Gal 3:6-9

Intro

Good morning everyone!

It’s always really good to see you all. I’m excited to be here and talk to you this morning. We will be continuing my series on Sunday School stories.

If you were here last time you will remember that I talked about the Messiah. That the story of the Bible is pointing toward a need for a Messiah and the promise of a Messiah. There is this image that we need to hold on to of a snake who has and is tempting us into sin, but that God will send someone (who we believe was Jesus Christ) to come and crush the head of the snake and take care of the problem of evil once and for all.

That’s the Spark Notes version of what we are talking about.

So this morning I am going to talk about the next stop on our journey in this story of the promised Snake Crusher. And that is found in the story of Abraham.

Abraham

Abraham is the patriarch of Israel. All of Israel claims Abraham as their father.

In Gen 12:1-3 we see God giving Abraham (then called Abram) a promise

Read Gen 12:1-3

This is an amazing promise! In here we see blessing and hope for Abraham but also for the blessing of others as well!

There is this vision of God’s favor and love that extends way into the future beyond Abraham and into this great nation that will represent God and bless the people around them.

So when we read that, we, I think, naturally ask ourselves: “What did this guy do to deserve that?”

In our world and cultural context (and frankly most cultural contexts) these types of blessing are given to people who have done SOMETHING to earn them.

You get a promotion at work because you work hard.

You have a good life because you’re a good person and do what you need to do to provide for your family.

Not everyone believes this, but most people want to.

This is, however different from the Christian worldview.

Favor from God comes purely from grace and mercy. It is an incredible mercy and is always undeserved and unearned.

Abraham is no different, in fact he is the first in a pattern of undeserving unlikely candidates of people that God is going to use in His grand plan of redemption.

If you’re still in Gen 12, back up just a few verses to get Abraham’s origin story.

If we read 11:26-32 we learn this about Abraham.

He is from the Land of Ur of the Chaldeans.

This is Babylon (or what will become Babylon!) A people group that will have little to no positive statements made about them moving forward in the Biblical narrative.

Part of this is that we get no indication that Abraham worships Yahweh before he speaks to him in Chapter 12.

His father, and likely his brother and the rest of his family probably worshiped the god’s of the Babylonians.

Another thing we find out is that Abram is married to Sarai who is barren. She is incapable of having children.

In this day and age, this already makes Abram a dead man walking. He has no heir and no one to give an inheritance to so his life ends with him and this is as good as being dead to people in this time and culture.

So you could see why the promise of becoming a great nation would be a compelling one for Abram! To Abram it really represented his life being saved in a lot of ways.

So to recap we know that Abram is from a pagan country, is likely pagan himself, and is incapable of having children. Then we have God coming in and promising to turn THIS GUY into a mighty nation.

Now up until this point, we don’t have any solid evidence that Abram has done ANYTHING deserving of this promise. God chooses him because he wants to, and no other discernable reasons.

This is essential to our understanding of this passage.

The story continues with a lot of things going on that would take weeks to unpack. So deciding one thing to focus on was tricky.

We could talk about Gen 14 where Abraham goes to war with some local kings and then is blessed by a mysterious priest-king Melchizedek.

If you want to look into this you can do some study on Hebrews 5-7. It’s a really interesting and important story to look at, but it’s Melchizedek who is the focus of that story primarily. Hebrews lays out that he is typologically like Christ (Melchizedek) because he is a priest and king.

This is really good and important stuff, but I want to focus on Abraham this morning.

We could talk about the second half of Genesis 12 and Genesis 20 where we see parallel accounts of Abraham deceiving kings to believe that Sarah is his sister, which causes all kinds of trouble.

These stories are great and show us God’s faithfulness even when we lack faithfulness. They show us that God’s favor and promise rests on Abraham and it isn’t something that can be removed from him. It shows us that God has a pattern of using very flawed and broken people for his purposes. And Abraham is no exception.

In a similar vein we could also talk about Abraham falling into the sin of Adam when Sarah convinces him that there is another way to gain God’s blessing and promise but in a way they can control. Gen 16 shows us a lapse of faith and God’s kindness to Hagar, who is used to bring a son to Abraham but not the son that was promised.

It also shows us that God means what he says, and that faith requires trust even when faced with unlikely or even impossible circumstances.

We could talk about the story in Gen 18 where Abraham is visited by God at the oaks of Mamre and how he intercedes for the people of Sodom.

And finally, we could talk about the story that you all were probably thinking of when I began this message, the story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, the son that he had promised him.

And this story is really amazing. There is such a clear parallel to the Gospel that it will blow your mind!

Isaac carries the wood up the mountain like Jesus carries the cross to Golgatha.

Isaac participates willingly in this whole process, like Jesus doesn’t fight the guards or rescue himself when he is on the cross.

But then God provides a substitute by way of a ram caught in a bush to act as the sacrifice instead of Isaac. And this mirrors what we understand as what Jesus has done for us, becoming the sacrifice on our behalf.

But we’re not going to talk about that much more either.

Besides being a way that I can recap some important stories from Abraham’s life, I tell you all of that to help you understand how much there is to dig into in these stories.

So as I was preparing and studying, I asked myself, “what are some of the key things that the New Testament has to say about Abraham? From the perspective of people who understood that all of the Old Testament was pointing toward Christ, what things do the Apostles point to about Abraham?”

You might be surprised to find that none of the New Testament writers talk about the parallels to the Gospel in the Isaac story. That story is only mentioned twice. Once in Hebrews 11:17-18 where the author of Hebrews draws our attention to Abraham’s faith in the story. And once in James 2:21-22 where he shows us that Abraham’s actions come in tandem with the faith that he has.

The pattern shows what the New Testament writers are most concerned with in terms of the story of Abraham: His faith and what it means for us.

Which brings us to our key passage for this morning.

Galatians 3:1-14

This morning we are going to be looking at what the Apostle Paul draws from the story of Abraham.

This passage is paralleled significantly in Romans 4-5. Romans was written after Galatians, so it seems likely that the example that he breaks down in both of these places were something that he frequently taught in his missionary journeys.

Let’s talk briefly through the context of Galatians before we read the text together.

The letter to the Galatians was written because there was a group of what are commonly called “judaizers” that were plaguing the church in Galatia.

They were a group of men who were insistent that to be a part of the Body of Christ you had to participate in all of the Law of Moses. The specific issue in Galatians is that they were telling the Gentile believers that their salvation was compromised if they weren’t circumcised as was required of the people of Israel.

So this letter is being written to people who are starting to believe what these judaizers are saying. And Paul is trying to put a swift end to this line of thinking.

Paul is bold enough to call this a different Gospel, which he says should be rejected outright.

In 1:8 he says, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed.”

So his concern is with the integrity of the true Gospel and this idea that we are in any way justified by our works is contrary to that message.

After qualifying himself and giving testimony to his knowledge of the Gospel and mentioning that he has already dealt with this issue with the other Apostles (this story is found in Acts 15)

Once establishing these things, he starts his case with a really clear statement of truth.

Read 2:15-21

So I would like you to hold on tightly to verse 16

“nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

There are few statements that so clearly state, “this is what is true and the truth that we need to hold on to”.

Justification only comes through faith in Christ, not in the works of the flesh.

We will talk in a little bit about what Justification means, so keep that in mind as well.

But this is the statement that Paul is defending in chapter 3

I also want you to hold on tightly to verse 3 of Chapter 3.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

This rhetorical question is key to our understanding of this passage and to Paul’s argument that he’s making.

So the thing I want to focus on this morning is, why does Paul look to Abraham to prove this point?

READ Gal 3:1-14

We will be focusing primarily on verses 6-9 this morning.

We will work through Paul’s argument by breaking these 4 verses down.

Abraham believed God

First and foremost, Paul draws attention to Abraham’s faith.

This statement is in regard to the question that Paul posed in the previous verse:

In 3:5 Paul asks the question, “So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing of faith?” and this statement takes the answer for granted that it is clearly faith not works that God saves people.

Paul is quoting Genesis 15:6 here

This is when God promises Abraham that he will have a son and an heir and that he will have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

It’s this promise that Abraham believes and it’s that belief that God credits to him as righteousness. (Which we will break down shortly)

He is turning to the Scriptures to point out that justification through faith isn’t some new thing that he and the other Apostles are preaching, but it’s a truth that has existed well before even the Law of Moses.

He’s taking the person that the Judaizers would have claimed as the father of their faith. And shows that it was his FAITH that made him justified before God, not lawfulness.

In fact, the covenant of circumcision doesn’t come until AFTER this statement about Abraham. That doesn’t happen until chapter 17 of Genesis!

And that’s significant, and I would argue really intentional because that is the exact issue that the judaizers were pressing onto the church in Galatia.

So Paul is saying, “If you think that you are saved because of the works that you do, you better read your Bibles again! Abraham is justified before God BEFORE the Law of Moses and even before the covenant of circumcision!”

So the thing that is focused on here isn’t what Abraham does in response to his belief, but purely on the reality that when God spoke, Abraham believed what he said. He believed that he would fulfill his promises and that he meant what he said.

This is significant to the argument because of what he says in verse 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?”

The answer is hearing by faith! He is reminding them that they have received the Holy Spirit that was promised by Christ and they should know that that is proof that they have received salvation, not a reward for earning it.

As Paul wrote to the Ephesians “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, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1:13-14)

Or to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 1:22 “and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

The Spirit is received through hearing the word of truth and believing it, and He acts as a seal or a guarantee of our salvation.

So like Abraham, we are saved not by doing, but by hearing and believing. And this is the reality that Paul points to, not as a new idea but as the way that God has always worked.

Verse 5 then points to this spiritual reality of living with the Spirit and experiencing his work in their midst to establish the point that it simply doesn’t make sense that God would begin the work of our justification through faith and the spirit and would choose to finish it by works of the flesh.

Reckoned to him as righteousness

Let’s talk about justification.

Here in verse 6 he talks about this idea of “reckoning” or “crediting” his faith as righteousness.

That statement is very different than “it was credited to him BECAUSE of his righteousness, or FOR his righteousness.”

This statement is saying that this was given to Abraham AS righteousness.

This is a really wonderful vision of what Scripture teaches us about the grace and mercy of God. Here we see that righteousness isn’t the prerequisite to God’s love and favor but rather an consequence of it.

When we believe God, when we have faith in what He says and trust him, then, like Abraham, righteousness is credited to us. In other words it doesn’t come from our account, but it all comes from God’s account.

One commentary I read put it this way: “I know a man who married a woman who was extremely wealthy. When he accepted her as his wife, all her money was added to his bank account. In the same way, when Abraham placed his faith in God, all God’s righteousness was added to Abraham’s spiritual account. My friend became as wealthy as his wife, and Abraham became in God’s eyes as righteous as God. How? God credited to him his own divine righteousness.

Now the point that Paul is making is that this is all taking place before any Law is given. This promise, this faith, this justifying, all comes before the Law, so therefore they must stand separate from the Law.

Faith is the only thing that can justify, not the Law. Which Paul points out in verse 11.

What does this have to do with justification?

Here’s the definition of justified from the Dictionary of the Bible

In common parlance, one is ‘justified’ when pronounced just on trial, when cleared of blame or aspersion

So here we have this idea of being declared as right in a legal sense.

Which in this verse we can see a clear tie. Because being righteous means being in a right relationship with God.

So by saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness we can understand it as saying, “Through his faith, God declared him as being in a right relationship with him.” Which is the same thing in essence as being “justified” which Paul talks about throughout Galatians 3.

So, through faith, being credited righteousness from God is HOW God has justified Abraham.

Those who are of faith...

So here in verse 7, Paul extends this statement to ALL people who have faith and believe what God has said.

So here Paul is taking power away from the judaizers by declaring that faith is the marker of righteousness rather than strict adherence to the Law.

But Paul is drawing their attention to an ancient truth to help them see the bigger picture: That faith is what makes someone a child of Abraham and by extension those who receive the promises and blessing that was given to him. Which is precisely what he says in verse 9. A truth that came before the Law that these Judaizers clung on so tightly to.

In Abraham’s story, Paul sees whisperings of the Gospel.

Verse 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.’”

The promises that are given to Abraham’s story are not limited to his own flesh, but instead good news of blessing to all the nations of the earth are promised through Abraham.

Paul is seeing here that this means that anyone who has faith in God is blessed because they become a part of the family that God has blessed

And in this, Paul has seen that Jesus’ mission and message to make disciples of all nations is the fulfillment of this initial promise to Abraham!

So here we see how the story of Abraham ties into the story of the Messiah, who we know to be Jesus of Nazareth.

Abraham, who was a non-Israelite (because they didn’t exist yet) was justified because he believed God when he spoke to him and acted accordingly.

So then the Gentiles are saved by the same faith that Abraham was, separate from the requirements of the law and based entirely in trust in what God says.

So Paul is making the case that the Gentiles have no need to adhere to the Law as the judaizers claim they need to because Gentiles who have faith in the Gospel are more like Abraham, who couldn’t be justified by works of the law because the Law didn’t yet exist.

Application

So what should we take away from this?

We may not have judaizers trying to convince us that we need to be circumcised to be saved, but we certainly have a lot of other voices that are trying to convince us that there are other means by which we are saved than purely by the grace of God through faith.

We may say that we believe it is only Jesus who can justify us, but our actions and our attitudes can prove otherwise. We can be prideful in the things what we do or that we have as if those are the things that make us right before God. What do you believe justifies you?

Is it the Gospel? Or is it your work ethic?

Or your man-made righteousness?

Or being a good provider or a good student?

Do you think your job or your salary justifies you?

Do you believe that you can justify yourself or do you truly understand that only God can declare someone to be justified, and the way that he does that is through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

People like to draw a sharp distinction between the way that God worked in the Old Testament and the way that God works in the New Testament.

This is just one example that shows that the authors of the New Testament clearly believe that the events of the Gospel were a continuation of the story of the OT not an amendment.

The idea that we are saved by faith, not through works isn’t something that became true through Jesus but has always been true and has been perfected through his sacrifice and giving of the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe that you have been justified? Do you believe that righteousness has been given to you?

Again, it’s very easy to say that you believe this, but our actions can betray a different truth.

If we live in fear that and insecurity that we aren’t, through Christ, reconciled to God. Then we have missed the point! We have forgotten the Good News! We don’t need to be fearful of the Law (whatever form that takes), we only need to have faith.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rom 5:1)

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, GOD DID: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirements of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Faith in Jesus doesn’t just bring us back to zero, God credits to us HIS righteousness when we have faith. His forgiveness and love and mercy and grace are not incomplete in the Gospel, they are complete in every way. So we should live like it, in faith! Believing what God says.

Finally, I know some of you are thinking, “well you can’t just pray a prayer and your good to live your life however you want to.” And you would be right! But don’t let that thought fool you into thinking that somehow everything that Paul says here is invalidated.

Read James 2:14-17

James explains that there is a direct relationship between faith and works. If we have true faith we will act accordingly.

This is true of Abraham. He went to Canaan like God told him to, he lived in faith that God would do what he promised. He took Isaac up the mountain and had the knife poised to take his life because he had faith and he was obedient to God.

But this shouldn’t be understood as saying that those things are what saved him. The Scripture is clear, it was his belief that was credited to him as righteousness.

Obedience is a sign of faith, and so is repentance. Good works are the fruit of faith, not the other way around.

On our own our “deeds of righteousness are like a filthy garment” as Isaiah says in Isa 64:11.

We need Jesus, we need his grace, we need his obedience, we need his sacrifice and his resurrection because without them we have no hope.

That’s why faith is why we are justified by our faith, because we are incapable of being righteous and therefore incapable of justifying ourself.

So then we should live our lives as those who are justified as a gift by a kind and merciful savior.

To finish I just want to read Romans 3:22-26 as a sort of benediction to leave you with Scripture that tells you what’s true about who we are in Christ.

READ Romans 3:22-26