“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”
Many Christians feel they have to consistently follow a to-do list like the Ten Commandments or God will take away their salvation. They live in constant fear that they will inevitably make a mistake and God will cast them away.
The Jewish Christians in Galatia were being tempted with this same mentality. They had grown up in the Jewish culture where they had to follow all the laws and traditions set in place in the Old Testament. And even though they had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, they were struggling with the idea that they no longer had to follow the Mosaic Law in order to be right with God.
In Galatians 1:6-9 Paul explains the reason he is writing to the churches of Galatia:
Galatians 1:6-9 (NIV) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
These verses bring up two questions: What is the Gospel Paul preached? And, how were people perverting that Gospel?
What is the Gospel Paul preached?
The answer to this question is thoroughly illustrated in the Old Testament and repeated over and over again throughout the New Testament, but Paul also answers it in Galatians 2:15-16:
Galatians 2:15-16 (NIV) …a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
(For more information about the Gospel see: “How can I explain the Gospel to my friends?” and, “How does God decide if we’ve been good enough to get into Heaven?”)
How were people perverting the Gospel?
The Galatians were being told by false teachers that in order for the Gentiles to truly become and stay children of God, they would need to start following the Jewish traditions which include, but are not limited to, the Mosaic Law.
Let’s take a look at how God used Paul to address this issue:
Paul starts Galatians off by giving his credentials. He reminds them that he used to be one of the best at following the Jewish traditions and laws.
Galatians 1:13-14 NIV For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
There was nobody more zealous about Judaism than Paul, nobody with more bragging rights. But then Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and everything changed (Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:6-21; Acts 26:12-18). Paul was shown the truth of the Gospel that day and he accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Then God sent him into the world to preach among the Gentiles.
Acts 26: 15-18 NIV “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
In Galatians 2 Paul begins to address the Galatians’ desires to enforce their old traditions by using circumcision as an example from the Jewish covenants (Genesis 17:10-13). He explains that not even Titus (a Gentile and fellow preacher of the Gospel) had felt compelled to get circumcised (Galatians 2:3). Paul goes on to explain that the idea that Gentiles who had accepted Jesus as their Savior needed to also be circumcised, came from false teachers.
Galatians 2:4-5 NIV This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
Paul is saying that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross gives believers freedom from their sins and from the conviction of the Law. If they allowed themselves to be put back under the rules of the Law it would be like becoming slaves again.
Paul goes on to explain that forcing Gentiles to follow the Jewish Laws and being ashamed of them for not following the Laws, is hypocritical.
Galatians 2:11-14 NIV When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Paul was claiming that the Jewish Christians knew that salvation comes through faith in Jesus and that they no longer had to follow the Law. Yet, they were still shamefully holding the Gentiles to the standard of the Law.
Galatians 2:15-16 NIV “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
This, of course, leads to the following question: “If we don’t enforce the Law, are we encouraging sin?” Paul foresees this question and explains:
Galatians 2: 17-21 NIV But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Does refusing to hold ourselves to the standard set by the Law make us sinners? No, we already were sinners, the Law simply pointed out our sin. It is impossible for humans to follow the Law perfectly, which means following the Law was never the path towards Salvation. The Law was only there to show us how far we had fallen and to convince us we needed help. The Law was set in place to lead us to Christ.
Furthermore, after the Law leads us to Christ, we are meant to be done with it. It has finished its job and cannot help us with our walks with God. We are meant to live our Christian lives by faith and grow in our walks with God through grace. The Law brings guilt and shame, but God wants us to use grace and faith to follow Him.
Galatians 3:1-14 NIV You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Our salvation and the lives which follow are BOTH accomplished through faith in Christ, not through works of the Law. Christ rescued us from the curse of the Law, He does not want us to bring that curse back into our relationship with Him. All He wants is our faith.
Paul explains further by pointing out in Galatians 3:15-22 that God’s promise to Abraham came before the Law anyway. And since it came before the Law it was not replaced by the Law and it is not dependent on the Law.
Galatians 3:17-18 NIV What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
God always keeps His promises, and nothing we do could cause God to break a promise. God is not so weak or feeble of character that we as humans can stop Him from keeping His word.
Galatians 3:23-29 NIV Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Just like Abraham before us, it is faith that makes us righteous. Being under the law made us slaves to the law, but Christ took our place by being born under the law and defeating the law. Jesus freed us from slavery and made us children of God.
Galatians 4:4-10 NIV But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
Once we accept Jesus’s payment for our sins we become adopted as children of God. Trying to obey the law after becoming saved through faith, is like inheriting a tax-exempt, amazing new home which you could have never afforded, but deciding to go sleep out on the streets again until you can earn enough money to buy the house for yourself. This would be foolish and prideful. Christians are children of God and God wants us to confidently live under the “roof” and security which He has provided. Why would anyone want to go back to how life was before becoming a child of God?
Jesus suffered and died so that we could be free. If we foolishly decide to keep trying to be made right with God by obeying the law, we need to understand that we will be made responsible for keeping the entire law, and that is impossible.
Galatians 5:1-6 NIV It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
We cannot rely on both Christ’s sacrifice, and on following the law. Grace cannot be earned, it is the unmerited and freely given favor of God. Trying to follow the law, is trying to earn God’s grace. It is illogical and foolish to try to earn something which, by its very nature, is given to those who are unable to earn it. If we insist on earning our own way to Heaven and to being sanctified we are turning down God’s grace, alienating ourselves from Christ. And without Christ, we will fail.
John 14:6 NIV Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
God’s grace, given to us through Christ’s sacrifice, is the only hope we have at being accepted by God and we attain this acceptance by faith, not by works.
Trying to follow the law doesn’t make anyone righteous, all it can do is point out how terrible we are. Jesus set us free from the guilt the law brings. We should live our lives basking in that freedom, grateful that we will not be judged by God for how inadequate we are at following the law.
Paul finishes up his letter to the Galatians by claiming the only reason people were insisting on following the law was so that they would look good outwardly to other humans. He says they were scared of being persecuted for relying on Christ’s sacrifice and just wanted to disguise themselves to look more like the world around them.
Galatians 6:12-15 NIV Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.
When the book of Galatians is read in context as one complete letter, it is obvious that God does not want Christians to place themselves back under the law. The law was fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and its only job in the lives of Christians was to point us to Christ for salvation. Trying to follow the law after we have accepted Christ’s payment for our sins will only stunt our growth as Christians. We cannot grow in grace, faith, and love if we are living under fear, shame, and judgment.
1 John 4:18 NIV There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Recommended Reading: “Disciplined by Grace” by J.F. Strombeck, “This insightful and practical book demonstrates that the Christian life is to be lived the same way it began at salvation―all by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.”
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”