The Righteous Live By Faith
Works Righteousness is Foolishness
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (, NIV)
“Foolish” is also “senseless,” “stupid,” “mad” in various versions
Paul is saying here, you group of Galatians, not necessarily representative of the all Galatians. You are not using your heads!
“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” (, NIV)
This is a rhetorical question: Did you receive this Spirit by “law” or by “faith?”
“Tell me this one thing?” or Answer this one question.
“Are you so foolish?[idiotic, stupid] After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (, NIV)
“Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?” (, NIV)
“So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?” (, NIV)
“So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?” (, NIV)
Paul’s questions in 3:1–5 focus on three aspects of the Galatians’ experience of the Spirit: their initial reception of the Spirit (vv. 1–2), their progress toward maturity by the Spirit (v. 3) and their experience of miracles by the Spirit (vv. 4–5).
“So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” [Genesis 15:6] (, NIV)
The patriarch Abraham, who is mentioned nineteen times in Paul’s letters, is the pivotal figure in all of Paul’s arguments from Scripture in Galatians.
“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” (, NIV)
Who are the true children of Abraham?
No! Abraham was justified not on account of his outstanding virtues and holy works, but solely because he believed God. And his faith was reckoned as righteousness long before he knew anything about circumcision or had taken the first step in his long journey toward the promised land. Although he became the father of the Jews, he was justified when he was still a Gentile!—just like you Galatians, who were justified and received the Holy Spirit through the hearing of faith, not through works of the law.”
“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”” (, NIV)
“The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham.”
“So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (, NIV)
First, he redefined the Abrahamic family in such a way as to undercut the appeal of his opponents to this biblical paradigm. The true children of Abraham are those who, like the great patriarch, have been declared righteous by faith, that is, by God himself in his grace. Put otherwise, “the authentic descendants of Abraham are soul brothers rather than merely blood brothers.” Second, Paul interpreted the blessing promised through Abraham to “all the nations” as a prophecy of his own law-free mission to the Gentiles
“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”” (, NIV)
As we have seen throughout Galatians, Paul frequently assembled an argument from contraries and developed his theology in terms of antitheses: crucified with Christ/alive to God, the hearing of faith/the doing of works, beginning in the Spirit/ending in the flesh, promise/fulfillment, and so on. Just so, there are two decisive contrasts in vv. 9 and 10 that provide a connection for what would otherwise be a rather abrupt transition in Paul’s train of thought. Verse 9 is about “those who have faith,” while v. 10 concerns those who observe the law; the former are said to be blessed, while the latter are cursed.
“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” (, NIV)
The law has no power to subdue man’s sinful tendencies. It cannot destroy the power of sin within man (Rom. 8:3). How then can a sinner ever attain to the ultimate blessing of being righteous in the sight of God? How can that true, rich, full life in which man is at peace with his Maker, and abides in sweet communion with him, ever be reached? The answer, which holds for both dispensations, the old and the new, and for people of every race or nationality, whether Gentile or Jew, is this: “The righteous shall live by faith.”
“The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” (, NIV)
“Christ redeemed us [All of us, every single one of us] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (, NIV)
Christ purchased us free from the curse of the law. He bought us back from the sentence of condemnation which the law pronounced on us and from the punishment of eternal death which it exacted
“He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (, NIV)
Among all the priceless gems sparkling in the crown of Abraham’s blessing (the blessing he received) this surely was one of the most precious, namely, that through him—more precisely through his seed, the Messiah—a countless multitude of people was to be blessed. Through Christ and his Spirit