In our study of Galatians chapter three, we will look at how our experiences with Christ will help us to grow in our faith in Christ. In chapter two, we saw how the other apostles experienced the grace that had been given to Paul to preach the gospel. That is they were able to see it in action and not just words. Now, Paul will use the experiences of the Galatians as well as that of Abraham to remind them that you cannot add the law to grace.
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You stupid Galatians! Who has put you under a spell? Before your very eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as having been put to death as a criminal!
Paul begins this section of his letter with what is seemingly a very harsh question. When he calls them "foolish", he is basically telling them that they have stopped using their mind (thinking). He goes on to describe them as "bewitched" and that speaks of the fact that they had listened to men who were causing them to forget what they had already learned and seen. Paul then reminds them that they were taught that Jesus Christ was crucified for their sins but these men had caused them to forget that.
I want to know from you just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance of Torah commands or by trusting in what you heard and being faithful to it?
Now, Paul asks them to remember their salvation experience. We are told throughout the Word that the presence of the Holy Spirit is evidence that the believer is saved. By asking this question of when they received the Spirit, he is asking them to think once again of that time when they were saved from the coming wrath of God. Did they get the Spirit because they kept the rules or because they believed that Jesus fulfilled the law for them?
Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit's power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power?
Once again, Paul asks if they have stopped thinking and remembering their past experience with Christ. This foolishness is turning away from the Spirit and back to the law as a means of justification. That is foolish because the standard of the law is perfection and, as we know, we are imperfect people.
Have you suffered so much for nothing? If that's the way you think, your suffering certainly will have been for nothing!
Paul reminds them that they did not just have one experience of salvation through the Holy Spirit but have had many experiences of seeing the Spirit in action in their lives. It is easy for us as humans to discount a single event but when a bunch of events happen and they all point to the same thing then it is a lot harder to ignore. That is why Paul is reminding them of this point and he is confident that their experiences were not in vain. This combination of experiences over our lives as a Christian is what God uses to grow us closer in our walk with Him.
What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you - does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?
Paul is asking them this question to get them to look at the wonderful things that God is currently doing in their lives. He is reminding them of the fact that God did not just save them and forget about them but instead is at work in their daily lives. This points to the fact that, through the Holy Spirit, we have wonderful experiences with God each and every day. This daily walk is because of the relationship that has been repaired and not because of any works that we can do.
It was the same with Avraham: "He trusted in God and was faithful to him, and that was credited to his account as righteousness." Be assured, then, that it is those who live by trusting and being faithful who are really children of Avraham.
Paul continues by reminding the Galatians that faith (belief in God) is the only way that anyone (including Abraham) has ever been made right with God. He also points out that those who believe are Abraham's children and not just the Jews. That is a reminder that our righteousness does not come from our family line but once again by faith.
Also the Tanakh, foreseeing that God would consider the Gentiles righteous when they live by trusting and being faithful, told the Good News to Avraham in advance by saying, "In connection with you, all the Goyim will be blessed." So then, those who rely on trusting and being faithful are blessed along with Avraham, who trusted and was faithful.
In Genesis 22:17 & 18, God told Abraham that he would be blessed and have children from all nations. God was announcing to the world that salvation would be available to non-Jews as well as to the Jewish people. That is the blessing that is referred to in this passage and we see that the blessing (salvation) comes by faith for us just as it did for Abraham and our Jewish brothers. We are blessed through Abraham because he was obedient to God. There are those who believe that we (Gentiles) are kind of a plan B for God in that, when the Jews rejected Jesus, He, then, turned to us but this passage shows that we were a part of God's plan from the beginning. (God does not need a plan B).
For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse, since it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the Scroll of the Torah."
Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 and reminds us that, if you trust in the law for salvation, it is a curse. It is a curse because there is no way that man can keep the law perfectly and the standard is perfection.
Now it is evident that no one comes to be declared righteous by God through legalism, since "The person who is righteous will attain life by trusting and being faithful." Furthermore, legalism is not based on trusting and being faithful, but on [a misuse of] the text that says, "Anyone who does these things will attain life through them."
As people, it is easier for us to do something than to trust someone else. That is why so many people fall into legalistic religious traps but, as we see in this passage, it is only by faith that we are declared not guilty of sin. That faith is belief in the fact that Jesus paid our penalty for sin (died) and was raised again.
The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf; for the Tanakh says, "Everyone who hangs from a stake comes under a curse."
Jesus came to the earth and kept the law for us so that He could be the perfect (unblemished) sacrifice. Then, He went and died on the cross (becoming cursed for our imperfection). Our faith in Him, as that perfect sacrifice, is the basis for our right relationship with God.
Yeshua the Messiah did this so that in union with him the Gentiles might receive the blessing announced to Avraham, so that through trusting and being faithful, we might receive what was promised, namely, the Spirit.
God's promise to Abraham, in Genesis 22, is fulfilled in us through Jesus Christ. God had promised him that he would have children from many nations and not just his own people. Through Jesus Christ, we are brought into the family of God along with Abraham. Through the same faith that he had, we have salvation and receive the promise of God with us through the Holy Spirit.
Brothers, let me make an analogy from everyday life: when someone swears an oath, no one else can set it aside or add to it.
A covenant is a contract where the details of a relationship are set out. Most contracts are witnessed by two people and, once it is signed (duly established), it is binding. Today, it is usually done in writing but, for most of history, a man's spoken word was as good as a signature. With this in mind, Paul is going to apply it to the Abrahamic covenant.
Now the promises were made to Avraham and to his seed. It doesn't say, "and to seeds," as if to many; on the contrary, it speaks of one - "and to your seed" - and this "one" is the Messiah.
God's promises to Abraham were a contract that could only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Although it is tough for many to accept, there is only one way and that is Jesus Christ. Many want to claim Abraham as the father of their faith but, even though he had another son (Ishmael), the promise was not spoken to him.
Here is what I am saying: the legal part of the Torah, which came into being 430 years later, does not nullify an oath sworn by God, so as to abolish the promise.
The law did not change the promise but was simply an instrument that God used in fulfilling the promise. The purpose of the law was to make us understand that we need Jesus. Jesus was the promise that God made to Abraham and, through Jesus, we all have the ability to be children of that promise.
For if the inheritance comes from the legal part of the Torah, it no longer comes from a promise. But God gave it to Avraham through a promise.
When you try to add any works to grace, then you no longer have grace. Neither Abraham nor us did anything to deserve the promise and we cannot lose the promise because of something that we do. This is the same struggle that many face even today as we, as people, want to earn salvation but cannot.
So then, why the legal part of the Torah? It was added in order to create transgressions, until the coming of the seed about whom the promise had been made. Moreover, it was handed down through angels and a mediator. Now a mediator implies more than one, but God is one.
The law was given and put into effect to point us to the need for a Savior which is Jesus Christ. A mediator is someone who gets between two parties to help them to settle their differences and that is just what Jesus did for us. He made a way for us to be reconciled to God and that was the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.
Does this mean that the legal part of the Torah stands in opposition to God's promises? Heaven forbid! For if the legal part of the Torah which God gave had had in itself the power to give life, then righteousness really would have come by legalistically following such a Torah.
The law is like a signpost along the highway. It doesn't actually take you to where you want to go but it tells you where you are at and where you are headed. It is the same with the law. It can tell you the same things but it has no power to make us right with God.
But instead, the Tanakh shuts up everything under sin; so that what had been promised might be given, on the basis of Yeshua the Messiah's trusting faithfulness, to those who continue to be trustingly faithful.
The entire world is full of sin but God promised that we would be saved from it. That promise is fulfilled through our faith in Jesus as the perfect atoning sacrifice for that sin.
Now before the time for this trusting faithfulness came, we were imprisoned in subjection to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism, kept under guard until this yet-to-come trusting faithfulness would be revealed. Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a custodian until the Messiah came, so that we might be declared righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful. But now that the time for this trusting faithfulness has come, we are no longer under a custodian.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice because He kept the entire law on our behalf. We were prisoners of that law because we were unable to keep it on our own. When we accept by faith that Jesus took the penalty for us, we are no longer under the threat of penalty or controlled by the law. Its only purpose was to point us to the need for Jesus Christ.
For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness; because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one.
This passage should eliminate all discrimination in the life of a Christian. When we realize that we are all either "sons of God" or lost, then it should help us to see others in a different light. All the "isms" in the world such as racism, sexism, etc. should be taken off when we put on the new clothes of a Christian (see Colossians 3).
Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise.
Jesus made it possible for us to be adopted into the family of God. This family was promised to Abraham and, as family, we are also heirs.
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