Galatians 3:1-14: Continue the way you began

APC: 25 Feb, 2024

“I can do it, Daddy!” The little boy is learning to ride his bike. His dad’s running behind him, holding him up. And now the boy thinks he can do it by himself. “Let go dad. I can do it without you!” And perhaps he CAN. That’s certainly the GOAL – to ride by himself. But perhaps he CAN’T, and he’ll wobble, fall over, and hurt his elbow.

And that’s the way many people think about the Christian life. It’s like learning to ride a bike. They need God’s help TO START. But after that, THEY’RE ON THEIR OWN. They think that God SAVES people by his grace. But then he leaves it up to us. Their progress, their obedience and growth, depend on their own efforts and ability.

But that’s completely WRONG. And FOOLISH. And DANGEROUS. And it leads to fear and anxiety and uncertainty. Or sometimes PRIDE. And it’s SLAVERY, not FREEDOM.

And it’s what the Galatian church was beginning to think. Look at what Paul writes to them in v3. 3 Are you so foolish? After BEGINNING with the Spirit, are you now TRYING TO ATTAIN YOUR GOAL by HUMAN effort?

Paul had told them the gospel. (The good news they can be made right with God simply by trusting what Jesus has done). And that it’s not about how many good works they can do. (Not about keeping the law). And they TRUSTED WHAT THEY HEARD. And then God had FORGIVEN them, and given them HIS HOLY SPIRIT.

But then the false teachers have come in. The con-men. And said that Jesus isn’t enough. But Jesus PLUS. Jesus plus law-keeping, Jesus plus circumcision, or keeping the Sabbath, or not eating pork. Teaching that JESUS ISN’T ENOUGH to get right with God. They were teaching that you START with Jesus, but then you MOVE ON. You MAKE SURE. You REINFORCE what Jesus has done. You say to God, “I can do it without you.” That’s what he’s describing in v1. 1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? They’ve been tricked into accepting something FAKE, and INFERIOR.

1. Look to your own experience

And Paul’s going to make THREE POINTS to prove he’s right. First, look to your own experience. How you BEGAN the Christian walk. Paul reminds them, v1,

Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

“Think back,” he’s saying. “Remember back to THE EVIDENCE IN YOUR OWN LIVES. When I first came to you. And presented Jesus. I made it AS PLAIN AS I COULD. Did I talk about what YOU needed to DO? No! It was about WHAT JESUS HAS DONE. Perfectly keeping the law, then CRUCIFIED. In your place. That’s the KEY. And then God offers you RESCUE AND FORGIVENESS AND FREEDOM INSTEAD. That was my message, says Paul. Clear as a bell. Presented as logically and plainly and unmistakably as I could.

And don’t just think back to when you HEARD the gospel. What about when you ACCEPTED it? How did you DO that? Did you complete a special training course? Achieve a certain moral standard? No! Look at v2. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

And it’s an obvious question, isn’t it? They heard Paul’s clear call. Then all they did was TRUST WHAT HE SAID. And they RECEIVED God’s Holy Spirit. Poured out onto them with power. Opening their eyes. Convicting them of sin. Assuring them of salvation.

And I hope it was like that with you, TOO. I hope your story is that SOMEONE TOLD YOU about Jesus, and God’s offer of forgiveness. And that all you had to do was TRUST it. And then, at some point, you decided, “YES. I DO believe that.”

I hope your story of becoming a Christian ISN’T that you decided you needed to know God. So you began to get your life together. (You set out on a continual path of moral self-improvement. Gradually getting more and more law-abiding). Until, one day, you realised you’d MADE IT. (You measured up. You’d ACHIEVED A SUFFICIENT STANDARD). And so you must be a Christian. It’s ridiculous! That’s not the ways it works! Paul makes a similar point in v5..

5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you BELIEVE WHAT YOU HEARD?

Did God only give gifts to PEOPLE WHO WERE ESPECIALLY OBEDIENT? (The ALL-STARS? A select FEW? To those who’d EARNED it?) No!? He gave it to those who TRUSTED WHAT THEY HEARD. You EXPERIENCED the Spirit’s power in your life. (Spiritual gifts, and joy and peace. And MIRACLES.) And it WASN’T because you’d kept all the rules. (Because you were the NICEST person in your street.)

And Paul’s argument is, “If that’s the way you BEGAN, why are you going back to something ELSE/ NOW? V3.

3 Are you so foolish? After BEGINNING with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal BY HUMAN EFFORT?

After BEGINNING the journey with God’s Spirit, why are you dropping him/ to try to FINISH the job YOURSELF? (Like the child learning to ride his bike, and thinking he can do it without dad.)

And I wonder if that’s something WE get wrong sometimes. BEGINNING the journey with Jesus. He’s the way we get JUSTIFIED. Put right with God. We realise, at the start, that we’ve got NOTHING to offer God. We’re convicted of our sin and need for God’s forgiveness.

That’s certainly the way it was WITH ME. I was about fifteen. I’d grown up in the church, and never doubted the truth of the gospel. But I don’t think I’d ever realised what it mean to TRUST that message. And I was lying on my bed one night, thinking about what a HYPOCRITE I was. Trying to live as a Christian. But being a different person during the week at school to what I was like at CHURCH. Like a child learning to ride a bike, I just kept falling over, again and again and again. And I, basically, JUST GAVE UP. I prayed, “God, I can’t do this on my own. I’VE GOT NOTHING TO OFFER. If you want me, YOU’RE going to have to do the work!” My pockets were empty. So I HAD to trust God. Because there was no point trusting myself.

Most of us START that way. But then as time goes by. As we LEARN more. We read our Bibles, we attend church. Perhaps God begins to change our character, and our priorities, and our lifestyle. We begin to use the GIFTS he’s given us. And perhaps we start to be PROUD of our achievements. Perhaps we start COMPARING ourselves to those around us, who don’t measure up to particular standards we decide. We BEGIN with the Spirit. But then the basis of our confidence begins to DRIFT. To slide across from trusting what JESUS has done/ to what WE DO. Do THAT, and you’re basically saying Jesus didn’t need to die. That you can do it WITHOUT him.

Now it’s true that growing more like Jesus will take HARD WORK. And self-discipline. And sacrifice. (The Bible has plenty to say about THAT.) But that’s what you do BECAUSE you’re God’s child. And no matter HOW much you grow, or how godly your character, or how much you ACHIEVE. NONE of it will make you any more acceptable to God. So don’t TRUST it, or RELY on it. Don’t think it makes you any more worthy than anyone else.

And flipping it around. FAILING won’t make you LESS acceptable. As long as you keep trusting what JESUS has done, then God won’t abandon because you had a bad day. Because you gave in to temptation. (Badly sinned. Let yourself down and others.) People who are trusting THEIR OWN efforts/ lack assurance. Perhaps they DESPAIR, or are ANXIOUS, or FEARFUL. Ask them if they’re sure they’re going to heaven, and they’ll say “I HOPE SO. I’d like to think so. I’m doing my BEST.”

That doubt, just like moral PRIDE, comes from trusting our OWN work, rather than Jesus. Same disease – different symptom. It’s not understanding the message of the true gospel. If you’ve accepted God’s offer of forgiveness, if you’ve repented of your sins. If you’ve trusted Jesus as the one who sets you free. Then God has made you one of his children, given you his Spirit. You’re BORN AGAIN. You can’t add ANYTHING to it! TRUST it! And don’t trust anything else!

1. Look to Father Abraham (6-9)

But Paul moves on. The second point of his argument is “Don’t just look back to YOUR EXPERIENCE. Look to FATHER ABRAHAM.” That’s vv6-9.

This is a master stroke for arguing against Jews. Abraham was their hero. The father of the Jewish nation. And ESPECIALLY those who valued circumcision. Because he was the one God gave circumcision to. And told him to circumcise every one of his descendants.

And it seems like Paul’s opponents were saying something like, “yes, it’s good to trust in Jesus, but to be A CHILD OF ABRAHAM, then you need to get CIRCUMCISED.” But Paul says that’s RUBBISH. Look at v6.

6 Consider Abraham: "He BELIEVED God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 7 Understand, then, that THOSE WHO BELIEVE are children of Abraham.

Paul wants everyone to CHECK THE TIMELINE. It’s in Genesis 12 and 15 that God PROMISES to make Abraham into a great nation. To be his God. And to bless him. And we’re told (Genesis 15:6) that Abraham BELIEVED God’s promise, and God CREDITED IT TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. God counted him as righteous because he TRUSTED God’s PROMISE. That’s IT. Got nothing to do with circumcision. (Like the false teachers are so keen on). Circumcision didn’t come until ch 17. AFTER. As a SIMPLE SIGN that Abraham was ALREADY one of God’s children. (An EXTERNAL REMINDER of something that happened on the INSIDE when Abraham trusted God.)

Genesis 15:6

And so, Paul’s point is, “Nothing’s changed. Abraham wasn’t made right with God by circumcision. And it’s STILL not the way it works. For everyone who FOLLOWS him. V7.

7 Understand, then, that THOSE WHO BELIEVE are children of Abraham.

What makes someone one of Abraham’s children isn’t A BIRTH CERTIFICATE. It’s whether you TRUST GOD’S PROMISE. Like Abraham did.

And it’s not even that God changed the entrance requirements in Paul’s time. He’d ALWAYS planned to include THE NATIONS. That’s what he promised Abraham. See it there in v8?

8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify THE GENTILES by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "ALL NATIONS will be blessed through you."

Which means people from places like Galatia. Or China. Or Australia. People God NEVER gave his Old Testament law to. Right from the start he promised Abraham that he’d reverse the curse on the world. And that he’d start with ABRAHAM. And then his descendants ISRAEL. And then THE WORLD. And he’d do it, not by people keeping the LAW. But by counting people RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH. The same way he’d declared ABRAHAM righteous. So, v9,

those who have FAITH are blessed along with Abraham, the MAN of faith.

Which is what the GALATIANS had done. When they BELIEVED the message of Christ crucified. They became 100% children of Abraham. Without following the Old Testament law.

That’s Paul’s SECOND argument. (Look to your Father Abraham.)

3. Look to the Old Testament (10-14)

And his third argument is to LOOK TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. (The very thing the false teachers were using as evidence. They said, “See? There in the Jewish Scriptures. Keep the law. God COMMANDED it. Get circumcised. Keep the Sabbath. Eat the right food. That’s how you get right with God.”) But Paul takes it and uses it AGAINST them. He’s just talked about BLESSING. (Blessed are those who trust God, like Abraham.) But now he turns to the OPPOSITE. CURSING.

And the verse Paul's quoting in v10 is from Deuteronomy, ch 27 verse 26, and the interesting thing is, Paul actually says it a TINY BIT DIFFERENTLY. Perhaps it was a verse his opponents were actually USING to HELP their argument. But what Paul does is combine it with the very NEXT VERSE. It's Moses talking - and he's just given Israel their law. And he says, CURSED IS THE MAN who does not uphold the words of this law BY CARRYING THEM OUT. That’s the bit the false teachers liked. But they’d forgotten the NEXT bit.

You see, the NEXT VERSE says this. If you FULLY obey the Lord your God and carefully follow ALL his commands that I give you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

Now did you spot the issue? Cursed if you don't. Blessed if you do. And the key idea is - ALL OF IT. FULLY obey. The only way to be BLESSED is to keep ALL OF IT. Otherwise you’re CURSED. Which is the bit the false teachers didn’t really understand. The thing is/ the law's a bit like a course of antibiotics. (That is, once you start taking them, you have to take the WHOLE COURSE. Half the tablets won’t work. In fact, it could make things WORSE.)

And that’s what THE LAW is like. Verse 10. All who rely on observing the law are UNDER A CURSE... for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do EVERYTHING written in the book of the law." You can't just pick and choose. If you're going to rely on the LAW, you've got to take the WHOLE COURSE. Which is CURSED.

V11-12. Paul quotes two Old Testament verses that show the two different ways of living. V11. You either live by FAITH. Or (v12) you live by LAW-KEEPING. Which has nothing to DO with faith. BLESSINGS to those who have FAITH. And CURSES – God’s condemnation – for those who try to keep the whole law. That’s the choice. It’s TWO SEPARATE ROADS. And you can’t walk with one foot on each road. It’s one or the other. And when you put it as plain as that. It’s no wonder Paul’s calls them FOOLISH.

But he’s not finished yet. He’s got one more Old Testament reference to work through. A verse about HOW trusting JESUS leads you to the BLESSINGS of God. Announced back in the Old Testament that Jesus would be CURSED IN YOUR PLACE. (Cursed so you could be BLESSED.) See it there in v13?

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

In Old Testament times, when someone was stoned for breaking some law, his dead body was hung on a tree. A sign to everyone that he was under God’s curse. That’s what the quote’s about, (from Deuteronomy 21:23). But it’s ALSO true for Jesus, even though he was hung a cross. Because he suffered God’s curse – BECAME a curse – So that we DIDN’T HAVE TO. He buys us back – REDEEMS us - with his own life. He frees us from CURSE, and instead we’re BLESSED. All there in the Old Testament Scriptures the false teachers love to quote.

Deuteronomy 21:23

And Paul finishes his argument in v14. Which is really a summary of the three points he’s made.

14 He redeemed us (that’s his THIRD point) in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus (that’s his SECOND point), so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (that’s his FIRST point).

Trusting in Jesus. Who redeems us, or pays for our freedom. That’s the way to receive the blessings of God. The blessing of being made RIGHT WITH GOD. JUSTIFIED. The blessing of being ONE OF GOD’S CHILDREN. The blessing of GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT. Living with us and in us.

But not just RECEIVING. But of LIVING. We LIVE by faith. God’s Spirit GROWS us and moves us to the end goal. It’s all HIS work, through us trusting him. Christian growth ISN’T like learning to ride a bike. We don’t BEGIN with God’s help. And then FINISH the job on our own. We don’t BEGIN with faith, then FINISH with works.

The truth is you can’t make any Christian progress on your own. ANY growth or fruit or maturity in you IS ALL GOD’S WORK. He SAVED you by His Spirit, and he SHAPES you by his Spirit TOO. We’ll see more of that in chapter 5. Commands to LIVE BY the Spirit, v16, - by the POWER of the Spirit. Or, v18, being LED by the Spirit. Or, v25, keeping in STEP with the Spirit. All so that, v22-23, we might display the FRUIT of the Spirit. And that’s the BLESSING – the FREEDOM - of trusting GOD, rather than OURSELVES.

It’s got real, practical implications. It will LOOK LIKE something in your life. If we trust God rather than ourselves, then we’ll PRAY regularly and fervently. Because God’s Spirit grows the fruit. And we’ll walk HUMBLY AND DEPENDENTLY as we serve him, without pride or comparison to others. Because God’s Spirit grows the fruit.

If we trust God rather than ourselves, then we’ll let his Word SHAPE AND GUIDE us. We’ll read it EXPECTANTLY. Because it’s the sword of his Spirit, and God’s Spirit grows the fruit. And when we SIN, we’ll repent quickly and confidently, knowing that God’s promise is SURE. And the work of his Son is SOLID.

And we have the confidence to CORRECT and CHALLENGE ONE ANOTHER, in humility and love. Because we know that it’s not up to us to convince. And we have no basis for pride. Because it’s God’s Spirit who grows the fruit. And he’s joined us into a church family to USE us.

This is what it looks like to GO ON the same way YOU STARTED. To trust the work of Jesus, and the promises of God, to FINISH the job as well as to BEGIN it. This is what BLESSING looks like, rather than the CURSE of trying to be justified by keeping the law FULLY.

How many generations of Christians HAVEN'T UNDERSTOOD THAT? And lived under the fear that somehow they mightn't be QUITE GOOD ENOUGH to be accepted by God. Or even worse... convinced THEY WERE... because they were better than OTHERS. (That’s a CURSE, not a BLESSING. And Jesus has TAKEN our curse. So we can experience the blessing of LIVING by faith. Continuing the same way we were saved.)

Paul says, "before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as CRUCIFIED." And you TRUSTED that. Make sure that’s the way you CONTINUE. It’s the only way to BLESSING.

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