Galatians is Paul’s dissertation, from a judicial standpoint, on the doctrine of salvation. And he has spent the brunt of his argument delineating the merits of grace versus law. He has shown in detail the difference between salvation by grace alone, as opposed to salvation by faith plus works. In particular, he was answering the Judaiser’s teaching that you needed to be circumcised and follow the dietary and ceremonial laws of the Jews in order to really be saved.

Paul called such legalism “slavery.” And he described salvation by grace through faith as “freedom.” But some of the difficulty comes partly in defining our terms, and also in extrapolating certain outcomes from those doctrines. A faulty understanding of the nature of these terms can lead you to a wrong outcome.

And so I want to review some of these key terms for a moment, because I think they are sometimes used interchangeably, when in fact they mean different things. The first term is mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Mercy is forgiveness. You were found guilty of a crime, and the penalty was death, but the judge gives you mercy. You are forgiven by the courts and not held accountable for your crime.

So mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace, on the other hand, is getting something you don’t deserve. Do you see the difference? Grace means a gift. It’s getting something you don’t deserve. You don’t work for. In salvation, not only do you receive mercy, but you receive grace. God gifts you His righteousness, eternal life, and His Spirit to dwell in you.

Now when Paul talks about freedom in the verses before us today, some people might be confused and think he is speaking of grace. But actually, freedom is being set free from the penalty of sin, and the captivity of sin. Paul says in vs 1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” So Christ set us free from the condemnation of the law, and the captivity to sin, so that going back under the law would be akin to a free man going back to slavery. You would be now required to keep all the law, which would only condemn you, and you would eliminate salvation by grace.

That being understood though, the question arises, then do we have no obligation to keep the law in any respect? Are we able to sin with impunity? Are we, as Paul himself asks in Rom 6:1 “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Is grace then a license to continue in sin? Does freedom mean that I am free to live any way I want, to do whatever I want?

Well, Paul answers that question of Romans 6:1 by saying in vs 2, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Actually I prefer the KJV on that, which says, “God forbid!” It’s a much more strident answer. Why would Paul be so strident, so concerned that the church not continue in sin? Because it is contrary to the will of God. It’s contrary to the plan of God. And its’ contrary to the purpose of our life that we have been given by God. So what I think we will find in this next section is that the law of God is more closely related to the will of God than we might realize.

So to that question of law versus grace, of grace being a license to sin, Paul says in Galatians 5 vs 13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Now notice that suddenly Paul seems to be saying that there is still a law that is in effect. There is still a law that we are to be subject to. And this law, the law of love, Paul says, is the consummation of all the law of God. Now let’s try to break that down and make sure we understand correctly what he is teaching here.

So first notice this concept of freedom. Back in vs 1 he said “It was for freedom that Christ set us free,” then in vs 13 he says, “For you were called to freedom.” He is speaking of our salvation, through Christ we are set free from the captivity of sin, set free from the condemnation of the law. That’s why Christ saved us. That’s why Christ died on the cross – to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might be set free. We are justified, set free, not by what we have done, not by keeping the law, but by what He has done for us.

Notice also the element of predestination in his statement. God called us to Himself. The call of God in salvation is from the Lord. And those whom He predestined to salvation will hear His call and come to Him. Rom 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Notice all those elements of salvation are accomplished by the Lord. We do not participate in our predestination, we do not participate in our calling, we do not participate in our justification, we do not participate in our glorification. Salvation is of the Lord. That’s the mercy and grace of God towards us.

So then salvation is a spiritual transaction that happens for us, and in us, which also produces a physical change. That’s an important point. Salvation is spiritual. We are born again spiritually. But if that is so, then the spirit will change the way the physical lives. That is what Paul was teaching in the Romans 6 passage I read earlier. In salvation we die to sin. And so we live by the spirit and not according to the flesh. That new spirit produces a different way of living, a different purpose for living.

That’s what Paul is saying here. “You were called to freedom, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.” Now that we are set free from the captivity to sin, now that we are set free from the condemnation of the law, how are we to live in light of that freedom? Paul says don’t use your freedom to go sin again. I am reminded of the woman that was caught in adultery and brought before Christ. The law required that she be put to death. But Jesus said “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” She had been set free by the mercy of Christ from the condemnation of sin. So then to continue in sin would have been a travesty.

Back in Romans 6 Paul says in vs17 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Now in our text Paul characterizes sin as an opportunity for the flesh. The flesh is contrary to the will of God. Going back to that passage in Romans 6 which we referenced earlier, Paul continued in that argument to say in 6:12″ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body [flesh] so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body [flesh] to sin [as] instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

All sins of the flesh are at the root a desire to please self. It’s serving myself and my desires and my interests and my pride. The sin is serving myself and my desires above anyone else. Righteousness on the other hand can be characterized as serving God first, and serving others. All the law does is put limits on me, in order to protect others.

So Paul says if we willfully submit our flesh to sin again, are we not in effect putting ourselves back under the law and the condemnation of the law? So do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, and your body as instruments of righteousness.

So we are called to freedom, to live in the Spirit and not to live in captivity to the flesh. I want to read from Romans 8 again, in which Paul speaks to this change from living according to the flesh to living according to the Spirit. There is so much there, I can’t really exegete the whole passage. But perhaps if I read it, the Lord will give you understanding. Romans 8:5-8 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

So this is speaking of the same thing as Galatians is speaking of. An opportunity for the flesh, is the same as setting your minds on the things of the flesh. And notice that Paul says that such a mind set on the flesh cannot subject itself to the law of God, and those in the flesh cannot please God. So he is saying that the law of God is still something that we are to be subject to. But when you are focused on fulfilling your fleshly desires, which is sin, then you cannot please God. So as Christians under grace, not the law, we are no longer serving the desires of our flesh, but our desire should be to please the Lord, which is to subject our bodies to the law of God.

Now admittedly it feels like we are splitting hairs in trying to delineate the difference between law and grace. I suppose you might say that under the law we are condemned, but under grace we do the works of righteousness. The difference between the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace is that in the old covenant we are given the law but we are not capable of keeping it, and so it only condemns us. But under the new covenant, we are given the power over sin, which results in righteousness, and that power is the presence of the Spirit within us.

Let me ask you something. Define righteousness without referencing the law of God. I don’t think it is possible. The law of God not only defines sin, it defines righteousness. Righteousness is by definition a state of being moral and ethical. When you try to keep the law in the flesh you cannot do it, resulting in sin. But when you follow the Spirit you do the works of righteousness by the power of the Spirit within you. The difference between the old and new covenant is we that are saved have the Spirit of God in us who enables us to do the works of righteousness.

I might try to illustrate it this way. Imagine the word LAW written as a giant sign. On one side of the sign is the word sin and flesh. On the other side of the sign is the word righteousness and Spirit. The same law produces either result. The difference is that sin is the result of the flesh and righteousness is the result of the Spirit.

Now let’s go back to our text. Gal 5:13-14 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only [do] not [turn] your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the [statement,] “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

But through love serve one another and love is the fulfillment of the law. Now we have heard that all of our Christian lives, but how is that true? How does that work? Love, first of all, is not a sentiment. It’s not an attraction you have towards your neighbor. Or a feeling you have towards the Lord. Love is not based on attraction. Love is not based a feeling. Sometimes love may be accompanied by a feeling, but you must not rely on a feeling in order to act in love. Love is a commitment to put another’s needs above your own. To serve another before yourself. That is love. And my apologies to those who can only see love through a romantic lens, but there may be more times in your marriage when you will choose to love your mate when you feel like wringing their neck, than there will be times when you will love your mate because you feel so warm and fuzzy about them. In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, in ups and downs, in financial woes and financial bliss, whatever happens, whatever their response may be, you choose to love them.

But that being said, you cannot really legislate love, can you? You can’t make laws and write them on the doorposts of your house and on the walls that say “you must love me and obey me.” You can legislate obedience, but not love. But if you have a mate that loves you, you won’t have to say “obey me.”

Jesus said, “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” See, the issue is not that the commandments have been done away with and you are free to live like you want. The issue is that captivity to sin has been done away with, and you choose to love the Lord, which is to keep His commandments. And what is the commandment? “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Your neighbor is anyone within the sphere of your world. That includes your husband or wife, or kids or friends, or coworkers, or in-laws or outlaws, or anyone that you come into contact with. In salvation there is a change from loving yourself first, to loving the Lord first and loving your neighbor as yourself.

If you love your neighbor, you will not bear false witness against him. If you love your neighbor, you will not murder him. If you love your neighbor, you will not steal from him. If you love your neighbor who are your parents then you will honor your mother and your father. If you love your neighbor, you will not commit adultery with his wife. If you love your neighbor, you will not covet his stuff.

Romans 13:10 says, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of [the] law.

So the difference between law and grace is that we have a change of heart. When we are saved by grace, forgiven of our sins, given a new spirit and everlasting life, we are given a new heart. I mean by that, we are given a new nature, new desires. And that happens by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. If you are unsaved, you do not have the Spirit of Christ in you. You cannot please God. You cannot do the things of God. You cannot work the works of righteousness. You certainly cannot do it in the power of your flesh. You can only do it by the power of the Spirit in you.

So key to our new life in this covenant of grace is that we have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Empowering us, changing our heart, so that our desire is to please the Lord. And we please the Lord by being obedient to His commands.

Paul qualifies what not acting in love is like in vs 15, “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” That needs very little exposition, doesn’t it? We call it back biting today. Slander. Bearing false witness against one another. Hateful speech. Speaking ill of one another. The result of that is to devour one another. To murder one another. That’s the opposite of love. That’s the result of the flesh. We that are saved still have our flesh. But we are to die to the desires of the flesh, and operate under the control of the Spirit.

Let me close by reading the promise in the Old Testament, that God would give a new covenant to those whom He called to be His people. It says in Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Instead of being subject to the law written on tablets of stone, we are now subject to the law written upon our hearts.

And God tells us how that will be accomplished in Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Let me ask you this morning, have you been born again? Have you had your sins forgiven, and a new spirit put within you, and do you have the Spirit of God dwelling in you? You cannot become a Christian through observance of the law, or by attending church, or by being baptized, or by taking communion, or by any work of the flesh. But you need to be changed, you need a new heart, and a new spirit, and the Spirit of Christ in you. You can have that salvation as a gift of God, if you will simply call upon the name of the Lord, confessing Jesus as Lord of your life, trusting in Him as your Savior who paid for the forgiveness of your sins, and receive the Spirit of God to reign in you. Call on the Lord to save you and change you, and live in you.

Paul has reached the last stage of his legal argument for the doctrine of justification by faith.  During his missionary journey’s to the region of Galatia he had preached the gospel, and the Galatians were converted and he had established churches there for them.  But then not too long afterwards certain men from Jerusalem had come to those churches and began to teach these new converts that they were not fully saved until they had become circumcised and adhered to certain ceremonial and legal requirements of Judaism.

So Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians refuting that false teaching and trying to set straight the ensuing confusion about the basis of salvation.  And the gist of his argument is to correlate the false teaching of adding to salvation certain laws with slavery or bondage.  And the truth of the gospel he correlates to being set free from that slavery.  Now Paul takes 4 chapters to teach that, and we have discussed those chapters in detail, and I cannot possibly review all that has been said in our introduction today.  But suffice it to say that Paul says that salvation is equivalent to being set free from slavery.

And to that point, he continues in chapter five vs one by saying, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  Salvation has always been by faith.  Abraham was saved by faith.  The scriptures say, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” So from the beginning, the only way to God was by faith.

But God gave the law to His chosen people to be a tutor to teach them about God, to teach them about sin,  to teach them about righteousness, and to teach them about the need for sacrificial atonement.  The law was never given as a means by which to be made right with God.  But the Jews had taken the law and tried to develop a system of law keeping by which they thought that they could be right with God, whereby they deserved special favor with God.

But when Christ came, the way to God was made clear.  It was by faith in Christ as the lamb of God who by His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world as our righteous substitute, through His atonement on our behalf, by which we are made right with God.  And through Christ’s death and resurrection, that which was taught by the law was fulfilled in Christ, so that we are no longer under the condemnation of the law.  Those laws which could only condemn us, were fulfilled for us by Christ, so that we might be made righteous by faith.

So that is how Paul is able to say that Christ has set us free.  He has set us free from the condemnation of sin, the condemnation of the law, and thus, the legal requirement of the law. Salvation then is really a tremendous gift of freedom.  Human slavery represents but a poor illustration of this truth.  But when slavery was abolished in the United States, it was done so by a war, and an emancipation proclamation made by the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.  He had the power and authority to make that proclamation because of His position as president.  But it took winning the war to make that proclamation a reality.

In a far greater sense, Jesus Christ, as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, has the power and authority to set men free from slavery to the law and sin.  But it took a spiritual war which He waged in which He shed His blood in death and rose from the grave in victory before He could make that proclamation a reality.  But just as it was in the case of slavery here in America, it was possible for the slaves to be set free, but yet not realize their freedom and remain enslaved. It was possible for slaves to prefer the security of slavery to freedom and remain enslaved. It was possible for slave owners to deceive some slaves and say that freedom could not be given to them and thus keep their slaves enslaved.  And all of that is possible with spiritual slavery as well.  And that is the point of Paul’s letter, to let these Galatians know that they had been set free, and they should not remain or return to slavery.

Now please understand that Christ did not die on the cross so that we might be set free to do anything we want with impunity. Grace is not a license to sin. Rom 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We are not set free to continue in sin, or to practice sin, but we have been set free from the penalty of sin, and the power of sin over us.  We have been set free from sin so that we might love God and follow Him.  Not by following the letter of the law, but following the Lord from a changed heart that wants to do His will.

It’s also interesting to notice that Paul’s language in this verse is reminiscent of Peter’s statement in Acts 15:10, in which he was addressing the same situation, that of certain Jews requiring Gentiles to become circumcised in order to be saved.  He says in Acts 15:10-11  “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”  

So this is not just a Pauline doctrine which was at odds with the apostolic doctrine in Jerusalem. But I think Paul deliberately uses those words to remind his readers that the matter had already been settled in Jerusalem when the same false teaching had been encountered in Antioch, and they had brought the discussion to Jerusalem to be settled by the apostles.  Peter calls the law, particularly the laws pertaining to Jewish customs and ceremonies, as a yoke which we were not able to bear. He uses a metaphor to describe the way an ox pulled a heavy load, or carried a heavy load by means of a yoke.  And when the ox is free from the yoke the burden is lifted and he is free from it.  So it was with the law.  It was something they were yoked to that was a burden that they were unable to bear.  Now that they are free from that yoke, why would they want to go back under it?

Not only is it not practical or reasonable to go back under that yoke, but Paul says it has an even greater danger.  Vs 2, “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.” This is a shocking statement that reveals the danger of legalism.

This is the danger: it’s either salvation through Christ or works.   It’s either all Christ or no Christ. It’s either by faith alone or no salvation.  Paul isn’t saying that there are two ways to God; one through Christ and one through works, and if you choose works then you have to go all the way with keeping the law.  Not at all.  Because there is no salvation through works, no salvation through the law.  There never was.  All that the law does is condemn you.  Only faith in Christ, and Christ alone, can save.

When Paul says,  “If you receive circumcision” that indicates that those who attempted to be justified before God on the basis of the law were in effect cancelling out the grace that was given through Christ.  And grace is only  one way to be saved according to Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  

There is another consequence of putting yourself back under the yoke of the law, and that is if you do that, then Paul says you are obligated to keep all of the law. Vs 3 “And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.” In other words, you don’t get to pick some to keep and some to discard. If you’re going to  chose the law, then you are under obligation to all the law.  Someone has added up all the laws given to Moses and came up with the total number as 613. And then the Jews even added some more to those. 

There are a lot of various churches out there that prescribe certain things as necessary, certain laws that we are required to keep. For instance the Seventh Day Adventists teach it’s necessary to keep the Sabbath. But these churches invariably choose to keep some laws and not others.  Paul says that if you choose the law then you must keep all the law.  And we know that no one is able to keep all the law perfectly.  There was only one person who kept the law perfectly, and that is Christ.  James says in James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point,] he has become guilty of all.”

Then Paul makes this graphic, shocking statement in verse 4: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” That is just a shocking way of saying it, especially in the context of speaking about circumcision. You who are seeking to be justified by keeping the law, you have been severed from Christ. You are cut off from Him.  You’re going to be judged by your works, not justified by Christ’s work.

What Paul is NOT saying is that you will lose your salvation.  But that if you choose works you have fallen from grace.  How are we made right with God? On the basis of grace through faith. Grace means gift.  Salvation is a gift of God.  Jesus was God’s gift to mankind.  And those who by faith believe in Jesus as the Son of God, as their substitute, as their Savior and Lord, are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  His righteousness is given to us.  That’s grace. 

What Paul is saying then is if you are standing at the judgment throne of God, and your eternal fate is at stake, you either claim the righteousness of Christ which was given to you, or you claim your works as the basis for your standing. If you choose works, you have fallen from grace, you’re dependent upon your works. And the Bible clearly teaches that no man will be justified by their works. 

Romans tells us in chapter 3: 20 that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.  But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,  even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

If you go back to the law to try to be justified, then Christ profits you nothing, you’re a debtor to the whole law, you’re severed from Christ, you’re fallen from grace and  finally in verse 5, you’re excluded from righteousness. The very righteousness you seek you will be excluded from because righteousness comes from the Spirit and not by keeping the law. Vs 5 “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”

Those walking in the Spirit wait for righteousness which comes as a result of their faith. They are converted, they are changed, they are given the Spirit of Christ to lead them in the paths of righteousness.  They are not trying to earn their righteousness by keeping the law. No one becomes a legalist through the leading of the Spirit.

The word “waiting” speaks of an attitude of intense yearning and an eager reliance upon  something. Here it refers to the believer’s intense desire for and eager expectation of a practical righteousness which will be constantly produced in his life by the Holy Spirit as he yields himself to Him.

There is a faith that works.  There is a faith that is justified by their works.  In other words, their faith is proven by their works.  And those works are the works of righteousness which are the result of a Spirit filled life.  Paul says in vs 6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”

If you are in Christ, that means if you belong to Christ, you are truly saved by faith in Christ and His righteousness, then neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.  Paul himself had been circumcised, but he knew that he had been unconverted while circumcised, and he was saved only by faith in Christ. So in justification the works of the law accomplishes nothing.

But being saved, being in Christ does produce works of righteousness.  It produces works born of the Spirit.  The Spirit in us produces both a judicial righteousness and a practical righteousness.  Judicially we are made righteous by being credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  But practically we do works of righteousness.

Ephesians describes this apparent dichotomy this way in Eph 2:8-10. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

So our good works do not save us, keeping the law does not save us.  But our faith which does save us produces works of righteousness in us by a new spirit, a new love for the Lord, and a new desire to serve the Lord and please the Lord.

Jesus said “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” So as Paul says, faith working through love is the evidence of being in Christ Jesus.  Not keeping ceremonial laws that restrict the flesh, but doing the work of the Spirit who is in us is the evidence of our regeneration.  If you love the Lord, you will want to obey Him.  And the Spirit will lead you into good works, which God has prepared for us beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Finally, let’s briefly consider the last paragraph of this section as a summary of his argument. Vs 7, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?  This persuasion [did] not [come] from Him who calls you.  A little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough.]  I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.  I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

This last section really addresses the teachers of this false doctrine.  Paul says they are not spokesmen for Christ. They had put a stumbling block before the Galatian Christians which had hindered them  from obeying the truth. See, the putting away of the law does not negate the necessity to obey. We are to obey the truth.  But a little leaven leavens the whole lump.  What that means is that it doesn’t take much of a false doctrine to distort and corrupt the entire gospel.  It’s so important that we preach the truth of the gospel and nothing but the truth.  That every tenet of the gospel is correct.  Because what seems to be but a small variance on your spiritual compass can actually end up taking you to the entirely wrong destination.

Paul says if he were preaching circumcision, then he would not be enduring persecution.  The stumbling block of the Jews  was the cross.  And there was no need for the cross if justification could come on the basis of keeping the law.  The whole point of Jesus dying on the cross was to say, “You can’t save yourself. I must die in your place or you have absolutely no hope at all.” When we trust in keeping the law, then we believe that we can, at least in part, save ourselves. The legalist’s view takes away the offense of the cross, the need for the cross, and the accomplishment of the cross.

Paul hated false doctrine so much that he spoke in what may be the harshest of terms in his last statement.  He said rather than just be circumcised I wish these false teachers would actually castrate themselves. Paul knew that the worst thing for the church was to have this false doctrine give birth to what amounted to complete apostasy. 

With such a dramatic statement, Paul has made one thing clear: legalism is no little thing in the eyes of God. It takes away our liberty and puts us into bondage. It makes Jesus and His work of no profit to us. It puts us under obligation to the whole law. It violates the work of the Spirit of God. It makes us focus on things that are irrelevant. It keeps us from running the race Jesus set before us. It isn’t from Jesus. A little bit will infect an entire church. Those who promote it will face certain judgment, no matter who they are. Legalism takes away the glory of the cross. In light of how serious all this is, it is no wonder that Paul says he wishes they would even cut themselves off!

But on the other hand, faith produces belonging to the Lord on the basis of the gift of His righteousness.  We have a wonderful inheritance as the children of God, which is given to us a gift of God.  We belong to Him, and He lives in us, so that we might work the works of faith through love. I hope that if you’re here today you are not trusting in any work of your own, no work of the law for your salvation.  But trusting only in the finished work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.  Salvation is a gift of God. Believe in Him and receive His righteousness and His Spirit and everlasting life.

Paul has reached in this passage the final part of his argument for the Galatians to turn away from the legalistic teaching of the Judaisers. Paul has appealed to them on so many levels, using various scriptures and illustrations to show that our salvation is by grace through faith, not faith plus the law. Paul had even appealed on the basis of his relationship with the Galatians as the founding father of their churches in order to encourage them to abandon the Judaizers teaching.

But the final argument has the authority of scripture as Paul goes to the very law that they wanted to go to. He uses the account of Abraham’s sons as an illustration of the gospel of grace versus the law. The apostle concludes his argument by calling the Galatians, who had begun to think that justification must include adherence to the Mosaic law, to look to the Law itself in order to evaluate the wisdom of flirting with legalism.

He says in vs 21, “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?” Do you understand what the law teaches? He uses the term nomos, the Greek word translated “law,” to refer not only to the actual commandments of Moses but which also referred to the first five books of the OT traditionally called the Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy). When the Jews referred to the law, they considered the entire Torah as the law. So Paul is calling those desiring to be justified by the commandments of God to listen to the whole testimony of the five books in which these regulations are found. 

Paul says if you are living under the law then you are living in bondage. They were acting like the people of Israel, who had cried to God to be set free from bondage to the Egyptians, and God heard them and by a miraculous deliverance set them free. And yet they had not been many days in the wilderness before they were longing to go back to Egypt for the leeks and the garlic and the cucumbers.

So Paul gives them an illustration from the law about Abraham and his son Ishmael, and his son Isaac. He says in vs 22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.”

Paul expects his readers to know the law, the whole story of the law of God, which includes the story of Abraham. And I would hope that you are very familiar with the story of how Abraham was given the promise of a son. God came to Abraham in his old age, and God told him that he would have a son. That Abraham would be the father of a great nation, and his descendants would be more than the stars of the sky and that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. When Abraham told that vision to his wife Sarah, she laughed. The Hebrew word for laugh is Isaac.

But Abraham believed that God would keep His promise. The scripture says that Abraham believed God and He credited to him as righteousness. God justified Abraham because of his faith in the promise of God. We are saved by the same faith as Abraham. The scripture tells us that the just shall live by faith. The Old Testament saints were saved by faith, just as we are saved by faith. I would remind you, as I have said repeatedly, that faith is believing in the promises of God. We believe in the word of God and that faith is counted to us as righteousness.

But I would also caution you that faith does not give you license to apply every thing that is written in scripture to you, and then call that faith, and expect that God will fulfill that promise to you. By that I mean that you should not claim the promise that God gave Abraham, that he would have a son in his old age, and claim that promise for yourself. God did not give you that particular promise that you will be able to father or bear children in your old age. I think most of you recognize that would be silly, or at least I hope you would.

But I say that because those of the word of faith movement, the name it and claim it crowd, are constantly taking promises that God made to someone specifically in the Old Testament, and applying it to themselves, and then going about claiming this “promise” that they say God has given them in His word. 

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day after a surf session and we were bemoaning the fact that we were getting older. And in surfing that means slower, and having less endurance, and a lot of other things that keep us from surfing as well as we would like. And my friend said he didn’t expect to live much past 70, as most of his family had died young. I tried to encourage him by quoting Moses who said the years of a man’s life are 70, but if due to strength, 80. I said he needed to keep working out and maybe he would get to 80.

But then I said for my part, I’m claiming the promises to Abraham. Abraham got a new lease on life at 99 years old. He went from his body being as good as dead to not only fathering a child at 100 years old, but when Sarah died, he married another woman and had even more children. And Abraham lived until 175 years old. That illustrates that when God gives you a gift, as Romans 11:29 tells us, that the gifts of God are irrevocable.

It would be nice if I could claim that promise God gave Abraham for myself. But I cannot. It was made specifically to Abraham. But I am making such a big point of this because I hear Christians making similar claims all the time. And then they expect that God has to give it to them because they believe it. But the problem will be when God doesn’t give it to you and you die at 65 years old then the testimony of your life calls into question God’s faithfulness. So don’t claim promises that are not intended for you.

But God did give the promise to Abraham that he would have a son in his old age. But the years went by and Sarah and Abraham were getting older and older and that which had seemed impossible now seemed completely unrealistic. And so Sarah and Abraham hatched a plan to help God out. Sarah gave her handmaid Hagar to Abraham to see if Abraham could have a son through her as a surrogate mother for Sarah. And Hagar conceived, and bore a son they called Ishmael.

But Ishmael was not the son of promise. He was the son of slavery. Vs23, “But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.” God had not forgotten the promise that He made to Abraham all those years ago. And so it came to pass when Abraham was 99 years old that Sarah became pregnant, and she had a son, whom they called Isaac.

So Paul speaks of this story from Jewish history and he infers a special meaning to it which he refers to as an allegory. Many commentators and Bible teachers in dealing with this passage spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the fact that this is not really an allegory, and that we should not look for allegories in the Bible because that is a dangerous way of interpreting the scripture. The point they make is that an allegory is a fictional story designed to teach something. But the difference in the story of Abraham is that it is a true story. And so they say that it would be better to look at this story as typology, and not an allegory.

I don’t think that it really makes a big difference what you call it. I suppose that it’s possible for an allegory to be a true story as well as a fictional one. But I would urge you not to lose sight of the point Paul by an undue focus on the semantics of his statement. Paul says in vs 24, “This is allegorically speaking, for these [women] are two covenants: one [proceeding] from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.”

Mt. Sinai of course was in the wilderness of Egypt where Moses received the law from God. Hagar is associated with slavery, and thus Mt. Sinai, which in turn Paul says corresponded with the present day Jerusalem, because the Jews were still living under the law. And those under the law Paul says are under their mother Hagar, who is in slavery with her children. The Jews were in bondage to the law. .

But Paul says the Jerusalem from above is free, and she is our mother. Paul speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem. Those born of the promise are miraculously born of the Spirit, not of the flesh and so they are free.

The scriptures have much to say about slavery and freedom, or bondage and freedom. Some have taken such scriptures out of context and espoused what is called liberation theology. I’m not going to take the time to go into that, other than to say that it is an erroneous interpretation of scripture that doesn’t seek individual redemption from the gospel, but a gospel of divine racial liberation.

Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Freedom as the gospel speaks of it is freedom from the captivity to sin. We were born naturally in bondage to sin. The seed of the original sin is in each of us from birth so that we do that which is contrary to God.

We used to sing a song in grade school in chorus class, called “Born Free.” Lions may be born free, but humans are not born free. We are born in captivity to sin as the product of original sin which was passed on from father to father all the way back to Adam. That gives rise to another false assumption concerning free will. That man is able, with equal inclination, to decide whether to do good or evil. He can choose to be sinful or choose to be obedient to God.

But there is a difference between natural ability, what I am equipped by nature to do, and spiritual ability, what I am inclined by God to do. I don’t have the natural ability to fly, or the natural ability to live under water. But we do have the natural ability to make choices. We have a will whereby we choose to do somethings and choose not to do somethings. What we don’t have is the spiritual ability to do the things of God. That’s why it is imperative that we are born again of the Spirit. Only the power of God in us can set us free from the bondage to sin. You can choose God if you want to. The problem is before conversion our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and is at enmity with God. God has to change our heart in conversion so that we can choose the things of God. We choose to do what we want to do, and only God can change our desires.

So here were these Galatians who had known the joy of their salvation, of being set free from the captivity to sin, of having the freedom of the Spirit working in them. But then these Judaisers had came with their message that said in order to be right with God you had to live like a Jew, you had to go back under the ceremonial laws like circumcision and dietary restrictions and observing certain days and months and years. And they had resignedly said, “ok, we’ll obey the law.” But Paul is asking them, “are you crazy? Why would you want to become a child of slavery again when you have been made a child of promise?”

And then he quotes from scripture again, saying in vs 27 For it is written, “REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.” What he basically is saying through this quote is that we can rejoice in the freedom of being children of the promise because of the supernatural divine intervention in our regeneration. Those born of the Spirit are the children of promise, who are free from slavery to the law. But the ones born of the woman of bondage are more numerous. Most people in our culture choose to live under bondage to sin, than to be set free from it. Just like the Israelites that said that they were happier when they lived in Egypt, and wanted to return there. They preferred bondage to freedom.

You know, this is true not only spiritually but politically. I hesitate to get political from the pulpit, but you have to recognize that our society in America seems to prefer bondage to freedom. The laws that are being passed by the lawmakers that we have elected are designed to take away our freedoms and enslave us to a government that tells us what we can and cannot do, and is attempting to control even the way we think. It’s pretty amazing. And yet millions of people are going along with it, and even advocating for slavery over freedom.

Paul says in vs28 “And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [who was born] according to the Spirit, so it is now also.”

Paul calls Galatian Gentiles and all believers “brothers,” saying they are “like Isaac,” and, as such, are “children of promise.” We that believe by faith are all spiritual children of Abraham and Sarah. We have become “children of promise,” descendants of Abraham “like Isaac,” not through natural birth, but spiritual rebirth; not by keeping the law, but by promise; not by works, but by faith. “If you are Christ’s,” Paul wrote back in chapter 3, “then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

That’s a great promise, but there is a catch. As wonderful as it is to be “like Isaac,” a “child of promise,” there is a downside. If we are “like Isaac,” then we can expect to be treated like Isaac by the unbelieving. Vs29 “But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [who was born] according to the Spirit, so it is now also.“

The apostle Paul doesn’t take the believers’ identification with Isaac where we might have expected him to go. We might have expected him to speak of the blessings of the covenant, or elaborate upon the gifts and privileges of salvation. Instead, he says being “like Isaac” means persecution. The one born “according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.” The apostle is referring to the “mocking” of Isaac by Ishmael recorded in Genesis 21:9. Ishmael was “born of the flesh,” that is, through human devising, whereas Isaac was “born according to the Spirit.” This mocking by Ishmael of Isaac corresponds to the persecution of believers by those who profess to know God but are ensnared in legalism. Remember, Ishmael was circumcised, a member (by analogy) of the visible church. “So also it is now,” Paul says. This explains why in the early years of the church Judaism persecuted Christianity and why so often the persecution of the church arises from within the church. Christians are often persecuted by their half-brothers — the unbelieving but religious people in the nominal church.

Consequently, being “like Isaac” means separation. The truth of the gospel must not have fellowship with the false gospel of the legalists. What should we do about this conflict between law and grace? The apostle Paul cites the precedent of Genesis 21:10 in which Hagar and Ishmael are “cast out” and not given an inheritance with Isaac. His meaning is clear: both legalism and the legalists are to be excluded from the fellowship of the church. 

Vs30 But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.” So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.

The law keeps you in bondage. We are not of bondage, but children of the free woman. And our inheritance as children of the promise is in the heavenly Jerusalem. Our citizenship is there. Our eternal home is there. Paul draws a contrast between Christianity and legalism, between inheriting all and inheriting nothing. While the “Isaacs” of this world may be persecuted, they are promised a glorious inheritance that the “Ishmaels” of this world will never attain by their works. We are made heirs of God through the principle of grace, not by works, because we are the children of God by faith and not by keeping the law.

I want to take a diversion of sorts this morning from our normal verse by verse exposition of Galatians.  But I do so having been provoked by Paul in chapter 3 of Galatians.  If you will remember, in his argument of faith vs works, Paul introduces the example of Abraham in chapter 3 vs 6.  And throughout the rest of that chapter, Paul makes the point that it is those who are of the faith of Abraham who are the sons of Abraham. 

Now he is making this point because the Judaisers had come into the churches of Galatia and started teaching that you had to keep the law in order to be saved. Particularly, they were concerned with Jewish ceremonial laws, and even more to the point, the law of circumcision. According to the Jews, circumcision was the physical sign that you were a child of Abraham, a child of promise.  And so the Judaisers were teaching that irregardless of what you had done in regards to Christ, you must still be circumcised according to the law in order to be saved, in order to be of the people of God.

So Paul, on the one hand acknowledging that Abraham was the father of the faithful, rebuts the Jews reliance upon the law for merit, and instead goes to what preceded circumcision in Abraham’s life, which had found favor with God. And so he goes to the statement from Genesis 15:6 where the Bible says, “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  That’s the quote from Genesis that Paul records in Galatians 3:6.

And then he gives another important statement about faith in vs 11 “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”  That is a very pregnant saying, for it emphasizes many facets of salvation.  First it indicates that the dead will be made alive by faith.  And secondly it means that we are sanctified by faith.  We live day by day, hour by hour by faith.  Faith is not a one and done proposition, by which we say “I believe in Jesus Christ” but it’s only a very superficial type of intellectual assent to a doctrinal truth.  But we haven’t had to put real trust in Jesus Christ in regards to life and how we live. To trust Christ in life or death situation is really the test of faith. And the scriptures say the righteous man shall live by faith.

Paul goes on to speak in chapter 3 of Abraham’s faith as the critical gate by which Abraham received the blessings of God and given the covenant of God.  He then extrapolates from that, that we who believe in Christ by faith, with the same faith as Abraham, becomes sons of God, vs 26, and are made descendants of Abraham, and thus heirs according to promise. Vs 29.

Now that illustration of Abraham’s faith is instructive if you are well versed in the Genesis account as most Jews would have been, but it seemed to me that it behooves most 21st century Christians to take a refresher course on the life of Abraham that we might understand the kind of faith that Abraham had, if we are to have all the promises and blessings of God hinged upon our faith, which is to be the same kind of faith of Abraham.  

So I wanted to take the time this morning to go back to Abraham’s life and see what we can learn by his example what constitutes faith.  The first example I want to look at is found in Genesis 12.  God appeared to Abraham and said “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;  And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”  So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Now this is the first recorded example of Abraham’s faith.  The scripture doesn’t specifically say there that it was  on account of this faith in this example God credited him with righteousness.  But it is evident from Hebrews 11 that this was the first evidence of his faith. Heb 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”  And Abraham’s faith in this case is made evident by his obedience.  God told him to go, He made certain promises to Abraham, and Abraham obeyed and did what God said for him to do.   

So faith is being obedient to what God says.  Faith is more than just an intellectual assent, it’s trusting in what God said enough to be obedient to it. In Abraham’s case it meant leaving his home, taking his family and all his belongings and heading out to a place where God told him to go. Faith is being willing to change course, to follow the Lord.

Let me briefly explain the theological basis for faith. The Protestant Reformers recognized that biblical faith has three essential aspects: Latin; notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Notitia refers to the content of faith, the things necessary that we are to  believe. Assensus is the conviction that the content of our faith is true. Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance.Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is effectual only if one personally trusts in Christ alone for their life.  Now in Abraham’s case, his obedience was evidence that he trusted in God.

The second prime example of faith in Abraham’s life is found in Genesis 15. “After these things ( after settling in Canaan and the war of the kings) the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”  Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”  Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” 

So Abraham believed in the word of the Lord and He reckoned it, or credited it to him as righteousness. Faith is believing in the promises of God.  That which has not yet come to pass. That which cannot be ascertained by human methods of reason.  Yet he believed.  Notice something about the revelation from the Lord.  The Lord appears in a dream or vision or by some other means again and again to Abraham. And each time the Lord speaks to him, he gives him more revelation.  It’s what is called progressive revelation.  We believe what the Lord reveals to us, we obey His word, and then the Lord leads us further.  He gives us more revelation as we are obedient to the revelation given. 

We often want to see the final outcome before we make a commitment.  Or we don’t want to make a commitment without a guaranteed outcome. That’s not really faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That’s not a riddle, that’s a definition of faith. Faith that is seen is not faith.  That’s the trouble with the teaching of the charismatics who love to talk about faith.  But they always want their faith to be given evidence.  And yet evidence is rarely given, otherwise it is no longer faith. And as the scripture says, the righteous shall live by faith.  Not the righteous shall live by sight.

So Abraham believed that God would give him a child according to the word of the Lord.  And yet ten years went by and still no child came.  So Abraham did what most of us would have done after even one year of waiting – he tried to help God out.  He took matters into his own hand. And he and Sarah took her handmaid Hagar, and Abraham had a son by her that they named Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the son of the promise.  It was the son of Abraham’s folly.

Finally after waiting for 25 years, and after being reminded again and again of God’s promise, Sarah conceived.  Paul spoke of it in Rom 4:19-22 saying,  “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;  yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.  Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I think Paul makes it clear there that it wasn’t just a one time faith that Abraham had but a continued faith, an unwavering faith over 25 years of being told the promises of God that God rewarded.  Finally though with the birth of his son, Abraham could believe all that the Lord had promised him because he had seen God do a miraculous thing by giving him a son in his old age.  Nothing was too difficult for God. The birth of Isaac was undoubtedly on a mountain top experience in the faith of Abraham.

A lot of people today expect that sort of exuberance and joy of seeing God fulfill His promises to be the predominant experience of faith.  But they fail to realize that Abraham waited 25 years for that promise to be realized.  But as a people who have been trained by the culture to expect instant gratification we have a desire to see God do the miraculous.  And if we are truthful, our faith is dependent upon God doing the miraculous in order to keep our faith going.  But if the miraculous doesn’t come, or at least come in our time frame, then what happens to our faith? What kind of faith do we really have?

So sometimes God tests our faith.  Not to make us fail, but to prove our faith, to make evident our faith, and to grow our faith. Jesus rebuked the disciples once for being of little faith. Our faith must grow if it is to be living faith. And part of the way our faith grows is by testing. 

Turn to the final primary example of Abraham’s faith, which is found in Genesis 22. And I believe this example is the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith and one to which we would do well to contemplate.  

Gen 22:1-8 “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.  Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.  Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Now a couple of things that we should notice to start with.  First note that God tested Abraham. Tested is not the same as tempted.  James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But God does test people for the purpose of proving their faith, of building up their faith, and of giving evidence of their faith. When we are tested and come through it, our faith is stronger, it’s more sure and certain.

Secondly, God made it clear that He considered Isaac as Abraham’s only son. If Abraham had a choice, he would perhaps have offered up Ishmael.  But God did not consider Ishmael to be the son of promise, as God had made to Sarah and Abraham. And we don’t know exactly how old Isaac was when Abraham was given this command. But if you took an average from what most commentators and Bible scholars have suggested, then it’s likely he was a young man of about 22 or so.  So he is no child.

Another important illustration of Abraham’s faith in this example is his willingness to obey. It’s understood from the context that Abraham received the word of God at night, perhaps in a vision, and he arose early in the morning and started on the journey.  He didn’t procrastinate. He didn’t make excuses why.  He didn’t pray about it.  That’s a good excuse a lot of Christians use to keep from obeying the Lord. They sanctimoniously say, “I’ll pray about it.”  If God said it in His word, you don’t need to be acting like Balam the wicked prophet and try to talk God out of it. Abraham didn’t delay, he got up early and took two servants and his son Isaac and started a three day journey to Mt. Moriah.

Then Abraham makes two statements which give evidence of his faith.  The first is when they arrive after 3 days near Mt. Moriah, Abraham says to the servants, “”Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  Some theologians have suggested that Abraham said this with his fingers crossed. I don’t think so.  I think this was an assurance of faith on Abraham’s part.  He could not have known how God would do it, but he knew that if God was going to keep His promises, then Isaac was going to have to live long enough to get married and have children.  I think he really thought of it that way and so he said that one way or another, he and his son would come back to them.

There is so much in this story of Abraham’s faith in sacrificing Isaac, that I wish I could speak to this morning.  But I really wanted just to focus on the faith of Abraham.  But I can’t help but point out something that I have stated before.  This is the first time the word “worship” is found in the Bible.  And if you follow the rule of hermeneutics, this is an example of the rule of first mention; which indicates the meaning of a word as it is used for the first time in scripture.  And you will notice that worship is equated with a sacrifice.  I think contemporary Christianity has dumbed down worship to the point of being nothing but a surge of emotion. No, according to Abraham, worship is to offer to the Lord God a sacrifice.

Paul thinks the same, saying in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”  Think about that.  I don’t have the time right now to spend on it that it deserves.

But we know that Abraham had faith to believe that God would somehow restore Isaac even though He had told Abraham to sacrifice him.  And we know that because of Heb 11:17-19  which says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son;]  [it was he] to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.”  He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” So Abraham believed that if necessary, God was able to raise Isaac from the dead.  And he believed it because of the promise of God.

That word type found there in Hebrews indicates that this story of Abraham and Isaac is a prefigurement of God sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us.  And we see that illustrated even in details such as Isaac carrying the wood for the sacrifice, just as Jesus bore His own cross.  But then Isaac asks the question, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

And Abraham’s response is a tremendous statement of faith and at the same time a Messianic prophecy.  He said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

You know, in all the years I have read about this subject, and heard messages on this subject, I don’t remember hearing too much about the faith of Isaac.  But I think that there is a silent message of Isaacs faith and submission and obedience to his father and ultimately to God that what He has promised is true.  Abraham’s probably around 120 years old by now.  Isaac is around 22 years old.  I think that would not be much of a contest under most circumstances, if the young man knew his dadW was going to sacrifice him on an altar.  But Isaac obviously submitted to his father and was obedient, and by extension showed that he had faith in God as well.  

Faith in God? What does that mean? Faith that God was good.  That God’s word was true and could be trusted. That if God promised it, God would accomplish it. Faith that they could trust their very lives to God.  Faith that if Isaac died, God would raise him up again.  Faith that God would provide.

And we know that God did provide a substitute for the sacrifice.  As Abraham raised his knife to slay his son, God said “Stop!”  “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Isn’t it interesting that God considers Abraham’s faith to be obedient as fearing God. Revering God above all else is to fear God. Obeying God is to fear God.

Gen 22:13 “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind [him] a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”

And Abraham called that place, Jehovah-Jireh, which means, the Lord will provide.  And God said because you have done this thing, you didn’t withhold your only son, not only will I bless you exceedingly, but  “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

And Paul tells us in chapter 3 vs 16, that the seed, singular, referred to Christ, though whom the nations who believe in Him by faith will be blessed.  And God kept his promise.  Two thousand years after Abraham God took his only begotten Son, the Son of God and descendant of Abraham, the Son whom He loved, and offered Him up on that same Mt. Moriah as a sacrifice, a substitute for sinners.  Only this time, no one yelled “Stop”.   God carried out HIs wrath against sin by crucifying His Son, so that we that believe in Him might be given life and receive the blessing of God.  That blessing is life, even eternal life through Jesus Christ.  

I hope that you have trusted in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the atonement for your sins, that you may be credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and be given the blessing of God, which is life forever with Him.  

One of the dangers, I suppose, of putting my address on public announcements or advertising, is that people know where you live. I had a visitor a few nights ago who I hope was not prowling about my house after dark. He did however leave a letter on my mailbox addressed to me. So it was evident that he knows me, but he didn’t sign it, which is kind of concerning that he wants to be anonymous.

The bottom line of the letter he left was to inform me that generations of Bible teachers and scholars have gotten wrong the date of the Sabbath. I didn’t want to waste my time reading all the information there, but the gist of it was that if you recalculate the Sabbath based on their calendar, then you come up with another day for the Sabbath that we are to worship on, which is the correct day. And their opinion was that worshipping on the proper Sabbath was the missing key to spiritual knowledge and power.

But as I said, I didn’t want to waste time reading about moon cycles and all that sort of thing because it was evident that they got the basic principle of the gospel wrong. Their idea was that if you keep the law of the Sabbath, then you unlock the blessing of God. And so once I realized that was the gist of the letter, I discarded it. The apostle Paul has been making arguing this principle in his letter to the Galatians, that there is not salvation by faith plus keeping the law. We are not under the obligation to keep the law of the Sabbath. There is no benefit to keep the law of the Sabbath, or as Paul was arguing here in Galatians, to keep the law of circumcision, or any of the other ceremonial laws. Paul has argued conclusively that the law is not a means of righteousness, nor of salvation. So no matter what sort of pseudo science, or Biblical research, or whatever else they might use to try to entice you with, if it speaks of the necessity for keeping some point of the law, then they are of a false doctrine, and we need to disregard it and not let it upset our faith.

Now in regards to arguing that doctrine of salvation by faith alone, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul is giving a scholarly treatise on the purpose of the law, versus the promise of faith. It’s almost like when the Supreme Court makes a decision on a law, and then one of the leading judges writes an opinion. Paul is using a very technical, almost legal argument to establish the purpose of the law as a means of refuting the false doctrine that had pervaded the church. These false teachers were legalists, and so Paul uses a legal argument to defeat them.

But I will say that his message is difficult to comprehend sometimes. I have heard that supposedly there are 300 or so interpretations of this passage that have been broached over the years. So even Bible scholars are not always in agreement as to what Paul is saying exactly in some cases. However, I think we can focus on what is clear and plain, and perhaps what is unclear will be explained by the context.

So we’re picking up his argument in the middle of the chapter, vs 15, and I don’t want to have to regurgitate everything that has been said up to this point. But it is important to look back to vs 8 and following and remember that Paul has used Abraham as an illustration of faith in contrast to the false teachers reliance upon Moses and the law. Paul isn’t saying that Moses or the law was bad, but he points them back to Abraham to show that salvation by faith preceded the giving of the law, just as Abraham’s salvation was by faith before he was circumcised.

He says in vs 8, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” And he concludes that argument in vs 14 saying, “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Now that phrase “In Christ” is a very important phrase that Paul is going to use again in this next section. Being in Christ is the means by which we are made the children of God, and the children of Abraham, and the inheritors of the promises or the blessing.

So let’s continue now in vs 15, Paul says, “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is [only] a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.” He says in other words, I am speaking in human terms, but in men’s covenants, once a covenant has been ratified, no one can change it or add to it. A covenant is a legal agreement between two parties. And ratified means it has been agreed to, or signed by both parties. Once a legal covenant has been ratified, you can’t just arbitrarily add to it or take from it. That’s pretty much common to law everywhere.

Vs16 “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as [referring] to many, but [rather] to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.”

So the first thing Paul does here is apply the principle of a human covenant to the covenant God made with Abraham. And in vs 15, he is identifying who is involved in the covenant. And what he says it is was made by God to Abraham and to his seed. And Paul gives us some insight there that may not have been clear in the Genesis account, and says that it wasn’t given to Abraham’s seeds, plural, but seed, singular. He then tells us that signifies that the seed was Christ, the Messiah, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And according to vs 4, what God promised Abraham constitutes the gospel.

Then what he adds in vs 17, is that the Mosaic law, which came 430 years after Abraham was given the covenant, does not invalidate the covenant made to Abraham and his seed. It had been ratified by God, and thus the law cannot nullify the covenant promise made to Abraham that through Him all the nations would be blessed.

Vs 18, For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” So in other words, the inheritance promised to Abraham was not based on keeping the law. The law didn’t come for 430 years later. God gave His promise based on Abraham’s faith, not on the condition that Abraham kept the law. So the illustration shows that salvation is based on faith, not on law. The law cannot affect salvation by faith.

The question then on the minds of the legalists would be, then what was the purpose of the law? We know that God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai. What purpose was there in giving the law, if it wasn’t to provide a path to salvation?

Paul answers that question in vs19 “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is [only] one.”

I think what Paul is saying in “the law was added because of transgressions,” is that because of sin, God gave the law to elucidate sin more clearly. Sin existed before the law, of course. But sin became clearer, more condemning if you will, after the law was given. The law clarified sin, it made it more apparent, it made it more condemning. The law showed the extent of sin and how sinful man really was. I think the law also revealed God’s standard for righteousness more clearly. But basically Paul says the law made sin more sinful.

Paul says the law was given until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. The law was given until Jesus came, who then fulfilled the law, and He became the curse of the law for us, that we might be sent free from the condemnation of the law.

Now vs 20 talks about angels and mediators and is really one of the most confusing and obscure texts in the NT. What it might be referring to, is that the Mosaic law was given through a mediator, which is typical in a two party covenant. But in a unilateral covenant, such as God made with Abraham, there is no mediator. But that still doesn’t answer all the questions about this verse. However we will press on to plainer things and leave the not so plain things for God to reveal as He sees fit. The plain thing to remember is that the law was given to make sin more sinful, more apparent, more clear. It was to make man more aware of his sin.

Paul continues with a question of his own regarding the law in vs 21 “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Paul says that the law is not something evil, in opposition to God’s promise. The problem with the law is found in its inability to give life. In reality, the law brings death because it shows that man is sinful, and the wages of sin is death. If the law could have given life, then it could have produced righteousness. But the Law of Moses brings no life; it simply states the standard of God, tells us to keep it, and tells us the consequences if we break the command.

Paul uses in vs 21 the idea of imprisonment as an illustration of the law. Sin, brought about by failure to keep the law, holds us captive. The law then put us in prison, because it pointed out our sinful condition. So we sit imprisoned by sin, and the law can not help us, because the law put us in the prison. Under the law, there is none righteous, no not one. We are all sinners, condemned to death and held captive.

Only faith can break us out of our imprisonment to sin. The Law of Moses can show us clearly our problem and God’s standard, but it cannot give us the freedom that only Christ can give. That freedom is given to those who believe.

Vs.23 “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

What I think Paul means there is before faith in Christ came. Faith existed since the beginning. But faith in Christ was not revealed util Jesus came. Until that time that Christ came, we were kept captive under the law. Paul says one of the most insightful comments about the purpose of the law in vs 24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

That’s the purpose of the law, to teach us that we need a Savior. It’s to show us our sinfulness, to reveal our hopelessness, so that we might come to Christ who is our satisfaction of the requirement of the law. And by believing in Him, we are justified by faith. We believe in who He is, in what He has done on the cross, and by believing, our sin is transferred to Christ, and His righteousness is transferred to me.

Vs25 “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” The illustration Paul is using there of a tutor is someone who was given responsibility for the proper upbringing of a young person. He was a school teacher, but even more than that, he was responsible for training and development. A lot of times in that culture he would have been a slave, but a very educated slave. However, in Paul’s simile, when the boy becomes a man, the need for a tutor is done away with. When the perfect comes, the partial is done away with. When salvation through faith in Christ is realized, then there is no longer any need for the tutor.

When Paul says you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, he is establishing two important distinctives of our faith. One is our standing before God. To be considered the sons of God means that we have a special relationship with God as a loving Father. Our standing with God is a place of intimacy, a place of affection, a place of special care and attention.

And the second thing Paul establishes is the method of becoming sons of God. It is by faith. To become a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus means much more than believing that He existed, but in who He is, what He accomplished for us on the cross, and trusting in Him for life now and for eternity.

Then in closing, Paul tells us what it means to be considered “in Christ.” He says in vs27 “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Notice that Paul doesn’t say we were baptized into water, but baptized into Christ. Just as in water baptism a person is immersed in water, so when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, we are immersed in Jesus. We put on Jesus. We are in Jesus, just as when you put on clothes you are in your clothes. That’s the analogy that he is making, as evidenced by the phrase, “have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

It’s like the song we sing, the Solid Rock, where it says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.” So when we were saved by faith, we received the righteousness of Christ, so that we are in effect baptized into Christ, clothed with Christ. That’s what it means to be in Christ. When God looks at us, He sees us dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Then Paul addresses the blessings of being in Christ. He gives the first benefit in vs 28” There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We all belong, irregardless of race, of sex, of social status or heritage. All of us who have confessed faith in Jesus Christ are one in Christ. We are all equal. No distinctions. No one is less a possessor of the promise because they are not a Jew by birth.

Vs29 “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” Paul comes full circle, back to Abraham, the father of the faith. Those who have come to Christ by faith, belong to Christ, and we all can claim Abraham as our father. And as spiritual descendants of Abraham, we are heirs according to the promise.

Paul describes this in Romans chapter 4:13, 16-17 saying, “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. … 16 For this reason [it is] by faith, in order that [it may be] in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, [even] God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

The crux of the argument then is whether or not you are in Christ. This is the issue. The issue is not “Are you keeping the law?” The issue is not “Are you a Jew or a Gentile?” The only issue is if you are in Christ. Do you belong to Him? Have you accepted Him by faith as your Savior? Are you clothed in His righteousness? If so then you receive the promise of blessing that God gave to Abraham and to His seed. You receive eternal life. You receive forgiveness of your sins. And you become a child of God, an heir of God. You receive an eternal inheritance. Trust Jesus today that you might be found “In Christ.”

Paul has written this letter to the Galatians to counter false teaching which has entered the churches in Galatia.  He had founded these churches, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and others during his first missionary trip.  But in no time at all, Jews from Jerusalem had come to the churches and spread a malicious doctrine that you had to conform to Jewish law, particularly that of circumcision and other ceremonial laws, in order to be truly saved.

So Paul spent the first two chapters of his letter reestablishing his apostleship and authority in giving them the gospel.  Now he adds to that the argument against this false teaching by means of theology.

There are three arguments that we are going to look at in the message this morning, and the first is an argument from Christian experience. Paul asks the Galatians to look back over their past and to analyze some of the things that happened to them as the apostle preached the gospel to them.

The first is a question regarding the reception of the Holy Spirit. He says in vs1 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed [as] crucified?” The KJV, which I prefer in this case, adds the phrase; ”Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?  They had deviated from the truth of the gospel because they had been bewitched.

The word foolish there does not mean they were mentally deficient.  Instead, Paul used the ancient Greek word anoetos, which had the idea of someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception. Paul uses a lot of word play in this passage about eyes, or seeing.  So he is accusing them of being spiritually blind.

He also accuses the Galatians of being bewitched. This Greek word that is used here is a rather interesting word. It was used of individuals who had magical powers. In fact, it was often the equivalent of what we mean when we speak of someone casting an evil eye upon someone else. The Greeks had a great fear of the “evil eye.” I am sometimes accused of giving other surfers who want to take my wave the stink eye.  That’s not a very loving thing to do to your neighbor, and I’m sure I am not guilty of it as frequently as I am accused of.  However, I think the stink eye and the evil eye are not the same thing.

The evil eye was thought to work in the way a serpent could hypnotize its prey with its eyes. Once the victim looked into the evil eye, a spell could be cast. Therefore, the way to overcome the evil eye was simply not to look at it. In using this phrasing and the word picture of bewitched, Paul was urging the Galatians to keep their eyes focused steadfastly upon Jesus.

The trouble with the Galatians, to put is simply, was “eye trouble.” They had been bewitched by the Judaisers who had a laid and evil eye upon them so to speak.  They had turned from the sole-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, and were attracted to the doctrine that one must not only believe in the Lord Jesus but also be circumcised in order to be saved.

Now what makes it even more ridiculous is that the apostle says that he had publicly portrayed the Lord among them. The idea behind publicly portrayed is something like “billboarded,” to publicly display as in setting on a billboard. Paul wondered how the Galatians could have missed the message because he certainly made it clear enough to them. He had billboarded the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Paul plays on the idea of eyes and “evil eyes.” He says, “Who has laid an evil eye on you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been publicly portrayed as crucified.” The emphasis is on a crucified Jesus. He proclaimed him as crucified in the sense that his sufferings were looked at as atoning sufferings.  Christ’s crucifixion was proclaimed as the sole-sufficiency for human salvation.  If salvation came through the law, then it would not have been necessary for Christ to be crucified.

Now he asks another question of the Galatians in vs 2 “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” Of course, the answer to that was very simple, because the Galatians were Gentiles and did not have the Law of Moses, and chances are that they didn’t know a great deal about the Law of Moses. And so, when they received the Holy Spirit it could only have been by the hearing of faith, not by doing the works of the Law. 

It’s also important to understand that when he says received the Holy Spirit he is talking about salvation.  Salvation is being born of the Spirit.  You cannot be saved without the Holy Spirit entering in a person.  Rom 8:9 says “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  To be born again is to be born of the Spirit.  You received the Spirit when you are justified by faith.  So the answer to that question is they had received the Spirit by faith, not by keeping the law.

Then he asks them another question. He says in the third verse, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In other words,  you received the Spirit by believing in the Lord Jesus, and now are you to take the second step in salvation by being circumcised?  Is salvation really a two step procedure, faith and then the observance of the rite of circumcision? And the idea of perfection there means simply completion. As if there was something not yet completed that was necessary.

When a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is born into the family of God, he does not need to take other steps in order to complete his salvation. He does not need to believe in Christ and then be baptized, or be circumcised, or keep the Sabbath, or take communion, or any such thing.  The Spirit is the means by which we are born again, saved, and there is nothing that you can add in the flesh that will complete salvation.  You were born complete, in the sense that you have all that is required for new birth.  You were justified by receiving Christ’s righteousness applied to your account.  You have received a new nature.  You have received the Spirit of Christ. And all of that is by grace, the gift of God. There is nothing else that must be added to be a complete, new creation.

Now, that third question is one that concerns the manifestation of the Spirit. Vs4-5  “Did you suffer ( a better translation might be experience) so many things in vain–if indeed it was in vain?  So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

You remember if you turn over to Acts chapter 14 and read that chapter, that when the apostle was in Iconium that God testified to the work, to the preaching of the word, by “signs and wonders.” Those are the specific words of Luke when he wrote the 14th chapter of the Book of Acts. So when the apostles came there, they manifested the signs of an apostle, the miraculous gifts. Paul says in 2 Cor. 12:12  “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Signs and wonders were the evidence that they were apostles.  And Paul says they came by the Spirit as they were preaching Jesus Christ.

 Paul asks, “So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Again, the Law was unknown to these Gentiles in Iconium and Lystra, and Derbe, The answer was obvious. These mighty works were done through the hearing of faith, not through the works of the Law. So the apostle, then asking the Galatians to look back over their past experience, has in effect said to them, “There is no indication that the spiritual life into which you have been brought came from works of the Law at all. It has come on the basis of grace through faith.”

Now the Galatians had been taught to recognize the fact that in the final analysis, an argument on spiritual things must be grounded in the word of God, because that’s the final proof of all of the truth. So now he turns to the Scriptures. And you probably have noticed in reading through these verses that the apostle cites about six passages from the Old Testament in this next section. In most Bible versions the Old Testament references are in capital letters or in italics so that you can recognize them.  In verse 6, there is a quotation from the Old Testament, “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Let us make sure that we don’t rush past the word faith. Faith is believing.  Believing is faith.  But notice Abraham is not justified because he believed in God.  As in he believed that God existed.  The Bible says that the devils believe and tremble, but they are not saved.  Simply believing in God does not save you.  Notice Abraham believed God. He believed  God’s word.  He believed that what God said was true. He believed that what God said He would do, He did.  That’s what it means to believe on Christ.  It’s not just to believe that Jesus walked the earth, otherwise thousands of Jews who saw Him during His earthly ministry were saved.  But those who were saved believed Him. They believed  who He claimed to be. What He did.  They believed His word. So we need to make sure we know what constitutes faith in God.

Now among the Galatian Christians, the push towards a works based relationship with God came from certain other professing Christians who were born as Jews and who claimed Abraham as their spiritual ancestor. Therefore, Paul used Abraham as an example of being justified before God by faith and not by faith plus works. So he’s arguing from the word of God now for his truth.

It’s interesting to notice the man Paul turns to for illustration more than anyone else, other than Christ. He turns to Abraham. Abraham is the perfect illustration of a man whose life rests upon faith. God appeared to him as an act of sovereign grace, turned him to Himself, brought him to faith in Him, and his whole life is an expression of a life of faith. 

The Judaisers had a favorite OT character as well; they favored Moses. And Moses was important. You certainly cannot understand the Old Testament if you don’t understand the contribution that Moses made. But in the final analysis, Moses was a man who introduced a system, which was a temporary system. It was a system that foreshadowed what was to come.  But Moses’ system was not the final solution.  Abraham, of course, preceded Moses, and in a sense Moses emanated from Abraham.

Now, the reason why Abraham is such a beautiful illustration is, because when a person believed in the days of the Old Testament, he became a true member of the covenant. Ideally all of the children of Israel belonged to the covenant, and in a symbol of that, they gave testimony to it by circumcision the males on the eighth day. That was a sign and a seal of the righteousness, which came by faith. But as so often happens, the sign and the seal became the primary things. And men were identified as the possessors of righteousness if they had been circumcised. But the essential inward necessity of faith was forgotten.

Even in the Christian church, the fact that a person is a member of a Christian church does not mean that he is a Christian, except in a superficial sense only. A true Christian is a person who has believed in our Lord Jesus Christ and who has a personal faith in the Redeemer, the Messiah.  And in the Old Testament, no man was a true Jew, a true Israelite, who did not also have faith in the Messiah who was to come. “Not all who are of Israel are Israel,” the apostle states. So it is important for us to remember that in the Christian church, one must have a faith in Christ before he is a true Christian, and in the Old Testament dispensation one must have a true faith in the Christ (Messiah) to come before a Jewish man is really a covenant Jew in the spiritual sense. 

Now, Paul makes an argument similar to this in Romans chapter 4, and he asks the question, “Does justification come by circumcision? No,” he says, “it’s very simple; all you have to do is look at Genesis chapter 17, and Genesis chapter 15.” In Genesis chapter 15 Abraham is credited with righteousness, but in Genesis chapter 17, he is circumcised. And so, since chapter 15 precedes chapter 17, and a man, such as Abraham is pronounced righteous in Genesis chapter 15, it’s not because he was circumcised, which is not recorded until chapter 17. 

That’s what he’s talking about in vs7 when he says, “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” If you, sitting in this audience today, have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, are of faith, you are as he says, a son of Abraham.

And then in vs 8, he says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, [saying,] “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” Notice all the nations, in other words, the Gentiles were blessed in Abraham. Do you realize that you are a son or daughter of Abraham? You are, if you have believed in Jesus Christ unto salvation.  Vs9, ”So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

This would have been a shocking challenge to the thinking of these Judaisers. They deeply believed that they had a standing before God because they were genetically descended from Abraham. Jewish Rabbis taught that Abraham stood at the gates of Hell just to make sure that none of his descendants accidentally slipped by. John the Baptist dealt with this same mindset when he said, “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Matthew 3:9). Paul here debunks their reliance on their genetic relation to Abraham and showed that what really mattered was those that shared in the faith of Abraham. 

Now, finally the apostle will argue from the negative. He will argue from the curse of the Law. And he will show that if a man does put himself under Law, he puts himself under the curse, a curse that can only be cured by our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the 10th verse, in which he speaks of the condemnation of the Law. “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.”  He is appealing to Deuteronomy chapter 27, vs 26, “‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’  All the words of the Law. You cannot pick some to keep and some to disregard.  You are under the curse of all the law.

The legalist’s view is do and live.  Not that they can keep all the law, of course.  But the Christian’s view is believe and live.  John 20:31 says,  “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  And 1 John 5:13 says,  “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  It should be clear from scripture that spiritual life comes through faith.  

Verse 11 and 12 says, “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”  However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” If you’re going to try to gain heaven by keeping the law, then you need to understand that the standard for acceptance is 100% perfection.  Not that your good deeds and your bad deeds are put on a scale, and if the scale tips on the good side then you get in.  That’s not how heaven works. You must keep the entire law perfectly, which no man can do.   So if you are at this moment not perfect, what you need is a remedy for a law breaker, because that’s what you are.

Now fortunately, Paul, in the 13th verse, gives us the remedy. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us–for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE.”   The idea of redemption came from the practices of ancient warfare. After a battle the victors would take captive those who were defeated. Among the defeated, the poorer ones would usually be sold as slaves, but the wealthy and important men, the men who mattered in their own country, were held for ransom. When the people in their homeland had raised the required price, they would pay it to the victors and the captives would be set free. The process was called redemption, and the price was called the ransom.  The price for breaking the law was death, and Christ paid that price for us. He redeemed us from the curse of the law.

So when he says that he has been made a curse for us, it is evident that he means that Christ has paid the penal judgment for our sins. And when he says that Christ has borne the curse for us, he means that Christ has borne the penalty of the broken Law for us. As Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:21, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” 

Someone has said that the story of substitutionary atonement is shown in three prepositions here in this passage. Verse 10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” This is the curse, and this is I. I am under the curse. Notice the preposition under. Then in the 13th verse we read, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” Now the word “for” is a Greek preposition which really has the idea of over. So here am I under the curse, but Christ has been made a curse for us, over us, so that now he has intervened between the curse and myself, so that the curse, when it falls, falls upon him, and it does not fall upon me. Further, he has just said, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law,” a preposition that means “out from.” So that as a result of the curse falling upon him, I am out from under the curse. Theology in three prepositions, under, over, out from. Christ became the curse for us. ”For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree.” 

And the consequences of Jesus becoming cursed for us is  that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. What’s the blessing of Abraham? Well, justification first and foremost. I stand before God credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I have a righteousness that is acceptable to God, by virtue of what Christ has done. In addition, I have been given life, “For the just shall live by faith.” And that life is by and through the possession of the Holy Spirit.  And thirdly, as it says in James 2:23 “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.”

We are made the friends of God by virtue of Christ’s righteousness.  We are born into the family of God.  We receive an inheritance that will never fade away.  We gain citizenship in the kingdom of God.  We receive everlasting life.  That’s just some of the blessings of Abraham that we  also receive.  1Cor. 2:9 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

I hope that if you are here today and have not believed on Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, then you would simply receive Him today as your Lord and Savior.  There is no work that you can do to gain salvation.  Jesus did the work, He paid the price, He took your curse upon Himself that you might be set free. If you will just call upon Him today you will be saved, and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that you might have eternal life.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  Call on Him today.  [ohn 1:12  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

As I have said previously, this is Paul’s first letter, or first epistle, that he writes in his ministry.  And the subject of this letter is to write the Galatians a defense of his apostleship, and a defense of his gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith.  Now we have looked at his autobiographical details in chapter one in which Paul defended his apostleship.  He did that by explaining his conversion on the road to Damascus, and how the Lord Jesus spoke to him directly.

Then we read that immediately following his conversion, he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, but went to the desert region of Arabia where we believe he received instruction from the Lord Jesus which lasted about three years.  He came back at the end of that three year period to Damascus and was preaching the gospel that he received.  Now this is noteworthy, because the church had been started in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.  And it was in that church, and through that church, that the apostles doctrine was established, and various men were sent from that church to establish churches in the surrounding regions. 

So there was a sense in which Jerusalem was the mother church.  The twelve apostles were there. And the gospel emanated from that church to the other regions. So for Paul to reveal that he did not come from Jerusalem, he had not been a part of that group of apostles, and his doctrine did not come from that church, it was a significant point of criticism.

But what he is doing is showing that his gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was taught to him by Jesus Christ, and his apostleship was from Jesus Christ.  He says as much in chapter one vs 11 “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but [I received it] through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

But though Paul’s gospel was received directly from Christ, he also wants to show that his gospel is the same gospel as that which the apostles in Jerusalem believed.  He is being criticized and his churches are being undermined by people who were saying that his gospel was not enough.  They said it did not include certain requirements that were necessary for salvation.  Paul refers to these requirements as the law.  But what is really being referred to here is the ceremonial marks of the law, such as circumcision and observing certain days and dietary laws.  Those were the aspects of the law that the critics were trying to get the Gentile congregations to observe.  They basically were saying that they needed to become Jews in practice, and these laws were the defining marks of the Jews.

Now I want you to see that for yourself.  Because we tend to think when we hear the word “law” that it is speaking of the ten commandments.  And to some extent that is included, but the context of what Paul is talking about becomes clear as you read the epistle.  For instance, notice chapter 2 vs 3, Paul says Titus was not compelled to be circumcised.  Circumcision was the law in question. In chapter 2 vs 12, he condemned Peter because he stopped eating with the Gentiles, fearing the party of the circumcision. In vs 6-9, the issue is the circumcised versus the uncircumcised. In chapter 4:9 and 10, Paul equates observing days and months and seasons and years with weak and worthless elemental things by which one would become enslaved again. In 5 vs 2, Paul says that if you receive circumcision then Christ is of no benefit to you.  In 5 vs 3, he says that if you receive circumcision, then you are under the obligation to keep the entire law. In 5 vs 6 he says neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything but faith working through love. In chapter 6 vs 12 he says that hose who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.  He says in 6:15, neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

So we see that the laws that the Judaisers were concerned about were largely circumcision, and then to a lesser degree certain dietary restrictions, and also observing Jewish days, months and seasons and years.  So it was mostly the ceremonial aspects of the law that they were concerned about, which they were saying that the Gentiles must observe if they were to be truly saved.

So Paul wants to show that circumcision was not a part of the gospel that the apostles in Jerusalem were preaching either.  He says in chapter 2 vs 1, “Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.  It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but [I did so] in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.”

Up until this point, Paul had not been in Jerusalem except for 15 days when he had seen Peter.  But that was 14 years prior.  Peter had not taught him the gospel.  He had been taught by Christ in the deserts of Arabia for 3 years before he went to see Peter. But now there had been some things that the Judaisers had accused him of, and they were undermining the churches that he had planted.  And so he had deliberately brought along Titus, a Greek, so that he could confirm that the apostles doctrine concerning salvation was the same as his gospel.  Paul says he met with the apostles privately. In other words, he didn’t walk into a Sunday morning service and disrupt the service in order to bring up this concern.  But he wanted to consult with the leaders privately. 

And notice that Paul said he went up to Jerusalem by revelation from God.The Lord obviously knew that this was a matter that needed to be addressed and settled. That was a 300 mile trip, by the way, which was probably done on foot taking a couple of weeks or so. Paul said that he communicated to them the gospel that he was preaching to the Gentiles. You can read about that in Acts 15.  I don’t have time to read that chapter for you this morning, but you can read it later and find out what the council at Jerusalem decided concerning circumcision.  They basically sided with Barnabas and Paul and sent messengers back with them to the churches to that effect. 

Paul says in summary of that decision in vs 3 “But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But [it was] because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.  But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.”

Paul’s point is that the apostles in Jerusalem accepted Titus as a brother in Christ even though he was not circumcised in accord with the Mosaic Law. This shows that the apostles in Jerusalem  accepted the gospel of grace as Paul understood it and had been preaching.  The problem with circumcision then did not come from the apostles, but from the false brethren who were trying to bring them into bondage.

Circumcision was a mark in the flesh that was the sign of initiation into the Jewish faith and the Mosaic covenant.  Today, we don’t have people in the church saying that it’s necessary to be circumcised.  But we do have a similar sign that is viewed as a requirement by some, and that is baptism.  Baptism is an outward sign.  The Catholic Church believes that baptism removes original sin, and daily sin is removed by the mass, and other sins are removed by purgatory.  But many of the characteristics of circumcision are also characteristics of baptism.  And there are some denominations that say that baptism is necessary for salvation.  So the principle of works versus grace is really the crux of the argument here in Galatians, and it is fundamental to the accuracy of the gospel.  That truth of the gospel is what Paul said he wanted to make sure remained with the Galatians, and so he was willing to go to Jerusalem to defend it.

So Paul wants to emphasize that the church in Jerusalem did not correct his gospel, nor add to or detract from his gospel. He says in vs 6 “But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)–well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.”  Even though Paul met with the apostles a few times, they did not give him the gospel he preached. The leaders in Jerusalem added nothing to the gospel Paul preached or to the apostolic authority he possessed.  They confirmed his gospel, but they did not teach him his gospel.

I don’t think that Paul means any disrespect to the apostles in the way that he refers to them.  But I think he understands that they are men, and somewhat flawed men at that.  They were still learning themselves the distinctions of the new covenant, at least in some respects. They were still intertwined in Judaism to some extent.  And I think Paul recognizes that and consequently is not overawed by their position.  Because he also knows the Lord Jesus.  He has also been taught the doctrine of Christ.  And so as he says in 2Cor. 11:5 “For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles.”

So Paul continues in vs7; “But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter [had been] to the circumcised  (for He who effectually worked for Peter in [his] apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we [might] [go] to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”

The apostles of the Jerusalem church (James, the brother of Jesus; Cephas, also known as Peter, and John) accepted Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles. They gave him the right hand of fellowship. That means they endorsed Paul’s gospel, even though they knew that Paul did not require the Gentiles to come under the Mosaic Law in order to be saved.  But instead, they accepted that Peter’s primary ministry was to the circumcised, and Paul’s primary ministry was to the uncircumcised.  Of course, there was overlap in both camps, Peter preaching to Gentiles and Paul preaching to Jews.  But Peter was primarily ministering in Israel, and Paul in Galatia and Asia.

Paul adds in vs 10 “[They] only [asked] us to remember the poor–the very thing I also was eager to do.” I think that is the concession that was made to the church in Jerusalem.  It was not that the church in Jerusalem would give Paul anything, but that Paul and the Gentiles might give the church in Jerusalem something.  And that was to remember the poor who were there, who were being persecuted by both the Romans and the Jews.  Many of whom were displaced from their occupations, from their homes, and suffering from what was said in Acts 11 was a famine in that area.  And Paul said he was eager to do that.  We read elsewhere of Paul collecting a contribution for the saints in Jerusalem on a number of occasions and either sending it to them or taking it there himself. I think Paul demonstrated that he understood the debt of gratitude he had for the church in Jerusalem and the kinship he had with them. And so he wanted to participate in that relief for them.

But Paul is not done in describing his relationship with the apostles and the doctrine of the Judaisers which had infiltrated the church.  He says the false gospel of the Judaisers even went so far as to affect Peter. Peter, of course, was the head of the church of the circumcised.  Paul says in vs 11 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he [began] to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.”

I think Paul makes it clear that when Peter eventually came to Antioch he was happy to eat with the Gentiles.  Peter knew theologically that there was nothing unclean which God had made.  You will remember the vision that he had where a great sheet came down from heaven with all kinds of animals in it, and God told him to kill and eat.  And Peter didn’t want to do that because he had never eaten anything unclean.  But God said what I have cleansed let no consider unholy. And as a result of that dream, not only did God pronounce all foods clean, but He also showed Peter that he should preach the gospel to Cornelius, a Roman centurion. 

So Peter had no problem eating bacon and eggs with the Gentiles. But then some men who came from Jerusalem, Paul says from James – probably not meaning that James sent them, but that James was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem at that time- and when they came, Peter withdrew from the Gentiles, fearing the party of the circumcision.  That would be the Judaisers.  Peter was afraid of what they would say if he was seen eating with the Gentiles.

Vs13 “The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how [is it that] you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

In the previous trip Paul referenced that he made to Jerusalem, he spoke to the apostles privately.  But here Paul rebukes Peter in the presence of all.  Why the difference?  Well, it was probably because Peter had acted in a public fashion, and it had influenced others in the church, as well as Barnabas.  And so to correct that false doctrine, it needed to be a public rebuke so that everyone affected could see that it was in error and needed to be corrected.

So Paul shows here that rather than Jerusalem rebuking Paul’s gospel and changing it, Paul actually rebuked Jerusalem’s gospel and compels them to change their hypocrisy.  Peter and Barnabas both knew better.  Peter had received a direct vision from God concerning this very thing.  And yet both of them were willing to disregard the truth for the sake of not offending the Jews who were wrong in their doctrine. 

Paul said in 1 Cor. 8, that it may be proper to restrict your freedom for the sake of a weaker brother so that you do not put a stumbling block in front of him.  But this was not that kind of situation.  This was actually putting a stumbling block in front of a weaker brother by implying that it was necessary to be in bondage to the Jewish law. And so Paul had every right to rebuke them for it.

Paul then takes this illustration and uses it to differentiate justification by faith versus justification by the law.  He says in vs 15, “We [are] Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;  nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Paul’s argument is that he and Peter and the other apostles were Jews by nature.  Yet being a Jew and observing the law  did not save them.  It was necessary for them to believe in Christ Jesus so that they might be justified by faith in Christ.  They could never be justified by the works of the law. Justification has always been through faith, not by works. Abraham, the father of the Jews,  was justified by faith. Rom 4:3 says, “For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Justified means declared righteous. We are not determined to be righteous after God has examined us.  No one can be righteous enough to be accepted by God.  But God declares us to be righteous on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. 2 Cor. 5:21, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” We are credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith in Him.

To have faith is to believe in Christ, in who He is, that He is God incarnate, that He is Lord, that He is our Savior, having died on the cross for our sins, and rose again on the third day and ascended to heaven. Rom 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Since salvation is by faith, it is plain to see how wrong it was for Peter to separate from these Gentile Christians because they had not put themselves under the Law of Moses. Since by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified, then what difference does it make in salvation if a Gentile is circumcised according to the Law of Moses? What difference does it make if a Gentile keeps the dietary laws? All that counts in justification is their faith in Christ, because that is the only way we are made right before God.

Paul continues his argument for justification by faith in vs17-19 “But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have [once] destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.”

I think what Paul is saying here is that Gentiles were considered sinners because they were not circumcised and they ate unclean foods and did not keep the festival days and Sabbaths. So he is asking does justification through faith in Christ make Him a minister of sin? The answer is a resounding No! For we have died to the law. We do not reestablish the law in justification, but the law of the flesh is done away with. Essentially Paul said, “There is more sin in trying to find acceptance before God by our law-keeping than there is sin in everyday life as a Christian.” If he were to try to build a way to God through keeping the law then he would make himself a transgressor.

How is it a sin to build again a way to God through the Law of Moses? In many ways, but perhaps the greatest is that it looks at Jesus, hanging on the cross, taking the punishment we deserved, bearing the wrath of God for us, and says to Him, “That’s all very nice, but it isn’t enough. Your work on the cross won’t be good enough before God until I’m circumcised and eat kosher.” That is to regard the atonement of Christ as insufficient. 

Paul states the conclusion of this doctrine of justification by faith in vs19-21 “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness [comes] through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” 

Paul realized that the law made him guilty before God, not justified before God. John Calvin said “To die to the law is to renounce it and to be freed from its dominion, so that we have no confidence in it and it does not hold us captive under the yoke of slavery.” As long as Paul still tried to justify himself before God by all his law-keeping, he was dead. But when he died to the law then he could live to God.

Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ. I died to the law when Jesus died on the cross. He died in my place on the cross. I was condemned to die for my sins, but Jesus took my place on the cross. Since we died with Christ on the cross we have been given a new life. Our old life lived under the condemnation of the law is dead. Now we are made alive in Jesus Christ and Jesus is alive in us. Paul realized that on the cross, a great exchange occurred. So Paul’s righteousness wasn’t his, it was the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Paul says, “And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” I live by faith in Him.  I trust Him, I listen to Him, I follow Him, I love Him, I obey Him, I yield to Him. Faith is actively following Christ daily, minute by minute, hour by hour, decision by decision.  Faith is not just something in the past, but it continues. Hab. 2:4 says, the just shall live by faith.

Paul said, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” To try to keep some or all laws in order to be justified, is to deny the effectualness of Christ’s atonement.  It is to nullify the grace of God. Eph.2:8 says,  Salvation is by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Salvation is a gift of God.  What a wonderful doctrine.  Much to wonderful to try to add to it.  To do so is to minimize God’s grace, which would rob God of His sovereignty and diminish HIs character.  God has loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son so that He might GIVE us Christ’s righteousness, so that He might justify us. That is grace. God’s gift of salvation which we cannot earn, but we can accept through faith in Jesus Christ.  I trust that you have believed in Christ and received justification from God on the basis of His righteousness. 

The epistle to the Galatians is Paul’s first letter to the churches. And perhaps due in a large part to being his first epistle, he spends a large portion of this letter defending his apostleship, and his gospel. We get something like a summary of his biography in the first couple of chapters, at least the part of his history that has to do with coming to Christ and the beginning of his ministry.

And that was necessary then because there were false teachers that had crept into the churches of Galatia that Paul had started, and they were undermining Paul’s authority and his gospel in order to establish their own gospel, which was a doctrine that said you must add the law of circumcision and other Jewish ceremonies to salvation by faith in order to be really saved.

It’s also beneficial to the church today to understand how Paul came to preach his gospel, and how he became an apostle. One reason is because Paul’s example of conversion illustrates how we are also converted. And secondly, because there is a mindset in certain ecclesiastical circles that says that Paul’s message is corrupted. They say it’s corrupted by the the fact that he is not a real apostle. It’s corrupted by the fact that he is a patriarchal Jew from the sect of the Pharisees that had very strict, demeaning, archaic views about women. And there are many modern theologians that think that Paul’s teachings are at odds with Christ’s teachings. So it’s important for us to understand the basis for his gospel.

I don’t know if you have ever given it much thought, but have you ever considered the fact that about half of the New Testament was written by Paul? One man, Paul, who was not one of the original 12 disciples. He never claims to be a witness to Jesus’s teaching or ministry before Christ’s crucifixion. And furthermore, there is no advance notice or prophecy in the gospels that a man such as Paul would arise and become the “apostle to the Gentiles” and who would take on such a large role in shaping the church and writing 13 epistles explaining the gospels.

According to the Roman Catholic Church, Peter was the apostle to whom the church was entrusted. But in actuality, I think the modern church owes more to the apostle Paul for it’s doctrine than it does to Peter. Not to minimize the epistles that Peter, John and Jude wrote, but I believe the epistles of Paul are the backbone of church doctrine. And because of that, I think it is fair to ask what credentials does Paul have that he would make such a large impact in church formation and history?

Well, I think the best answer to that comes from Paul himself. There are some things that are given in Acts which I think shows that the apostles in Jerusalem accepted Paul, and even more importantly, confirmed the ministry of Paul. And another important confirmation is the words of Peter in his epistle, in which he said in 2Peter 3:15-16 “and regard the patience of our Lord [as] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

In that statement, Peter reveals that the apostles in Jerusalem considered Paul a beloved brother. He makes reference to the wisdom given to him by revelation, and he also states that Paul’s writings are scripture. That’s a pretty good commendation.

But that commendation would not come for a number of years. So Paul in writing this first letter finds it necessary to give an autobiographical account of how he received his ministry and the gospel which he was preaching. Last time we looked at the apostleship of Paul, and how he said that he received his apostleship not from men, but from Jesus Christ. Now that’s an important distinction, because the other apostles received their apostleship from Jesus Christ as well. So if Paul received his from men, then it would have been inferior to the other apostles.

The apostles ministry was to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul had done that when he established the churches in Galatia. But then false teachers had come in and preached another gospel, a seditious gospel that advocated keeping the law of the Jews in order to be saved. But Paul said if any man, if even an angel should preach a different gospel other that what they had been given by Paul, they were to be accursed.

Then in vs 10, Paul says, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” I think what he is saying here is really a rebuke to the Galatians. In giving in to the Judaiser’s doctrine they were in effect trying to please the Jews. Paul and anyone who had followed his gospel was subject to criticism and even persecution from the Jews. But if you were to follow the Judaiser’s doctrine, then by accommodating things like circumcision you were relieving the onus of Paul’s doctrine and you would be less likely to receive criticism. So I think Paul is referring to that in a back handed way as a rebuke to their acquiescence. And in contrast to that acquiescence, he says he is not trying to please men, but he wants to please God by giving them accurately the gospel of Christ.

That should be the goal of any preacher of the gospel. Sometimes that can be a nuance that goes unnoticed by the church. But it is very tempting to preach a gospel that accommodates the world’s view and thus finds favor with the world, and avoid certain doctrines of the gospel that are more contentious and controversial to the world’s view in order to gain approval from men. But the goal of a faithful minister should be to be true to the gospel of Jesus Christ, irregardless of what the culture or society thinks of it.

The source of Paul’s gospel was a revelation from Christ, not something that he learned from other men. He says that in vs11 “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but [I received it] through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

In contrast to the different gospel brought by the false teachers, Paul’s gospel was by a revelation from Jesus Christ. He was in no respect inferior to any of the other apostles. He was taught by the Lord Jesus the same way that they were taught it. Furthermore, his gospel was different from the message being taught by the false teachers, because they could not claim that they got their message directly from Christ.

That is the only way that we can know God – by divine revelation. Man cannot study the cosmos and biology and philosophy and come to know God. He may come to realize that there must be a God by studying such things, but to really know God, to know His plan and purposes, it must be revealed by God to man. All that is necessary to be known about God was made known through Jesus Christ. As John said about Jesus in John 1:14, 18 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. … 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained [Him.]”

So Paul received his gospel by divine revelation from Jesus Christ. Some think that this occurred during the Damascus road experience, or in the three days following that Paul was without sight. I don’t think that would have been the full experience. I’m sure the Lord did reveal some things concerning salvation when Paul was converted and awaiting his sight to return. But I think in this next section we might understand that Paul received it during the time he spent in Arabia. Let’s listen to his description.

Vs13 “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart [even] from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus. Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.”

Now a parallel scripture concerning Paul’s conversion we can read about in Acts 9. Let me read you just the first part of that. Acts 9:1-9 “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He [said,] “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”

I wanted to read that for a number of reasons, but one of which was to affirm what Paul says in our text in vs 15 when he says God “had set me apart even from my mother’s womb called me through His grace.” Much can be learned about the doctrine of salvation from this statement. First notice the phrase, “but when God was pleased…”. Paul did not come to Jesus because any man decided that he should. It wasn’t at the pleasure of any man, but when it pleased God. Additionally, God did not choose Paul because there was something in Paul that pleased him; God called Paul through His grace, God’s unmerited favor.

We know this call wasn’t because of anything Paul did because he said that he was called from my mother’s womb. Therefore, God called Paul before Paul did anything to deserve it. This statement is reminiscent of Jacob and Esau, of whom Paul says in Romans 9:11 that God chose Jacob when he was still in the womb, when he had done nothing right or wrong. This illustrates the doctrine of election, or predestination. It is a doctrine that we cannot really comprehend fully. We have to accept it by faith.

Paul states the doctrine of election in Rom. 8:29-30 saying “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” God is the author and finisher of our salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. And the beginning of our salvation is when God chooses us before the foundation of the world.

From Luke’s description, it should be obvious that it was God’s grace by which Paul was converted. He was actually an enemy of Christ at that point. He was not pursuing Christ. He had no interest in knowing about salvation through Christ. He was at war with Christ. And yet by the grace of God Christ came down to Him and shed His light upon Paul, so that he saw with the eyes of his heart that Christ was the Messiah.

And the point that needs to be made is that we are all saved the same way Paul was saved; by God’s grace. When we were at odds with God, at war with God, not seeking after God, He spread His grace upon us so that our eyes were opened, and we received Him as our Lord and God. We may not see a light flashing from the sky or hear a voice from heaven, but we experience the same grace in conversion.

Paul wrote of how Jesus was revealed to him by the revelation of Jesus Christ. But in vs 16 Paul says something different happened after his conversion; Jesus is revealed in Paul. God wants to do more than reveal Jesus to us; He wants to reveal Jesus in us. That’s what happens in conversion. The Spirit of Christ dwells in us, that we might do the works of Christ. And in Paul the result is he preaches the gospel of Christ. He says, “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”

After his conversion, Paul spent three days without sight, before a Christian named Ananias was sent by God to him. Then when Ananias came to him, he said, ““Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened.” I would like you to notice there that there is no mention of speaking in tongues when Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s contrary to what a lot of people are teaching, I know, but that is not what the scripture teaches. It also doesn’t say that Paul didn’t receive the Holy Spirit three days earlier. But it just says he was filled with the Holy Spirit. That filling of the Holy Spirit is a filling with power. It’s not receiving the Holy Spirit. We believe that the scriptures teach that you receive the Holy Spirit at conversion. In fact, if you don’t receive the Spirit at conversion then you are not saved at all. But there is a subsequent filling of the Spirit which happens when you yield to Him and let Him control and empower you to do His will.

But to the point that Paul made, he is not taught by Ananias. He is not taught by the disciples at Damascus. But as he says in Galatians, he received a revelation from Jesus. I think that is likely when he went to Arabia. It would seem from Paul’s statement that he stayed in Arabia for some time before he returned to Damascus. But there is an interim of three years after his conversion before he went to see Peter in Jerusalem. So possibly during that three year period Paul was taught by Jesus. If that’s so, then it’s interesting that three years being taught by Jesus in Arabia and Damascus is parallel to the three years the disciples spent learning from Jesus during His ministry on earth. So again, the case could be made that Paul was not inferior in any way. As he said in 2Cor. 11:5 “For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles.”

Paul continues his autobiography in vs18 saying, “Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, (that’s Aramaic for Peter) and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was [still] unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they were glorifying God because of me.”

Paul showed here that he did not learn the gospel from the apostles, because he had been a Christian for three years before he even met the apostles Peter and James. Paul had been given the gospel in a divine revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. I want to share a passage with you from 2 Corinthians which may be a part of what Paul is referring to here. The timeline of such things is not easy to discern. But in 2Cor. 12:1-4, 7 Paul wrote, “Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ (he is speaking of himself) who fourteen years ago–whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows–such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man–whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows– was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. … Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me–to keep me from exalting myself!”

I can’t say with certainty that is part of the experience that Paul had while he was in Arabia, but it seems to fit. But I don’t doubt that there were multiple events when Paul was given revelation from Jesus. He says visions and revelations of the Lord, plural. So there are more than one. But though the things in Paradise he heard and saw on that occasion he was not permitted to speak of, there was obviously things taught to him that he was permitted, even commanded to speak of, which became the basis for his gospel.

After his conversion, God spoke to Ananias about Paul saying, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” I always think of that last phrase “how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” in regards to these self styled modern day apostles that claim to have special knowledge and revelation from God, and supposedly do all these miracles and speak amazing prophecies. God did not give such gifts to Paul and Peter and the other apostles without it coming at a great cost of personal and physical sacrifice. I don’t see those self proclaimed apostles experiencing too much sacrifice in their private jets and mansions in Laguna Beach.

But God chose Paul to be an instrument for the proclamation of the gospel. And God specifically directed his path in ministry. He saw Peter for 2 weeks and then was moved on to minister in the regions of the Gentiles. Paul did not learn the essential content of the gospel from Peter, and it was also true that the early Christians in Judea were slow in learning just who Paul was in Jesus. All they really knew was that he had been dramatically converted. They kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they were glorifying God because of Paul.

Now if Paul is telling the truth, then there is only one response to the message of the apostle, and that is to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ that you may be saved. Does salvation then come by being circumcized? No. Does salvation come by keeping the Sabbath? No. Does salvation come by keeping the law? No. Does salvation come through religion? No. Does salvation come through some religious ritual like baptism, or communion? No. Salvation is of the Lord. You must be born again by the Spirit of Christ. Or, as Paul puts it, in the 3rd chapter in the 6th verse, “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

If you are here this morning and you have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and been converted, I call upon you to come to him in faith, trusting in Him who has offered Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. May God open the eyes of your heart so that you respond in faith, casting aside all of your trust in yourself or any human institution. And casting yourself upon the grace of the Lord Jesus. May God help you to come to him and be converted, even as Paul was.