I read an article this week where Hal Poe was recounting things going on that were affecting Southern Baptists back in the latter part of the nineties, and, near the end of the article, Poe mentioned men flocking to Promise Keepers events in stadiums that could hold tens of thousands of men. And as soon as I mentioned that, my mind went back to going to a couple of these events with my dad. It was a helpful time, with good encouragement, teaching, and fellowship. But there was always one problem with these events. Well, I guess the problem was not with the event itself, but with things surrounding the event. The problem for many of us was that after these events, we went home to settings that were no different than when we left. That is, you might go home with full intentions to learn the Bible as best you can and then come back to a local church where sermon after sermon does everything but teach you what the sermon text that morning is teaching. Or you come home thinking that you finally want to enter into some relationship where you can have accountability concerning your struggles with lust and find that there are few if any men really interested in walking together in a fight for holiness. These events often had the effect of providing you with some kind of mountaintop experience only to leave you feeling quite low as you found yourself back home feeling helpless to live out the things you declared you wanted to do.
And for those of you who never went to a Promise Keepers event, I’m sure you’ve experienced this in other ways. We’ve all been in some setting where we feel that our lives will never be the same and things are going to change, only to find that when you get back into your normal settings, the fight is much more difficult than you’d hoped.
Well, it’s my prayer for us that this past Sunday (or our entire study through Galatians) has not been like that for us. That is, I hope that this past week wasn’t one in which you walked away from the service on Sunday, seeing the beauty of the gospel, the beauty of justification by faith alone, and you walked away thinking, “I’m never going to succumb to legalism again” only to find yourself repeating the same old patterns that you had been living out prior to that Sunday. But I realize that many of us might indeed have done that. And, even if you didn’t, and you think to yourself, “No, the reality is that Galatians 2:11-21 has been locked into my head all week, aiding me to hold to the gospel and not look to the works of the law as my basis for justification,” then just as I am thankful and excited for you, so I am certain that there will come times when the fight will become harder and our minds won’t be as quick to remember Paul’s teaching from Galatians 2:11-21.
Therefore, what I want to do this morning is to furnish you with more weapons in the fight. For in the moment of struggle, it may be that it’s difficult to rehearse and find one line of argument convincing to your heart and mind, but if you have many lines of argument, you can bombard yourself with them. But the reason I want to give you more weapons to remind your minds and hearts that we are justified before God by faith and not by doing the works of the law is not simply because I think that would be a helpful thing for a pastor to do for his congregation – though I think it is – it is because this is what Paul does in our text this morning for the Galatians. After relaying to them his conversation with Peter and teaching them that no one is justified by keeping the works of the law but only by having faith in the crucified and risen Christ, Paul now turns to addressing them more personally. In 3:1-9, no longer is Paul simply instructing them. Rather, he begins by asking questions that he wants them to have to answer. That is, he doesn’t simply want them to be able to hear what Paul has to say and dismiss it as some teaching detached from their lives. He wants them to have to answer questions for themselves so that they have to deal with the answers themselves. If they’re not going to listen to Paul, it’s not going to be because he’s made it easy for them to miss the truth. Paul is now forcing them to look at their own lives, remember their experience, and then see that there is no way that these false teachers who are telling the Galatians that we are right before God on the basis of doing enough works of the law can be right.
Therefore, I want to remind us of a number of things in relations to the questions Paul asks in this text that we can think about in relation to our own lives and our own experiences. So, with that said, let’s turn our attention to the text and then to the first note I want us to see from this text.
Paul begins this third chapter of Galatians not by trying to build up the Galatians’ self-image. Rather, he begins, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” (v. 1). Paul calls them fools because they are about to make a serious error – denying the gospel – when the stupidity of what they are doing should be obvious to them. They should know better. So, Paul tells them that they are acting like fools. He asks them who has cast a spell over them? Now, I don’t know that Paul necessarily thinks that someone cast a spell over them. After all, he is not making a trip to Galatians to cast out a demon or to deal with some magicians. He is writing a letter with logic and reasoning so that they might understand. So, this isn’t Paul literally saying that he thinks someone has cast a spell over them, but his way of showing that what they’re thinking is so crazy there is no explanation for it.
One weekend as Lili and I lived in Louisville, Jon and Carla Putt came to visit us. And at one point in that visit Jon and I had a conversation about what it would be like to have a big dinosaur chase you. Now, let me first say, I have no idea how in the world our conversation got there. And for the life of me I cannot think of any rational thought process that would have led us to that conversation. Nonetheless, as Jon and I were talking about this scenario of having a dinosaur chase you, I pointed out from my expert dinosaur knowledge that they probably weren’t real fast. So, two seconds into the conversation I had already said more than I knew for certain to be true. Well, the funny thing is that Jon responded to my statement about the dinosaur’s inability to run fast by nodding his head in agreement and then noting that humans could run decently fast. Then, I nodded in agreement, and if you’d been an outsider you would have thought you were witnessing two men having a very reasonable conversation. However, then Jon said, “Yeah, and a human can run at top speed without having to slow down for how long? Say a half mile?” Then Jon and I both realized the absurdity of Jon’s comment and started laughing because what human can run at top speed for a half-mile? I can’t even run around the bases in a softball diamond at top speed. But in that moment, “I’m sure I said something like, ‘Have you lost your mind?’”
Now, when you go visit your grandmother in the nursing home and hear the ninety-five year old lady talking about her living grandfather, and ask, “Has she lost her mind?” you’re asking a sincere question that leads you to grieve for her. When I asked Jon, “Have you lost your mind?” I didn’t think that something had literally happened to his mind. That, of course, would have been a tragedy. It was just my way of saying, “Something crazy must have happened for you to think I could run a half-mile at top speed.”
Well, that’s the nature of Paul writing to the Galatians. He doesn’t literally think they’ve had a spell cast over them. But he does want to make clear that what they’re considering or outright believing is ridiculous. It’s seemingly impossible to miss it. They once knew and acknowledged that the only hope for their sins, the only hope for their righteousness was Christ crucified for them. And now they’ve bought into a thought that doing something else is necessary. That is foolish. Yet we all can acknowledge that it is so easy to think that God approves of us and we can come before him when we’ve done well and that he does not approve of us and doesn’t want to hear us when we haven’t done well. So, Paul gives us some things to consider.
He first makes a statement to them to remind them of their experience of first becoming believers. He says, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified” (v. 1). That is, Paul was reminding them that he had come to them clearly preaching Christ crucified when they had become believers. They had heard the gospel. They had experienced forgiveness of sins. They had their lives changed. And what Paul had declared to them was not a twelve-step obedience process that ended in them being declared righteous before God. He had proclaimed to them what Christ had done as their only hope for righteousness. “Christ crucified” was Paul’s short-hand reference to the gospel. That’s what Paul had preached that had brought about their salvation. Therefore, in noting this, he is bringing their attention back to the cross. And this brings us to our first weapon in the fight of faith.
Why had Paul proclaimed Christ as crucified? What was Paul telling them? Well, we know from this and Paul’s many other letters that he was telling them that Christ had died because our sins had brought us under the condemnation of God where we deserved nothing but his wrath as a penalty for our sin. And Paul would have noted that Christ died to pay that penalty, to take the wrath of God for us, the wrath that we deserved. Paul would have told them that Christ was a fitting sacrifice because he were perfectly righteous and that though he died as one condemned for us, he was raised as the righteous Son, King, and Lord of all. He would have told them that we need Christ’s righteousness credited to us because God demands perfect righteousness and that we cannot attain that. Therefore, we are left simply to place our faith in Christ and his work and that Christ’s righteousness would be credited to us. That’s what Paul would have preached, and they were saved when their trusted in the sufficiency of Christ for them and stopped trusting in themselves and their own works.
So, Paul reminds them of that. He reminds them that he proclaimed that news to them. He explained the gospel to them. He explained the sufficiency of Christ to them. He portrayed Christ as crucified to them. And that’s how they had been justified.
Now, why would we think that somehow something has changed? Why would we think that somehow God demands something different of us in order to stand before him as one declared righteous? I mean, consider the logic. Were your works good enough when you were justified? No. That’s why you knew the cross was your only hope. So, can they be sufficient now? No. God has not lowered his standards of perfect righteousness. Therefore, we need to remember daily (and multiple times throughout the day) that the cross was and is absolutely necessary for us ever to come to God and be declared righteous, approved of before him.
Paul then asks a question himself. He writes in verse 2, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?”
Now, when they heard the gospel and believed, they received the Holy Spirit. And they are not exceptions here. Everyone who believes receives the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8:9, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” So, positively, we can say that everyone who belongs to Christ has the Holy Spirit. And that includes all of us who are believers this morning. So, this reminds us that God gave us the Spirit when we believed the gospel.
Now, for the Galatians, answering Paul’s question would have been simple. They should follow simple steps of logic. They had people telling them that in order to belong to Christ, they had to be circumcised (and possibly obey other parts of the law). And, they knew that to belong to Christ meant to have the Spirit. And when they believed the gospel and were not circumcised, they received the Spirit. Therefore, it should be obvious to them that circumcision cannot be a necessary step for salvation. They already had the Spirit and had not been circumcised. That’s what Paul wants them to see and that’s what should have been obvious to them.
Now, for all of us, answering Paul’s question should be easy as well. When you first became a Christian and the Spirit came to indwell you, did that happen only after you had perfectly kept the law or did that happen when you responded to the gospel in faith? The answer is obviously that we received the Spirit when we believed. Did that happen when you finally stopped struggling with lust and read your Bible and prayed consistently? No. It happened when you believed. Then, again, why do you think something else is necessary or sufficient for the Spirit to indwell you now, bearing witness to you that you belong to God?
Do you see the faulty logic that says something else must be necessary? The only reason the Spirit is able to indwell you now is not because you’ve done good works. Your good works would never be enough. The reason the Spirit is in you is because you believed the gospel. That’s the grounds on which he first came to you and remains in you.
Taking my testimony as an example: I was raised in a home where both of my parents were believers and raised me by consistently teaching me the gospel. However, I did not become a believer until I was nine years old. At some point in my childhood, it’s as if my eyes were blinded to the gospel. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t stay up at night thinking about hell. None of that. I obeyed my parents pretty well, but the gospel was just not on my mind. Even hearing it preached each Sunday, it did not register in my mind. Then, one Wednesday night, after the service, all of the sudden, my eyes were opened. I instantly realized I was lost and was condemned to hell. And I wanted to know Christ.
That night, in God’s gracious provision, my mom took my sisters out and I was left to ride home with my dad. This was good because as we got home, I turned to my dad and said, “Dad, I want to be saved.” Interestingly, in that moment, I was confident I knew the gospel, and I knew I didn’t believe, so my dad really just left me to the Lord. And that night I repented of my sin and believed in the gospel so that I might be justified before God. And instantly, I received the Spirit. Now, I say that not because something too dramatic happened, and I don’t know that everyone’s conversion is similar. But in the days to come, I found my heart quick to want to flee from sin. I found myself grieving after I sinned. I found my heart desirous to obey. All of these were new to me, and evidence that I now had the Spirit indwelling me.
Again, that was my experience, but I’ll tell you, that did not happen because I finally started obeying. I knew the gospel. I knew I had no hope but Christ. I truly believed that my only hope was Christ. I didn’t finally live like a Christian and then receive the Spirit; rather, I threw myself at the mercy of Christ who died for me, placing my faith in him, and received the Spirit. And though that is my experience, I know your experience was at least the same in the sense that you received the Spirit when you believed. And the reason he indwells us today is not on the basis of our good works but because we are those who hold to the gospel in faith.
Paul asks the Galatians another question in verse 3, saying, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh.” Paul wanted the Galatians to know that even as they began the Christian life by faith in God’s Word and being empowered by the Spirit, so they continue the Christian life the same way. You don’t switch tracks. You can’t switch approaches.
And that is true for us. At your conversion, you saw your own inability and wickedness and weaknesses and wholly looked to Christ in faith. You knew he was your only hope. You brought nothing to the table but your sin and faith in Christ. And you were forgiven. You were cleansed. And you received the Spirit by which you confessed, “Jesus is Lord.” As you believed, then, and looked to the gospel as your only hope, the Spirit produced within you a desire to obey, a longing to live in obedience to God’s commands. That was what took place in order to bring transformation to your life – faith, and the Spirit working in you as you believed.
Your life wasn’t transformed because you could finally say, “Look, I’ve now done enough good.” And so it is true now. We progress in the Christian life as we began it. We continue to look in faith to the gospel and allow the Spirit to work in our lives.
So, what if you say, “But I don’t feel like I’ve had a strong desire for obedience?” That’s a good question. Obedience is crucial. We should obey God’s Word. You should want to read the Bible and pray. Is the answer, then, saying to yourself, “I will never be a good Christian until I get these things in order. Therefore, it starts today.” No. The answer is turning to God and acknowledging your inability, your weakness, and that nothing will make you acceptable except the work of Christ. The answer is saying, “God, I know I’m forgiven because of Christ’s work. I believe it. And I know I’m helpless, but I look to you and believe that you can continue to transform my life even as you did when I was first saved. So, I ask you to do it now.” Then, you get up, knowing you’re approved of by God, and seek out obedience. Again, you continue the Christian life by trusting in God and allowing the Spirit to conform you to the image of Christ.
I said last week that legalism feels like holiness. Paul reminds us in this text that it most definitely isn’t. Holiness is faith in the gospel allowing the Spirit to conform you to Christ. If we decide to switch tracks and think that our only hope now that we are Christians is by doing enough good, then we’re turning our backs on the gospel. That’s why Paul writes in verse 4, “Did you experience so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain.” Paul is asking, “Did all your early experiences in the Christian life mean nothing. Are you truly going to reject the gospel and show yourselves not to be believers?” Of course, Paul hopes better and is laboring so that they might show themselves believers.
Paul, then, asks them another question in verse 5. He writes, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” The answer of course is faith. So, we are reminded that the Spirit works powerfully in our lives right now because we believe in the gospel.
This point is similar to the last, but it’s a good reminder that the Spirit works powerfully in our lives right now not because we are good enough. Do you think you’ve really been good enough for God’s Holy Spirit to indwell you and work powerfully through you right now? Of course not. Remember the necessity of the cross. It’s because you hold to the gospel by faith.
And the Spirit is working powerfully through all of us who are believers. According to Galatians 4:6, the reason we cry out to God as our Father is because the Spirit is within us producing that longing. The reason we bear fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is because the Spirit is producing that in us. All of us can look to the Spirit producing works in our lives and acknowledge that there’s no way he’s doing that on the basis of our perfect obedience because we have not perfectly obeyed. And again, God demands perfect obedience, which is why our only hope is the gospel.
Now, the work of the Spirit in our lives has sadly become a difficult topic for us. This is a tragedy. On the one hand, we hear of stories of the Spirit working in miraculous ways, feel in our own lives that we’ve never had such experiences, and therefore think the Spirit must not be working in us. And the great tragedy is that we fail to recognize that the Spirit is responsible for our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for our desire for holiness, for our hatred for sin, for our abilities to minister to others, for so many things. Instead we think that these are things we do simply out of our natural abilities or powers or desires, and therefore ignore this great blessing of the Spirit’s work in our lives. So, to those of you who are here, continue to look to the gospel and believe, and then take note of the Spirit’s work in your lives.
On the other hand, we hear of so many claims of experiencing the Spirit that seem ridiculous and wrong-headed, and we take a stance that the safest stance we can take as Christians is to ignore the Spirit and seek no benefit from him in our lives. We are so fearful of being deceived that we think the greatest track we can take is to seek nothing of the Spirit in our lives. We refuse to talk about the Spirit’s activity, refuse to seek his empowerment and giftings, and refuse to allow ourselves to long for greater blessings of the Spirit’s work in our lives. And I think that this too is a tragedy. So, to you, I want to encourage you to see that the work of the Spirit in your life is a testimony to the fact that you belong to Christ. You see, this is a huge premise in Paul’s argument. The Galatians cannot deny the experience of the Spirit in their lives that shows they belong to God even though they haven’t been circumcised. It is a blessing to see the Spirit’s work in your lives. So, long for it, but not by any unnecessary means. Believe the gospel, acknowledge your inability, and by faith trust that God will work in you and acknowledge his work.
And, finally, Paul reminds the Galatians in verses 6-9 of Abraham. He writes, “Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
So the final thing I want us to remember is that just as Abraham was justified by faith, so are his sons.
Paul tells us that Abraham was justified by faith. On account of his faith, he was united with Christ so that Christ’s righteousness was credited to him. Why is this important? Because those who are sons of Abraham, those to whom God has said, “I will bless him” are those who believe even as Abraham believed. That’s what the Scripture was declaring when God said to Abraham, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify Gentiles by faith” preached the gospel to Abraham. God told Abraham that in him all the nations would be blessed.
Therefore, God’s intention was not simply to bless those who came physically from Abraham, but all who become sons of Abraham. But how do we become sons of Abraham if we are not physical descendants of Abraham? The answer is that we are justified. But how are we justified? We are justified and made sons the same way Abraham was. And Abraham was credited with righteousness when he believed. Therefore, we become those who are blessed, sons of Abraham, children of God when we believe in the gospel.
What this means is that years ago God spoke to Abraham, revealing to him his intentions to bless you, to bless me – to bless all of us who have placed our faith in Christ. And it was never God’s intention to bless us as sons of Abraham because of our obedience to the law but because of our faith in his Son.
Therefore, let us this morning takes these weapons that Paul has given us in Galatians 3:1-9 and fight against legalism with the Word of God. And may we rejoice in these truths even now as we come to the table. Amen.