FAITH OR OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW?
TEXT:
Galatians 3:1-14 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit BY OBSERVING THE LAW, or BY BELIEVING what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
INTRODUCTION:
A. DESERTION OF THE TRUTH
1. Desertion is wrong because it shows disloyalty and betrayal.
2. Few things are worse than a Christian who deserts the gospel.
3. The Galatians deserted the gospel to follow a falsehood.
4. They left to follow a false form of Christianity.
5. It was supposedly an improvement of the gospel.
6. It was a worthless counterfeit.
B. THEY RAN WELL BUT THEY LEFT THE TRACK
1. Throughout history some have started well but not finished well.
2. They’ve allowed themselves to be pulled away from the truth.
3. They receive the gospel of grace through faith, then fall for some system of legalism, formalism, or ritualism.
4. These false systems promise more but produce less.
5. Since the time of Cain, man has tried to make himself righteous through his own good works.
6. There’s always someone, somewhere who thinks they have a better way to approach God or to please God than what is ordained.
I. THE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
A. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
1. Webster’s defines a rhetorical question as one that is – “asked merely for effect with no answer expected.”
2. A mother might ask, “Aren’t these your socks in the floor?”
3. No verbal answer is expected.
4. The correct answer is to pick them up.
B. WHO HAS BEWITCHED YOU?
1. “bewitched” - Gk. “baskaino” – to charm as with an evil eye
2. The Galatians had been charmed by the false teacher’s arguments.
3. A magician uses illusions and trickery to make you think something has happened.
4. By trickery, they make you think they have some type of power.
5. They give you the illusion that they have the power to cut a woman in half and put her back together unharmed.
6. They give you the illusion that they can pull a rabbit out of a hat.
7. Similarly, these false teachers at Galatia had given the Galatian church the illusion that a false gospel of works was better than the real gospel of salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
C. OBSERVING THE LAW –VS- FAITH? (v.2)
1. “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?”
2. You received the Holy Spirit by faith, so why go back to the law?
3. There is no plainer wording of what is required for salvation.
4. Salvation does not require observing the law.
5. Salvation simply requires “believing what you heard.”
6. It requires believing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
7. Believing that Jesus died for you and paid for your sins.
8. Believing that He rose again on the third day proving He is Lord.
D. THE SPIRIT –VS- HUMAN EFFORT (v.3)
1. “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
2. After starting out your Christian growth by the power of the Holy Spirit, are you going to push Him aside and do it on your own?
3. It would be like a lumberjack hired because he can use a chainsaw, laying aside the chainsaw to cut timbers with a pocketknife.
4. The Galatians had taken a step backwards.
5. We grow spiritually because of God’s work in us.
6. Our spiritual growth is not determined by following special rules.
E. SUFFERED FOR NOTHING? (v.4)
1. “Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?”
2. They had paid a price for receiving the gospel.
3. They had been ostracized from family and society.
4. They had given up old habits and old ways of life.
5. They had suffered for the cause of Christ.
6. Paul says, “Was it all for nothing?”
F. THE QUESTION OF MIRACLES (v.5)
1. “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”
2. When you do the right number of works, does God give you a miracle?
3. Do you receive miracles from God because you do works or because you believe?
II. THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM (V.6-9)
A. THE JUDAIZERS CLAIMED TO HAVE THE OT ON THEIR SIDE
1. They claimed that Moses was their teacher.
2. But Paul took an example from Moses’ writings and said, "Consider Abraham."
3. How was Abraham justified?
4. The answer was plainly in agreement with Paul’s teachings on grace through faith.
5. Genesis 15:6 (NIV) "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness."
6. Abraham’s faith was accepted by God as righteousness.
7. Abraham was justified before he was ever circumcised (cf. Gen. 17:24).
8. How then could the Judaizers insist that circumcision was essential to being accepted by God?
B. LINKING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT
1. Paul linked the past with the present declaring that we are saved just like Abraham.
2. Abraham was saved by faith, and so were those who now claim to be Abraham’s sons.
3. We have all been declared righteous by faith.
4. This is what God was referring to in Gen. 12:3 when he said all nations would be blessed through Abraham.
III. THE REDEMPTION FROM THE CURSE (V.10-14)
A. ALL WHO RELY ON THE LAW ARE CURSED
1. The law is a monolith.
2. It is one unified standard.
3. If you break one part of it, then you have broken it all.
4. So, all who are under the Law of Moses are under a curse.
5. The Judaizers believed that Christ only helped a person to keep the Law.
6. Paul shows them that that was insufficient.
7. No one could keep the whole law, so all who attempted are under a curse.
B. CHRIST TOOK THE CURSE
1. Paul shows that Christ does not make a person able to obey the law.
2. Christ accepts the curse of the Law in behalf of those who have faith.
3. In effect, Christ removes the Mosaic covenant and brings a new covenant.
4. The old covenant of Moses carried a curse of death.
5. Christ paid took the curse upon Himself and delivered us from it.
6. The new covenant of Christ carries a blessing the blessing of Abraham.
7. The removal of the curse was first necessary before the blessing of the old Abrahamic covenant could be given.
8. These were blessings which were made prior to the law and appropriated by faith.
