1. Again, what happens when we try to keep the law?

2. What are the 2 key truths about the Christian life revealed here?

3. Why mustn't I try to "achieve" righteousness?

C. Comment :

As Paul continues his theme he first twice declares we are NOT justified by keeping the law and twice declares it is only by faith in Christ that we ARE justified. This is his main point again and again.

To emphasise it he then asks, what happens if in seeking to be justified in Christ we find we are still sinners? Does it mean Christ is a failure? No, it means that when it comes to "keeping the rules" I am a failure! The Law simply makes me realise that I can't do good constantly, in fact it puts me off it so much I give up on it, I die to even trying, I lose all hope in ever being righteous myself.

Now comes the wonderful news: First, I HAVE been made right in God's sight, for ever and ever, when I first believed in Christ dying for me. Second, Christ now lives actually IN me so it is His life force that is energising me, guiding me, leading me, empowering me. As He leads I actually lead a righteous life, not by having my eyes focused on the rules, but on my heart being full of his love so that I live a life in response to that, flowing out of that. To do otherwise would be to annul Christ's death and make it pointless and not needed!

D. Application?

1. God HAS justified me completely. I cannot make myself more justified,

more right in God's eyes.

2. Christ, by His Spirit, lives within me and provides all the inner resources

I ever need.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:1-5

A. Find Out:

1. What is Paul's first question? v.1

2. How had Jesus been portrayed? v.1

3. What does Paul's then ask about? v.2

4. What does he say they are now doing? v.3

5. Of what does he next remind them? v.4

6. What does he finally ask about? v.5

B. Think :

1. What is the main point Paul is driving home here?

2. How is the Holy Spirit used as an illustration?

3. How are miracles used similarly?

C. Comment :

Having spent a long time building up the credentials of the Gospel he preached, Paul now confronts the Galatians head on with their stupidity. He says that by the way they are acting they look as if they have had a spell cast on them. Look, he says, Jesus was preached as the one who was crucified for you and who, by implication, did everything necessary to justify you.

Come on, he says, how did you receive the Holy Spirit, how did you perform miracles? Was it by obeying the Law, by following rules? Of course it wasn't! It was simply because you believed what you heard, that God gave you His Spirit and then did miracles through you. Be careful here, the point Paul is making is that it wasn't by keeping the rules that the supernatural came into their lives.

However, that doesn't mean to say that while believing we can get away with not being obedient to God. Obedience and availability are prerequisites for being used by God (see Acts 5:32 ) but they come after believing, after salvation. They are not necessary for salvation, but they are for being used by God in the days following.

D. Application?

1. My salvation doesn't depend on me being good, it depends on me

believing the Gospel.

2. I cannot do anything to add to my salvation, I can just enjoy it!

3. Availability is the key to usability.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:6-9

A. Find Out:

1. Who are they asked to consider? v.6a

2. Why was he credited as righteous? v.6b

3. Who therefore are believers? v.7

4. How are Gentiles justified? v.8a

5. So who are blessed? v.9a

6. How is Abraham described? v.9b

B. Think :

1. What point has Paul been making previously?

2. How does he use Abraham as an example?

3. So what point does he drive home through it?

C. Comment :

Paul has just challenged them, asking whether they had been blessed by God because they observed the law or because they simply believed. Now, in these few verses, he hammers the point home with great clarity: it is by FAITH alone that we are blessed.

To achieve this he uses the example of Abraham (just like he does more fully in Romans chapter 4). God had declared (credited) Abraham to be righteous, simply because Abraham had BELIEVED, simply because he had FAITH. Because he had had faith God promised that all nations would be blessed through him. In other words anyone from any nation who believes in the same simple way that Abraham believed, will also be justified and will also receive the blessing of God on their lives.

These Galatians should be a clear object lesson to us: we are NOT saved because of what we DO. We are saved simply by our FAITH ONLY, in Jesus. We do things because we are saved, not to be saved. As we believe in our hearts, as faith rises within us, so that we know it and can say "Yes, it IS true for me", so God justifies us and blesses us. Any "doing" that does not flow out of this, is man-centred striving and does not bring the blessing of God on it!

D. Application?

1. My salvation is a FREE GIFT from God when I believed, and I AM fully

justified by God and declared righteous in His sight.

2. Thank God for your free salvation today.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:10-14

A. Find Out:

1. Under what are "law-keepers"? v.10a

2. Why? v.10b

3. How will the righteous live? v.11

4. How did Christ redeem us from the curse? v.13

5. What might happen as a result? v.14a

6. In what specific way? v.14b

B. Think :

1. What are the two optional ways for a follower of God to live?

2. What are the "legal" results of each way?

3. What does this mean for us in practical terms?

C. Comment :

Having just used Abraham as an illustration, Paul takes the aspect of being blessed along with Abraham and highlights both sides of the coin. Look, he says, you are either under a curse or under a blessing! If you rely upon the law for your salvation you are under a curse because Scripture says anyone who fails to keep the whole law is under a curse. However it also says that the righteous will live (or know salvation) by having faith, so it is faith not the law that is the answer.

Then he points out a wonderful fact: Christ became a curse on the Cross by taking all our sins so we are no longer under a curse. Therefore because we are no longer under a curse and we live by faith in Christ, we are now under the same blessing as Abraham and all of God's goodness flows towards us via the channel of His own Holy Spirit.

A curse is a promise of bad from God, His judgement. The blessing is the promise of good from God, His Spirit. This is the wonder of the Christian's life, we have been transferred from curse to blessing, we are now a people of God's blessing, and He ONLY purposes good for our lives from now on.

D. Application?

1. The law (the ten commandments) still form the background of my life

but I am no longer under the curse for failing to keep them perfectly.

2. Christ gives me His blessing and takes my curse.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:15-18

A. Find Out:

1. What cannot one do? v.15

2. To whom were the promises spoken? v.16a

3. Who does Paul take that to mean? v.16b

4. What doesn't the law do? v.17

5. What is the first possibility about our inheritance? v.18a

6. But how did it come? v.18b

B. Think :

1. What was the difference in time between God giving Abraham promises

and the Law being given?

2. What point is Paul making in this passage?

3. What are the consequences of that?

C. Comment :

Paul keeps on pursuing this argument. First he had reminded them that Abraham had been credited by God with righteousness simply for believing. Then he had pointed out the impossibility of perfectly keeping the Law, and then of Christ having opened the way for us to be receivers of the blessing given to Abraham. Now he sets law against grace as a further proof. What he is saying is that God's promise of blessing to Abraham came before the Law and was therefore not dependant on the Law and was not put aside by the Law.

Paul interprets the Old Testament promise to refer to Abraham himself and Christ as the one who came physically from Abraham (through Mary) and spiritually as THE son of faith. God had promised Abraham He would bless him, do good to him (Genesis 12:2 & 22:17 ), and make His covenant with him and his descendants (Genesis 17:19 ). That blessing, fulfilled in Christ, is for all who by faith receive Christ. It came before the Law and the Law has not put it aside. Today we are people of the promises, not the Law. Therefore we rest in the promises, not strive to maintain the Law.

D. Application?

1. My salvation depends on God's promise and NOT my ability to uphold

the rules.

2. Freed from striving to receive God's love and blessing.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:19-25

A. Find Out:

1. What is Paul's key question now? v.19a

2. What gap was it given to fill? v.19b

3. What was the problem with the world? v.22a

4. What was the law doing? v.23

5. So what was the Law to do? v.24

6. How is the promise received? v.22b,24b,25

B. Think :

1. What had been the world's problem before Jesus came?

2. How did the Law accentuate that?

3. So how, as Paul's conclusion, did the Law help the Gospel?

C. Comment :

We now examine a passage that has words that are not very clear and words that bring immense clarity. Paul has just said that our inheritance of God's blessing on our lives depends on His promise and not our keeping the rules. So, he now asks, what is the point of the Law?

To answer that he takes two paths. First, he says it was to point up transgressions until the promise was fulfilled. It came through a mediator, Moses, and yet a "mediator" presupposes that he mediates between two persons. However it is all initiated, commanded and fulfilled by God and so it isn't quite like that. God brought Law and promise so, asks Paul, is one against the other?

This is when Paul then takes the next path, noting the state of the world. If the world was without sin, people would be able to follow the Law perfectly and righteousness would automatically come. However because everyone is under the power of sin, the law simply makes people realise even more that they are sinners incapable of following the Law, and thus showing them their need of a Saviour. When we come to that point and call on Him, Jesus, the promise is fulfilled and the blessing of God released to us!

D. Application?

1. The law reminds me I need a Saviour, and God has provided one in

Jesus!

2. Jesus frees me from the failure of the Law.

Chapter: Galatians 3

Passage: Galatians 3:26-29

A. Find Out:

1. What are we now? v.26a

2. How does that come about? v.26b

3. What two things happened to us? v.27

4. What differences are there? v.28

5. What 3 descriptions are given of us? v.29

B. Think :

1. What descriptions are there of us Christians in these few verses?

2. What was our side of bringing that about?

3. What do the verses say God has done?

C. Comment :

These are power packed verses that bring strength and assurance. First the descriptions of us today. We ARE sons of God today, now, this minute. If you have believed Jesus and met God you ARE his child today (see also 1 John 3:1,3), we belong to Christ (v.29) for he purchased us with his blood (Acts 20:28 ). Now the consequence of that is that we are also described as Abraham's seed and as such we are also heirs (inheritors) of the promises given to the man of faith.

Second, the other things that have happened to us. We had faith and God baptised (or placed) us into the mystical body that is the Church, with Christ as its head (see Ephesians 1:22 ,23, 4:15 ,16). We have thus been "clothed with Christ", covered with him, with his characteristics, and that includes ALL Christians whoever they are.

Whoever has believed, who has had faith in Christ, has become one in the body that is the Church, made up of all believers. "They" may not worship like you and perhaps do many things differently, but as children of God they are part of the same body as you, equally loved by God. Dare we have wrong attitudes, hold wrong feelings and say wrong things about others in this same body we are in? We only harm ourselves if we do!

D. Application?

1. Because I believe in Christ as my Lord and Saviour I AM a child of God

today.

2. As a child of God I am the receiver of all the promises of God.

RECAP: "Faith or Law-Keeping" Galatians 2:15-3:29

SUMMARY :

In these 7 studies we have seen Paul:

- explaining that justification DOESN'T come by law-keeping.

- chiding the Galatians for starting with faith and returning to

   law keeping.

- using Abraham as an illustration of faith producing

   righteousness that is acceptable to God.

- stating that Law brings a curse but Christ has redeemed us from

   that curse and made us inheritors of God's promises.

- stating the law leads us to Christ so that we may become sons of

   God by faith.

COMMENT :

Paul moves on to first expound that you are NOT saved by observing the Law and then he chides the Galatians for having gone back to following the Law. He reiterates the hopelessness of this by reminding them that under the law they are cursed and it was to release them from this that Christ came. Abraham was the classic illustration of this for he was blessed for believing God's promise. So we too may become God's children if we simply believe God's promises.

LESSONS :

1. I cannot make myself more justified!

2. I can't add to my salvation, only enjoy it.

3. Christ has become a curse to pay my price for failure to keep the law

4. My salvation depends on God's promise not my effort

5. The law reminds me of my need for a saviour

6. I am now a child of God through simple faith.

PRAY :

Rejoice today in your free salvation.

PART 3 : "Heirs or Slaves?"

In this next Part watch how Paul enlarges on our sonship and then turns back in sorrow to the plight of the Galatians who had become slaves again, finally illustrating this by an Old Testament example.