Galatians: The Gospel of God’s Grace

#8  The Gift of Grace, 3:1-29

Defection and desertion are contemptible because they involve disloyalty and betrayal. Few things are more tragic or disappointing than a Christian who deserts the purity of the gospel for a false form of Christianity that presumes to improve on the finished work of Christ. Yet that is what many believers in the Galatian churches had done or were in danger of doing because of the Judaizers.

Throughout the history of the church some believers have begun well but later have been pulled away from the truths they first believed and followed. They receive the gospel of salvation by grace and live for the Lord in humble faith, but then fall prey to some system of legalism and works-righteousness that promises more but produces much less. Some fall into formalism, substituting external ceremonies and rites for the internal reality of personal growth in the Lord. Others fall into legalistic systems of do’s and don’ts, proudly hoping to improve their standing before God by doing or not doing certain things. Still others look for a second blessing—a spiritual secret to unlock some higher plane of spirituality, an additional experience of grace—hoping to receive more of God than they imagine was granted to them at conversion.

Paul had been used by the Lord to introduce the gospel of sovereign grace to the Galatians, first to bring them the truth that salvation is received by faith in Christ’s atoning work on the cross plus nothing else. Now they were drifting away from the way of pure grace and had accepted an inferior and impotent substitute based on the old Mosaic rituals and ceremonial standards that the New Covenant in Christ had made invalid—and that, even under the Old Covenant, had no power to save. The defecting believers had not lost their salvation, but they had lost the joy and freedom of it and had returned deceived, to the uncertainty and bondage of a self-imposed legalism. They were still in Christ and right with God positionally, but they were not practically living in conformity to the truth by which they had been made righteous. They substituted a form of religion that had no power or joy for the fullness of life in Christ they once enjoyed. Because they allowed themselves to be deceived, they also projected to the deceived unbelievers around them the thinking that Christianity was a matter of law rather than faith. They had robbed themselves of the fullness of God’s blessing and were in danger of robbing their world of the knowledge of the only way of salvation.

Satan never ceases his effort to destroy God’s way of salvation, and because God’s way is by His grace working through man’s faith, Satan’s is the opposite, the way of man’s own effort and work. From the time of Cain’s first works-righteous offering of a grain instead of an animal sacrifice, unbelieving man has sought to make himself right with God through his own goodness and merit.

When Paul first came to Galatia, he marveled at his gracious reception. He was physically afflicted, yet “that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition,” he said, “you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself” (Gal. 4:14). Now the apostle marveled at their defection from the gospel he had preached to them. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (1:6-7). Having received new life in Christ by faith, they had been persuaded to live out their new lives by the old way of works. They had turned back from grace to law from faith to works, from Calvary to ceremony, from freedom to bondage.

In chapters 3-4 Paul gives a classic defense of the doctrine of justification by faith, a defense he had introduced in 2:16-21. In 3:1-5 he defends the doctrine from the standpoint of personal experience, and in 3:6-4:31 from the standpoint of scriptural revelation.

In 3:1-5 the apostle reminds his readers that a believer’s experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of God the Father are incontrovertible evidence of having been graciously made acceptable to God through personal faith in the perfect, complete work of Christ, apart from any human supplement.

Although experience in itself is not entirely reliable evidence of spiritual reality, it is nevertheless a powerful apologetic when closely linked with and built on scriptural truth. Because genuine Christian experience verifies the gospel of grace, the inspired apostle was led by the Holy Spirit to use it as an effective means of defending the doctrine of justification by faith.

The sixty verses that make up Galatians 3 and 4 are some of the strongest writing that Paul ever penned. But, after all, he was in a battle! He was out to prove that salvation is by grace alone, and not by the works of the Law. His opponents had used every possible means to try to capture the churches of Galatia, and Paul was not going to fight them halfheartedly. The apostle was no amateur when it came to debate, and in these two chapters he certainly proves his abilities. His logic is unassailable.

Paul uses six different arguments to prove that God saves sinners through faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. He begins with the personal argument (Gal. 3:1-5) in which he asks the Galatians to recall their personal experience with Christ when they were saved. Then he moves into the scriptural argument (Gal. 3:6-14), in which he quotes six Old Testament passages to prove his point. In the logical argument (Gal. 3:15-29) he reasons with his readers on the basis of what a covenant is and how a covenant works. He then presents the historical argument (Gal. 4:1-11), explaining the place of Law in the history of Israel.

At this point, Paul’s love for his converts comes to the surface. The result is a sentimental argument (Gal. 4:12-18) as the apostle appeals to them to remember his love and their happy relationship in days past. But then Paul goes right back to his close reasoning, and concludes with the allegorical argument (Gal. 4:19-31), based on the life of Abraham and his relationships with Sarah and Hagar. Practical application of his doctrinal argument follows in the last two chapters.

In the early Church converts nearly always received the Holy Spirit in a visible way.  The early chapters of Acts show that happening again and again (cp. Acts 8:14-17; 10:44).  There came to them a new surge of life and power that anyone could see.  That experience had happened to the Galatians and had happened, said Paul, not because they had obeyed the regulations of the law, because at that time they had never heard of the law, but because they had heard the good news of the love of God and had responded to it in an act of perfect trust.

The easiest way to grasp an idea is to see it embodied in a person.  In a sense, every great word must become flesh.  So Paul pointed the Galatians to a man who embodied faith, Abraham.  He was the man to whom God had made the great promise that in him all families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).  He was the man whom God had specially chosen as the man who pleased him.  Wherein did Abraham specially please God?  It was not by doing the works of the law, because at that time the law did not exist; it was by taking God at his word in a great act of faith.

Now the promise of blessedness was made to the descendants of Abraham.  On that the Jew relied; he held that simple physical descent from Abraham set him on a different footing with God from other men.  Paul declares that to be a true descendant of Abraham is not a matter of flesh and blood; the real descendant is the man who makes the same venture of faith.  Therefore, it is not those who seek merit through the law who inherit the promise made to Abraham; but those of every nation who repeat his act of faith in God.  It was by an act of faith that the Galatians had begun.  Surely they are not going to slip back into legalism-and lose their inheritance.

This passage is full of Greek words with a history, words which carried an atmosphere and a story with them.  In verse 1 Paul speaks about the evil eye.  The Greeks had a great fear of a spell cast by the evil eye.  Time and again private letters end with some such sentence as this:  "Above all I pray that you may be in health unharmed by the evil eye and faring prosperously" (Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri, No. 14).

In the same verse he talks about Jesus Christ being placarded before them upon his Cross.  It is the Greek word (prographein) that would be used for putting up a poster.  It is actually used for a notice put up by a father to say that he will no longer be responsible for his son's debts; it is also used for putting up the announcement of an auction sale.

In verse 4 Paul talks about beginning their experience in the Spirit and ending it in the flesh.  The words he uses are the normal Greek words for beginning and completing a sacrifice.  The first one (enarchesthai) is the word for scattering the grains of barley on and around the victim which was the first act of a sacrifice; and the second one (epiteleisthai) is the word used for fully completing the ritual of any sacrifice.  By using these two words Paul shows that he looks on the Christian life as a sacrifice to God.

In verse 5 he speaks of God giving generously to the Galatians.  The root of this word is the Greek choregia.  In the ancient days in Greece at the great festivals the great dramatists like Euripides and Sophocles presented their plays; Greek plays all have a chorus; to equip and train a chorus was expensive, and public-spirited Greeks generously offered to defray the entire expenses of the chorus.  (That gift is described by the word choregia.)  Later, in war time, patriotic citizens gave free contributions to the state and choregia was used for this, too.  In still later Greek, in the papyri, the word is common in marriage contracts and describes the support that a husband, out of his love, undertakes to give his wife.  Choregia underlines the generosity of God, a generosity which is born of love, of which the love of a citizen for his city and of a man for his wife are dim suggestions.

(3:1-4:7) DIVISION OVERVIEW: Justification—Faith versus Works: this passage begins the major teaching of the Book of Galatians, that a man is justified by faith alone and not by good works nor by law. Of course, a man should be good and do good, be as good as he can be and do as much good as he can. A man should live a moral and just life like the law says. But this is not the point; this is not what Scripture is saying. Scripture is saying that a person is not justified before God by doing good and keeping the law. No man can do enough good nor keep enough laws to become perfect and acceptable before God. God is perfect, and no matter how much good and how much law we keep, we do not become perfect. We are still short: we still fail, sin, age, and die. Good works and law do not perfect us; they do not make us acceptable to God, nor impart to us eternal life. Only God Himself can perfect us, accept us, and give us eternal life. Any thinking and honest person knows that there is nothing—absolutely nothing—on earth that can keep us from coming short and dying. There is absolutely nothing on earth that can give us eternal life in a perfect world where there is nothing but love, joy, and peace. If we are to ever inherit eternal life, then God has to give it to us.

The point is this: How do we know that God will justify us? How do we know that God will accept us and give us life with Him forever? The answer to this question is the discussion of the present passage. There are six proofs that God will justify us by faith alone, six proofs that God will not justify us by works and law.

1.  The proof of a believer’s experience (3:1-5).

2.  The proof of Scripture (3:6-14).

3.  The proof of God’s Covenant or promise (3:15-18).

4.  The proof of the law’s powerlessness (3:19-22).

5.  The proof of what faith does for us (3:23-29).

6.  The proof of Christ and the fulness of time (4:1-7).

(3:1-5) Introduction: some influential people had joined the churches of Galatia and the churches took pride in their presence. The new members were so capable and the churches were so glad to have them that they were immediately placed in positions of leadership and teaching. However, these new members had not been truly converted by Christ or else their understanding of the gospel was all confused. They began to teach that faith alone was not enough to save a person, that a person had to undergo the basic ritual of religion (circumcision) and focus his life upon the law in order to become acceptable to God.

The key to this section is in the word suffered (Gal. 3:4), which can be translated “experienced.” Paul asks, “Have you experienced so many things in vain?” The argument from Christian experience was a wise one with which to begin, because Paul had been with them when they had trusted Christ. Of course, to argue from experience can be dangerous, because experiences can be counterfeited and they can be misunderstood. Subjective experience must be balanced with objective evidence, because experiences can change, but truth never changes. Paul balances the subjective experience of the Galatian Christians with the objective teaching of the unchanging Word of God (Gal. 3:6-14).

It was obvious that these people had experienced something in their lives when Paul had first visited them; but the Judaizers had come along and convinced them that their experience was not complete. They needed something else, and that “something else” was obedience to the Law of Moses. These false teachers had bewitched them and turned them into fools. In calling them “fools” Paul is not violating Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:22), because two different words are used and two different ideas are expressed. Foolish in Galatians 3:1 means “spiritually dull” (see Luke 24:25), while the word Jesus used carries the idea of “a godless person.” Paul is declaring a fact; Jesus is warning against verbal abuse.

Paul reminds them that they had truly experienced a meeting with God.

It was “Christ and Him crucified” that Paul had preached in Galatia, and with such effectiveness that the people could almost see Jesus crucified for them on the cross. The words evidently set forth translate a Greek word that means “publicly portrayed, or announced on a poster.” Just as we put important information on a poster and display it in a public place, so Paul openly presented Christ to the Galatians, with great emphasis on His death for sinners on the cross. They heard this truth, believed it, and obeyed it; and as a result, were born into the family of God.

Paul’s answer is direct: the experience of the Galatian believers disproves that a person becomes acceptable to God by law. The believer’s experience proves that he is justified by faith alone, and all a believer has to do is to rethink his experience and he will see the truth.

1.  A believer corrects error (false teaching) (v.1).

2.  A believer receives the Spirit by faith, not by works nor by law (v.2).

3.  A believer grows by faith (v.3).

4.  A believer suffers by faith (v.4).

5.  A believer experiences God’s miraculous working by faith and not by works nor by law (v.5).

(3:1) Deception: a believer corrects error. There are four reasons why he must do so.

1.  Error makes a person “foolish.” Note that Paul calls the Galatian believers “foolish Galatians.” The word “foolish” (anoetoi) means misunderstanding, thoughtless, and unthinking. The Galatians were listening to false teaching and passively drinking it in. They were not thinking through what was being taught. They were lazily sitting and soaking it up, not applying their minds to see if what was being taught was true or not. They were foolish, acting like senseless people who were incapable of thinking.

2.  Error deceives a person. The word “bewitched” means to fascinate, cast a spell upon, mislead, deceive. The false teachers were, as so many are, very capable, fluent, and persuasive speakers with dynamic personalities and charisma. Their teaching sounded reasonable and logical.

Þ A man must keep the ritual of religion.

Þ A man must do good works to be good.

Þ A man must keep the law in order to be acceptable to God

     It all sounded reasonable and logical, especially to a person who was not thinking and comparing the teaching to the gospel of Christ. The error was bewitching, deceiving the believers.

3.  Error shows disobedience. The Galatians simply were not obeying the truth. They were trying to become acceptable to God...

·   by undergoing the ritual of religion (circumcision, baptism, etc.) instead of trusting the death of Jesus Christ.

·   by subjecting themselves and focusing their lives upon the law instead of Christ.

4.  Error leads a believer away from Christ. This is tragic, for the true believer is a person who has seen Christ crucified for him. The Galatians had clearly seen the death of Christ through the preaching of Paul. Paul’s preaching had plainly pointed out and explained the death of Christ. In fact, the Lord’s death had been so clearly explained that it was as though the Lord Jesus had been crucified in their presence, before their very eyes. There was, therefore, no excuse for their following false teachers. They knew what Christ had done for them, that Christ had died for them and had taken their sins upon Himself and borne their punishment for them. They knew that God loved them, that God loved the world...

·   that He had sent His Son into the world to die for them.

·   that God expected all men to believe in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

·   that God took their faith and love in His dear Son and accepted them because they believed and loved His Son.

How then could they be so foolish and bewitched and not obey the truth—especially when they had clearly seen and understood the death of Jesus Christ?

You foolish Galatians reflects a combination of anger and love mixed with surprise. Paul was incredulous, hardly able to believe what the Galatians had done. Like many believers before and after them, they had been victimized by Satan and induced to slip away from the moorings of the truth by which they had been saved. Those believers were especially foolish because they had been so carefully and fully taught, having been on many occasions over the years privileged to sit under the teaching of Paul himself, whose very heartbeat was the
gospel of God’s grace.

Anoeôtos (foolish) does not connote mental deficiency but mental laziness and carelessness. The believers in Galatia were not stupid; they simply failed to use their spiritual intelligence when faced by the unscriptural, gospel-destroying teaching of the Judaizers. They were not using their heads.

The Greek term frequently carried the idea of a wrong attitude of heart, a lack of faith that clouds judgment. Paul wrote of greedy people who think that a lot of money will enhance their lives and bring happiness and fulfillment. In seeking to get rich, such people “fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and
harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9). Paul confessed that before salvation he, too, had been “foolish … , disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending [his] life in malice and envy, hateful, hating” (Titus 3:3).

Jesus used the word to rebuke the two disciples He encountered on the road to Emmaus: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). The disciples’ basic problem was not mental but spiritual. Because they had not carefully studied to believe the prophets, they failed to understand that, as the Messiah, Jesus not only had to die but that He would be raised and return to His Father in heaven (see v. 26). Their understanding failed because their faith had failed.

The Galatians had foolishly fallen into Judaistic legalism because they had stopped believing and applying the basic truths of the gospel Paul had taught them and by which they had been saved. By sinful neglect of their divine resources, they compromised the gospel of grace. They followed their whims and impulses rather than God’s revealed truth, and in so doing forsook the basic truth of the gospel, that men come to salvation and live out salvation only by faith in the Person and the power of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is neither entered nor
lived on the basis of good feelings or attractive inclinations but on the basis of God’s truth in Christ. Christians who rely on self-oriented emotions instead of Scripture-oriented minds are doomed to be “tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14). When they judge an idea on the basis of how good it makes them feel or how nice it sounds rather than on the basis of its harmony with God’s Word, they are in serious spiritual danger.

Most cult members did not become involved because they were intellectually convinced the doctrines of the cult were true but because its teachings and practices were appealing. Their minds were not persuaded; their emotions were victimized.

Paul pleaded with the Roman believers, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, … not [to] be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2). He urged the Ephesian believers to “be renewed in the spirit of [their] mind” (Eph. 4:23) and the Colossians to “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:10). Godly faith and obedience are established by the mind, not by the emotions. Being told that one can please God by certain behavior is very appealing to the ego, which is always looking for means of glory, ways to tell itself and others how good it is.

The faithful, effective Christian life, however, is not simply a great emotional adventure filled with wonderful feelings and experiences. It is first of all the humble pursuit of God’s truth and will and of conformity to it. The obedient Christian experiences joy and satisfaction beyond measure, far exceeding that of superficial believers who constantly seek spiritual “highs.” Life in Christ is not sterile and joyless. But true joy, happiness, satisfaction, and all other such feelings are by-products of knowing and obeying God’s truth.

The Galatians were actually bewitched by the Judaizers. Bewitched is from baskainoô, which means to charm or fascinate in a misleading way, as by flattery, false promises, or occultic power, and clearly suggests the use of feeling over fact, emotion over clear understanding of truth. “Who tickled your fancy?” Paul asked rhetorically, fully aware of the answer. “Who could have dragged you away from the solid foundation of truth in which you were once so well grounded?” Although bewitched can carry the idea of sorcery, that is not the idea
here. The Galatians were not victims of a magical spell or incantation, but were misled pupils of teachings they should have instantly recognized as fake. They were willing victims who succumbed to the flesh-pleasing works-righteousness of the Judaizers. They had been convinced that faith was not enough, that something was lacking that could be fulfilled by returning to the ceremonies and requirements of the Old Covenant. But as William Hendricksen has said in his Galatians commentary, “A supplemented Christ is a supplanted Christ.”

The Galatians’ own experience of salvation should have prevented their falling for the Judaizing falsehood. First of all, they had experienced the powerful, transforming, mind-changing truth of the gospel in the crucified Christ. They were people before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. They saw clearly the meaning of the cross. The gospel had come to them with the full clarity and power of Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf, and by faith they had believed and received it.

Publicly portrayed translates prographoô, a word that was used of posting important official notices on a placard in the marketplace or other public location for citizens to read. Jesus Christ had been figuratively placarded before the Galatians by Paul himself for everyone to see clearly. Paul was a dynamic preacher, and perhaps dramatic as well. Those who sat at his feet perhaps could almost hear the ringing of the hammer as it drove the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet. They may have been able to visualize the blood flowing from His thorn-pierced brow and wounded side. They were convinced of Jesus’ atoning death, convicted of their sin, and ushered by grace through faith into the kingdom.

Paul’s preaching of Jesus Christ and the Galatians’ acceptance of Him by faith was all done publicly. The believers there were witnesses to each other’s salvation by faith in Him alone. But by turning to legalism they were denying the absolute saving power of Christ and the cross by which He had paid the penalty
for their sins and bought their salvation.

Crucified translates a perfect passive participle, indicating that the crucifixion was a historical fact that had continuing results. John declares that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). A more literal translation is, “He is still righteous to keep on forgiving our sins.” No ritual, ceremony, regulation, or any other thing devised or accomplished by men can pick up where the cross leaves off—because the cross never leaves off. The cross is the continuing and eternal payment for all sin, and every sinner who puts his trust in the cross is forever and continually being forgiven. A believer can no more stay saved by works than he could have been saved by works in the first place. The cross keeps moving powerfully and relentlessly through history, and it will stand forever as living proof that men cannot redeem themselves.

It is tragic that even much religion that goes under the name of Christianity rejects the substitutionary work of Christ and replaces it with some form of works-righteousness. Churches who go by the Lord’s name but reject His
righteousness in favor of man’s are guiltY of establishing a form of godliness that has absolutely no power.

Paul had proclaimed that justification is only by faith in Jesus Christ from the time he first set foot in Galatia. “And by him [Christ] all that believe are justified from all things,” he told his Jewish hearers in Antioch of Pisidia, “from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39, KJV). That is essentially the message of the book of Hebrews, which was written primarily to Jewish believers, some of whom, like those in Galatia, were in danger of turning back to Judaism. “For, on the one hand,” the writer says, “there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God … Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant” (Heb. 7:18-19, 22).

Later in the Galatian letter the apostle implores his readers, “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:2-4). The person who puts his trust in the law obligates himself to keep the entire law which is humanly impossible, and he also cuts himself off from the benefits of
the cross, whereby sins are forgiven and obligation to the law is fulfilled.

(3:2) Holy Spirit—Faith versus Works: a believer receives the Holy Spirit by faith, not by works nor by law. Note that this whole passage is a series of questions. Paul is stirring the Galatians to think. The present question strikes at the very heart of the gospel: How did you begin your Christian life? Did you receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

There is one thing genuine believers know, and the genuine believers in the Galatian churches knew it too: no person earns, wins, or merits the Spirit of God. Man is too polluted and too short of God’s glory to deserve the Spirit of God. His thoughts and behavior are too often...

No matter how much good and how much of the law is kept, the believer knows that he did not and cannot eliminate such thoughts and behavior—not fully, not perfectly. Therefore, he did not become a Christian—he did not receive the Holy Spirit—by good works nor by the keeping of laws. He became a Christian and received the Spirit of God by hearing about faith in Christ. He heard the glorious news that Christ had died for him and his sins, and he believed the news. Therefore, God took his faith and counted it for righteousness. The believer knows that he is not righteous, but God counts him righteous because he believes and loves His Son. The believer knows that the Holy Spirit does not dwell in him because of any goodness or work of his own; he knows that he has the Holy Spirit because God counts his faith in Christ as reason enough to put His Spirit into his heart. That is how the believer receives the Spirit of God, and that is how the Galatians received the Spirit of God.

Every person must hear the glorious message of faith. “The hearing of faith” is the only way a person can ever become acceptable to God. A person must hear and believe the report of faith. The message of faith is the gospel of salvation—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death for our sins.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned eighteen times in this epistle and plays an important part in Paul’s defense of the Gospel of the grace of God. The only real evidence of conversion is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (see Rom. 8:9). Paul asks an important question: did they receive the Spirit by faith in the Word of God, or by doing the works of the Law? Of course, there could be but one answer: the Spirit came into their lives because they trusted Jesus Christ.

It is important that we understand the work of the Spirit in salvation and Christian living. The Holy Spirit convicts the lost sinner and reveals Christ to him (John 16:7-11). The sinner can resist the Spirit (Acts 7:51) or yield to the Spirit and trust Jesus Christ. When the sinner believes in Christ, he is then born of the Spirit (John 3:1-8) and receives new life. He is also baptized by the Spirit so that he becomes a part of the spiritual body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-14). The believer is sealed by the Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14) as a guarantee that he will one day share in the glory of Christ.

Since the Holy Spirit does so much for the believer, this means that the believer has a responsibility to the Holy Spirit, who lives within his body (1 Cor. 6:19-20). The Christian should walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) by reading the Word, praying, and obeying God’s will. If he disobeys God, then he is grieving the Spirit (Eph. 4:30), and if he persists in doing this, he may quench the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19). This does not mean that the Holy Spirit will leave him, because Jesus has promised that the Spirit abides forever (John 14:16). But it does mean that the Spirit cannot give him the joy and power that he needs for daily Christian living. Believers should be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18-21), which simply means “controlled by the Spirit.” This is a continuous experience, like drinking water from a fresh stream (John 7:37-39).

So, in their conversion experience, the believers in Galatia had received the Spirit by faith and not by the works of the Law. This leads Paul to another question: “If you did not begin with the Law, why bring it in anyway? If you began with the Spirit, can you go on to maturity without the Spirit, depending on the flesh?” The word flesh here does not refer to the human body, but rather to the believer’s old nature. Whatever the Bible says about “flesh” is usually negative (see Gen. 6:1-7; John 6:63; Rom. 7:18; Phil. 3:3). Since we were saved through the Spirit, and not the flesh, through faith and not Law, then it is reasonable that we should continue that way.

The illustration of human birth is appropriate here. Two human parents are required for a child to be conceived and born, and two spiritual parents are required for a child to be born into God’s family: the Spirit of God and the Word of God (John 3:1-8; 1 Peter 1:22-25). When a normal child is born, he has all that he needs for life; nothing need be added. When the child of God is born into God’s family, he has all that he needs spiritually; nothing need be added! All that is necessary is that the child have food, exercise, and cleansing that he might grow into maturity. It would be strange if the parents had to take the child to the doctor at one month to receive ears, at two months to receive toes, and so on.

“You have begun in the Spirit,” writes Paul. “Nothing need be added! Walk in the Spirit and you will grow in the Lord.”

Paul’s next appeal was to the Galatian believers’ experience with the Holy Spirit. “Don’t you remember what the Spirit accomplished in your lives when you trusted in Christ for salvation?” he asks. He narrows his focus right to the issue when he pleads, “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: when you received Christ, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith? Did you have to fulfill some further requirements, go through some special ceremony, or perform some additional rites? Or did you receive the Spirit by God’s grace at the same time you received Christ as Lord And Savior?” The question was rhetorical and the answer obvious: They received the righteousness of Christ and His Holy Spirit at the same time.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the believer’s most unmistakable evidence of God’s favor, his greatest proof of salvation and the guarantee of eternal glory. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16). Paul assured the Roman Christians. Conversely, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (v. 9). John writes, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13; cf. 3:24).

It is therefore ludicrous to maintain, as some Christians do, that the full gift of the Holy Spirit comes through an additional work or experience. A person who does not have the fullness of the Holy Spirit does not need a second blessing; he needs salvation. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the new birth. At no time before salvation can a person have the indwelling Spirit, and at no time after salvation can he not have Him. “Having also believed” in Christ, Paul explained to the Ephesians, “you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13-14). “Pledge” is from arraboôn, which originally referred to a down payment or earnest money given by a person intending to make a purchase, as a
guarantee that the full amount would be paid. In modern Greek a form of the word is used for engagement ring. The Holy Spirit is the believer’s divine guarantee that, as part of Christ’s church, His bride, he will one day participate in the marriage feast of the Lamb.

When Paul met some disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus, he sought to determine the completeness of their faith by asking, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” When they replied no, he presented the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and they then received the Spirit (Acts 19:1-6). In his speech before the Jerusalem Council, Peter said, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us” (Acts 15:7-8). Peter had first witnessed Gentiles’ receiving the Holy Spirit when he preached to Cornelius and his relatives and friends at Joppa. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also” (10:44-45).

Though probably not in so dramatic a way, every true believer in Galatia had received the Holy Spirit the moment he received Jesus Christ as Savior. “Don’t you remember,” Paul asked, “that you received the Spirit … by hearing with faith? How then, can you be duped by the Judaizers into thinking that He came to you, or will eventually come to you, by works of the Law?”

Like the Judaizers, many groups and movements today want to introduce special conditions or requirements that supposedly add blessings to the finished and perfect work of Christ—such as a greater fullness of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, or a more complete salvation. But all such things are forms of works-righteousness, adding things that men can do to what Christ has already done and that only He could have done.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Paul declared. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-4).

The Holy Spirit is not the goal of the Christian life but is its source. He is not the product of faithful living but is the power behind it. A higher level of living does not bring the Holy Spirit; rather submission to the Holy Spirit, who already indwells the believer, includes a higher level of living.

“Having begun by the Spirit,” Paul continues, “are you now being perfected by the flesh? How could you think that your weak, imperfect, still sinful flesh could improve on what the divine Spirit of God began in you when you first believed?” Drifting from the provisions of grace into the efforts of law is ludicrous.

For the sake of balance it should be noted that James warns that a faith that does not produce good works is not saving faith at all. “What use is it, my brethren,” he asks, “if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14). That is, can that kind of faith bring salvation? No. “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (v. 17). When he later says that “a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone” (v. 24), he is speaking of works verifying, not producing, salvation. Works that are pleasing to God—such as visiting “orphans and widows in their distress” and keeping “oneself unstained by the world” (1:27)—give evidence that one’s profession of faith in Christ is genuine.

The validity of good works in God’s sight depends on whose power they are done in and for whose glory. When they are done in the power of His Spirit and for His glory, they are beautiful and acceptable to Him. When they are done in the power of the flesh and for the sake of personal recognition or merit, they are rejected by Him. Legalism is separated from true obedience by attitude. The one is a rotten smell in God’s nostrils, whereas the other is a sweet savor. The prayer offered in humble faith, seeking God’s will and glory, is pleasing to the Father, whereas a prayer uttered by rote or to impress God or other people is anathema to Him (Luke 18:10-14). Going to church to worship God sincerely with fellow believers is pleasing to Him, whereas going to the same church
service and being with the same fellow believers is not acceptable to Him if done in a self-righteous, self-serving, legalistic spirit.

Even the best and most acceptable works do not increase our standing before God or elevate us to a higher spiritual status. How would it be possible to be more than a child of God and fellow heir with Jesus Christ, who is the Heir of all things (Rom. 8:17; Heb. 1:2; cf. Gal. 4:7; 1 Pet. 3:7)?

Did you suffer so many things in vain? Paul asks next. Suffer is from paschoô, a word that carries the basic idea of experience and sometimes that of pain or hardship. Since the context suggests nothing of suffering or hardship, it seems best to take the word here to refer to experience, the believers’ personal experience with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. Paul is asking, “Did you experience so many things in vain? Did you learn nothing at all from them? Can’t you think things through and see that the claims of the Judaizers cannot possibly square with the gospel you have been taught and have experienced yourselves?”

Paul softens the blow by adding, If indeed it was in vain, leaving open the possibility and hope that it was not. In other words, “I hope what I have heard about you is not true or that you have come back to your senses.” The apostle uses the same approach several other times in the letter, hitting hard at an error or failure and then softening his tone (see, e.g., 4:9-14, 20; 5:2-10).

 (3:3) Growth, Spirit—Maturity—Faith—Flesh: a believer grows and will be perfected only by faith and not by the flesh. Again, note the question: “Having begun your Christian life in the Spirit, are you now maturing and being made perfect by the flesh?”

A believer does not become spiritually mature by focusing upon his flesh, upon what he can do...

No matter how strong and disciplined his flesh is—no matter how many good deeds and laws he is able to do in his own flesh—the believer’s flesh does not make him grow spiritually. Focusing upon his flesh and upon the strength and work of the flesh only causes the believer to concentrate upon himself. It emphasizes self, not the Spirit—the human and physical, not the spiritual and heavenly.

Note another fact: no matter how many good works are done and no matter how many laws are kept, they cannot make a man perfect; they cannot impart eternal life to a man. There is no man upon earth that is living eternally because of works. There is no law whatsoever that can keep a man alive forever and ever. No matter how many works of the law a man has done in his flesh, he has not achieved perfection—not the holy perfection that makes him acceptable to God. If he is ever to be perfect enough to be acceptable to a Holy God, it will be because God perfects him, not because he has worked and become perfect through his corruptible flesh and human efforts.

As Paul says, “Are you so foolish?” Is God so low that corruptible and dying man can achieve so much? Is man so exalted that he has so little to achieve in order to be perfected? Any thinking and honest heart knows not.

Þ A man begins his journey to God when he truly believes in Jesus Christ and is “born again”—a spiritual thing.

Þ A man continues his journey as he is daily renewed by the Holy Spirit—also a spiritual thing.

The only way a believer can spiritually grow and mature is to focus his life and mind upon Jesus Christ. The believer must focus his mind upon the things of Christ moment by moment, and as he does, the Spirit of God will draw his mind to spiritual things. Remember: the Spirit of God lives within the believer. He is there to work within the believer and to help him grow and mature in Christ.

Þ The believer keeps his mind and thoughts upon Christ, casting down imaginations and making every thought obedient to Christ.

Þ The believer focuses and keeps his mind and thoughts upon being conformed more and more to the image of Christ. He keeps his mind and thoughts upon Christ all day long—praising, honoring, worshipping, and asking for His help and guidance. He learns to live and move and have his being in Christ.

Þ The believer who focuses his love, attention, and life upon the Lord Jesus Christ is accepted by God. God loves His Son so much that He accepts any person who truly loves and focuses his life upon His Son. And someday—in the glorious day of redemption—God will perfect the believer and conform him perfectly to the image of Christ.

(3:4) Faith versus Works—Suffering: a believer suffers by faith. When the Galatians accepted Christ, they had suffered ridicule, abuse, isolation and persecution from their neighbors; and apparently the persecution had continued for some time (Acts 14:1-7, 19, 22). The point is this: if the Galatians now turned away from Christ to some false teaching, then the suffering they had borne for Christ would be in vain. They would have suffered for nothing. In fact, they would now appear foolish if they turned away from Christ when they had suffered so much in order to embrace Him.

Every believer who truly turns to Christ has some suffering to bear. It may be mild, but some suffering is borne. There are the sufferings of...

·   separating from the world.

·   denying self.

·   taking up the cross-dying to one’s own will and way every day.

·   giving everything that one has to Christ and His cause (money, time, energy, effort).

The list could go on and on, but the point is clearly seen. If Christ is worth suffering for, why then forsake Him and turn to some false teaching?

(3:5) Faith versus Works: a believer experiences God’s miraculous working by faith and not by works nor by law. What were the miracles experienced by the Galatians? They were miraculous works of healing (cp. Acts 14:8-15). But note: the miracles were not due to the Galatians; they were due to God. The Galatians did not earn, win, or merit the miracles. They simply heard about faith, the power of faith, and they believed that God would count their faith as the miracle and meet their need. And God did—God worked miracles among them because of the “hearing of faith.” They heard the glorious message of faith in Christ, and they believed in the power of faith in Christ; therefore, God honored their faith and met their need.

The He in this verse refers to the Father as the One who ministers the Spirit and “worketh miracles among [them].” The same Holy Spirit who came into the believer at conversion continues to work in him and through him so that the whole body is built up (see Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19). The Father continues to supply the Spirit in power and blessing, and this is done by faith and not by the works of the Law. The phrase among you can also be translated within you. These miracles would therefore include wonderful changes within the lives of the Christians, as well as signs and wonders within the church fellowship.

The third appeal to experience is with God the Father, He … who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you.

Just before His ascension Jesus commanded the disciples “not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me’” (Acts 1:4). Through the Son, the Father had promised to give “the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13). And “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes,” Jesus explained on another occasion, “He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak” (John 16:13).

Provides is from epichoreôgeoô, which means to supply abundantly and with great generosity. It was used of patrons of the arts who underwrote productions of Greek plays and of patriotic citizens who gave of their wealth to help support their country’s army or government. It was also used of a groom’s vow to love and care for his bride.

In His superabundant generosity to His children, God provides them with the Spirit and works miracles among them. Miracles translates dunamis, which refers basically to inherent power or ability. Paul may have been referring to miraculous events God had worked among the Galatian believers, or he may have been referring to the spiritual power over Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and human weakness that the Father bestows on His children through His Spirit. Paul’s preaching in Corinth was “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1
Cor. 2:4). He even boasted in his own weaknesses in order that the power of Christ might dwell in him (2 Cor. 12:9). God, he says, “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). In each of those passages dunamis is rendered “power” and refers to the Father’s divine gift to His children.

Paul’s argument is itself powerful: If a person has received eternal salvation through trust in the crucified Christ, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit the same moment he believed, and has the Father’s Spirit-endowed power working within him, how could he hope to enhance that out of his own insignificant human resources by some meritorious effort?  “Do you really believe the miracles in the Bible?” a skeptic asked a new Christian who had been a terrible drinker.

“Of course I do!” the believer replied.

The skeptic laughed. “Do you mean that you really believe that Jesus could turn water into wine?” he asked.

“I sure do! In my home He turned wine into food and clothing and furniture!”

The Proof of Scripture, 3:6-14

When the Philippian jailer asked what he must do to be saved, Paul concisely answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). Salvation is appropriated by faith; and that faith is personal, internal, and spiritual, having nothing to do with ceremonies, rituals, observances, good works, or externals of any sort.

Faith has always been the God-required response that brings salvation (Eph. 2:8-9). The saints of the Old Testament were saved by faith, just as the saints of the New Abel had comparatively little revelation concerning God, but he believed in the truth of what he knew of God and was saved. Noah also had limited knowledge about God, and he, too, had faith in the truth He did know and was saved. Moses had considerably more revelation of God’s nature and will, and by trusting in what he knew of God, he was saved. All three were justified, counted righteous and made acceptable to God, by their personal faith in Him. They “gained approval through their faith” (Heb. 11:4, 7, 23-29, 39).

After having shown the Galatian believers from their own experience that they were justified by faith and not by works of the law (Gal. 3:1-5), Paul now defends that doctrine from Scripture.

The Judaizers doubtlessly quoted many passages from the Old Testament in support of their legalistic claims. And because their interpretations of those passages were based on long-accepted and revered rabbinical tradition, many believing Jews in Galatia and elsewhere found the claims persuasive.

In Galatians 3:6-14, Paul exposes those misinterpretations, showing that the Judaizers were heretical in their doctrine because they were mistaken in their understanding of Scripture. His first line of argument from the Old Testament is positive, showing what true biblical faith does, and his second line of argument is negative, showing what works cannot do.

 (3:6-14) Introduction—Scripture—Justification—False Teachers: some false teachers had arisen in the churches of Galatia. They were teaching that a man must focus his life upon the rituals and teachings of religion—upon the works of the law—instead of focusing upon Christ. Simply stated, they were saying that a man had to be ritualized (circumcised, church membership, baptism) and give his life to keeping the law in order to be acceptable to God. They placed ritual and law—their own works and effort—before Jesus Christ.

Þ They focused upon what they had to do instead of Christ.

Þ They concentrated upon themselves—upon what they could do to save themselves and make themselves acceptable to God—not upon Christ and His saving power.

Þ They stressed the flesh, the physical and the natural, the strength of man instead of Gods love given to the world in His Son, Jesus Christ.

     The answer of Paul is forceful: Scripture proves that a man is justified by faith and not by works or law.

     1. Scripture uses Abraham to illustrate the truth (v.6-7).

     2. Scripture “preached the gospel of faith to Abraham” (v.8-9).

     3. Scripture says “the law puts a man under the curse” (v.10-12).

     4. Scripture says “Christ has redeemed us from the curse” (v.13-14).

Paul’s positive proof that the Old Testament teaches salvation by faith rather than works revolves around Abraham, father of the Hebrew people and supreme patriarch of Judaism.

The Judaizers doubtlessly used Abraham as certain proof that circumcision was necessary to please God and become acceptable to Him. After first calling Abraham to leave his homeland of Ur of Chaldea, the Lord promised, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2-3). Abraham and his descendants were later commanded to be circumcised as a sign of God’s covenant and a constant illustration of the need for spiritual cleansing from sin: “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. 17:10). (The cutting away of the foreskin on the male procreative organ signified the need to cut away sin from the heart—sin that was inherent, passed from one generation to the next; (cf. Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; Col. 2:11.)

Putting those two accounts together, the Judaizers argued, “Isn’t it obvious that if the rest of the world, that is, Gentiles, are to share in the promised blessings to Abraham, they must first take on the sign that marks God’s people, the Jews? If all the nations of the earth will be blessed in Abraham, they will have to become like Abraham and be circumcised.”

“But that doesn’t follow,” Paul replied in effect. Quoting Genesis 15:6, he asked, “Don’t you know that even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness? Had they conveniently ignored the fact that Scripture precisely ascribed righteousness to Abraham by faith and that God commanded Abraham to be circumcised many years after He had reckoned Abraham to be righteous because he believed God?”

When some ten years passed after God’s first promise and his wife, Sarah, was still childless, Abraham prayed, “O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezar of Damascus?” The Lord then took Abraham “outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:2, 5-6). It was at least fourteen years after that occasion (see Gen. 16:16; 17:1) before the command for his circumcision was given.

Paul used the same argument in his letter to the Roman church. Speaking of believers “whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered, … whose sin the Lord will not take into account,” he asked,

Is this blessing then upon the circumcised, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” How then was it reckoned? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. (Rom. 4:7-12)

The Judaizers, like most other Jews of that day, had completely reversed the relationship of circumcision and salvation. Circumcision was only a mark, not the means, of salvation. God established circumcision as a physical sign to identify His people and to isolate them from the idolatrous, pagan world around them during the time of the Old Covenant. Circumcision is an external, physical act that has no effect on the spiritual work of justification. God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham long after He had already declared him to be righteous because of his faith.

It has always been true that “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” (Rom. 2:28-29). Physical circumcision was a matter of earthly, ceremonial identity with God’s people, whereas salvation is a matter of spiritual identity with Him; and if the earthly symbol had no genuine spiritual counterpart it was worthless. Even under the Old Covenant, circumcision itself carried no spiritual power.

Since the Fall, proud mankind has been naturally inclined to trust in himself, including his ability to please God by his own character and efforts. The Jews of Jesus’ day put great stock in circumcision and physical descent from Abraham. When Jesus told a group of them, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” they replied, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:31-33). Their answer was obviously absurd from a historical standpoint. The Jewish people had been in severe bondage many times throughout their history and were at that time under the iron rule of Rome. Even more foolish, however, was their thinking that mere physical descent from Abraham made them acceptable to God. In one of His most powerful denunciations of bankrupt Judaism, Jesus said: “I know that you are Abraham’s offspring; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you … If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do … You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:37, 39-40, 44).

By counting on ceremonial nationalism, legalistic Jews imagined they were in the spiritual as well as racial heritage of Abraham, whereas they were really in the spiritual heritage of Cain, who, in rejecting God’s way, not only followed his own way but also Satan’s. Jesus’ point on that occasion was that, no matter what physical lineage a person may have, if he does not have faith in God he is not a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Abraham was secondarily the physical father of the Jewish people. He was first of all the spiritual father of everyone, of whatever race or nationality, who believes in God (Rom. 4:11). Just as with Abraham, “to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (v. 5).

It should be noted also that Abraham is not only the pattern for justification by faith but for obedient living by that faith.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God … By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type. (Heb. 11:8-10, 17-19)

By faith Abraham followed God to an unknown land and by faith he was willing to give back to God the son who alone could be the means of fulfilling the divine promise. Abraham, as every true believer before and after him, understood faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1). By faith Abraham even looked forward to Christ. Jesus told the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

To re-emphasize the absolute importance of what he was saying, Paul added, Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. He was making the same point to the believing Jews in Galatia that Jesus made to the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem: Only genuine believers, those who are of faith, have any claim to a spiritual relationship to Abraham, or to God. Jews with no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are not true sons of Abraham, whereas Gentiles who believe in Him are.

Lest Christians think that, because His chosen people have rejected Him, the Lord will reject them, Paul declares unequivocally, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!” Then he repeats the declaration, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom. 11:1-2). God still has marvelous future plans for the Jews as a people. But at no time of history—before or after His special calling of the Jews—has any person been brought into saving relationship to God by any other means than faith.

Personifying God’s Word, the apostle goes on to say, the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham—which is an exposition of Genesis 12:3: “All the nations shall be blessed in you.” Gospel means “good news,” and God’s good news to mankind has always been salvation by faith alone, prompted by the power of His grace. Salvation by works would not be good but bad news. All the nations, Jews and Gentiles alike, are justified and blessed for the same reason Abraham was justified and blessed: their faith. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. To be blessed means to be the recipient of all that divine love, grace, and mercy bestows on those who are in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3; 2:6-7).

At the Jerusalem Council, James said, “Brethren, listen to me. Simeon [Peter] has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name’” (Acts 15:13-17; cf. Amos 9:11-12).

When Gentiles are saved, they are saved as Gentiles, just as Jews are saved as Jews. But no one from either group is saved or not saved due to racial or ethnic identity. Those who are saved are saved because of their faith, and those who are lost are lost because of their unbelief. A Gentile has absolutely no advantage in becoming a Jew before he becomes a Christian. In fact, by expecting salvation through the rite of circumcision, a person, whether Jew or Gentile, nullifies the grace of God and declares, in effect, that “Christ died needlessly” (Gal. 2:21).

 (3:6-7) Abraham—Justification—Faith—Righteousness: Scripture uses Abraham to illustrate the truth that justification is by faith and faith alone. Abraham held a unique position in the Jewish nation, for he was the founder of the nation. He was the man whom God had challenged to be a witness to the other nations of the world—a witness to the only living and true God. God had appeared to Abraham and challenged him to leave his home, his friends, his employment, and his country. God made two great promises if Abraham would follow God unquestionably: Abraham would become the father of a new nation, and all nations of the earth would be blessed by his seed (Genesis 13:14-17; Genesis 15:1-7; Genesis 17:1-8, 15-19; Genesis 22:15-18; Genesis 26:2-5, 24; Genesis 28:13-15; Genesis 35:9-12).

Note two points.

   1. Abraham believed God; therefore, he was judged righteous. He went out—left his home and risked all—not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). He completely and unquestionably trusted God and took God at His word.

     Now note: it was not Abraham’s keeping of the law that pleased God. In fact, the law had not yet been given (Galatians 3:17). What pleased God and what caused God to justify Abraham was Abraham doing as God had said. Abraham simply believed the promise of God that God would give him a new life—in a new nation—with a new people.

a. Abraham and his “seed” were the only ones to whom God gave the promises. This is emphatically stated (Romans 4:13-25; Galatians 3:6-16, 26, 29).

b. Only a promise was given to Abraham (Romans 4:13-21; Galatians 3:14, 18-21, 29). No other information whatsoever was given. God did not identify the country nor tell Abraham where he was to go. Neither did God tell Abraham when his wife Sarah would bear the seed (the male child) from whom the promised nation would be born. God made a simple promise, and all Abraham had to go on was that simple promise, that is, the sheer Word of God.

c. Only one condition was attached to the promise: Abraham had to believe God. No works whatsoever were involved.

d. Abraham did believe God (Genesis 12:4-5; Romans 4:3, 11-22; Galatians 3:6; Hebrews 11:8f).

e. Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God (Romans 4:3-5, 9-13, 19-22; Galatians 3:6; cp. Genesis 15:6). God did not count him righteous because of who he was or what he had done. He simply believed God. Therefore, God took his faith and counted his faith as righteousness.

 f. The proof that Abraham really believed God was that he did what God had said. His faith preceeded his obedience. He believed God and then he obeyed God. If he had not believed God, he would not have left his home or his employment. He would not have left his surroundings and friends, his meaningful relationships and personal attachments. The fact that he did as God asked was evidence that he believed the promise of God.

   2. Those who are of faith are the true sons of Abraham. The person who believes God is the person who receives the promises of God (Romans 4:5-12, 16-17, 23-25; Galatians 3:7-9, 14, 22, 26, 29). Paul argues that neither heritage nor nationality, neither merit nor works, neither the law nor the rules of the law have anything to do with the promises of God (Galatians 3:6-7). The true sons of Abraham are those who believe God—any person of any nation. In fact, God’s promise that a nation would be born to Abraham and “his seed” was the promise of an eternal nation. This eternal nation is to be of another world, of another dimension of being: the spiritual dimension, a dimension just as real as the physical dimension. But it is to have one distinction: every citizen is to be a believer—one who has believed God and His Word. This is exactly what this passage is saying: “They who believe are the children of Abraham, the children of God’s promise. They are to be blessed along with faithful Abraham. They are to be the citizens of God’s Kingdom, ‘the new heavens and the new earth.’” (Cp. Hebrews 11:8-18; 2 Peter 3:10-14.)

(3:8-9) Scripture—Justification—Faith: Scripture “preached the gospel of faith to Abraham.” To Paul, Scripture was the Word of God, the very voice of God Himself. Therefore, Paul could just as easily say that Scripture spoke to Abraham as he could that God spoke to Abraham. (Note Paul’s high view of Scripture, a strong rebuke to many.)

   1. Scripture declared the gospel of faith long before Christ ever came: Scripture declared the gospel to Abraham. As stated in the former note, God told Abraham that He would accept him and bless him if Abraham would believe (love and follow) the promise of God. What was the promise?

“In thee shall all nations be blessed.”

     Abraham believed God; he separated himself from the world and gave his life totally to God; therefore, God accepted and judged Abraham righteous.

   2. Those who are of faith are judged righteous with Abraham. Abraham was justified by believing God. What happened was this. Abraham believed God, and God took Abraham’s belief and counted his belief as righteousness. It was not Abraham’s works, but his faith that God took and counted as righteousness. It was all an act of God; therefore, all glory belonged to God, not to Abraham. Man is saved by faith; in other words, God takes a man’s faith and counts that man’s faith as righteousness. This has to be the case:

Þ God is perfect; He is perfectly righteous. No man can achieve perfection; therefore, no man can live in the presence of God.

Þ However, God is love; therefore, what God does is take a person’s faith and counts that faith as righteousness and perfection. Therefore, a man is able to live in God’s presence by faith or justification

Paul's argument seeks to drive his opponents into a corner from which there is no escape.  "Suppose," he says, "you decide that you are going to try to win God's approval by accepting and obeying the law, what is the inevitable consequence?" First of all, the man who does that has to stand or fall by his decision; if he chooses the law he has got to live by it.  Second, no man ever has succeeded and no man ever will succeed in always keeping the law.  Third, if that being so, you are accursed, because scripture itself says (Deuteronomy 27:26) that the man who does not keep the whole law is under a curse.  Therefore, the inevitable end of trying to get right with God by making the law the principle of life is a curse.

But scripture has another saying, "It is the man who is right with God by faith who will really live" (Habakkuk 2:4).  The only way to get into a right relationship with God, and therefore the only way to peace, is the way of faith.  But the principle of law and the principle of faith are antithetic; you cannot direct your life by both at one and the same time; you must choose; and the only logical choice is to abandon the way of legalism and to venture upon the way of faith, of taking God at his word and of trusting in his love.

How can we know that this is so?  The final guarantor of its truth is Jesus Christ; and to bring this truth to us he had to die upon a Cross.  Now, scripture says that every man who is hanged on a tree is accursed (Deuteronomy 21:23); and so to free us of the curse of the law, Jesus himself had to become accursed.

Even at his most involved, and here he is involved, one simple yet tremendous fact is never far from the mind and heart of Paul-the cost of the Christian gospel.  He could never forget that the peace, the liberty, the right relationship with God that we possess, cost the life and death of Jesus Christ, for how could men ever have known what God was like unless Jesus Christ had died to tell them of his great love.

(3:10-12) The Judaizers also strongly advocated the necessity of keeping the Mosaic Law in order to be saved. But here again, simply the sequence of Old Testament events should have shown them the foolishness of that belief. Abraham not only was declared righteous about 14 years before he was commanded to be circumcised, but more than 500 years before God revealed His law to Moses at Sinai. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and countless other Hebrew believers lived and died long before the written law was given by God.

Just as the Judaizers and their Galatian victims should have known that justification is by faith and not circumcision, they should also have known it is not by the Law. Therefore after showing what faith can do, Paul now shows what works cannot do. As in verses 6-9, his argument is based on the Old Testament.

In his defense before King Agrippa in Caesarea, Paul states the scriptural foundation of all his preaching and teaching: “Having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22-23).

The ancient rabbis were so absolutely convinced that salvation could only be earned through keeping the law that they tried to prove God had somehow revealed His law even to the patriarchs and other saints who lived before Moses and that those people found favor with Him because they kept His law. Because they could not bring themselves to consider limiting the supremacy of the law, the rabbis sought instead to reconstruct history and the clear teaching of God’s Word.

But Paul turns the tables on them again. “Don’t you realize,” he says, “that as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse?” That question would have utterly perplexed the Judaizers, who would have responded vehemently, “We know no such thing. How can you speak such foolishness?” “Have you forgotten Deuteronomy, the last book of the Law?” Paul asks, in effect; “for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them’” (see Deut. 27:26). A curse is a divine judgment that brings the sentence of condemnation.

The apostle’s emphasis in the quotation was on the requirement to abide by all things. In other words, the fact that those who trust in the works of the Law are obligated to keep all things in the law without exception, places them inevitably under a curse, because no one had the ability to abide by everything the divine and perfect law of God demands. Paul confessed his inability to keep the law even as a devout Pharisee. He testified that “this commandment which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me” (Rom. 7:10). Even as a believer he said, “I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25) If men proudly insist on living by the law it will curse them, not save them, because they cannot possibly live up to it.

The legalistic Jews had “a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:2-4). Consequently, they unwittingly placed themselves under God’s wrath rather than His blessing, because they could not live up to His law and they would not submit to His grace.

Paul reminds his readers again of more teaching concerning God’s way of justification: Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith,” quoting this time from Habakkuk 2:4. The passage from Deuteronomy proves justification cannot be by the Law, and the passage from Habakkuk proves it must be by faith. The ways of law and faith are mutually exclusive. To live by law is to live by self-effort and leads inevitably to failure, condemnation, and death. To live by faith is to respond to God’s grace and leads to justification and eternal life.

Quoting another Old Testament text (Lev. 18:5), Paul again turns Scripture against the Judaizers by showing them that salvation by works and salvation by believing are mutually exclusive: However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” God’s written law itself marks the danger of trying to live up to its standard, which is perfection. If you are relying on works of the law as your means of salvation, then you have to live by them perfectly.

Pointing up that same truth in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus destroyed the very foundation of legalistic Judaism. Because God’s standard is perfection, He said; “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). And He had already made clear that God’s standard of perfection is inner virtue and perfection, not simply outwardly respectable behavior. To those who piously asserted they had never committed murder, He said, “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell” (Matt. 5:22). And to those who claimed they had never committed adultery, He said, “Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (v. 28).

Whether consulting the texts in Deuteronomy, Habakkuk, or Leviticus, the message is the same: perfection allows no exceptions, no failure of the smallest sort. To break the law in one place is to break it all, “for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). No wonder the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20, kjv).

A ship that is moored to a dock by a chain is only as secure as the weakest link in that chain. If a severe storm comes and causes even one link to break, the entire ship breaks away. So it is for those who try to come to God by their own perfection. They will be lost and forever wrecked.

Law—Faith: Scripture says that “the law puts a man under the curse.” Note a critical point: in this verse the word “curse” (kataran) means to be condemned and doomed to punishment by the righteous judgment of God. How do we know this? By Galatians 3:13 where it is said that Christ bore the curse of the law for us (the condemnation, doom, death, and punishment due us for having broken the law). The law carries with it a curse. A person either keeps the law or else he is cursed; that is, he is to stand before the Judge and bear the punishment of a lawbreaker. The curse (penalty or punishment) for violating the law is...

·   the mark of death (2 Cor. 3:7).

·   the mark of condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9).

     Why does the law put a curse upon men? There are two clear reasons.

   1. The man who approaches God by law is cursed because he does not keep the whole law. Note a crucial fact: there is a righteousness that is of the law (Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12). That righteousness promises life to any man who can obey the law perfectly. If a man can meet every requirement of the law during his lifetime and never once fall below God’s holy standard, then that man can escape the penalty for sin, which is death. However, every thinking and honest man knows that he cannot keep the law of God in every single detail—not all the time. He knows that he sometimes comes short in...

     Every thinking and honest person knows that he is nowhere close to being perfect nor to attaining perfection. He knows that he fails and comes short too often. He knows that what this verse says is exactly true: no man can continue in and do all things which are written in the law of God.

   2. God’s chosen way for approaching Him is to “live by faith.” Scripture declares as clearly as it can: no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. As stated above, God is perfect; He is perfectly righteous. No man can achieve perfection; therefore, no man can live in the presence of God. No matter how good he is or how much good he does, he cannot achieve perfection. The fact is evident, for if a man had achieved perfection, he would be perfect—living forever in a perfect state of being, even on this earth.

     But note this: God is love. So what God does is take a person’s faith and count that faith as righteousness, as perfection. Therefore, a man is able to live in God’s presence by faith or justification. The point is this: God’s way for a man to approach Him is the way of faith: “The just shall live by faith.”

     Note also that the law is not of faith, but any man who attempts to live by the law will be allowed to so live. But the man must realize: he shall be judged by the law.

Positive Hope in Jesus Christ

   Turning again to the positive, Paul reminds the Jewish believers in Galatia of the fact that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having been a curse for us.

   Redeemed is from exagorazoô, a word commonly used of buying a slave’s freedom. Christ justifies those who believe in Him by buying them back from their slavery to sin. The price He paid was the only one high enough to redeem all of mankind, the “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19).

The curse of the Law was the punishment demanded because no man could keep from violating its demands, but Christ took that curse upon Himself as a substitute for sinners and became a curse for us in His crucifixion, for it is written (Deut. 21:23), “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

In ancient Judaism a criminal who was executed, usually by stoning, was then tied to a post, a type of tree, where his body would hang until sunset as a visible representation of rejection by God. It was not that a person became cursed by being hanged on a tree but that he was hanged on a tree because he was cursed. Jesus did not become a curse because He was crucified but was crucified because he was cursed in taking the full sin of the world upon Himself. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live
to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24; cf. Acts 5:30).

That truth was extremely hard for most Jews to accept, because they could not imagine the Messiah’s being cursed by God and having to hang on a tree. First Corinthians 12:3 suggests that “Jesus is accursed” was a common, demon-inspired saying among unbelieving Jews of that day. To them, Jesus’ crucifixion was final and absolute proof that He was not the promised Messiah. But for those who trust in Him, the two words for us become the two