No wonder they, the Bible scholars, call the little Epistle of Galatians a “polemic.” The Greek noun “polemos” means “war,” in fact!

And in those six chapters, Galatians, Paul is indeed “at war,” spiritually. Theologically too, defending the faith which was delivered to him years earlier. Back when Paul was “saved” by the … yes … the marvelous GRACE of GOD!

Paul is opposing certain men (likely from Jerusalem) who have infiltrated his Galatian Churches, wrongly teaching that the Law of Moses saves lost souls! Or that the Law of Moses helps save souls! Or that obeying the Law keeps one saved, maintains “in God’s good graces!”

“No, no, no,” says Paul!

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11, today’s Lesson, this Thursday morning’s Bible Text.

It was “evident” to Paul!

But apparently not so much to many (perhaps even young Believers in Jesus) … souls who lived in Antioch and Lystra and Iconium and Derbe! (The cities of Galatia Paul visited, at least we know of these.)

The adjective “evident” is “delos” in Greek. It means “clear,” as in not cloudy! Apparent! Obvious!

The qualifier “no man” is spelled “oudeis” in Greek, meaning “not a one!” It is translated “none” 27 times in the New Testament, King James Version. No exceptions!

“Justified” essentially means “made right with God, in His Eyes!” We would say “born-again, washed in the Blood!” 

“By” the law, by the commandments of Moses, found in the Books of Genesis through Deuteronomy, 613 laws the old Rabbis say … translates “en” in Greek, a preposition usually meaning “in, on, at, near, by, before, among!” Immersed in the law! Obsessed with the law! (As were these dangerous “visitors” from Jerusalem!)

What I DO can not save my soul from Hell!

Only What JESUS DID can save me from Hell!

In the “sight” in God utilizes another preposition, “para,” meaning right “beside” God! Virtually “in His Presence!” Before His very Eyes!

Then Paul quotes that glorious maxim: “The just shall live by faith.” (So very fundamental and essential a Truth that it must occupy all our time tomorrow, in the Lesson, Lord willing!)

Still for today though … that is HOW a man or woman is saved … “by faith!”

And the little preposition used here, “with,” is a translation of “ek” in Greek! (This is certainly a “preposition empowered” verse, Galatians 3:11!)  And “ek” means? “Out of “ Grace (an inexhaustible Supply!)! “From” as in “from the source of” Grace! And a total of 55 times in the New Testament, “by” Grace! That is “by means of” Grace!

Not law!

GRACE!

No wonder we sing about It so much!

Ever heard of a John Newton song named “Amazing Grace?” 

Zechariah 4:7 comes to mind: “He shall bring forth the Headstone (a Type of Jesus, I believe) thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE, GRACE unto it.” 

Shouting “GRACE!”

Crying “GRACE!”

Maybe even singing “GRACE!”

I suspect, for all eternity!

Praise the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Paul and the “Law!”

And no matter what else he may have said about it, that august Body of 613 Commands God gave Moses for Israel to obey, the great Apostle nowhere in all His Literature (His Epistles) claims that the Law of Moses could “save” a single lost soul!

In fact, the very opposite is true.

The “Law” condemns a man to Hell!

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Galatians 3:10

If a man (or woman) builds his (or her) life abound the Law, thus being “of the Law,” they have automatically placed themselves under a “curse!” Or, as Paul also says in today’s Verse … living a life based on obeying/doing “the WORKS of the Law!”

Trying to go to Heaven based on one’s “merit,” on one’s own “ability,” on one’s self proclaimed “holiness!” 

And where is this “curse” so written? (In Greek the noun “curse” is spelled “epikataratos,” undoubtedly based on a cognate verb meaning “to pray judgment down on someone,” and to do it vehemently, energetically!)

Paul sure did know the Old Testament well! In Deuteronomy 27:26 Moses promised Israel: “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.”

To which Israel were to agree: “And all the people shall say, Amen.” And they did agree, did avow, time and time again!

Wow!

“All the things” written in the Law?

Yes!

Including injunctions like this: “If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam (mother) sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam (mother) with the young: but thou shalt in any wise let the dam (mother) go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.” Deuteronomy 22:6-7

Laws about every area of human life!

The big things and the one-would-have-thought little things too!

No human being, because of the “weakness” of his or her flesh, can so obey all those laws! (Here remember Romans 8:3 … “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Read it and praise the Lord!)

Thus … to let obedience to all the “Law” be your Criteria, your Standard, of whether you can gain entrance to Heaven or not … is clearly an automatic sentence to Hell, to the Curse of God Almighty abiding upon you!

That’s exactly what Paul is teaching us in this Galatians Text this morning! “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Again, this is Galatians 3:10, King James Version.

I personally believe the Law was never designed to save sinners!

But rather, God instituted it to show us His perfect Paradigm of Holy, Separated Living! Then to show us we cannot abide by God’s “Yardstick!” 

The Law is designed to prove us sinners in the Eyes of God!

And to drive us to Him, begging for Mercy!

Another way of wording this idea. If a person “breaks” one point of the Law, one only, just some so-called “minor” infraction of the Rules … he is guilty of breaking it all! 

James 2:10 applies here: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Pretty clear!

The Law … curses!

Jesus, on the other hand … saves!!!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

I am a gentile.

By birth, of course.

But by what Jesus called “new birth” I am now “blessed” with “faithful Abraham!”

But that is clearly Jewish in flavor, “Abraham!”

Yes, and that is partly why the Apostle Paul wrote these words hundreds of years ago: “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:9

The day God saved me, I was placed into that family which is here termed “of faith!”

In fact, that’s HOW I got into God’s family!

Of faith, “by faith,” again quoting Paul. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

By belief in, by trusting His Death on Calvary, JESUS!

And Mercy, truly … am I have been thereby “blessed!”

(Here Paul uses, under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Greek verb “eulogeo.” Really meaning “to say something good” … about a person! Once in the New Testament (King James Version) it is translated “praised!” The only possible meaning here is that when you are saved … God has some “good things” to say about you!)

Wow!

That blessed in Jesus! 

And … logically … since Jesus is “of Abraham” … we are blessed “with (faithful) Abraham” but only in the sense that Jesus came out of the loins of that great (faithful) man!

I still am not a Jew!

Though I love those dear people!

But I am a child of Abraham spiritually, by faith in Abraham’s greater Son, Jesus Who is the eternal Son of Almighty God!

Wow!

To God be the Glory!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Our Bible Text today is Galatians 3:8 …

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”

This Verse is literally “loaded” with truth! With “insight” after “insight!”

Look here how God’s Word is said to be “alive!” That first clause … “And the scripture, foreseeing …” Traits of intelligence (the ability to see, even to foresee) now belong to “Scripture!” A Greek noun (“graphe”) meaning Writing (singular number, the Bible as a Whole, as a Unity) is employed here. A Wise Book indeed! It “thinks!”

Paul elsewhere gives “life” to the Bible. (In 2 Thessalonians 3:1, for example. “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course ….” Here the verb “have free course” is “trecho,” meaning “to run, to run freely, to run without hindrance!” A vibrant, living, running, active Bible!)

Next Paul has the Scripture “preaching!” (Another proof of “Life!”) As in the Text: “And the scripture … preached before the gospel unto Abraham!”

Wow! This verb, “preached” in English (“euaggelizomai” in Greek) means “to declare the Good News!” Telling (here foretelling) the Death and Burial and Resurrection of the coming Messiah, of Jesus Christ the Son of God!

Plus … God is going “so save” (“justify”) sinners (non-Jews here, “heathen,” ethnic groups other than the literal seed of Abraham) “through faith.” Not by human works, but by belief, simple trust in Jesus and His Finished Work!

“By Grace through faith,” folks!

But then even more thrilling, Paul here tells us exactly how that Gospel was worded to Abraham! (This becomes then a superb Lesson in hermeneutics, in Bible interpretation.) ” … saying, in thee (Abraham) shall all nations (“ethnos,” the very same word used for the “heathen” in the verse) be blessed.”

In Abraham?

Is he a savior?

No!

But from the loins, the body of Abraham comes Isaac, then Jacob, then Judah … then a long (godly) line of descendants unto/until a virgin named Mary who was to marry a man named Joseph … Mary through whom (via a miracle called the Holy Ghost overshadowed Virgin Birth) JESUS was born!

And HE is The Saviour!

That’s the Gospel, when the Blood of Calvary is mixed therein!

Abraham and Jesus?

Matthew 1:1 says it well: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Wow!

Jesus … Son of God, of course … but also “Son of Abraham!” 

And in HIM … in Jesus, Descendant of Abraham, physically speaking … through HIM … all the nations of the earth shall be (have already been) blessed!

Have been given salvation, eternal life!

“Whosoever will may come!”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Revelation 22:17 … “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” 

 

Children of Abraham?

That’s what Paul claimed, in Galatians 3:7, for every child of God! Everyone who has trusted Jesus God’s Son for salvation!

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Again, this is Galatians 3:7, King James Version.

Everyone “out of” faith (“ek” is the preposition, translated “of” in our Text), having been born-again via reliance, trust, confidence, (hence “faith”) in Jesus and His Shed Blood on the Cross.

Faith in Jesus saves!

But here, Paul says it also makes one a (true) “child” (“huios,” a masculine plural noun meaning “descendant”) of Abraham!

Not in a physical sense, of course.

There is no Jewish blood flowing in the veins of any given (gentile) Believer in Christ! Not literally so, of course!

But he or she (the trusting Believer) has become a spiritual child (brother, family member) of Abraham, because Abraham also is related to God, to God’s Son Jesus, via believing faith! A son of daughter of Abraham that great man of faith!

The Judiazers (Jews who still trusted Moses for salvation) bragged and bragged on being physical descendants of that great man!

But Paul just told his gentile converts in Galatia that THEY were the descendants of Abraham too, without circumcision or Sabbath worship or those numerous dietary laws being adjunct (necessary) for their kinship!

No, they were related by faith!

“BY FAITH Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8

“BY FAITH Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” Hebrews 11:17-19

Amen!

Now this does NOT mean that we saved gentiles have displaced the nation of Israel and negated all God’s promises to that (some day) converted People! 

It does mean that we (along with every other true Gospel believer since Adam, including Abraham) are “by faith” followers of Almighty God, His Son, the Holy Spirit (the Godhead) … again by faith! (Implied … NOT BY WORKS!) 

Wow!

In that sense, Paul boldly declared, unashamedly preached: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell