Galatians Talk 5 Galatians 3:1-29
As we saw when we were studying the first two chapters of Galatians, Paul wrote his letter to them because of the dangerous teaching that had crept into the churches there – that obedience to the law of the Old Testament was essential to salvation.
In chapter 1 he insists that:
· the only true gospel is the one that he has preached to them (6-10)
· he had received it by direct revelation from God and not from any human source (11-24).
In chapter 2 he tells how:
· the message he preached had been accepted by the apostles at Jerusalem (1-10)
· he had opposed Peter for his inconsistent behaviour by no longer eating with Gentile Christians for fear of what the circumcision group might think of him (11-21).
These verses include the substance of what he said to Peter and form the beginning of a new section of his letter where he gives theological reasons for his teaching that justification is by faith and not by works.
Now, in chapter 3, Paul begins by appealing to the Galatians’ experience of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives (1-5) and then to the experience of Abraham (6-25) to argue his case. We’ll begin by reading vv 1-5.
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 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? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing – if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Paul has already expressed his astonishment that the Galatians have so quickly turned to a different gospel from that which he had preached to them (1:6). Now, in verse 1, he reiterates his amazement and reminds them that they had been saved by believing his clear presentation of the message of Christ crucified. In verse 2 he appeals to their experience:
Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
But what does he mean by receiving the Spirit? To understand this correctly we need to consider what happened at Pentecost when Jesus’ first disciples received the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). This was something Jesus had promised them, and which would empower them to be his witnesses (Acts 1:4-8).
It was something promised to the converts at Pentecost if they would repent and be baptised (Acts 2:38-39).
It was so important that when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had become Christians they sent Peter and John to lay hands on them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15-18).
And Peter describes the experience of Cornelius and his household as having received the Holy Spirit just as we have (Acts 10:47).
Finally, when Paul finds some disciples at Ephesus, he asks them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (Acts 19:2) which, of course, implies that it’s possible to believe without at the same time receiving the Spirit.
Now all these examples taken from Acts use the terminology of receiving the Spirit to refer to the supernatural experience of the baptism in the Spirit, rather than to the Spirit’s work in regeneration, but is this the way that Paul is using it here in Galatians?
In my view the answer is definitely YES. We know from Acts 19:2 that Paul used the expression in this way. And it’s unthinkable that on such an important matter Luke, who was one of Paul’s close travelling companions, should use the expression differently from Paul. And in verse 5 the reference to God giving the Spirit and working miracles seems to confirm this.
But what about verse 3, where Paul says:
After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Doesn’t this suggest that Paul is using receiving the Spirit to refer to their becoming Christians?
The answer to this lies in remembering that, unlike today, when people receive Christ as their saviour but very often are not baptised in water until some weeks or months later – and may or may not be baptised in the Spirit later still – most people in New Testament times would have been saved, baptised in water and baptised in the Spirit all on the same day.
So for them each of these things would have been part of their overall experience of beginning the Christian life. Right from the start their supernatural experience of being baptised in the Spirit was part and parcel of what it meant to be a Christian.
Assuming this to be the case with the Galatians, we can now understand Paul as saying:
You know from your experience of how the Holy Spirit works that it is not in response to human effort, but in response to faith. This is true of how you received the baptism in the Spirit and of the miraculous ways God works in your lives. The same is true of your salvation. You are saved by faith and not by works.
Moving on now to verses 6-9, we find Paul using quotes from the Pentateuch to make several points with regard to Abraham. This would be particularly significant for the circumcision group as it was to Abraham that God first gave circumcision as a sign of the covenant he had made with him. He points out that:
· Abraham was counted righteous (justified) because of his faith. He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (6)
· As a result, it’s those who believe who are children of Abraham (7)
· When God promised Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed (8), it revealed God’s intention to justify the Gentiles by faith
· So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (9).
And how are they blessed? By being declared righteous in God’s sight, just as Abraham was, by faith, and as a result be able to receive the promise of the Spirit by faith (14).
This is in direct contrast to those who rely on observing the law (10). They are cursed rather than blessed. In verse 10 he says:
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.”
The people who were insisting that circumcision was essential to salvation were relying on the law to save them. But the problem with this is that the law itself says that everyone who does not obey everything in it is cursed. So Paul is saying, If you think you can be saved by obeying the law, remember that you must obey everything in it! And since you can’t, you are cursed, not saved.
11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
What’s more, says Paul, the Old Testament itself teaches that you can’t be saved by obeying the law, because it says in Habakkuk 2:4 that the righteous will live by faith. But the law isn’t based on faith, but on obedience to it, because it says that the man who does these things will live by them. So salvation by the law, if that were possible, would be dependent on obedience to all of it. And if we’re not, we’re under its curse. But, thank God, Christ has redeemed us from that.
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.”
So what is this curse of the law that Christ has redeemed us from? It’s our failure to keep it in its entirety! As we shall see later, the purpose of the law was to highlight our disobedience to God and to point to our need of a Saviour. By his substitutionary death on the cross Christ has borne the penalty that our disobedience to God deserves.
If we understand this verse correctly in its context, we see that by the curse of the law Paul is not referring to specific curses contained within the law (e.g. Deuteronomy 28), but to the fact that, unless we keep every part of it, the law places us under God’s curse.
But, thank God, he has redeemed us from the curse of the law, and his purpose in redeeming us is not just negative. In verse 14 we read that:
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Paul then proceeds to explain in greater detail what he has been saying by using the illustration of a covenant (15). He likens the promises God made to Abraham and his seed to a covenant that cannot be broken, and he clarifies that the use of the word seed in the singular implies that it refers to just one person, not many, and that person is Christ (16).
It is in Christ that all the nations of the world will be blessed (cf. 7). The law, which came 430 years after God made this promise to Abraham, does not do away with God’s covenant promise (17). And since the blessing depends on God’s gracious promise, it cannot be dependent on keeping the law (18). (Therefore, salvation is not dependent on circumcision).
So what was the point of the law? Paul gives his answer in verses 19-23. It was a temporary addition until Christ came (19). It was not opposed to God’s promises, but the problem with the law was that it couldn’t impart life (21) because the whole world is a prisoner of sin (22).
So the only way that the promise can be received is by faith in Jesus Christ. And until he came everyone was imprisoned by the law (23). As we shall see next time, Paul will go on the clarify this in the opening verses of chapter 4, but first he seems to want to break away from his discussion of the shortcomings of the law in order to remind us of the blessings of faith in Christ.
We’re all children of God
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
We’re identified with Christ
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Your identity is not in your nationality, social status, or even your gender. It’s in Christ!
We belong to Christ. We’re the true children of Abraham. We have a wonderful inheritance
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.