Galatians Lesson 6 - Fairhaven Baptist Church

Galatians

Lesson 6

Text: Galatians 3:1-19

Intro: Last week in Galatians 2, Paul started his argument against adding anything to Grace. He used the example of the Jerusalem counsel, as well as his confrontation with Peter. In chapter 3, Paul turns the attention directly to the Galatians. He ask a series of questions designed to get them to think, and then he uses the very law, OT, to point to the flaw in their ideas.

Justification By FAITH,
1. The Nature of the Spirit, Vs.1-5
  1. How The Spirit Came,
    1. this chapter begins with Paul stating that he is distressed that the Galatians have been mislead,
      - He ask the question, Who has bewitched you?
        
        It comes for a word that means to malign, or to fascinate, or to “charm”
        
        to capture or to hold the attention…
        
        Think about what is being said here,
        
        to be “bewitched” here is to take the focus off the Grace of God, and let something else hold it.
        
        Remember in the first couple of lessons here, the point was that the glory belonged to God if it is grace, but if we can attribute any part of our salvation to our-self, then we get some of the glory.
      - And this is attractive to people.
        
        Man wants to have something to do with their salvation,
        
        look at other religions, most, if not all want to make the person do something for salvation, sacrifice, travel, payment, something.
        
        Even in a lot of so called christian religions, they want to take the focus off grace alone, and add our works to it.
        
        This is what Paul is battling. So he is going to set up some reasonable questions to contrast the Grace of God, with the woks of man.
        
        He is also going to use the very scriptures to help him illustrate this.
    2. He also states in this first verse, how he had painted a clear picture of the Gospel.
      - How Jesus was crucified,
  2. How The Spirit Worked,
    1. Question 1, to the Galatians,
      - how did you receive the Spirit, by Faith or by the Law?
        
        Let’s remember the Galatians are primary Gentiles, that never kept the law.
        
        They were not Jews (most of them) that were saved.
        
        So this question is a very reasonable, and easy question.
        
        They know they had not kept the law in order to receive the Spirit.
        
        They received it by Faith, hearing the word of Paul, Barnabas, and the Lord.
        
        As a result they were saved.
        
        Acts 13:43 “Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.”
      - So they were saved by Grace, but then he ask…
    2. Question 2, to the Galatians, How have you begun in Grace, but perfected in the Law?
      - The question is there to point out the weakness of the law in producing righteousness.
      - If the law has no power to clean you, then how can you become more clean by living under the law.
        
        Think of it this way. How many of us remember the red dye they use to make us eat when we were in school. They would have us to brush our teeth, then take that red tablet, and it would show us where we missed.
        
        This is what the law does, it points out where we fail, but it doesn’t have the power to clean us.
        
        Do we think putting that tablet in our mouth will make us more clean?
    3. Question 3, to the Galatians, have you suffered many things in vain? vs.4
      - when you look back over Acts 13&14 you find where there were conflicts with the Christians and others.
      - Acts 14:4&5 tells they were attacked by the Gentiles and Jews,
      - Acts 14:20 the disciples had to stand around Paul to keep him from being stoned.
        
        They suffered because they were saved by grace, and not keeping of the law, as many of the Jews believed.
        
        But now, they want to keep the law, or at least part of it. This would make their suffering vain, they should have just given in initially, and avoided the persecution.
    4. Question 4, to the Galatians, Did I (Paul) minister, and work miracles by the law, or by faith?
      - Once again, Acts 14, gives an account of Paul healing a cripple man,
        
        and the people saw it, but did he do it by the works of the law, or was it of faith?
        
        So if all these were by faith and not by the law, what is the purpose or was the purpose of the law?
        
        Paul starts to give examples form the law it’s self.
2. Scriptural Reasoning of Faith Vs. Law, Vs.6-25 (Examples)
  1. Abraham, vs.6-9
    1. Why was the Promise given to Abraham?
      - Genesis 18:17&18 “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? ”
      - Genesis 22:17&18 “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
      - Why was this blessing given to Abraham? Because of his work, or His faith?
        
        Genesis 15:4-6 “ LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
      - Vs.6 Abraham believed,
    2. But, also look who will be the beneficiaries of Abraham’s belief,
      - both in Ch.18&22 it says “all Nations”
    3. Also, when was Abraham blessed, before the law,
      - He had no law to live under, other than the law of Obedience to God,
  2. The Curse of the Law, vs.10-14
    1. It is not about keeping some of the law, if you are going to keep the law, it is a matter of keeping the entire law,
      - James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
    2. Vs.13 says Jesus redeemed us from the curse, being “made” a curse for us…
      - the word made, literally means to generate,
        
        this is a toss back to the Old Testament when it says in Exodus 34:7 he is a “forgiver” if sin,
        
        it is to transfer, to transfer righteousness, and sin.
      - The Prophecy, Deuteronomy 21:23 “His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
        
        because of the Passover, the bodies were taken down, and not left to hang there over night.
        
        In a regular Crucifixion, the body could hang there for several days.
  3. The Promise, by Faith or Law? vs.15-18
    1. when it speaks in these verses, it points to a singular blessing, the seed, not the seeds.
      - This is speaking of Jesus,
      - and this promise came 430 years before the law was given.
        
        The law had not power to negate the promise of God.

If the law didn’t make one righteous, and it didn’t take away sin, what did or was it suppose to do?

Next week we will look at the purpose of the law,

Points for Home:

There are things out there that would take our focus off the Grace, and redirect it. We should be aware of that, and not be “bewitched” and charmed into a lie.
We were not saved because we are keeping a set of rules and regulations, we are saved in spite of that. We should focus on living a life that is pleasing and honoring to Jesus, rather than trying to keep a set of laws.
In Abraham’s seed, All Nations would be blessed, God wants all men everywhere to be saved. Salvation is for all, for the ones who live under the law as well as those outside the law.