The Law and the Promise

Is the Law contrary to God’s promise? Although Paul clearly states in Galatians 3:21 that it is not, many Christians throughout history have interpreted Paul’s position on the Law in the exact opposite way. Perhaps more than any other, Paul’s letter to the Galatians is often regarded as the definitive rejection of Torah observance for believers-Christianity’s “declaration of independence from slavery to the Law.” This interpretation positions Law and grace as fundamentally opposed to each other: for grace to reign, Law must resign. But is that view actually biblical? In this short book, Jonathan A. Brown challenges this centuries-old consensus by taking Paul’s own emphatic answer seriously: “Far from it!” Through careful exegesis of Galatians 3 and 4, Brown argues that the apostle never intended to pit Torah against grace, but rather sought to clarify their distinct and complementary roles in God’s redemptive plan. Drawing on his background in the biblical languages and years of teaching through Galatians, Brown offers a fresh perspective that harmonizes Paul’s apparent contradictions about the Law while maintaining the centrality of justification by faith. This work invites believers to move beyond the false dichotomy of Law versus grace and discover how both work together in God’s unified plan of redemption.