Galatians 3 - June 8th

“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

As we continue into the third chapter of Galatians, Paul is going to be continuing to build his case that salvation comes by faith alone, as well as exhorting the Galatian Christians to keep from heeding the false teaching of those who claim they must add works to their faith to be justified, particularly that work of circumcision. Paul asks a question in verse 3 to get them thinking, “having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” What Paul is essentially asking them here is this— if you have already been declared righteous based on Christ’s death on your behalf, then why do you now seek to gain favor with God by your own merit? What sense does it make to try and purchase what has already been freely given to you? Why do you seek to revert back to your flesh to justify yourselves when we have already established that “by works of the law no one will be justified”? Paul tells them that “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was crucified” you looked upon him and believed why now do you look to the law? If you can be saved by the law, then why did Christ die? One commentator says this, “Surely you can't be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances?”. How many times can we, in a way, be like these Galatians? We had the gospel preached to us, and in hearing it beheld Christ crucified on our behalf, the Lord melted our hearts to accept it by faith, and we walk with confidence, knowing that we are redeemed by his merit and not our own, but then, slowly, it becomes nothing more than a religion to us. We begin to rely more on our flesh to assure us than the gospel. We think that His salvation is too free, and we must purchase it in some way; we become skeptics, and we grow cynical as to the reality of our justification, and so in an effort to ease our minds, we default to religion, where we must save ourselves by our own merits. If you are there, then you must ask yourself what Paul asked these Galatians — I started in the Spirit, so why am I now trying to be perfected by the flesh?

“By becoming a curse for us.”

The law could not bless; it could only curse. The reason was that it was contingent on the obedience of the law keeper. To those who obeyed the law, there were promised blessings, and to those who broke it, there were promised curses. This is what Paul is referring to in verse 10 when he says, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the law, and do them.’” The standard is perfection, and if you want to rely on the Law to save you, then you better ensure you keep it perfectly. James 2:10 says, “for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of it all.” It’s not enough to be better than the next man; you must be perfect! You will not be judged next to your neighbor but against a Holy and perfect God. If you rely on your merit to justify you, then you will be found lacking. The law is a curse because no one can keep it perfectly; the righteous requirements of God are far too high, and so we are all under a curse. If someone does not understand this, they will never understand the gospel. If someone doesn’t understand this, then they will never see their need for a savior. We are under a curse, but behold the wonder of what Paul will say next. Verse 13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us- for it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What a savior!