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May 5, 2019 --- the Gospel of Faith Foretold --- Galatians 3:1-14

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May 5, 2019 --- the Gospel of Faith Foretold --- Galatians 3:1-14 1 Sunday School Lesson Outline – Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church – 3317 Toledano Street – New Orleans, La. May 5, 2019 --- The Gospel of Faith Foretold --- Galatians 3:1-14 Unit III – The True Gospel Introduction: ―It seems to happen with some frequency. The phone rings, and I answer. Immediately a recorded voice informs me that I have won a two-day, two-night trip to some exclusive getaway. Just as immediately I hang up the phone. Why? Because I know that the free trip comes with a cost. There are requirements. The idyllic vacation will be interrupted by seemingly endless, high-pressure sales presentations. Some people may consider this 'cost' an acceptable trade-off for the benefits received. But it is not my idea of a relaxing vacation. There is nothing necessarily wrong with offering free gifts in order to promote one’s product or business, but sometimes the free gift is not really free at all. In fact, many people assume this is the case, and even when offered something that is genuinely free, they immediately start wondering what the catch is. This is true in the case of the gospel.‖ – BE&I (See Gift of Grace on Page 7.) I. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE GALATIANS' EXPERIENCE -- Galatians 3:1-5 Galatians 3:1 1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? A. Message of faith (Galatians 3:1). 1. ―Paul’s primary reason for writing to the Galatian Christians was to address the problem of legalism.‖ a. ―The Galatians, who were primarily Gentiles, had been saved through faith in Christ, but certain Jewish teachers had infiltrated the churches and were teaching that faith was not enough.‖ b. ―These teachers, whom we call Judaizers, were insisting that the Gentile believers must also observe the Jewish law, even declaring this was necessary for salvation (cf. Acts 15:1).‖ 2. ―Paul had no tolerance for such legalism.‖ a. ―He called this teaching another gospel (Gal. 1:6) and the proponents of it false brethren (2:4).‖ b. ―He understood that salvation comes only by receiving by faith the grace of God in Christ.‖ c. ―If it comes by the law, then Christ’s death was meaningless.‖ 3. ―In the Galatians' case, the crucified Christ had been clearly set before them, and they had believed in Him.‖ a. ―They had been saved and accepted by God through faith, apart from obedience to the Law of Moses.‖ b. ―Paul called it utterly foolish to now turn away from the truth that salvation is by grace through faith.‖ c. ―Their own experience told them the teaching of the Judaizers was wrong, but many of them were acting as if they were bewitched, or under some kind of spell.‖ Galatians 3:2 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? B. Regeneration by faith (Galatians 3:2). 1. ―Paul now begins to ask his readers some searching questions to remind them of crucial truths they had already affirmed and experienced.‖ 2. ―He notes, first, that they had received the Holy Spirit through faith, not through works of the law.‖ a. ―This refers to their reception of the Holy Spirit when they were saved.‖ 2 b. ―This was clearly a work of God’s grace, which they received by faith.‖ Galatians 3:3-5 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? C. Sanctification by faith (Galatians 3:3-5). 1. ―The Gentile believers in Galatia knew their salvation had come by faith in Christ, wholly apart from the law.‖ a. ―Why, then, would any of them think that they must complete their spiritual journey through their own efforts at keeping the law— that is, by the flesh?‖ b. ―The law was not a part of salvation, so why introduce it as a requirement for one who is born again and now led by the Spirit of God?‖ 2. ―Sanctification is the progressive growth toward Christ-likeness empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.‖ a. ―It is being made perfect, or mature, in the faith and cannot be effected by human efforts to obey the Law of Moses.‖ b. ―How foolish it was to 'suppose that a system [the law] which never could bring regeneration to sinners could still somehow bring about their ultimate transformation into the likeness of Christ' (Kent).‖ Practical Point 1: ―There is nothing we do can to earn our salvation.‖ 3. ―In fact, if sanctification were a matter of following the law, then all that the Galatian believers had suffered for their faith would be meaningless.‖ 4. ―Was their suffering for the gospel of grace that they had embraced at Paul’s preaching all for nothing? (It would be if they now turned to law 'in order to satisfy God’s righteousness, [for] they would be repudiating their former position which claimed that they looked to Christ alone' [Kent]).‖ 5. ―Paul notes that the Holy Spirit who worked in and among them did not make His mighty works contingent upon their obedience to the law. (Paul’s point: sanctification, like salvation, comes through faith, not works of the law.)‖ II. THE ARGUMENT FROM ABRAHAM -- Galatians 3:6-9 Galatians 3:6 6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. A. The faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:6). 1. ―After setting forth the issue in relation to the Galatians’ own Christian experience, the Apostle Paul now develops a scriptural argument for the gospel of grace as opposed to the Judaizers’ false gospel of the works of the law.‖ a. ―He points to Abraham, whose faith was accounted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6).‖ b. ―The Bible declares Abraham righteous on the basis of his faith alone.‖ 2. ―The law, which came many years later, had nothing to do with his acceptance by God.‖ Practical Point 2: ―Our righteousness is determined by our faith, not our works.‖ Galatians 3:7-9 7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. B. The children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9). 3 1. ―It seems the Judaizers emphasized the necessity of being connected to Abraham, especially through circumcision, the identifying sign of God’s chosen people. (Thus, they taught that Gentile believers became children of Abraham and therefore heirs of the promises to Abraham through circumcision and obedience to the law.)‖ 2. ―Paul declares that those who are of faith— that is, those who (like Abraham) simply trust the Lord— are the true children of Abraham.‖ a. ―Faith, not race or the law, is the requirement for salvation.‖ b. ―Just as Abraham was saved by faith, so were the Galatian believers, and so are we today. (If works were required, no one could be saved, for imperfect people cannot perfectly meet God’s righteous requirements.)‖ c. ―Paul cites Scripture to show that God’s plan was always to justify the heathen through faith.‖ 3. ―The promises to Abraham from the very beginning foresaw that God’s blessing would come on those who were true heirs of Abraham by faith.‖ a. ―While it is true that Abraham’s physical descendants would be specially blessed by God, His blessings were not limited to them.‖ b. ―The initial promises to Abraham, which are at the core of what we call the Abrahamic covenant (cf. Gen. 12:23), included the assurance that in Abraham shall all nations be blessed. (The word for nations here [ethnos] is the same word translated heathen earlier in the verse.)‖ Practical Point 3: ―All nations are blessed because of Abraham.‖ III. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE LAW -- Galatians 3:10-12 Galatians 3:10-11 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. A. The curse of the law (Galatians 3:10-11). 1. ―Those who are of the works of the law stand in contrast to those who are of faith (vs. 9).‖ 2. ―Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 to show that the law condemned anyone (under the curse) who did not keep it in its entirety, and keeping the law perfectly is not possible.‖ Practical Point 4: ―It is impossible to uphold everything that is written in the law.‖ 3. ―The apostle again asserts, No man is justified by the law in the sight of God.‖ a. ―As proof, he cites Habakkuk 2:4: The just shall live by faith.‖ b. ―The just refers to those who have been justified by faith, and they thus live by faith…not by the law.‖ Galatians 3:12 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
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