Galatians 3:10-14 – The Far, Far Better Way of Faith

As usual, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰Whoever is out of works of law is under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” ¹¹but [it is] evident that no one is being justified in law before God because “the just shall live out of faith.” ¹²But the law is not of faith, but rather, “The one doing these things will live in them.” ¹³Christ redeemed us out of the curse of the law, becoming a curse on our behalf, because it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone hanging on a tree,” ¹⁴in order that the blessing of Abraham might be into the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, in order that the promise of the Spirit might be received through that faith.

In these few verses the truth presented is literally the chasm between Heaven and hell.

Part of me could write for days on the truth presented here.

Another part of me wants to acknowledge the infinite importance of this Truth and then move on. As important as salvation by faith is, yet one of my first thoughts rings from Hebrews 6:1: “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, …” For over thirty years I have been thoroughly convinced that salvation is by faith and not works.

So like it says in Hebrews, let’s move on.

On the other hand … I do have a thought I want to record. Again, I could write pages exegeting the truth in this passage, literally word by word. Seriously. But a thousand or two good commentaries have already done that. So I will just record my thought.

I’ve always thought it odd that Hab 2:4 “The just shall live by faith” was used to support salvation by faith. It seems that meaning would render the verse something like, “The just shall derive their life from the faith that saved them.” But that is reading a lot into it. It just says, “The just shall live by faith.” The more obvious sense would be that just people conduct their lives by faith,” they literally “live by faith.” That would certainly be true of just people but wouldn’t necessarily address the event of their salvation.

Obviously the Holy Spirit, the Author, thinks it makes perfect sense and applies directly to salvation. For years I have contented myself with that thought and just figured someday I’d study it and see if I couldn’t figure it out. Well, here I am.

Having studied it (finally), read a lot of commentaries, and thought about it a lot, here’s what I think. First of all, the statement, “The just shall live by faith” is a fractal. Its truth repeats itself in a million different ways on a million different scales. It is an all-encompassing statement that defines the very existence of a born-again person. They literally “live by faith” in every possible dimension of their existence. Their salvation came about through faith and it was in fact an event. It occurred in a moment when their heart was first awakened to sincere belief. But the very fact that faith facilitated their salvation itself immediately became the very life-principle of their existence, so that day after day, throughout their days (and nights), in a million different ways, some large, some small, some realized and some not, they thereafter live a life infused and empowered by faith.

So whether you read “The just shall live by faith” as a salvation text or as a life text, the statement is still completely true.

Now, why is it so important that faith is actually the “life principle” of born-again people? This is where I think things get profound. Oh the depth and the height and the breadth and length of the love of God. Earlier in the book I noted that faith is far superior because it requires a relationship, while works does not. Here is another angle where faith is a far better way. As important as “works” might be, they, in and of themselves, do not require any change of heart. As I have alluded before, anyone can go to church, read a Bible, say prayers, give to the poor, build cathedrals, even preach sermons and go to mission fields. Anyone. Born-again or not. But our great and awesome God has no interest in heartless acts of religion. He wants our hearts.

The heart of course is the real problem to start with. “Out of it are the issues of life,” yet unregenerated it is “desperately wicked and deceitful above things.” “My son,” cries the Father, “Give me your heart.” “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” “This people draws near Me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me.” When the Israelites swore their obedience, God’s response was, “O that they had such a heart in them.”

Works require no change of heart. But the very essence of faith itself is a change of heart. Abraham believed God, therefore it was counted unto him into righteousness.” He believed God. At the very core of his being, in the dark unknowable chambers of his depraved heart, Abraham heard God’s truth and believed it. In his own heart, he believed it. In that tiny yet titanic moment, Abraham’s soul experienced the very change God truly desires. He believed. His heart changed. He saw things differently. He could thereafter never be the same person. He would forever act differently because he was different. His heart was changed.

This all explains why “without faith, it is impossible to please God.” It is also why “the just shall live by faith.” To have true faith is to have a heart changed. To not have a heart changed is in the end useless, no matter how positive, or admirable, or benevolent a given act might be. It is also why the whole “faith/works” debate is really frivolous. People will acknowledge, “Yes, faith is important, but then you must add good works.” What that argument fails to see is that good works are the invariable outcome of true faith. When a person’s heart is changed, their works will change. There is no “must” to it. They will. People whose lives are not changed by their “faith” have not yet the faith they claim.

I have said for years that is one thing I love about studying the Bible, about knowing God. There are those moments when He “turns on the lights” in my heart and even in that moment, I know I shall never be the same. I cannot be the same. He has changed my heart.

Christ became a curse for us, that He might redeem us from the curse of the Law, not so we could turn into Pharisees and legalists, but so that the very promise of the Spirit may be ours, so that we might be indwelt by a life-force that would overcome our evil Adamic hearts, and that through the only means whereby we are ourselves truly changed – by faith.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. “Desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow by it.” May we all feast on that Word and may God grant us the grace that we understand and believe it in our hearts. Because faith is real, then may “good works” not be a cloak to be worn but the inescapable fruit of truly godly hearts.

May we treasure the love of a Father who isn’t satisfied by external behaviors but rather desires our genuinely changed hearts.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Galatians 3:5-9 – The Gap Between Knowing and Living

 As usual, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Therefore, the One supplying the Spirit to you and working miracles among you, [does He do it] out of works of law or out of hearing of faith? ⁶Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him into righteousness, ⁷therefore know that those out of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. ⁸And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God is justifying the Gentiles out of faith, announced  beforehand to Abraham that all the Gentiles will be blessed in you, ⁹so that those out of faith are being blessed together with the faith of Abraham.

What Paul says here should have put the law/works debate to bed forever. He takes the very champion of the Judaizers, Abraham, and proves that 1. Salvation has always been by faith, not works, and 2. That the inclusion of the Gentiles has been part of the plan from the beginning.

Coincidentally, I have been amazed over the years with two things: 1. People’s tenacity at claiming those in the OT were saved by works, and 2. The Jews’ unbending refusal to see God’s intended blessing on the Gentiles.

Just as with Paul here, Abraham himself should have put both of these problems to bed forever.

It has long been my contention that even in the OT (and throughout it), people were saved by their faith looking forward to the promised Messiah, just as we are looking back at the One already come. From the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve heard God’s promise that “the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.” I have no doubt they believed that promise, which faith is pictured by the fact God clothed them in animal skins (implying animals were slain on their behalf) and immediately thereafter, the problem between Cain and Abel was one of blood sacrifice. To Judah the promise was given that “the scepter would not depart from Judah …until Shiloh (‘He to whom it belongs’) comes” (Gen 49:10). Clearly, in Jacob’s family, they understood the promised Messiah. Job said, “I know that Redeemer lives and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth … how my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25). He clearly understood the promise of the Messiah and found great hope in it.

I realize that the text of the OT obviously does not present salvation by faith in the promised Messiah as clearly as the NT, but one has to remember that, in the OT, there was an enormous amount of oral teaching that went on from the prophets and priests and wasn’t necessarily written down. What we have recorded for our later perusal is a tiny fraction of what they knew. But as the passages I quoted above (and a number of others) demonstrate, there was, throughout the OT, clearly a knowledge of the coming Messiah.

The Israelites as a people, of course, missed the whole point from the beginning, responding to Moses, “All that the Lord commands us we will do.” Right. From the very beginning they turned salvation into a works-righteousness, rather than seeing their own need for a Savior and putting their faith in the promised Messiah. Obviously there were individuals within the community who did embrace salvation by faith, while the group as a whole missed it. Paul observes this very thing in Romans 9:31,32: “But the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works”.

And so it continues down to the present day. Even amongst supposedly “Christian” people, very few have ever really grasped grace. Even among those who claim to believe in salvation by faith, there is an enormous element of people still trying to earn God’s love. Apparently, as ugly as it may be, legalism is an intensely alluring alternative to true faith.

But what do we learn of Abraham who was born not long after the Flood, who lived long before the giving of the Law and the Exodus, who walked the earth as long before Christ as we now live after Him? “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him into righteousness.” And what are we to conclude from this? “Therefore know that those out of faith, the same are sons of Abraham”.  Always has been. Always will be. That ought to settle the arguments.

It is surprising that the Judaizers could not (or would not) see this. They knew that Abraham was a man of faith long before he was a man of circumcision.

Then again, my second observation comes into play. It has always amazed me how the Jewish people refused to see God’s inclusion of the Gentiles. There are numerous passages in the OT predicting this, starting with those words to Abraham, “All the world (all the Gentiles) will be blessed through you.” I personally believe Abraham knew this meant the Messiah would come through his line. I believe Isaac knew it and, if I’m right, it reveals even a darker side of Esau’s “despising his birthright.” He placed no value in being a progenitor of the promised Messiah. Then there is Isaiah. He often refers to the Gentiles: “I will make you to be a covenant for the people (the Jews) and a light for the Gentiles” (42:6). “Nations (the Gentiles) will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (60:3), etc., etc. Luke recorded several “songs” at Jesus’ birth, that of the Mary (1:46-55), Zecharias (1:68-79), the angels (2:14), and Simeon (2:29-35) Interestingly, only Simeon mentioned the Gentiles. Go back and read the songs and notice that neither Mary nor Zecharias acknowledges any benefit to the Gentiles. Not to be critical of them, but their complete Jewish focus seems to be indicative of their national mood as a whole. Only godly old Simeon was big-hearted enough to see and be happy that the Messiah’s coming was good news for us Gentiles too.

But none of this should be news to anyone who is even remotely familiar with this man named Abraham. “He believed God and it was counted into him for righteousness.” And he himself knew that all the world, not just the Jewish people, would be blessed through him.

Guess it’s one thing to read the Bible. It’s another thing to really understand what we’re reading and let it mold our thinking. The Judaizers didn’t. They couldn’t even appropriate the truth they saw in their own biggest spiritual hero! God grant us the grace to not be like them.

God help us all.

Galatians 3:1-5 -- Thoughts

Once again, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹O unthinking Galatians, who has deluded you, to whom according to eyes Jesus Christ was distinctly set forth crucified? ²I am desiring to learn only this from you: Did you receive the Spirit out of works of law or out of hearing of faith? ³Are you thus unthinking? Having begun in [the] Spirit, are you now completed in [the] flesh?  ⁴Have you suffered so much in vain, if indeed [it was] in vain? ⁵Therefore, the One supplying the Spirit to you and working miracles among you, [does He do it] out of works of law or out of hearing of faith?

Lots of thoughts.

Notice Paul’s approach – asking questions. I submit this is a very loving and respectful way to reprove a person. He could have easily just enumerated their faults and failures and been 100% correct in everything he said. But we usually do so out of evil, unloving hearts and only put the person on the defensive. We usually are already frustrated and angry and just want to rip them to shreds. Read the five verses again and ask yourself, “Does asking questions (from a right heart) communicate respect? Does it give the person the opportunity to easily say, “You know, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of it that way!” Lord help us to guard our hearts and then to remember that questions may be a better way to open another’s heart.

Secondly, notice Paul asks who has “deluded” or “bewitched” them. Once again, the underlying worldview here is that there is Truth. In order for someone to believe something different they must either be ignorant or deluded. But there is Truth. That is why satan is a deceiver. That is why he and his minions must masquerade as “angels of light” and “ministers of righteousness” (II Cor 11:13-15). The “truth” they offer is not alternate truth. It is not truth. In order to get others to believe their “truth” those persons must be deceived. Sadly, we are easily deceived because of the evil without appeals to the evil within. We need desperately for God to help us. In His light we see light. Jesus is the Truth and the life. We desperately need God to “shine in our hearts, to the give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor 4:6). Though apparently genuine believers, the Galatians allowed themselves to be drawn into a deception – into believing something that simply was not true. We’re no better than them. God help us.

Once again, just so I note it, I am confused about the Jew/Gentile thing. Paul is clearly renouncing and rejecting the combination of Judaism with Christianity. He is clearly exposing it as a deception. Why is this true in a Gentile church but apparently not in Jerusalem? Why is it such an enormous evil in Galatia but apparently coddled in Jerusalem? Why distinguish at all between Jews and Gentiles in the church age? That still doesn’t make any sense to me. Will keep studying.

Finally, a thought on this law/grace thing. Most of the commentators are apparently happy to leave the matter of “law-keeping” as a matter of Judaism, but I would suggest we need to bring this truth into our world. What do I mean? I have no problem being tempted to add to Christ all of the circumcision and sacrificial rites and keeping of the Passover. So I guess that makes me safe. Right? NOT. We are not ignorant of satan’s devices. The law-keeping for us is something different, but it is still law-keeping.

And this is always a delicate business because we all know that walking with Christ certainly ought to change my life, ought to change the way I act, the decisions I make, etc. But when does this become a matter of “having begun in the Spirit” but now trying to be “completed by the flesh”? Certainly I want to be an active participant in the process of progressive sanctification, but, on the other hand, I don’t want to fall into the Galatians’ error and be in some way “adding” works to faith. I want my life to be in fact driven by the Spirit and not my flesh. While I want to “do” good things, how can I discern the difference here?

I think it is interesting that Paul distinguishes the two (twice, vss. 2 and 5) as being either “works of flesh” or “hearing of faith.” Here is a way I think I could try to distinguish things: If what I propose to do could be just as easily done by an unbeliever, then it is simply a work of the flesh. Unbelievers can be circumcised, can offer sacrifices, pay tithes, observe Passover, etc. I can be baptized, go to church, read the Bible, wear a coat and tie, teach Sunday School; do all those things and be a complete unbeliever. But an unbeliever cannot really pray – if by that we mean a sincere entering into a relationship of conversation with God, as opposed to simply “saying prayers.” They can’t really read the Bible, if by that we mean to open the Word, believing it really is the face and voice of God, to long to understand and embrace what we read, to see it as a love letter from my wonderful Father. And, although even unbelievers are quite capable of love, yet they cannot love from a heart that is smitten with the love of Christ, that longs to love because I myself have been so loved. In each of these examples, the difference is that faith comes first. My heart comes first. Then my “doing” is actually a fruit of that faith, a natural outflowing of what faith has already accomplished in my heart. I guess I am suggesting that legalism and “works of the flesh” are even otherwise good things which I do without faith. They are the things I do without necessarily thinking I need God’s help, the things I might do to “get Him to like me” rather than as an expression of gratefulness for grace already received.

God help me, while I want to “do” the right things, to do them as expressions of faith, always trying to make sure my heart is “in it” and that I’m not just “doing.”

Just some random thoughts as I study along.