Site Search Engine

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

The Gospel:
Justification by Faith

Galatians chapter 3 verses 1 to 14  

The experience of the Galatians - verses 1 to 5

Here Paul reminds the believers in Galatia of the events when the Gospel first came to them:

• The basis of the preaching was Jesus Christ crucified for the salvation of sinners by faith in Him.
• They had received the Holy Spirit and He was still manifesting Himself among them, even doing miracles (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-10, Ephesians 1:13-14).
• The word "suffered" in v.4 has the sense of "experienced", "witnessed" rather than "suffering" that is, " you have seen so many things done in the power of the Holy Spirit and by faith!... how can you now turn to be justified by the works of the Mosaic Law ?... are you so foolish as that?... "

The Case of Abraham – verses 6 to 9

Paul here shows how the patriarch Abraham was justified by his faith in God's promise.

• Abraham was declared righteous (" justified ") when he believed the word of God concerning his descendants (see Genesis 15:4-6). Before that, he had shown his faith when he left his land, Haran, in obedience to God's call (Genesis 12:1-4) and believing in the promise with respect to his offspring.
• The "sons of Abraham" are not his natural descendants (Matthew 3.9), but those who have a similar faith (see Luke 19:9). This "justification by faith" is the blessing that the Gospel offers to "all peoples".

The Curse of the Law - verses 10 to 14

Despite the justification by faith that the Galatians had received from the beginning, some now wanted to save themselves by fulfilling the Mosaic Law. Such men should remember that:

• The Law requires that its adherents continue to faithfully obey all its commandments (Leviticus 18:5) and declares those who do not remain in it to be "cursed” (see Deuteronomy 27:26).
• No one has fulfilled the Law. God had predicted that, and even in the Old Testament, He declared a new way of justification - justification by faith (v. 11; see Habakkuk 2:4). Of course, this cannot be by works of the law, because no one fulfilled them and all are under the curse.
• Christ redeemed us from this curse. Having no sin, He was righteous according to the  Law; but He took our curse upon Himself, becoming "curse" in our place by His death by crucifixion (Deuteronomy 21:23).
• Christ, being perfectly holy in Himself, without any sin, was not under the curse of the law; He did not have to die. See Matthew 26:53. However “the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" and "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6).
• Thus, the blessing promised to Abraham could reach the Gentiles so that, justified by faith in Christ, they might receive, as the Jewish believers, the promise of the Holy Spirit.
• This promise was fulfilled in Acts 2:1-18 (on Jewish believers) and in Acts 10:44-46 (on Gentile believers).

 

Richard Dawson Jones (1895 - 1987)

 

 

 

1. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 
4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 

 

 

6 just as Abraham "BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." 
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM." 
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "THE MAN WHO DOES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM." 
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"), 
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 to 14