Galatians 3:1-14
“Believers Bewitched”
SI: First two chapters of Galatians auto-biographical
section of letter.
Paul recounts his conversion and early
Christian experience.
Visit he made to
A visit Peter made to
Two reasons
for recounting these stories.
First, he was disproving the
accusations of some in Galatian churches
who were saying
that Paul was out of step with apostles—different message.
By these stories proving that this was the
message of all apostles from beginning.
Second,
used these stories to illustrate various aspects of the Gospel.
As we saw last week in Paul’s summary of his
conflict with Peter—
Paul began to introduce Gospel vocabulary
going to use through rest of letter.
Looked at that vocabulary
last week:
Righteousness, works of the law,
justification, union with Christ.
I try to make every sermon
stand on its own.
But, if you weren’t here last Sunday, you
ought to listen to the CD.
Because Paul is building a
theological argument.
Chapters 3 and 4 are the theological heart
of the letter.
To get the most of what he is
saying, have to understand his vocabulary.
So Chapter 3 begins, Paul
turns away from his personal reflections—
focuses his
attention on the Galatian Christians.
INTRO: We were in antique shop several months ago—tons of
Civil War artifacts.
One display case had a
military surgeon’s kit from 1860s.
It had an assortment of crude looking knives
and saws.
It made me very grateful for modern
medicine.
Now, I want you to imagine
something with me—this is a parable.
Suppose a surgeon was
browsing that antique shop.
Fine medical school, knows modern
techniques, tremendous talents—called.
Well, he sees this antique surgeon’s kit and
takes a fancy to it and buys it.
He puts it in his
office. Every day he looks and
feels. He’s bewitched by them.
Tells self. Those were real surgeons then.
In open air, under
tent—just four strong men to hold patient down, bullet to bite.
I’m no surgeon.
In sterile, climate controlled operating
room—machines, microscopes, anesthesia.
Calls Mr. Smith scheduled for
gall bladder surgery—come to my house.
Tent in back yard. Four strong men. Don’t be alarmed. Best interests.
What would you say about this
surgeon?
He’s regressed. He’s degenerated. Thinks going back to
something good.
But those old tools and techniques are not
good—cause pain and death.
If he follows through with
this on Mr. Smith—denying his calling as surgeon.
This story is a parable. It’s a parable about Christians. You are like that surgeon.
You have something wonderful and healing—
The Gospel. Jesus Christ loved you and gave himself for
you.
Jesus Christ has done everything necessary
to make you right with God.
By faith in Jesus Christ you
are justified.
Christ’s obedient life is credited to
you. Your sins are credited to Him.
God declares you to be
righteous in his sight.
Your record doesn’t change. You have still sinned, still a sinner.
But God’s view of you changes.
Views you as right,
acceptable, perfect, beautiful.
That changes everything—gives
you a whole new identity.
Righteous sinner. Honored failure.
The more you see your flaws,
sins—more amazing God’s grace appears.
More aware of God’s
acceptance—more able to admit true character of your sin.
That completely changes the
way you deal with people.
Incredibly humble—see depth of sin.
Incredibly bold—believe your total acceptance.
Gives you a
whole new motivation for life.
You already have God’s approval and
blessing—
so you don’t obey
to get things from him, but you obey for him.
His law becomes a thing of
beauty to you and not a burden.
And when fail, can admit the true depths of
sinfulness, because won’t be cast off.
But you walk into the antique
shop and there you see the old tools and techniques.
They are so bewitching. You can’t keep your hands off them.
Tell yourself, that if I were a real
Christian, I would use them.
Those old tools and
techniques are what Paul calls the works of the law.
What are the works of the law?
Attempts to earn
righteousness by morality and religion.
Works of the law are using
good things—morality, modesty, sobriety,
religious exercises
to earn God’s favor.
But this is not an
improvement. It’s a regression. It’s a degeneration.
Works of the law are a self-salvation
project.
All self-salvation projects are a way to
avoid Jesus.
A denial of your calling as
a Christian.
Problem
with Galatians. Started out as all Christians do. Faith in Christ.
But this group had come to churches. Faith in Christ crucial.
But if you are really going
to be a Christian—really be right with God—
absolutely
essential religious exercises must perform—circumcised.
Galatians bought it. Started to regress.
Paul said: You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?
You
think you are being more real Christian—denying calling.
This can happen to churches
and to individual believers.
Result is not improvement. Degeneration. Loss of power.
The way to
keep this from happening and to recover from it, look at Gospel.
In this passage Paul presents three
different viewpoints for looking at Gospel.
From view point of Gospel
experience, Gospel history, Gospel logic.
Look at each and apply to
ourselves.
MP #1 Gospel experience.
Verses 1-5 Paul asks
Galatians questions:
How did you become Christians? How did you receive the Spirit?
Answers for them:
“Before your very eyes Jesus
Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”
The Galatians did not
literally see the crucifixion.
Paul is talking about the message they
heard—you believed what you heard.
But it’s more vivid than
that.
Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as
crucified before their very eyes.
When the Bible talks about seeing something
way of saying that it has moved
from intellectual
knowledge to heart belief.
Job says that he saw the Lord
in the whirlwind.
He didn’t actually see him—it was a wind.
Intellectual knowledge of God’s grace and
sovereignty became heart belief.
Watching the Olympics on
night and reporter asked gold metal winner—
has it really sunk
in, that you’ve won the gold metal?
We understand that
question: Has it sunk in?
It’s one think to know and it’s another
thing to taste.
Paul says: Look at your Gospel experience. How did you begin?
Did you read the whole Bible and start
keeping all the laws and rules,
trying your hardest
and doing everything right—then wake up one day and say—
wow, I’m in.
No. Jesus Christ became real to you. You saw him clearly portrayed as crucified.
It sunk in that he is the one who completes
you.
You repented of your efforts to get in. Had nothing to do with you.
That’s what you have to look
at. That’s how you progress as a
Christian.
Spirit continues to work miracles because
you believe.
Way you got into the Christian life, way you
progress.
Not that you get in by faith
and the progress by effort. All by faith.
By the way—your particular
conversion details don’t matter.
Mother’s knee or
All conversion are
the same—Before your eyes, Jesus portrayed as crucified.
A crucial phrase in verse
3
“After beginning with the Spirit, are you
now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
“are you now being
perfected”
“are you now being
completed”
Paul is describing the normal
course of every human life.
We are all striving to be perfected.
We are all striving to complete ourselves.
We all want to achieve
certain things—moral, vocational, relational achievements.
Though those achievements we make ourselves
acceptable to go,
ourselves and other people.
Paul has just used the word
“righteousness” at the end of chapter 2.
Even though he doesn’t use the word,
righteousness is what he is talking about.
He speaks in terms of attaining your goal,
being perfected or completed.
But that is just another way of talking
about righteousness.
He is just focusing on your
attempts to gain it.
Before you became a
Christian,
you trusted various
projects of personal effort to make yourself feel complete.
But believing in Christ means
that there has been a revolution in what you trust
for your sense of
completion or perfection.
You trust Christ totally.
Old hymn:
Lay your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet.
Stand in Him, in Him alone—
Gloriously complete.
That’s what it means to
become a Christian. Lay your doing down.
Stand complete in Christ.
But, that
old way of thinking—that you complete yourself—does not disappear.
It’s like a computer on standby.
Screen is blank. You think it is off.
But touch one key, comes to life.
That’s exactly what
happens. The a
key gets typed.
Before you know it, works of the law
computer is humming.
Happened to Galatians,
many Christians since then. Examples in a moment.
MP#2 Look at
Gospel history
Verses 6-9 Paul says to
Galatians—Consider Abraham.
“Abraham believed God and it was credited to
him as righteousness.”
Paul was quoting from Genesis
15—our Old Testament reading.
This is the passage he chose to explain to
Galatians what it means to be Christian.
Doesn’t say that Abraham
believed in God—
as in a general
belief. Most people believe in God, even
demons do.
He believed God—there was a
specific message—it was the Gospel.
vs. 8 “God announced the Gospel in advance
to Abraham.”
What was this Gospel? I am going to bless world through a
descendant of yours.
Abraham did not know much at
all about the specifics of how God would do this.
But in two very clear ways God showed that
this salvation had nothing
to do with
Abraham’s performance, but with God’s initiative.
First, God showed that the
birth of Abraham’s son would be a miracle.
God would come, do a mighty deed that did
not depend on human ability at all.
Second, in this mysterious
ceremony, God showed that he would accomplish
this salvation even
if it meant his own death.
He would die for any breaking
of this covenant oath—either side.
He did not make Abraham take the oath or
pass through the pieces—customary.
Strongest possible
statement that the promise depended on God—not Abraham.
Abraham knew he could not do
this—didn’t have the physical ability
to produce a child
and didn’t have the moral ability to produce faithfulness.
So he had to believe the
promise completely.
What was the result? His faith was credited to him as
righteousness.
On account of his faith, God
declared him righteous.
This is simply justification.
Nothing at all is said about
Abraham keeping the law, being circumcised.
All salvation by faith in
a Savior to come.
You have to take that home to
your heart every day.
That’s the way you have to read the Bible—every
part, history of Gospel.
God working
salvation, paying for lawbreakers by his death.
Do you have this historical view of the
Gospel?
Suppose you commit a serious
sin with long-term effects.
You gravely wrong the people you love—wife,
kids, friends.
You tell a lie that causes lots of harm—you
get the idea.
You feel terrible about this
and confess it to the Lord, ask for forgiveness.
But then you say: I know God has forgiven me, but I just can’t
forgive myself.
Begin a period of self-punishment to pay for
that sin.
You begin to beat yourself down for this
terrible thing you have done.
Now that seems very moral,
very religious—like taking sin seriously.
But this is ignoring the Gospel and relying
on works of the law.
Analyze what you mean when
you say that you can’t forgive yourself.
Why do you feel so miserable? Why do you have such painful regrets?
Why are you trying to make yourself pay.
It could be that when you say
that you can’t forgive yourself
what you really
mean is: I can’t believe that I did
that.
That’s not me. I’m not like that.
I don’t know what came over me.
In other words: I’m not so bad that I can’t complete myself
It could be that when you say
you can’t forgive yourself
what you really
mean is: I’ve ruined chances to get
something had heart set on.
Maybe the sin you committed
did long-term damage to your reputation or career.
Those are things that you have been counting
on for your completion.
Now, because of what you have done, they are
out of reach.
It could be that when you say
you can’t forgive yourself
what you really
mean is: I haven’t lived up to someone
else’s standards
whose approve I
live and die for.
Now, how are these people
going to look at me? My
peers, my children, parents.
Do you see a common thread in
all of this?
What has been exposed by your sin—your sin
as a Christian—
that you are still
operating in a significant way under a program of self-salvation.
Thought you were able by
holding it together morally—to complete yourself.
When you failed doing what you could to make
up for it.
And, of course, a Christian in this
situation is miserable.
The way out is the
Gospel. God’s promise
to Abraham. His
covenant.
3. Look at
Gospel logic
Verses 10-14 Paul says, just think this whole thing through.
In a logical way walks them through the
implications of everything said.
There are two ways of
life—two paths to attain your goal—completion.
Living by faith
Relying on observing the law.
Bible does say that the law
is a path to completion and life.
vs. 12 “The man who does these things will
live by them.”
But, Paul says, there is a
catch.
Lawkeeping as a way of salvation demands
perfection.
You cannot begin to obey the
law of God.
Love the Lord your God with all heart, soul,
strength, mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
So the path to completion
through law keeping is actually curse.
The ultimate expression of that curse is
God’s judgment, hell.
But there is a more immediate
psychological aspect of the curse.
If you try to be saved through your
performance you will live under
a sense of
condemnation
This will lead to anxiety and
insecurity because you will never be sure
that you are living
up to your standards whatever they may be.
This will make you sensitive
to criticism, jealous,
intimidated by
those who outshine.
You will always be unsure of
where you stand so you will deal with people
in one of two ways—timid and fearful or
swaggering and boastful.
Both because of an underlying sense of this
curse.
So how do you escape?
In OT after some executions, body hung on a
tree as sign of divine rejection.
That is the symbolism of crucifixion. Sign of divine rejection—curse.
Does not mean Jesus became
sinful—legally, God regarded your sins as his.
That means if Jesus became a sinner for us,
then we become righteous
in the same way—by this gracious act of God.
So we can now view the law of
God in a totally different light.
Curse removed. No matter how much dirt exposes. Way of pointing to Christ.
You have to remember
this.
As a Christian spend time with other
Christians.
Your talk and your mind turns
more and more on the holiness of God.
You read the Bible, see the demands of God’s
law.
Go to church and hear the
word preached. Inviting a searchlight to
be shined.
The closer to the light you get, the more
dirt you start to see
That’s all good—as long as
this happens in the full knowledge that you
accepted by God on account of Christ’s
righteousness.
But, what can happen in that
setting is you forget the Gospel.
Computer on standby kicks on again—works of
law look attractive.
This can take many
forms.
You might start to trust in
some aspect church life as the thing that gives you
certain assurance you are right.
Might be a doctrinal
distinctive of your church:
particular style of baptism, speaking in
tongues, belief in predestination.
Becomes in your mind, the mark of a real
believer.
Or it might be view or
behavior that most people in your church have adopted—
a particular stance toward music, alcohol,
smoking, dress, political party.
Talked about this a few weeks ago.
That becomes to you, the mark that gives you
confidence before God.
Might simply be religious
exercises: church itself, prayer
meetings, Bible studies.
Do you see what this is? Program of self salvation.
Inevitably you will find
yourself becoming more judgmental at same time insecure.
You say it is Christ you are trusting but
something else has your functional trust.
Even something as wonderful
as Christian religion—can become work of law—
essentially a way to avoid Jesus and get
God’s approval for yourself.
There doesn’t have to be a
group troubling the church pushing circumcision—
the tendency is in our own hearts and in the
best of churches.
CONC: So how do you know your own heart in this matter?
Let me end with another
parable.
Suppose you have a great Aunt
Mildred a millionaire, no children—
but she has lots of nieces and nephews.
She’s old and infirm and you
start to take care of her.
Why are you taking care of
Aunt Mildred?
Are you doing it for her or to get something
from her?
How do you feel when another
niece shows up and does something for her?
How do you feel when her
lawyer calls—long private conversation?
How do you know? How can you know your own heart?
Suppose your Aunt Mildred
called you in one day said:
As you know, I have a great fortune.
I want you to know that I’ve left it all to
you in an irrevocable trust
that even I cannot break. My wealth is yours.
Suddenly, you would have a
way of knowing your heart.
You would have the freedom of knowing that
everything you did for her—
every need you attended was for her—not for
you to get something from her.
Because she had already guaranteed that you
would get it all.
That is exactly where Paul
leads the Galatians.
Where you have to go every day of your life.
How foolish it is to be
bewitched by the works of the law.
Think for whatever reason—terrible sin you
commit,
perfection and searching light of bible,
expectations of other Christians—
that you have to do anything to earn God’s
favor.
The trust is irrevocable for
those who trust Christ.
He has become a curse for you—and you have
received his righteousness.
He passed through the
sacrificed animals—you did not.
Hold on to the Gospel—and do
not degenerate into the works of the law.