Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Okay, to catch us up, let's remember, what book have we been studying?
[00:00:11] I hear Galatians. That's right. That's right. And how have we been studying Galatians?
[00:00:19] Inductively. Which means studying it in and out. Yeah. We want to start with the immediate context and work outward to understand the meaning. Very good. That's great. So you guys can go to Galatians if you haven't already. We're in chapter three now.
[00:00:38] What are some of the things we've talked about so far in Galatians?
[00:00:44] What are the themes? What's the book about?
[00:00:49] No, it's fine.
[00:00:54] Justification by faith alone. Justification by faith alone is a great summary, Caleb. You looked like you were about to say something. You weren't. Okay. Are you sure?
[00:01:03] Okay, what else?
[00:01:09] Why is Paul writing to the Galatians?
[00:01:12] Is that a hand raise, Hank? No. No.
[00:01:24] Yes.
[00:01:34] Yeah. They've been legalistic. Right. Did you say something else?
[00:01:39] Yeah. So they've been adding requirements that Jesus fulfilled and is not intended for the church any longer, such as circumcision, to be specific.
[00:01:50] And so they have been foolish. Right.
[00:01:55] Two weeks ago, Paul says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It is like a spell has been cast on them because they are being so foolish. Why on earth, when Christ has fulfilled the law and has allowed you to enter into the family of God through faith, why on earth would you then put earthly requirements on yourselves?
[00:02:18] It's silly. It's like the door is unlocked, and instead of walking through, they put a lock on it and then try to get in.
[00:02:27] They put an obstacle in their own way, something that they cannot overcome because no one will be saved by.
[00:02:34] What's the phrase?
[00:02:38] Works of the law. Right.
[00:02:41] He uses this phrase, works of the law. A lie. He's talking about the law of Moses and talks about. He kind of juxtaposes it with being justified by faith or through faith, by grace.
[00:02:53] And so we're continuing in that. He kind of gave us the background, how he talked to Peter when Peter was being hypocritical.
[00:03:00] Verse 3. He kind of turns. Okay, here's this example. And now I'm talking to you, you foolish Galatians.
[00:03:07] And we. I think we. Do you guys remember, did we get through verse six or nine last time? We may have gotten through nine, but I may have rushed it, but I think we're going to go through those again.
[00:03:21] But if you look, we see in the beginning of chapter three, he's asking them rhetorical questions, and he's kind of Emphasizing how the Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit are tied to the genuineness of salvation. And how he's saying, you know, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
[00:03:46] Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? So he's. He's trying to emphasize, look, you guys can see the fruit of the Spirit among you.
[00:03:57] If the Spirit is what saved you and bears fruit among you, then why are you trying to bear fruit and grow and be perfected through works?
[00:04:07] Their actions are inconsistent with what they profess.
[00:04:10] And in verse six, he says, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, so he's referring to how Abraham, Abraham believed. And it was not his works alone that saved him. Rather, his works were active alongside his faith. And his faith is what gave him or credited to him righteousness.
[00:04:33] So we'll start then in verse seven, he kind of goes more into Abraham. And then we'll kind of go hopefully to verse 14 today.
[00:04:43] So we'll just read those first few verses.
[00:04:46] He says, know then that it is those of. This is verse seven. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.
[00:05:03] So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
[00:05:11] I think if we taught this last time, I probably would have mentioned. Do you guys know a song that teaches this idea? Does anybody know the song, a song about maybe Father Abraham?
[00:05:24] You guys know that song? Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. Right?
[00:05:33] That's this idea that through faith we are considered even sons of Abraham.
[00:05:39] What we're teaching children when we teach that song is that through faith, you are in the same lineage. Because we understand that this lineage is now one that is by faith, not by blood.
[00:05:54] So we should ask, how do we know that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works? That's a really good question, right? We see Paul saying it here, but in other places, the Bible, we might see something that could confuse us. In fact, it confuses millions, probably even billions of people.
[00:06:12] James 2:21 says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
[00:06:20] And so James is saying, was he not justified by works? Did he not do works and receive justification because of it.
[00:06:27] Well, James actually explains this. I just want to. To be clear, so we don't think we're not contradicting. James and Paul are not disagreeing.
[00:06:36] James explains after he asks this question, he says, you see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works or fulfilled is another way to say completed. He continues and says, and the Scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
[00:06:58] So James actually quotes the exact same part of Genesis that Paul does, because they're not contradicting. He's saying faith or works are what completed and showed and made his faith active. Because a dead faith is dead, it does not justify, so it must be an active faith. But that does not mean that the works are giving the justification, as James clarifies by saying, Abraham believed God, so faith and that was counted to him as righteousness. So his works proved in evidence to the world that his justification was genuine. So works matter.
[00:07:38] I'm never going to tell you that they don't matter, but they're never said, even in James, to earn justification.
[00:07:45] That's Paul's point in these verses. And he continues to explain in Galatians 3. 8, where he says in the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify, the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.
[00:08:08] What is significant about the. He says the gospel preached beforehand. What is significant about that phrase?
[00:08:40] If you're struggling, what if we took that out and said, we just said preach the gospel afterward to Abraham.
[00:08:54] What would the difference be?
[00:09:09] That is, after his works, after he obeyed God, after he went to the land, after he went to sacrifice Isaac, afterward the gospel is preached. What would be the difference?
[00:09:25] Justified by his works, not by his faith. Yeah, right. He would be justified by his works because the works came first.
[00:09:33] But Paul points out that this good news, the good news that through Abraham all the nations will be blessed, which we know through the rest of Scripture, comes through Christ.
[00:09:45] That was preached beforehand, before he did the works and he believed. And when he believed in that gospel, even before the works, that is when it was credited to him as righteousness. That's when the justification was declared on Abraham.
[00:10:03] So you see, that is so important. If it's backwards, then works either play the the full part or at least part of it.
[00:10:13] But that's just not what we're seeing. We're seeing his faith was first and it's through that that all the nations could Truly be blessed.
[00:10:22] It wouldn't be a blessing in the same way if all the nations could work for their justification.
[00:10:28] No, they can be blessed by entering into God's family through faith.
[00:10:34] The law of Moses merely measured the faith of Israel, but it was faith that justified them.
[00:10:41] That's what he's saying.
[00:10:44] Thus being united to Christ through faith.
[00:10:47] Verse 9 says so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
[00:10:58] You too can be blessed through faith, just like Abraham. There's a continuity there that Paul is emphasizing. Just like Abraham was blessed through faith, you too, today in Oklahoma are blessed through faith.
[00:11:14] Now, if not even Abraham was justified by works of the law, then that is relieving and precious news to us sinners. Right?
[00:11:27] We need this news because we understand as we look at our own works of the law, our own way to obey and be good, and be holy and be righteous, and we see failure.
[00:11:40] Even when you compare, which you shouldn't do this, but even you compare it to, we'd like to do this. We compare ourselves to people that seem worse than us.
[00:11:50] But if you're honest, you too are falling short of the law.
[00:11:54] You are not keeping the works of the law perfectly. And that's the standard.
[00:12:00] So we all fall sin, fall in sin. We are all unrighteous, except through faith. Righteousness can be credited to you.
[00:12:12] Now, this news here that all the nations are blessed through Abraham. How does this apply to missions?
[00:12:23] Some of us were on a missions trip. Is this relevant as we do missions and how so.
[00:12:58] Yes.
[00:13:05] Yeah. Anybody from any nation, right, we pray or I've been trying to lead us in prayer for other people groups, other nations all over the world.
[00:13:17] Like that subgroup in India today, those people too can be saved. But how can they be saved?
[00:13:31] Missions.
[00:13:33] But what do missionaries tell them?
[00:13:35] How can they be saved? What they tell them the gospel. Right.
[00:13:41] They don't go in and tell them, okay, you need to conform to the works of the law. You need to look a certain way other than what the Bible prescribes for the church to do and what it prescribes for the church to look like.
[00:13:56] But within their own cultural context, they enter through faith the exact same way. They don't have to do something extra. There's not an extra hurdle that they need to go through because, you know, they're Hindus, they were worshiping a bunch of gods.
[00:14:10] No, if they have faith in Christ, they turn from their sin in their previous way and they have faith in Him. They're justified the same as us, though they're totally different than us in so many ways.
[00:14:25] And you can put that with every single people group on the planet.
[00:14:29] It's all, this is how all the nations are blessed. And this is what missionaries need to know. It's the message they must proclaim. It's what we want missionaries to believe before we send them, so that we know they won't go and require works of the law, but rather they would preach the gospel.
[00:14:50] And this is, you know, what Paul did with the Galatians as he was a missionary of sorts, an apostle, so maybe, I guess, maybe a super missionary, you could say.
[00:15:02] But he went and planting churches preaching this good news, because that is how all of these nations can be blessed.
[00:15:10] Now, verse 10 then says for all who. Actually, I'll read verses 10 through 14 so we can kind of get that next paragraph. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them.
[00:15:29] Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
[00:15:37] But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.
[00:15:42] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
[00:15:58] Okay, so verse 10.
[00:16:01] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. What does it mean to rely on the works of the law?
[00:16:07] What does that mean?
[00:16:16] Yeah, to rely on it for your salvation. It's your get into heaven card is your works.
[00:16:23] What are ways that people do this? How does this look day to day life?
[00:16:28] You know, a lot of people, there's a lot of people that do this but wouldn't say, oh, I'm trying to earn my way into heaven. But if you have conversations, how can you understand if people have this attitude?
[00:16:52] Yes, Grant.
[00:16:56] Yeah. They'll say, I'm a good person. That's right. And anything else you guys can think of?
[00:17:08] Comparisons. Comparisons, right. Yeah. Like with other people. Maybe I go to church. Yes.
[00:17:26] Yeah. They might just be trying to do everything.
[00:17:30] Yeah. Those are some great examples.
[00:17:34] In college, I got to go to Florida for a couple of summers. And one of the things we did in this program was we shared the gospel with people on the beach.
[00:17:45] And one of the questions I would often start with is because they told us to do this. They were just giving us some, some tools to use for evangelism was to kind of ask, what do you think of eternity? Do you believe in that? And if you do, where do you think you'll be and why?
[00:18:07] And so often a lot of people would, at least in the presence of someone else, be humble enough to say, I don't know.
[00:18:14] But they would usually say, I think I might be okay because of any of those reasons, just listed. And even because, well, you know, they might list a few things like, oh, I give and I do community service and I go to church. And they would list things that was the most common response I would get.
[00:18:32] And we know that those things don't justify that the rest of their lives are filled with sin. And even in some of those good actions, they might be sinning by doing it to earn their salvation. Not relying on Christ, not honoring him, but doing works for themselves.
[00:18:52] Now I think, you know, this is important for us to kind of pause and think about, because if someone were to ask you a similar question, how many of you would have maybe said some of those things?
[00:19:06] Is that your reaction?
[00:19:09] Maybe not, you know, hopefully not. But it's really common to think, okay, well, I do these things and I go to church. So, you know, that's what I would say. But when we answer this question, we should remember that it should never start with I, but Christ saved me and I'm united to him through faith. That is how we are justified, not by anything we do. And it's so easy for us to even accidentally start to think that way. And when we start to think that way, we start to, rather than repent and go to Christ. When we sin, we try to modify our behavior only not change our hearts.
[00:19:49] And so that, I think that is partly what Paul wants us to understand in this.
[00:19:55] So that's what it means to rely on works of the law. And he says those who do so are under a curse.
[00:20:00] And he says, for it is written.
[00:20:03] What does that mean? Why it is written? Where?
[00:20:08] Huh?
[00:20:10] In the Bible. Does anyone have like a little cross reference tool in their Bible? What is he quoting there?
[00:20:19] Yeah, I think so. I think there's maybe a few places it's, it's written similarly in the Bible. But if you would go to, and I do want you to go there, if you have your Bible, Deuteronomy 27, I'll go there too.
[00:20:36] So I want you guys to see this passage. So Deuteronomy 27, it's the very last verse of that chapter. So verse 26, Deuteronomy 27:26 says, Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, and all the people shall say Amen.
[00:21:03] So he's loosely quoting. He's at least referencing this passage.
[00:21:10] Now, if you see before that, you actually see up to verse 15 and down, we see curse. Curses be on people who do different wicked deeds. Right.
[00:21:23] But now, right after this verse, you see chapter 28. We see you might have a subtitle about blessings talking about obedience.
[00:21:32] That's verses 1 through 14. But then look at verse 15 of chapter 28, and then turn until you see the end of that chapter.
[00:21:46] You've got to turn your pages a couple of times. Right?
[00:21:50] The curses section in this is long.
[00:21:54] It's like five times longer than this blessing section. Now, I'm not trying to make overstate a point here, and I don't want to overemphasize that there's more text that means it's more important than the blessings. I don't think that.
[00:22:08] But I do want us to see that for disobeying the law, not keeping it, not fulfilling Deuteronomy 27:26, there is judgment, there's punishment. There are what the Bible is calling curses for disobedience.
[00:22:25] Why is the law called a curse by Paul?
[00:22:28] That's what he calls it in this passage in Galatians.
[00:22:34] Why do you think he's calling it a curse?
[00:22:43] Yeah. No matter how hard you try, you cannot keep it off completely.
[00:22:48] You can't. It's a curse in that we fail to do the law to God's perfect standard, and we therefore would deserve all of those curses and more. He's not saying the law is a bad thing. He says elsewhere that it's not. It is good, and it reveals God's righteous heart and the moral law even. But it is a curse in that we cannot do it.
[00:23:14] Justification cannot come through works of the law, not because the law is insufficient, but because we are unable.
[00:23:22] We don't have the ability to live by it.
[00:23:26] That's what he's saying in verse 10 and then in verse 11, so you can go back to Galatians 3, he says, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
[00:23:39] What's this quotation referring to?
[00:23:42] The righteous shall live by faith.
[00:23:47] You're saying something, but I can't hear you.
[00:23:50] You said Hebrews and Habakkuk. Habakkuk? Yeah. Habakkuk that's right. It's quoted from there. Paul quotes it elsewhere, too. Do you guys know what book it's quoted in? Pretty famously.
[00:24:04] A certain German monk really liked this verse.
[00:24:09] What Romans. Martin Luther said he was converted. Meditating and poring over the quotation of that in Romans 1.
[00:24:20] And it's tying us in to this idea of living by faith.
[00:24:29] You live by faith, and through that faith you're considered righteous.
[00:24:34] Remember what justification means? It is to declare righteous.
[00:24:39] So justified being declared righteous is given through faith by the grace of God alone.
[00:24:46] So that's why he's calling us back to. He's helping us remember. I'm not making this up, right? This is biblical theology.
[00:24:54] This is what the Bible says. It's always said this. This isn't just a new thing that the Apostle Paul has created. That's something he's been laboring to remind us ever since the beginning of Galatians and remind his readers that I'm. This is not my message.
[00:25:11] And it's not even just a completely new message that was given to me as a prophecy. It's been there.
[00:25:18] God has given us, if at least hints, if not very clear pointers that this is his intention.
[00:25:26] So that's why he's using the Old Testament here to kind of help us connect that they're not. They are the same book, the bible now, verse 12.
[00:25:35] But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.
[00:25:42] What's important about this point? What is he saying? The one who does them shall live by them.
[00:25:50] Was there a connection? You see, actually, I'll make that more clear.
[00:26:00] What's the connection between this quote in verse 12 and verse 11?
[00:26:12] It.
[00:26:39] That may be a little unclear. So let me help.
[00:26:43] What do you live by?
[00:26:47] The righteous shall live by faith.
[00:26:51] Verse 11.
[00:26:53] But the one who does the law, who lives by the law, lives by the law.
[00:27:00] Do you live by the law or do you live by faith?
[00:27:04] Are you trying to achieve justification by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
[00:27:12] Is Christ's work? Is his perfect keeping of the law yours through faith? Or are you shackling yourself to obedience of the law as a justification?
[00:27:28] That's what he is presenting to them. He's even quoting the Old Testament in both cases, trying to say, look, the Bible is saying these things. Where are you? Are you living by the law? Are you living by faith?
[00:27:43] And I think that's a good thing for you to reflect on. You know, are you living at least functionally by the Law.
[00:27:50] You know, we've taught that we live by faith. But are you functionally, in actuality living by the law?
[00:27:58] He continues in verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[00:28:05] How did Christ become a curse?
[00:28:13] Yeah, he died on a cross. That's why Paul then quotes cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
[00:28:24] Again, we see this with Abraham and with the idea of the Spirit. But we see the central theme of salvation. I don't know, does anybody remember what I said? The central point of salvation is? I said this weeks ago.
[00:28:40] It's okay. It is union with Christ.
[00:28:43] At the heart of it is you are unified to Christ.
[00:28:48] It means that he was in your place on the cross. And it means that you are going to be with him forever. It means that his works are credited to you. His righteousness is considered yours. You are unified to Christ. That is the heart of the Gospel.
[00:29:05] By grace, through faith, you are united to Him.
[00:29:10] Thus we are all one. We all have His Spirit and our justified by the same works.
[00:29:17] The curse upon us is taken by the same man in the same act by hanging on the cross through faith, we're united to Him. It is done on our behalf.
[00:29:31] That's the heart I believe.
[00:29:34] And now finally, verse 14, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
[00:29:41] What is the blessing of Abraham?
[00:29:54] God's promise. But be yet right, but be more specific.
[00:30:04] Ryan's preached it relatively recently, I guess. But Paul remind tells us of this above, if you want to look.
[00:30:22] Yeah, justification through faith.
[00:30:24] But specifically he says, and he's quoting genesis in verse 8 in you shall all the nations be blessed.
[00:30:34] This justification by grace, which is promised to Abraham by God. So those are both right.
[00:30:41] But that promise, that gift of salvation is made available to people of all nations.
[00:30:48] Anybody can be saved truly, if they believe in Christ.
[00:30:54] All people are blessed then through the covenant given to Abraham.
[00:30:59] You know, lest we think such an old book is irrelevant, that covenant to Abraham, when we are united to Christ through faith, we are considered what children of Abraham, of father Abraham.
[00:31:15] The seal then that's what Paul is getting at the end. The seal then of this covenant and salvation is not circumcision, which is what the seal was given to Abraham. Paul clarifies. He says in verse 14, he doesn't say, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise through circumcision.
[00:31:40] No, you receive the promised Spirit through faith. The Spirit now seals us together as the worldwide church.
[00:31:48] So he's getting right to the heart of their legalistic issue again at the end of this part of the argument to remind them you're justified by faith alone, not by works of the law.
[00:32:03] So I'll close here, but I want us to think for a moment.
[00:32:10] How do you sometimes see the evidence of the Spirit in others?
[00:32:16] I want you to think in the church in probably the easiest place. But even as we, you know, some of us were at another church last week. How do you see the fruit of the Spirit in others?
[00:32:31] And if it's difficult to think of that, I encourage you today when we go over, look for evidences of grace, evidences of the Spirit and other people as we worship, as we talk to one another and sing and pray.
[00:32:45] Look for that and be encouraged by that and also reflect on yourself. Are you living by faith or living by the law?
[00:32:56] Let's pray.
[00:32:58] Father, we thank you for the wonderful promise that you gave to Abraham and how you brought it to its fulfillment in your son, Jesus Christ.
[00:33:06] Lord, we pray that we would be those who live by faith.
[00:33:11] Lord, rescue those who are living by works of the law, Lord. Free them from their chains and grant them repentance that they may have a knowledge of the truth and turn and be saved. Lord, help us to also have eyes this morning to see evidences of grace and of the Spirit in others. Lord, may that be an encouragement to our hearts. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
