Galatians 3 - True Unity Can Only Come Through Jesus!

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Faith or Works of the Law

3 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 the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Paul continues to rebuke the Galatians for their twisting of the gospel. Again, he points to the crucifixion of Jesus. Why would Jesus have to suffer and die for us, if we could justify ourselves by our own works. He then brings up the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift given to us through faith in Jesus, also not by works of the Law. 

The Holy Spirit is the only source of our holiness. The holiness is the only power God has given us to live a new life by faith in the Son of God. After receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, the Galatians were now turning to the flesh, which was no power at all. The flesh, or sinful nature, was the very reason we needed a Savior.

Paul asks them if any deeds of power that had been done among them happened without the Holy Spirit. If they returned to the flesh after receiving the Spirit, they had received the Spirit in vain. Of course, faith and the subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit is a gift of God. The same gift Abraham was given when he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. 

"This lays out one of the fundamental differences between the principle of law and the principle of grace. Under law, we are blessed and grow spiritually by earning and deserving. Under grace, we are blessed and grow spiritually by believing and receiving. God deals with you under the covenant of grace; we should not respond on the principle of law.

Are you so foolish? This was indeed foolishness. This deception was cultivated by Satan to set our Christian life off-track. If he cannot stop us from being saved by faith, then he will attempt to hinder our blessing and growth and maturity by faith." - Guzik

How might you be tempted to go back to trying earn God's love and approval rather than operating in the realm of the Holy Spirit? 

7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 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.”9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Paul connects New Testament faith with the same faith that Abraham exhibited. As he just said "Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness." Abraham was justified by faith just as we are. Though Jesus had not come yet, Abraham trusted in the promises of God, which were fulfilled in Jesus. God's promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed by his faith. Little did he know that his faith would be the same faith that brought both Jews and Gentiles into God's eternal kingdom. 

Among the Galatian Christians, the push towards a works-based relationship with God came from certain other Christians who were born as Jews and who claimed Abraham as their spiritual ancestor. Therefore, Paul used Abraham as an example of being right before God by faith and not by faith plus works.

When did your faith become real to you? Do you realize faith was a gift given to you by God?

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith. 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 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 pole.” 14 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 describes what he calls "the curse of the law". We know the law is good and holy, because it was given by God to Moses through divine revelation. The curse of the Law is that it points out our sinfulness, and that we can never live up to its demands. The curse of the Law is it misleads people into thinking if they only try harder they can be right with God. 

But Jesus "took the curse of the law" upon himself when he died on the cross. Paul quotes the Old Testament saying, "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole". What does this mean? 

When did Jesus pay this price? The principle of Deuteronomy 21:23 shows that Jesus received this curse upon Himself as He hung on the cross, fulfilling the Deuteronomy 21:23 promise of a curse to all who are not only executed but have their bodies publicly exposed to shame. (Guzik)

“This passage did not refer to crucifixion (which the Jews did not practice), but to the hanging on a tree or wooden post of the corpse of a criminal who had been executed. But in the New Testament times a cross was often called a tree and there is no doubting that that is what Paul has in mind here.” (Morris)

The Law and the Promise

15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[i] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Paul differentiates between the covenant promises God made to Abraham, and the law God gave to Moses. Just because God gave the Israelites the Law, it did not take away the promises He gave to Abraham to bless him and make him a blessing to all nations. We also get an idea of the dating of when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, as Paul says they were given 430 years after the covenant God made with Abraham. 

We know the Exodus was around 1446 B.C.  so the covenant would Abraham would be around 1900 B.C. 

Abraham was given the promise as a gift from God, and his trust in it made it effective. He didn't earn it, but still needed to trust in it. The Law didn't replace the promise, but was given to set the Israelites apart from the nations around them. Of course, like us, they could not measure up to the Law. 

Have you ever broken a promise? Has anyone ever broken their promise to you? My guess is the answer to both those questions is a "yes". But God never goes back on a promise and has never broken one. If God went back on one promise, He would not be God. But all of God's promises are "yes" in Jesus Christ. God fulfilled all of his covenant promises by sending Jesus to fulfill the Law for us by dying on the cross!

19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Paul restates what I just said that the Law was added because of transgression. It was added because the Israelites' sin had increased exponentially. But it was only given until the "Seed" would come. We know the "Seed is Jesus". The Law could never give life, but Jesus could give life.

Children of God

23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Paul ends with a famous verse that shows how God's promise is available to all people. 

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus

The cross is the great equalizer. The cross neutralizes all of the earthly distinctions we make to differentiate different classes of people. The first is race. As you know, the Jews hated the Gentiles and thought they were dirty dogs. Over the years the foreign nations compromised of Gentiles hated the Jews, and invaded and decimated them and their temple. In Jesus there is neither Jew or Gentile, all are one in Christ. 

In the bible there was a big distinction between the roles and rights of men and women. One of the most radical things Jesus did was to give women power. They were the first ones he revealed himself to after He rose from the dead, and they were the first one to give testimony regarding his resurreciton. 

He met several women who were outcasts of the society and gave them new life. I.e. The woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery. In Christ there is neither male nor female. We are one in Christ. 

Women have suffered throughout history because of their gender, but the current feminist movement has gone too far in the other direction.  This movement has made women suspicious of any male and looking to see their chauvinistic tendencies. While one can see how this happens. I don't think it solves the problems between men and women, it only creates a further chasm. 

Finally, Paul says there is neither slave nor free. Again there is a big difference in power and means here. Slaves sold their rights in order get their basic needs met. We also saw dehumanizing slavery in our own lifetime. In Jesus there is not power and authority with those who have wealth or not. 

Bottom line is that all of these divisions still exist today. But the solution today is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago. We are all "one in Christ". It is only in Christ can we have true unity. All the human movements for unity in both the church and the world have failed because they have not looked to the cross.