Galatians 3

0:00Welcome to Bible chapter every day. I'm Matthew. Our chapter today is Galatians chapter 3. Let's ask God to bless our time today. Heavenly Father, as we read this chapter, we pray that you would help us to understand and to really know the nature of our salvation. We would know you more. We pray this through Jesus, amen. Galatians 3 Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as having been crucified? I want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things for nothing? If indeed, also it was for nothing. Therefore, does the one who gives you this Spirit and who works miracles among you do

1:00so by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Justice Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. Then understand that the ones who have faith, these are sons of Abraham, and the Scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaim the good news in advance to Abraham. When you, all the nations will be blessed. So then, the ones who have faith are blessed, together with Abraham, who believed. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written. Curse is everyone who does not abide by all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Now, it is clear that no one is justified in the sight of God by the law because the one who is righteous will live by faith. But the law is not from faith, but the one who does these things will live by them.

2:03Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us because it is written. Curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brothers, I am speaking according to a human perspective. Nevertheless, when the covenant of a man has been ratified, no one declares it invalid or adds additional provisions to it. Now to Abraham and to his descendant the promises were spoken. It does not say, and to descendants as concerning many, but as concerning one, and to your descendant. Who is Christ? Now I am saying this, the law that came after 430 years does not revoke a covenant previously ratified by God in order to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise, but God graciously

3:06gave it to Abraham through the promise. Why then the law? It was added on account of transgressions until the descendant should come, to whom it had been promised, having been ordered through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now the mediator is not for one, but God is one. Therefore, is the law opposed to the promises of God? May it never be, for if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law. But the Scripture imprisoned all under sin, in order that the promise could be given by faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe. But before faith came, we were detained under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. So then the law became our guardian until Christ, in order that we could be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

4:10For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs, according to the promise. Well that's the reading. Let's dig in. Paul starts this chapter with some strong words, oh foolish Galatians, because he is saying that they should have known better than to listen to those judy-as-ing teachers. The teachers were saying they needed to follow the law of Moses, so Paul is going to give several arguments why they should not follow the law of Moses. First, he asked them to remember how they started his Christians, when they received the Holy Spirit. They weren't following the law then, but they were believing, having faith. He is saying, keeping the old law will be going backward.

5:14He goes back to Abraham who is the father of the Jewish people, but he didn't have the law of Moses. Genesis says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. And the promise made to Abraham that all nations who he blessed through him was saying that non-Jews would be blessed through him. Paul quotes from a backic, which tells us that the righteous will live by faith. So Paul is contrasting being justified by faith or being justified by keeping the law. He says, being justified by keeping the law means you have to keep everything in the law, and if you fail in any part of the law, you are cursed. But righteousness through faith can access to Jesus, who took the curse for us when he was crucified. Paul points out that the promise to Abraham came 430 years before the law of Moses. The law didn't override the promise. So that brings up a question. Why did God give the law? Paul explains it as a guardian or a prison.

6:14The idea is that people needed some constraints, just like children need rules as they grow up. When they mature, they can handle their own lives without all of the rules that they needed when they were younger. So Paul says that now that Jesus has come, we can live by faith without the need for the law. He says, in Christ, there is no longer the division between Jews and non-Jews. When we were baptized, we put on Christ. We are now descendants of Abraham through Christ. And now for a deeper dive. It is hard to properly understand where we stand in relation to the law of Moses. Many people will say that it is done away with and place no value on studying the Old Testament. Others say that there are parts of the law that apply to us today so we need to study it carefully to figure out which parts apply. I think that the right way to look at it is to understand that the law was from God, and is a way to get to know God.

7:15Just like we needed rules as children to understand self-control and how to live our lives, so the law was needed to understand God's righteousness. So if we never look at the Old Testament, we will not understand God as we should. But that doesn't mean that we should study the law of Moses looking for commands for us to follow today. If we think that the New Testament is a rule book, we will also miss the point. Paul isn't saying we have a new rule book that is better than the Old Rule book. He is saying that we are saved by faith. Not by keeping laws. In verse 21, Paul says, for if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law. So the New Testament can't be a law book to save us any more than the Old Testament could be a law book to save the Jews. We need faith in Jesus. So the question is, do we want to know God?

8:21Scripture quotations are from the Lexum English Bible, copyright 2012, Logos Bible Software. Lexum is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.