Father Abraham Had Many Sons

C. H. Spurgeon, the “Babe Ruth” of the Christian ministry, told a story about two men in a boat caught in severe rapids. As they were being carried swiftly downstream toward the perilous rocks and falls, men on the shore tried to save them by throwing out a rope. One man caught the rope and was saved. The other man, in the panic of the moment, grabbed a log that was floating alongside. It was a fatal mistake! The man who caught the rope was drawn to shore because he had a connection to the people on land. The man who clung to the log was carried downstream by the rapids … never to be found. Faith is like grabbing the rope from shore; it’s our saving connection to Jesus Christ. Good works, like grabbing onto the log, carry men to their doom.

Anders, M. (1999). Galatians-Colossians (Vol. 8, p. 35). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

6 Arguments that prove that grace’s justification by faith is superior to the law.

I. The Argument from Personal Experience (vv. 1–5)

Galatians 3:1 ESV

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Paul is direct and stern as he calls the Galatians foolish. That would be akin of calling them “stupid.” “What a stupid decision to make, abandon grace for works based salvation.

Paul says that the Judaizers had bewitched them.

*This reminds me a guy showing up to a car lot just to look around. But before he leaves, the sales person has talked him into buying the very car that his wife will kill him for when he gets home. It takes that tongue lashing from his wife to break him out of the spell.

They accepted a message that implied the death of Christ was insufficient. Paul had been so clear in presenting the gospel that he could say: Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. They were now rejecting what they had seen, through Paul’s preaching, with their own mind’s eyes.

In vv. 2–5 asks four rhetorical questions to demonstrate that salvation is through faith alone. These questions concern the reception and work of the Holy Spirit.

Question#1

Galatians 3:2 ESV

2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

By believing, hello?

Question #2

Galatians 3:3 ESV

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

Are you so stupid to think that you can begin the Christian life by by faith, but you think that you can grow to spiritual maturity by working really hard at being good. The Holy Spirit doesn’t empower spiritual growth by law; he does it as we express faith. All the Judaizers could teach was obey.

Question #3

Galatians 3:4 ESV

4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

What’s interesting about this is every scholar that I read said that this didn’t mean “suffer” like we usually think of it in terms of persecution. But in this context it means something more like “experienced.”

Paul is asking, “Have you experienced so many blessings of the Holy Spirit in vain?” In other words, you have seen the Holy Spirit work in your life and now throwing all that away. You are now rejecting him and you think you can do a better job than him?

Question #4

Galatians 3:5 ESV

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—

In other words, “Did God give you the Holy Spirit and save you from sin because you were really good and obeyed really well, or because you gave up any notion that you save yourself and trusted him to do it in Christ?” It’s because you accepted his grace not kept the law.

II. Argument from Abraham (vv.6-9)

As a pastor their are a few questions that we get from people over and over. One common question is, “How were people in the OT saved?” The answer is, “They were saved just like we are, through faith in Christ.” Our faith is backward looking faith. They are save by forward looking faith. We are in a better position to understand how God will work through the life, death and resurrection of Christ in order to save us.

The people in the OT didn’t understand exactly how God would work to save them from their sin, but they trusted in the grace of God to do just that even if they didn’t exactly know how. All those sacrifices was to help them come to understand what the sacrifice of Christ really meant.

People were never saved through the law. Paul points out how clear this is through the person of Abraham.

Galatians 3:6 ESV

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

This comes from Genesis 15 when God made a covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 15:5–6 ESV

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

It was Abraham’s belief, his faith, that God credited as righteous.

Why is that important? It’s because Abraham preceded Moses and the law by 430 years. When Abraham was saved the law wasn’t even a thing. And if the Judaizer thought that they could argue that Abraham was circumcised. They couldn’t get far with that because Gen. 17:24 says that he was circumcised after he was declared righteous by God.

*Let’s say lady that comes from a very poor family, but she marries a man a very rich man. At the moment he says, “I do.” All of his money becomes hers. We put it in the marriage vows.

When Abraham placed faith in Christ, all of God’s righteousness became his. It went right into Abraham’s account.

This says something about who the real children of Abraham really are.

Galatians 3:7–9 ESV

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.

The Jews prided themselves in being the physical children of Abraham. But Paul says that his real descendants are not physical children but spiritual children. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ and have received his righteousness. That means Gentiles with faith have a greater claim to be children of Abraham that Jews rejecting Christ.

That goes all the way back to God’s covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 12:3 ESV

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

I love v.8

Galatians 3:8 ESV

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.”

God preached the gospel to Abraham, before Christ and it had nothing to do with the law. Abraham believed and was justified. Abraham had faith. Now the son of Abraham display the family resemblance by showing faith.

Abraham family would be represented in all nations as all who have faith find the blessing that Abraham found, righteousness before God.

III. Argument from the Curse of the Law (vv. 10-14)

The law can’t justify. It can only bring judgment. So, grace is superior to the law.

Galatians 3:10 ESV

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.”

Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 to prove that, contrary to what the Judaizers claimed, the law cannot justify and save. It can only condemn.

The breaking of any aspect of the law brought a curse on the person who broke the law. Since no one can keep the law perfectly, we are all cursed.

Galatians 3:11 ESV

11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2:4. Paul is saying that people weren’t even saved by the law during Moses time. They were saved by faith because they lived by faith.

Galatians 3:12 ESV

12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

In other words, if you live by faith you can rest in what God can accomplish for you, righteousness. But if you are relying on your ability to keep the law to make you righteous, you better keep them perfectly to be righteous. Otherwise, you can never be right with God. Instead you will be the curse of God.

Galatians 3:13 ESV

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”—

Christians are still guilty in relation to the law because we have broken it. But we have been redeemed, or “brought out of slavery with a price.”

For the Jews death by hanging on a tree was the outward sign in Israel for being cursed by God. The idea is that a person was hanged because they had broken the law and breaking the law brought on the curse of God.

When Jesus died on the cross, he took our curse upon himself. Hanging on the cross was the appropriate form of death for Christ, because it tells us that Christ is willing to endure the curse of God for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Christ died on the cross for two reasons.

1)Gentile might receive Abraham’s blessing might come to Gentiles. And not just to the Gentiles but also Jews by faith.

Galatians 3:14 ESV

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.

Paul says, “we.” Paul includes himself as a Jew. All people are saved by faith, even the Jews.

IV. Argument from God’s Integrity(vv.15-18)

Galatians 3:15–18 ESV

15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Paul gives an example that they will be familiar with. The man-made covenant that he mentions is what we would think about as a person’s last will and testament.

His argument is essentially this. No one changes a will after the person is dead. All you can do is carry it out and give to the beneficiaries what they have been given.

The beneficiaries in God’s Covenant with Abraham are 1)Abraham and 2)Abraham’s Offspring. We know who Abraham is, but who is Abraham’s Offspring? Paul makes the point that the promise is not to Abraham’s Offspring (plural). I think he is saying that Abraham’s Offspring are not the many Jewish people.

But he notes that the Scripture says, “And to your offspring,” (singular). Paul says that Offspring is one and the one is “Christ.”

So the recipients of the promise involved in Abraham’s covenant are all those who like Abraham place faith in Christ to save them and not their works.

The promise came before the law. The law doesn not make God’s promise void. And God will not go back on his word.

V. Argument from the Law’s Purpose (vv.19-25).

It sounds as if the law has not purpose at all. But that’s not true. It’s purpose is just not to save. Listen to Paul show the law’s purpose in the plan of God.

Galatians 3:19–25 ESV

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

There’s more in here than I can talk about now. But essentially this is the argument.

The law can’t save it can only condemn. All people on earth have broken the law, therefore, Scripture shows that everyone is under the curse of sin. The only hope for salvation is faith in Christ.

Now here’s the role of the law. V.25 says that we were “held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” (v.25) What he means by that is more like we were kept in “protective custody.” It confined us, but it also kept us for the coming of Christ.

He changes the metaphor in v. 24 by calling the law a guardian. Some translations call it a tutor. The law can’t save, but it can teach us that we need a Savior because we can’t save ourselves by living Holy.

VI. Argument from the Believer’s New Standing (vv. 26-29)

Galatians 3:26–29 ESV

26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

The idea of being baptized is dying to self and finding new life in Christ. We have a new identity as a child of God. In this new identity, no one has a better standing than others.

Jewish men use to thank God in their prayers that they were not born Gentiles or women. In Christ we are one. One people. One body. Enjoying one righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. No one is more right with God than anyone else.

We can’t be more of a son or less of a son. So no matter who you are or where you were born. Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female, we all enjoy the same promise of complete righteousness with Christ.

Take Aways:

1. God’s entrance requirement for heaven is perfection.

2. We have all failed.

3. The law shows us that we need a Savior.

4. Jesus is that Savior.

5. God’s plan has always been that faith in Christ alone would save us.