This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in our
bible called the book of Galatians which revealed the reality that the members
of the churches of Galatia had been mesmerized by the false message of religion
by the Judaizers and were buying into their form of religion. Yesterday, we saw
Paul harsh confronting the members of the churches of Galatia for their
stupidity and foolishness of their decision to abandon a gospel centered
lifestyle for a religious centered lifestyle. Paul then began to ask a series
of questions that were designed to expose the foolishness of their decision to
abandon a gospel centered lifestyle for a religious centered lifestyle. Today,
we will see Paul ask some additional questions, beginning in Galatians 3:4:
Did you
suffer so many things in vain-- if indeed it was in vain?
Now the phrase “suffer so many things” usually refers to
suffering as a result of persecution. However, this phrase, in the language
that this letter was originally written in, is also used to refer to positive
experiences, which is what Paul is pointing to here. When Paul uses the word
vain, this word refers to something that is without success or result. Paul is
asking the members of the church of Galatia “Did the evidence of God’s activity
through the Holy Spirit that you saw and experienced make no difference in your
lives that you would still think that you needed to do things for God to be right
with God?” Paul then hammers his point home with a final question in verse 5:
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?
Paul finishes exposing the foolishness of the members of
the churches of Galatia’s decision to abandon a gospel centered lifestyle for a
religious centered lifestyle with a final question: “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?”. In other words, Paul is asking “So
then, How did God demonstrate His activity among you? How was God’s
transformational power revealed to you? Did God demonstrate His activity among
you in response to what you did for God? Was God’s transformation power
revealed to you because you kept a list of rules for God? Or did God demonstrate His activity among you
that rescued from your rebellion because you responded to the Holy Spirit’s activity
in your life? Wasn’t God’s transformation power revealed to you because you
placed your confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel?”
Paul here is reminding the members of the churches of
Galatia that they were rescued from their selfishness and rebellion and became
followers of Jesus that received the Holy Spirit not because of what they did
for God. Instead they were rescued from their selfishness and rebellion and
became followers of Jesus that received the Holy Spirit because they had
responded to the Holy Spirit’s activity by believing and trusting in the
message of the gospel that they heard. Their rescue was revealed not by their
activity for God, but by the Holy Spirit’s activity as God. Paul then continues
confronting the members of the churches of Galatia for the foolishness of their
decision to abandon a gospel centered lifestyle for a religious centered
lifestyle by pointing to an example from history. Let’s look at that example
together, beginning in verse 6:
Even so
Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore,
be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
Now to understand why Paul would even mention Abraham
here, we first need to understand who Abraham was and his significance to the
Judaizers. You see Abraham was the father of the Jewish people. He was the
George Washington of the Jewish nation. Abraham was viewed with the utmost
respect by the Jewish people. Abraham was the head of the Jewish people’s
family tree. So this question would have grabbed the attention of every
Judaizer who was reading this letter. As we previously discovered in this
series, the Judaizers taught that to become a
Christian, one must follow the Mosaic Law’s standards and become circumcised.
In essence, they were teaching that to become a Christian, you first needed to
become a Jew. The Judaizers were legalists who advocated a faith plus works
basis for salvation. In other words it was what you did for God plus trusting
God.
And it
was the Judaizers who were mesmerizing the members of the churches of Galatia
to abandon a gospel centered
lifestyle for a religious centered lifestyle. So Paul is addressing very people who were objecting to
the idea that rescue from selfishness and rebellion was based on what God did
for us instead of what we do for God. The very people who viewed God’s right
rescue from rebellion by faith in Christ as nullifying the teachings of the Old
Testament and as being worthless and irrelevant.
Paul responds to the Judaizers who were advocating a
false gospel message of religion by pointing them to a story that is recorded
for us in the very first book of our Bibles, called the book of Genesis. In
Genesis 15:6, after God makes an amazing and seemingly impossible promise to
Abraham that he would have a child in his old age and that his descendants
would be too great to count, Abraham had a decision to make. And that decision
involved how he was going to respond to God’s promise.
Paul reminds the members of the churches of Galatia that
Abraham responded to God’s promise by believing God’s promise. Now the word
believed here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is
the same word for faith. It conveys the idea of entrusting oneself to someone
in complete confidence. Abraham placed his compete confidence in God and God’s
promise. Abraham confidently trusted that God was a promise maker and that God
was a promise keeper.
And as a result of Abraham’s faith, as a result of his
confident trust in God’s promise, it was reckoned, or credited to him as
righteousness. To reckon or credit literally means to put credit to ones
account who has no credit or account. God gave credit to Abraham, who had no
credit or standing before God. And what God gave Abraham was righteousness. Now,
as we discovered last week, a simple and accurate definition of this 50 cent
word is that righteousness is the quality or state of being right.
Paul’s point is that as a result of his confident trust
in God’s promise, Abraham was given credit by God as being right with Him. Abraham
was not rescued from selfishness and rebellion because of what He did for God.
Instead Abraham was rescued from selfishness and rebellion because he placed
His confident trust in what God said He would do for him.
Paul then reveals the timeless
truth of this story to the members of the churches of Galatia in verse 7 by
explaining that throughout history, it is not what we do for God that makes us
right with God. Instead Paul reveals the reality that that those who place
their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel
follow the example of Abraham and are thus rescued and in a right relationship
with God, just like Abraham.
Friday, we will see Paul point
to another story involving Abraham to hammer his point home…
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