Faith and Freedom: Galatians 3:1-9

Faith and Freedom: Faith vs. Works

McKnight: Argument based on experience of conversion and Christian living

Foolish: ‘illogical’ (lit. ‘without reason’)

Big Question: How do I know I’m a Christian?

How did you become a Christian?

Religious experience? What made it so?

How do you get ‘near’ God?

Our work (or obedience to the Law of Moses?)

Or God

Great Tension: works of the Law vs. believing what you heard

Verse 3:

Are you now being perfected by the flesh? NIV: ‘by human effort’

Flesh vs. Spirit

Verses 6-14: Not an issue of merit-seeking, per se, but of religious observance

Not, ‘you should walk old ladies across the street’, but ‘you should walk old ladies down the communion line.’

Do Mormons get credit for sharing their faith?

What does ‘living under the Mosaic Law’ mean for folks in 2020?

Think in categories:

Abraham was justified by faith: Fully acceptable by God (not with religious observances)

Abraham was accepted by God fully without (!)- BEFORE his circumcision, BEFORE religious experiences

Abraham was the perfect example because he was the first Jew! He wasn’t circumcised when he believed!

What makes us righteous? Faith!