Galatians 3:1-9

Introduction

Phillip Graham Ryken, a pastor and theologian, writes about the story of William Herschel who lived from 1738 to 1822:

William Herschel (1738–1822). As a young boy growing up in Hanover, Germany, Herschel loved listening to military music. Eventually he joined a military band. But when the nation went to war, he found himself marching into battle, totally unprepared for the horrors of war. During a period of intense fighting he deserted his unit and fled from the field of battle. The penalty for desertion was death, so Herschel could no longer remain in Germany. He fled to England to pursue further studies in music and science. Eventually he became a famous man, renowned throughout Europe for his musical abilities as well as his scientific discoveries.

William Herschel had left his past behind him, and for many years he gave little thought to the death sentence that remained over him. But then another German arrived in Britain: George, head of the House of Hanover, crowned King of England. King George knew the secret of Herschel’s past and summoned him to appear before the royal court. With great trepidation, the scientist arrived at the palace, where he was told to wait in a chamber outside the throne room. Finally, one of the king’s servants brought Herschel a document. Anxiously, he opened it and read the following words: “I George pardon you for your past offenses against our native land.”

-This story is a great example of justification, being acquitted and declared righteous by God

-this is the topic to which Paul now wholeheartedly turns in his Epistle to the Galatians

-The Galatian church was founded by Paul, but word has reached Paul’s ear that the church is being infiltrated by a group known as the Judaizers, who teach that in order to be saved, you must believe in Jesus AND get circumcised and keep the Law

-So Paul writes to them, defending the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone

-In this Epistle, Paul is fighting against the sinful tendency each person has to think that we can be made right with God by our own efforts, or that we can maintain our right standing before God with our own efforts

-Inside everyone of us is something that says, “I’m a self-made person. I can make it work on my own.”

-And when it comes to our relationship with God this is not only false, but actually damning.

-This instinct to work my way to God and achieve salvation through my efforts is probably the greatest reason in the whole world why people go to hell

-Paul’s just spent the first couple of chapters defending his apostolic authority, and now, for the next 2 chapters, he turns towards defending the doctrine of justification by faith alone

**read passage and pray

1. The Centrality of Faith (vs. 1-5)

-What on earth are you thinking??

-This sounds like the question of a parent to their 7 year old child when they decide that it would be a good idea to draw with a sharpie on their wall or when they talk their sibling into playing dodgeball with a brick that they found in the yard

-But it’s actually the kind of that Paul is asking of the Galatians here as we transition into the second major section of the book

As we move into this middle section of the book where Paul is defending the Gospel of Justification by faith, Paul begins by firing off a bunch of rhetorical questions at the Galatians, the first of which sounds like: “what are you thinking?? are you crazy??”

-He addresses these believers as foolish and asks who put a spell over them

-Is Paul being harsh or overly dramatic?

-No, Paul is expressing His alarm to these people he loves very dearly

-The Galatians had heard the Gospel

-they had the realities Christ crucified vividly preached among them

-How on earth can they turn aside from the true Gospel of Christ crucified to the false Gospel of salvation through works?

**in 1997, a hugely popular and influential book entitled I kissed dating goodbye was released, quickly becoming one of the most popular Christian books on the shelves

-The point of the book was to push back against the licentiousness of dating culture, and the author was a man named Joshua Harris

-Joshua Harris became a rising star in Evangelical Christianity, becoming the lead pastor of a large church called “Covenant Life Church”

-He did this for 16 years, becoming a very popular, influential pastor who was looked up to in Christian circles

-In 2015, Harris decided to step away from his church, stating he was going to strengthen his theological education

-In 2019, however, Harris dropped a bombshell by posting on social media that he and his wife were getting divorced, and that he was no longer a Christian

-When these things happen, we look at someone like that and ask, “how on earth could this happen? What are they thinking?

-And while the Galatians are not considered by Paul to be apostates, they are dangerously close to that line in being duped into an acceptance of salvation by works and a rejection of salvation by faith

-Paul wants to ask them another question:

-did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?

-How is it exactly that they became Christians and received the Spirit?

-From this point forward, Paul references the Spirit of God 18 times in the last 4 chapters of this book, making it one of the central themes his letter

-For Paul, the presence of the indwelling Spirit is the key mark that someone has passed from death into life

Romans 8:9 (NKJV)

Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

How did they get the Spirit?

-Did they receive him through their good works or their effort?

-Or did they receive Him through hearing the Gospel message and receiving it by faith?

-Brothers and sisters, anything good we do, any growth we experience in the Lord only comes through the Spirit of God in us, He was given to us by grace through faith, not because we did anything to deserve it

**Back a little over a year ago, my parents-in-law bought a new car, and gave Ash and I their old car

-it was an incredibly kind and generous act on their part

-imagine if someone were to get in that car and compliment it and say, “where did you get this?”

-And I were to say to them, “I got it through my hard work. I get up and go to work every day and because of all of my effort, I was able to attain this car.”

-Not only would that be lie, but it would be incredibly arrogant of me

-My hard work had nothing to do with me receiving that car

-I received it out of the generosity of my wife’s parents

-In the same way, you and I did nothing to receive the Spirit of God

-We didn’t receive Him by our efforts or good works, but simply out of the generosity of God when we believed in Christ!

-Do you actively keep that in mind, that you received the Spirit by faith and not by your works?

Paul drives the point home further in the next verse:

Galatians 3:3 NKJV

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

-His question is a very poignant one

-We’ve all begun the Christian life by placing our faith in Christ Jesus and receiving the Spirit

-But how are we perfected and matured as a Christian

-Is salvation accomplished by the Spirit and sanctification accomplished by the flesh?

-Do we get saved by trusting in God’s work, and are sanctified by trusting in our effort?

-Paul doesn’t think so!

-He sees salvation as being a work of the Spirit of God by faith, and he clearly sees sanctification in the same light

-by choosing to get circumcised and try to keep the law, the Galatians are trying to improve upon the Spirit’s work!

**I heard one preacher put it this way

-Suppose you somehow come into possession of a Babe Ruth signed baseball

-Babe Ruth was probably the greatest baseball player of all-time

-he played during the 1920’s and 1930’s

-I looked it up today, and you can buy a signed baseball by Babe Ruth today on Amazon for around $130,000.

-Now, imagine that somehow you had come into possession of a baseball like this

-and let’s say that you decide that his signature looks nice, but you need to go back over it yourself with a sharpie

-so you begin to do just that, tracing over-top of it on your own

-What are you doing? You’re trying to complete his work, trying to improve upon it, but in the process, you’re destroying it entirely

-This is what the Galatians were doing when they were going back to circumcision and the Law, trusting that to finish what Christ had started

-But this is not how sanctification works!

Philippians 1:6 NKJV

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Brothers and sisters, the Spirit is the One who regenerated us, and He is the One who will sanctify us!

How does obedience fit into this? Doesn’t God command me to be obedient?

-Yes, but this obedience is enacted as we believe God and He empowers us

-For instance, whenever you are around an coworker or family member who says something provocative

-you are tempted to lash out and say something unkind in return

-But, you remember what the Scripture says, Romans 12:19

Romans 12:19 NKJV

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

At that moment, you can trust that God really will avenge and you that you don’t need to

-And you exercise your trust in God by not lashing out

-And that ability to trust God and obey Him is enabled by the Spirit, not your sinful flesh

-He is the One who has given us the Spirit by faith, and the Spirit is the One who will bring us into Christlikeness

Paul asks them another rhetorical question:

Galatians 3:4 NKJV

Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

The Galatians, like many Christians then and today, had probably suffered some level of persecution for Christ

-All of that is in vain if they simply turn from Christ and return to circumcision and the Law

**it’s like when you stand in line at Disney world for that one ride you really want to go on, waiting for 2 hours, enduring the blistering Florida sun, only to get near the front of the line and for it to break down and get closed for the rest of the day

-all of that suffering was in vain

-And to endure hardship and persecution, to endure being made fun of, or rejected, or cancelled, or looked down upon by society, just to abandon justification by faith in the end, is a complete waste

Paul’s last rhetorical question goes like this:

Galatians 3:5 NKJV

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?

-It’s unclear if Paul is referring the people in the Galatian churches who were able to work miracles through the power of the Spirit, or if he’s referring to his own miraculous ministry while he was among them

-But Paul’s intention is clear: the power of God’s Spirit at work among the believers there came through faith, not through the keeping of the Law and circumcision

Application

What does this mean for us?

-Brothers and sisters, the Gospel is not simply for unbelievers, but for believers as well

**illustration of car stuck in the ditch

-rope

-engine that drives us all the way home

As Christians, we can often view the Gospel, justification by faith, as the rope that got us out of our sin, but it’s not very useful anymore

-On the contrary, salvation by grace through faith is the engine that drives us all the way home to be with the Lord

-When you get up in the morning and are doubtful of God’s love for you, what do you do?

-you believe the Gospel, that Christ demonstrated His love dying for you

When you are tempted to worry about the cares of life, or you’re worried that tragedy may strike, what do you do?

-you believe the Gospel, that He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, He will not withhold anything good from you

What do you do when you are plagued with guilt over past sins and failures?

-You believe the Gospel, that He has removed from you your sins as far as the east is from the west

What do you do when you are tempted to fall into temptation and sin?

-you believe the Gospel, that the grace of God has appeared to all men, and that it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts

What do you do when you’re tempted to despair because of hardship?

-You believe the Gospel, that through the Christ’s saving work, even in hardships we are being prepared for a future weight of glory!

Brothers and sisters, believe the Gospel! We are saved by faith in Christ and we are sanctified by faith in Christ!

This may lead to the question: How do we know that salvation is by faith?

Paul, like any good preacher, goes to the biblical text to show us the answer

2. The Example of Faith (vs. 6-9)

Galatians 3:6 NKJV

just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

-The Judaizers probably thought of Abraham as the perfect example of their theology!

-Abraham was the original Jew, the Father of all Jews, and the man who God gave circumcision to

-But Paul argues salvation by faith from the example of Abraham!

-The Judaizers probably loved Genesis 17, which was the account of God giving the command of circumcision to Abraham

-but Paul goes back to Genesis 15, before Abraham ever circumcised

Go to Genesis 15, because I want to show you this from the text of Scripture

This is after Abram has already been called by God to leave his country

Genesis 15:1–6 NKJV

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

What an incredible passage!!

-justification by faith wasn’t something Martin Luther and the Reformers made up

-It wasn’t even something Paul made up

-15 chapters into your Bible, the Scriptures clearly show us that Abram believed the promise of God

-And because of Abram’s trust in the promise of God, God declared him as righteous

-Notice that in the verse!

-this is an accounting term

-it means that God has not just done away with Abraham’s sin and taken away his debt, but that He has actually placed righteousness into his account

-He has credited something to Abraham that he does not have as inherent to himself

-It doesn’t say “and he obeyed God, and He accounted it to him for righteousness”

-None of Abram’s good works are listed here

-Not circumcision

-Not the offering of Isaac

None of those things are mentioned. Only Abram’s faith, and it’s enough for God to account him as righteous

-and Paul says, “that’s why I preach justification by faith, because it’s right here in Scripture!”

Furthermore, it’s not just something for Jews or for those who convert to Judaism

Galatians 3:7–9 NKJV

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 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.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Who are the true children of Abraham?

-The Judaizers surely thought it was them and those who like them were circumcised and keeping the Law!

-But Paul shows them they’re dead wrong

-Only those who exercise the same faith in the God who justifies are truly Abraham’s descendants

-And to show that Gentiles can truly be sons of Abraham, he goes 3 chapters even further back into Genesis to prove it

Genesis 12:1–3 NKJV

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is known as the Abrahamic Covenant

-God promises Abraham 4 things in the Covenant:

Land

Descendants

Protection

And universal blessing

And Paul shows here, from this passage, that God has always intended to justify the Gentiles, and He has always intended to justify them the same way that He justified Abraham: through faith

Paul actually says, that God here, in giving the Abrahamic Covenant, is preaching the Gospel to Abraham!

-How?

-Because this promise of Universal Blessing to all peoples came to culmination in Christ!

-Jesus, the descendant of Abraham, died on the cross, rose again, and commanded his disciples to “make disciples of the all the nations”, echoing the promise of the Abrahamic Blessing

-This is the Gospel! and it was proclaimed to Abraham in seed form when he was told that through him, God would bless all the nations of the earth!

-Every person, Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, can be blessed with believing Abraham

-Brothers and sisters, you and I are justified in the exact same way that Abraham was over 4,000 years ago

-And brothers and sisters, this invitation of justification by faith is extended to all those in Germany, in Tunisia, in Indonesia, in Staten Island, in Nova Scotia, in Spain, in Brazil, in India, in Malaysia, and everywhere else on earth

-It is the good news, not that Christ has started the work and you need to complete it through circumcision and converting to Judaism

-But it is the good news that Christ has finished the work, and must place your faith in the promise of God to be counted righteous, just like Abraham

Application:

-brothers and sisters, we have a glorious message!

-We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, to tell lost sinners of how they can be justified through faith in Christ, not through their own efforts

-it is the Gospel of faith that saves us, it is the Gospel of faith that sanctifies us, and it is the Gospel of faith that is our proclamation

Ryken goes on to finish the story of William Herschel

Galatians (So Let’s All Praise the Lord!)

There is more to the story [of Herschel]. The document the king gave to Herschel began by pronouncing him “not guilty,” but it went on to say that for his outstanding service to humanity as a musician and scientist, Herschel would be granted a knighthood. From that point on he was one of King George’s knights, honored throughout the United Kingdom as Sir William Herschel. When Herschel was justified, not only was he declared righteous, but he also became a friend of the king.

We have been forgiven through faith in Christ, we have had righteousness accounted to us through faith in Christ, we are being sanctified through faith in Christ, and we are to proclaim the message to all nations of faith in Christ

-Truly, from first to last, it is Christ, and Christ only