BEGIN IN FAITH,

CONTINUE IN WORKS?

What are you all thinking? You found Christ by faith, and He changed your life. Now why would you think you have to try to earn your blessings? (My paraphrase)

Get this right, and you’ll understand a great deal about a number of things. I like to put it like this:

            If you can’t save yourself, why do you think you can keep yourself saved?

            If you can’t save yourself, why do you think you can continue growing without God’s help?

            THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS GRACE RECEIVED BY FAITH FROM BEGINNING TO IN.

            FAITH FROM FIRST TO LAST!

The Judaizers really, really upset Paul. “Are you guys crazy?” They had heard the Gospel story of Jesus, believed, and became followers. Paul moved on, and this other group came in behind him, teaching that faith was not enough, but they had to return to the Jewish observance of the law.

3:1 – Foolish = mindless! The Greek word literally means without a mind. Dumb!

            Bewitched or deceived? The word can mean either. Somebody must have messed with their minds for them to turn away from faith back to works. Fake news, remember?

            Jesus Christ was clearly placed before them as if on a billboard. Paul had witnessed their acceptance of Jesus as crucified, so he knew they had heard and believed. And make no mistake. The cross is the center of Christianity. In a nutshell, the Gospel is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins; and God raised Him from the dead. His sacrifice of Himself was done so that His life can become our life and we enter eternal life rather than hell.

            I had a seminary theology prof from Oxford, England, who taught his students to always finish a sermon with the cross. He was also my Sunday School teacher for a year, and he practiced what he preached. More often than not, his lesson near the end made straight for the cross.

            What does the cross mean to you? Do you remember the One who called you to follow Him was headed to Calvary and challenged you to pick up your cross and go with Him. Add to that the tremendous example laid out in Philippians 2:5-8, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. How can you apply this to your life?

:2-3 He questions the church: Did you work your way into salvation or by faith accept the Christ we were preaching to you? The obvious answer was by faith. You have no brains! Think, people, think! You began in faith, in following Jesus. Why would you then go back to the “flesh” or works or human effort to live a Christian life?

:4 – Have we been wasting our time? Have you been? Is all this gospel stuff in vain?

:5 – Paul aims a new question at them. Notice in his frustration he maintains his teaching skills. He asks them questions, so they have to answer. True, they are rhetorical questions with easily expected answers, but it respects their need to think for themselves. This question was about their experiences – their own experiences. How did God go to work in your life? Through the old system of works? I don’t think so. He sent His Spirit and empowered your repentance, salvation, and continued miraculous life. He did not do this by the works of the Torah/Pentateuch/Law, but with spiritual dynamic that came from your accepting the gospel we preached to you.

The last few decades Christians have begun to use the phrase, “It’s a God thing.” It means we can see the hand of God behind some event. Can you remember and share with your friends a few recent God things you have witnessed?

:6 – Quite possibly one reason the Judaizers were creating problems was that a significant part of the church was Jewish. After all, Acts tells us that Paul always began in a new town by preaching in the local synagogue, where his rabbinical credentials would admit him. So Paul goes to the Old Testament they knew to strengthen the authority of his argument.

>>>Reminder: The only Scripture they had was the Hebrew Bible that we call the Old Testament. Galatians was one of the first half dozen books of the NT to be written. Synagogues had Hebrew scrolls of the Torah, or Law. About 200 BC, a group of 70 Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew into Greek, which was the most commonly spoken language around the Mediterranean world of that day. Probably that “Septuagint” was the source of most of the quotes we read in the NT.

            Also remember Abraham was the father of the Jewish race. So when Paul quotes scripture about Abraham, it could have a powerful effect on some listeners.

God came to Abraham and called him to leave everything and follow Him. The Lord repeated the promise in chapter 15, and it was there recorded in verse 6 that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Paul is saying that faith is not at all new. It goes back to the founding father himself. And if Abraham was declared righteous by his faith, he endorsed faith as the foundation of all our relationships with God.

:7-9 – Therefore, in a sense ALL believers become Children of Abraham, not just his physical descendants. In Genesis 12, God promised Abram that if he indeed left everything and followed him, all nations would find blessings through him. Paul logically concludes this was an early prediction, or prophesy, that the Gospel of faith was open to everyone, not just Jews. Throughout the letter, Paul keeps coming back to nail down the point that you don’t have to be a Jew nor keep Jewish law to follow Christ.

:10 – Still hammering, Paul states people trying to become righteous by observing the Jewish rituals were actually under a curse. Why? Because in Deuteronomy 27:26 the Law requires a person to keep the entire law. Failure to keep one point is failure to keep it all.

The Greeks had a story of Sisyphus, one being punished eternally by the gods. He was condemned to push a heavy rock up a mountain to the top. But every time it reached the top, it broke free and rolled back to the bottom. He had to start all over again. Keeping the law was like that. Keep it all, or despair! (The story reminds me of a Louisville golf course with a short hole unlike any I’ve seen before or since. The tee was at the bottom of a small, incredibly steep hill. My first shot didn’t make it quite to the top, but hit a few inches below. The ball rolled all the way back down to land at my feet! Louisiana has no holes like that.)

:11 – Indeed, the only way to righteousness is through faith. To prove it, especially to those of Jewish background, Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, The righteous shall live by faith. Again, by citing their OT Scripture, he shows proof to those of Jewish background, who accepted the authority of the Hebrew Bible. It is said this verse profoundly moved Martin Luther, who may have written the word “ALONE” in the margin, making it “The righteous shall live by faith alone.

A traditional summary of Protestant thought is: Only faith, only Scripture, only Christ. Sometimes you find: Faith alone Scripture alone, Christ alone. Are you trying to add something in your thought about salvation?

:12-14 – The Judaizers wanted Christians to keep the law. Paul reminds the Galatians – and us – that if you go that route, you must keep the entire law, not just part. No one, of course can do that – thus, the curse. Instead, Jesus became a curse in place of us. (Paul again offers proof by quoting a Scripture.) Jesus’s death on the cross was for us – vicarious. No one really understands how God transformed the cross and resurrection into salvation for all who believe – but He did. One popular way of putting it says it took God’s Son living a perfect life in order for Him to be a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. Another widespread view is that Jesus was ransom paid to Satan for our souls. Still another is that His sacrifice appeased the wrath of God over our sins. My biggest problem with all of these is that the NT over and over presents the cross as the free act of Jesus and His Father coming from love, not wrath nor compulsion from the devil. And what would be the source of the rule so powerful that God would have to obey it? Presumably our sin has formed a barrier to our closeness to a God who knows no sin.

Jesus’s death came in a world universally used to sacrifice and to a people accustomed to sacrifice. We must strive to understand the Cross in that context, a Sacrifice to end all sacrifice. In animal offerings, the creature’s life was freed by sacrifice to be given to the worshipper. Once a year the sins of the nation were laid on a scapegoat, driven into the wilderness. Jesus became our scapegoat, driven into the ultimate wilderness of death carrying away our sins. God overruled that death and proclaimed resurrection and life as the last word! Somehow He died in our place, and because He did, we can live eternally, participating in the abundant life He came to give us.