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

 

Some will disagree with my approach to today’s Text, Galatians 3:6. “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

One verse earlier (Galatians 3:5) we were taught (again) that “the hearing of faith,” not “the works of the law” brings salvation. Brings the Holy Spirit and the power of God into our lives; simple, pure “belief” in Jesus does this.

Then Paul illustrates this Truth, this Bible means of salvation! From, of all places, the Old Testament! From the life of the Jewish Patriarch Abraham! 

Here is Moses’ Account of the event:

“After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he BELIEVED in the LORD; and he (the LORD) counted it to him (Abram) for righteousness.” Genesis 15:1-6

Eternal life!

Eternal blessings!

An indestructible nation!

A pristine testimony!

All given to Abraham … because of the non-meritorious act of believing!

“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Our Text once again.

“Believed” is “pisteuo” in Greek, the word Paul would have written here. “To think to be true!” Or “to credit, give credence (confidence) to!”  Or even “to be persuaded of!”

The accompanying verb “was accounted” is “logizomai,” meaning to Paul and his generation … “to reckon, to calculate, to compute!”

Abram “trusted” GOD!

GOD consequently “deposited” to Abram “righteousness!

Oh yes, “righteousness” means “being in a perfect state,” having no wrong (in Almighty God’s Eyes, mind you)! “Straight,” not crooked!

Abraham was “saved” by “faith!”

What a logical thinker, the Apostle Paul!

He has here demolished any “salvation by works” theology! And he used Scripture to do so! No wonder he could preach so freely to a man under conviction … “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31, spoken to the broken, repentant Philippian jailer.

By Grace, through Faith!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

An “anachronism” is placing a newer truth somewhere way back in time and forcing it to apply to an ancient age! I have just said Abraham was “saved” (basically a New Testament term) by “faith,” applying that terminology to an Old Testament character! (Hence the charge: anachronism!)

But I am not going to change a word in the Lesson! Abraham WAS INDEED SAVED (counted righteous) by “BELIEVING GOD!” By faith!

That’s not anachronism, that’s realism, folks!