All You Need Is Faith
Text: Gal. 3:6-14
Introduction
1. Last week I preached on Jimi Hendrix and asked the question "Are You Experienced. This morning I am going to continue that look into old Rock legends and talk about the Beatles.
2. The Beatles once said in a song "all you need is love." Now while I respect their musical and song writing abilities, I have to say that the Beatles got it wrong.
Proposition: I want to contend with you today that all you need is faith.
3. Now wait a minute Pastor, doesn't the Bible say that of the three things that last the greatest of these is love?
a. Yes it does, however, the Bible also says that if it wasn't for God we wouldn't know what anything about love.
b. 1 John 4:10 (NLT)
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
c. So without God showing his love to us first we wouldn't know how to love, and the only way we can come to God and discover that love is through faith.
4. Paul tells us that...
a. Faith brings us the blessings of Christ
b. Faith brings us life in Christ
c. Faith requires dependence on Christ
5. Let's all stand as we read Gal. 3:6-14
Transition: The greatest benefit of faith is...
I. Faith Brings Us The Blessings of Chirst (6-9).
A. Those Who Put Their Faith In God
1. Like any good Pastor Paul makes his appeal to the Galatians by referring to Scripture.
a. Paul here refers five times to the law of Moses and once to the Prophets, making a case from Scripture that those who claimed to respect the law had to accept (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
b. Again his point is that we come to God only by faith and not by the works of the law.
2. He starts out by pointing to the "Father of Faith," Abraham. He says, "In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
a. Abraham, is an example of faith from the Old Testament, but what is crucial here is that Abraham was justified by faith; that is, he was fully accepted by God not by observing the law but by faith.
b. For Paul to choose Abraham is more than illustrative: Abraham was seen by Jews as the father of their nation and the quintessential Jew.
c. One Jewish work of the era says: "For Abraham was perfect in all of his actions with the Lord and was pleasing through righteousness all of the days of his life."
d. The significance of this background here in Galatians is that Paul proves Abraham's prototypical role without reference to circumcision.
e. Paul’s emphasis is that Abraham was pronounced as "acceptable to God" before his circumcision, making the implication clear: circumcision was not necessary. Abraham was accepted by God solely because he surrendered his entire life to God's promise. (Scot McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary – Galatians, 151).
3. Paul makes the point that if we are to be the children of Abraham then we will have to come to God the same way that he did: by faith. He says, "The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God."
a. For Paul, Abraham's descendants are those who simply believe; not those who believe and allow themselves to be circumcised.
b. The fact is, Abraham's circumcision (Gen. 17) came after his pronouncement of acceptance (15:6).
c. Thus his descendants are those who believe, those who opt for the faith system (along with Christ and the Holy Spirit); they opt out of the works system (McKnight, 152).
d. 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.
e. Jews with no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are not true sons of Abraham, whereas Gentiles who believe in Him are (John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Galatians, 75).
4. Now Paul makes the claim that this was God's plan all along. He says, "What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
a. Having argued that Abraham was accepted by God because of his faith and that the true descendants of Abraham are believers, Paul now argues that Gentiles can be these true believers.
b. Once again, he argues this by appealing to Scripture. His logic is this: (1) Abraham was justified by faith; (2) Gentiles are justified in Abraham because all nations, that is Gentiles, will be blessed in connection with Abraham; (3) therefore, since Gentiles are justified in Abraham's promise, they must be justified as Abraham was: that is, by faith, not works of the law (McKnight, 152).
c. 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.
d. All the nations, Jews and Gentiles alike, are justified and blessed for the same reason Abraham was justified and blessed: their faith.
e. 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 (MacArthur, 75).
B. Blessings Appropriated By Faith
1. Illustration: I heard a story about a train traveling through the night in a very violent rainstorm. The lightning flashes were almost blinding, the rain hitting the windows was deafening and the strong gust winds rocked the train from side to side. When the lightening flashed and lighted up the darkness, the passengers could see the rising water along the tracks. This created terror in the minds of the passengers. Several passengers noted that through all the noise, lightening and wind, one of the passengers, a little girl, seemed to be at perfect peace. The adult passengers couldn’t figure out why the little girl was so calm during all this excitement. Finally, one passenger asked her, "How is that you can be so calm when all the rest of us are so worried about what might or could happen?" The little passenger smiled and said, "My father is the engineer."
2. The greatest blessing of all came because of the faith of Abraham.
a. Genesis 12:3 (NLT)
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
b. It was because Abraham believed God that the blessing of salvation came.
c. It was because Abraham believed God that Jesus came to earth to be like one of us.
d. It was because Abraham believed God that Jesus gave his life on the cross.
e. If we want to receive that great blessing we can only do so the way Abraham did: by faith.
3. It is through faith that we receive every spiritual blessing.
a. Ephesians 1:3 (NLT)
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
b. When we come to Christ by faith we are instantly united with him and become heirs of the promise of Abraham.
c. When we do this we are blessed with every spiritual blessing.
d. It is not just the blessing of salvation, but as the sons and daughters of God we are blessed with every spiritual blessing.
e. We are not second class citizens, but we are members of the greatest royal family in all the universe.
f. And it all comes by faith!
Transition: The blessings of Christ are not just future blessings, but...
II. Faith Brings Us Life In Christ (10-12).
A. Through Faith A Person Has Life
1. Now Paul takes his argument a step higher. He states that not only do we come to Christ only by faith, but also that those who try and do it through works are under a curse.
2. He says, "But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”
a. Paul's point in verses 6-9 has been simple: Scripture teaches that Abraham was accepted by God because of faith; faith then is the foundation on which humans, including Gentiles, construct their relationship to God. This is his positive argument.
b. Paul now moves to a negative argument: the law of Moses, when it governs a person's life, brings a curse rather than acceptance with God.
c. Verse 10 can be read as the basis for verses 6-9: acceptance with God is based on faith because there is no other way—the law only brings a curse, so the law cannot bring acceptance with God.
d. It can also be an conclusion: since Abraham was declared acceptable with God on the basis of faith, then it follows that those who opt for the "law system" are living under a curse since they have not followed Abraham.
e. More importantly, those who are of the law are "under a curse."
f. Why? Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26: because "cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
g. Paul is speaking here of the necessity of obeying every commandment for one's entire life and that he is assuming that it is impossible to obey the law; thus he can argue here (by assumption) that people who choose the law also choose a curse because they will never do what they need to do (McKnight, 152-154).
3. Paul then moves back to the positives of come to Christ by faith alone by saying, "So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
a. Paul again uses Scripture to make his point, this time using Habakkuk 2:4.
b. Paul’s knowledge of the Old Testament is thorough: he has selected the only two texts in the entire Old Testament that speak of both righteousness and faith together (Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
c. The passage from Deuteronomy proves justification cannot be by the Law, and the passage from Habakkuk proves it must be by faith.
d. 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.
e. To live by faith is to respond to God's grace and leads to justification and eternal life (MacArthur, 77).
f. Not only does faith give us eternal life, but also abundant life here and now.
B. Abundant Life
1. Illustration: Theologian J.I. Packer wrote, God controls all that happens in His world, every meal, every pleasure, every possession, every bit of sun, every night’s sleep, every moment of health and safety, everything that sustains and enriches life, is a divine gift. And how abundant these gifts are!" (J.I Packer, Knowing God, 147).
2. Through faith Jesus gives us abundant life.
a. John 10:10 (NASB)
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
b. The word abundantly means, "a degree which is considerably in excess of some point on an implied or explicit scale of extent - 'very great, excessive, extremely, emphatic, surpassing (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains, 688).
c. Through faith we can have a life that far exceeds what the world has to offer.
d. That does not mean that we will all live in mansions and drive expensive sports cars.
e. But it does mean that our life will have great meaning, purpose, enjoyment, and fulfillment.
f. There are lots of people who live in mansions and drive sports cars whose lives are miserable and meaningless.
g. That is not the life that Jesus came to bring.
3. We will never be able to please God by our actions alone.
a. Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
b. We cannot earn God's grace.
c. We cannot buy God's grace.
d. We cannot be good enough to deserve God's grace.
e. We can only accept God's grace by faith.
Transition: Most importantly...
III. Faith Requires Dependence On Christ (13-14).
A. Took Upon Himself
1. Paul now moves in his argument that what aren't able to do on our own Christ accomplished for us.
2. He says, "But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
a. The term rescued is drawn from the commercial world and describes "purchasing things," "buying back a captive," "liberating a slave through a ransom payment," or "securing the interests of a family by offering a fee."
b. The essential idea is that (1) people are by nature slaves to sin and under the curse of the law, (2) Christ paid the price of freedom by dying on the cross, and (3) those who trust in Christ's ransom price are set free from sin and the curse of the law.
c. How did Christ do this? Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law "by becoming a curse."
d. What Christ did was to die the death of a transgressor. In so doing, he becomes the transgressor because Christ was publicly crucified.
e. 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.
f. 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.
g. 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 (MacArthur, 78).
h. But because he was innocent and sinless, he can die on behalf of those who have sinned and so absorb their curse. And because he was divine, he could perfectly satisfy the justice of God (McKnight, 156).
3. Then Paul shows the benefit to us of Jesus taking our penalty upon himself. He says, "Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith."
a. The redemption Christ accomplished not only freed Jewish Christians from the curse of the law; that redemption also made it possible for Gentiles to be incorporated into Abraham's blessing.
b. Moreover, since Christ has absorbed the curse of the law, the law's murderous power has been exhausted.
c. This means that the era of the law has come to an end, and that in turn means that Gentiles can be accepted by God without becoming Jews, without living according to Jewish distinctives (McKnight, 157).
d. On man's part, the curse is lifted by faith, which God, on His part and by grace, counts as righteousness on the believer's behalf, and the river of blessing begins to flow as the rushing water of God's grace engulfs the believer.
e. This entire blessing is through faith. Justifying faith involves self-renunciation, putting away all confidence in one's own merit and works.
f. When he sees God's justice pursuing him and God's judgment ahead of him, he realizes his helplessness in himself and realizes he has nowhere to turn but to God's mercy and grace.
g. Justifying faith also involves reliance on and submission to the Lord. When a sinner sees that he has no way to escape and no power in his own resources, he knows he must rely on God's provision and power.
h. Finally, justifying faith involves appropriation, as the sinner gratefully receives the free gift of pardon Christ offers and submits to His authority (MacArthur, 78).
B. Only Jesus
1. Illustration: "We are ignorant of God and hostile toward him; we are dead in sins and accursed. Our own merit is of no value whatsoever. The only way we can escape the curse of sin is to believe that Christ has taken it on himself and disposed of it for us by dying. Moreover, the end result is of this is that we receive the Holy Spirit, who also comes into our hearts by faith" (Luther, The Reformation Commentary On Scripture, vol. 10, 106).
2. Our sinfulness leaves us totally dependent upon Jesus.
a. Isaiah 53:6 (NLT)
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
b. The bad news is there is nothing we can do to fix it.
c. We cannot do enough.
d. We cannot be good enough.
e. We cannot earn enough.
f. But the good news is that we don't have to because it has already been done for us by Jesus.
3. Only Jesus was good enough to stand in our place.
a. Revelation 5:4-5 (NLT)
Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
b. The good new is we don't have to be good enough.
c. The good news is we don't have to earn it.
d. The good news is that Jesus has already won the victory.
e. Jesus said it all when he said, "It is finished!"
Conclusion
1. The Beatles said all you need is love, but Paul said all you need is faith.
2. Paul tells us...
a. Faith brings us the blessings of Christ
b. Faith brings us life in Christ
c. Faith requires dependence upon Christ
3. Are you worried that you're not good enough?
4. Don't worry the price has already been paid.
