Galatians 3:1-5 – What Faith Gave – Bible study

Galatians 3:1-5 What Faith Gave Background: The Galatians were part of the generation that lived in an changing dispensational time. Many of them would have been born under the Law. The Law was a method of worship and obeying God that God Himself had established. But they also lived after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That placed them into the same dispensation of worship as we live. Dont you know that had to be difficult for them? Some of the Jewish Christians had come into the church at Galatia and were teaching the saved believers that they needed to keep the Law. They were not saying that it is wrong to believe in Jesus, but they wanted to add to faith in Christ. They believed Christians had to keep at least some parts of the law. Paul wrote this letter to deal with that type of false teaching. 1. God has ordained several ways to worship Him. a. All Adam and Eve had to do to worship God was to worship God. No temple, no sacrifice, no church, b. From the fall to Moses – Worship with sacrifices but no temple, no law governing worship. c. Moses to Christ – Worship with sacrifices at specific place, time, reasons. d. Christ to rapture – Worship without sacrifices but under the direction of the Holy Ghost. e. In the tribulation, it appears things will go back to the Law. f. In the millennium, a form of temple worship with be reinstituted. g. In eternity, we will be back to just worshipping God. But the way you worship does not provide your salvation. It only provides your worship. 2. No one has ever been saved by the law. Salvation has always been by faith in Jesus atonement. Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. a. I am not saying the sacrifices had no part in the Old Testament worship system because they did. (1) I believe they demonstrated the worshippers obedience to God. (2) I also believe the sacrifices themselves combined with faith and obedience provided some type of tempoary covering for their sins. (3) But the sacrifices themselves could not save. They were incapable of that. (4) Instead, as we look backward to what Jesus has done, the Old Testament saints looked ahead to what He would do. Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. I. \#3:1\ The Galatians Condition – Paul has already told the Galatians that he marvelled \#Gal 1:6\ at how soon and how far they had gotten off course. \#Gal 1:9\ Paul says these Galatians had "received" the gospel and so, I gather, were saved but that did not stop them from backsliding. Now, they were: A. Foolish – Foolish is the opposite of wise. 1. Wise means to see things as God sees them. 2. Foolish must mean that we are seeing things different from God. 3. It is possible for Christians to be quit foolish and out of step with God. B. Bewitched – Charmed or controlled. 1. Faulty thinking has lead to faulty actions. 2. Christians must be careful of what they are exposed to for, like anyone else, they can be influenced. C. Disobedient 1. The ultimate truth is that they might be acting like they were bewitched but they were just being disobedient. 2. Knowing the truth but being influenced from without, they had made a choice against the Scriptures. 3. Christians are responsible for our actions! D. Blind – Christ had been evidently set forth. 1. They had seen much evidence of salvation in their life. 2. Now, because of influence and wrong choices, they were far from the place of power in their life. II. What we of the grace dispensation have over those of the law dispensation (and those who would try to earn salvation by keeping the law). A. \#Gal 3:2-4\ The Holy Spirit 1. The saints worshipping under the law did not have the abiding relationship with the Holy Spirit. a. Old Testament saints had no comforter. Laminations 1:1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! 2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. b. Old Testament saints had no Teacher. Luke 12:12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. c. Old Testament saints had no Power. Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: d. Old Testament saints had no Seal. Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 2. Not only were the Old Testament saints missing these gifts, so were these Galatians before their conversion. 3. But after salvation, they had experienced them because by faith that had walked in Him (the Holy Spirit). B. \#Gal 3:5\ Ministry and Miracles 1. No miracle was ever done, Old Testament or New, by the law. They were all done by faith. 2. The only Old Testament saints who were granted a ministry by the law were the Levites. 3. New Testament saints are granted both ministry and miracles as our service and faith allows. C. \#Gal 3:6-7\ Righteousness 1. Righteousness never came by the law. It has always come by faith! a. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Romans 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. b. David also \#Rom 4:6-8\ Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. c. Hebrews 11 Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. "by faith" is used 15 times and associated with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the conquerors at Jericho, Rahab the harlot and many more. 2. The righteousness that the Old Testament saints had is different in one aspect from our own. a. They were looking ahead. We are looking behind. b. Our sin debt is paid. Theirs, by time s measurements, was not! c. A temporary atonement for them was made on an earthly altar. That atonement had to be constantly reapplied with the meager blood of bulls and goats. Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. d. We have a heavenly altar adorned with the eternal blood of Jesus. Heb 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? e. The OT saints had a righteousness that was dependent upon what Jesus would do. (1) If Jesus had not died on the cross, they would have lost everything! (2) That is the reason they stayed in Paradise until the price for sin was paid. (3) It is also the reason that they were moved to heaven as soon as the price was paid. III. \#Gal 3:10\ What they of the law dispensation had that we do not. A. A curse! The emphasis on \#10\ should be on the word "all." James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. B. If you broke one aspect of the law, you were guilty of all! Your walk with God was all or nothing! C. \#Gal 3:13\ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law! We are no longer under either the demand or the penalties of the law. (We do still abide under the morality of the law.) Several questions answered in this text: 1. Can a Christian backslide? YES. He can be influenced, disobedient, foolish, and blind. 2. Can a Christian be saved and get confused about how they got saved? Apparently so. 3. Can you be saved any other way than by trusting what God has provided? No.