VII. O Foolish Galatians!

Transcription

1 VII. O Foolish Galatians! December 7/8, 2011 Galatians 3:1-9 Aim: To understand that all Christians are saved in the same way by faith and thus are sons of Abraham and heirs to the promises made to Abraham. A. Sons of Folly (Gal. 3:1-5) In chapters 3-4 Paul gives a classic defense of the doctrine of justification by faith, a defense he had introduced in 2: In 3:1-5 he defends the doctrine from the standpoint of personal experience, and in 3:6-4:31 from the standpoint of scriptural revelation. In 3:1-5 the apostle reminds his readers that a believer s experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of God the Father are incontrovertible evidence of having been graciously made acceptable to God through personal faith in the perfect complete work of Christ, apart from any human supplement. Chapter 3 begins a new section in Paul s attack against the doctrine of the Judaizers and his presentation of the gospel of grace. In the first two chapters, through a series of autobiographical arguments, the apostle defended his apostleship and the revelation that he had received from the Lord Jesus Christ. In the concluding verses of chapter 2 he introduces the theme of justification by faith (2:14-21). In chapter 3, he begins his doctrinal defense of the doctrine of free grace. In verses 1-5, the apostle indicts them for their spiritual folly and gives two arguments to prove his case. 1. Experiential Question (3:1) a) Galatians Folly (3:1a) O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you Paul here practically sputters with indignation. And rightly so! The Galatians were in danger of nullifying the grace of God. The so-called Judaizers had come from Jerusalem to persuade them that the works of the law were necessary for their justification. But in that case, what was the point of the cross? Why would someone else have to die for my sins if I could take care of them myself? The logical implication of justification by works is that Christ died for no purpose (2:21). With this thought in mind, Paul s subsequent outburst becomes completely understandable. As far as Paul was able to tell, the Galatians were guilty of sheer spiritual stupidity. Paul was at a loss to know how people could believe such nonsense. You foolish Galatians reflects a combination of anger and love mixed with surprise. Anoētos ( foolish ) does not connote mental deficiency but mental laziness and carelessness. The believers in Galatia were not stupid; they simply failed to use their spiritual intelligence when faced by the unscriptural, gospel-destroying teaching of the Judaizers. They were not using their heads.. Paul calls the Galatians to account for succumbing to the temptation to add to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their consideration of the requirement of circumcision and observance of the ceremonial laws exposed their folly. Paul is building on the theme of the fool found in the book of Proverbs. The word foolish means thoughtless or unthinking. The foolish are those who think and act like the world. Paul is telling the Galatians that they are acting foolishly and not Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

2 with biblical sense. Paul is not writing them off as false converts, but he is calling into question their understanding of the gospel. Paul intensifies his rebuke by asking them, Who has bewitched you? Bewitched is from baskainō, which means to charm or fascinate in a misleading way, as by flattery, false promises, or occultic power, and clearly suggests the use of feeling over fact, emotion over clear understanding of truth. The Galatians were not victims of a magical spell or incantation, but were misled pupils of teachings they should have instantly recognized as false. The Greek term ebaskanen means to give someone the evil eye, to cast a spell over, to fascinate by holding someone spellbound by an irresistible power. It was as if a sorcerer had cast an evil spell on them, or as if a magician had them under his hypnotic influence. They are acting as someone who has lost his rational senses, who acts contrary to biblical revelation, as if some magician had cast on them a spell of incomprehension. Paul knew, of course, that the Galatians were not really enchanted. They were under the influence of false teachers who wanted to add the law of Moses to faith in Jesus Christ to produce a Jesus plus gospel. But the language he uses suggests that there was some kind of demonic influence at work. Doctrinal error has two primary sources: human ignorance and demonic malevolence. The church in Galatia faced both problems. The Galatians themselves were so foolish as to abandon the gospel, but they were doing so because they were under spiritual attack. Underlying his indictment is the role of Satan. All temptation is bewitching, because in temptation Satan promises results that cause us to set aside the truth of Scripture with respect to doctrine and practice. Every day, professing Christians are bewitched by the siren song of Satan, sometimes through suggestions of popularity, at other times by immoral relationships. None of us are exempt, because this is how temptation works. When we feel the beguiling power of temptation, we should remember these words of the apostle Paul, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? All temptation is bewitchment and can bring us into spiritual folly. The basic problem of the Galatians was a failure to apply their faith-enlightened minds to discern truth from falsehood. They had allowed themselves to be led into error without questioning their teachers. They had neglected to examine the Judaizers gospel and, as a result, had departed from the truth. There is a familiar ring about all this. The temptations to abandon sound doctrine for novelty or excitement; to submit to human ideologies rather than the truth as it is in Christ; to tailor the gospel to suit the tastes of men; to compromise the truth with error for the sake of peace; to abandon the hard work of thinking for oneself and follow false shepherds with persuasive personalities all these are prevalent today, as they were in Paul s time. b) Galatians Experience (3:1b) that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? In order to break the spell that they were under, the Galatians needed to look to the cross. The fact that Paul specifically mentions the eye is intriguing, because the ancients generally though that enchantment came through the evil eye. Now that they were bewitched, the Galatians needed to fix their eyes back on the cross of Christ. Paul uses two arguments to show the spiritual folly of the Galatians. First, they were acting contrary to the gospel by which they were brought initially to Christ. Paul reminds them of how Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

3 God delivered them from the guilt of sin. God used the preaching of Christ in the gospel to deliver them from sin with its burden, guilt, and bondage. True faith is characterized by submission to the truth. Publicly portrayed translates prographō, a word that was used of posting important official notices on a placard in the marketplace or other public location for citizens to read. Jesus had been figuratively placarded before the Galatians by Paul himself for everyone to see clearly. Paul describes his preaching as the painting of word pictures, as the placarding of truth. The word portrayed comes from the world of advertising. The Greeks used it to refer, for example, to the kind of public notice posted to show that a property was up for sale. What the Galatians had seen, then, was a graphic public display of the crucified Christ. Jesus Christ had been placarded before them, as if on a giant billboard, or a large canvas. This does not mean Paul used visual aids in his preaching. He is referring instead to his proclamation of the gospel. Preaching should proclaim Christ crucified with such power and vividness that people see and feel the power of the cross. Paul is not talking about a spine-tingling, sensational description of the crucifixion. Neither is he talking about a dramatic presentation of the physical act of crucifixion. No! The portrayal of the cross was not limited to a rehearsal of the historical facts. He had expounded to them the meaning of the cross in a way that left no room for misunderstanding. He is talking about preaching the doctrine of the cross, about preaching the reality and effect of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. The power of preaching takes the mighty acts of God in history and displays them to the minds and hearts in the present. By the time Paul was finished preaching to them, the Galatians felt they had seen the crucifixion with their own eyes, watching the living body of Jesus nailed to the cross (cp. 1 Cor. 1:18, 23; 2:2). Paul s language suggests that preaching must be earnest and passionate. He himself preached with such a passion, as if Christ was crucified there in the midst of the congregation. It was by that kind of preaching that God delivered them from their sins. The most useful antidote against temptation is to think on the beauty and loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is significant that in Galatians Paul speaks of the crucifixion in the perfect tense. The perfect tense denotes a past event that continues to have significance in the present. And if ever there was an event that called for the perfect tense, it was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Paul was upset with the Galatians because they were forgetting about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. He had laid out for them Jesus Christ having been crucified. But then some other teachers had come along to write some graffiti on his billboard. What the Galatians needed, then, was a reminder that on the cross Jesus did everything necessary for their salvation. Paul reminds the Galatians of what seems to have been three vital elements of his own preaching to them. 1 Christ. It was Jesus Christ that Paul preached! He wants them to be reminded again that the gospel, and Christianity itself, is about a Person Jesus Christ. 2. Crucifixion. Paul had preached Jesus as crucified. The tense implies something that has been completed. Nothing needs to be added to it in any way. All of the apostle s hope is based upon what Jesus accomplished at Calvary. 3. Clarity. Paul says that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified before them. No one listening to the apostle s preaching in Galatia could fail to grasp what it was about. Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

4 2. Rhetorical Questions (3:2-5) Second, Paul demonstrates that the doctrine of the Judaizers was contrary to the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Galatian believers. In verse two, Paul introduces a series of questions. To determine the one thing he wants to learn, he probes their consciences with a series of four rhetorical questions with respect to their reception of the Holy Spirit. Paul leads them through this series of questions to demonstrate the folly of departing from the gospel of grace for a false gospel of works righteousness. Essentially all these questions boiled down to a single issue: Does the Christian obtain the Holy Spirit by working the law or by hearing with faith? A rhetorical question is a statement disguised as a question. Paul is, in fact, making important statements about the nature of genuine faith, which he contrasts with a trust in human nature and its works. The rhetorical question format serves a second, but equally useful, purpose. By using questions, the apostle invites his readers to think things out for themselves. Paul is ever the teacher, even when (as here) he is beside himself with indignation. Paul makes them think. By asking rhetorical questions, he forces them to think through their position. It is a measure of how far removed we are from the New Testament world that today we would be more likely to hear someone asking, And how do you feel about this? The Galatians were not unique in failing to think through the implications of their actions. We, like them, are prone to be carried away by enthusiasms, or mesmerized by novel doctrines. It is vital that Christians be taught to think through what they believe and practice. They must understand the gospel, for only then will they be able to recognize distortions and perversions of it. Too many who profess to believe do so on the basis of emotions, experiences, or submission to self-appointed leaders, rather than understanding. Sound biblical teaching is the antidote to the false ideas and deviations which afflict the gospel in every age. a) First Question Initiation (3:2) This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Paul wanted to know how the Galatians had received the Holy Spirit. There were and are only two possibilities: the Spirit either comes by works of the law or by hearing with faith. Here two principles are set in opposition: law and faith. If the Spirit comes by working the law, then there is something I must do to get the Spirit. If I keep Torah and follow the regulations of the Old Testament law, then God will give me His Spirit. Thus the blessing of the Holy Spirit is God s reward for my spiritual achievements. However, the only way to know Him is by entering into a trusting relationship with Him. The indwelling presence of His Spirit comes by faith alone. Notice that Paul addresses them as believers, as those who had received the Holy Spirit. Whereas we would perhaps speak of conversion to signal the point at which we become Christians, the early church talked about receiving the Spirit (cp. Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 2:12; 2 Cor. 11:4; Acts 2:38). Anyone who does not have the Spirit is not a Christian (Rom. 8:9). The principal works of the law under discussion were circumcision and the food laws, but Paul is here making a general point. The issues being discussed had signaled an error in their understanding of the relationship between the law and the way a person is brought into a saving relationship with God. Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

5 How had the Galatians first received the Spirit? The answer is that they had heard Paul preach the good news of Jesus death and they had responded by believing it. They had come to God by faith following something they had heard (cp. Rom. 10:17). It is the fact that they had come into a right relationship with God through faith alone and not by any obedience to the law that is the main point here. Since the knowledge of Christ comes to us through the preaching of the gospel, it is natural for Paul to use the term hearing of faith to describe the means by which the Holy Spirit is received. The coming of the Holy Spirit to the believer is, therefore, the cause of faith, but the conscious experience of His coming is the consequence of faith. Notice that Paul has put this first question in the context of preaching. As they heard the gospel they responded in faith and repentance. The question implies the answer that they received the Spirit when they believed, not by works of the law. This question and answer are very important, because the Spirit was at the forefront of all apostolic ministry and the spread of the gospel. As Paul speaks about the Spirit, he is talking both about the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. The Spirit was given to them when they responded in faith to the gospel. The Spirit was granted to the Galatians under Paul s preaching to demonstrate that the gospel had come to Gentiles as well as to Jews. They were baptized with the Spirit when they believed the gospel. Consequently, they did not receive the Spirit by the works of the law, but rather by believing the gospel. In fact, they had received the Spirit long before the Judaizers came to tell them to keep the law. The Galatians received the Spirit when they came to faith in Christ. Faith in Christ comes by hearing the gospel, and the Spirit comes along with the faith. Thus the Spirit s work is not reward based on a person s own spiritual achievement, it is a gift granted to those who believe in Christ s achievement. Some Christians teach that the Holy Spirit is a gift Christians receive sometime after they come to Christ. This second blessing suggests that Christians come in two varieties: with and without the Holy Spirit. What Paul says here obviously rules this idea out. The gift of the Spirit is received by the same faith that lays hold of Christ. The works, gifts, and fruit of the Holy Spirit belong to the very beginning of the Christian life. Thus the whole Christian life is lived in the Spirit. Like the Judaizers, many groups and movements today want to introduce special conditions or requirements that supposedly add blessings to the finished and perfect work of Christ such as a greater fullness of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, or a more complete salvation. But all such things are forms of works righteousness, adding things that men can do to what Christ has already done and that only He could have done. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the believer s most unmistakable evidence of God s favor, his greatest proof of salvation, and the guarantee of eternal glory. It is therefore ludicrous to maintain, as some Christians do, that the full gift of the Holy Spirit comes through an additional work or experience. A person who does not have the fullness of the Holy Spirit does not need a second blessing; he needs salvation. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the new birth. b) Second Question Completion (3:3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

6 Once the Galatians were forced to admit that they had received the Holy Spirit by faith alone, the argument was over. This is why Paul said he wanted to ask them only one question. Grant him that the Spirit comes by faith alone, and the whole matter is settled. This truth has profound implications for the Christian life. It means that the Christian life finishes exactly the way it starts. The way into the Christian life is also the way on in the Christian life. So Paul s next question is this: Are you trying to be perfected by your own (sinful) efforts? The very suggestion is absurd, of course, yet it is precisely what the Judaizers were telling the Galatians. They said that faith was fine as far as it went, but justification was completed through works. In other words, you must let Moses finish what Christ has begun. Paul understood that only God can complete what God has begun, so that the completion must come by faith rather than by works. Here Paul demonstrates that when the Galatians received the Spirit, they received everything they needed for salvation. Notice that the contrast here is not between flesh and faith but between flesh and Spirit. By the term flesh he is referring to the fleshly works of the circumcision and ceremonies. It is the effort of human nature, unaided by the Spirit. To follow the Judaizers in their obedience to Moses law, is (Paul implies) to depend upon the flesh, not upon the Spirit of God. One of the marks of the age of the Spirit was that obedience to the ceremonial law was not a requirement, since that aspect of the law had been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. To now insist that such obedience was necessary was to return to the age of the flesh. Were they able to perfect through a works righteousness when they received their faith? The answer is obvious; having begun by the Spirit, they should continue in the Spirit, because He who has begun a good work in them would bring it to fruition. To continue in the flesh would be to deny Jesus death had ended the ceremonial law. Spiritual completeness (including what some call sanctification ) cannot be obtained by obedience to the law, for the law makes its demands upon the flesh, not the Spirit. c) Third Question Persecution (3:4) Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? One of the reasons it would have been especially foolish for the Galatians to return to the law has to do with all the hardships they had faced. The word suffered (epathete) may refer to actual suffering. Perhaps the Galatians themselves had come under attack for their faith in Christ. There is another option, however. The Greek word carries the basic idea of experience and only sometimes that of pain and hardship. Since the context suggests nothing of suffering or hardship, it seems best to take the word here to refer to all the spiritual experiences the Galatians had been through. Their experience testified to them of the Spirit s work in their lives. Without genuine faith, in Christ alone, all that the Galatians have endured for their religious beliefs would have been suffered to no purpose. Paul still regards the Galatians as true believers, in spite of their errors. Here, he is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. If they return to the truth, then their suffering will not have been in vain after all. In fact, his words at the end of verse 4 if indeed it was in vain seem almost hopeful. Paul softens the blow, leaving open the possibility and hope that perhaps all is not yet lost. Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

7 d) Fourth Question Miracles (3:5) Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Paul is here speaking of the direct ministry of God among them. This ministry took two forms, an outward ministration of miracles, and an inward supply of the Holy Spirit. Provides is from epichorēgeō, which means to supply abundantly and with great generosity. It was used of patrons of the arts who underwrote productions of Greek plays and of patriotic citizens who gave of their wealth to help support their country s army or government. It was also used of a groom s vow to love and care for his bride. In His superabundant generosity to His children, God provides them with the Spirit and works miracles among them. Miracles translates dunamis, which refers basically to inherent power or ability. Paul may have been referring to miraculous events God had worked among Galatian believers, or he may have been referring to the spiritual power over Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and human weakness that the Father bestows on His children through His Spirit. The miracles of the New Testament were, with few (if any) exceptions, divine acts of authentication. They point to the authenticity of Christ as God s anointed one, either directly in His own miracles, or indirectly in the signs and wonders wrought by those who testified of Christ (Heb. 2:3-4). Such miracles attaché only to Christ Himself and to those through whom the gospel was first revealed. These historical miracles still serve the same purpose today, that is, to authenticate Christ and the Scriptures which declare His gospel. There is no need for them to be repeated. But in the absence of faith, miracles are meaningless, for they themselves do not persuade unregenerate men to believe (cp. Mt. 13:58). In the inward supply of the Holy Spirit, we have the secret of godly living. As part of the work of regeneration, God the Holy Spirit imparts the gift of faith. By the exercise of this faith, the believer receives, or is supplied with, the power of the Spirit. In this power, the believer then accomplishes the work of faith, acting and living in a way that pleases God. Only faith can function in this manner. The works of the law involve no gift from God, no spiritual sight, no empowering by the Spirit. They depend instead upon the arm of the flesh, the powerless strength of human nature. Paul s argument is itself powerful: if a person has received eternal salvation through trust in the crucified Christ, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit the same moment he believed, and has the Father s Spirit-endowed power working within him, how could he hope to enhance that out of his own insignificant human resources by some meritorious effort? The answer by now is obvious; they received the Spirit by faith; they continue in the Spirit by faith; their experience has testified to these things; all these things happened because they believed the gospel. There is no such thing as performance-based Christianity. Having begun by faith, we must continue by faith. 3. Practical Lessons Faith (spiritual sight leading to trust in God) is the bedrock of Christian experience and life. True faith: 1) obeys (submits to) the truth of the gospel; 2) receives the Holy Spirit; 3) relies on the Spirit for growth and maturity; 4) pleases God; and 5) accomplishes through the Spirit good works. The works of the law can do none of these things, because such works are the fruit of Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

8 human effort, carried out in spiritual blindness and in the strength and discernment of sinful human nature ( the flesh ). In this section we learn three distinguishing marks of preaching. First, Paul s preaching was Christo-centric (cp. 1 Cor. 1:2). We know that Paul preached the whole counsel of God, so when he talks about preaching Christ, he is not omitting any doctrines of the faith. Second, Paul s preaching was intellectual. His arguments are carefully constructed; the rhetorical questions are carefully worked out. Paul expected his audience to think. Third, Paul s preaching was experiential; namely, it was marked by Christian experience and passion. He himself experienced and loved the doctrines he proclaimed. He preached them with a passion and in such a way as to probe the consciences of his hearers. B. Sons of Abraham (Gal. 3:6-9) Paul will now embark on the first of three major arguments from the Scriptures to underline the truth of his own position (3:6-9; 3:15-25; 4:21-31). To those men from James who had come to Jerusalem from Antioch, and to the Judaizing faction in Galatia, these arguments would prove far more pointed than anything Paul has said thus far. All three arguments will have Abraham as a common theme. No figure in Jewish history could have greater significance to the Judaizers than Abraham. To appeal to him would gain their attention, and undermine their position at the same time. The Judaizers, like all Jews, were exceedingly proud of their descent from Abraham. So when the Jews wanted to prove to Jesus they were children of God, they said, We are offspring of Abraham. Abraham is our father (Jn. 8:33, 39). Therefore, if the Gentiles wanted to belong to God, they had to become children of Abraham. The only way to become a true child of Abraham, said the Judaizers, was to be circumcised as he was. This was taught right in the Scriptures (cp. Gen. 17:10). Until the Gentiles were circumcised, they had no right to call Abraham their father or to call God their Father, for that matter. Therefore, to demonstrate that Abraham was justified by faith, therefore, would be the most telling argument possible against these false teachers. Undoubtedly the reason the apostle Paul has so much to say about Abraham in Galatians 3 and 4 is that the Judaizers made such a fuss over him. They claimed that Father Abraham and all his children belonged to God, not by faith alone, but by works of the law. In addition to misunderstand the gospel, the Judaizers were also guilty of misunderstanding the Old Testament. Therefore, in order to refute their performance-based version of Christianity, Paul had to go back to the Hebrew Scriptures. In verses 1 through 5, his argument for justification by faith alone appealed to experience the Galatian experience of the Holy Spirit. In verses 6 and following, he argues for faith alone on the basis of biblical history, using Abraham as a test case. The Judaizers loved to go back to Genesis 17, where God s covenant with Abraham was signified by circumcision. But Paul went back even further, to God s promise of a child in Genesis 15. In verses 1-5, Paul uses the experience of the Galatians to remind them that they had received Christ by faith through the preaching of the gospel and that by faith they received the Holy Spirit, who was given as the pledge of forgiveness of sins and adoption as the children of God. Having laid that foundation, Paul begins in verse 6 to prove his doctrine from the Old Testament, beginning with the story of Abraham. Since the Judaizers were saying that the Gentiles, in order to enjoy the full privileges of the church, had to become Jews, they adamantly claimed that they Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

9 Gentiles, in order to be saved, had to become circumcised children of Abraham. They used Abraham as certain proof that circumcision was necessary to please God and become acceptable to Him. Paul refutes this error from the Bible by teaching two things: first, one becomes a child of Abraham by faith and, second, one inherits the promises of Abraham by faith. 1. Children of Faith (3:6-7) A sinner becomes a child of Abraham by faith. Paul states a truth in verse 6 and then draws an inference in verse 7. a) Old Testament Truth (3:6; cp. Gen. 15:1-6) just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. In verse 6, Paul establishes that Abraham was saved by faith by quoting Genesis 15:6. In context, Abraham was feeling vulnerable after defeating the coalition of kings in Genesis 14. When Abraham felt his weakness and inability to accomplish anything, God graciously renewed the promise of a great seed that would possess the nations of the earth. In response to this promise, Abraham believed in the Lord. Abraham s faith began with the recognition of his utter inability and poverty. He had to believe in the sufficiency of God; he was certain that God would do whatever He promised. Since this verse occurs in Genesis 15, two chapters before Abraham was circumcised in Genesis 17, what is true of Abraham here is true of him apart from any consideration of his being circumcised. Paul makes this same argument in his letter to the Roman church (cp. Rom. 4:7-12). What does it mean that God reckoned Abraham as righteous? The word for reckoned or counted (elogisthē) comes from the realm of wages being credited to a worker. To put it into financial terms, he accounted him righteous. Trusting God was like opening a bank account. Immediately, God transferred righteousness into Abraham s account. This does not mean that Abraham was actually righteous, only that he was declared righteous. He was considered to have a right standing before God. In theological terms, God imputed His righteousness to Abraham; He said that Abraham was righteous in His sight. This declaration is part of justification: God forgives our sin and declares us to be righteous in His sight for evermore. The point is that Abraham was reckoned to be righteous not on the basis of anything he had done, or ever would do, but upon his believing the promises God made to him. It is an example of justification by faith alone in the promised Christ alone. Abraham was already convert; he had followed God for many years. Abraham did not have to get circumcised to be justified. This is the genius of Paul s argument against the Judaizers. God counted Abraham righteous before he had even heard of circumcision! (cp. Rom. 4:9-10). In other words, the great patriarch was justified while he was still an uncircumcised Chaldean! The Judaizers, like most other Jews of that day, had completely reversed the relationship of circumcision and salvation. Circumcision was only a mark, not the means of salvation. Circumcision is an external, physical act that has no effect on the spiritual work of justification. God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham long after He had already declared him to be righteous because of his faith. Physical circumcision was a matter of earthly, ceremonial identity with God s people, whereas salvation is a matter of spiritual identity with Him; and if the earthly symbol had not genuine spiritual counterpart it was worthless. Even under the Old Covenant, circumcision itself carried no spiritual power. Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

10 God makes this declaration at this time in order to demonstrate how one is saved. God spells out the theological principle that a person receives righteousness through believing the promises of God and not through his own works and efforts. God also reminds us that whether it is the day we first come to Christ or many years later, we are justified by faith alone and by nothing else. What exactly did Abraham believe? The gospel teaches that we must believe in Christ if we are to be counted righteous. When God promised Abraham a son, through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3), Abraham perceived not merely the promise later fulfilled in Isaac, but also a more distant promise (cp. Heb. 11:10, 13). That promise was Christ, of whom Isaac was a type (cp. Heb. 11:17-19). Abraham s faith was not in earthly promises, but in the coming Christ. b) New Testament Application (3:7) Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Paul now comes to the key question: who are Abraham s true descendents? Are they the Jewish race, descended physically from the patriarch? In verse 7 Paul draws the inference: everyone who trusts in God by faith is a son of Abraham. Remember the Judaizers had been saying that salvation was by faith plus circumcision. One had to become a Jew to be saved. There was an element of truth in what the Judaizers were saying. They correctly understood that God had only one people. There is only one church and it consists of the spiritual descendants of Abraham. God will not have another people who are saved in another way. The Judaizers problem was their failure to understand how one became a part of the seed of Abraham. They said to the Gentiles who believed that they also must be circumcised. They had to become Jews in their flesh and not just in their hearts. In contrast Paul draws this very important inference that a person becomes a child of Abraham by faith. The fact that Abraham was justified as a Gentile made him the perfect example to use for the Galatians, who had been wrestling with two questions: Whom does God accept, and on what basis? Membership in Abraham s family is not hereditary. Father Abraham s true sons and daughters are not the people who keep the law, but the people who live by faith. Their family resemblance is spiritual rather than physical. Jews with no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are not true sons of Abraham, whereas gentiles who believe in Him are. Abraham s heirs are not of blood, but of faith. In God s eyes, descent is not reckoned genetically or ethnically, but spiritually. Abraham s children are not those who share his genes, but those who share his faith (cp. Rom. 4:11-12). The truth that Paul is teaching here was very difficult for the Jews to accept. Even today many Christians cherish the idea that faith can somehow be passed on physically from parents to children. Not so, says the apostle. Faith is God s gift, imparted to each believer by a sovereign work of God s Spirit. Practically speaking, this means that God will accept us only on the same basis as He accepted Abraham. Like father, like son. If Abraham were justified by faith, then his children have to be justified by faith too. Therefore, we will never become children of God by what we do, only by what we believe. What must we then believe? Notice the object of Abraham s faith: he put his trust in God. What Abraham believed was not simply God s promises, which he could hardly believe, but God Himself. Abraham put his faith in the faithful God the God who made him the promise. If we are to become children of Abraham, and therefore children of God, we must Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

11 have the same faith, and we must put it in the same place. We must trust the God who keeps every promise He has ever made. In what ways are Christians the sons of Abraham? First, we are sons by way of imitation; we enter the church in exactly the same way that Abraham entered the church, by faith. Our faith begins where Abraham s faith began, with the sense of our helplessness. Then it moves to an assurance that God is who He says He is and will do all that He promises. Second, we are also the sons of Abraham by covenant unity. God has appointed Abraham as the covenant head of the visible family of God, and we enter into his household through faith. 2. Heirs by Faith (3:8-9) In verse 6 Paul proved that justification by faith was God s plan for Abraham. In verse 7 he showed that people like the Galatians could become Abraham s children by the same faith. In verses 8 and 9, Paul goes a step further and shows that by faith we receive the blessings of Abraham. a) Old Testament Promise (3:8; cp. Gen. 12:1-3) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. In verse 8 Paul proves that justification by faith alone has always been God s plan for all people everywhere. The promises made to Abraham fall into two categories. First there were the physical promises, namely that he would be given a multitude of descendents and a homeland. Secondly there were spiritual promises, relating to the coming of Christ. To complicate matters, the physical promises themselves, although literally fulfilled, were also pictures of the spiritual blessings to come. Here in verse 8, Paul teaches that the gospel of Christ was enshrined in the promises. Before Abraham was circumcised, he received the gospel. He believed God; his justification is declared in Genesis 15:6, but God does not command him to be circumcised until Genesis 17. Paul demonstrates that it was God s intention to save the Gentiles in exactly the same way that He saved Abraham, and that is by faith. In verse 8, Paul quotes the conclusion of God s very first promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. This promise was made no fewer than three times to Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18), once to Isaac (Gen. 26:4), and once to Jacob (Gen. 28:14). Instead of quoting the whole promise, he draws our attention to the climax. God had promised that the nations would be blessed in him. These nations would receive His blessings in exactly the same way Abraham had received them, by faith. Therefore Paul reminds us that we receive the blessings of Abraham by faith alone. Firstly, all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham s seed. The Judaizers sought to limit the blessing of the gospel to the Jews and any others who would adopt Judaism through submission to the law of Moses. Paul here demonstrates that this teaching is utterly at variance with the Scripture. Far from limiting the blessing of Abraham to the people of the old covenant, the gospel reveals that the Gentiles are fellow heirs (cp. Eph. 3:6). This plan of salvation is for all people everywhere. It is universal. It is for all nations. The blessing of justification was never for the Jews alone; it was always intended for the whole world. Through Abraham, God s blessing would come to every ethnic community in the world, to every tribe, people, and language. Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

12 It is interesting that the apostle chooses to identify the Scriptures with the words of God Himself. The promises in Genesis come from the mouth of God, but for Paul, what the Bible says and what God says are one and the same. The Scripture preached even though God was the one doing the talking. Paul attributes to Scripture the divine quality of foreknowledge. Paul sees no inconsistency in equating the words that God spoke to Abraham with the written record of those words preserved in the Bible. The Old Testament had the foresight to predict the coming of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. The Scriptures not only predicted that He would come, but also prophesied the precise way that He would save. He would justify sinners by faith, exactly as God justified Abraham. This is an excellent example of the way the New Testament writers regarded the Old Testament writing as the Word of God. When Scripture speaks, God speaks. The Bible is God s Word. b) New Testament Conclusion (3:9) So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Secondly, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This is the emphasis on which Paul chooses to conclude this passage. No doubt the Galatians were seeking blessing. They had known something of the blessing of the gospel, and quite rightly desired more. But their very desire for a richer experience of Christ had made them prey to false teachers. Many other false teachers have savaged the flock of Christ, offering something extra by way of novel doctrines, mystical experiences, miraculous powers, emotional excitement, or material well-being. Only too late do those who heed them discover that their teaching leads, not to spiritual fulfillment, but to bondage. In verse 9, Paul draws the conclusion that all Christians are in Abraham s household and receive the blessings in the same way that he received them. What are these blessings? The blessings promised to Abraham were more than the temporal blessings of land and posterity; they were the blessings of the gospel that were first promised in Genesis 3:15 and repeated throughout the Bible; namely the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. True blessing consists in God s favor upon us and our lives, both in time and eternity. Such blessing, Paul tells the Galatians, is found in Christ, and Christ alone. Verse 9 speaks of a common blessing. We are blessed with Abraham, so that all his blessings become our blessings. The blessing Paul has in mind is the gospel blessing God announced to Abraham: to be justified, or accepted as righteous in God s sight. The writer to the Hebrews clearly states that these were the blessings promised to Abraham (cp. Heb. 11:15-16). Abraham recognized the spirituality of the promises. He sought eternal life, God as his inheritance, and the forgiveness of sins. These are the things God gave to Abraham, and Paul reminds us that God gives the same to us if we are the sons of Abraham. It is by faith we become the sons of Abraham and by faith we receive these great promises of Abraham. 3. Practical Lessons Two lessons are evident here. First, this Scripture passage teaches that God has but one people. By faith Gentiles enter into Abraham s family, which is the church. Consequently, God teaches us that He does not have two peoples: the church and the nation of Israel. The household of Abraham is the church. By faith we enter the household of Abraham or, to take Paul s other image, we are grafted into one olive tree (Rom. 11:17-24). There are not two trees. There is one tree and some of the natural branches were lopped off, because of unbelief, and others were Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11

13 engrafted in by faith. The church of God is the new Israel. There is but one household, there is but one church, and we enter the church in but one way, faith. A second lesson flows from the first. If it is the same church, with the same blessings, then we also have the same covenant privileges for our children that Abraham had for his. If there is but one church, with one set of promises, and one way of entering, there must be but one covenant. The inclusion of Abraham s children in the covenant is one of the many arguments that prove children of believers are members of the covenant community today, with the same covenant standing as Abraham s children. Each of God s covenant administrations embraced the children. Since children in the old covenant received circumcision, and baptism has replaced circumcision (cp. Col. 2:11-13), the Bible makes it clear that children of Christians should be baptized. But there is also a warning. Circumcision did not save all who experienced it. As in the old covenant, circumcision had to be united with faith, so baptized covenant children must come to Christ by faith and repentance. Their baptism does not save them. Baptism is the sign and seal of God s promise that they are in the covenant and heirs of the promises of the covenant, but they must come to Christ for themselves. For next time: Read Galatians 3: Galatians Notes.doc p Nov-11