Don’t Be Foolish

Galatians 3:1–9 ESV

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: 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? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Main Thought: It is foolish to believe you can be saved by works

One of the reasons we do not evangelize enough is fear.

We fear being unable to answer peoples questions.

One of the most difficult questions for us to answer is the question “what do i need to do?”

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve looked at Galatians.

Let’s review the structure of Galatians:

Galatians 1-2: Paul’s Apostleship

Galatians 3-4: Theological Basis for Salvation by Grace Alone Through Faith Alone by Christ Alone

Galatians 5-6: Life Application of Salvation By Grace

As Paul transitions to his defense of salvations by faith alone, it brings to mind great problem many people have with this doctrine.

we feel like we must do something

Yet when Duke George of Saxony heard this teaching, he complained that it was “a great doctrine to die by, but a lousy one to live with!” The duke recognized that justification by faith is a great comfort in death. It guarantees that when the sinner stands before God’s throne, all his sins will be pardoned. Instead of having to defend his life, the sinner will be defended by the life of the crucified Christ. But Duke George wanted to know what there was to do in the meantime. If the sinner is saved ultimately by God’s grace rather than by his own works, how or why should he live for God?

Ryken, Philip Graham. 2005. Galatians. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

To Believe You Can Earn Salvation is Foolish

v1

Foolish: anoetos (an-oint-os): Unintelligent, Senseless

In the ESV we see it translates as both Senseless and Foolish

It shows up 6 times. Once by Luke and the rest by Paul:

On the road to Emmaus Jesus uses it to refer to the disciples that did not understand His death and resurrection

Luke 24:25 ESV

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Titus 3:3 ESV

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

I think the best connotation is to be foolish means to be ignorant. Not necessarily unintelligent but uninformed

What Jesus and Paul were both saying in Luke and Timothy is that the the “foolish” were not yet informed

It isn’t “you’re an idiot” it’s you’re missing something…and I am going to help you figure it out

He goes on further and explains that their misunderstand was caused specifically because other people have mislead them.

His specific term is “bewitched”

This term, baskaino (baskino) is only used 1 time in all of scripture…right here.

This is a powerful term and has a wide range of meanings

it is to malign, fascinate, slander, begrudge, bewitch

In his use of this word, along with the rest of this letter, there are two things Paul is not doing:

He is not blaming the Galatians

An interesting thing about the word bewitched is it implies the ideas they have about circumcision are not their own ideas

They were taught this

In fact, I and many scholars, would argue there are no Christian teachings that would lead you to believe circumcision is require to be a Christian, especially for gentiles

He is not giving them an excuse

At the same time he is not blaming the Galatians for their heresy, he is not allowing them to continue in the heresy.

the rest of the next two chapters sets out to correct the false belief

They cannot hold to this false belief because they taught the truth originally

They were taught that the death of Christ was the reason they could be saved

Since You Were Saved by Faith, You Are Kept By Faith

Paul’s argument against requiring circumcision is very logical and straight forward

He starts by asking a rhetorical question in verse 2

“Did you receive the spirit by works or the law or by hearing with faith?”

In simpler terms, were you saved by works or faith?

the phrase “receive the spirit” refers to the Biblical truth that at salvation you are also baptized into the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit.

At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirt indwells you so Paul’s use of the phrase “receive the Spirit” is direct reminder of the moment of salvation to the reader

So when he says “receive the Spirit” he is saying, “were you saved by works”

Essentially what Paul is saying is “were you saved by faith or by works?”

Of course, the response is faith.

He then makes a slight change and asks “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected by the flesh”

In this question he contrasts the Spirit and the flesh

The Spirit is the Holy Spirit

The flesh is ourselves

What he is saying here is, if you were saved by God, why are you trying to be perfected by yourself?

If it was God that brought you to faith, why do you think you are now able to earn you way to perfection (sanctification)

Let me put it another way, if it was God that saved you why is it you think you can keep yourself saved?

This leads to one of the biggest area’s of argument in the church, can someone that is a Christian lose their salvation.

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is also no, but here’s some reasons:

Why I cannot lose my salvation:

The Sealing of the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 1:11–15 “11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,”

Ephesians 4:30 “30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

The Holy Spirit specifically seals us for the “day of redemption”

To lose our salvation, the spirit’s sealing would have to fail

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Romans 6:1–4 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

With the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we are united to Christ

to lose our salvation would require that the baptism of the Spirit be undone

God’s Sovereignty

This is just a logical argument, if God is in control of our salvation, then for us to lose our salvation God would have to change His mind

In other words, if God saves us today, He would have to change His mind to stop saving us tomorrow

God’s Foreknowledge and our Election

Scripture tells us we our salvation is not a surprise to God. He foreknew us before the foundation of the earth

Ephesians 1:4 “4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”

Since he chose us prior to creation, our salvation doesn’t depend on what we do during our life, but on God’s divine act upon us

So You may ask, what about the people I know that have left the faith? What does the Bible say?

John tells us they were not believers in the first place:

1 John 2:18–23 ESV

18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

What John is teaching us here is two fold

First, believers who left were not of us

We see the first part of this passage that those who leave us are antichrists and were never part of the church

they were deniers of Christ but lied and claimed to know Christ (22)

But we are told here, no one that denies Christ has is with God (23)

Second, they left the church to make it known they were never one of us (19b)

Now he wraps up the idea that we are both saved and kept by faith by beginning to turn to Abraham as the example

Abraham is Our Father In the Faith

In verse 6, Paul shifts his argument away from the conversion of the Galatians to the conversion of Abraham

Paul was arguing that the Galatians came to salvation by faith, now he changes to the fact that Abraham was also saved by faith

Genesis 15:6 “6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

This was before the covenant of circumcision

Genesis 17:10 “10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”

If Abraham was credited with righteousness prior to his circumcision, then we can see that circumcision is not required for salvation

Instead, circumcision is the symbol of the covenant with Israel not the covenant of Grace that would come through Christ

The covenant of Grace was prior to circumcision

In fact he explains here that the children of Abraham are those that come to God in faith, not those that stand upon their work

Paul even explains it as “preaching the Gospel” to Abraham

This is important to understand.

Some people argue that the history of the world is:

God created it and Adam fell so he changed his plan

Then the world got worst, so he decided to flood the world and start over with Noah

Then the world sinned again and God changed his plan again and confounded their language, deciding to now use Abraham and Israel

Then Israel surprised God and turned their back on God leading to God changing His plan and instituting the New Covenant (grace)

In reality, God’s plan since the beginning of time has been that man would be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

The sin of Noah’s day, the sin of Israel and our sin does not surprise God.

He knew it from the beginning and preached the Gospel to Abraham just like he did to Eve.

We see this in Ephesians 1:3-6

Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

By choosing us before the foundation of the world, we can see that God’s plan was not thwarted by mans sin, but instead God’s plan from the before the creation was to save us from our sin.

Why is this so Important

Salvation by works means Jesus death was not enough

The so-called Judaizers had come from Jerusalem to persuade them that works of the law were necessary for their justification. But in that case, what was the point of the cross? Why would someone else have to die for my sins if I could take care of them myself? The logical implication of justification by works is that “Christ died for no purpose” (2:21).

Ryken, Philip Graham. 2005. Galatians. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

As with many false forms of Christianity today, it is a denial of the sufficiency of Christ’s death on the cross to claim anything must be added to His work

We may think it’s a small, insignificant thing to say faith and…, but to say faith and is to say that Jesus’ death was not enough.

We must not add circumcision, confession, communion, baptism, charity, abstinence from sin or any other works of man to the work of Christ for salvation or we cannot be saved

If we cannot be saved, then the sacrifice of Christ would be rejected.

This is why so many Christianity adjacent religions must be both avoided and spoken out against.

For when we hear that the Son of God, with all His blessings, is rejected and that His death is esteemed as nothing, what godly mind will not break out into indignation? - John Calvin

It is how much faith you have, but who you have faith in

Salvation by faith is effective, but because you believe, but because Christ’s death was enough

We often doubt. In the moments of our doubts, we do not lose our faith.

Why? Because our salvation isn’t contingent how much we believe, it is contingent on who we believe in.

When we rest of Christ for our salvation, we are not putting our faith in our faith, we are putting it in the crucified and risen son of God.

When we believe on Christ, we are not saying “I am saved because I believe” we are saying “Christ died so I believe”