At the beginning of the third
chapter of Galatians, Paul addresses his hearers at Galatia with the
following words, O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ have
been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I
learn of you Received ye the spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun
in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye
suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? O foolish Galatians, who have
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? This only
would I learn of you. Received ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Foolish Galatians, foolish Christians
who have bewitched you. Received ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? This only would I learn
of you. This only Consider, consider
you who would be bewitched by the teaching by which the Galatians
were bewitched, which mixed the law with the gospel, which set
them back to works. Consider, did you receive the
spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Paul has already introduced his
epistle to these Galatians. By stating clearly the foundation
of the gospel towards the end of chapter 2, that we are not
justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. and that through the law Paul
could say I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live unto God I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
yet not I but Christ liveth in me. What did the law do? It slew him. How did he live unto God? by
being dead to the law. It's either one of two things.
You're either dead to the law that you might live unto God,
or you remain alive to the law and dead unto God. There's only two ways, only two
possibilities. These things cannot be mixed.
You cannot remain alive to the law and alive unto God. You're either dead to the law
and alive unto God, or alive to the law and dead unto God. No wonder then that Paul says
unto his hearers, O foolish Galatians, If you return from the grace
of the gospel back to the law, that which you are dead to through
Christ, then you are frustrating the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. You make his
death of nothing worth. You count it as nothing. You
go back to your own works to perfect that. which Christ began,
and in so doing you set his death
at nought. O foolish Galatians, who have
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This is what you believed, this
is where you started. You knew that Christ died for
your sins. having seen Him, having looked
upon Him by faith, having heard the Gospel through faith, having
received the Spirit, you beheld Christ crucified, and seeing
Him in your place, suffering for your sins, slain the just
for the unjust, you believed, you believed unto righteousness,
you believed unto eternal life, then having believed, having
begun this way, how can you return to that which slew you in Christ? How can you return to the law
when through the law we are dead to the law that we might live
unto Christ? This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? You began this way,
you began with the hearing of faith. Then having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? How will you continue
How you begin in the gospel is how you continue, and how you
continue is how you begin. It either begins with grace and
ends with grace, or it begins with works and ends with works. There's no mixture, there's no
mixture. then why Galatians, you who began
in faith, you who received the Spirit. You who began as dead
sinners, Gentiles lost in darkness, to whom the light came in the
Gospel, the light of Christ. You who beheld Christ your Redeemer. You who beheld His suffering
in your state, in your place for you. You who received His
grace freely. How can you be so foolish? to be beguiled and bewitched
by this teaching which has come in which would set you back under
works and under law from which you've been delivered. How can
you turn from such a deliverance, such a salvation, such a finished
and complete work back to that treadmill of seeking
to perfect things by your own strength and your own effort.
Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Scriptures use the term fool
and foolishness in a very definite manner. not the simply watered
down interpretation we have of the word in our modern culture.
But the scriptures use the word foolish in a particular manner
and that is at the heart of what Paul has to say here. If these
Galatians knew their scriptures they would know that in the 14th
Psalm, the fool is described. In Psalm 14 we read, the fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God. The fool hath said
in his heart, There is no God. There is no God. And that's the
essence of the fool. He lives and acts in his heart
as though there is no God. He may confess the existence
of God with his lips, but in reality his heart and his actions,
his will, his motivation, is all in the self-sufficiency of
his own heart, mind, strength, and will. He acts like he's on
his own. He acts like God is not there. He acts like nothing will be
done unless he decides and he does. He acts like there is not
a God to whom he is accountable. And he acts like there is not
a God who will help. And these foolish Galatians,
in turning from the Spirit, and in turning from the hearing of
faith, and in turning from the grace of the Gospel, back to
the works of the law, were turning back to their own works. In essence, the same as the fool,
acting as if there is no God, living by their own strength,
by their own will, thinking that they must do or nothing will
be done. Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Having
begun in the Gospel with the work of God in your soul, are
you now to turn back to your own works and your own strength?
as if God is not there or as if he somehow needs your assistance
in order to sanctify and to perfect yourself before him. As if the
spirit is not enough and the gospel and Christ in the gospel
through the preaching of the gospel is not enough to keep
his saints and to keep them walking as the sheep following the shepherd. As though God cannot lead his
people aright through his gospel. As though the gospel is insufficient. It must have the works of the
law added onto it. Are you so foolish? Now salvation, as Paul would
remind his hearers here, salvation begins with grace and it ends
with grace. They had begun in the spirit,
then they were to continue in the spirit. That's how the Galatians
began, in grace. Is that where you began? Is that
where you're continuing? Well why were these Galatians
bewitched? Why were they taken in by this
teaching by the Judaizers? How could such as these who had
seen Christ evidently set forth crucified among them who had
experienced the reality of his death and the fruits of that
death apply to them within? How could these who had received
the Spirit and who had heard by faith, how could they be taken
in? How could they be bewitched?
This is a strong term Paul uses to describe the state to which
they had come into. They were bewitched. How can
this be? And how can it be that believers
today who know the grace of God and have experienced the power
of the gospel, how can we be so easily taken in by this mixing
of law and grace? by this false teaching which
is so prevalent, so beguiling. How are we taken in by it? Well, the Judaizers that came
amongst the Galatians had this wonderful appeal that they set
before their hearers. And this appeal was to the Old
Testament Scriptures. This was an appeal to antiquity. This was an appeal to the former
times, to those things which seemed solid and sure and certain. They implored their hearers that
God is not a God that changes. That he does not change, his
teaching, his truth cannot change. He's the eternal God. And if
he had dealings with his people in former days, with the Jewish
nation, then surely those dealings continue. And if he gave that
nation the law by the hand of Moses, then how can an unchanging
God be altered through the coming of the gospel to the Gentile
hearers at Galatia? How can these things change?
They came claiming that the law could not change. And if the law could not change,
then we the Jews must remain under it. And if we the Jews
remain under the law, then Gentiles who have come to believe in the
gospel must surely be under the law too. These things cannot
be annulled. And such is the message we hear
by their light today. We are told that the law, the
moral law, the Ten Commandments, that summary of the law, is eternal. It's unchangeable, unmovable. It continues. Despite the fact
that it must be acknowledged that the ceremonial aspects of
the same law given at Sinai have discontinued. And despite the
fact that there are many laws given to the children of Israel
regarding dietary laws and various judicial rules and instruction,
despite the fact that these have to be acknowledged to have been
completed, nevertheless it is maintained that the Ten Commandments,
the moral aspect of the law, must be eternal and must remain. So there is this appeal to antiquity. But what these preachers of the
law from Jerusalem failed to see and what their descendants
today fail to see is that in reality there was
no change in the law in the sense that no one was ever saved by
the law. That the law was never even in
the Old Testament given as that rule of righteousness by which
those who were given faith to believe in the coming Messiah
would live. That wasn't the purpose of the
law then any more than it is the purpose of the law now. The
law in the Old Testament had the same purpose then as it has
now. The purpose of the law when it
was given to the Jews was to show them their sin. and to lock
them up under condemnation against their sin, such that they would
look in the types and figures of the sacrifices to one who
would come to deliver them from sin, to a saviour, to one whose
blood would wash their sin away. The law was never given as that
by which they would become righteous. Under the law, none were found
righteous, all were found guilty. There was no one saved by the
keeping of the law, and there was no one purified or perfected
by the keeping of the law. Those who came to know the law's
true meaning, the saints of old, David and his like, saw that
the law was that which slew them, which condemned them, which exposed
the poverty and bankruptness in their heart, which exposed
the enmity of their heart towards God. David came to see that the
blessing lay in the gospel, the blessing lay in the forgiveness
of his sins. His Psalms point to this. His Psalms point to this wonderful
experience he had when he was given faith to look unto one
who would come in his place. One who would suffer and die
in his place. Blessed is the man whose iniquities
are covered. He looked for one to come to
cover his iniquities. To wash him from his sins. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man under whom the Lord imputeth not sin, and
in whose spirit there is no guile. Well under the law he found that
he was a sinner, and he was a transgressor, and the Lord did nothing to deliver
him from such sin. Whatever the law might have set
forth before him regarding the justice, the holiness and the
righteousness of God, it gave him no ability to attain unto
it, it slew him. Then in going back to that which
was given in former days, there is in reality no change from
its application today in its moral sense. The law then was
given to the Jews to show them they were sinners. If you go
to the law now, it is to show you that you are a sinner. And
those Jews who came to faith, those who looked unto God, Abraham
for example, who preceded the giving of the law, or David who
lived after the giving of the law, wherever they were in relation
to the law, those who had faith, those who were the children of
Abraham, the children of faith, those who looked, they looked
by faith to the Messiah, the sacrifice, they believed in the
gospel. And their rule of righteousness,
that by which they lived, was not the law, even if they lived
in those days. It was the gospel. The ceremonial aspects of the
law pointed them to the gospel. But it wasn't the precepts and
commands of the law by which they would live righteously.
But it was by the faith of Jesus Christ under whom they looked
by promise. So Paul makes this plain. He
takes his hearers here back to Abraham. He reminds them. He says, very well then consider
this heritage of the Jews. Consider the law. Consider their
forefathers. How were they saved? How were
they justified? How were they perfected? By works
or by faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you
suffered so many things in vain, if it yet be in vain? He therefore
that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham, Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham's
righteousness, the righteousness accounted to him was not through
the law. It came through the gospel. And
in believing, righteousness was accounted unto him. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith the same are the children of
Abraham. Not those who are born Jews of that lineage, Not those
who are under the law, but those who are of faith. You Gentiles,
you Galatians, you've heard by faith. You've believed, you have
faith. By faith, through faith, you
are the children of Abraham. Not by being put back under the
law. Don't be foolish. you're not a child of Abraham
you're not a Jew a true Jew a true Israelite of God you're not a
true Jew by taking the customs of the law by taking the moral
law by taking any of the law and putting yourself back under
it that doesn't make you a Jew nor does circumcision, that sign
given to Abraham of old, to point to the gospel. These things don't
make you a Jew or a child of Abraham but faith does. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith the same are the children of
Abraham. and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith. You, the heathen, preach before
the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which are of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. Do you hear Galatians? It's of
faith. For as many as are of the works
of the law, are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continue, if not in all things which are written
in the book of the law, to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. You see, having
demonstrated that their connection with Abraham is through faith,
and that their common salvation, like Abraham's, is through faith. Paul then makes clear, from verses
10 to 12 here, that this faith has nothing to do with the law.
Should they still wonder whether the law has a part in the gospel,
whether having believed that they then should seek to keep
the law as it were through faith. He makes the fruit of the law
very plain. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continue if not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. The law is not of faith. The law's purpose was to show
you your sin and to shut you up unto Christ. Abraham's salvation
was not through the law. David's salvation was not through
the law. That law showed them their sin.
Abraham, of course, preceded the giving of the law by 430
years, as Paul goes on later in the chapter to say. David
had the law, Moses had the law, but none of these would save
through the law. And Abraham wasn't saved through
being circumcised, but they were saved through faith.
And if you remain under the law, you remain under its curse. And
if you put yourself back under the law, having being those who
cannot are not able to continue in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them you put yourself back under
the curse for you will fail and in failing you are cursed so
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is
evident for the just shall live not by the law but by faith and
the law is not of faith There are two covenants. In speaking
of the law, Paul is considering a former covenant, what is called
the old covenant in the scriptures. In Hebrews, you clearly see the
two covenants set forth. In chapter four of Galatians,
we speak of two covenants. The old covenant and the new
covenant, the two great covenants of the scriptures. The new covenant
being the gospel. called new but old, promised
under Abraham, brought about in Christ, preached in the New
Testament, the New Covenant. It's of grace, it's believed
by faith, it's all what God does. For a people whom he gave, the
father gave unto his son the Lord Jesus Christ before the
foundations of the world. God chose a people whom he would
redeem in Christ. He gave that people's names to
His Son, elected unto salvation. His Son in the fullness of time
came into this world of darkness and at the cross He laid down
His life as an offering for the sins of that people. In dying
in their place He redeemed every one. and in time the Spirit comes
in the Gospel to quicken them unto life, to bring them unto
faith, to give them faith to believe and to look unto Christ
and His crucifixion and to see that there and there alone is
their salvation, to see that in the cross and in the cross
alone is the righteousness of God made known, to see that all
their righteousness is in Christ through His blood shed for them
at the cross. This is the new covenant, a covenant
of grace, a covenant of grace. There is another covenant, the
old covenant, that covenant which God made at Sinai with the people
of Israel, where He said, you will do these things. This is
my law, this is what you must do in order to escape the judgment
and wrath which will be due unto you as sinners who break it.
The people in their foolishness said when they received that
law, all that the Lord has commanded that we will do. And immediately
they broke it. It was a covenant of works, it
had conditions attached. If you do these things this will
be the result. If you don't do these things
this will be the result. It promised condemnation and
death if broken and it promised not eternal life as some claim
but it promised continued life continued mortality in this world
if kept in perfection. Of course none has ever kept
it none is able So in reality it's a killing letter. It's administration of death,
administration of condemnation. A covenant of works, a conditional
covenant. unlike that new covenant, that
new covenant of grace which is unconditional, where the conditions
are all on God's side, not man's, where God says, I will do this
for a people who deserve it not, regardless of what they do, despite
their sin, despite their inability, despite their rebellion, I will
save. The gospel, the new covenant
is unconditional. and that is why it's not broken.
The old covenant, the covenant of works, the law, the law of
Moses is a covenant of works, it's conditional, it's dependent
upon the works of man and that's why it's broken in its entirety
always by all men. There is only one man who is
able to keep its terms and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
two covenants. the gospel is in the new covenant.
The purpose of the old was to show us our sin and to lock us
up under Christ. As Paul goes on to show later
in this chapter it was the schoolmaster unto Christ. until the promise
should come. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. It had its use, it had its purpose. Its purpose today is the same
as its purpose was then. Yes, the Judaizers are right,
nothing's changed. God gave the law, it's not been
taken away as such, but believers have been delivered from out
under its rule, they've been slain by it, they were under
it morally speaking, its law and its justice and its sentence
came upon them and slew them in Christ and now in its sight
they are dead men. delivered from its curse, delivered
from its rule, delivered from its jurisdiction and they are
alive the other side of death, the other side of the grave,
risen in Christ alive under a new covenant, a new covenant of grace. Yes there are two covenants and
the gospel is a covenant of grace, it's on faith entirely, not of
works, you cannot mix it. yet people do mix it then that's
the trouble that's what these Judaizers were doing. And today
there is that system of theology that philosophical system of
man's devising commonly known as covenant theology, covenant
theology. Not that new response to it called
New Covenant Theology but that traditional teaching called Covenant
Theology which seeks to make sense of the various covenants
found in the scriptures. And this teaching essentially
makes the law out to be simply another administration of grace
or of the gospel, rather than making out that there are two
major covenants in the scriptures, the new covenant, the gospel,
and the old covenant, the law. Covenant theology confounds all
of the covenants in the scriptures. It confounds the law with the
gospel. It makes out that the law is
not essentially a covenant of works but it's simply another
administration of the new covenant of the covenant of grace. It
takes these terms these names covenant of works and covenant
of grace and applies them to things that they are not. The
covenant of works under such a scheme is primarily used to
describe that command given to Adam in the garden. the force
of its application to the law is taken away, and they use it
to describe the covenant made with Adam in the garden, of which
we've all broken, as being descendants of Adam. The covenant of grace,
then, is used to describe an all-embracing covenant through
the whole of scripture, which takes in not only the new covenant
and the gospel, but the old covenant in the law. That, the law, is
considered to be another administration of the gospel, another aspect
of it. They take what is of the gospel,
the types and figures of the sacrifices, but they take the
whole of the law, including the moral aspect of the Ten Commandments,
and they make this out to be another administration of the
grace of the gospel in the covenant of grace. They confound it all. Yet it's plain in the scriptures
that the law is a covenant of works, just as the command given
to Adam can be described as, in those terms, a covenant of
works. The scriptural application and
description of the covenant of works is not primarily that which
was given in the garden to Adam. It's the law given by Moses at
Sinai, given by the Lord God through Moses at Sinai. This
is the covenant of works and this is what we are delivered
from. We're not simply delivered from our breaking of Adam's command
as descendants of Adam to remain under the law as it is fused
with the gospel but we are delivered from the law, from the covenant
of works. That is how Paul describes it.
That is how the scriptures describe it. That is how Hebrews puts
it before us. Two covenants. That from Sinai
and that from Zion. law is not an administration
of grace. It was added because of transgressions,
it says later in chapter 3 here. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions, it was added, it came in alongside,
it entered as Romans 5 says. It is not this eternal thing
likened with the new covenant, likened with the gospel, it was
added, it was given for a purpose. that the offense might abound.
Its role being to show man his sin and to shut up man to the
need of a sacrifice. That need of sacrifice, finding
its fulfillment in Christ. In that sense and that sense
only there is gospel to be discovered in the law in the way it points
us to the sacrifice. But the Ten Commandments were
not an administration of grace, they were that which slew and
condemned man, which found him guilty under its rule, in order
to lock him up under Christ. Hence the law is our schoolmaster
unto Christ. But as Paul makes plain here,
when faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster. But how we love to look back,
how the Galatians love to look back. How easily deceived we
are, how easily we turn from grace back to law. We look back. Like Lot's wife when she was
brought out of that city which was destroyed. Destruction was
behind her. And despite the fire from heaven,
despite the condemnation, she turned and she looked back. So when the Galatians look back
to the law and when believers look back to the law they're
turning and looking back at the fires of God's wrath from heaven
which bring destruction and in looking back they are as guilty
as Lot's wife looking back to that from which they've been
delivered. How foolish. Oh foolish Galatians who have
bewitched you. Why do you look back from faith
to that which is not of faith? No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, that's evident, for the just shall live by faith. And yet the law, verse 12, is
not of faith. You say as a believer you live
by faith, but the law is to be your guide. Yet Paul says the
law is not of faith. How can the law be a guide for
faith when the law is not of faith? The law doesn't instruct
faith, it doesn't bring faith, it doesn't mix with faith, it's
not of faith. You may say, but how can the
law not be our guide? It's still wrong to lie or to
steal, isn't it? Well, of course it is, but the
gospel, the new covenant, doesn't teach that lying and stealing
are okay, do they? Being under grace in the gospel,
living by faith, doesn't lead to sin, it doesn't lead to a
breaking of this law. It doesn't inspire the believer
to go and live in another way. But that doesn't put the believer
back under the law. What is lacking in the gospel
in regard of these things? Nothing. If you go to the law
to moderate your conduct, all you do is you go back under the
curse. You may object again, but it's
just a guide. The curse is gone. Verse 13,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Well, yes,
the curse is gone, but that's because the law is gone. We've
been delivered from the law, curse and all. We're no longer
under its rule. You can't detach the curse from
the law. We're delivered from its curse
because we're delivered from the law. What sort of a guide,
what sort of motivation unto righteousness is that which is
described as a killing letter which has a curse? How is that
a guide or a motivation? It doesn't address faith, it
doesn't stir up love, it stirs up wrath, anger and rebellion.
The law is not of faith, it is no guide but Christ is, he's
a guide. He's the only guide the believer
needs, the gospel. Christ in the gospel. You may
say as a believer that you have the ability to keep the law now,
which once you didn't. Oh really? Do you? You may have faith, you may have
the spirit, but this does not mix with the law. The law is
not of faith. Then the ability you have has
nothing to do with the law. The ability is in the spirit,
by faith, looking unto Christ. Not back to the law and to condemnation. Not to the curse. Not to that
which once was. But unto Christ. The law appeals
only unto flesh, to that which is outward. But faith is that
which is inward, which is wrought of God, which is all of God,
all of Christ. The law is not of faith. So it
appeals to those without faith. With the law you can make a good
show in the flesh. You can make a good show in the
flesh with the law. A good pretense of being religious. You can appear wonderful before
men as the Pharisees did. When you know that in your heart
there's no reality. But the gospel exposes such things. The gospel brings faith and inner
work, a new reality, a new life. Well, which is it with you? Is
it that which is external in the law or that which is within
by the gospel? But these teachers of the law
that came in at Galatia, if you were to take the law from them,
they had nothing left. There was no inward reality wrought
by the gospel. They're like Adam in the garden,
naked, covering himself with fig leaves, with the works, their
works, with the garments of their own making, with the works of
the law. Take that garment away, take
those works away, take that law away, and they have nothing left. Oh but believer, you who have
begun in the Spirit, you who have been who have heard by faith,
you who have been brought into eternal life. Why, why are you so foolish to
be bewitched by these? Believer, if you have begun in
the Spirit, if you have heard by faith, how can you possibly
follow these people and such a foolish teaching? Why were
the Galatians, why are you bewitched by such things? You've no need
of fig leaves. You have a sacrifice slain in
your place which delivers from all condemnation, all condemnation. For the just shall live by faith,
shall live by faith. What law shall the just live
by? By the law of works? No, by faith. that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live
by faith and the law is not of faith but the man that doeth
them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law be it made a curse for us for it is written cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Christ hath redeemed us
that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit not
through works but through faith. Amen.