From Law to Promise: The Power of Faith

I am not sure if you have heard this expression or something similar:

There is the right way, the wrong way and the military way.

This one you might be familiar with and maybe have used in some form.

It is my way or the highway.

Spending as much time in the Army as I did, I learned to think more Army that civilian. It also meant that my thought process followed the way the Army taught us to think. Which was good since I was in the Army.

But with that came the idea that the right way and the Army way were synonymous. And if you weren’t doing it the Army way that was clearly wrong.

In a sense, Paul is fighting against this type of thinking.

There is the right way, the wrong way and the Jewish way and the Jewish way is the same as the right way.

For the Judaizers, that meant you became Jewish before you could think about becoming Christian.

However, Paul was teaching it quite differently. There was God’s way and then there was the wrong way. We might not always agree on certain parts of the Bible but I do hope we can agree there is God’s way and any other way is wrong.

There is the gospel, the one true gospel and anything different is wrong.

Follow along as I start reading the beginning of our passage in Galatians 3.

Galatians 3:1–3 NASB 2020

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

1. Faith's Foundational Focus

I am not sure about you but I do remember I was taught not to call someone a fool.

But I want to clarify this point from Paul.

First, certain “name calling” was common during the time of this writing. It used to be common within the bounds of debates, at least to a degree. We use names all the time when talking with or about others. It is an easy way to identify what we mean and not spend as much time explaining. It is not the same that we see today when many of our politicians call each other names with the intent to be derogatory toward that person.

Second, the Greek word Paul uses means someone who is not using reason. They are acting foolish because they are refusing to think for themselves.

Paul is once again hitting on the very foundation of our salvation, the conversion part of our salvation. He is amazed that those in Galatia were so quickly turning away from what Paul had taught them.

But, what is it they are turning away from, or rather, what are they turning toward?

They are turning away from Christ and toward the Law; toward legalism. To be fair, we all do this to a degree in our walk. At some point we will think there must be more; more we should do, more expected from us; more.

You may have heard the term “Easy Believism”.

Easy believism is the misconception that if you just believe you are saved and then nothing else needs to happen, or nothing really needs to change. This isn’t what the Bible teaches. There is more than just believe.

James 2:19 NASB 2020

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

“Easy believism” is correct in that the very foundation is our faith; our faith in the finished and complete work of Jesus. It isn’t true in that afterwards you are left with just belief.

Our foundation is built upon faith in Christ having completed His work on the cross. It is built upon faith in Christ that we can do nothing to add to His work. Christ’s work is sufficient and nothing can be added.

Because of this, Paul asks the church an important question:

How did you receive the Holy Spirit?

Did your salvation come from faith in Christ as Christ was proclaimed to you or did it come because your behavior conformed to the Law?

Paul wants you to realize the obvious answer is because of faith alone. For the Jews, obeying the Law never brought justification; it only showed them to be sinners. For the Gentiles, they were not under the Law and therefore did not conform to the Law before salvation.

Since the Law never brought justification, and can never bring justification before God, why would you start with faith alone and then try to conform to the Law?

If I need to climb a mountain that I cannot climb and I trust in God to get me to the top, why would I stop letting Him help me just so I can try to climb the mountain with my own power, knowing my own power will never get me up?

2. Faith's Fruitful Facet

Faith will produce fruit.

One side of faith is the spiritual blessings produced through faith. It is through the power of faith that we are justified and through faith that we receive the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 3:4–6 NASB 2020

4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

One thing we do not discuss much is our own experiences. It is understandable because we can too easily go based off experience instead of the Word of God.

2. Faith’s Fruitful Facet

But this is where Paul heads next; the Galatian’s own experiences starting with receiving the Holy Spirit.

I can still remember being in church and knowing I was saved. I use different words, different terminology now then I used to since I better understand my experience; but I can still recall that experience. I can’t recall the sermon, the time and a lot of other things around it. I do know what that experience was like for me. I was in church, I knew I had to go up front, I knew I needed to go then and I knew I needed to be baptized. I knew these things because I knew I had been saved. I was sitting in the pew, listening to the pastor and I knew I was going to be baptized. But none of those things are what saved me. I was saved by faith alone in Christ alone and with nothing that I did myself or for that matter nothing anyone other than God chose to do through His grace. That is my experience.

Now I will say that my experience lines up with what the Word of God teaches, especially with what we are learning from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Any experience must line up with what God’s word teaches and if it does not then you must question that experience.

This is the power of faith, to bring about God’s spiritual blessings and justification. It is not what we do, it is not what we feel, it is not from works but through faith that God chose to work. It is living a life a faith that lets us live a life in freedom. Faith will produce fruit and being justified is the first facet of this powerful faith.

Scot McKnight wrote in his commentary on Galatians:

To know about the love of God is not enough; we need to feel it, to sense it, and to be moved by it because God wants our entire beings to be wrapped up in his love.

McKnight, Scot. 1995. Galatians. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

We need the experience that faith produces so we can better understand the knowledge faith teaches. We need the knowledge faith teaches so that we can better understand the experiences we have.

Galatians 3:7-9 reads:

Galatians 3:7–9 NASB 2020

7 Therefore, recognize that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

3. Faith’s Family Fellowship

Would you rather be known as a believer or as a lawyer?

We did a short study of Abraham’s life not very long ago. There were many different things that can be said about Abraham; who he was, what he did, both good and not so good.

One thing I like about this passage from Paul is what he reminds us about Abraham. Of all the lessons from Abraham, Paul reminds us that Abraham believed God.

Paul reminds us not only that Abraham believed God but that God credited to him as righteous. His belief in God was before the Law, before circumcision and therefore his faith and the Law are not connected.

Paul goes on to remind us that the real children of Abraham are those whom believe in God. God promised to bless Abraham and through him to bless all the nations. Paul now shows us this blessing coming to fruition through the power of faith.

With the blessing of faith and with being justified by God, we become a part of Abraham’s spiritual family.

What do you want to be remembered for? When someone speaks about you, would you rather them be able to say that you believed God, that you had faith in Christ and therefore experienced the freedom that faith brings or do you want them to tell how you worked hard and diligently to keep every little iota, every jot and tittle of the Law but did not know Christ?

Do you want to be known as a believer, a part of the family of faith?

It is this love which God extends to all those who belong to the family of faith in Christ. It is this power of faith that can unify the body of Christ. It is the power of a life of faith which will let us become a part, a productive and participating part of the body of Christ. It is the power of faith which will transcend culture and legalism.

Embrace the freedom that is only found in Christ. Embrace the freedom that comes from living a life of faith as opposed to a life of legalism.

The power of faith will allow you freedom. It will allow you to embrace your family, embrace your family of faith in greater ways. The power of faith comes from the One who is and will always be faithful.

Let’s pray.