Aug. 07, 2024

Dear Friends,

I hope you can join us tonight for Bible study as we continue our study in the book of Galatians. The Scripture is Galatians 3:1-9. Notes are attached.

LIVING THE CHRISTLIFE

WAYNE BARRETT

HILLTOP LAKES CHAPEL

AUGUST 7, 2024

Galatians 3:1-9

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly

portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by

hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the

flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the

Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just

as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that

God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you

shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the

man of faith.

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v 1 – “O foolish Galatians…”

Hearkening back to the beginning of the letter. This is its urgent theme—that the Galatians had

begun to follow the Judaizers in a “different” gospel, although there is no different gospel.

more lit. “Who has put a spell on you [not to obey the truth], before whose eyes Jesus Christ was

publicly portrayed as having been crucified?”

This continues the thought of 2:21 - “if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for

no purpose.”

Paul emphasizes in dramatic terms how teaching keeping the law as a necessary part of salvation

insults and seeks to diminish the finished and necessary work of Christ on the cross.

“not to obey the truth” is in some Greek texts but not others. It is certainly implied, even when

absent.

And now Paul begins a series of questions to drive home his point—and the contrast he draws

repeatedly may not be what we expected. He does not contrast one “teaching” against another. He

contrasts the Galatians having now received life through the Spirit with their former condition under the

law, when they were dead in their sins and without the new life of the Spirit. This is not an isolated

teaching—this is the gospel. A particularly parallel passage is Romans 8.

v 2 – “Let me ask you this…”

Paul’s phrase is a little more aggressive. More lit. “This only I wish to learn from you…” we

might say, Let me just ask you this one thing!

The implication of the statement with the question to follow is that this one thing is all that is

needed to reveal to you the truth.

“Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by faith?”

The power of this rhetorical question lies in the fact that the Galatians knew 1) that they had

received the Spirit 2) what the significance of this was, and 3) that it occurred by faith!

2

How did they know?

Their inner life—their new personhood

The fruit of the Spirit

The gifts of the Spirit

What was the significance?

Our new life, the new covenant, is by the Spirit.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is

spirit….You must be born again.”—John 3:6-7

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For

the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin

and death.”—Romans 8:1-2 ff

The Spirit is our seal and our guarantee!

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,

and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the

guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of

his glory.”—Ephesians 1:13-14

It occurred by faith!

This did not happen by following rules. It happened through faith in God and his word.

“Did you receive…”—lambano, it is an active word, as in “take” or receive officially—it

was not something that “just happened” to them (or us)

Paul’s point has been made! What follows are related questions to further press it home.

v 3 – “Are you so foolish?”

He is not letting up!

“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Another affirmation of something they well understood, that the Christian life is of the Spirit—

and it is a life! Not merely submission to a new teaching.

“perfected”— epiteleó, completed, finished. So: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being

completed by the flesh?” An impossibility. The question is, of course, rhetorical.

v 4 – “Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?”

“suffer” – paschó, to experience strong feelings, often of suffering, but not always

Paul may be referencing all they experienced to make the journey from legalism to salvation, all

that it had cost them in human terms—Did you do all this for nothing? If indeed it was for

nothing?

v 5 – “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you…”

Now focusing upon God’s acts in a direct way

The verbs are present participles: “Does he who is supplying the Spirit to you and working

miracles among you …”

Even though receiving the Spirit was an accomplished fact, it is also recognized that this is an

ongoing, living, activity of God

“working miracles” – energeó dynamis, working power, working acts of power, working

miracles…

God’s acts of power most definitely occurred through faith, not through any works of the law

3

v 6 – more lit. “So also, Abraham …”

This verse may better be understood as the opening sentence to the next paragraph.

Paul uses the topic of faith to segue to Abraham, and a broader, but related, teaching.

Genesis 15:6 – And [Abram] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

And this teaching is a huge one—that the covenant with Abraham was always based on faith—

fully consistent with the law being now fulfilled in Christ through faith, and our receiving life

in Christ through faith.

v 7 – “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

Paul is talking about the Church—those born of the Spirit—that’s the point.

More lit. “Know then that those of faith, these are sons of Abraham.”

Addressed earlier, in a different way, by Jesus:

See John 8:31-59. An excerpt:

They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”… Jesus answered them, “…I know that you

are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I

speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your

father…. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires … The

reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God … Your father Abraham rejoiced

that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet

fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you,

before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him…

Paul will continue to make this point—that the true descendants of Abraham are by faith, not

genealogy—that it has always been this way.

vv 8-9 – “And the Scripture…”

more lit. “The Scripture, having foreseen then, that God justifies the Gentiles by faith…”

This is a profound statement and application of Scripture—

1. That the oft-quoted Scripture about Abraham (Genesis 15:6) had already looked ahead and

was pointing to the fact that God would justify the Gentiles by faith!, and

2. That Genesis 12:3 — “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will

curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”— was actually a preaching of

the gospel beforehand [proeuaggelizomai] to Abraham! This meaning, it is now those who

are in Christ, believers, in which God’s promise to Abraham has been fulfilled.