather than beginning an unrelated topic. |
Five cards to fill in your own words
| Section | Question being answered | One Q, S, or E sentence to mark | Link to the next section |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:1–5 | ________ | ________ | ________ |
| 3:6–14 | ________ | ________ | ________ |
| 3:15–18 | ________ | ________ | ________ |
| 3:19–25 | ________ | ________ | ________ |
| 3:26–29 | ________ | ________ | Return to the promise: ________ |
Q means a question, S a Scripture citation, E Paul's explanation. A sentence can combine functions. Compare your cards with the completed table; questions need not use identical wording if they fit the assigned verses.
Citation connections
| Quotation at | Source to read alongside it | Connection in Paul's argument |
|---|---|---|
| 3:6 | Genesis 15:6 | Abraham's trust and its reckoning as righteousness lead into Paul's statement about people of faith in 3:7. |
| 3:8 | Genesis 12:3; compare the related Abraham promises identified in the WEB notes | The promise of blessing beyond one nation supports Paul's account of Gentiles and faith in 3:8–9. This is not a word-for-word identity claim about every English rendering. |
| 3:10 | Deuteronomy 27:26 | The obligation to carry out the law supports the warning about reliance on its works and the curse. Read the obligation as part of the argument, not as a curse to pronounce on someone. |
| 3:11 | Habakkuk 2:4 | Paul uses the relation of righteousness and faith in explaining why justification does not come by the law. |
| 3:12 | Leviticus 18:5 | The statement about doing the commands and living by them supplies the contrast he makes in this part of the argument. |
| 3:13 | Deuteronomy 21:23 | Paul connects the curse associated with hanging on a tree to Christ's redeeming action, then explains its purpose in 3:14. |
The textual timeline
| Timeline check | Supported observation | What this does not settle |
|---|---|---|
| Earlier promise, 3:15–16 | Paul uses a confirmed covenant analogy and identifies the promised offspring with Christ. | A complete account of every Abraham promise across Genesis. |
| Later law, 3:17–18 | Paul places the law 430 years later and argues that it cannot revoke the promise. | A modern calendar date or a reconciliation of every chronological passage. |
| The interval and its endpoint, 3:19, 23–25 | The law is described with an until; Paul contrasts custody before the revealed faith with the situation after faith has come. | A claim that Abraham had no faith. Paul has already described Abraham's faith in 3:6–9. |
| Inheritance, 3:26–29 | Faith in Christ and belonging to Christ lead back to Abraham's offspring and the promised inheritance. | A formula for pronouncing an individual reader saved or unsaved. |
430-year purpose check
Verse where the number appears: ________.
Earlier item in Paul's comparison: ________.
Later item: ________.
What the later item cannot do: ________.
One conclusion this number alone cannot establish: ________.
Check: The number occurs in 3:17. The covenant/promise comes earlier and the law later. The later law cannot invalidate the prior promise; 3:18 connects inheritance to that promise. This check does not assign a modern calendar date or reconcile every chronological text.
Six sentence-connection exercises
Connect 3:2 and 3:5. Which contrast appears in both, and why is verse 6 a meaningful next step?
Connect 3:6 and 3:7. Which is a Scripture quotation, and which gives Paul's conclusion about Abraham's children?
Connect 3:13 and 3:14. How does the statement about redemption lead to a purpose involving Gentiles and the Spirit?
Connect 3:17 and 3:18. What does the 430-year statement help establish about inheritance?
Connect 3:19 and 3:21. Does asking why the law was given mean Paul says it opposes God's promises?
Connect 3:26–28 and 3:29. How does the final sentence return to the earlier promise discussion?
Explained answer key
Works of the law versus hearing with faith. Both questions concern receiving the Spirit or God's work among them. Abraham in 3:6 gives Paul a scriptural example of believing God; it is connected evidence, not a random historical detour.
Verse 6 cites Abraham's believing and its reckoning as righteousness; verse 7 states Paul's conclusion. The conclusion concerns people of faith as Abraham's children. Quotation and explanation work together but should be marked differently.
Verse 14 gives the intended result. Paul connects Christ's redemption in 3:13 with Abraham's blessing reaching Gentiles through Christ and the promised Spirit being received through faith. Stopping at the tree reference leaves that purpose unread.
The later law does not cancel the prior promise. The number in 3:17 places the law later in this comparison; 3:18 explains that inheritance rests on God's grant by promise. The number is not a stand-alone date calculator.
No. Verse 19 gives a role linked to transgressions and an endpoint connected to the promised offspring. Verse 21 explicitly rejects the claim that the law is against God's promises. Both answers belong on the card.
Belonging to Christ connects the readers to Abraham and inheritance by promise. The statements about faith, baptism, and unity lead into 3:29. This exercise observes that connection; it does not settle every later debate about baptism or church practice.
Two shortcut corrections
| Misreading case | What it leaves out | Better summary |
|---|---|---|
| The law arrived later, so it replaced the promise as the basis for inheritance. | The negative claim in 3:17 and the explanation in 3:18. | Paul argues that the later law cannot cancel the prior promise. |
| The law does not supply the promised inheritance, so Paul says it had no purpose and was God's enemy. | The answer about its role in 3:19 and the denial of opposition in 3:21. | Paul distinguishes the law's role from the promise and denies that it opposes God's promises. |
Interpretive scope: This is a map of Paul's argument, not a full account of Christian teaching about law, justification, or baptism. Justification concerns how sinners are put right with God; this guide does not compare traditions' detailed accounts of that subject. Note a question for a commentary that identifies its tradition, especially at compressed statements such as 3:20, instead of treating this worksheet as a final ruling.
Worked example and reusable card
| Reading-card field | Filled example | Blank card |
|---|---|---|
| Passage | Galatians 3:17–18 | Verses: ________ |
| Question being answered | Can the later law invalidate the earlier promise? | Question: ________ |
| Kind of sentence | Paul's explanation, following a covenant analogy. | Quotation, question, or explanation? ________ |
| Connection | Verse 18 explains why promise remains the basis of inheritance. | This sentence connects to ________ because ________. |
| Limit | The 430 years serve the comparison; this card supplies no modern date. | This passage does not settle ________. |
Completion and scope
Editorial reading method: Mark answers as text-supported, reread needed, or not settled here. The card is not a faith score. Read 3:19 and 3:21 together before saying the law had no role, and read 3:6–9 before saying that faith did not exist before the interval described later.
Keep questions about the compressed mediator statement in 3:20 for further, clearly attributed study. Do not use the worksheet to declare an individual's salvation status.
Sources
Read Galatians 3 in the Updated World English Bible and compare the Berean Standard Bible. Read the chapter itself before its editorial notes. The BSB calls the figure in 3:24 a guardian; the linked WEB calls it a tutor.
Follow the cited passages: Genesis 15, Genesis 12, Deuteronomy 27, Habakkuk 2, Leviticus 18, and Deuteronomy 21. Source references in a Bible's notes are editorial aids; they are not additional words spoken by Paul.
World English Bible permissions and Berean Bible permissions. All explanations, question cards, diagrams, and answers here are original paraphrases and study guidance.