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 4th 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?
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.
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