Paul has written this letter to the Galatians to counter false teaching which has entered the churches in Galatia. He had founded these churches, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and others during his first missionary trip. But in no time at all, Jews from Jerusalem had come to the churches and spread a malicious doctrine that you had to conform to Jewish law, particularly that of circumcision and other ceremonial laws, in order to be truly saved.
So Paul spent the first two chapters of his letter reestablishing his apostleship and authority in giving them the gospel. Now he adds to that the argument against this false teaching by means of theology.
There are three arguments that we are going to look at in the message this morning, and the first is an argument from Christian experience. Paul asks the Galatians to look back over their past and to analyze some of the things that happened to them as the apostle preached the gospel to them.
The first is a question regarding the reception of the Holy Spirit. He says in vs1 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed [as] crucified?” The KJV, which I prefer in this case, adds the phrase; ”Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? They had deviated from the truth of the gospel because they had been bewitched.
The word foolish there does not mean they were mentally deficient. Instead, Paul used the ancient Greek word anoetos, which had the idea of someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception. Paul uses a lot of word play in this passage about eyes, or seeing. So he is accusing them of being spiritually blind.
He also accuses the Galatians of being bewitched. This Greek word that is used here is a rather interesting word. It was used of individuals who had magical powers. In fact, it was often the equivalent of what we mean when we speak of someone casting an evil eye upon someone else. The Greeks had a great fear of the "evil eye." I am sometimes accused of giving other surfers who want to take my wave the stink eye. That’s not a very loving thing to do to your neighbor, and I’m sure I am not guilty of it as frequently as I am accused of. However, I think the stink eye and the evil eye are not the same thing.
The evil eye was thought to work in the way a serpent could hypnotize its prey with its eyes. Once the victim looked into the evil eye, a spell could be cast. Therefore, the way to overcome the evil eye was simply not to look at it. In using this phrasing and the word picture of bewitched, Paul was urging the Galatians to keep their eyes focused steadfastly upon Jesus.
The trouble with the Galatians, to put is simply, was "eye trouble." They had been bewitched by the Judaisers who had a laid and evil eye upon them so to speak. They had turned from the sole-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, and were attracted to the doctrine that one must not only believe in the Lord Jesus but also be circumcised in order to be saved.
Now what makes it even more ridiculous is that the apostle says that he had publicly portrayed the Lord among them. The idea behind publicly portrayed is something like “billboarded,” to publicly display as in setting on a billboard. Paul wondered how the Galatians could have missed the message because he certainly made it clear enough to them. He had billboarded the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul plays on the idea of eyes and "evil eyes." He says, "Who has laid an evil eye on you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been publicly portrayed as crucified.” The emphasis is on a crucified Jesus. He proclaimed him as crucified in the sense that his sufferings were looked at as atoning sufferings. Christ’s crucifixion was proclaimed as the sole-sufficiency for human salvation. If salvation came through the law, then it would not have been necessary for Christ to be crucified.
Now he asks another question of the Galatians in vs 2 “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” Of course, the answer to that was very simple, because the Galatians were Gentiles and did not have the Law of Moses, and chances are that they didn't know a great deal about the Law of Moses. And so, when they received the Holy Spirit it could only have been by the hearing of faith, not by doing the works of the Law.
It’s also important to understand that when he says received the Holy Spirit he is talking about salvation. Salvation is being born of the Spirit. You cannot be saved without the Holy Spirit entering in a person. Rom 8:9 says “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” To be born again is to be born of the Spirit. You received the Spirit when you are justified by faith. So the answer to that question is they had received the Spirit by faith, not by keeping the law.
Then he asks them another question. He says in the third verse, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" In other words, you received the Spirit by believing in the Lord Jesus, and now are you to take the second step in salvation by being circumcised? Is salvation really a two step procedure, faith and then the observance of the rite of circumcision? And the idea of perfection there means simply completion. As if there was something not yet completed that was necessary.
When a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is born into the family of God, he does not need to take other steps in order to complete his salvation. He does not need to believe in Christ and then be baptized, or be circumcised, or keep the Sabbath, or take communion, or any such thing. The Spirit is the means by which we are born again, saved, and there is nothing that you can add in the flesh that will complete salvation. You were born complete, in the sense that you have all that is required for new birth. You were justified by receiving Christ’s righteousness applied to your account. You have received a new nature. You have received the Spirit of Christ. And all of that is by grace, the gift of God. There is nothing else that must be added to be a complete, new creation.
Now, that third question is one that concerns the manifestation of the Spirit. Vs4-5 “Did you suffer ( a better translation might be experience) so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? 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 with faith?”
You remember if you turn over to Acts chapter 14 and read that chapter, that when the apostle was in Iconium that God testified to the work, to the preaching of the word, by "signs and wonders." Those are the specific words of Luke when he wrote the 14th chapter of the Book of Acts. So when the apostles came there, they manifested the signs of an apostle, the miraculous gifts. Paul says in 2 Cor. 12:12 “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Signs and wonders were the evidence that they were apostles. And Paul says they came by the Spirit as they were preaching Jesus Christ.
Paul asks, “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 with faith? Again, the Law was unknown to these Gentiles in Iconium and Lystra, and Derbe, The answer was obvious. These mighty works were done through the hearing of faith, not through the works of the Law. So the apostle, then asking the Galatians to look back over their past experience, has in effect said to them, "There is no indication that the spiritual life into which you have been brought came from works of the Law at all. It has come on the basis of grace through faith.”
Now the Galatians had been taught to recognize the fact that in the final analysis, an argument on spiritual things must be grounded in the word of God, because that's the final proof of all of the truth. So now he turns to the Scriptures. And you probably have noticed in reading through these verses that the apostle cites about six passages from the Old Testament in this next section. In most Bible versions the Old Testament references are in capital letters or in italics so that you can recognize them. In verse 6, there is a quotation from the Old Testament, “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Let us make sure that we don’t rush past the word faith. Faith is believing. Believing is faith. But notice Abraham is not justified because he believed in God. As in he believed that God existed. The Bible says that the devils believe and tremble, but they are not saved. Simply believing in God does not save you. Notice Abraham believed God. He believed God’s word. He believed that what God said was true. He believed that what God said He would do, He did. That’s what it means to believe on Christ. It’s not just to believe that Jesus walked the earth, otherwise thousands of Jews who saw Him during His earthly ministry were saved. But those who were saved believed Him. They believed who He claimed to be. What He did. They believed His word. So we need to make sure we know what constitutes faith in God.
Now among the Galatian Christians, the push towards a works based relationship with God came from certain other professing Christians who were born as Jews and who claimed Abraham as their spiritual ancestor. Therefore, Paul used Abraham as an example of being justified before God by faith and not by faith plus works. So he's arguing from the word of God now for his truth.
It’s interesting to notice the man Paul turns to for illustration more than anyone else, other than Christ. He turns to Abraham. Abraham is the perfect illustration of a man whose life rests upon faith. God appeared to him as an act of sovereign grace, turned him to Himself, brought him to faith in Him, and his whole life is an expression of a life of faith.
The Judaisers had a favorite OT character as well; they favored Moses. And Moses was important. You certainly cannot understand the Old Testament if you don't understand the contribution that Moses made. But in the final analysis, Moses was a man who introduced a system, which was a temporary system. It was a system that foreshadowed what was to come. But Moses’ system was not the final solution. Abraham, of course, preceded Moses, and in a sense Moses emanated from Abraham.
Now, the reason why Abraham is such a beautiful illustration is, because when a person believed in the days of the Old Testament, he became a true member of the covenant. Ideally all of the children of Israel belonged to the covenant, and in a symbol of that, they gave testimony to it by circumcision the males on the eighth day. That was a sign and a seal of the righteousness, which came by faith. But as so often happens, the sign and the seal became the primary things. And men were identified as the possessors of righteousness if they had been circumcised. But the essential inward necessity of faith was forgotten.
Even in the Christian church, the fact that a person is a member of a Christian church does not mean that he is a Christian, except in a superficial sense only. A true Christian is a person who has believed in our Lord Jesus Christ and who has a personal faith in the Redeemer, the Messiah. And in the Old Testament, no man was a true Jew, a true Israelite, who did not also have faith in the Messiah who was to come. "Not all who are of Israel are Israel," the apostle states. So it is important for us to remember that in the Christian church, one must have a faith in Christ before he is a true Christian, and in the Old Testament dispensation one must have a true faith in the Christ (Messiah) to come before a Jewish man is really a covenant Jew in the spiritual sense.
Now, Paul makes an argument similar to this in Romans chapter 4, and he asks the question, "Does justification come by circumcision? No," he says, "it's very simple; all you have to do is look at Genesis chapter 17, and Genesis chapter 15." In Genesis chapter 15 Abraham is credited with righteousness, but in Genesis chapter 17, he is circumcised. And so, since chapter 15 precedes chapter 17, and a man, such as Abraham is pronounced righteous in Genesis chapter 15, it's not because he was circumcised, which is not recorded until chapter 17.
That's what he's talking about in vs7 when he says, "Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham." If you, sitting in this audience today, have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, are of faith, you are as he says, a son of Abraham.
And then in vs 8, he says, “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." Notice all the nations, in other words, the Gentiles were blessed in Abraham. Do you realize that you are a son or daughter of Abraham? You are, if you have believed in Jesus Christ unto salvation. Vs9, ”So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”
This would have been a shocking challenge to the thinking of these Judaisers. They deeply believed that they had a standing before God because they were genetically descended from Abraham. Jewish Rabbis taught that Abraham stood at the gates of Hell just to make sure that none of his descendants accidentally slipped by. John the Baptist dealt with this same mindset when he said, “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Matthew 3:9). Paul here debunks their reliance on their genetic relation to Abraham and showed that what really mattered was those that shared in the faith of Abraham.
Now, finally the apostle will argue from the negative. He will argue from the curse of the Law. And he will show that if a man does put himself under Law, he puts himself under the curse, a curse that can only be cured by our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the 10th verse, in which he speaks of the condemnation of the Law. “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” He is appealing to Deuteronomy chapter 27, vs 26, "‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’ All the words of the Law. You cannot pick some to keep and some to disregard. You are under the curse of all the law.
The legalist’s view is do and live. Not that they can keep all the law, of course. But the Christian’s view is believe and live. John 20:31 says, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” And 1 John 5:13 says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” It should be clear from scripture that spiritual life comes through faith.
Verse 11 and 12 says, "Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM." If you’re going to try to gain heaven by keeping the law, then you need to understand that the standard for acceptance is 100% perfection. Not that your good deeds and your bad deeds are put on a scale, and if the scale tips on the good side then you get in. That’s not how heaven works. You must keep the entire law perfectly, which no man can do. So if you are at this moment not perfect, what you need is a remedy for a law breaker, because that's what you are.
Now fortunately, Paul, in the 13th verse, gives us the remedy. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE.” The idea of redemption came from the practices of ancient warfare. After a battle the victors would take captive those who were defeated. Among the defeated, the poorer ones would usually be sold as slaves, but the wealthy and important men, the men who mattered in their own country, were held for ransom. When the people in their homeland had raised the required price, they would pay it to the victors and the captives would be set free. The process was called redemption, and the price was called the ransom. The price for breaking the law was death, and Christ paid that price for us. He redeemed us from the curse of the law.
So when he says that he has been made a curse for us, it is evident that he means that Christ has paid the penal judgment for our sins. And when he says that Christ has borne the curse for us, he means that Christ has borne the penalty of the broken Law for us. As Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:21, "God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
Someone has said that the story of substitutionary atonement is shown in three prepositions here in this passage. Verse 10 says, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." This is the curse, and this is I. I am under the curse. Notice the preposition under. Then in the 13th verse we read, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." Now the word "for" is a Greek preposition which really has the idea of over. So here am I under the curse, but Christ has been made a curse for us, over us, so that now he has intervened between the curse and myself, so that the curse, when it falls, falls upon him, and it does not fall upon me. Further, he has just said, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law," a preposition that means "out from." So that as a result of the curse falling upon him, I am out from under the curse. Theology in three prepositions, under, over, out from. Christ became the curse for us. ”For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree."
And the consequences of Jesus becoming cursed for us is that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. What's the blessing of Abraham? Well, justification first and foremost. I stand before God credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I have a righteousness that is acceptable to God, by virtue of what Christ has done. In addition, I have been given life, "For the just shall live by faith." And that life is by and through the possession of the Holy Spirit. And thirdly, as it says in James 2:23 "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.”
We are made the friends of God by virtue of Christ’s righteousness. We are born into the family of God. We receive an inheritance that will never fade away. We gain citizenship in the kingdom of God. We receive everlasting life. That’s just some of the blessings of Abraham that we also receive. 1Cor. 2:9 “but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND [which] HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
I hope that if you are here today and have not believed on Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, then you would simply receive Him today as your Lord and Savior. There is no work that you can do to gain salvation. Jesus did the work, He paid the price, He took your curse upon Himself that you might be set free. If you will just call upon Him today you will be saved, and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that you might have eternal life. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. Call on Him today. [ohn 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
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