(Leaving the Detour Behind)
“Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.” – Galatians 3:11 CSB
Read: Galatians Chapter 3 NLT
Paul uses five questions to help the Galatians exercise faith and reason to resist the pull of people using false teaching.
“The mind is a marvelous gift and has important and essential functions in the life of faith. There are times when it is the only means given to us for discriminating between truth and error, between sense and nonsense, between what is actual and what is illusion, between the popular insanity of the age and the enduring sanity of the gospel.” – Eugene Peterson Traveling Light
(Keeping Things in Perspective/Sense of Proportion) “Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.” v1
Definition: If someone is good at keeping things in perspective, they have a good feel for what matters most and how big or small something really is in context. They are able to discern the correct priority and importance of something and respond accordingly.
What things in our lives right now have we made into a bigger problem/priority in our lives simply because we are hearing about them a lot right now? Have we been guilty of losing our sense of perspective?
Paul questions the Galatians’ sanity because they have lost their ability to discern what is important and respond appropriately.
In the context of Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia, he is warning them about placing anything in higher importance over Jesus’ death and resurrection – particularly where their salvation is concerned.
“For it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.” v1b
We must keep our salvation in Jesus in clear focus to maintain a healthy perspective.
(Experience) “How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you?”
Paul questions how the people of Galatia could forget their personal experience of their salvation story and be swayed by false teachers telling them that salvation in Jesus Christ is not enough.
If you are a Jesus follower, take some time this week to think about your personal relationship with God, the story of how you were saved and all that God has done in your life since then. If you aren’t, ask someone here to share their story with you!
Whenever we doubt that our salvation in Jesus is enough, it is helpful for us to remember our personal salvation story.
(Realistic Sense of Self): “Are you going to continue with this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.”
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? – ESV
Paul was calling out the Galatians because they had an unrealistic sense of self. They had lost their ability to view themselves accurately.
God was the initiator of our salvation by sending Jesus to die for our sins. We did not begin the process of our salvation so why do we try to “finish” it ourselves?
We need to base our sense of self on God’s word not our feelings.
(Standing Firm and Holding Fast/Rooted/Values) “Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing?”
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? – ESV
“in vain” (greek) – without reason (Col 2:18+); 2. LN 89.54 with no result, in vain, for nothing (1Co 15:2; Gal 3:4; 4:11+); 3. LN 89.63 for no purpose (Ro 13:4+)
So why is Paul asking if the Galatians’ suffering has been in vain?
We know from his other writings that Paul considers suffering for Christ’s sake to be a blessing for believers.
However, suffering is a blessing only when it strengthens our confident hope of salvation and our receptiveness to the Holy Spirit. Paul is frustrated with the Galatians because instead of them growing more assured of their salvation in Christ through their suffering, they were letting it go to waste.
“Stand” – remain firmly, stay in a particular state
“Hold fast” – continue belief, implying appropriate action
What does standing firm and holding fast actually look like?
Daily meditating on the truth of our salvation in Jesus
Thanking God for the redemptive work He has done in our lives
Stand firm and hold fast onto the truth of the Good News of Jesus and you will not be swayed when your beliefs and values are challenged.
(Reality of Who God Is) “Does the God who lavishly provides you with His own presence, His Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does He do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust Him to do them in you?”
“Why does it matter if we truly understand who God is?”
Euguene Peterson, Traveling Light “A wrong idea of reality leads to a wrong response to life. If we think God is stern and angry and despotic, we will live frightened. If we think that God is miserly and stingy, we will live feeling [deprived]. If we think God is abstract and impersonal, we will live aimlessly and trivially…In touch with that reality [of who God is] we live with a sense of abandonment and walk with a confident gaiety, freely trusting, freely hoping, freely loving.”
Understanding the reality of who God is allows us to live freely in the knowledge that God loves us, He saves us, and He is in control.
The Good News of salvation in Jesus reveals the reality of who God is and how He wants us to live in freedom.
“Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.” – Galatians 3:11 CSB
Justified Greek – to pronounce righteous, to justify. To make or declare someone or something righteous. In the nt, the verb ??????? (dikaio?) means to pronounce or declare a person “righteous.” For Paul, faith in Christ is the basis for all justification, the result of which is righteous living (Rom 2:13; Gal 2:16–17).
“Justification means being put together the way we are supposed to be. Made right – not improved, not decorated, not veneered, not patched up, but justified. Our fundamental being is set in right relationship with God.” “Christ is the agent of the creation-affirming, person-saving act. He restores us to the condition of our creation so that our wills are able to respond to God’s love.” – Eugene Peterson Traveling Light
Law – law, principle, custom. Can refer to the law of Moses as a text or as a system.
Righteous – just, correct, innocent. The characteristic of following God’s law.
Faith – faithfulness, assurance; faith, confidence; what is believed, teaching, often used to indicate the appropriate response to God’s promise
What does it mean to “live by faith”? Let’s review what Pastor Ben shared last Sunday:
“living by faith” = living by faith in Jesus
Receiving the saving grace of Jesus happens by faith and it changes us in every way. This new life and redemption brings a transformational identification with Jesus. We no longer live for ourselves, but we now live by faith in Jesus. In this way we can please God. Our new motivation for life springs from gratitude. It is walked out through gracious humility.
What does living by the law look like vs living by faith?
Doing things for God vs entering into what God does for you
A moral program vs a relationship
Now let’s look at Timothy Keller’s Religion – Gospel contrast chart for more comparisons
Religion (Law): My identity and self-worth are based on mainly how hard I work or how moral I am, so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to others.
Gospel (Faith in Jesus): My identity and self-worth are centered on the One who died for His enemies, including me. Only by sheer grace am I what I am, so I can’t look down on those who believe or praise something different from me. I have no inner need to win arguments.
Religion: Since I look to my pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my head manufactures idols – talents, moral record, personal discipline, social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them, so they are my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I say I believe about God.
Gospel: I have many good things in my life – family, work, etc., but none of these things are ultimate things to me. I don’t absolutely have to have them, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despair they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.
When we live by faith, God creates in us a heart that wants to please Him, and live a righteous life. But when we live by the law, we fail because we can never follow God’s law and live righteously on our own.
So can we just get rid of the law since it doesn’t make us right with God?
Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. He completes it; not discards it.
We can see how Jesus fulfills the purpose of the law by looking at Abraham.
V 14 “Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.”
Abraham walked out an example of living by faith hundreds of years before the law was given to Moses and we are heirs to that faith.
It is not: first we lived under the law and then Jesus came and now we live by faith
God has always wanted people to live by faith! The law was a detour not the starting point.
Gal 3:21-22 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.V 22But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
What is the point of the law then now that we have received the salvation of Jesus?
The law reveals to us our sin, by holding up a standard for us to realize that we will fall short on our own. This does not negate the effectiveness of God’s conviction working in our hearts; it’s a both/and not an either/or.
The law give us guardrails as we are living by faith. We are guided in righteous living by the Holy Spirit and the law is confirmation that we are obeying God.
The law may help show us our sin, but only Jesus can save us and set us free.
Paul Reaffirms that Salvation in Jesus is for Everyone
Gal 3:26-29 “V 26For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
Paul explained that we are heirs of Abraham – not by blood like the Jews – but by faith
AND since our salvation is not based upon those laws given to the Jews – but instead on our faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection – there are no other criteria/requirements for salvation.
As heirs of Abraham’s faith, we live by faith in Jesus.
We are all loved equally by God as part of His family, and so we are called to love one another without prejudice.
There is freedom in letting go of the differences that divide us and focusing on the God who unites us.
We receive freedom by faith in Jesus, not by our merit in following God’s laws.
When we live by faith, God creates in us a heart that wants to please Him, and live a righteous life.
God has always wanted people to live by faith! The law was a detour not the starting point.
The law shows us our sin, but only Jesus can save us and set us free.
There is freedom in being guided in righteous living by the Holy Spirit and using the law for confirmation that we are obeying God.
There is freedom in letting go of the differences that divide us and focusing on the God who unites us.
Read Galatians 3 – 4 this week.
Write at least one truth from it.
Pray, asking God what may be pulling you from this.
Think about the contrast between Jesus’ Good News and what may be pulling you from it.
Choose to draw closer to Jesus and withdraw from what may be pulling you away from Jesus’ Good News.
