📖 Galatians Intensive — Unit 4: Faith, Not Works of the Law

Text: Galatians 3:1-29 (NKJV)

Who Has Bewitched You?

Having defended the gospel in the first two chapters, Paul now turns and reasons with the Galatians directly, and his words are sharp because the danger is great. "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you...?" They had seen Christ crucified set plainly before them in the preaching of the gospel, and now they were drifting back toward the law as if the cross were not enough. Paul puts to them a single, settling question: "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" They knew the answer. The Spirit had come to them, and miracles had been worked among them, when they believed the message — not when they kept the law. And so Paul presses the point home: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" To begin with grace and then seek to finish by law-keeping is to move backward, from the Spirit to the flesh.

Abraham Believed God

Paul now reaches back to the great father of the faithful. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Long before the law was given, Abraham was justified not by works but by faith; God credited righteousness to him because he believed the promise. From this Paul draws a sweeping conclusion: "those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." The true children of Abraham are not those who carry the marks of the law, but those who believe as he believed. And Paul says the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, "preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand," saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." So those who are of faith are blessed together with believing Abraham — the gospel of justification by faith is no novelty, but the ancient plan of God.

The Curse of the Law

If faith is the way of blessing, the law by itself is the way of curse. "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.'" Here is the trap of seeking righteousness by law: the law demands not most things, but all things, perfectly and continually, and no sinner can render that. To stake one's hope on law-keeping is therefore to place oneself under its curse. By contrast, Paul quotes the prophet: "The just shall live by faith." And he adds that "the law is not of faith"; the principle of the law is "do and live," while the principle of faith is "believe and live." The two cannot be mixed as a way of salvation.

Christ Became a Curse for Us

How then can any sinner escape the curse? Only because Another bore it. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')." On the cross Jesus took upon Himself the very curse the law pronounces against lawbreakers; He stood in our place and absorbed what we deserved. And this He did with a glorious purpose: "that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." The curse fell on Him so that the blessing might fall on us; He was treated as guilty so that we might receive the Spirit by faith. This is the heart of the gospel Paul will not let the Galatians abandon.

The curse fell on Christ so that the blessing of Abraham might fall on us, and the promise of the Spirit be received by faith.

The Promise Came Before the Law

Paul now answers those who would make the law the basis of God's dealings. He argues from a plain human example: once a covenant is confirmed, no one annuls it or adds to it. "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." The promise pointed forward to Christ all along. And the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, cannot annul a covenant that God had already confirmed, so as to make the promise of no effect. "For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise." The inheritance was never earned by law; it was given by promise and received by faith.

Why the Law, Then?

If the law cannot justify, what is it for? Paul does not despise the law; he explains its place. "It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made." The law was given to expose sin and to hold God's people until Christ came; it was a temporary steward, not the source of life. "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law." But no law can give life to the dead in sin. Instead, "the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." The law shuts every mouth and locks every sinner up under guilt, so that the only door left open is the door of faith in Christ.

The Law as Our Tutor

Paul gives a memorable picture of the law's role. "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The word pictures a guardian who watched over and disciplined a child until he came of age. The law guarded God's people and, by its commands and its curse, drove them to look for a Savior. But a guardian's authority ends when the child grows up: "But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." Now that Christ has come and faith has come, the believer is not kept under the law as a child under a guardian, but stands as a grown son in Christ.

Sons and Heirs, All One in Christ

Paul closes the chapter on the heights. "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Every believer, having been baptized into Christ, has "put on Christ" and is clothed in Him. And in Him the old divisions lose their power to separate: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." All such believers stand on equal ground at the foot of the cross. And the chapter ends with the inheritance secured: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." To belong to Christ is to be Abraham's true offspring and an heir of everything God promised — not by the works of the law, but by faith.

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