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Series Review
We are returning to our series on the epistle to the Galatians today. Galatians is a difficult book, not so much because the material is particularly difficult to understand, but more so because of the confrontational nature of the book. Paul had labored to plan and establish this church. He preached the gospel, people believed, leadership was put in place and Paul left. But soon after he left Galatia, he received reports that things weren’t going so well. The reason sited was not that they didn’t have an effective ministry to children. It wasn’t that they were failing to connect with the students at the local university. It’s not that they were failing to attract young families and it wasn’t that they were falling short of seeming relevant to the communities in which they existed. The problem is summed up in
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
The churches in Galatia were being infiltrated by false teachers. Judaizers who very compellingly taught that salvation came by Christ, but not Christ alone. The practices, ceremonies and laws that had been long taught and practiced needed to be honored in order to continue to have peace with God. And when Paul heard that many in the church were buying into this, he was astonished. And what we suggested at the beginning of this series several months ago was a statement that summarizes that the concern of the epistle:
Don’t mess with the Gospel
This is what not only the false teachers were doing in teaching a false gospel, but the believers in these churches were messing with the gospel as well by entertaining this false teaching by giving it their attention.
Context of Passage
We suggested before that there are reasons evident in this epistle that justifies our contentedness with the gospel. We can be confident that the gospel in not in need of tweaking or changing in any way. We do not need to provide more to it to suit the age and time in which we live or delete some of it to make it more palatable for the modern-day person.
Here are the reasons we see in this epistle:
1. The Gospel is from God
1. The Gospel is from God
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel cannot be improved
The Gospel cannot be improved
What’s so good about the Gospel?
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
3. The Gospel is essential
3. The Gospel is essential
Paul made it clear that the gospel is so precious, it’s worth dividing over.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
4. The Gospel transforms us
4. The Gospel transforms us
The contrast between the relationship Paul had with the Galatians and the false teachers had with the Galatians.
From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
Paul gave himself, sacrificed himself for the good of the Galatians, but ultimately for the glory of Christ.
Don’t mess with the Gospel. This is the concern then and it is one we need to soberly approach today. There are plenty of challenges, difficulties and confusion with which to contend today, but through it all we must be careful not to mess with the Gospel either proactively in what we teach and say, and passively by what we allow or fail to say or do.
With this refresher concluded, let’s go to our text now.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Introduction
if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. This saying is familiar enough to us, but what brings to mind for me is Back to the Future. A movie that came out in 1985, and George McFly (the dad) said this to his son, Marty McFly. The McFly’s were a disadvantaged family. Dad was working a dead-end job, mom struggled with alcohol and the 3 older kids seemed to be going no where in life. Never-the-less, Dad’s advice to his youngest son was, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
Just a little effort, consistent effort, even significant disadvantages and obstacles can be overcome. And I’m sure there are plenty of real-life examples of this idea being true. But while this truth may be true much of the time, it’s not true all of the time. Sometimes it’s not about effort. Sometimes effort, intentional, consistent effort is not what will bring over the finish line. Sometimes, there are challenges that are beyond us, and short of intervening help, we won’t overcome.
But this goes against the prevailing message that we have long heard. Hard work will yield success. It’s often true, but not always true. And this is especially clear when it comes to having peace with God. You see, the big prize that is held before us in our culture is financial security and family harmony. Go to school, work hard, marry the right person (or don’t get married to avoid this challenge all together), spend time with your kids, make sure they go to school and work hard, and everyone will have financial security and family harmony.
And financial security and family harmony are fine aspirations, and I think it’s true that hard, intentional work is necessary to have them. But there is a much greater need that everyone has. The problem is, this particular need is not widely acknowledged. And even when it is, it is often assumed that hard, intentional effort will solve it. But our effort does not, will not overcome to problem.
What’s the problem?
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Spiritual death.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
The problem is we are enemies of God. People are at odds with Him, and many ties, that concern is not a concern, and often when people have the concern, they attempt to solve it through effort.
And this idea, that enmity with God can be solved with human effort, was being taught and embraced in the Galatian church. And even the church today can take matters into her own hands. Possessing a false sense of independence and security, Pursuing the wrong things, prioritizing our own glory instead of the glory of God. Assuming that our own insight and means in ministry are more effective than what the Bible teaches.
FCF: We often misapply our efforts in our lives.
Main Idea:
The Church’s effort is for revealing and not for attaining.
The Church’s effort is for revealing and not for attaining.
Main Question:
How must the church understand effort?
How must the church understand effort?
Our efforts are insufficient for our justification (10-12)
Our efforts are insufficient for our justification (10-12)
Verses 10-12 make clear that the law, and more specifically efforts to obey the law are insufficient to acquire justification. Verse 10 states that the law is insufficient to provide peace with God and verses 11 & 12 go into detail why that is the case.
Before we go further into these verses, I want to clarify a few terms that I will use in this part of our exposition.
Justification: an act of God through which He declares someone to be righteous.
Justification: an act of God through which He declares someone to be righteous.
It’s a legal term to describe God’s pronouncement of cleared of all charges. Justification is fundamental to people having peace with God, that is, being right with God.
Covenant: “A bond in blood, sovereignly administered” (O. Palmer Robertson)
Covenant: “A bond in blood, sovereignly administered” (O. Palmer Robertson)
God’s covenants with His people have conditions. There are blessings and curses for keeping or not keeping (obeying or disobeying the terms) the covenant.
The reason I bring up covenant is because of the language we see in this passage. It is covenant language, and it will be important to keep that in mind as we work through this together.
So when we see, for example, in verse 10 for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, it should bring up the idea of a covenant.
A good place to se this, and in fact, I suggest had this in mind when writing this text is Deut 27where the curses for not keeping the covenant of God are outlined. I will refer to this again in a few moments.
But here in Galatians, the New Covenant, the covenant which has been fulfilled by Christ is in view:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jesus’ death and resurrection is what made the forgiveness of our sin (iniquity) possible. A covenant is a bond in blood, and it was the blood of Jesus that sealed the bond between Himself and His people.
The problem at hand was that there were some in the Galatian church that were teaching that the New Covenant was not enough for people to be declared justified. Some effort on their part was necessary. Yes, Jesus’ death and resurrection is part f the equation, but God helps those who help themselves, is what some of the voices were teaching. And people who had once heard and believed the good news of the New Covenant were wavering on this truth now. And now Paul is making clear that obeying the law, any effort on our part is insufficient to acquire our justification.
AQ: Why are our efforts insufficient for our justification?
Our efforts can only achieve the curses of God’s covenant (10a)
Our efforts can only achieve the curses of God’s covenant (10a)
Here’s Paul’s premise: anyone who presumes that they can merit God’s declaration of righteousness by means of their obedience is under a curse. This is not how the New Covenant is fulfilled or honored.
So in this first half of v. 10, the point Paul is making is that no one should conclude they have anything or ever have anything to bring to the table of justification. The dinner has already been prepared. The lamb has already been slaughtered, the table has already been set, all the arrangements have been made, God’s people are to come and feast. That’s it.
Any thinking that presumes we must or we can contribute to our own justification is to invite the curses of the covenant upon ourselves. The curses of the covenant, which can be summed up in separation from God, are all that we can achieve with our efforts.
Paul makes this point clear later:
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
And Paul drills down further into this argument in the rest of v. 10
Our efforts are unable to satisfy the requirements for the blessings of God’s covenant (10b)
Our efforts are unable to satisfy the requirements for the blessings of God’s covenant (10b)
Paul reminds his audience what is said in the OT. He references what is known as the dodecalogue (12 sayings or laws) from Deut. 27. This chapter outlines 12 consequences for not keeping the covenant of God, and the last verse of the chapter sums it up:
“ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
This is what Paul quotes at the end of v. 10. People cannot satisfy the requirements of the covenant to achieve its blessings. The people of Israel had to learn this. Their national disgrace, slavery and dispersion were are the result of the inability to fulfill the covenant. To fulfill the law.
And what I think is made clear about our effort in vss 11-12 is that
Our efforts were never meant to be the means by which God would create His covenant community (11-12)
Our efforts were never meant to be the means by which God would create His covenant community (11-12)
It should be noted that both verse 11 & 12 quote the OT.
v. 11 quotes Hab 2:4
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
v. 12 quotes Lev. 18:5
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Hab. says the path to life is faith and Lev. says the path to life keeping God’s statutes and rules. Why does Paul use both of these seemingly contradictory verses to demonstrate his point that keeping the law does not lead to life?
Let’s start with the Lev. verse. Notice how v. 12 begins: the law is not of faith rather… Then the Lev. 18 quote is introduced. So Paul is positioning what Lev. 18 says against faith. The point Paul is making is captured well in Timothy George’s commentary on Galatians:
Galatians (1) The Curse of the Law (3:10–12)
if someone really were to fulfill the entire corpus of Pentateuchal law, with its 242 positive commands and 365 prohibitions (according to one rabbinic reckoning), then indeed such a person could stand before God at the bar of judgment and demand admittance to heaven on the basis of his or her performance. Yet where on earth can such a flawless person be found?
No one can obey the law to attain salvation. Remember, for the church effort is for revealing not attaining. We obey to reveal that we have been justified not to attain justification.
But what about the Hab quote in v. 11? It is helpful hear to translate Hab. 2:4 more literally according to the Greek to get a clear picture of what is being said. It reads: the one regarded by God as righteous will live by faith.
There are 3 key terms here: righteous, live & faith. What’s clear here is that it is not essential that people regard themselves as righteous, but that God regards people as righteous. God declares people righteous, and such people live by faith in God. In Christ and His redemptive work.
So the idea that God helps those who help themselves is wrong. God helps the helpless, because that’s what all people are. Helpless to do anything to help themselves in the way that is most essential to be helped. This is the message we need to preach to ourselves church. God helps the helpless. Do we consider ourselves helpless? Do we think of ourselves in these terms.
If you’re not sure of Jesus, or you outright reject Him. Are you exhausted from striving to measure up? Measure up to your own standards? Or perhaps measuring up to whatever you think you need to measure up to seems impossible.
Or Christian, honoring Christ is our work and trusting Christ with the unknown and submitting to Christ in how relate to our families and our enemies.... do we strive to do this by our own effort? Are we tryin to attain something through our effort or are we revealing something… the miracle of salvation through our effort?
AQ: How must the church understand effort?
Only Christ’s effort was sufficient for our justification. (13-14)
Only Christ’s effort was sufficient for our justification. (13-14)
Verse 10-12 made it clear that our situation is not that great when our effort is how we try to get by in life. We can’t obey, achieve, break free, overcome, achieve enough so that we have peace.... peace with God. But the good news, as we will see in the next 2 verses is that it is ok, in fact, it is good that we can’t do it. Christ has done it. It truly is finished.
AQ: What did Christ’s effort accomplish?
Our redemption (13)
Our redemption (13)
redeemed = rescue or deliverance. Literally this word means to buy off.
The root word for redemption is marketplace. In ancient Rome, human beings were put up for sale. The word redemption declares that we have been bought with a price. The cost for our freedom from the marketplace of sin was high. Higher than any of us could afford.
People are slaves to sin before redemption, but after being redeemed by Christ we are free from sin. Only God could pay God for our freedom.
And how did this happen? Look again at v. 13: Christ became a curse for us. But what does this mean? Paul, again quotes the OT to explain.
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Now, Deuteronomy was not referencing crucifixion. This was a Roman method of capital punishment. But after a person was executed in the days when Deuteronomy was written, specifically among the Jewish people, the corpse of the executed person was hoisted onto a piece of timber or tree to show that that person was justly executed as a transgressor of the law.
What does this demonstrate about the death of Jesus on the cross?
It was not haphazard or coincidental. The death of Christ hanging on a tree occurs often in the NT to show that His death and the manner of His death was a fulfillment of prophecy.
The fact that Jesus was hung on a tree demonstrates that He incurred the curse. This shoots us back to v. 10. Living as if we can attain salvation through our effort condemns us, but Christ was condemned so we could have salvation.
We are redeemed because of what Jesus paid. He redeemed us from slavery to sin.
Our unity (14a)
Our unity (14a)
It appears that individuality and one’s identity is among the most significant concerns today, and yet such an intense focus on personal identity has lead to feelings of loneliness and despair for many.
That it is only through Jesus that anyone can have justification is directly linked to understanding who we are as individuals and how we relate to other people. Do you know how that works? Look what v. 14 says:
…in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
this is a purpose statement signified by so that. Jesus died on the cross and became a curse for His people so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
the blessing of Abraham is from Gen
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
all the families or all the nations will be blessed. This includes the Gentiles.
Jesus is the great Equalizer. Yes, people are different, and those differences should not be ignored and, in some cases, those differences should even be celebrated. But when it comes to the most important issue that anyone can consider, one’s peace with God, it’s only through Jesus.
So, who are we? A people who need a Savior, and who must place their faith in Jesus as Savior. This truth solves concerns of identity and unity.
Church, we are one, not because we have all things in common, but because we have Christ in common, and when we have Christ in common, our differences are not obstacles to unity but useful and beautiful compliments to our unity.
Really, what is said here in v. 14 anticipates what is said down in v. 28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
It’s not that these distinctions among people do not exist, but these distinctions are not the most significant component of our identity. Our connection to Christ is what is primary. Remember this during our fellowship time. Old people and young people who have Christ in common are brothers and sisters in Christ. Extraverts and introverts who have Christ in common are brothers and sisters in Christ. Democrats and Republicans who have Christ in common are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Something else Christ’s effort accomplished
Our regeneration (14b)
Our regeneration (14b)
Notice what Paul does in the 2nd half of v. 14. He connects justification to the reception of the Holy Spirit: so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Again, George observes that in vss 1-5 if this chapter, Paul call on the Galatian Christians to recall how the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them when they first heard the preaching of the cross.Then is vss. 6-13, Paul shows that it is on the basis of Christ’s redemptive work that God reckons as righteous those who have faith. Here in v. 14, the two ideas are linked together: being justified and receiving the Spirit. This is what happens to someone who is made part of God’s covenant community. Declared righteous (justification) and the reception of the Spirit.
And what happens when we receive the Holy Spirit. I think this is some of what Paul was getting at in Rom.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Spiritually dead people are made alive by the Holy Spirit. The body may not be well, but for those who have the Spirit, you are as alive as you possibly can be.
This is called regeneration. God’s covenant community are declared righteous (justified) and given the Spirit, making them spiritually alive (regenerated).
Ordo Salutis
Elected
Outward call (hear the gospel)
Regeneration (made alive by the Spirit)
Faith
Justification
Glorification
Every Christian has all of it, so this is not a chronological outline as much as it is a logical outline.
Conclusion
The Church’s effort is for revealing and not for attaining.
The Church’s effort is for revealing and not for attaining.
This is a wonderful truth. Apart from what Christ has accomplished, we would be dead in our trespasses and sins, and we would still be walking in them, so now church, let’s not live as if we have what we have by our own efforts. But by the grace of God we go.
Putting our minds to it
Putting our wills to it
Putting our effort to it
None of it will get us to where we need to be, but striving working working for the glory of God is what people who have been transformed by the efforts of our Savior do. Our efforts reveal Him and what He has done in us and what He is doing through us.