Galatians
3
New
American Standard Bible (NASB)
Faith
Brings Righteousness
3
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ
was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find
out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing
with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being
perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it
was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works
miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
6
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 7
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be
blessed in you.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the
believer.
10
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written,
“Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the
law, to perform them.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is
evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” 12 However, the Law is
not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” 13
Christ 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”— 14 in order that in
Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we
would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Intent
of the Law
15
Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s
covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds
conditions to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And
to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which
came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant
previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the
inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has
granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
19
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained
through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom
the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas
God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it
never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then
righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has
shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might
be given to those who believe.
23
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to
the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our
tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now
that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of
God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you
are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
Progress
Toward Maturity by the Spirit (3:3)
Not
only was the beginning a gift, but progress is also a gift, as the question in
verse 3 indicates. The contrast between beginning with the Spirit and trying to
attain your goal by the flesh (remember that the NIV translates
"flesh" as human effort) sets up the antithesis between spirit and
flesh which recurs in 4:29, 5:16-23 and 6:8. In 4:23 and 29 the son born
according to the flesh ("born in the ordinary way") is a reference to
Jews who hold to the Sinai covenant (4:24) and to the present Jerusalem (4:25)
as the basis of their identity. These are the same ones who desire to boast in
circumcised flesh—in other words, in the proselytization of Gentile believers
at Galatia (6:13). We need to keep this historical conflict in mind so that we
do not slip into an interpretation derived from Greek dualism where the spirit
is good and the body (flesh) is inherently evil. Paul's specific point is that
the Galatians' alternative is between living by the Spirit, whom they received
when they believed the message of Christ crucified, and seeking perfection by
circumcision (and other rites such as food laws and sabbath observance), which
would identify them as proselyte Jews. Trying to attain perfection by the flesh
in that context meant the attempt to attain spiritual status by conforming to
Jewish customs in order to become Jews.
Sincere
Christian people have often felt that belonging to a specific cultural or
religious group would enhance their spiritual status. They have sometimes
conformed to extreme requirements just to gain acceptance. All such efforts to
achieve spiritual progress are classified here by Paul as merely human effort
(NIV), efforts of the flesh. Paul's question in verse 3 reminds us that our
beginning in the Christian life was based on our response of faith to the
message of Christ crucified and the consequent experience of the Spirit, and
our progress in the Christian life must be on the same basis.
IVP
New Testament Commentaries are made available by the generosity of InterVarsity
Press.
Verses
1-5 Matthew Henry
The
apostle is here dealing with those who, having embraced the faith of Christ,
still continued to seek for justification by the works of the law; that is, who
depended upon their own obedience to the moral precepts as their righteousness
before God, and, wherein that was defective, had recourse to the legal
sacrifices and purifications to make it up. These he first sharply reproves,
and then endeavours, by the evidence of truth, to convince them. This is the
right method, when we reprove any for a fault or an error, to convince them
that it is an error, that it is a fault.
He
reproves them, and the reproof is very close and warm: he calls them foolish
Galatians, Gal. 3:1. Though as Christians they were Wisdom’s children, yet as
corrupt Christians they were foolish children. Yea, he asks, Who hath bewitched
you? whereby he represents them as enchanted by the arts and snares of their
seducing teachers, and so far deluded as to act very unlike themselves. That
wherein their folly and infatuation appeared was that they did not obey the
truth; that is, they did not adhere to the gospel way of justification, wherein
they had been taught, and which they had professed to embrace. Note, It is not
enough to know the truth, and to say we believe it, but we must obey it too; we
must heartily submit to it, and stedfastly abide by it. Note, also, Those are
spiritually bewitched who, when the truth as it is in Jesus is plainly set
before them, will not thus obey it. Several things proved and aggravated the
folly of these Christians.
1.
Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth as crucified among them; that is,
they had had the doctrine of the cross preached to them, and the sacrament of
the Lord’s supper administered among them, in both which Christ crucified had
been set before them. Now, it was the greatest madness that could be for those
who had acquaintance with such sacred mysteries, and admittance to such great
solemnities, not to obey the truth which was thus published to them, and signed
and sealed in that ordinance. Note, The consideration of the honours and
privileges we have been admitted to as Christians should shame us out of the
folly of apostasy and backsliding.
2.
He appeals to the experiences they had had of the working of the Spirit upon
their souls (Gal. 3:2); he puts them in mind that, upon their becoming
Christians, they had received the Spirit, that many of them at least had been
made partakers not only of the sanctifying influences, but of the miraculous
gifts, of the Holy Spirit, which were eminent proofs of the truth of the
Christian religion and the several doctrines of it, and especially of this,
that justification is by Christ only, and not by the works of the law, which
was one of the peculiar and fundamental principles of it. To convince them of
the folly of their departing from this doctrine, he desires to know how they
came by these gifts and graces: Was it by the works of the law, that is, the
preaching of the necessity of these in order to justification? This they could
not say, for that doctrine had not then been preached to them, nor had they, as
Gentiles, any pretence to justification in that way. Or was it by the hearing
of faith, that is, the preaching of the doctrine of faith in Christ as the only
way of justification? This, if they would say the truth, they were obliged to
own, and therefore must be very unreasonable if they should reject a doctrine
of the good effects of which they had had such experience. Note, (1.) It is
usually by the ministry of the gospel that the Spirit is communicated to persons.
And, (2.) Those are very unwise who suffer themselves to be turned away from
the ministry and doctrine which have been blessed to their spiritual advantage.
3.
He calls upon them to consider their past and present conduct, and thence to
judge whether they were not acting very weakly and unreasonably (Gal. 3:3, 4):
he tells them that they had begun in the Spirit, but now were seeking to be
made perfect by the flesh; they had embraced the doctrine of the gospel, by
means of which they had received the Spirit, and wherein only the true way of
justification is revealed. And thus they had begun well; but now they were
turning to the law, and expected to be advanced to higher degrees of perfection
by adding the observance of it to faith in Christ, in order to their
justification, which could end in nothing but their shame and disappointment:
for this, instead of being an improvement upon the gospel, was really a
perversion of it; and, while they sought to be justified in this way, they were
so far from being more perfect Christians that they were more in danger of
becoming no Christians at all; hereby they were pulling down with one hand what
they had built with the other, and undoing what they had hitherto done in
Christianity. Yea, he further puts them in mind that they had not only embraced
the Christian doctrine, but suffered for it too; and therefore their folly
would be the more aggravated, if now they should desert it: for in this case
all that they had suffered would be in vain—it would appear that they had been
foolish in suffering for what they now deserted, and their sufferings would be
altogether in vain, and of no advantage to them. Note, (1.) It is the folly of
apostates that they lose the benefit of all they have done in religion, or
suffered for it. And, (2.) It is very sad for any to live in an age of services
and sufferings, of sabbaths, sermons, and sacraments, in vain; in this case
former righteousness shall not be mentioned.
4.
He puts them in mind that they had had ministers among them (and particularly
himself) who came with a divine seal and commission; for they had ministered
the Spirit to them, and wrought miracles among them: and he appeals to them
whether they did it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, whether
the doctrine that was preached by them, and confirmed by the miraculous gifts
and operations of the Spirit, was that of justification by the works of the law
or by the faith of Christ; they very well knew that it was not the former, but
the latter; and therefore must needs be inexcusable in forsaking a doctrine
which had been so signally owned and attested, and exchanging it for one that
had received no such attestations.
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