GALATIANS 3:1-14

Scripture Taken from New International Version,
© Biblica, 2011

This passage reflects the urgency and passion with which Paul
wrote his letter to the churches of Galatia. His impassioned
appeal reflected the urgency of the crisis that had so quickly
come upon that region.

Evidently, false teachers had convinced the churches of Galatia
that one must observe various aspects of Jewish law, such
as circumcision and special days, to be justified before God.
In Paul’s estimation, those who followed this teaching were
trying to be “justified by law.”

Paul’s purpose was to persuade the Galatians that, as Gentiles,
they did not need to accept these Jewish legal observances, or
any other observances, to belong to God’s covenant people.
He stressed that entrance into communion with the people
of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ. The Galatians were
justified by faith and indwelt by the Holy Spirit because, like
Abraham, they believed and trusted in the promise of God.
Human achievement, either by way of ritual observation or
moral improvement, cannot improve upon what God has
done to bring about salvation. The cross is the one way of
salvation, and no part of Scripture makes this clearer than
does Galatians.

Paul teaches that this understanding of justification does not
mean lawlessness, as his opponents evidently claimed. The
Holy Spirit dwells within justified believers and furnishes them
with a new nature that empowers them to love. Only through
the grace of God in Jesus Christ are people enabled to live
new lives in a genuine freedom of mind and spirit through the
power of the Holy Spirit.

BREAKING DOWN THE TEXT

Verses 1-5: Paul starts off with strong language. He rebukes, confronts and opposes the Galatians. The main theme in this passage is clearly outlined with a question he asks twice: “Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? (Galatians 3:2, 3:5). The Galatians had a promising start. We read that they bore witness to Christ’s death, and therefore they believed in Him as their Savior and received the Holy Spirit.

In verses 6-9 Paul goes back in history to that one man through which God decided to give us as an example of how to understand the principle: “saved through faith”. Abraham was a man like any other man but God chose him to declare his plan to save the world from condemnation. It is striking that this name is mentioned in every single one of those verses. The name Abraham is inseparably linked with faith. Paul even calls him “the man of faith” in verse 9. And then Paul reminds the Galatians that God is still keeping His promise to love and bless His children- all through faith.

Verses 10-14 shows us the love of God in many ways. Jesus’ willingness to become a curse and die on the cross changed the world forever. A more discrete but very sweet love is described as a summary of this selection in verse 14: He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Even like Abraham’s faith, we have entrance to redemption and the Holy Spirit. God decided to place Abraham first in this line. Through his faith the blessing came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Would God have been able to fulfill His plan without Abraham? Certainly he would! But He wants us to be part of his plan. He wants a relationship with us. That is incomparable and Epic Love.

HISTORICAL CULTURAL BACKGROUND

The Epic Love Backstory

WHAT CAN WE DO TO EARN GOD’S LOVE?

The letter to the Galatians is one of Paul’s sharpest letters. His concern comes out clearly in this rather short letter. We know that Paul cared deeply for his churches and loved them dearly. He was very concerned that only sound doctrine was spread. The Galatians were in danger of moving away from the truth about God’s plan to redeem them by faith, what he will later call “justification by faith” in the One who did the work for us to be reconciled to God. How could this happen? After all, the Galatians were eyewitnesses of Jesus crucified and had received the message of reconciliation with enthusiasm.

There were always false teachers who crept into the newly founded churches and spread false doctrines. In doing so,
they made use of Satan’s well-tried lie: that our works will prove ourselves righteous and gain God’s acceptance. So it happened that the Galatians, after a brilliant start (Galatians 3:3), threatened to fall back into those old patterns, namely righteousness by works.

Paul’s sharp words still echo after almost 2000 years: by following or creating any law, people can never attain righteousness before God. Paul was quite sure of this. Why? He had an impressive revelation from Jesus Himself. Paul’s knowledge comes from no person (Galatians 1:11).

Paul seeks understanding from the Galatians and in his explanation invokes the Old Testament- the Torah. Greek was spoken in the provinces of Galitia. The Septuagint, the Old Testament in Greek, was therefore familiar to the people. On the basis of Abraham, Paul traces the line of blessing through faith and ends with the words of God Himself: “All nations will be blessed through you” Galatians (3:8).

At that time, the death of Jesus on the cross was only a few years before. Christianity was young and the churches were still small start-ups. The influence of the Hellenistic world was very strong, especially among the Greeks. Human sacrifice, human worship and polytheism was normal. In addition, the Christian communities were persecuted and often lost their lives for their faith. In this area of tension, Paul moved in the early first century and constantly pastored his newly founded churches. Visiting the churches involved a considerable amount of time and effort. Weeks, if not months, were spent traveling. Letters were the only alternative, especially since they were often passed around within the various churches in the region.

How did Paul deal with this great challenge of his time? His letters speak a clear language and his heartfelt message is in line with the great love message of the Bible: Christ in you- the hope of your salvation. In his great concern for the Galatians, he was aware of his powerlessness and trusted completely in the name of Jesus, proclaiming this was and is the message of that time and today.

FAITH OR WORKS OF THE LAW?

How do we love God through faith?

God says of Himself: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35). In each Study Guide up to this one, we’ve found the plan of salvation for His creation: God promises to love His people and never strays from that promise. From our perspective, His plan may not always be logical. We are used to having a quick fulfillment for all our desires. We are trapped in time. We are self-absorbed, and it is difficult for us to follow God’s timing.

However, it is not only the time factor that causes us trouble, but also the hows and whys. God decided at the time of creation that we should have free will like Him. This means a huge accommodation from God, because we see that this exact free will has also created room for sin. God could have made it easier for Himself. He lived in perfect harmony and union with Himself- as the Holy Trinity. When we exercise our free will to turn away and reject God, our very creator Who had promised to love us, we see His mercy on us.

Even though our sin caused a great void of pain between the perfect God and His sin-stained people, and even though He had declared that death would result if we choose to go our own way and disobey Him, He still had made the provision to love us… to the point of sacrificing His Son. Jesus would take the place of our sin… He would become sin… and die in our place… so we can come back into a loving relationship with God if we believe.

God took the punishment of death that we deserve so He could fulfill His promise to love us epically. So why did God act this way? We will probably never be able to understand it completely in this earthly life, but the Bible gives us a glimpse into the way God works. How would you explain unconditional love to a person? Don’t even try with an earthly example, because no human being’s love will ever come close to God’s epic love for His people.

To understand His love, it is worth looking at the time before and after the cross. Before the cross, we see how sin has been growing since Adam and Eve first chose to be like God. God provided judges, kings, prophets, and more just to show us that we cannot live up to His standard or His laws because we have the stain of sin on our own hearts. But He gave us the free gift of faith to believe in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. When we receive Jesus into our hearts, we receive the righteousness of Christ- God sees Jesus in us instead of our sin.

What does its mean when we try to earn God’s favor?

Sometimes we want to earn God’s favor by trying to fulfill any or all the laws that we believe will restore our relationship with God. Sometimes, we become judges ourselves and impose laws onto others that we, ourselves, can’t even keep. Either way, we look for any way to justify ourselves- condemning others or puffing ourselves up. We see in the New Testament, too, that religious people have even blamed God for their problems, shaking their fists at God to “stop this sin immediately” or “heal me now” or “life is not fair.” However we look at it, we are essentially angry that God does not love us how we want Him to. Our view of God’s Epic Love is so limited.

But God has had His Epic Love plan in view since the beginning and never deviates from it. Yes, God is angry at sin, but if we look closely, we discover that God can even use sin for something good, showing us our need for His grace. That grace is that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Being “in Jesus” is to believe in God’s Epic Love plan- for Jesus to take on the sins of the world so that God will see us as perfect and holy.

Unimpressed by human reproach, God follows through with His plan, knowing that where sin is great, grace is all the greater. It must drive the devil to white heat to see how even his demonic plan serves our benefit in the end, if we accept God’s gift of grace. The cross marks a turning point in the history of mankind. Jesus Himself took our place, our punishment, our sin, and gave us the way for God to see us with the perfection and righteousness of Jesus. By grace we have been saved. God’s punishment is satisfied by the work of His own Son, Jesus… in one single moment at the cross!

PERSONAL APPLICATION

Do you ever think that a certain passage in the Bible was written just for you? That’s how it felt when I read Galatians 3:1-14. Recently I have been studying about how often I accept grace in my life. I came to a sobering conclusion. This motivated me to think more about grace and actively apply it in my life. Satan will want to give you a hard time and there are days when it feels like you are constantly doing the wrong thing. That’s how I felt when I was suddenly confronted with left-hand traffic in South Africa last year. It felt wrong, but it was the absolute right thing to do.

From a Biblical perspective, it’s also not at all surprising that people struggle with grace. How often do we read that the good news of Jesus is foolishness for many people? Fortunate is the one who found grace. Do you also want to be found, dear reader? Even as a Christian of many years, there is always a need for renewal and reorientation. I work on a ship, and I know that even a small deviation from the course can have fatal consequences. Let us hold on to grace – it carries us even through stormy seas.

Your understanding of faith can keep you on a path where you delight in the Lord as His child. But, like these verses in Galatians say, we can easily believe that God’s promise to love us isn’t enough or that it doesn’t secure for us an eternal relationship with the living God. We quickly believe we need to do “religious” things to earn God’s favor. We also easily slip into imposing laws and rules that we believe make us acceptable or righteous in God’s eyes. Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s Epic Love comes to us as a free gift of faith. It requires nothing else- only His grace. Think about how you may fall away from grace and fall into the habit of judging others or attempting to make yourself holy.

We know that nothing that we’ve done could separate us from God, and nothing that we’ve done to earn God’s favor has ever achieved the relationship we can have with God as we walk as heirs of the Kingdom. God has even provided us His Holy Spirit to welcome us to receive  the free gift of faith. So, we love because God first loved us and has always kept His promise to do so.

Take an honest look at yourself and your relationship with God and others and answer the following questions, keeping in mind that God’s grace is sufficient to make all things possible!

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Connections to myself, others, and god

Connecting to myself

1. What religious or legalistic beliefs or acts do you do that take away from the fact that Jesus’ work alone has made everything possible for God to love you unconditionally?
2. What does the Bible say about our own blessing? Do you find evidence that God will bless us as he blessed Abraham? Do you still see God’s faithfulness to His promises today?
3. Would you consider yourself free? How? Why or why not? Free from what? Free to do what?
4. Think about how many different ways people attempt to make themselves seem better than others or they put others down by insisting they are better. They have created some personal, human rule or law which they impose on others. They might believe they conform better to these rules than others. How do you feel when you compare yourself to your rules or the rules of those others?

Connecting to others

1. How do you relate to those people who place religious demands on you? 
2. When you feel trapped or imprisoned by the rules and laws that people in your life place on you to be acceptable or worthy, to whom or what do you turn? Do you have a faithful friend or family member who helps you see the role of faith in being a child of God?
3. Does being around your community of family, friends, acquaintances and institutions help you feel a part of God’s family? How would you say you experience grace in that community? As you respond to these questions above, keep in mind how you feel like a “child of God.” Are you acting like an orphan or an heir to God’s kingdom?

Connecting to God

1. How do these verses help you experience God’s Epic Love for you? How do they help you remember God’s promises to love
   His people, including you?
2. No one has ever kept God’s law perfectly, which keeps us apart from God. Nothing we can do can ever redeem us for the sin and unrighteousness in us. How do you feel about Jesus redeeming us by obeying God’s law perfectly and becoming a curse at the same time, taking on our own sinfulness while giving us His righteousness? Do you feel you deserve God’s Spirit? Why or why not?
3. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity and nothing is closer to you than He. How do you communicate with Him during your day?
4. Do you know that the Holy Spirit can lead you into the wilderness (Matthew 4)? Do you see the blessings that come through your own hard times? Reflect on God’s presence and the role of faith during one of those times.