Righteous Live By Faith
Freedom of the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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There are a lot of people in the world who would say that sin is a behavior issue. From today’s text, I want to change that thought. Perhaps sin is really a faith issue. Our battle with sin is really a battle with our faith in God.
We saw last week the thesis statement, or summary sentence of what this letter is all about. Here it is again:
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
The sufficiency of Jesus and what he did is really at stake in this letter to the Galatian churches. They had begun to listen to those who were trying to add following the law, i.e. works of the law, to what Jesus did on the cross. Instead Paul says, our righteousness does not come from following the law, but from our faith in Jesus alone. We have to continue to guard against setting aside God’s grace through Jesus for a pursuit of righteousness through works.
Last week’s title for the sermon was Righteousness by Faith. This week’s title is The Righteous Live By Faith.
It may at first seem like the same title or theme, but it is very different. It is through our faith in Christ that we are declared righteous...not by works. Our faith in Jesus justifies us as righteous...it’s not our works. Because of Jesus, God looks at us and sees righteousness in us, because Jesus took away all of our unrighteousness.
That was last week. Today we get a lesson from Paul in living a righteous life, also not by works, but instead by faith. That might seem at first a bit off, but stay with me. I believe there is a freedom in living by faith that people who insist on living by works are missing out on. I would also contend that someone who is living by faith will probably do greater works that the person who insists on living by works...
Let’s dig in to Galatians 3, starting with verse 1-6
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”?
Paul is clearly concerned for the churches in Galatia. There is a doctrinal teaching that is going around that aims follow the law in addition to faith in Christ. He starts first with how they came to faith in Christ in the first place.
vs 1 - It was clear that Paul would have preached Christ and him crucified as part of bringing the gospel message to the churches in Galatia. Christ and him crucified are central to the Gospel message. He is reminding them of where their faith started.
vs2-3: Next he begins to probe about their experience once they heard the gospel proclaimed...Did you get the Holy Spirit by works or faith? Their justification started with faith in Christ...why would there then be additional requirements after that? Why finish with the flesh something that started with the Spirit?
This is the major danger in this kind of theological view. We receive this gift of salvation and the Holy Spirit by faith - a gift that is free and requires nothing from us to receive. Jesus did all the work. He died on the cross for us and we benefit from what he did. We don’t have to have it all together in order to receive. That’s one of the fallacies that some in the world believe about us, the church, that in order to come to church we have to had it together. We bring our mess to him and by faith, he does the work in helping us sort it all out.
The problem with the theology in the Galatian churches was that they were depending on works of flesh, works according to the law in order to sort themselves out. There were those who were teaching this in the churches and Paul was emphatically telling them that this is false theology. Faith does the work, not our flesh.
In verse 5, he asks the same type of question in another way...Are miracles a work of works or a work of faith? Clearly the answer is faith. Every miracle I’ve ever seen was not a work of someone doing good, it’s always a work of grace by a God who loves.
He then pivots to his next argument against living by works...the first was they experience of salvation and miracles by faith, now he turns to the old testament and Abraham in verse 6.
Most of what was being required of the church in addition to Christ was meeting the requirements of the law given to Moses. The argument from the Judaizers was that the Law of Moses was given before Jesus, so we should follow that.
Paul’s answer to that was to look even further back to Abraham. Here is what Paul is quoting here:
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
This statement came right after a promise made to Abraham that his offspring would be a numerous as the stars in the sky. And this was even when Abraham had no children yet. God is able to discern and see what is in us. He can see when we believe and have faith in the promises of God. That faith in him is our righteousness. Living by faith in God is the way in which to live a righteous life.
Paul continues to quote from the Old Testament...
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.
God was calling Abraham to be the start of his chosen people. Abraham’s offspring would become the nation of Israel. Israel becoming God’s people started with the faith of Abraham. This started without the law...the law would be given much later through Moses. Abraham’s faith brought him to God...not his works. In the same way, it is our faith, the Gentile’s faith in Christ that would bring them to God’s justification. Faith...not works.
Just as the nation of Israel became God’s children through the faith of Abraham, we gentiles are now also God’s children by the same faith in God. Let’s not rely on our works or accomplishments, let’s rely on our faith in Jesus as the means of our justification and our maturing in Christ.
I’m going to pause here for just a moment to make something clear. This letter and this message I am preaching is not one that is against righteous acts or deeds. We are to pursue those as well in our walk. The problem is when we are depending on those righteous acts and deeds to make us feel or appear righteous when under the surface we are not walking by faith. I believe that someone who is walking and living by faith will have the evidence of righteous acts and deeds. More about this in a bit.
Let’s read through to verse 14...
10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
I’ve seen those who are pretty proud of their “following of the law”. They like to point out all the good things they are doing as if it’s a checklist. In many cases they are also pointing fingers at those who are not “following the law”. The problem with that kind of thinking is that we are all not capable of following everything written in the Book of the Law. If we are depending on our works of the law, we will then also be under the curse of the law.
In verses 11 and 12, Paul is giving contrary ways of looking at our righteousness - by faith in quote from Habakkuk and by the law in Leviticus....let’s look at those...
When Paul says in verse 11 that “the righteous will live by faith”. Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2:4
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
In this way, our faith not on justifies us, but also sustains us. This is in contrast to what is said in Leviticus 18:5
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Living by all those decrees and laws as we’ve already seem from Paul is impossible. And those who choose to live by the standard of the Law for their righteousness will be cursed if they disobey even one.
Paul lays out both options for the Galatian churches before reiterating the solution...faith in Jesus.
Jesus willingly submitted himself to be cursed for us...cursed for our transgression of the law. As a perfect sacrifice, he paid our debt. By going back to living under the law would be like ignoring Christ’s work on the cross for us. Jesus is the way in which all the nations have received the blessing of Abraham...by faith.
The moment we accept Christ as savior, we’ve been redeemed, justified and the Holy Spirit indwells us. Here are a few of the roles the Holy Spirit has in us:
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
We’ll get to this passage later in this series, but this is what the result of us living by the Spirit in faith:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
That is what our lives will look like. Our focus is not on a checklist of things to do in order to follow the law, instead the Holy Spirit guides us in a new way of life. It a free-er way to live. It is not a life in slavery to law with all of its do’s and don’ts. It’s a Spirit filled life.
***Title Slide***
The Righteous live by Faith
Unfortunately, some have preached a different message at times in church history...hence this letter to the Galatians. Sometimes the message is:
The righteous live by Guilt - Let’s guilt people into behaving the way we think they should. If they don’t we’ll punish them in the church. Additionally, this is a common tactic of the world today. If someone doesn’t like your point of view, make them feel guilty about and therefore change how the live. People have twisted and distorted scripture to justify this way of thinking as well.
Sometimes the message is:
The righteous live by fear - fear of messing up, fear of consequences, fear of not getting what we want. Fear is one of those things that can save your life in the right circumstance, but it can also ruin your life if your perspective of the situation is incorrect. Most of the fear we experience in life is actually a lack of faith in God to show up.
Those are wrong...The Righteous Live by Faith!
What does that mean practically?
We have faith that God will supply us what we need, when we need it. If we don’t have it, it probably means we don’t need it. We are content and satisfied by Faith.
We have faith that God will lead us where to go and when to go there. We don’t compare our lives to others and the path they have gone on. We serve where we are until God says go somewhere else.
We have faith that God will help us love on others they way he does. We don’t use the metric of fair or deserving. We love because he first loved us.
We have faith that God will heals our hurts. By seeking vengeance ourselves, we are lacking in faith that God will do that for us. By faith we seek to forgive.
We have faith that God will use his word to correct and convict us. By faith we then walk that out even if it is opposite to what we want or think we should do.
When we aren’t living by faith in these ways, we take matters into our own hands and most of the time, that leads us into sin. The root of sin is not disobedience, it’s lack of faith.
Living by faith requires that we place our relationship with the Lord over all else. When our relationship with the Lord is right, our live is right. That’s the truth behind:
The Righteous Live By Faith./
