Galatians 3:1-15 HE BELIEVED The failure of the Galatians to remain committed to the authenticity of the Gospel of salvation by grace, stirred the soul of the apostle Paul. They had understood and received the message that we are justified by faith alone. They had stepped out from the world and recognized their union with God and their sanctification was by faith. They had been "crucified with Christ," and knew that Christ had been crucified for them. That had been plainly preached when they heard the Gospel from Paul. But now they had become fascinated by the false teaching they listened to from men they did not know. There is even today a fascination that attracts believers when a teacher comes on a television program or comes into a community where there are religious practitioners, and teaches an unusual message that bewitches people. Some will say, "I never heard anything like that before," and they will follow that person's line of reasoning instead of the scripture. Spiritual hypnotism is still being practiced today like it was in Galatia.
Paul reviews the past relating that we have not only been justified by faith, placed in union with Christ by faith but have also been set apart to God, sanctified by faith. The working of the Spirit of God was how we were convicted of our sins. It was by the Spirit we were awakened and given new life in Christ. The law did not save us - it condemned us. We did not receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law. We began in the Spirit and now the Spirit of God is within us enabling us to grow. By the Spirit we know that we are in Christ and Christ is in us "the hope of glory." The Spirit did not dwell in Adam even in his innocence. The Spirit did not dwell in Abraham, nor did He dwell in any of those who were under the law. The Spirit came upon them to serve and obey God to accomplish a work for God.
There comes a problem for some of God's people when the excitement we had when God saved us gradually fades away and they begin to feel insecure. Because the euphoria they had when they first trusted Christ settles into a bland sameness in day-to-day living. They want that excitement again and when someone comes along and offers an explanation as to how they can "be excited" about their Christian life, they listen. Faith alone, they say, is too easy. You need extraordinary things happening to you to be a true Christian. So "faith healing," talking with words that have no meaning, and feelings of ecstasy are taught as the real evidence of divine life. They will confess they trust only in the work of Christ to save them and make them righteous before God, but after they are saved, they need the law to keep them walking with God. They believe they need to keep the law to be holy.
Paul answered the Galatians who raised that suggestion, "Are you so foolish (so senseless)?" Having begun in the Spirit are you able to reach your goal by your own efforts? They had suffered for their faith in Christ at the beginning of their Christian life. Now they were going back to where they were trusting in their law- keeping efforts. God has not given the Spirit a little bit at a time. He has poured out His Spirit abundantly and we have all the divine power of the Holy Spirit at our disposal. He is like "rivers of living water." The Holy Spirit is a Person, the One who guides us into all truth and reveals Christ to us. After convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment to come that brings us to repentance, He gives us new life. The object of that new life is that we will love and worship God.
The principles of the law were to produce love for God and worship but those words cannot give life. They inform us, and to a measure, educate us so that we know what is right and wrong. The law gives us rules to live by with prescribed boundaries for personal, marriage, and family life. It also dictates what is needed for communities and nations to maintain order and avoid chaotic conditions, but laws do not give life. The Judaizers said Gentiles had to become Jews in order to become Christians. To them, Christianity was another Jewish sect of which the Pharisees and Sadducees were a part. Those groups depended on rules to live by.
Abraham didn't have the laws to keep to be accepted by God. He believed in God. His faith and confidence were in God and His promises. That was the basis of his righteousness. Our lifestyle or religious forms are not the basis of salvation. The law does not justify us. We who live by faith are the sons of Abraham. It is not natural birth or outward signs that make one a child of God. The principle of faith was practiced by Abraham and is practiced today when God's people, "the just, shall live by faith."
The law then, condemns us because it reveals clearly our sin and guilt. It actually brings a curse on us because we cannot be justified by it. We are not saved by the law being added to the redemption price paid by our Lord Jesus Christ. He took that curse that was on us because of sinfulness and inability so we could be justified before God. He actually was made a curse for us. The curse that was on everyone who hung on a tree, was on our Savior when He hung on the cross. "He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed." That was what the law demanded but could not do. That is what Christ did fully and completely.
Why then would anyone try to do what is impossible to do? What reason is there to do what has already been done? Like Abraham who lived four-hundred-thirty years before the law was given, God's expectation of us is that we live by faith. We have been saved by grace through faith. We have been justified by faith. We have been sanctified by faith. So now we are to live by faith, not the sin-stained works of human endeavor. Not by adding anything at all to a finished work. The blessing that came to Abraham by faith comes to Gentiles and Jews alike by faith. Christ has bought us with His own blood. He has bought us by paying the ransom price so that we can be free men and women who live by faith.
There really is no explanation when those who should know better
Treat the holy things of God carelessly as if they did not matter.
It is a grievous error to imply that Christ did not do enough,
And teach that added to His work, is work to be done by us.
When people who are unknown to us seem to have the latest word,
Stop and take time to listen to what they say about the Lord.
Any kind of negative words that indicate we have to do our part,
And adding our little effort to his work is false right from the start.
Refuse to listen to those who say they have a further revelation.
What they are implying is that mankind has a part to play in its own salvation.
That is absolutely a false teaching, salvation is by faith in Christ alone.
No sin-polluted works of man can in any way for sin atone.
The Lord Jesus went to the cross for us, hanging there He was made a curse.
To think that His suffering was not sufficient is blasphemy or worse.
A person who has been justified by faith, now also lives by faith.
The blessings that accompany those God saves are from the storehouse of His grace.
“Gracious God, my Father: my prayer today is that I will have the discernment to know when there is false teaching among Thy people. If that ever happens, give Thy servant the wisdom on how to correct that wrong, so Thy people are preserved from falling. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”