Title: Justification by faith isn’t something New

Text: Gal 3:6-14

As I said last week Paul in chapters three and four presents six different arguments to prove God saves by grace through faith rather than works. (I think I actually said 5 last week. Last week, as we looked at verse 1-5 we saw he appealed to the truth of their own personal conversion experience. He reasoned they didn’t keep the law prior to their conversion, since they were for the most part Gentiles, nor were they compelled to keep the law for conversion and yet they received the presence of God’s Spirit in their lives. Obviously that demonstrated the truth that God’s saving power came by faith and not works.

He now moves to arguing that same truth from scripture. He uses six (6) different Old Testament passages, and remember that was the extent of Scripture at that point in time, to prove sinners are justified by faith alone, that justification by faith is not something new, but something old. It was God’s plan from eternity, it existed prior to the giving of the Law.

First, in verses 6 and 7 Paul references Gen 15:6. Abraham, was Abram then and the Lord came to him in a vision and made a covenant with him concerning an heir and in verse 6 the Bible says: “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (NAS)

The word reckoned in both Gal and Gen means to account or to credit. As a believer the righteousness of Christ Jesus is credited to our account to cover our sins. Paul explained it this way in Romans 4:1-8:

“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’

Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.’” (NAS)

The Jewish people believed the blessings of God were inherited by virtue of their being physical descendants of Abraham. John the Baptist in Matt 3:9 , however, made it clear that physical descent didn’t guarantee spiritual life. And Paul wrote in Rom 9:8: “. . . it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.” (NAS)

The children of the promise are those who, like Abraham, have faith in God trusting Christ for salvation. Unfortunately, as we look at the latest statistics and polls from George Barna or from the Gallup Organization, it’s evident today many people still imagine salvation is inherited. They mistakenly believe because mother or father or brother or sister or even grandparents were Christians, or even because they were born in the United States they are Christians too. But salvation isn’t inherited nor is it earned by virtue of heritage. It is received from God by faith in Christ.

Not only is the doctrine of justification by faith found in the Old Testament, but the Old Testament affirms it is by faith for both Jew and Gentile. In verses 8-9 Paul wrote: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, {saying} ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” (NAS) The written Word is personified by Paul who again quotes the Old Testament Gen 12:3:    And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (NAS)

Paul shows from this Scripture that from the beginning God’s relationship with Abraham was intended to bring the blessing of salvation to all people. The good news for the Galatians and for us is that Old Testament Scripture, in agreement with the New Testament sets forth the truth, sinners are justified by faith and not by works or the keeping of the law. The importance of that in Paul’s argument is obvious. If salvation is by faith, the Judaziers of the first-century and anyone today – any denomination, and cult, any sect, any religion that insists people must earn salvation or work to gain favor with God in some way are simply wrong.

Specifically addressing the Law, Paul wrote in verses 10-12 : “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.’ Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.’ However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, ‘He who practices them shall live by them.’” (NAS)

Paul, quoting Deut 27:26, said the Law was not a source of blessing, rather it brings a curse. Why does it bring a curse? Because the Bible says the law demands complete obedience in everything it pertains to (Lev 18:5). The law is not a buffet where you pick and choose what you will obey. James wrote in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one {point,} he has become guilty of all.” (NAS) That’s why Peter (Acts 15) called it a yoke that not even the Jews themselves were able to bear. Paul in 5:1 refers to the law as a yoke of slavery. He later points out that the Law was giving to bring about the knowledge of sin.

Paul continues his line of reasoning concerning the law by quoting Hab 2:4, the righteous will live by faith. William Barclay paraphrases that verse this way, “It is the man who is right with Gob by faith who will really live.” (Barclay, DSB, “The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians” p.26). Paul’s argument from his experience, from their experience and now from the Scripture is that works righteousness can never justify the sinner, that can only be accomplished through faith righteousness. For the Galatian Christians, or any Christian, to abandon faith and grace for law and works goes against experience and revelation and it means losing everything exciting that Christians can experience in daily fellowship with the Lord.

Why do Christians continually do that? Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on Galatians suggests two simple reasons people abandon the truth. Works righteousness appeals to the flesh. It’s something I can do for myself, that means I can take credit . And, I can compare myself to someone else, not only that I can choose who to compare myself to.

Verses 13 and 14 summarize Paul’s argument . “Christ 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’– in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (NAS) The law puts sinners under a curse, but Christ redeems us from that Curse. Again from the Old Testament Paul sites Deut. 21:23 anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse.

The curse doesn’t refer to the form of execution, the Jews didn’t hang a person like we think of hanging. The Jews sanctioned basically 4 forms of execution, stoning being the most common. After execution the victim’s body would be lifted up on a piece of timber or tree as a confirmation, a sign they were transgressors of the divine law and were thus cursed. The law also required bodies exhibited in that fashion be removed by sundown so as not to dishonor God or bring defilement on the land.

Paul equates this type of exhibition with the death of Jesus on the cross in verse 13, except Jesus wasn’t hung on the cross after execution, He was nailed alive to the cross. Paul used this passage to demonstrate the death of Jesus on the cross was not accidental, nor coincidental. Through His obedience, being publicly displayed on the cross, Jesus intentionally and purposefully exposed Himself to the curse of the law (Jn 10:17-18).

That’s why the Bible says in 1 Cor 1:23 the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. The Jews see the cross of Christ as a place of cursing rather than blessing and can’t reconcile the two. They can’t understand how Jesus could be Messiah because they can’t imagine Messiah being cursed by God. But, Jesus didn’t expose Himself to the curse of the cross for His own transgressions, he was our substitute. He bore our curse.

The best way to understand this is the illustration of the Old Testament sacrificial system especially the instructions concerning the scapegoat in Lev 16:5ff.

The Bible makes it clear Jesus the perfect sacrifice, He alone was sinless. In 1 Pet 2:22-23 Peter quotes Isa 53:9 from the Old Testament referring to Jesus; also Lk 1:35; Heb 7:26; 1 Jn 3:5). Jesus was the goat of sacrifice, set apart to the Lord and He was Scapegoat who took away our sin. He became a curse, Paul said, to redeem us. The word redeem means to purchase a slave for the specific purpose of setting them free. By shedding His blood and being displayed publicly on the cross Jesus paid the redemption price demanded by God and purchased us, specifically those who trust Him, are set free from the curse of the law and the curse of sin.

Paul then tells us why Jesus went to the cross in verse 14not only to be the sin bearer but also in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, referring to justification, and so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (NAS) Both express the same idea in different ways the truth that the blessings of Abraham demonstrated through the reception of the Holy Spirit are available to all mankind and received not by works of the flesh but by faith alone.