The Essence of the Gospel

Did you know that in the fifty states of the union, there are many obscure laws which are still on the books? These are laws which state or local legislatures actually passed at one time and have never rescinded. For example…

In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.

In Florida, there is a special law which prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sundays. They risk arrest, fine, and/or a jail sentence.

Another Florida law which is still on the books states that if you tie your elephant to a parking meter, you have to pay the parking fee just as you would for a vehicle.

In Illinois, it is illegal to give a lighted cigar to a dog or a cat.

In Nebraska, you can be arrested if your child burps loudly during a church service.

In Oklahoma, dogs must have a permit signed by the mayor in order to congregate in groups of three or more on public property.

In Louisiana, if you bite someone with your natural teeth, you can be charged with simple assault, but if you bite them with your false teeth, it is considered “aggravated assault”.

Now the interesting thing about all these laws is that there must have been a problem in each of these areas in order for a legislative body to take the time and trouble to actually enact these laws. They didn’t just make them up out of thin air. These laws were formulated in order to address a specific problem with human behavior.

And when we come to the Jewish Law, we see somewhat of the same thing. The OT Law is made up of 613 commands—365 positive “thou shalt’s”, and 248 negative “thou shalt not’s”. Now as the religion of Judaism grew up in the centuries immediately preceding the birth of Christ, the scribes and religious experts became so preoccupied with keeping these commands that they began to formulate an elaborate series of secondary laws. And they published these laws in the Mishnah and the Talmud and other writings.

What they were trying to do was “build a hedge around the law” that would keep you from even coming close to breaking one of those 613 primary laws. For example, you know that the OT Law says that you should do no work on the Sabbath—that one day a week should be set aside for the worship of God.

Well, the Jewish rabbis looked at that law and said “How can we make sure that our people will obey it? How can we make sure that they will not in some way break the Sabbath law and offend God?” So they came up with a whole set of subsidiary laws which regulated what you could and could not do on the Sabbath.

For example, they said that you could not spit in the dirt on the Sabbath, because if you did, your spit, when it landed, might make a little furrow in the dirt, and that would have to be considered plowing on the Sabbath.

Here’s another one. If you cut your hand on the Sabbath, you could put a bandage on the cut, but you could not put ointment on the bandage, because the ointment might draw out the infection and that would be considered work.

Orthodox Jews to this day still live by these rules. For example, they will not turn on an electrical appliance or a light switch because the spark of electricity that occurs might be considered kindling fire on the Sabbath, and that is work. So they actually hire Gentiles to come into their homes and turn on their light switches for them.

If you stay in a hotel in Israel on the Sabbath day, you will find that one of the elevators is designated the “Sabbath Elevator”. It is pre-programmed to stop at every floor, so that when you get on, you will not have to press any of the buttons and make an electrical contact and thus do work on the Sabbath day.

Now the tragedy in all this law-keeping is that the Jews in the first century, as well as many people in the 20th century, feel that this is what is going to make them acceptable to God.

But legalism, and law-keeping, is not what makes us acceptable to God. And we’re going to see that today in the book of Galatians, chapter 3. The essence of the Good News from God through Jesus Christ is not about law, it’s about grace.

And the Galatian Christians originally understood that. But then they began to slide into a mentality of law-keeping and legalism in order to keep their right standing with God. And Paul addresses this problem in Gal. 3.

He does three things in this section we’re going to look at today:

1. He reminds them of their past EXPERIENCE

• He simply asks them to remember how they got saved, and what happened to them at that time.

• He asks them six very pointed questions.

2. He takes them to the OT to look at the EXAMPLE of Abraham

• You see, these legalistic teachers who had come from Jerusalem were trying to get the Galatians to go back to the OT way of doing things.

• So Paul says “Okay, let’s go back to the OT. And let’s see how the father of the Jewish nation gained right standing with God.

• And he gives them six very important OT Scriptures to consider.

3. He EXPLAINS the way of salvation to them.

• He shows them the difference between faith and law.

1. EXPERIENCE of the Galatians

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 observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

This is kind of like a “wake-up call” from Paul. You can almost sense his frustration as he asks them these questions. He says “Look. Some people have got you tied up in knots. They have confused you.” The word “bewitched” means to “cast a spell over someone”. The legalists had cast a spell over these new believers in Galatia.

So Paul says “I want you to remember some basic facts. You saw Jesus Christ clearly portrayed as crucified.” What he is referring to here is when he preached the Gospel to them originally. He told them about Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. And he did it so clearly that it was like he painted a picture for them. They saw Jesus Christ as crucified. This is what he means in v.1.

They understood, through Paul’s preaching, that the Son of God came to earth to die for sinners. They understood it clearly, and they realized the implications for themselves. And they believed Paul’s message and they received Jesus as their Savior. This is where the Gospel begins—it begins with the message of the Cross, and with the invitation to believe it.

Do you believe it? Do you believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for you?

Now secondly, Paul says “You received the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit came to dwell in you. He came to give you new life.” Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again… born of the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit comes into our lives the moment we trust Jesus Christ for our salvation. And when he comes, he gives us a new birth—a spiritual birth—he makes us spiritually alive. This is what the Bible means when it talks about being born again.

It’s not talking about an emotional experience. It’s not talking about getting in touch with your religious side. It’s not talking about anything that you can do for yourself. It’s talking about what the Holy Spirit does for you when he comes into your life.

And Paul says “Did you receive the Holy Spirit by observing the Law? No. You received the Holy Spirit by believing what you heard—by believing in Jesus as your Savior.”

And then he says “Okay, if that’s how you started—if you started by simply believing in Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit—then why do you think you’re going to go further in your spiritual life by your own efforts? Has all of this experience been for nothing?”

He says “You have experienced miracles from God the Father. God has done miracles in your midst. And the language there can equally mean that God has done miracles within each one of you.

When you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and are born again by the Spirit, God begins to go to work on you. He begins to bring about miraculous changes in your life.

There once was a man who had been a terrible alcoholic. But then he met Jesus, and God totally changed his life. One day he happened to run into an old friend of his who was an atheist. They got into conversation, and the man told his friend about the wonderful change that had taken place in his life. But the atheist just scoffed at him and said “You don’t really believe that the miracles in the Bible are true, do you?”

The man said “Of course I do.”

The atheist just laughed and said “So you actually believe that Jesus could turn water into wine?”

And the man said “I sure do, because in my life, Jesus turned the wine that I was formally addicted to into a new job, a new love for my wife, and a new devotion to my family. If he could do that, then the other is easy.”

Paul said “God has done miracles in you. Did he do those miracles because you worked hard to keep the law, or because you believed what you heard about Jesus?”

Being a Christian means believing in Jesus, having the Holy Spirit come and live in your life, and experiencing God work in your life in miraculous ways. The Galatians needed to remember where they had come from and what God had done for them.

Now Paul shifts gears. He’s going to turn from their subjective experience to the objective evidence of the Word of God. We should never judge the Word of God by our experience—we should test our experience by the Word of God.

In the first section, Paul asked the Galatians six questions. In this section, he’s going to give them six passages from the OT to prove that salvation is by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law.

The legalistic teachers wanted to take the Galatians back into the OT, so Paul says “Good! Let’s go to the OT and let’s see how it says a man will gain right standing before God. Let’s look at…”

2. The EXAMPLE of Abraham (v. 6–9)

Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The 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 have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Abraham was the father of the nation Israel. He was a man who was close to God. So how did he come into that position? How did he gain right standing with God?

Did he do it by observing the Law? No, that was impossible, because the Law had not even been given yet. The Law would not come until the time of Moses, several hundred years later.

Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 (which, incidentally, was written by Moses, the giver of the Law) which says Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” The word “credited” means “to put to one’s account”.

When you get your bank statement in the mail, you’ll probably check to make sure that all the deposits you made in the past month have been credited to your account. That is exactly what this word means. Abraham simply believed God, and God credited that to him as righteousness. That is what gave Abraham right standing in God’s sight—not that he kept the law—but that he believed God. Abraham was saved by faith.

And that is how we are saved today. When you trust Jesus Christ to be your Savior, you are believing God. And God’s righteousness is put to your account. And more than that, your sins are no longer put to your account, because Jesus took them upon himself—he took them into his account and paid for them by his death on the cross.

So that means that your record will always be clean before God. Romans 4:8 says “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Now getting back to Abraham, the Jewish people were very proud of their relationship with Abraham. The trouble was, they thought that this relationship guaranteed them eternal salvation.

But Jesus said in John 8:33 that there is a big difference between being Abraham’s descendants physically and being Abraham’s children spiritually.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did.” In other words, you would believe God, and the one whom God has sent.

Paul said in Galatians 3:7 “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.”

Some people today still think that salvation is inherited. They think that because their mother or father were godly people, or because their family has always belonged to a certain church, they will automatically be saved. But this is not true. God has no grandchildren. Each of us comes to God on our own, as an individual, by placing our faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

And Paul quotes Genesis 12:3 to prove that, from the very beginning of Abraham’s relationship with God, this salvation is for the Gentiles, not only for the Jewish nation. God said to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

God preached the Gospel to Abraham two thousand years before Jesus Christ came. And Paul brought that same Gospel to the Galatians. It is a gospel that says that sinners, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, are made right in the sight of God simply by believing Him, not by keeping the Law.

And Paul concludes with an in-depth

3. EXPLANATION of salvation (v. 10–14)

Salvation is by faith, not law. It has to be by faith because…

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

The law brings a curse, not a blessing, to those who try to keep it. Paul is quoting here from Deut. 27:26. The Law demands obedience, and this means obedience in all things.

Picture yourself going through a cafeteria line. You pick and choose among the various foods that are offered. But the Law is not like that. The Law is not a “religious cafeteria” where you can pick and choose. If you’ve decided to be a legalist, then you’ve got to go all the way. You are obligated to obey the whole Law, and every part of it. Over in James 2:10, we read…

Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

You always find with legalists that they can be very punctilious in certain areas, but there are other areas where they are totally oblivious to how they are carelessly and wantonly breaking the law.

Paul says in verse 11 “no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” Here he is quoting from Habakkuk 2:4, an OT verse so important that it is cited three times in the NT—here, in Romans 1, and in Hebrews 10.

The only thing that the Law does for you is to show you that you are a lawbreaker.

Suppose that you are a long-time resident of Allentown and during that time, you have faithfully kept all the laws of the city to the best of your ability. Do you think that the mayor of Allentown is going to one day show up on your doorstep wanting to present you with a special medal for keeping the law? Don’t hold your breath!

But let’s suppose that just once you drive downtown and you park your car in a no parking zone. What’s going to happen? You’re going to get a ticket. That’s what the law does. It never confers blessing when you keep it, it only blows the whistle and condemns you when you break it. And sooner or later, you’re bound to break it.

Because when it comes to the Law, it’s not what you believe about it, it is what you actually do about it that counts. It is the man who does these things who will live by them. (v.12) Paul is quoting from Leviticus 18 here.

You see, the Law says “Do this, and do it perfectly, and you will live.” And of course, no one can do the Law perfectly, so no one can be justified. Everyone is cursed by the Law. But the Gospel of grace says “Believe God—trust God—and you will live.”

Does the Law put us under a curse? Then “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written in Deuteronomy 21:33: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

The Jews did not crucify criminals; they stoned them to death. But in cases where a criminal had blatantly violated the Law, his dead body would be hung on a tree and exposed for all to see. That was a sign of great shame to the Jews, and of the curse of God on that man.

Now think about how Jesus died. Because the Romans were in control of Palestine, he was not stoned, and then his dead body hung up on a tree; he was nailed alive to a man-made tree and then left there naked to die. In other words, the curse was even more pronounced.

By dying on that cross, Jesus, the very Son of God, bore the curse of the Law for us, so that now we are no longer under the Law and under that awful curse.

The word “redeemed” in verse 13 means to purchase a slave for the purpose of setting him free. That is exactly what Christ did for us. He purchased us in order to set us free.

The legalists wanted to lead the Galatian Christians back into slavery under the Law, but Christ died to set them free, so that they could enjoy the liberty of God’s grace.

And that is something we need to remember today. We need to remember that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, not through the Law. And we need to remember that having been set free from the curse of the Law, we’d better not go back and try to live the Christian life according to a legalistic set of rules.

That may look attractive on the outside; it may look tempting; it may look enticing; it may look super-spiritual to try to live that way. And for that reason, it appeals to our sinful nature, because we always are tempted to make ourselves look good. But a legalistic lifestyle is slavery and death for a Christian who has been born to live free.