The Old Testament Gospel
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Galatians 3:6-14
V. 6-9 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.”
No modern leader can, in any way, put himself in Paul’s
shoes, because there is a special inerrant inspiration upon his teaching. There
are no errors in the doctrine, which we will attempt to understand in this
expositional study of Galatians.
Secondly, I think we have seen conclusively that no
one can attempt to lead the flock of God without a thorough understanding of
the entire revelation of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. We showed that
Jesus required it of His disciples in Luke 24:25-27 and 44-46. No one can lay
claim to these Galatian scriptures nor apply them to any situation in our times without
the same understanding. Any attempt to do so is wild assumption, which cannot
be taken seriously.
Now we will try to follow, as Paul goes on from a personal argument in verses 1-5, to a scriptural argument, beginning in verse
6. An argument about personal experience is never enough; we must be able to
understand the gospel from Scripture. He reasons with the Galatians and, by the
Holy Spirit, also reasons with us, from the life of Abraham in the book of
Genesis (Ge.15:6). The true faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same
faith that Abraham possessed. That faith brought him into righteousness and it
is the only way into righteousness at anytime and anywhere. It is saving faith
that comes from God and produces confidence in God in the believer.
First of all, we must understand, what this
righteousness is that Paul is teaching. Simply, it is a state of being in right
standing before God. If we have any concept at all of the holiness of God, we
will quickly understand that this righteousness will never be attained by our
attempts at keeping the law or by any effort in perfecting our behavior. We
will always fall miserably short. Abraham found the way that made him absolutely and perfectly right before God and
it came by believing God. Just as in verse 6, Paul quotes from the same verse
in his great doctrinal presentation in the book of Romans (4:3).
To be “counted to him” means that righteousness is put
on his account. In Romans 4:23-24, Paul writes, “But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for
his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in
him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.” On the account, where our
indebtedness to God was listed in detail, there is now one word… “righteousness”.
Every true believer has the spiritual genetics of
Abraham and due to that fact, we are his sons. Spiritual genetics are as real
as physical genetics and much more powerful and binding. The Bible has a great deal to
say about this subject. When we find the word generation in the New Testament, often it does not refer to time or
a people in a certain time frame, as we would normally expect. The Greek root
word is the one from which we derive our English word gene. It has to do with a kind of people.
Therefore John Baptist called the Pharisees and
Sadducees a “generation of vipers”. On the positive side, Peter called
Christians “a chosen generation”. Every human being must
be faithful to his genes and Jesus was speaking of spiritual genes, when he
told the Jews, “If you were Abraham’s
children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.” He went on to accuse
them that they were “doing the works
your father did” and then bluntly continued, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s
desires.”
In that distant past, God foresaw the justifying of the Gentiles through the means, by which Abraham was justified, and here Paul quotes Genesis 12:3, “In you shall all the nations be blessed”. The term “justified” is very close in meaning to the word “righteous”. It means “declared not guilty”. Of course, God not only foreknew the justification of the non-Jewish races, but also foreordained it.
You see, all Paul’s teaching is gleaned from his
knowledge of the Scripture. He has no teaching outside of it and he has already
warned us, concluding that any extra-scriptural teaching is heresy. It brings a curse
upon the teacher. You notice in verse 8 that God preached the gospel to Abraham
and there is no gospel besides. It is the same gospel that Paul preached. The
message declares the means of being saved, that is, to be blessed, made righteous,
to be justified, through faith. You should be able to see then, that the gospel
begins in the book of Genesis, not in Matthew.
V. 10-14 “For
all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed
be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law,
and do them.’
11. Now
it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The
righteous shall live by faith."
12. But
the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by
them."
13. Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone
who is hanged on a tree’—
14. so
that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so
that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Using the example of Abraham, Paul has shown us the
one means of salvation (which is synonymous with being accounted righteous, or
justified). It comes only by faith, which means to believe, to trust, to cling
to, to rely upon, God. Any other way is the wrong way and the great problem
with the Galatians is that they have elected another way. Paul will now deal
with that choice and show that its consequence is to be under a curse.
Here is his logic: The blessing of God upon Abraham
came because he believed God, and in like manner, every believer comes under
God’s blessing. Those who try to gain His blessing through the works of the
law, not only do not attain it, but actually come under His curse. As always,
Paul shows that this is not a personal conclusion, opinion or revelation, it is Holy Spirit teaching through the
Scriptures.
Jesus established the principle before He began His
ministry, when He was tempted by the devil. He attacked the thinking of Jesus
by introducing false concepts and Jesus answered him with Scripture. Even when Satan
used Scripture and offered a false interpretation, Jesus met the challenge with
more Scripture, correctly applied. So Paul will now challenge the doctrine of
the Judaizers with the clear teaching of the Bible, citing Deuteronomy 27:26.
The text teaches that everyone who did not “abide by all things written in the Book of the
Law, and do them” was under a curse. If anyone would perfectly do all things
written in the Book of the Law, he would live. However, the brutal fact is that
there is no one in creation, who has perfectly done all things written in the
law. Therefore anyone who places himself under the law, and commits himself to
abide in it and do all that it commands, is living under an awful curse. This
is the dilemma facing the Galatian church. Moses warned the Israelites of the
curse from the very beginning.
Although the gospel was preached in the days of
Abraham and throughout history, it was the minor prophet, Habakkuk, who gave us
the solution to the curse in a concise statement, “The just (or the righteous)
shall live by faith”. It is quoted three times in the New Testament, in Hebrews
10:38, Romans 1:17, and here in Galatians 3:11. The central theme of the gospel
was already given by revelation to the Old Testament prophet. Allow me to
paraphrase: The believer is made righteous and receives spiritual life by
believing, trusting, clinging, and relying upon God. This was also the theme
that awakened the monk, Martin Luther, and brought on the Reformation. It was a liberating concept, a great release
from the curse!
Paul contrasts the two: “The law is not of faith.” Why
this conclusion? Because the law requires perfect fulfillment by doing its
works; faith does not require works… in fact, faith rests without working by
confiding totally in Another, and that one is Christ.
Until faith comes into our lives, we are all under the
law and are expected to keep it perfectly. That applies to those who know the
law and those who do not know it, the Jew and the Gentile. No one escapes
through ignorance. God looked down upon us in mercy and sent His Son, in the
first place, to keep the law, so that He would not be under a curse for His own
transgressions. Christ redeemed us… He paid the ransom price for slaves to sin…
by taking our curse upon His innocent person.
He unworthily, but voluntarily, became a curse in the
way that the Scriptures prescribed, not by stoning, but by hanging on a tree: “Cursed
is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Dt.21:23). Knowing this, Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was
going to die” (Jn.12:32,33).
The Jews did not provide the proper execution, therefore, according to the
Scripture, He had to die by Roman sentencing. He died a Gentile death “so that
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles”.
Our hearts should feel the offer of praise that Paul
uttered, when he contemplated the plan of God to include all the nations of the
earth in His salvation: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom
and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and
how inscrutable his ways!” (Ro.11:33),
Peter, and those Jews with him, witnessed the
outpouring of the Spirit upon Gentiles in Caesarea and the Galatians, as well,
received the Spirit (v.5). It was done not through the works of the law, but by
the hearing of faith. Through faith in Jesus Christ, the Gentiles receive the
Holy Spirit, promised to the Jews. Faith makes a way, where there is no way.
The Moabite was cursed to never dwell among the
Hebrews, but by faith, Ruth, a Moabitess, not only lived among them, but was
given the highest honor of becoming an ancestor, first of King David, and, more
wonderfully, of his excellent Son. Faith rejoices above the works of the law to
inherent eternal blessing… the blessing of Abraham, before he was circumcised.
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