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March 1 - Galatians 3:1-14 - "Focus on Faith"

MPC 1^st March 2009.

Phil Campbell

I've got to admit, that when it came to sport, I was always a disappointment to my dad. Especially cricket. Dad had been captain of the high school cricket team when he was in second form. And the sad thing was, I inherited absolutely none of his skills. But in spite of it all, starting out at an early age with a bat made out of an old paling from the fence, dad did his level best as my backyard trainer. And there was always, I remember, one basic rule. Which was... keep your eye on the ball.

Which I've gotta confess, never really seemed to help me.

Keep your eye on the ball, son. And he'd bowl it again, and I'd be trying to watch the ball when I'd somehow be distracted by something else instead. And I'd still be watching where it left his hand as the ball came crashing through middle stump. Or more accurately the fruit box tipped up on its side. Keep your eye on the ball.

Maybe in cricket it's easier said than done. But I've heard the words often enough to know they're important. In all kinds of contexts. Keep your eye on the ball. Keep focused on the main issue. And don't be distracted.

In Paul's case in Galatians chapter 3, you'll see keeping their eye on the ball means keeping their eye firmly fixed on the message they already heard. Keeping their minds and hearts firmly fixed on the simple message preached by Paul. The message of the crucified Messiah. And not being distracted by anything else.

But of course, the problem is, they've been distracted already.

Take a look at Paul's words in verse 1. "You foolish Galatians... Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." I told you what to keep your eye on. Israel's crucified Messiah. That was the centre of his message. And yet they've been bewitched by something else. More literally, they've been fascinated by something that's diverted their attention, that's drawn their eye.

Now you can't miss it, can you, the frustration in Paul's tone. There's no beating around the bush. He's calling them fools. It's no more polite in the original Greek. It's literally mind-less.

We saw last week, the way the Galatians are being distracted by teachers from Jerusalem who want them to sign up for the Jewish law. They're taking their eye off the ball, because they're being told they need to start acting like Jews when they're not Jews at all. And they're paying attention to it. To which Paul says, you fools. You absolute dummies.

He says it in verse 1, he says it again in verse 3. Are you so foolish? To start so well... and then take your eye off the ball?

Because the point is, it's only a few years since Paul's been there, portraying the crucified Christ before their eyes.

And when they believed his message, the results were profound. When they believed, the received God's spirit, and their lives and hearts and minds were changed. And they were counted as righteous.

So from verse 2 to 5 there's a string of rhetorical questions. The kind that don't need an answer because it's ever so obvious. Questions designed to remind them how they started.

And all they have to do to answer the questions is to think back to when Paul was first with them. Let's track down through the questions. Verse 2, I'd like to learn just one thing from you. Tell me this. "Did you receive the spirit by observing the law? Or by believing what you heard?"

He says, think back. Which one? See, because when Paul was came preaching to these Galatians, it wasn't about Old Testament Jewish laws at all. He was preaching the crucified Christ. Who took the curse of Israel's law on himself to do away with the law forever as the way to be righteous before God.

So what a crazy thing to be doing what they're doing in verse 3. As if you begin with the Spirit, then move on to pleasing God by human effort. As if you're justified by hearing and believing, then you somehow have to finish off the job by trying really hard to keep the Jewish law yourself. Which is what Paul's Jewish opponents are telling them they need to do.

There's a great story about the famous tightrope walker Charles Blondin in the 19th century who set up a tightrope across Niagra Falls and in front of a huge crowd walked across it. Not just once. But two or three times. Then he does it again, and stops in the middle to balance on a stool.

And then the climax. Charles Blondin asks for a volunteer, to be carried over Niagra Falls on his back. Now I've gotta say there's no way in the world I'd do that. But there's one in every crowd. So the guy climbs on, and they're on their way.

So far, this is a true story. But imagine this for a minute. Imagine they get half way across, and the volunteer on Blondin's back says, "Ok Charlie, let me off. I'll take it from here myself."

You'd have to be crazy. I mean, how far's he going to get?

He's signing his own death warrant. Whereas all he had to do to be perfectly safe, was to keep his faith in Charles Blondin. And not try to do it himself.

Paul says, "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" After starting off with the Spirit, are you now trying to get there by the flesh?

Paul says if you've fallen for the idea that you start with the Spirit and you finish by doing your best to keep the law, you're crazy. And you've forgotten the gospel that was preached to you.

Was it really all for nothing? Verse 5. It's almost the same words again. Has God given you his spirit and done what he's been doing among you - it's literally has God given you His Spirit and empowered your actions - because someone came and told you to keep some rules? No way. It happened, says Paul, because you believed what you heard about the crucified Christ.

Which is Paul's definition of faith. Trusting what God's told you. Which if you look at the example of Abraham, is exactly the way it was always meant to be. Listen to this carefully. Because a lot of Christians are confused about faith. The main confusion is they get faith mixed up with wishful thinking. So that they think as long as you wish hard enough, as long as you have enough faith, God will give whatever you want. Not feeling well? Have faith and you'll get better. Business going badly? You've just got to have faith and God will bless your balance sheet. Sorry to hear your roof is leaking. Have faith and God will fix it up. I mean, you don't usually hear people saying the roof one, but you hear number 1 and 2 regularly. And they're no different.

As if faith itself is the issue. Look, you can have faith in all kinds of stuff. But the faith Paul is interested in is believing what God's told you. "You believed what you heard about the Crucified Christ." Which is the way it's always been. Right back to Abraham.

These Judaizers who are opposing Paul, they're huge fans of Moses and the laws he gave Israel. But Paul says go back further in the old testament story. To Abraham.

When you read Abraham here, you need to understand that he's not just a random example plucked from an obscure bit of the Old Testament. This is the great ancestor of Israel. He's the childless old man God originally spoke to... and made the promise of a line of descendants that would bring blessing to all the world.

So what can you learn from Abraham? See, Abraham wasn't right with God because he kept the Jewish Law. The law hadn't even come yet. Abraham was right with God because he believed what he heard from God.

Verse 6. Consider Abraham... he believed God, and it was credited to him... as righteousness. He didn't earn his righteousness by keeping the law. It was credited to him. God counted him righteous simply because he was held on to God's plan to bring blessing. Against all the odds. There his, the guy on Blondin's back in the middle of Niagra falls, and all he's doing is holding on to what God's promised him.

And so Abraham is declared to be right with God not because of anything he does... but because of who he trusts.

So the question is, when it comes to the question of who's counted as part of the real family of Abraham, what's the family characteristic? It's not going to be your Jewish circumcision that makes you a child of Abraham. It's not going to be the law that makes you a child of Abraham. Look, the Ten Commandments hadn't even been given then. Moses wasn't even a twinkle in his great-great grandfather's eye. The thing that makes you part of God's family isn't law. It's faith: understand then, says Paul in verse 7, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith - it's been there all the time - and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham - when God said to him, all nations will be blessed through you. Not just the Jews. All nations - which means places like Galatia. Or China. Or The Congo where David and Heather Kelly are working. Or even us hard hearted and materialistic Australians. Right from the start, when God grabbed Abraham and said I'm going to reverse the curse of sin that's been on the world since Adam and Eve chose rebellion, I'm going to reverse the curse on the world that's been there ever since humankind decided to rule for themselves. I'm going to reverse the curse, starting with you. And then your descendents Israel. And then all the nations. I'm going to count people righteous when they believe when they hear about the crucified and risen Jesus Christ and put their trust in him. All nations will be blessed through you. So verse 9, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

The Galatians already had that faith. And now they're taking their eyes off the ball. What fools they are if they do that.

And here, first and foremost is why they're fools. Because if they want to play the law game that Israel was playing for hundreds of years, instead of God's blessing they'll only find curse. Because they might be able to do some of it. But they'll never be able to do all of it. They might be able to do some things. But they'll never be able to do everything. And the trouble is, that's what Deuteronomy 27 verse 26 says Israel will have to do. Not pick and choose. Do all of it.

Verse 10 - and Paul's quoting direct from Moses in Deuteronomy. "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law."

If you want to rely on doing the law, make sure you don't miss any. If you think keeping God's laws can make you righteous, think again. Because it never did. And it's not going to start now.

It's like Paul's stacking Old Testament verses end to end here. Because here's another one. Clearly, Paul says, no one is justified, which again is just exactly the same root word as the word righteous, it's the verb form, it's the word made righteous; it's a shame we don't have a word righteoused, because that's what the word is. Clearly, verse 11, no one is righteoused before God by the law because the prophet Habakkuk says in Habakkuk 2 verse 4, the righteous will live by faith. Just like Abraham. And the law has always been and always will be about doing, doing and doing and like cleaning the bathroom tiles or painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, doing and doing and doing and never getting done. When it comes to the law, the man who does these things will live by them. And nobody did. And nobody could. And nobody in Israel really wanted to. Which is why the prophets kept looking forward to the day of the spirit. When hearts would be changed from the inside.

So how do you get right with God? Get your eye back on the ball. Here it is in verse 13.

It's interesting. There's another quote from the Old Testament in verse 13 that Paul puts almost exactly the same as the verse he quoted before. Both of them start the same, but end very differently. Cursed is everyone. This time it's from Deuteronomy 21 verse 23.

And this is the very heart of Paul's gospel logic. Cursed is everyone, verse 13, who is hung on a tree. So what if you take the Christ. What if you take Israel's God anointed leader. What if you take the one who represents his nation. And instead of enthroning him on a golden throne with a crown of Jewels... you hang him on a tree with nails ... and push on his head a crown of thorns. How about the Christ takes on the curse of the law deserved by his people? And so takes the curse away? The curse of the cross. In place of the curse of the law. And take the law away, and open up the blessing of the Spirit to all the nations: to all who believe.

Which again is why it's so very foolish to go back to the curse of the law. And try to bring the nations try to bring the gentiles back under the curse of the law with you. Perverse, isn't it? Follow his words from the start of verse 13 and they should make some kind of sense. And remember, at the first point the us he's talking about is the Jews who were under the curse in the first place, vs. 13...

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we - we all of us - might receive the promise of the Spirit.

The curse of the law that hung over Israel for so many generations... has been taken away once and for all. At the cross. So why go back? Why let anyone bewitch you, why let anyone distract you from keeping your eye on the ball.

You're not going to bless the gentiles by making them take on the law. They're blessed by faith in Jesus. And reworked on the inside. Without the crushing and cursing load of law on the outside.

The question is, how many generations of Christians haven't understood that? And still live under the curse of never knowing if they've done enough. That they might never be quite good enough... to be accepted by God. Well, the easy answer is, you never will and you never can. You've taken your eye off the ball. You need to trust Jesus instead.

Even worse... the sort of religious people I've known who aren't worried by that at all. And so look down their noses at everyone else. Paul's got a word for people like that, hasn't he. And the word is fool. That you'd trade the freedom and joy of the gospel, for a treadmill going nowhere. Trying and trying. Never quite getting there. Even though you might think that you have.

Let me ask you this morning, are you in the habit of measuring yourself by the law? We've kind of made it more possible to do that, over generations as misguided Christians, by ignoring what Paul says about having to keep the whole law, and we've whittled it down to the top ten. The Ten Commandments. And you'll say, yes, I've kept them. More or less. Which is the basis of the misguided confidence of whole generations of western post-Christians right up to the present day. Their equation is, and you'll sometimes hear it spelt out, I am a Christian because I keep the 10 commandments. And if that's you, you'll get slightly offended if someone tells you that the only way to be righteous before God is by trusting in the crucified Jesus. Paul says, "before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." What a fool... if you've taken your eye off the ball.

Though if instead of that kind of hardness you find yourself in despair, this is good news indeed isn't it? My colleague Dave Johnson, he's a minister on the South side, I heard him speaking about his own experience in this. Because he says when he went through the Ministry Training Course in those days, there was an emphasis on keeping the law as the way to be holy. And David said after he'd been though Bible College, and been in ministry for years he was constantly weighed down by the feeling he wasn't quite up to standard; wasn't quite working hard enough at keeping the law. When he says he sat down, and decided to read through all of Paul's letters in one sitting. And he realised... he'd taken his eye off the ball. And it's not just Christ crucified who saves you at the start, and then keeping the law after that. And so Dave Johnson believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Make sure you do the same!