By the Law or By the Spirit?
Galatians 3:10-18
Starting Point: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2: 8-10
Life by the Law
1. To live by the law places you under a curse.
A. You cannot know freedom in Christ.
B. You are obligated to keep every law.
C. You cannot keep the law (Romans 3:23).
2. The law is not based on faith, it is based on individual
effort.
Life by the Spirit
1. The Bible clearly says in verse 11 that the righteous live
by faith.
2. Faith in what? Faith that Jesus is who scripture says He is
and that God will do what He said He will do.
3. God made a promise to Abraham some 430 years prior to
the law. The law cannot set aside the promise made to
Abraham.
4. We must view the law as a parenthesis in time. It opened
with Moses on Sinai and closed when the curtain in the
Temple was torn from top to bottom.
5. It was by God’s grace that the promise of blessing was
given to Abraham and it is by God’s grace that that
promise is extended to us.
Teaser for next week: What was the purpose of the law? Read Galatians 3:19-25.
