Home Bible Study©
Rightly Dividing
the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)
Established
November 2008 Published Weekly on Friday
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, who desires all men (and women) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:3-4)
Galatians (3:6-14)
(Lesson 08)
I want to welcome
y’all back to HBS and I thank you for your faithful attendance.
When we ended last
week’s lesson, Paul was rebuking the Galatians because they were forsaking the
true gospel of God’s Grace and slipping
into legalism. Many Christians
are falling into this same trap today. “The
times they are a changing…” but people seldom do. Most people will believe just about anything that’s
put in front of them and history* reveals this to be true. This is why I mention repeatedly the need for
true Believers to study the Word of God, the only source of divine truth in the
world, paying particular attention to
our Apostle Paul’s teachings (Ephesians 3:1-13).
The vast majority
of people begin their day with a regular routine, but few think of God, and
fewer still consider adding “the right view of God” to their morning wake up.
God is gracious. He’s not just the God of Grace, speaking of salvation; this book
says He is always a God of Grace; meaning
God deals with the human race through Grace.
Every true Believer
already has God’s favor because of their expressed faith in Christ, i.e. His Grace, and their position in Christ
is permanent – you can’t lose your salvation! God accepts the true Believer when you
perform and when you don’t. If you could
make it through one entire day without committing one, single sin God wouldn’t
love you any more than if you fumbled the
proverbial ball a dozen times… You
see, no one can earn God’s favor by what they do. Our acceptance in Christ had nothing to do with our performance but everything to
do with our faith in the righteousness of Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21-22,
11:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:9).
*It’s a historical
fact that some of the biggest battles fought by the church of Jesus Christ were
not against the non-religious world,
but against those who professed to have a belief in the Lord God, yet denied
salvation comes only through faith. Augustine fought this battle in the 4th
century, as did John Wycliffe in the 14th century. Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, and Latimer all
fought against the prevailing and popular belief that God would accept
the works of man for righteousness. The belief that the individual could continue
to find favor with God on the basis of his religious
practices, his good works, his
participation in the sacraments, his acts of service, his tithing, etc. Just as the Judaizers in Galatia appealed to
the Old Testament examples, so have many through the centuries, appealed to the
skewed interpretation that God accepts us on the basis of our works. To this different
gospel, the Apostle Paul rose in defiance. He begins his argument that shows "faith has always been the God-required response
that brings salvation (Eph. 2:8-9)” [John MacArthur, MacArthur New
Testament Commentary, 72].
********
Please
open your Bible at Galatians 3:6.
Galatians 3:6: Even
so Abraham BELIEVED GOD (demonstrating faith), AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Genesis 15:6)
Because
the Galatian churches were “sliding into
legalism,” in verses 1-5 our Apostle
Paul intended to clear their heads, hopefully, by asking a series of rhetorical
questions. He started with this one, “did you receive the Spirit by the works of
the Law, or by hearing with faith?” Please
remember, Paul’s letters are like listening to a one-sided telephone
conversation. So, if they would have responded
honestly they would have said, “by
hearing with faith.” Then Paul asked
them, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being
perfected by the flesh?” Paul’s
point is this, justification and personal sanctification, (spiritual
growth) is achieved through GOD’s grace, by faith, not by works
(Hebrews 11:6).
Beginning
at 3:6, Paul offers a second argument for salvation by grace through faith (alone)
and long before there was any law at
all (Romans 5:13). Paul has used a lot
of ink referencing the Mosaic Law, but take note, he doesn’t mention Moses here;
the most prominent and respected figure in the Old Testament and in the lives
of every Jew; a man known as a friend of God (Exodus 33:11). Instead, he passes over Moses and chooses Abraham the patriarch of the Jewish nation
(Genesis 12, 17:5). Paul’s present
argument stems from the Old Testament long before the Mosaic Law was given to
the nation of Israel. In doing this,
Paul is proving Abram obtained
salvation, by grace, through faith (Genesis 15:6). Paul didn’t
conceive the idea. God has always acted
to save people through their expressed faith
in what He said (Genesis 3:20-24; Psalm 119:105)!
The
Jewish religious leaders (the rabbis) thought Abraham was righteous, and often
used him as an example, because of his character. They actually believed he was the most honest
man in the world when the LORD selected him, i.e. this is why the LORD chose
him. Nothing could be further from the
truth, of course, scripture points us toward the truth. The world had turned to idolatry even the
household of Abram. But they went so far
as to twist certain scripture verses
(proof-texting) to arrive at this conclusion.
Here’s one of the verses they chose to manipulate: because
Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws”
(Genesis 26:5). But here’s the
thing; the majority of the rabbis thought Abraham
was righteous because he obeyed the
LORD God. The thing they failed to
notice, or failed to report, depends of one’s perspective, is God saved him and
made him righteous first, his
obedience followed God’s grace (Romans
4:3-5). Abraham believed God’s promises; then
he left the city of Ur, in faith. His faith
reckoned him as righteous not
his obedience to the LORD’s instructions.
Verse
7:
Galatians 3
7: Therefore, be
sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
This
statement from Paul contradicted the Judaizers’ claim they were “special,” or
they held religious advantages over
the Gentiles since they were born Jews; circumcised
on the eighth day, and sons of
Abraham. In short Paul said, “That’s
not true be sure that it is those who
are of faith who are (more) sons of
Abraham than the Jews who were circumcised
and are trying to keep the Law.” Put
plainly, Paul’s saying anyone who believes the
gospel is a child of Abraham in
the same sense when Abraham believed
the LORD; he became a child of God. God
accept us on the basis of our faith (alone).
Paul’s
opponents were stunned by this assessment.
They deeply believed they already had a right standing before God because they were genetically descended from Abraham. Some of the Jewish rabbis, the religious leaders of the people, at that
time actually taught Abraham stood
at the gates of Hell to make sure none of his descendants slipped by accidentally. John the Baptist dealt with this errant teaching
saying: and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have
Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these
stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matthew 3:9). Paul is arguing against the Judaizers
steadfast reliance on their genetic
relationship to Abraham by speaking
the truth; Abraham is the father of
the faithful. Therefore
what really matters to God is our faith (plus
nothing else) in Christ.
Verse
8:
Galatians 3
8: 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.”
With
this statement Paul’s saying God has always planned to save every human being from
eternal condemnation by faith (Genesis
3:15, 12:3, 18:18; Exodus 19:5-6; Ephesians 1:4). This fact is revealed here as a portion of the gospel or the good news preached to Abraham at that particular time was: “ALL
THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.”
So,
this book is saying the Old Testament and the New Testament Believers were
treated equally in that they were all saved by God’s Grace through faith,
starting with the man and the woman in the Garden of Eden: Now the man called his wife’s
name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living (neither of them died after their transgression;
but they would eventually die just as the LORD said they would. But they were saved by believing in the
promises of God). The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam
and his wife, and clothed them (in His righteousness) Genesis 3:20-21.
Then
we have the account of Noah and his family in Genesis 6, which occurred in the
Dispensation of Conscience. Noah’s name
means to bring relief or comfort and LORD
God’s message to the people contained bad news and good news just as it does
today. First, the devastating bad
news: “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled
with violence through them. Behold, I
will destroy them with the earth” Genesis 6:13). Then came the blessed good news: “Go into the ark, you and all your household”
(Genesis 7:1).
But
here’s the thing, God’s good news
didn’t arrive at the last minute. Noah
and his family of eight received the initial warning about the cataclysmic,
world-wide flood 120 years before the
invitation was given (7:1). This book
doesn’t say if Noah spent any time warning the people about the LORD’s message,
but I would think he did when the situation arose. In any case, Noah and his sons spent 120 years building the ark; and all
this activity stood as a visual warning to the scoffers around them. Noah put his trust in what the LORD had said;
this was his testimony. Every nail he
drove into the wood reinforced his faith; every sound his hammer made echoed
his faith saying, “I believe God!” The people thought Noah was a fool for
believing it would rain a flood and
they continued in their unbelief. The LORD
left the ramp into the ark down for 7 full days, in case anyone wanted to
accept His invitation, by faith. But only 8 people entered the ark of safety
and were saved.
Verse
9
Galatians 3
9: So then those
who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Salvation
is all about an individual’s belief or faith
in what God has said. Abraham
trusted in the LORD God’s promises and he
was reckoned as righteous for that (alone).
However, I need to point out Abraham’s faith was not perfect. He stumbled more than a few times after that
initial high point. In one instance he
tried to assist the LORD fulfill His promise by having a natural child with Hagar (Genesis 16; 1 Corinthians 15:46),
obviously against God’s will. There were
negative consequences to this action that are still being realized to this very
day, but the LORD didn’t abandon Abraham or His covenant with him. Likewise,
our faith may wax and wane, determined by circumstances and our feelings, but a
true Believer’s salvation is not dependent on such things. This is true “because when we believed, He secured us in Christ with the seal and
pledge of the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Since
Abraham was considered righteous
because he had the faith to believe the LORD God; and since all true Believers
are, in God’s eyes, the children of Abraham,
whether or not they are his blood descendants, all those who are saved out of
the faith of Christ are blessed with eternal life along with
believing Abraham.
Verse
10:
Galatians 3
10: 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 ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO
PERFORM THEM.”
The
Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem didn’t abandon the Mosaic Law
immediately after they were converted and this was especially true of the
Pharisees. They still believed living
under that religious system brought
them God’s favor. As you can see, in the
verse above Paul declared something quite different, instead of a blessing, attempting
to live under that works-based system actually
put them under a curse.
It
isn’t hard to see where these folks got the notion that living under the Law and
obeying it brought them blessings. They were reading God’s Word. Please turn to Psalm 1:1-2: How (what)
blessed is the man who does not
walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in
the seat of scoffers! But his delight is
in the (what) law of the
LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Here’s
one more: How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law
of the LORD (Psalm 119:1).
If
I mention the Ten Commandments, most of you know what I’m referring to. However, I wonder how many of you are aware there
were 613 commandments laid down in the Torah and the Jews had to keep them
all! In addition to that, the Pharisees made
up their own complicated regulations called Midrash. This added thousands of new commandments,
i.e. a yoke to the weighty religious load already placed upon the
Jews. These man-made commandments were meant
to clarify the original 613 commandments.
Most of the Jews didn’t bother trying to keep these additional
commandments the original 613 were challenging enough. Do you recall Peter’s statement at the
Jerusalem Council? “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the
neck of the disciples (the Antioch Gentiles) a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to
bear? But we believe that we are saved
through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are” (Acts
15:10-11).
I’ll
give you one example of those man-made commandments: the Mosaic Law commanded the Jews to keep the Sabbath Holy! This meant the Jews were not to work
on Saturdays. Well, the Pharisees
clarified this further by creating 39 separate categories of what “work” means,
and within those 39 categories there are many sub-categories. So, the Pharisees had the Jews go from
obeying the LORD’s single command of not “working on the Sabbath” to having to
obey literally thousands of these sub-rules.
One
sub-rule said it was unlawful to take more than a “few steps” on the Sabbath; the
penalty for breaking this man-made commandment was death (Exodus 31:14-15;
Ezekiel 18:4, 20:21). Now that we know
this it helps us understand Jesus’ statement in Matthew 24:20 as He speaks of end
time events: But
pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. If the end comes on a Sabbath, a
law-keeping Jew could only walk a few steps.
They would be forced to make a decision:
break the law or run for their life!
As
I stated above, the average Jew didn’t even try to keep all these additional man-made
laws, but the Pharisees did. They prided
themselves on not only following the letter of the Law but the additional laws
too. Jesus Christ held a critical view
of the Pharisee’s leadership, saying they were legalistic – only concerned with
the external appearance, i.e. keeping the Law (Matthew 15:1-9, 23).
We
know circumcision was one of the Big
3 for the Jews of the Diaspora. Circumcision
is an everlasting covenant the LORD made with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis
17:10-14). No specific reason for this
surgical procedure is given in the text.
All we have to go on is it’s a command from the LORD God. Most people agree it was an external sign; it meant submitting to
God’s will, something most people at this time were reluctant to do, and it
marked the individual as a Jew.
However,
this book goes much deeper than that for it teaches us the spiritual
significance of circumcision is a
matter of the heart (Deuteronomy 30; 1
Samuel 16:7; Matthew 22: 36-40; Romans 2:29).
God wasn’t looking for a nation of religious,
law keepers; He was interested in relationships. Jesus Christ taught His disciples to love
God and to love one another as He had loved them! He said the Pharisees did not have the love
of God in their hearts (John 5:42); this was the issue then
and it still is today (John 14:6, 14:9) and not just for the Jews…
The
Bible makes its own case for the Law being extremely burdensome and harsh, and
not just because the Pharisees took it to the nth degree. The original 613 commandments didn’t need the
Pharisee’s interference to worsen the nation of Israel’s situation. The Law had two purposes basically; they
revealed sin and then condemned the sinner to death. The Law could not provide God’s righteousness; there was no power
in the Law to save anyone. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, is a perfect replica of what God’s law
teaches; it was meant to point the nation of Israel to Him, their Redeemer, and
His work as the end of the law (Matthew
5:17; Romans 10:4).
Getting
back to 3:10, when Paul said, “For as
many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse,” because it had to
be kept perfectly: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has
become guilty of all (James 2:10).
Paul’s
not saying the Law or God’s Word is imperfect.
No way! He means to say God never
meant for the Law to be the vehicle or the
means of our righteousness before
Him. God knew the Israelites could not
keep the Law this is why He instituted the atoning
system, i.e. the priesthood and the entire sacrificial system. Millions of animals died; they were
sacrificed in God’s Temple for the sins of the Israelites. But with all that blood being shed and
offered up to a Holy God in heaven, not one Jewish sin was removed or taken away: For it
is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews
10:4).
All
those religious rites and rituals, the ceremonial washings, the blood
sacrifices were mere shadows of what was to come. They looked forward to Jesus’ one-time
sacrifice for all; His ultimate victory over sin and death, through His shed
blood, for those who choose to believe (Hebrews 9; 10).
To
prove God’s point, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26: “CURSED
IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF ALL
THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.”
I
underlined two words to focus on in this passage all and perform. If God would approve the sinner on the basis
of the Law, they would have to ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE
BOOK. Not just know about it, not
just simply want to do it, the individual had TO PERFORM THEM. Some
of you may have been introduced to the simple Pass/Fail system while you were
in school. In this system there is no
middle ground, you either gain favor or you do not. Well this passage is saying the same
thing. There’s no wiggle room. You break one law and you’re done!
The sting of death
is sin, and the power of sin is the law; (1 Corinthians 15:56).
For the law of the
Spirit is life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
The
curse of the Law is death, this is
the second death mention in
scripture, it’s eternal separation from a loving God for all of eternity. How long is eternity; as long as God
exists! And God has always exited…
For the wages of
sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Romans
6:23).
No
one has to swim a raging river or climb a high mountain to earn God’s Grace; all they need to do is accept it
by faith. However history reveals the majority of
mankind has chosen to scorn God’s Grace,
choosing instead a life lived under a curse,
not because they failed to perform the works of the Law, but
because they try to.
Verse
11:
Galatians 3
11: Now that no one
is justified (declared
righteous) by the Law before God
is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
If
you’re thinking we’ve been here before, you’re right. Paul brought this point up when he examined
the life of Abraham (3:5-9). But hey,
why not “hit it” again; some people, namely the Pharisees, need to hear things
more than a few times before the information sinks in. Paul’s point,
again, is no one can become justified in
the sight of God by trying to obey the Law, because the Law itself states a
person is justified by faith (Habakkuk
2:4).
The
prophet Habakkuk complained to the LORD God about Israel’s (Judah’s) sin. Their wickedness
resulted from the Law being ignored (1:2-4). Therefore,
the law is ignored And justice is never upheld.
For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore, justice comes out
perverted (Habakkuk 1:4).
The
LORD’s response to His distressed prophet is He is going to chasten His people
with the Chaldeans (1:5-11). Habakkuk is
horrified by this news. He objects
saying the Chaldeans are more wicked and violent than God’s people. How can a righteous God use a nation so wicked
to do His will (1:12-17)? God answers
him in chapter 2 saying the pride of the Chaldeans is sinful and it will
eventually be punished (2:4a). In
contrast, the righteous will live by
faith (2:4b).
Bible
students ask questions, remember? How
could an Israelite live righteously in
the days of Habakkuk when the LORD’s people ignored His Laws, and when Israel’s prideful and violent enemy would
soon conquer them? Habakkuk could not
expect the LORD”s blessings on the
basis of their obedience to the Law; the people were unfaithful to it. All he, or any Israelite, could do was to trust in the LORD God and to live by faith, i.e. faith in the LORD”s promises to
obtain righteousness.
This
book says certain men obtained God’s righteousness
without explaining how it was achieved (Enoch, Noah, Seth, etc.). Abraham was the first individual to be
declared righteous and have the
method explained to us, and the scriptures do not change this example from then
on; not even after the Law is implemented.
For Paul says, no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God. He
just used verses from Habakkuk to prove this.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment