Faith In Christ

INTRO

Galatians is the kind of book that has to be studied in its entirety to understand what it’s talking about. And once you finish the book study, you need to go back to chapter 1 and read it again. Before we start the study, I want to provide a bit of background to prepare for the transition that chapter 3 makes into a discussion of “flesh” and “spirit.” So far, we’ve talked about circumcision as the mark on the flesh and a new circumcision as the mark on the heart. We’ve all been foolish Galatians at times when there have been things about God and Christ we didn’t understand.

TEACHING

Galatians 3:1-5: The word “bewitched” (v. 1 KJV) can be understood as “turned your eyes to another.” Chapter 2 was a strongly worded, divisive section of the letter that had cost Paul relationships. He continued the strong wording into chapter 3. Paul diminished the letter of the law in some of his other letters. His point is that faith is of the Spirit, not in obedience to the letter of the law.

Through my ministry and with the people I have walked with, I understand the Galatians. If the indoctrination of the truth was brought by people who thought they were of the truth, it’s easy to set your conscience to their truth. Leonard Ravenhill said something like, “If you find a church that is comfortable for you, RUN!” The gospel is not meant to be comfortable. Focusing on comfort means the church is preaching the gospel of comfort, not its mission to the world, which is to help the words of Jesus permeate through the world and bring change.

We all can hear what we believe is truth and let it become our truth. But have we investigated that truth, so we know it is the truth of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? Paul talked about his experiences in the third heaven. He was given the ministry of revelation for the New Testament truth while in the third heaven. Therefore, Paul was unwilling to compromise ANYTHING that was given to him for ANY reason, including getting along with people. He met with people in the church, but they had not received the revelation of what the church could be. Paul was ready to minister to the Gentiles and bring the entire world into the kingdom of God. Paul could not allow the Galatians to not embrace that revelation and to keep focusing on the act of circumcision. As Kyle taught yesterday: “Hypocrisy keeps people from the truth of the gospel.”

If the law (rules, denominational doctrine, bishop, or the way it’s always been) is the boundary of your truth, then unless you have the revelation of the Spirit, you will back away even from Jesus in the reasoning of your mind and conscience. If you are going to walk into real revelation, you make the WORD your compass. Embrace FAITH, not reasoning.

Galatians 3:6–9: “Abraham believed God” because he had heard God speak to Him (using words) (v. 6). Faith comes by hearing the word of the Lord. That means all the nations have to hear it. That “word” from God is from the word ramah, which literally means “God speaks.” Faith is receiving by the Spirit the word of God and obeying the word of God as it is instructed. Faith does not mean stepping into an unknown, but it is obedience to the word that comes from God. “All of the nations” will be blessed through that faith (v. 8) (Genesis 12:3). Father Abraham provided the spiritual seed that would bring spiritual sons to Abraham (v. 9).

Galatians 3:10–12: Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 27:26 to point out again that if someone chose to keep the law, he had to keep all of the law (all 613 individual laws)—something impossible for anyone to do (v. 10). But even if man could keep all the laws, he would not be justified by his actions (v. 11). Rather, man is justified by faith in Christ, and following the law is not based on faith (v. 12) (Romans 3:27–31; 4:13–14). Note that the law was given as a part of faith for the people in the time that they received it, because they had not yet been given the revelation of the Spirit. Into a world that was controlled by sin and death, Jesus brought the law of life through His death on the cross.

Galatians 3:13–22: Jesus was willing to be cursed in order that we, the Gentiles, could become children of God (v. 13) (Deuteronomy 21:23). Verse 14 is the entire gospel message in one sentence: “That the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Jesus brought a new law that was meant to capture and captivate our hearts. Because of His Spirit within us, we are able to overcome the hold that sin has on our lives.

Verse 16 sets out God’s plan for the culture of the kingdom. God had a plan from the very beginning to bring all mankind to Himself. God brought us through the culture of sin (by Noah’s ark), through the chosen people (through Abraham), through their deliverance (by Moses) into a place where they could receive a new set of laws no one on earth had. God did all of this so that, when Jesus came in the New Testament, we could understand and accept the new principles He was to deliver. We would understand all of this because we have the history lessons through God’s Word to explain it to us. Faith is all about obedience and requires something of us (vv. 16–17). We get to serve Christ in our liberation; we have been put into bondage to Jesus Christ through God’s love.

CLOSING

The law was necessary to conclude that humankind cannot live justly on our own. This law then made the new covenant necessary—through the forgiveness of sin.

The greatest thing we can do in our own lives (and we’re doing it in Revive School) is to study the Bible chronologically through certain sections, and then go back and forth between the old covenant and the new covenant, in order to receive the revelation of Christ and of what God wants to do in our lives. If you want revelation in your life, don’t attend another conference; get alone in the Word of God.