Adoption as sons, Galatians 4:1-7

It should be evident from the first verse of chapter 4, that we are jumping into the middle of an argument.  It’s probably not wise on the part of the ancient scribes to divide the chapter this way, but such it is.  However, we must consider the context of the preceding chapter in order to understand what follows in chapter 4.

Paul ended chapter 3 by saying, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.”  That mention of being an heir gives us context to understand why he is speaking of an heir in chapter 4, but really the crux of the argument is what constitutes being a descendant of Abraham.  

And what elucidated that principle is found in chapter 3 vs 14  which says, “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”  

So what Paul has been driving at is that the Gentiles are made descendants of Abraham and thus heirs of the blessing, by faith in Christ Jesus.  That’s the basic thesis of his argument.  Now we should remember that the blessing of Abraham is the promise that he would have a seed, and through that seed, which was Jesus Christ, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. 

The question should be asked, what does being blessed by God entail? I suggest that the blessing is salvation, being made the sons and daughters of God, and receiving eternal life and living forever with the Lord.  Notice though in chapter 3 vs 14 that Paul seems to equate the blessing with receiving the promise of the Spirit.  That’s key.  The Spirit is the One who regenerates us, by whom we are born again, and who dwells in us. Receiving the the Spirit is key to receiving the blessing.  You cannot be saved without the regeneration by the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit.

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.” You cannot be born again without receiving the Holy Spirit.  The teaching that you can be saved and then seek a second baptism which is receiving the Holy Spirit is not taught in the scripture.  Being born again is contingent upon receiving the Holy Spirit at regeneration. You can’t be born again without receiving the Spirit.

Now one more thing I want to emphasize about that process.  Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,  who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God's own] possession, to the praise of His glory.”

The key phrase that I want to emphasize there is “you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,  who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.”  Being a descendant of Abraham makes us an heir of the promise of blessing, which Ephesians tells us is the Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance. So you see that when we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we receive the Holy Spirit, and He dwelling in us is the down payment of our inheritance as heirs, and that inheritance will be fully realized when we see Jesus at His second coming.

Now all of that is accomplished without reliance upon the law for our salvation. That’s the main argument that Paul has been contending with since he began this letter.  The Judaisers claimed that salvation by faith in Christ plus keeping the law made you an heir of the blessing. They especially were concerned that professing Christians be circumcised  and keep the ceremonial laws concerning diet and days and festivals and so forth.

And so Paul has argued that those who are of the faith of Abraham are the sons of Abraham.  He showed that circumcision came after Abraham had been reckoned as righteous by faith. So the law did not contribute to Abraham’s salvation, and it doesn’t contribute to ours. Furthermore, in 3 vs 24 Paul says, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”  

So the law was given to make us cognizant of our sin. It was given to make us realize that we needed a Savior. And when we are saved by faith in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we no longer need a tutor. We no longer need a tutor because the Holy Spirit is within us who rules over our hearts.  So if you belong to Christ by faith, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

That brings us to chapter four, where Paul uses a human illustration to help make that point.  He uses the analogy of an heir being taught by a tutor, who in Roman times was often a slave. He says in vs 1, “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,  but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.”

The illustration given is of a child who is the heir of a very large estate.  A child refers to an age between birth and before being considered an adult.  And as I said, in a large estate the father would give tutors and guardians the charge to raise the child and teach him. Those tutors and guardians were usually slaves, very educated slaves who lived in the house, and had authority over the child. They were responsible for teaching and educating the child, dictating what he could and couldn’t do. They controlled how he was to live.

Both Roman and Jewish culture had customs concerning the coming of age of a child to being considered a man. But it seems that Paul had more in mind the Roman culture when he wrote this. In Roman culture, there was no specific age when the boy became recognized as a man, but it was determined by his father when he was ready.

So as a child he doesn’t differ from the slave even though he is to be an heir of everything.  But he is under their authority, just as a slave was under the authority of the master of the house. Yet he is destined to one day be owner of everything.

Then in vs 3, Paul gives the spiritual correlation to this illustration. He says, “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.”  The law was our guardian, our tutor when we were still children, which held us in bondage to the elementary principles of the world.  That is speaking of the law, which teaches us do not do this, and do not do that.  It was the authority that trained us in what not to do. In just the same way as the tutor taught the child what he could and couldn’t do, so the law taught us. 

The word that is translated elemental refers to things that were placed in a row, in a line. It eventually came to refer to the ABC's of a language, the alphabet. And so the elemental things referred to the alphabet. If the elemental things of the world include the Gentiles as well as the Jews, he's saying that when we were children we were in bondage to all of their human, basic principles by which men sought to justify themselves. In the case of Israel it was the misinformed use of the Ten Commandments as a means of salvation. For Gentiles it was the law of God written in their consciences by which they were seeking righteousness by the things that they do. 

But having said that, he comes in the 4th verse to the main spiritual application of this illustration. He says in vs 4, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

When the fullness of time means when the time was completed, when the time appointed had come. God the Father appointed a time when the children would come of age. God appointed a time when Jesus would come to earth, to offer Himself as a sacrifice, and a substitute.  It was the time appointed from eternity. It was the right time in history.  It was a time when the pax Romana, the peace of Rome, extended over most of the civilized earth and when travel and commerce were therefore possible in a way that had formerly been impossible, which greatly facilitated the spread of the gospel. Great roads linked the empire, and its diverse regions were held together even more significantly by the Greek language which was spoken throughout the empire. The same language in which the New Testament was written. And so many cultural and political entities came together at the right time ordained by God for Jesus to be manifested.

It’s also important to notice that Paul says that God sent forth His Son.  That indicates that Jesus was preexistent with God before His incarnation. As John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld HIs glory.”   So Paul establishes Christ’s deity by saying God sent forth HIs Son.

Then Paul states Christ’s humanity. Paul says He was born of a woman. Jesus laid aside His glory He had with the Father since time immortal and became flesh. The eternal Son of God in heaven added humanity to His deity and became a man, by being born of a virgin.  The Holy Spirt came upon her and she became with child. 

If Jesus was to be the sacrifice for sinners, then He must be deity. He must be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  If He is to be our substitute, then He must be our representative man.  He must be fully God and fully man.

And Paul says He was born under the law. He fulfilled the law perfectly, as no man can ever do or has ever done.  He kept every ceremony, every Sabbath, every jot and tittle of the law. Jesus said in Matt. 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Only by being blameless could He be the sacrifice for sinners.

Paul says He came to redeem those who were under the law.  To redeem is to purchase for the sake of setting free those who were held in captivity under the curse of the law. Jesus came to purchase us out of the slave market, from our bondage to sin and the elemental things of the world.  As we read in chapter 3, vs10 “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."  So then in vs 13 "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"--  in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”  The law condemned us. We were under it’s curse, but Christ became a curse for us so that we might become sons of God..

So He became a curse for us, redeemed us, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. It would be enough that we are purchased out of the slave market. But God’s work for us doesn’t end there; we are then elevated to the place of sons of God by adoption.  And notice that according to his earlier illustration, the child becomes an heir when he is recognized as a man. 

When we are adopted as sons, God becomes our Father, and we have all the benefits and privileges of a son. Adoption is a fitting metaphor for our regeneration.  God chose us for salvation before the creation of the world. Eph 1:4-5 says  “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.”

In adoption, the parents choose to love a child, to make him a part of their family.  The adopted one receives the family name, full privileges of the house, and full acceptance as a son or a daughter.  Adoption really is a beautiful thing.  It’s unfortunate that not all children who are adopted recognize it as such.  Sometimes I have known adopted kids who end up despising their adoptive parents and tried to connect with their birth parents.  I say it’s unfortunate because they don’t realize the full extent of the love their adoptive parents have for them.

Paul’s words here in describing our adoption is that we are declared as sons, fully heirs, no longer under the tutor, but receiving all the inheritance of God. We have all of the blessings that belong to the person who has been acknowledged as the son of God. Paul says in Eph. 1:3 “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ.” 

Paul goes on to describe that blessing in vs 6 saying,  “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” 

Notice if you are a son, then an heir, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.  I want to remind you of what I said earlier, the Spirit is the blessing, He is the deposit of the inheritance that we receive as sons.  I don’t know what sort of expectation you have when you think of heaven, or what’s sometimes called glory, or called our inheritance, or just called eternal life.  Maybe you imagine a mansion in heaven that God has prepared for you.  Maybe you imagine streets of gold and gates of the city being immense pearls.  I don’t want to debate those kinds of things right now.  But I will say this; the greatest thing about heaven will be being in the presence of the Lord.  To live in the presence of God will be the greatest joy, the greatest satisfaction that a person can experience. I can’t describe it.  I can’t comprehend it.

Theologians over the centuries attempted to describe it as the beatific vision. I would try to interpret that, but I don’t think words can do it justice. But as God is the source of light, the source of life, the source of every good gift, the source of goodness, the source of joy, the source of bliss, to be in His presence is to have all those things in super abundance. As Jesus said, I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

And as Paul says, the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts is the down payment, the deposit of that fullness of blessing that we will one day receive. We receive the Spirit of Christ because we are sons.  Because we have accepted and believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit.  We receive everlasting life now in exchange for our sentence of death.  We receive all the promises given to sons of God.

And as sons, we cry out “Abba, Father!” Abba is the Aramaic word for father, in the emphatic state.  It simply means Father.  It has connotations of intimacy.  I think some people have tried to translate it as a more common intimate word for Father, such as Daddy, or Poppa.  The studies that I have seen seem to say that though it may have had it’s origins from that sort of word, by the time it was used in the text, it had acquired the formal definition of father.  So the point of Abba Father is the Aramaic is given, and then the Greek is given as in interpretation.  So you’re not reading it as if to say Abba Father, but simply Abba! Which means Father.

Now I don’t want to spend time arguing semantics and lose sight of what Paul is saying here.  The point to what he’s saying is that because we are sons, we are able to cry out to God as “Father.”  That indicates a tremendous difference in our relationship to God.  That the God of the universe, Elohim, Jehovah, Lord God Almighty, becomes our Father, to whom we can cry out for help, cry out to deliver, to save, to provide because of His great love by which He adopted us as his sons and now He is our Father - this is a tremendous thing.  This is a blessing that is beyond our comprehension. I’m afraid we really take it for granted.

The world’s relationship with God is as the King of the world, the Judge of the world, the Creator of the world. Their knowledge of God is through fear. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  But for the unregenerate, that’s as far as their relationship goes.  They are not sons of God, they are sons of their father the devil.  To become sons of God, you must be born again of the Spirit. And only those born again of the Spirit can claim sonship and an heir to God.  But because we that have been saved are sons of God, we can cry out to Him “Father!”  And our heavenly Father, who never stops thinking of us, who never takes His eyes off of us, He comes to our rescue when He hears our cry.

We that are parents understand that relationship, don’t we?  What parent hearing the sudden scream of their child who was playing in the backyard doesn’t drop everything and run as fast as they can to help their child? If we as imperfect parents act so with our kids, then how much more can we expect from our Heavenly Father?

Paul uses a little circular reasoning here in order to lay stress on this point of our sonship.  He says in vs 6, because we are sons, we receive the Spirit, who makes us call out Father! And then in vs 7, he says,  “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”  

The distinctive is in vs 7  when he says you are no longer a slave.  The slave is equated with the law.  We are no longer under the tutelage of the law. We don’t need a tutor anymore because we have something better.  And that is we have the Spirit of God in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit tells us how to live, He leads us in the way we should go.  He teaches us to love one another. He gives us the strength to live.  He helps us to live in a way that is pleasing to God.

In Hebrews 8:10 we read about a new covenant, not like the old covenant which was the Law of Moses. It says,  "FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”

This is describing the work of the Spirit in our hearts when we are regenerated.  We do not need tablets of stone which are decrees against us, but we have a new heart quickened by the Holy Spirit, that we might do the things of God.

Another passage which talks about that is Ezekiel 36:24,  "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. "You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

To be the sons of God, is to receive the Spirit of God, by which we are made heirs of God, and to know God as our Father.  We have received the Spirit of God in our hearts as a deposit of the fullness of our inheritance that is laid up for us.  

Let me ask you in closing, have you been born again?  Are you a son of God? Have you received the Spirit of God? If you don’t have any evidence that you have been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ into a son or daughter of God, then I urge you to call upon Jesus Christ today as your Savior and Lord.  Believe in Him, and you will receive forgiveness of your sins, and receive the Spirt of Christ in your hearts, that you might receive the blessing of God.

The Faith of Abraham, Genesis 22

I want to take a diversion of sorts this morning from our normal verse by verse exposition of Galatians.  But I do so having been provoked by Paul in chapter 3 of Galatians.  If you will remember, in his argument of faith vs works, Paul introduces the example of Abraham in chapter 3 vs 6.  And throughout the rest of that chapter, Paul makes the point that it is those who are of the faith of Abraham who are the sons of Abraham. 

Now he is making this point because the Judaisers had come into the churches of Galatia and started teaching that you had to keep the law in order to be saved. Particularly, they were concerned with Jewish ceremonial laws, and even more to the point, the law of circumcision. According to the Jews, circumcision was the physical sign that you were a child of Abraham, a child of promise.  And so the Judaisers were teaching that irregardless of what you had done in regards to Christ, you must still be circumcised according to the law in order to be saved, in order to be of the people of God.

So Paul, on the one hand acknowledging that Abraham was the father of the faithful, rebuts the Jews reliance upon the law for merit, and instead goes to what preceded circumcision in Abraham’s life, which had found favor with God. And so he goes to the statement from Genesis 15:6 where the Bible says, “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  That’s the quote from Genesis that Paul records in Galatians 3:6.

And then he gives another important statement about faith in vs 11 “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”  That is a very pregnant saying, for it emphasizes many facets of salvation.  First it indicates that the dead will be made alive by faith.  And secondly it means that we are sanctified by faith.  We live day by day, hour by hour by faith.  Faith is not a one and done proposition, by which we say “I believe in Jesus Christ” but it’s only a very superficial type of intellectual assent to a doctrinal truth.  But we haven’t had to put real trust in Jesus Christ in regards to life and how we live. To trust Christ in life or death situation is really the test of faith. And the scriptures say the righteous man shall live by faith.

Paul goes on to speak in chapter 3 of Abraham’s faith as the critical gate by which Abraham received the blessings of God and given the covenant of God.  He then extrapolates from that, that we who believe in Christ by faith, with the same faith as Abraham, becomes sons of God, vs 26, and are made descendants of Abraham, and thus heirs according to promise. Vs 29.

Now that illustration of Abraham’s faith is instructive if you are well versed in the Genesis account as most Jews would have been, but it seemed to me that it behooves most 21st century Christians to take a refresher course on the life of Abraham that we might understand the kind of faith that Abraham had, if we are to have all the promises and blessings of God hinged upon our faith, which is to be the same kind of faith of Abraham.  

So I wanted to take the time this morning to go back to Abraham’s life and see what we can learn by his example what constitutes faith.  The first example I want to look at is found in Genesis 12.  God appeared to Abraham and said "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;  And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."  So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Now this is the first recorded example of Abraham’s faith.  The scripture doesn’t specifically say there that it was  on account of this faith in this example God credited him with righteousness.  But it is evident from Hebrews 11 that this was the first evidence of his faith. Heb 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”  And Abraham’s faith in this case is made evident by his obedience.  God told him to go, He made certain promises to Abraham, and Abraham obeyed and did what God said for him to do.   

So faith is being obedient to what God says.  Faith is more than just an intellectual assent, it’s trusting in what God said enough to be obedient to it. In Abraham’s case it meant leaving his home, taking his family and all his belongings and heading out to a place where God told him to go. Faith is being willing to change course, to follow the Lord.

Let me briefly explain the theological basis for faith. The Protestant Reformers recognized that biblical faith has three essential aspects: Latin; notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Notitia refers to the content of faith, the things necessary that we are to  believe. Assensus is the conviction that the content of our faith is true. Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance.Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is effectual only if one personally trusts in Christ alone for their life.  Now in Abraham’s case, his obedience was evidence that he trusted in God.

The second prime example of faith in Abraham’s life is found in Genesis 15. “After these things ( after settling in Canaan and the war of the kings) the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great." Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"  And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir."  Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."  Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” 

So Abraham believed in the word of the Lord and He reckoned it, or credited it to him as righteousness. Faith is believing in the promises of God.  That which has not yet come to pass. That which cannot be ascertained by human methods of reason.  Yet he believed.  Notice something about the revelation from the Lord.  The Lord appears in a dream or vision or by some other means again and again to Abraham. And each time the Lord speaks to him, he gives him more revelation.  It’s what is called progressive revelation.  We believe what the Lord reveals to us, we obey His word, and then the Lord leads us further.  He gives us more revelation as we are obedient to the revelation given. 

We often want to see the final outcome before we make a commitment.  Or we don’t want to make a commitment without a guaranteed outcome. That’s not really faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That’s not a riddle, that’s a definition of faith. Faith that is seen is not faith.  That’s the trouble with the teaching of the charismatics who love to talk about faith.  But they always want their faith to be given evidence.  And yet evidence is rarely given, otherwise it is no longer faith. And as the scripture says, the righteous shall live by faith.  Not the righteous shall live by sight.

So Abraham believed that God would give him a child according to the word of the Lord.  And yet ten years went by and still no child came.  So Abraham did what most of us would have done after even one year of waiting - he tried to help God out.  He took matters into his own hand. And he and Sarah took her handmaid Hagar, and Abraham had a son by her that they named Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the son of the promise.  It was the son of Abraham’s folly.

Finally after waiting for 25 years, and after being reminded again and again of God’s promise, Sarah conceived.  Paul spoke of it in Rom 4:19-22 saying,  “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb;  yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.  Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I think Paul makes it clear there that it wasn’t just a one time faith that Abraham had but a continued faith, an unwavering faith over 25 years of being told the promises of God that God rewarded.  Finally though with the birth of his son, Abraham could believe all that the Lord had promised him because he had seen God do a miraculous thing by giving him a son in his old age.  Nothing was too difficult for God. The birth of Isaac was undoubtedly on a mountain top experience in the faith of Abraham.

A lot of people today expect that sort of exuberance and joy of seeing God fulfill His promises to be the predominant experience of faith.  But they fail to realize that Abraham waited 25 years for that promise to be realized.  But as a people who have been trained by the culture to expect instant gratification we have a desire to see God do the miraculous.  And if we are truthful, our faith is dependent upon God doing the miraculous in order to keep our faith going.  But if the miraculous doesn’t come, or at least come in our time frame, then what happens to our faith? What kind of faith do we really have?

So sometimes God tests our faith.  Not to make us fail, but to prove our faith, to make evident our faith, and to grow our faith. Jesus rebuked the disciples once for being of little faith. Our faith must grow if it is to be living faith. And part of the way our faith grows is by testing. 

Turn to the final primary example of Abraham’s faith, which is found in Genesis 22. And I believe this example is the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith and one to which we would do well to contemplate.  

Gen 22:1-8 “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."  He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.  Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you."  Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.  Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"  Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Now a couple of things that we should notice to start with.  First note that God tested Abraham. Tested is not the same as tempted.  James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But God does test people for the purpose of proving their faith, of building up their faith, and of giving evidence of their faith. When we are tested and come through it, our faith is stronger, it’s more sure and certain.

Secondly, God made it clear that He considered Isaac as Abraham’s only son. If Abraham had a choice, he would perhaps have offered up Ishmael.  But God did not consider Ishmael to be the son of promise, as God had made to Sarah and Abraham. And we don’t know exactly how old Isaac was when Abraham was given this command. But if you took an average from what most commentators and Bible scholars have suggested, then it’s likely he was a young man of about 22 or so.  So he is no child.

Another important illustration of Abraham’s faith in this example is his willingness to obey. It’s understood from the context that Abraham received the word of God at night, perhaps in a vision, and he arose early in the morning and started on the journey.  He didn’t procrastinate. He didn’t make excuses why.  He didn’t pray about it.  That’s a good excuse a lot of Christians use to keep from obeying the Lord. They sanctimoniously say, “I’ll pray about it.”  If God said it in His word, you don’t need to be acting like Balam the wicked prophet and try to talk God out of it. Abraham didn’t delay, he got up early and took two servants and his son Isaac and started a three day journey to Mt. Moriah.

Then Abraham makes two statements which give evidence of his faith.  The first is when they arrive after 3 days near Mt. Moriah, Abraham says to the servants, “"Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  Some theologians have suggested that Abraham said this with his fingers crossed. I don’t think so.  I think this was an assurance of faith on Abraham’s part.  He could not have known how God would do it, but he knew that if God was going to keep His promises, then Isaac was going to have to live long enough to get married and have children.  I think he really thought of it that way and so he said that one way or another, he and his son would come back to them.

There is so much in this story of Abraham’s faith in sacrificing Isaac, that I wish I could speak to this morning.  But I really wanted just to focus on the faith of Abraham.  But I can’t help but point out something that I have stated before.  This is the first time the word “worship” is found in the Bible.  And if you follow the rule of hermeneutics, this is an example of the rule of first mention; which indicates the meaning of a word as it is used for the first time in scripture.  And you will notice that worship is equated with a sacrifice.  I think contemporary Christianity has dumbed down worship to the point of being nothing but a surge of emotion. No, according to Abraham, worship is to offer to the Lord God a sacrifice.

Paul thinks the same, saying in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”  Think about that.  I don’t have the time right now to spend on it that it deserves.

But we know that Abraham had faith to believe that God would somehow restore Isaac even though He had told Abraham to sacrifice him.  And we know that because of Heb 11:17-19  which says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son;]  [it was he] to whom it was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED."  He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” So Abraham believed that if necessary, God was able to raise Isaac from the dead.  And he believed it because of the promise of God.

That word type found there in Hebrews indicates that this story of Abraham and Isaac is a prefigurement of God sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us.  And we see that illustrated even in details such as Isaac carrying the wood for the sacrifice, just as Jesus bore His own cross.  But then Isaac asks the question, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

And Abraham’s response is a tremendous statement of faith and at the same time a Messianic prophecy.  He said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

You know, in all the years I have read about this subject, and heard messages on this subject, I don’t remember hearing too much about the faith of Isaac.  But I think that there is a silent message of Isaacs faith and submission and obedience to his father and ultimately to God that what He has promised is true.  Abraham’s probably around 120 years old by now.  Isaac is around 22 years old.  I think that would not be much of a contest under most circumstances, if the young man knew his dadW was going to sacrifice him on an altar.  But Isaac obviously submitted to his father and was obedient, and by extension showed that he had faith in God as well.  

Faith in God? What does that mean? Faith that God was good.  That God’s word was true and could be trusted. That if God promised it, God would accomplish it. Faith that they could trust their very lives to God.  Faith that if Isaac died, God would raise him up again.  Faith that God would provide.

And we know that God did provide a substitute for the sacrifice.  As Abraham raised his knife to slay his son, God said “Stop!”  “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Isn’t it interesting that God considers Abraham’s faith to be obedient as fearing God. Revering God above all else is to fear God. Obeying God is to fear God.

Gen 22:13 “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind [him] a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”

And Abraham called that place, Jehovah-Jireh, which means, the Lord will provide.  And God said because you have done this thing, you didn’t withhold your only son, not only will I bless you exceedingly, but  "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

And Paul tells us in chapter 3 vs 16, that the seed, singular, referred to Christ, though whom the nations who believe in Him by faith will be blessed.  And God kept his promise.  Two thousand years after Abraham God took his only begotten Son, the Son of God and descendant of Abraham, the Son whom He loved, and offered Him up on that same Mt. Moriah as a sacrifice, a substitute for sinners.  Only this time, no one yelled “Stop”.   God carried out HIs wrath against sin by crucifying His Son, so that we that believe in Him might be given life and receive the blessing of God.  That blessing is life, even eternal life through Jesus Christ.  

I hope that you have trusted in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the atonement for your sins, that you may be credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and be given the blessing of God, which is life forever with Him.  

The purpose of the Law, Galatians 3:15-29

One of the dangers, I suppose, of putting my address on public announcements or advertising, is that people know where you live. I had a visitor a few nights ago who I hope was not prowling about my house after dark.  He did however leave a letter on my mailbox addressed to me.  So it was evident that he knows me, but he didn’t sign it, which is kind of concerning that he wants to be anonymous.

The bottom line of the letter he left was to inform me that generations of Bible teachers and scholars have gotten wrong the date of the Sabbath.  I didn’t want to waste my time reading all the information there, but the gist of it was that if you recalculate the Sabbath based on their calendar, then you come up with another day for the Sabbath that we are to worship on, which is the correct day. And their opinion was that worshipping on the proper Sabbath was the missing key to spiritual knowledge and power.

But as I said, I didn’t want to waste time reading about moon cycles and all that sort of thing because it was evident that they got the basic principle of the gospel wrong.  Their idea was that if you keep the law of the Sabbath, then you unlock the blessing of God.  And so once I realized that was the gist of the letter, I discarded it.  The apostle Paul has been making arguing this principle in his letter to the Galatians, that there is not salvation by faith plus keeping the law. We are not under the obligation to keep the law of the Sabbath.  There is no benefit to keep the law of the Sabbath, or as Paul was arguing here in Galatians, to keep the law of circumcision, or any of the other ceremonial laws.  Paul has argued conclusively that the law is not a means of righteousness, nor of salvation.  So no matter what sort of pseudo science, or Biblical research, or whatever else they might use to try to entice you with, if it speaks of the necessity for keeping some point of the law, then they are of a false doctrine, and we need to disregard it and not let it upset our faith.

Now in regards to arguing that doctrine of salvation by faith alone, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul is giving a scholarly treatise on the purpose of the law, versus the promise of faith. It’s almost like when the Supreme Court makes a decision on a law, and then one of the leading judges writes an opinion. Paul is using a very technical, almost legal argument to establish the purpose of the law as a means of refuting the false doctrine that had pervaded the church.  These false teachers were legalists, and so Paul uses a legal argument to defeat them.  

But I will say that his message is difficult to comprehend sometimes.  I have heard that supposedly there are 300 or so interpretations of this passage that have been broached over the years. So even Bible scholars are not always in agreement as to what Paul is saying exactly in some cases.  However, I think we can focus on what is clear and plain, and perhaps what is unclear will be explained by the context.

So we’re picking up his argument in the middle of the chapter, vs 15, and I don’t want to have to regurgitate everything that has been said up to this point. But it is important to look back to vs 8 and following  and remember that Paul has used Abraham as an illustration of faith in contrast to the false teachers reliance upon Moses and the law.  Paul isn’t saying that Moses or  the law was bad, but he points them back to Abraham to show that salvation by faith preceded the giving of the law, just as Abraham’s salvation was by faith before he was circumcised.

He says in vs 8, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” And he concludes that argument in vs 14 saying, “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”  Now that phrase “In Christ” is a very important phrase that Paul is going to use again in this next section.  Being in Christ is the means by which we are made the children of God, and the children of Abraham, and the inheritors of the promises or the blessing.

So let’s continue now in vs 15, Paul says, “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is [only] a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.”  He says in other words, I am speaking in human terms, but in men’s covenants, once a covenant has been ratified, no one can change it or add to it.  A covenant is a legal agreement between two parties.  And ratified means it has been agreed to, or signed by both parties. Once a legal covenant has been ratified, you can’t just arbitrarily add to it or take from it. That’s pretty much common to law everywhere.

Vs16 “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as [referring] to many, but [rather] to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” 

So the first thing Paul does here is apply the principle of a human covenant to the covenant God made with Abraham.  And in vs 15, he is identifying who is involved in the covenant. And what he says it is was made by God to Abraham and to his seed.  And Paul gives us some insight there that may not have been clear in the Genesis account, and says that it wasn’t given to Abraham’s seeds, plural, but seed, singular. He then tells us that signifies that the seed was Christ, the Messiah, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  And according to vs 4, what God promised Abraham constitutes the gospel.  

Then what he adds in vs 17, is that the Mosaic law, which came 430 years after Abraham was given the covenant, does not invalidate the covenant made to Abraham and his seed.  It had been ratified by God, and thus the law cannot nullify the covenant promise made to Abraham that through Him all the nations would be blessed.

Vs 18, For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” So in other words, the inheritance promised to Abraham was not based on keeping the law.  The law didn’t come for 430 years later.  God gave His promise based on Abraham’s faith, not on the condition that Abraham kept the law. So the illustration shows that salvation is based on faith, not on law.  The law cannot affect salvation by faith.

The question then on the minds of the legalists would be, then what was the purpose of the law?  We know that God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  What purpose was there in giving the law, if it wasn’t to provide a path to salvation?

Paul answers that question in vs19 “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.  Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is [only] one.”

I think what Paul is saying in “the law was added because of transgressions,” is that because of sin, God gave the law to elucidate sin more clearly. Sin existed before the law, of course. But  sin became clearer, more condemning if you will, after the law was given.  The law clarified sin, it made it more apparent, it made it more condemning. The law showed the extent of sin and how sinful man really was. I think the law also revealed God’s standard for righteousness more clearly. But basically Paul says the law made sin more sinful.

Paul says the law was given until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. The law was given until Jesus came, who then fulfilled the law, and He became the curse of the law for us, that we might be sent free from the condemnation of the law.

Now vs 20 talks about angels and mediators and is really one of the most confusing and obscure texts in the NT. What it might be referring to, is that the Mosaic law was given through a mediator, which is typical in a two party covenant.  But in a unilateral covenant, such as God made with Abraham, there is no mediator. But that still doesn’t answer all the questions about this verse. However we will press on to plainer things and leave the not so plain things for God to reveal as He sees fit.  The plain thing to remember is that the law was given to make sin more sinful, more apparent, more clear.  It was to make man more aware of his sin.

Paul continues with a question of his own regarding the law in vs 21 “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.  But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Paul says that the law is not something evil, in opposition to God’s promise. The problem with the law is found in its inability to give life. In reality, the law brings death because it shows that man is sinful, and the wages of sin is death. If the law could have given life, then it could have produced righteousness. But the Law of Moses brings no life; it simply states the standard of God, tells us to keep it, and tells us the consequences if we break the command.

Paul uses in vs 21 the idea of imprisonment as an illustration of the law.  Sin, brought about by failure to keep the law, holds us captive.  The law then put us in  prison, because it pointed out our sinful condition. So we sit imprisoned by sin, and the law can not help us, because the law put us in the prison. Under the law, there is none righteous, no not one. We are all sinners, condemned to death and held captive.

Only faith can break us out of our imprisonment to sin. The Law of Moses can show us clearly our problem and God’s standard, but it cannot give us the freedom that only Christ can give. That freedom is given to those who believe.

Vs.23 "But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

What I think Paul means there is before faith in Christ came.  Faith existed since the beginning.  But faith in Christ was not revealed util Jesus came. Until that time that Christ came, we were kept captive under the law.  Paul says one of the most insightful comments about the purpose of the law in vs 24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

That’s the purpose of the law, to teach us that we need a Savior. It’s to show us our sinfulness, to reveal our hopelessness, so that we might come to Christ who is our satisfaction of the requirement of the law.  And by believing in Him, we are justified by faith.  We believe in who He is, in what He has done on the cross, and by believing, our sin is transferred to Christ, and His righteousness is transferred to me.

Vs25 “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”  The illustration Paul is using there of a tutor is someone who was given responsibility for the proper upbringing of a young person.  He was a school teacher, but even more than that, he was responsible for training and development.  A lot of times in that culture he would have been a slave, but a very educated slave.  However, in Paul’s simile, when the boy becomes a man, the need for a tutor is done away with.  When the perfect comes, the partial is done away with.  When salvation through faith in Christ is realized, then there is no longer any need for the tutor.

When Paul says you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, he is establishing two important distinctives of our faith.  One is our standing before God. To be considered the sons of God means that we have a special relationship with God as a loving Father. Our standing with God is a place of intimacy, a place of affection, a place of special care and attention.  

And the second thing Paul establishes is the method of becoming sons of God. It is by faith. To become a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus means much more than believing that He existed, but in who He is, what He accomplished for us on the cross, and trusting in Him for life now and for eternity.

Then in closing, Paul tells us what it means to be considered “in Christ.” He says in vs27 “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Notice that Paul  doesn’t say we were baptized into water, but baptized into Christ. Just as in water baptism a person is immersed in water, so when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, we are immersed in Jesus.  We put on Jesus.  We are in Jesus, just as when you put on clothes you are in your clothes.  That’s the analogy that he is making, as evidenced by the phrase, “have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

It’s like the song we sing, the Solid Rock, where it says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”  So when we were saved by faith, we received the righteousness of Christ, so that we are in effect baptized into Christ, clothed with Christ.  That’s what it means to be in Christ.  When God looks at us, He sees us dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Then Paul addresses the blessings of being in Christ.  He gives the first benefit  in vs 28” There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  We all belong, irregardless of race, of sex, of social status or heritage.  All of us who have confessed faith in Jesus Christ are one in Christ.  We are all equal.  No distinctions.  No one is less a possessor of the promise because they are not a Jew by birth.

Vs29 “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.”  Paul comes full circle, back to Abraham, the father of the faith. Those who have come to Christ by faith, belong to Christ, and we all can claim Abraham as our father.  And as spiritual descendants of Abraham, we are heirs according to the promise.

Paul describes this in Romans chapter  4:13, 16-17 saying, “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. ... 16 For this reason [it is] by faith, in order that [it may be] in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, "A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU") in the presence of Him whom he believed, [even] God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

The crux of the argument then is whether or not you are in Christ. This is the issue. The issue is not “Are you keeping the law?” The issue is not “Are you a Jew or a Gentile?” The only issue is if you are in  Christ.  Do you belong to Him? Have you accepted Him by faith as your Savior? Are you clothed in His righteousness?  If so then you receive the promise of blessing that God gave to  Abraham and to His seed. You receive eternal life.  You receive forgiveness of your sins.  And you become a child of God, an heir of God. You receive an eternal inheritance.  Trust Jesus today that you might be found “In Christ.” 

Bewitched, foolish, cursed, blessed, Galatians 3:1-14

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.”