Galatians 3 - Not the Law, But Faith: Receiving the Promise

Faith makes you God’s blessed child (1-9).

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Questions about faith & Law

An example of faith & Law

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Before there were “Jews and Gentiles,” God promised future salvation for all nations through Abraham’s descendent. If we think about the Abrahamic covenant at all, we usually treat like a dry, academic Bible-trivia fact. In reality, it’s a preview statement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s Paul’s point here: the prediction that God would bless all nations through Abraham’s seed is a sneak preview of his plan to send Jesus Christ to redeem people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation.

So how does the “Gospel” pre-preached to Abraham affect the Galatian believers who were struggling with practical legalism? It took them back to the human founder of their faith and connected their lives to the primary characteristic of his life. If you read Galatians and Romans and look at how Paul uses Abraham’s example, you’ll see he always identifies Abraham by one key attribute: faith. Abraham “believed God” and was a “man of faith.” Since, as Paul argues, the salvation blessings of the Gospel are available to all the world through Abraham’s descendent Jesus, everyone who enjoys those blessings is connected to Abraham. Abraham was a “man of faith,” so “faith” is the starting point for everyone else who enters into the blessings initiated in the Abrahamic covenant.

Does the temptation to believe that we start out by faith but then shift toward works show up in our lives at all? If so, what beliefs and what behavior reveal that wrong tendency? (False Justification->Sanctification->Glorification divide)

The Law brings a curse, not blessing (10-14).

So then, if all the blessings of salvation begin and continue by faith, the logical conclusion is that the opposite of blessing (curse) and the opposite of faith (works) should go together too. That’s exactly what Paul says next:

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Keeping the Law is an all or nothing proposition. Sometimes we like to pick apart the Law and decide what parts we should obey and what parts we should “look for principles in.” [Civil, ceremonial, moral] But for Paul, it’s a tight unity. If you look to some principles of the Law as essential for experiencing God’s blessing, you’re stuck obeying the whole Law to qualify. And since you can’t keep them all perfectly, you’re cursed. Trying to please God by keeping the Law doesn’t bring justification and blessing: since we fail, it only brings a curse. [Picture window]

Fortunately the Gospel helps us here. Jesus redeemed us from the curse by what? Surprisingly, NOT “by obeying the Law perfectly.” Of course, he did, but that’s not what Paul points out. Jesus rescued us from the curse by bearing the curse for us. His crucifixion was the ultimate curse. Quick implication: if the Law puts us under a curse and Jesus completely removed us from that curse’s power, what did Jesus to our relationship to the Law? Law = curse, no more curse: no more Law. Paul will talk more about that later. That’s a heavy implication, but we’re going to talk more about it as soon as Paul brings it back up, I promise.

So Jesus freeing us by taking our curse: that’s the Gospel - that’s the precise mechanism by which God gives us (from all the nations of the world) the blessing of Abraham. This blessing introduces a new character in this letter: the Spirit. And again, how are we connected to the Spirit’s provision of Abraham’s blessings? By faith.

God’s promises override the Law (15-22).

To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

So what’s up with the Law then? Does it no longer matter? Did it ever matter? Paul’s point here is a legal technical point. It reaches back to the first point: God’s blessings are promised to those who believe (faith). His promise to Abraham predates the Mosaic Law by 430 years. Now normally, we think of later revisions to legal contracts as more authoritative than the original. If you get a letter from your cell provider or bank notifying you of a new terms of use or fee structure, which one is effective, the original or the modification? [modification] Paul looks at God’s contracts differently, however: he focuses more on precedence than amendment. Paul sees the Gospel promise given to Abraham as foundational: the Law doesn’t erase that promise; rather the Gospel promise provides essential context for interpreting the Law.

So, if the Gospel actually preceded the Law, historically, and if the Gospel provides the framework of life and blessing through faith that the Law cannot contradict (or compete with), why would God give the Law at all? Audience feedback.

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

Here’s Paul’s reason for the Law: the Law dealt with sin and safeguarded the coming of Abraham’s promised descendent. In simpler, more concrete words, the Law protected and purified the Jewish nation so that Jesus could be born.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Paul returns to the question of the relationship between Law and Gospel-promise. Do they clash? No - the Law was never intended to give spiritual life; only faith could do that. Since they have different purposes in God’s plan, they do not contradict or interfere.

We are God’s blessed children by promise (23-29).

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

What we just read is a passage that’s misunderstood and misapplied like crazy. I used to do this. I’ve heard many preachers do this. Before I state the error, let’s look at what Paul is really saying. Look at vs 23-24: “before faith came,” “until the coming of faith,” “until Christ came,” “now that faith has come.” What do all the words before, until, and now indicate? Time. Paul is putting the Law into a specific timeframe: he’s teaching that the Law was given from [this date] to [that date].

When did the Law start? At Mt. Sinai: 430 years after Abraham (17).

When does the Law end? When faith/Christ comes (24).

That brings us to the verses that we so easily misunderstand:

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

How do we normally interpret these verses?

(We need the Law to work as our guardian [KJV - schoolmaster] to bring us to Christ. Or, witness to people starting by telling them they’ve broken the Law, then let take them to Christ to talk justification. Law as schoolmaster = “get them lost before you can get them saved.”)

Looking back at this passage, what do these verses really mean?

The Law served as a guardian / schoolmaster for a certain period in history (Moses -> Christ) and now it doesn’t function that way any more. This fits perfectly with the purpose Paul just presented for the Law: it was designed to protect the Jewish nation so that Jesus could be born and provide blessing for all nations. Therefore, when Jesus was born, the Law no longer needed to serve that purpose.

When Paul says, “now that faith has come,” he’s referring to the time from Jesus’ coming and beyond. As we already saw, the idea of “faith” goes all the way back to Abraham, predating the Law and forming a foundation for one of the earliest promises of the Gospel. So the phrase “faith has come” is synonymous with the phrase “Christ has come” - Christ is the fulfillment of the promise that was given to Abraham the man of faith, so his coming is the coming of the fulfillment of God’s promise to those who by are Abraham’s descendents by faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Paul’s closing words in this paragraph are all-inclusive. No matter who you are — ethnicity, gender, job title — in Christ we’re all heirs by the same promise to Abraham’s blessing. We’re not all slaves to the same Law; we’re heirs by the same promise.

Application question about parenting: If we know that we don’t earn our way into God’s blessings by works of obedience, how do you balance between communicating that truth through parenting and still teaching the value of obedience? Practical techniques?

So what does the Gospel teach us about being rightly related to God and growing in relationship with him? It’s by faith, not works; receiving his promise, not keeping the Law.