Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

EXPOSITORY ARTICLE – Galatians 3:6-18
Scott Long | Marietta, Pennsylvania

We see it all the time; one who, after he has come to understand the truth, loses confidence in what he knows. He listens to teachers of error and begins to doubt. Maybe, he says, I was too hasty.

The Galatians were such people. Paul reminds them in Galatians 3:1, “Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified,” yet, he marveled because they were turning away from that truth and toward “a different (or another kind) gospel, which is not another (gospel at all),” (Galatians 1:6).

In order to help them understand their error, Paul first asks five pointed, rhetorical questions immediately prior to Galatians 3:6:

Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things in vain?
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?

Though they knew the answers, they were bewitched (deceived) by other teachers. Paul speaks in verse seven of “some who trouble you.” In Galatians 2:1-10, he speaks of false brethren, teaching circumcision, secretly brought in. In Galatians 4, he contrasts Hagar and Sarah as the old (bondage) and new (free) covenants, respectively, and says the Galatians were children of the free. He has harsh words for the teachers of the circumcision in Galatians 5:11-12. He says the reason some teach circumcision is that they may then “boast in your flesh,” (Galatians 6:13). These Galatians had begun thinking the truth about Christ they had heard was not really truth, but the truth lay in the dictates of the Mosaic Law.

The dichotomy illustrated by Paul’s questions is between faith, and the enduring value of it, and Mosaic Law-keeping, and the passing away of it. The Mosaic Law had become that different gospel. The Spirit whom they had received, who was perfecting them, and by whom the miracles were worked, did not come by the law but by the faith they had when they heard about the crucified Christ.

Paul wants to shake them back to reality in chapter three and brings three witnesses (arguments) to the table: Abraham’s righteousness, the curse of the law, and God’s covenant with Abraham. Woven through all three is the promise itself. Why would God have given such a promise to someone who was unfaithful and unrighteous? Did Christ not put away the law to bring the promise to bear for the Gentiles? Did the law originate the promise?

The first of these arguments, in Galatians 3:6-9, centers on faith. What is faith? Faith is a belief in something, driving one to act on that belief. There is no arguing God saw Abraham as righteous, but on what basis did He see him so? Long before the law, Abraham believed God. He had demonstrated faith in God, who then preached the gospel to him in the form of the promise, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” The real and blessed descendants of Abraham, who had faith and was seen as righteous by it, are those who are of faith, not those who try to keep the law.

The second argument of Galatians 3:10-14 centers on the law itself. We sometimes make the mistake of thinking because there was the Mosaic Law, there was no faith. Such is not the case. There was faith under the law. The difference is that doing the things of the law (cf. Leviticus 18:5) only brought one into a right relationship with the Lord. His salvation would still be contingent on the death of Christ on the cross and not only his law-keeping. Paul consistently makes the point that law does not save (Romans 3:20). Notice Galatians 2:16:

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

The Israelite concept was that keeping the law brought salvation (Romans 9:31-32). In fact, the law (and the idea of law-keeping) does not bring salvation; it brings a curse that one who lives by the law must do the law, and do all of it, to be saved. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” James concurs in James 2:10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” In fact, Paul will later say in Galatians 5:3, “And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.” If one cannot keep the law perfectly, he cannot be saved. How does one live then? Paul answers by quoting Habakkuk 2:4, “But the just shall live by his faith” or “But the justified by faith shall live.”

Christ, the only one to keep the law perfectly, Himself became a curse and nailed the law to the cross (Ephesians 3:15) in order that the Galatians might receive the promise through faith and not law. Notice Romans 15:8, “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers.”

Paul uses the promise made to Abraham as the third argument in Galatians 3:15-18. God made a promise to Abraham and His seed, Christ. Abraham had merely wanted a son of his own to inherit from him (Genesis 15:2-3), but God had greater plans. He was not only going to give Abraham an heir, his descendants were going to bring the Savior of mankind into the world (Ephesians 3:20 comes to mind).

Paul’s argument is timing. When was this promise, this covenant, made in relation to the law? The law, Paul says, came four hundred and thirty years after God had made this covenant with Abraham. Did the law set the promise aside? How could it; the promise was made before the law. It neither originated from the law nor depended on the law. It was not made to those under the law. God’s promise to Abraham was independent of the law. And Paul’s conclusion, then, is since it is not of the law, the inheritance resulting from the promise is of faith as Abraham’s promise was of faith. Notice also Romans 4:14, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect…”

Paul’s appeal to these beloved brethren to remain in the truth they had come to know is impassioned but logical. it is based on the facts that Abraham was considered righteous by God because of his faith, that going back to the law requires perfect law-keeping which no one but Christ has done, and the promise came before the law and is not set aside by the law. Galatians, do not be deceived by the teachers of the law who seek to drag you back into bondage. The Spirit whom you have been given, who continues to perfect you, who works miracles among you, and all that for which you have suffered is not from the law but by promise, by faith. “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham,” (Galatians 3:9).

18.04.03 | GROW magazine