Gal. 3:1-9, What’s Wrong with Living by the Law?

What is the problem with trying to live the Christian life by my best efforts at keeping the law of God?

·       v1: It is foolish.  You’ve never been able to live that way.

·       v1: It denies the work of Christ on the cross.  Perhaps there were some witnesses of the crucifixion that were in Jerusalem for Passover when Christ was crucified.  Or perhaps Paul speaks of the crucifixion as an incontrovertible fact.

·       v2: It does not result in receiving the Holy Spirit.  The gift of the Spirit was the result of God’s grace and is received by faith.  It law-keeping cannot gain the Spirit, how can it enable us to walk in the Spirit?

·       v3: It is inconsistent with being born of the Spirit.  We are spiritual people, being born again by the Spirit.  Thus, we must walk “spiritually” or “by the Spirit.”

·       v4: It renders your persecutions meaningless.  They were persecuted standing for justification by faith.  If they now revert to law-keeping as their principle of life they have to wonder why they stood so strong.

·       v5: It denies faith, which is the basis of all other works of God in our lives.

·       v6: It is not how Abraham was justified.  This verse turns the readers’ attention to Abraham.  It is critical, of course, because Abraham means a lot to those of Jewish background.  So Paul reminds them: Abraham’s justification was by faith alone.  If you are wondering, the OT terms are true with the NT.  In Gen. 15:6:

o    Believed is Heb. aman, with the root idea of standing firm.  This is the first use of this word in the OT.

o   Counted is Heb. chashab, meaning to consider something true of someone. 

o   Righteousness is Heb. tsedaqah, referring to justice or righteousness.

·       v7: It does not make you a child of Abraham.  If you do not have the faith of Abraham, then you are not sons of Abraham  This is bold, telling a Jew he is not a son of Abraham (cf. John 8:39-40).

·       v8: It denies the unique place Abraham has in the covenant God made with him.  In that covenant (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14) God made it clear that all nations would be blessed through Abraham.  The blessing of which He speaks is what comes through the Messiah, the Son of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

·       v9: It leaves you without blessing.  In other words, if you seek a justification in a way contrary to the faith of Abraham, then you don’t have the blessing that God promised to the world through Abraham.

Paul’s testimony in Gal. 1 emphasized what God did.  The Judaizers want to emphasize what we do.  That is truly foolish and vain.