The Promise, The Prelude, and the Provision" - Galatians 3:15-22

 “The Promise, the Prelude, and the Provision”

Galatians 3:15-22

Introduction: I heard the story of a pastor who showed up at church with a bad cut on his neck.  What happened?  He said he was thinking so intently about his sermon while he was shaving and he cut his neck.  One lady answered, “He should have been thinking more about his shaving and cut his sermon!”  It's good to take a careful look in the mirror on a regular basis, and that is one function of the Scripture.  It serves as a well-lighted mirror, to show us our need, and to point us to Jesus. We’ll see that idea in this central part of the letter to the Galatians.

Context: Some false teachers had come to Galatia and were trying to change the message of the Gospel by adding requirements to it, particularly circumcision and certain other “works of the law.” Paul had preached the message of the Cross: Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Here Paul appeals to the example of Abraham to contrast the Promise received by faith, and the works of the Law. Tim Keller said, “For a promise to bring a result, it needs only to be believed, but for a law to bring a result, it has to be obeyed…” In 3:1-14 Paul has made it clear that if you are trying to be justified by works, rather than by grace, through faith, you are essentially rejecting grace and saying that Christ’s work was not enough to save you.  The question arises, “Why then the Law?”

The Maine* Idea: The Law exposes our desperate need of grace. We can trust God to keep His promise through faith in Christ.

I. The Promise: The only way to God is by grace through faith (15-18).  Paul wants his readers to understand that the Law came later, and did not annul the promise.

¹⁵ To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.  ¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ.  ¹⁷ This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.  ¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

       In the 7 verses which we are looking at this morning Paul uses the word “promise” seven times referring specifically to God’s promise to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3).  That promise involved being justified by faith and having all the blessings of salvation (3:6-9).  The repetition makes the contrast clear: believing God’s promise is contrasted to the works of the Law. The Judaizers implied that the giving of the Law changed the original promise: Paul here is arguing that it did not.  He shows four ways in which the promise is superior to Law. God’s promise…

       It is confirmed by God himself (v.15).  Confirmed as irrevocable and unchangeable.  Paul here turns for a moment from his involved argument for the Old Testament to an example for everyday life. Human covenants are not broken, or at least, they are usually legally and morally binding agreements. Certainly after someone dies, their “will” is considered binding. Remember that God himself ratified the covenant to Abraham (Gen 15:8-18).  We’ve had some lively discussion about this the last couple of weeks at the men’s meeting Tuesday morning!  The majority report: God’s act indicated this covenant was unilateral, one sided, that essentially it was a promise based on God alone.

       It is centered on Jesus Christ (v. 16). Promise of a “Seed” to Abraham (Gen 13:15f., 17:7f.).  Paul certainly knew that the word “seed” is ambiguous as to whether it refers to many or to one (you can have a bag of “seed,” right?).  Yet under divine inspiration Paul concludes that “seed” refers ultimately to one particular descendant of Abraham, Jesus himself (see 19b, He is “…the Seed…” to whom the promise had been made…”).  The verbal tense has the idea of a past action with continuing results. The promises pointed forward to the coming One, the Messiah, the One who would do for us what we could not do for ourselves… We won’t trace the use of the word “seed” through the Scriptures today, suffice to say that “Seed” was first used prophetically in Gen 3:15… talking about the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. That promise is traced through the patriarchs, then to Jesse, and David, when the promise is reaffirmed of a son, a descendant, who would have an eternal kingdom and be called the Son of God. Paul will refer to the fulfillment a few verses down when he says,

“In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman [the Seed!] born under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons…”

In this whole process we see God overcoming barrenness, human sin, using famine, protecting and delivering, even working through the evil intentions of men to accomplish His purpose in bringing the promised Seed, in the fullness of time, into the world.  By faith we are in Christ, the promised Seed, and so are children of Abraham, children of promise. 

       “Promise” is chronologically prior to the Law (v.17).  The promise was prior to giving the Law through Moses and no amount of passing of time could do away with it. “Ratified,” is in the Greek perfect tense, speaking of a past action with continuing results: it was ratified, and it continues to be valid, God’s promise was not invalidated by the Law.

       It is completely dependent on God’s Power (v.18). Paul’s point: an inheritance based on Law depends on man’s performance, whereas the one granted… to Abraham by means of a promise depends on God’s power. Alexander McLaren seemed to grasp the meaning of grace as he lay dying.  A fellow minister paid him a visit and asked, “What are you doing brother?” He answered, “Doing! I am gathering all my sermons, all my good deeds, all my prayers, all my evil deeds, and I am going to throw them overboard and swim to glory on the plank of free grace!” The hymn writer said, “nothing in my hands I bring, simply to his cross I cling!” In his commentary on Galatians Tim Keller spoke about how easily we drift from that “faith alone” perspective…

It is common for believers to begin their Christian lives by looking beyond themselves at “Christ … clearly … crucified” (v 1), relying on God’s promise that Christ has taken our curse and given us His blessing. But, as we go on, it is tempting, and easy, to look within ourselves at our own “human effort” (v 3), resting in our own performance to give us our sense of acceptability before God. Doing this makes us radically insecure—it cuts away our assurance, and prompts us to despair or pride (Galatians For You, Kindle Edition).

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, and we live by faith. The Gospel of Christ is the foundation and the fuel for Christian living. Why then the Law? The Law exposes our desperate need of grace. We can trust God to keep His promise through faith in Christ.

 II. The Prelude: The Law was a part of God’s plan, a prelude, until the coming of Christ (19-22a). The Judaizers who were troubling the Galatians had the idea that the Law was there to prove that we were holy. The truth is, God gave the Law to prove to us that we are sinners – sinners desperately in need of Rescue!

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.  ²⁰ Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.  ²¹ Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.  ²² But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin…

       Paul rhetorically asks the question, “Why then the Law?” The mosaic law is an interesting contrast to the promise to Abraham. Many preachers have noted that God said to Abraham “I will…”; He said to Moses “Thou shalt…”  They aren’t contradictory in that both reveal aspects of God’s plan: The promise reveals a lot about God and his grace, the Law reveals a lot about us and our need for grace!

       First of all, notice in v. 19 that the Law was added because of transgressions (the term, parabasis, has the idea of “stepping over a boundary”).  It seems that the Law in this sense had a “restraining” function, maintaining the separateness of God’s people through the centuries. It also had a “revealing” function, emphasizing our need.

      It was temporary – provisional. It was added “until…” what? The Law was anticipating the coming “Seed,” the Messiah. When he had come, the purpose of the Law had been fulfilled. What did the tearing of the Temple veil on Good Friday, and the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 signal? Were the promises of God failing? Quite the contrary, God was fulfilling His promise through the Seed, the Redeemer, the Rescuer spoken of in the Scriptures themselves!

      Paul say in v.20 that the Law required a mediator. I am not fully certain about what Paul is referring to here. There are at least a couple of possibilities. God was the Author and Giver of the covenant of the Law, He was present with Moses on Mount Sinai, yet we have hints from the inspired writers of the NT that angels were involved in the giving of the Law to Moses (Acts 7:53; Heb 2:2).  Since “angels” can also be translated “messengers” I wonder if Paul might have in mind the role of priests in mediating between God and the people, and that of the prophets in speaking to the people for God and calling them to covenant faithfulness?  In any case, no mediator was needed for the Abrahamic Covenant, it was a unilateral, one-sided promise from God.  Remember Genesis 15?  God alone passed through the divided sacrifice, He put his signature on the contract, he said he would do it.  Abraham was only a witness and a beneficiary!

       Paul asks another question, which he promptly answers, in v.21. Why then the Law? Is the Law contrary to God’s promises?  No, the Law could not impart life! Romans may have been written about this same time. In that letter Paul said:

^“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God;  ²⁰ because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:19-20). 

Paul’s opponents might ask, “Is the Law then contrary to promise?  Is there a contradiction?” The true purpose of the Law is to confirm the promise and make it indispensable.  Martin Luther argued for the same understanding of this passage when he said,

“The principle point… of the Law… is to make men not better, but worse; that is to say, it shows them their sin, that seeing it they may be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace, and so come to that blessed Seed (Christ).”

       The Law was not given to provide life (3:21).  It could not save, it could not provide life. If it could then there would be a contradiction! If Law could save then, as Paul said in 2:21, Christ died for nothing! But God spared not His own son, but delivered him up for us all, precisely because there was no other way. The Law could not provide life.

       Why then the Law? The Law was given to reveal sin (3:19a, 22). “…but…” [alla] – This is a strong adversative: not only can the law not give life, not only was it not intended as a means of salvation, not only is it not contrary to God’s promises, “but…” strong contrast, it “shut up” = [sunkleiw] - to lock up securely, to enclose on all sides with no way of escape, the ESV translates “imprisoned” everything under sin. Bottom line: The Law shows there is no hope of salvation by human effort. All that is left is to cry out for mercy to the Creator of the Universe, in our desperate need calling for mercy. The Law was part of God’s plan, a prelude, in effect, a mirror, to allow the Jews, and us, to look with opened eyes and to see the depth of our need and the extent of God’s grace. That is the Maine* Idea: The Law exposes our desperate need of grace. We can trust God to keep His promise through faith in Christ.

III. The Provision of Grace: The Law shows our sin and points us to Christ, through whom the promise is received by faith (22b). John Stott said in his discussion of these verses, “The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation tells the story of God’s sovereign purpose of grace, His master-plan of salvation through Christ…” (The Message of Galatians, p,91). Paul points to that plan at the end of v.22…

  “…so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

       This is an important part of what Paul is saying… the Law is part of God’s good plan. Not to save us through our goodness, but to lead us to grace, because it shows us how far short we fall, exposing our hopeless estate. I came across an old story of a theological discussion between a preacher and an illiterate farmer… 

A well-known preacher went out to a farmer’s field to greet him.  The farmer didn’t have any formal education, but he loved God and was a student of the Word.  The preacher asked, “John, what do you think is the hardest thing in religion?” The farmer replied, “Reverend, you’re asking me? I am only an ignorant farmer, you tell me!” “Well,” said the minister, “it seems to me that the hardest thing in religion is to give up those pleasurable indulgences to which our nature is so prone, but which are contrary to the requirements of religion.” “Well reverend,” said the farmer, “I think there is something in religion that is even harder.” “What is it John?” “It is to feel that we are wretched and lost, and perishing, and to relinquish all other hope than that which rests in the atoning blood of the Redeemer.”

God, through His Word, leads us to repentance and faith! By His doing you are in Christ Jesus! The Law didn’t serve as a means of living righteously, because there is none righteous, no not one. It does expose our sinfulness, our desperate, hopeless situation, and leads us to cry out to God for mercy. We can only do that as He stirs up faith in our heart, faith to believe the promise, that the Rescuer has made a way, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!

What is God saying to me in this passage? The Law exposes our desperate need of grace. We can trust God to keep His promise through faith in Christ.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Swindoll said,

"Receiving God’s acceptance by grace always stands in sharp contrast to earning it on the basis of works. Every time the thought of grace appears, there is the idea of its being undeserved. In no way is the recipient getting what he or she deserves. Favor is being extended simply out of the goodness of the heart of the giver." (Grace Awakening, p. 9).

There is nothing to do but to believe God, to trust Him, to take Him at His Word. Faith is “the hand of a beggar reaching out to receive the gift of a king.” Have you taken a hard look in the mirror of the Word?   If you have done that, you know the truth of Scripture: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  You understand Jeremiah’s lament when he writes “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” All we can do is to confess our weakness, our need, and believe the Good News: “This is how God showed His love among us, he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” We can’t do anything to earn or deserve a relationship with God. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. When we get that, it changes everything. It overflows in a grateful heart, we want to know Him and to grow to be like Him!  AMEN.

The Just Shall Live by Faith! - Galatians 3:6-14

The Just Shall Live by Faith!

Galatians 3:6-14

Introduction: Rabbi Shammai wrote that Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commandments.  David in Psalm 15 gives 11 requirements; Isaiah 33:15,16 lists six, Micah 6:8 three, Habakkuk 2:4 reduces them to one: “the just shall live by faith.” This simple statement is central to the book of Romans and is the main theme of the letter to the Galatians.  Paul’s experience on the Damascus road, and the message that he received from Jesus, brought a 180 degree turn in his life from works to faith. After centuries of apostasy in the Roman Church, the religious world was shaken when a monk named Martin Luther read these words and was converted, and it became the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation: The Just shall live by Faith. 

       This is the message that Paul had preached on his first missionary journey through Asia Minor, as he planted churches in region of Galatia on his first missionary journey. It was also the substance of the rebuke that Paul brought against Peter when, after Peter had come to Antioch and initially fellowshipped with the gentiles, but suddenly began acting differently after some Jews from Jerusalem arrived. He separated himself from his Gentile brothers in Christ “for fear of the Jews.” Paul withstood him to his face because Peter was not “walking in step with the Gospel.” How can we put on the gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? Paul now turns his attention to the Galatians who were turning from the apostolic teaching of “grace” and adding to it the trust in works-righteousness that prevailed in 1^st century Judaism. Grace plus Law is no gospel at all!  In this passage that we’ll look at today, Paul appeals to the Old Testament Scriptures to make his point that grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is our only hope for salvation. He’ll quote from six Old Testament passages to make his point.

The Maine* Idea: Since the Law makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves our only hope is to trust the One who bore the curse of the Law for us.

I. The Blessing of Faith: Believers experience God’s blessing as they affirm their trust in His Word (3:6-9).  Paul uses Abraham as an example of authentic faith.

…just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?  ⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."  ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

       “Even so, Abraham believed God…” The reference is to Genesis 15:6. Even though He and Sarah were old, he believed that God could do the impossible, and he took Him at His word. As we hear, and “believe” the Word of God, authentic faith will show itself by action, we’ll live like we believe it!  (cf. Gen 12:4, Jn 3:36; James 2:21).  So, Abraham believed God, and he lived happily ever after, right?  Not exactly! “Faith” doesn’t mean we are perfect.  Abraham’s faith wavered on a few occasions, as in the face of famine (Gen 12:10) and when confronting danger (12:11-13). Faith doesn’t mean we don’t have questions. But faith does mean we “believe” GOD has the answers! We see that in the verse that is quoted in Galatians 3:6, which refers to Gen 15:3-6. Let’s read the verses from Genesis 15…

³ And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."  ⁴ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."  ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  ⁶ And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

       God said He would do something amazing, something impossible from a human perspective. And Abraham took God as His word, He believed what he said. And notice what it says, “…He counted it to him as righteousness…” That is the language of “imputation” that Paul picks up on, and it is through faith alone. Abraham’s faith had its up and downs, but by Genesis 22 he had been molded and matured to the point that he was ready to face his greatest test yet…  As God called on Abraham to offer up his only son, the son of promise, Abraham recognized that God was able, if necessary, even to raise the dead (22:5, “we will return”). And so, he raised his knife in obedience and faith, and God intervened.

       The Reformers returned the church to a biblical perspective of faith. According to Luther, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life in it a thousand times.” Calvin said:

“Faith… is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us, which, being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.”

And so, faith is a sure trust, an absolute confidence in God’s word. Remember the little girl in Haddon Robinson’s story from last week? She trusted Daddy, and acted accordingly! Does our faith guide our choices? Do we live by faith?

       Biblical faith has three elements: knowledge, assent, trust.  What does the Bible say about our need and about God’s provision for our rescue in Christ? That is knowledge. Assent means that we agree that it is true, that God’s way is the best way, indeed the only way. And finally, “Trust,” resting our hope, our confidence, in Christ alone. Action demonstrates trust!  On the basis of the Old Testament background, the “faith in action” in the life of Abraham, Paul says in v.7… “Know therefore…” imperative, “Let it be known to you on the basis of the Scripture…” “It is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Opponents might have been saying that to be Abraham’s children, circumcision and the Law were necessary additions to faith. Paul, however, is emphatic, it is faith, believing God, taking Him at His Word, that makes us Abraham’s children. We follow Abraham’s example of faith. Recall the words of John the Baptist in challenging the Jews whose confidence was in the fact that they were descended physically from Abraham: “Don’t be content in saying I am descended from Abraham, for God is able to raise up from these stones children to Abraham!” Spiritual kinship trumps blood relation. The question is, do we believe God?

        “…the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’.”  The reference again is to the book of Genesis, this time to 12:3. God called Abraham to go out to a land that he did not know, leaving everything familiar behind. And somehow, through him, the blessing would extend to all the nations of the world. How could that be? We have the whole story! A descendant of Abraham, Jesus, would be the one who would do for us what we could not do for ourselves. The church was not an unforeseen mystery, even in the Abrahamic promise the idea of God’s blessing extending to the gentiles was explicitly stated.  Notice that faith, believing God, was basis to God’s program throughout history.  And so, in v.9, believers are blessed with Abraham.  As Abraham believed God, putting his trust in Him alone, so we must acknowledge our desperate need, putting our trust in Christ. Faith in God, taking Him at his word, binds us together. That’s the Maine* Idea: Since the Law makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves our only hope is to trust the One who bore the curse of the Law for us.

II. The Curse of the Law [or, The Curse of Unbelief?]. The Law convicts us of sin.  Attempting to approach God through the works of the Law can only confirm our total inability, hence, we must walk by faith (3:10-12).  We should walk by faith because we have been redeemed from the curse of the Law.

¹⁰ For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them."  ¹¹ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith."  ¹² But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." 

       Paul appeals to Scripture in v.10, quoting three OT verses in these verses. He wants to make the point that the Law could not save, it could only reveal our need.  The Mosaic Law included a series of blessings and curses contingent on obedience—not to save men, but to make clear their need for a Savior.  Complete obedience was needed. The quotation in v.10 makes that point, citing Deut 27:26, where, after a series of curses evoked for various acts of sinful behavior, it states,

“Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.”

Some translations add in italics, “…all the words of this law…” which seems to be the point in the context. Absolute obedience. The late Old Testament scholar Peter Craigie commented on this verse in Deuteronomy 27:26…

…the final curse has a summary and all-inclusive nature; it describes that man who does not take positive action which obedience to the law demanded… This last curse Paul expounds in his letter to the Galatians (3:10-14). The reach of the law is so all-pervasive that man cannot claim justification before God on the basis of ‘works of the law.’ This all-embracing nature of the law turns our eyes to Christ who “redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…” (Deut. p.334).

Teaching in Brazil it was often necessary to grade a test “on a curve.” The students usually worked full-time as well as being involved in ministry, they had little time to study! How good is good enough? Different groups among the Jews of the first century had varying ideas about obedience, sin, and the life to come. One of the most liberal considered a 51% mark as passing, carrying entitlement to enter the world to come. Most Americans seemingly come from the same school! Did you see the commercial with the guy helping a mom and her child onto a carnival ride, they ask, “Is it safe?” He replies, “Sure, I put it together myself last night, I think I did an ok job…” OK?! They are out of there! People assume that they are pretty good people, surely good enough by God’s standards to deserve eternal life. But God doesn’t grade on a curve! Jesus said, “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:31*). God is just and holy, and he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Either we will answer for our sin, our we will put our trust in the One who willingly bore our sins in his body on the Cross.

       The need for “faith” was evident, even in the Old Testament (v.11).  Faith in God was the true means of salvation through all ages—and is also characteristic of the Christian life. Know God, believe Him, trust Him. Habakkuk contrasts the prideful arrogance of unbelief with the humble life of faith when he said, “…the righteous [i.e., the just] shall live by his faith…” (Hab 2:4).

       How can that be? Didn’t the Law require complete obedience? That is the point that Paul is making. He quotes in v.12 from Leviticus 18:5 which says,

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

Again, why did God give the Jews an impossible standard? We’ll see more in this chapter. To show humans the impossibility of being perfect and therefore the need to rely wholly on God. We can’t do it, so we need grace, we need a Rescuer! The Law drives us to Him! Paul will say a little further down, in 3:24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The Law was designed to teach us that we are weak, to expose our desperate need, to show us we need a Savior, we need grace! And that brings us back to the Maine* Idea: Since the Law makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves our only hope is to trust the One who bore the curse of the Law for us.

III. The Basis of our Rescue (13-14). The Gospel of Christ (3:13-14).  One missionary translator, trying to get the sense of Acts 16:31 into a tribal language, came up with this: “Lean your whole weight upon Jesus and be saved.”

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us- for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"-  ¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

       Here we go again, running too quickly through the last couple of verses! Read v.13—Even the manner of Christ’s death symbolized what he did for us: Christ was born under the Law. He kept God’s Law perfectly, he never sinned.  Yet He bore the penalty for our sin, he redeemed us, bought us out of our position of bondage and made us God’s children. The quotation is from Deuteronomy 21:23, were Moses wrote,

²² “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,  ²³ his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.

Think about this: though He was innocent of any crime, Jesus died the death of a condemned criminal, one who had committed a capital offense. Crucifixion was agonizing and humiliating, and yet Jesus chose to die the death of one accursed by God, so that we, by grace through faith, could experience the blessing of God.

       Finally, v.14 Paul tells us why God did it:  So that we might receive the blessing of Abraham.  Abraham lived in tents as a sojourner in a foreign land, just as we do, in a real way live in the world, but we have the same hope as Abraham, “…waiting for that city whose architect and builder is God…” (Heb 11:10).

What is God saying to me in this passage? Since the Law makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves, how then can anyone be saved? Our only hope is to trust the One who bore the curse of the Law for us.  The just shall live by faith! We have his Word written in the Spirit-inspired writings of the New Testament.  Our life now should be a process of filling ourselves with the truth of God’s Word, and making it the authority, the guide book for our lives. We need to know what the Bible says, and most importantly, we have to live like we believe it! “The just shall live by faith.”

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Again, true faith has three indispensable aspects: knowledge, assent, and trust. We need to know what God says if we are going to believe Him.  We need to be convinced and affirm that His Word is truth.  And we need to trust him, take His word to heart, becoming a “doer of the word, and not a hearer only.” Lean your whole weight on Jesus, and you will be saved! Have you done that? You are not done yet! “Faith” does not refer only to the initial act of trusting Christ. Ray Pritchard’s website is Keepbelieving.com. “Faith” means believing God, taking Him at His word. It is not simply a ticket, the way “in” to a new life. It is a new way of life. Believing God, day by day, moment by moment, decision by decision. To believe God we have to be listening to Him. That means being under Gospel teaching and preaching. It also means being in the Word, prayerfully, carefully, reading this book that God has given us. Jesus said “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…” His Spirit guides us, convicts us, leads us deeper.  The Christian life is learning to let every area of our life to be Gospel-centered, that is the foundation. And it also means to be motivated, or fueled, by the Gospel in our living, day-to-day, under His lordship. The just shall live by faith. Jesus said, I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly!   Amen.

Faith Alone! - Galatians 3:1-9

Faith Alone!

Galatians 3:1-9

Introduction: Haddon Robinson told the story of a burning apartment building in NYC’s Harlem. A blind girl was perched on a window on the 4^th floor.  They were unable to get a ladder to her since the alley between the buildings was too narrow.  They were trying to get her to jump into a net, but since she couldn’t see it, she was afraid and clinged to the window.  Finally, her father arrived, and he shouted to her through a bull horn that there was a net, it was ok to jump… Immediately, she jumped and was so relaxed she didn’t even strain a muscle in the four-story fall.  Because she trusted her father completely, when she heard her father’s voice she did what he said was best. That is faith, and Paul is saying in Galatians that the Christian life is lived by faith. This is an urgent letter that reminds us that we need to be on guard against any one or any teaching that would undercut the truth of the Gospel message. We must be on the alert that we, personally, are living consistently with the truth of the Gospel.  Theology is always practical! As Paul begins this chapter, he expresses his strong emotion, his utter amazement that the Galatians were turning from the truth (3:1, c.f. 1:6). JB Philips is perhaps stronger in the translation: “Oh you dear idiots of Galatia… surely you can’t be so idiotic!”  How could it be that they had fallen so far so fast, embracing teaching that was so contrary to the Gospel message, so incompatible with their experience of faith and the teaching of the Word?

       In this chapter the Apostle Paul begins by asserting that as they began the Christian life by faith, trusting in Jesus and his work on the cross, believing what God says in His word, so we must live by faith. He is about to argue from several perspectives that God saves sinners through faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. Either we live through the Spirit by faith, or in the flesh by works. Which is it? Paul starts here by inviting the Galatians to remember their personal experience with Christ when they were saved.  Then he’ll go on in the chapter to use a series of verses from Scripture to prove his point. Why is that important?

       Subjective experience must be tested by objective truth.  What does the Bible say?  Today we’ll see Paul beginning with their experience, reminding them of how they had encountered God through faith in Christ.  Now, seemingly, they were being turned to another message, one that said the work of Christ alone was not enough to make them right before God. It was a message of justification by faith plus works! Had they been hypnotized?  Bewitched?  Had they so quickly forgotten how they began? Let me ask, do you remember when you first believed? You heard the message, and your heart was opened to it, you believed, trusting Christ as your Savior and Lord. You heard, and believed! Paul’s point in these verses is that we are justified by faith, and we live by faith!

The Maine* Idea: The Christian life is initiated by faith in Christ, and lived by faith, as we trust God, taking Him at His Word.

I. The Christian Life is based on the truth of the Gospel: the substitutionary atonement of Christ.  They had heard and believed the straightforward Gospel message: Christ crucified, risen, and coming again (3:1). Paul rebukes them by calling them to remember where they came from!  Remember how you got here!

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 

       “You foolish Galatians…” The paraphrase of J.B. Philips says, “Dear idiots of Galatia…” The Message reads, “You crazy Galatians! Who has put a hex on you!” Paul was such a diplomat!  Apparently, he had never read How to win friends and influence people!  He is calling them out for their spiritual dullness.  Jesus used similar language on the road to Emmaus when he said,  "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  ²⁶ "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:25-26). “Wisdom” is fearing God and receiving His Word, “foolishness” is the opposite. It points to a lack of faith, failure to take God at His word, the idea is being lazy spiritually, or “dull.” After years of operating heavy-equipment, I have a constant noise in my ears (tinnitus). What are the things that might “dull” our spiritual sensitivity?  Not only what we have been exposed to, i.e. the moral “desensitizing” of the world, but what we have neglected: prayer, fellowship, Bible reading.

       “Who has bewitched you?” or, as F.F. Bruce translates, “Who has hypnotized you?” Their behavior was so incredible, so contrary to the Gospel of Grace which they had received, it was as if they were under a spell or had been hypnotized!  He is asking, “How could this be?!” We can get bad counsel from people that might sound good, it might resonate with popular culture and seem to make sense, but if it runs counter to biblical truth, it’s wrong. All truth is God’s truth. It’s sad enough for any Christians to begin turning from the truth, but these had been taught by Paul himself, they had received clear, unambiguous teaching on the Cross of Christ. Paul makes the point in his next phrase which is follow be a series of rhetorical questions are framed to emphasize that very point.

       First, Paul reminds them what they had heard and believed. Before their very eyes Jesus was “publicly portrayed as crucified.” He is not saying they were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion. The idea of the word is something being as clearly presented and understood as a message posted on bulletin board. We want the community to know about our upcoming VBS, so there is a large, clear banner out front announcing it! Paul here is saying that the message of “Christ Crucified” had been clearly presented, there was no doubt about the message of the Cross.  They had heard that simple message, Christ Crucified, the truth of the Gospel, they believed it and received it.  As a result, they were born into the family of God. And now, incredibly, as though bewitched or hypnotized, they were turning away. God gave us this Word to alert us to the danger of drifting off course. We as a church are determined to stay centered on the Gospel, after all, it is the foundation and the fuel of our faith! That’s the Maine* Idea: The Christian life is initiated by faith in Christ, and lived by faith, as we trust God, taking Him at His Word.

II. The Christian Life is initiated by faith: that faith begins the believer’s experience with the Spirit (3:2-4). When facing doubt, or when confronted by those who would add conditions to our salvation, we need only to recall our conversion and ask, how did this new life start (v.2)?

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?  ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  ⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain- if indeed it was in vain? 

       “This one thing…”  If they conceded this, they conceded Paul’s case, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” It is a rhetorical question because the answer is obvious and undeniable: they had heard and believed the Gospel! Like the gentiles in the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, who had heard the message Peter preached, and believed… and God poured out the Spirit on them.  They took God at His word, and God sent the Spirit. When Paul asks them here, “…did you receive the Spirit…” – he is essentially asking them,  were you saved by faith or by keeping the Law? In this age being indwelt by the Spirit is essentially synonymous with being born-again, a child of God. So, Paul could write in Romans 8:9,

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

In another passage dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers he states in I Corinthians 12:13,

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” 

And again, in Ephesians 1:13,14,

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,  ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

The Spirit is the “down payment,” or the “pledge” of what we will inherit.

       The contrast is straight forward, was it “…by the works of the Law (striving, human effort) “…or by hearing with faith…” (cf. Rom 10:17) you received the Spirit? Believing God—if He said it, that settles it.  C.H. Spurgeon said, “Never put a question mark where God has put a period.”

       So in v. 3 he asks, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”   Having trusted God for salvation, we should continue to live by faith—believing God’s Word is true and that He will do what he promises.  Paul here uses “flesh” to refer to human nature in its fallen state. The old “I” that cherishes independence, the presumption of autonomy. Paul is warning as he does elsewhere, “…because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,  ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:7-8).  Contrast Paul’s word in Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion.”  Man believes, God works. The heresy was saying we begin the Christian life by grace through faith, but we keep it by works.

       What about the reference to suffering in v.4?  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:19 that if Christ is not raised, if this Gospel is not true, then we are of all men most to be pitied.  We read in Acts that the apostles rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. Paul here is referring back to 2:21, if we are justified through the Law, if human effort could somehow make us right before God, Christ died for nothing. Jesus did it all. So, the Christian life is initiated by faith in Christ, and lived by faith, as we trust God, taking Him at His Word.

III. The Christian Life is Lived on the basis of faith: the believer’s experience with the Father (3:5).

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith… 

       “He who [abundantly] supplies the Spirit…”  The language here reflects an ongoing, present reality.  This idea of the “Spirit-filled life” is really the key to authentic Christian living from Paul’s perspective.  This is the “Age of the Spirit”, He is the Comforter that Jesus promised, the “power-giver” that he spoke of, the promised one whose coming was linked to the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.   “He who abundantly supplies the Spirit…”, the language implies an ongoing, present reality.  Paul said as much in Eph 5:18, “Be filled [be being filled] with the Spirit…”  There is an experiential reality to the Christian life, His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…”

       “…and [constantly] works miracles among you…” dunamis i.e., “works of power”; Paul may have been referring to miracles as such were the normal means God used to confirm the apostolic message in that day as the New Testament was still being written (see Acts 14:3). It may be that the best application to this age is the fact that God’s spiritual power is still abundantly evident in the church: people coming to faith in Christ, God demonstrating his power over Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and human weakness as He works in and through his people by the Spirit.  Do the blessings of the Christian life, the answers to prayer, the comfort in tribulation, the peace in the midst of turmoil, come from human effort or from hearing and believing God’s word and trusting in his promises?  That points us to the Maine* Idea: The Christian life is initiated by faith in Christ, and lived by faith, as we trust God, taking Him at His Word.

IV. The Blessing of Faith: Believers experience God’s blessing as they affirm their trust in His Word (3:6-9).  Paul uses Abraham as an example of authentic faith.

…just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?  ⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."  ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

       “Even so, Abraham believed God…” The reference is to Genesis 15:6. Even though He and Sarah were old, he believed that God could do the impossible, and he took Him at His word.  As we hear, and “believe” the Word of God, authentic faith will show itself by action, we’ll live like we believe it!  (cf. Gen 12:4, Jn 3:36; James 2:21).  So, Abraham believed God, and he lived happily ever after right?  Not exactly! “Faith” doesn’t mean we are perfect.  Abraham’s faith faltered on a few occasions, in the face of famine (12:10) and confronting danger (12:11-13). Faith doesn’t mean we don’t have questions (Gen 15:1-6,8). But faith “believes” GOD has the answers (15:17)!

       Abraham’s faith had its up and downs, but by Genesis 22 he had been molded and matured to the point that he was ready to face his greatest test yet…  As God called on Abraham to offer up his only son, the son of promise, Abraham recognized that God was able, if necessary, even to raise the dead (22:5, “we will return”). The Reformers returned the church to a biblical perspective of faith. According to Luther, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life in it a thousand times.” Calvin said:

“Faith… is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us, which, being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.”

And so, faith is a sure trust, an absolute confidence in God’s word. Remember the the little girl in Haddon Robinson’s story. She trusted Daddy, implicitly.

       Biblical faith has three elements: knowledge, assent, trust. Action demonstrates trust!  On the basis of the Old Testament background, the “faith in action” in the life of Abraham, Paul says in v.7… “Know therefore…” imperative, “Let it be known to you on the basis of the Scripture…” “It is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Opponents might have said that to be Abraham’s children circumcision and the Law were necessary, but Paul is emphatic, it is faith, believing God, taking Him at His Word, that makes us Abraham’s children. We follow Abraham’s example of faith. Recall the words of John the Baptist in challenging the Jews whose confidence was in the fact that they were descended physically from Abraham: “Don’t be content in saying I am descended from Abraham, for God is able to raise up from these stones children to Abraham!” Spiritual kinship trumps blood relation.

        “…the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’.”  The church was not an unforeseen mystery, even in the Abrahamic promise the idea of God’s blessing extending to the gentiles was stated. Notice that faith, believing God, was basis to God’s program throughout history.  And so in v.9, believers are blessed with Abraham. Faith in God, taking Him at his word, binds us together.

What is God saying to me in this passage? The Christian life is initiated by faith in Christ, and lived by faith, as we trust God, taking Him at His Word.” As Piper said: We are broken by the Cross, healed by the Spirit. It is not about “me” – except that God made it about me, and you, when He included us in His story! By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Think back to chapter 2, verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live be faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Do you see how the Gospel is both the foundation and the fuel of the Christian life? We believe God, trusting in the finished work of Christ. We are broken by the Cross! But we are then healed by the Spirit—we have new life, a life of faith—as the implications of the gospel fuel every part of our life.

       Do we worship Him with a heart filled with gratitude, knowing what our salvation cost? Do we pray as though we are in His presence? Do we do our work, as unto the Lord, trusting Him to meet our needs? Is your marriage Gospel-centered? Does the grace of God infiltrate every part of it? Do you manage your finances from the perspective of faith, knowing that it all comes from Him, and we can trust Him to meet our needs?  Blessed with Abraham, living by faith—that is the life for which we were created! The just shall live by faith! AMEN.