Ep. 16 | Salvation Does Not Come From a Bag of Bones
Speaker: Jesse Turkington
Summary: Paul is moving from defense to offense and he starts with reminding the Galatians about the absolute truth of the Gospel compared to the restricted message that they had been bewitched with.
--
contact@parableministries.com
https://www.parableministries.com
https://www.instagram.com/parable_ministries/
--
Music created by Chad Hoffman
Artwork created by Anthony Kuenzi
Jesse’s Personal Notes:
Galatians 3:1-14
Introduction
Hey, welcome to Pickled Parables! My name is Jesse.
We are going through the book of Galatians right now, verse by verse, and we paused our study in order to gain some extra context that can help us understand Galatians a little bit better.
So the last episode and the one before that, are topical in that they just offer some clarity for the subject that Paul is talking about in this letter. So, if you haven’t listened to those yet, go back and give them a go because they’re super helpful for what we’re going to be talking about next.
So this week, we’re going to move into Galatians chapter three and we’ll start in verse one and the plan is to work our way to verse fourteen. So that’s our intention for this week.
Our goal through this lesson, is to observe Paul’s understanding of the Gospel in light of the Old Testament Law.
So far, Paul has been adamant in giving a defense for his authority as an apostle and for defending the integrity of the Gospel. So now at this stage of the letter, Paul begins to transition into how the Gospel affects our daily lives.
So let’s look at Galatians chapter three.
Galatians 3:1-4
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?!
Paul had just spent two chapters worth of words giving defense and reason for the Gospel. All of which ends with a climatic clam of, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law (if it were attainable through the law), then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21)
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?!
Paul is at a loss for words to describe the (idi-ock-row-see) idiocrasy of the Galatians leaving their first love and being persuaded by someone other.
Did they not understand the sacrifice of Christ their Savior? Did they not know that the Spirit is received through faith and not earned through works? Did they not know that it’s through the work of the Spirit that they would be renewed into the image of their Creator? Or had they forgotten?
These were Paul’s questions … and he becomes intentional in reminding them the answers. Verse one:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? (Galatians 3:1-4 ESV)
Let me ask you only this: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith.
Let me give you two biblical examples that demonstrate the answer to this question. Both of these examples are from the book of Acts. So, I’ll present them chronologically.
The first one is from Acts chapter eight, and I’ll read through this account.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he (replied), “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.(Acts 8:26-38 ESV)
Let me ask this question again but a little differently: in this account, did this Ethiopian proselyte perform works of the law or did he hear with faith?
Let me present one more example. This is from Acts chapter ten:
So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:34-48a)
Let me ask one more time: did these Gentiles receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith.
The answer is clear – it was by hearing with faith. Believing.
The Spirit of God is given to those who believe His promises. Nothing is earned. Nothing is deserved, other than our punishment. But Jesus paid that price. And now through His propitiation we are endowed with righteousness. A right standing with God.
In Galatians chapter three, verse three, Paul asks:
Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3b)
Having received the Spirit, the seal of our redemption, are you now using selfish self-effort to make yourself perfect?
Galatians 3:5-9
Paul continues in verse five:
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— (Galatians 3:5)
Does Jesus give the Spirit of God and work miracles because of our allegiance and our performance of the Law or does He respond to our faith.
… just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:6)
Verse seven:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the 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. (Galatians 3:7-9 ESV)
This statement is a clear conclusion to his questions. Just as Abraham was credited righteousness through his belief, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham.
Jesus made a similar statement during His earthly ministry. In John chapter eight, verse thirty-nine, it says:
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. (John 8:39-40 ESV)
Abraham wasn’t even alive when God instituted the law. That came four-hundred years later.
Abraham is called the man of faith not because he was a perfect man. He was far from it. But he was a man who heard God’s promises with faith. He believed the Lord.
Now the Pharisees that Jesus was talking to and the Judaizes that Paul is addressing, both considered heritage sufficient. Being descendants of Abraham or being adopted into Abraham’s family, such as proselytes, put you in right standing with God. Because that association with Abraham was enough to cover your failures.
And by following the Law of the Old Testament, you could measure how good you were doing.
This belief was rooted in faulty pride and resulted false security.
Jesus made clear, it’s not your association, it’s not your heritage, it’s not even your own self-effort.
And Paul makes clear that it’s not the family of Abraham that you’re entering. It’s the family of God!
Right standing, righteousness, is not through a bloodline such as heritage, it’s through the bloodline of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Abraham believed! He heard God’s promises with faith and righteousness was credited to him.
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:9 ESV)
Galatians 3:10-14
Verse ten:
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. (Galatians 3:10-14 ESV)
Paul quotes four different scripture passages here. He’s using the divine word of God to help communicate a divine declaration from God.
First, he quotes Deuteronomy twenty-seven, verse twenty-six which says in the ESV:
“Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.” (Deuteronomy 27:26a ESV)
Second, he quotes Habakkuk two, verse four:
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”(Habakkuk 2:4 ESV)
Third, is Leviticus eighteen, verse five. Which says:
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:5 ESV)
Lastly, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy twenty-one, verse twenty-three.
“… if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 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. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23 ESV)
Notice the pattern of these quotations. Not only are they strategic, but they emphasize Paul’s main point. You do not become saved through the Law, you become cursed.
The Law was meant to reorientate a group of people who had lost their identity through slavery and teach them the ways and thoughts of God.
This group of people submitted themselves to the Law of God, but the problem was that they still had inherently sinful natures and in contrast to God’s Law which represented His perfect and righteous manner, the goodness of the Law was but a curse to them because it was a conflict of nature.
The Law set the bar too high for mankind to reach.
So Jesus entered the situation and He became a curse according to God’s own Law in order for us to receive the Helper Holy Spirit who renews our nature into the perfect image of God.
This renewal, this salvation, this good news does not come from the Law or a relation to a pile of bones.
It comes through faith in the promises of God which were fulfilled through the work of Jesus Christ.
It comes from the grace of God.
… 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. (Galatians 3:10-14 ESV)
This is the good news if Jesus Christ and if anyone adds to this or changes it so that it’s different, it’s no longer good news.
Because there is nothing we could ever perform or achieve or earn that could give us this right standing before God.
Through Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are redeemed and sealed before God.
…
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? There is no other Gospel that can save.
Conclusion
If you haven’t yet listened to our episodes Abraham and the Sign of Circumcision and The Covenantal Law of the Old Testament, I would encourage you go back and listen to them. Because they offer great insight into the teachings of Paul in Galatians.
Paul just goes ham chow from here on out. He has given a solid defense and he’s now teaching and correcting from his established authority.
From the rest of chapter three to the end of the book, Paul fights for the Galatians with teachings and analogies and allegories and reason. He’s trying everything he can, that would fit in a letter, to keep them centered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This letter is such a benefit for us today, because even though it’s not addressed to us, it’s edifying for us. Paul’s passion is not just contained for the Galatians of the first century and the truth of this message does not have an expiration date.
I would encourage you, read through this book in your own time and meditate on it.
Let the truth of God’s Word fill our minds and lead us in our worldview.
Thank you for listening.