Galatians (Session 4) Chapter 3a

well we're continuing our exploration of the epistle to the galatians this we're the fourth session we're going to open chapter three we won't get through the whole chapter we're going to uh it's such a critical one we're going to split into two parts but the outline of the book as you know the first couple of chapters were personal third and fourth are doctrinal and so we're entering the you know a doctrinal portion here and then we'll have the practical one to finish up and the first two chapters dealt with the authenticity of the gospel genuine to its origin and its nature now we're going to talk about the superiority of the gospel particularly in as the in terms of the new relations that it affects and uh it'll be followed in our next session with the privileges it releases and uh then we'll talk about what to really do about all of this in the final two chapters but so we're going into chapter three the new relation that the gospel offers as i point out chapters three and four are doctrinal in them paul it explains the relationship with law and grace we sort of summarize that as we close the previous session but there are three words that you're going to occur that occurs very frequently faith 14 times law 19 times and the promise itself uh 11 times and paul's going to express six arguments three in each chapter three in chapter three and uh three in chapter four six arguments that he's gonna vary you begin to realize what a logical mind he has as you uh recognize his structure here and he's out he's out to prove that salvation is by grace through faith apart totally distinct from the works of the law six arguments a personal argument a scriptural argument a logical argument a dispensational argument a sentimental argument and an allegorical argument and the first three in chapter three and the last three in chapter four and uh six arguments so we'll start with his personal argument chapter 3 verse 1 o foolish galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes jesus christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you o foolish galatians bewitched strong language his tone is direct and severe and to tr you're so foolish to embrace a doctrine which declared the death of jesus christ was unnecessary that's totally irrational you should know better than that it's really what he's saying and the word bewitched is a strange word it almost would appear at least in paul's eyes that they under some kind of a spell usually as a figure of speech of course i'm not trying to build a mystical argument here but clearly they had lost the grasp of the basic truth that they had embraced in accepting christ evidently set forth see that makes them without excuse the uh progrefo it's the greek word means to write before of time of old set forth or designated beforehand what he's referring to is the old testament scriptures to depict or portray openly to write before the eyes of all who can read so the word evidently there especially in the greek is very intensive very expressive and that as christ having been crucified among you he vividly and graphically proclaimed the crucified christ to the galatians yet their eyes had been diverted from the cross to the law to paul this is unthinkable and uh and foolish of course they are absolutely without excuse that's why he's he's ranting at them actually here he continues this only what i learned of you received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith that's his question he's asking is it a rhetorical question really this is only what i learned of you received ye the spirit that is the spirit that has redeemed him by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith and uh so this uh pointed to the time of the original you know their original conversion so he's dealing with his readers are saved but they're they they're turning away from the very thing that saved them so he didn't question their salvation i want you to notice that this is not a a letter to unbelievers but it's challenging them to consider whether they were saved or received by the spirit or by faith excuse me by the spirit or by works that's his that's the his basic uh premise and of course it's it's a rhetorical question it's not asking for an answer in the usually it's a rhetorical question because obviously they did it by faith when they first heard the gospel from paul this is an essentially a gentile church so they didn't have the mosaic law in any case so it's it's a it's a very strange situation and says then he continues with a parallel question are you so foolish having begun in the spirit that's what saved you are you now made perfect in the flesh you see the the illogic of their position see in effect and say how are you going to be sanctified see he's presupposing the answer of course in his letter here that the galatians became christians by faith are they so foolish to think that they could begin the christian life by faith but then move on to spiritual maturity by another method altogether by works see the very construction here is illogical is is his implicit point here that's exactly what the judaizers are promoting and uh that but the means of justification and sanctification were and still are of course the same if you're saved by faith you're also perfected by faith not by works that's what he's really building here there is no provision in the law for the holy spirit to do a work of sanctification just doesn't compute and the galatian believers evidently thought that keeping the old law would somehow help them in their spiritual lives but his paul's point is that they they they would not so this probably you could argue is the key point of the whole letter is that is that can we gain perfection or when they say perfection they really mean like in the sense of completion by works of the flesh the answer of course is not he continues have ye suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain did you suffer in vain it's the third question look back at the persecution of the apostles and the new believers that what they experienced in this rough and tumble area called galatia paul and barnabas retraced their steps at the end of their missionary journey to to warn the galatian converse that they would suffer as christians they were warned that they would suffer and uh and they are because the judaizers they probably didn't expect it to come from the judaizers have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain and persecution certainly did follow paul reminded them if they turned from grace to law they would brand their former position in error and would then have suffered so much for nothing so the apostle's unwilling to believe that this is really the case he's arguing he's building this uh case from what he believes is a contrary to fact argument here upon your believing you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise that's the way he expressed it in ephesians in his letter to the f from ephesus he therefore he therefore that he therefore that ministered to you the spirit and worked miracles among you do death he'd do it by the works of the lord by hearing the spirit see the law is not the the tool of the technique of the holy spirit see paul said in fact asking what basis did god perform the miracles in your life and there were miracles performed among the galatians by divine powers recordings in the book of acts it's all full of that in the throughout the book of acts especially in chapter 14 that he's really making reference to here it's clear therefore furthermore that these supernatural works were not the result of works of the law that's i mean it's hard to amplify this because it's pretty self-evident pretty obvious and they were they were the works so they were not from the works of law but from the hearing that leads to faith and and what makes this whole situation so absurd is the galatians were not former jews they didn't have the mosaic law they didn't know the law and paul's message is justification by faith not by the law so that's the personal startup of this then he gets to his second argument which is the scriptural argument and he's going to he's going to quote six old testament passages to make his case so for most of us this is where this moves on to the bedrock of scripture because verses in verses 6 and seven he's going to build his case on genesis 15 6. in verses 8 8-9 the next couple of verses on genesis 12 3. the next verse on deuteronomy 27 verse 26 and then in verse 11 on habakkuk 2 4 and we'll hit that one hard for a lot of reasons as you'll see and then 12 first leviticus 18 5 and finally deuteronomy 21 23. he's going to quote he's basically going to take each of these six quotes to build his scriptural bedrock argument here we're at verse 6. he says even as abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness he's making the point that abraham the first jew if you will was saved by not works by faith how could it not be by works it was 400 years before the law was even given judaism claimed to have old testament on their side well especially looking to moses as their teacher but paul went centuries further back even before moses to abraham in fact he says consider abraham and by the way you could argue that abraham was a gentile then because he was uncircumcised okay he doesn't really make it that way so how is he the father the jewish people how was abraham justified what saved abraham the answer is in genesis he quotes genesis 15 6. abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness it's just a one-line bedrock piece right there out of genesis chapter 15 verse 6. and so abraham's faith in god in the ability to perform what he promised and the ultimate one is not in genesis 15 it's from genesis it's in genesis 22 when god abraham believed god to the extent of killing his son offering the akida the offering abram's offering of isaac but in any case it's interesting that this whole this statement of it was counted to him for righteousness in genesis 15 6 that was before abraham was even circumcised because he's not circumcised until genesis 17 two chapters later and so the patriarch abraham the the archetype for someone that's jewish or judaizers would be abraham and even abraham was justified by faith not by works the works might demonstrate his faith but it's his faith that saved him so how could the judaizers sit how could the judaizers insist that circumcision was essential to be accepted by god because abraham was accepted before circle before he was circumcised and by the way do you know what specifically abraham believed that saved him it's brought out in hebrews chapter 11 verse 19 that he believed in the resurrection of isaac very interesting situation he's got this miraculous son the son of sarah's not hagar and we'll get to that later and god says i want you to offer him and he didn't hesitate the next morning up and adam took two young men in the donkey they went up to went to mount it took a three-day journey and uh and and in hebrews paul will make the point that as far as abraham is concerned he was dead when that commandment came how long was he dead three days interesting three again the third day but it's interesting abraham's problem is very interesting he believed that isaac would have children he was prom god promised that isaac would have children so i want to kill isaac okay it's your problem not my problem you're gonna have to resurrect isaac that sounds strange but that's exactly the commitment that uh that paul brings out in the in hebrews 11. anyway moving on next verse know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of abraham do you realize that every one of us in this room gets everything that derive all our blessings from abraham god's covenant to abraham because spiritually we're children of abraham by faith that's what he's saying here children were children of abraham not by blood no some of us might be but i mean i'm assuming that most of you are gentiles in this discussion and children he uses paul uses a very unusual word here not technical he uses huios which is a son it's generally used as an offspring of men uh in a very restrictive sense the male offspring one born by a father and a mother in a wider sense though it's a descendant one of the posterity of one the children of israel the sons of abraham used to describe one who depends on another or is a follower a pupil also he uses that term but it really he's using it as the son of man a term describing man carrying the connotation of weakness and more mortality it was used by christ of himself doubtless in order to to uh he might intimidate his messiahship and also that he might designate himself as head of the human race because christ became the ultimate man he became the man in our place if you will and who and so he this is this is a basis he's using christ uses himself because he is acting on our behalf collectively and individually and christ seems to have preferred this to all the other titles messianic titles because of its lowliness it was least suited to foster any expectation of earthly messiah in royal spender splendor he's minimizing his role because he's coming as the mashiach ben yosef it's so clear in the scripture that the jewish tradition ended up having two messiahs messiah ben joseph messiah ben david meaning the suffering one and the ruling one they thought there'd be two they didn't realize it would be the same one coming in two comings but the the prophecies are so crisp and clear but he uses the term of himself in his in his first advent very frequently son of man using this term because it minimized the expectation of the the ruling one which is phase two if you will but the son of god it was also used to describe adam it was a and uh in luke 3 38 it's also used of those that are born again in luke 20 36 of angels and of christ i mentioned that earlier the previous discussion and this term is used preeminently of jesus christ as enjoying the supreme love of god united to him in affection intimacy and privy to his saving councils and obedience to the father's will and all his acts so that that term fits him in the and he uses it for that for those reasons okay moving on verse eight and the scripture foreseeing that god would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto abraham saying in thee shall all nations be blessed now this refers to the incident that occurred in genesis 22 the yakida that i just mentioned earlier that that the the and that's probably one of the most fascinating chapters to study in genesis is genesis 22 because god tells abraham to offer isaac so he takes two young men and the donkey and they go travel three days to moriah the two young men are told to stay at the base of the hill abraham and the young man young isaac and there is a a defendable view that isaac was not the kid you see in the artwork he was probably 30 years of age and he also went in agreement is what the hebrew actually says but they go up the hill in fact i said we got the where's the where's the offering and if you read verse 7 there carefully in genesis 22 that god will provide himself an offering interesting use of phrase because who did god did provide himself two thousand years later on that very spot another father did offer his son and abraham knew he was acting out prophecy he knew he was acting out a something that had a prophetic impact because he named the place in the mount of the lord it shall be seen so he knew there was a prophetic dimension to it all but it's interesting of course and obviously just as he's about to do the deed and angel interferes holds them back they substitute the ram and it's interesting when you read verse 19 of genesis 22 it points out that abraham and the two young men they left the bottom they went home back to beersheba three days return trip and where's isaac that's interesting obviously isaac went along went home with him but that's not what it says abraham the two young men returned home and you discover by examining the scripture that the person of isaac is edited out of the record from the time that he's offered until he's united with his bride by the well of lahai roy and i love that because the holy spirit is actually manipulating the subtlety of the text so it fits the ultimate the ultimate model the antitype so but the scriptures foresee that god would justify heathen through faith the passage there in genesis 22 anticipates the saving of the gentiles because it says that in thee shall all nations not just israel all nations be blessed and paul's quoting that in this for this exact purpose here and you can compare this to james 2 if you like where works of the faith are there just to demonstrate the faith not the law but anyway now this actually strikes a tremendous blow to the judaizers paul linked the past with the present declared that just as abraham was saved by faith so were those who now claim to be his children so if we can claim by being grafted in the vine that we are abraham's children that's really amplifying the fact that abraham also was saved by faith and abram had his spiritual descendants both jews and gentiles all have been declared righteous we're talking justification here have been declared righteous by faith fabulous this conclusion by the way is in harmony with the scripture that states that all nations will be blessed to abraham like genesis 12 3. people ask you when i travel people always ask where's the united states in prophecy now there's some crazy books that try to make this or that and i won't go down that stream but the point is anyway it's a serious study of prophecy is puzzled by the fact the united states presumably one of the great powers on the planet earth is totally absent mentioned it would seem in prophecy i think it isn't in prophecy but in some strange ways in isaiah 5 and elsewhere in a spiritual sense but the point is the other question we always get that relates to that is why hasn't god judged america and uh billy graham made that quip a couple of decades ago he said you know if god doesn't judge americans you have to apologize to sodom and gomorrah because we america has become the primary exporter in the god of wars so the question arises to a spiritually sensitive person why hasn't god judged america thomas jefferson in 1781 anticipated the same question he says i tremble for my country when i recall that god is just and that his justice will not sleep forever it's interesting those of us that are faced with that to answering that question usually retreat and hide behind genesis 12 3. i'll bless them that bless thee and curse him the curse of thee and we argue or at least that's our supposition is that the one thing united states has done is it has stood up singularly virtually alone for israel's right to exist that's why most of us don't worry about israel because we read the book that the whole history is written down we know it's coming it's god's problem he that keepeth israel will neither slumber or sleep we do worry about america because america is poking its finger in the eye of god as it meddles in the middle east trying to partition this god says a lot about those that would dare to partition his land and so it's but justice 12 3 is our authority our presumption if you will that the the reason we have a shelter from judgment because of our commitment israel and that's why as we waver on that as we send condoleezza rice or whoever to the middle east to meddle in forcing a plan on israel that they you are speaking of the oslo accord what a joke israel was not a party to the accord wasn't their idea no one asked them what they wanted to do anyway um the point is justice 12 3 is typically our response to that in that case the justification of uncircumcised gentiles was anticipated in the universal aspect of the abrahamic covenant when god announced the gospel that is the good news to abraham so it's all there way back at abraham now he's not going to lean on just that this is just this is just the first couple of six different quotations he's going to use but again you see he's taken the position this is god breathed it should not be overlooked that paul referred to scripture speaking as though god were speaking so it can be rightly affirmed that what the bible says god says we take that for granted but a lot of people don't here's an express example of it being put forth there's other similar verses that provide very important support for believing in the absolute and total inspiration and authority of scripture jesus in matthew 22 after he's been confronted by the herodians the sadducees the pharisees with trick questions and he nails all those then he says can i ask you a question now when you're talking to lawyers you really you got to know your stuff right he says yes let me ask you a question um you know david's whose son is he you know and and he dealt with they responded of course the the messiah is the son of david he says well then how can david call him lord if he's if the messiah is the son of david how can he call him lord and i love that passage because they they couldn't respond in fact the way it closes it says they just not ask him any more questions that put into it what most of us don't realize because we don't realize what's going on there what jesus is doing he's quoting psalm 110 verse 1 wherein psalm 110 is you know is the verse he's relying on the word lord there adonai has a yawd at the end of it a little mark that you and i would mistake for a blemish on the paper like an apostrophe or something that little yod makes the word possessive how can david call him my lord if he's the son of david they couldn't figure that one out it's interesting that his christ's entire argument hang in effect hangs on a yod matthew 5 17 says think not that i come to destroy the torah of the prophets i cannot destroy but to fulfill for verily i say unto you that not one yacht or one tittle shall pass in the lord it'll all be fulfilled now a yacht is the is the one of the 22 hebrew letters it's just like a little looks like a little apostrophe a tittle is a little decorative herc a hook on certain letters we would paraphrase that by saying not the crossing of the t or the dotting of an eye kind of thing but it's interesting what that all leads to is a respect for the scripture that we should respect every letter this is a call to a very high view of inspiration and that's exactly what paul is doing here in effect all scripture is what breathe god breathed and profitable for a doctrine for reproof reproof for correction for instruction righteousness to review that thing we talked about last time doctrine tells you what's right reproof tells you what's not right correction tells you how to get it right and instruction how to stay right doctrine reprove correction instruction what's right what's not right how to get right how to stay right hope that's helpful during moving on to verse nine so then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful abraham he can he concluded this portion of his argument by stating that through that provision was made for all nations that was back there in verse eight only those who have faith receive the blessing of justification okay thus he drew a distinction between god's provision and human approbation if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work and you can go through romans 11 as an amplification of that okay we're to galatians verse 3 verse 10 for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them now the model here to get it along across conceptually visualize the law as a chain you break one of the links and you no longer can hang from that chain for that chain to be effective every link has to do its peace break one link and you've broken the law that sounds strange to us at first but that's exactly what the scripture says all the way through the torah and that's what he's leaning on here cursed is everyone that continues not in all things gee i've kept most of them gee most of those links held as you're falling down the abyss whatever right like the guy that jumped off the empire state building as he's passing 110th floor so how you doing he says fine all fine so far you know everyone can do that in all things contrary to what the judaizers taught the law could not justify it could only condemn it could only condem it's like a one-way valve that can't pump water in other words okay and paul here is quoting deuteronomy 27 26 to show that the law demanded perfection and that a curse was attached to any failure to keep any part of it that's what the quote comes from that he's re cursed as everyone continues not in all things which are written in the law of doing that's out of deuteronomy 27 verse 26 that continues not in all things the breaking of any one command even once brings a person under the condemnation of the law under the curse and since every one of us fails at some point then every one of us are in some sense under the curse of the law the law the best the law can do the best it could do is not curse you if you're perfect if you're imperfect you're nailed the proposition that a person can gain divine acceptance by human effort is therefore totally destroyed that's the point of the law it's to get across that we on our own means cannot make it that's why the alternative is such good news verse 11 but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of god is evident for here we go here's a verse that changed the world it is evident for what's the verse the just shall live by faith simple verse simple verse and this verse this quote in this book changed the history of the human kind how that's a quote from habakkuk 2 4 the just shall live by faith and it isn't possible for me in the time we have to adequately summarize the impact of habakkuk 2 4 that it's had on the history of the world but we'll take a quick look at it in 1483 in isolabian saxony a baby boy was born to a poor coal miner he had observed the poverty of his father so he resolved that he was going to become a lawyer in 1501 he entered the university to effort in 1504 near the end of his studies an event occurred which changed his life he was in a lightning storm walking across the campus during the storm lightning struck all around him so much that he fell on his face in terror in fear and he made a what you might consider a rash covenant if god would deliver him he would become a monk that was you know in his culture that was a commitment and he did he withdrew from law school which he had a stellar program presumably ahead of him he entered the augustinian monastery and obtained a doctrine in theology he was very good at what he did disturbingly so he became obsessed with how can a man can find favor with god you know it's interesting that socrates is recorded as saying it may be possible for deity to forgive sins but i don't see how socrates recognized the paradox how can a holy god grant mercy to someone that is not holy well martin became obsessed with the same concern in search of peace he devoted himself to an exceedingly pious lifestyle abusing himself and so forth long fasts sleep outside in freezing weather with no blanket beat his body till bleeding that was the the religious culture of the time self-affliction to somehow um deal with those things he went to confession so often that the abbott said either go commit a sin worth confessing or stop bothering me in 1509 he made a pilgrimage to rome in trying and hoping to find this piece that was so elusive to him he went on foot crossing the alps nearly died from exposure on the way he met a monk brothers in the monastery at the foot of the mountains nursed him back to health and a wise monk told him to study the book of habakkuk and he did habakkuk was a struggler just like martin was struggled with the same issues if god is good why does he allow suffering that's the classic classic dilemma very problematic if there really is a devil why doesn't god just obliterate him these are the issues that havoc deals with it's the issues that martin dealt with and he prayed intensely for the rest of his trip he gets to roam that there was a particular phrase in habakkuk 2 4 that caught his attention the just shall live by faith sounds simple sounds simple martin could not get that out of his mind he went to rome and he began to endure the rights that they indulged in for uh for for their practices and that same verse haunted him again the gesture lived by faith he watched them go off the lateran steps and abuse themselves go up the steps if they go that steps they'll you know reduce the time in purgatory and all that business in the middle of all that he walked away he knew that wasn't the path that made any sense and he went back to the university of wittenberg and he really explored this issue of justification by faith on october 31st he nailed his 95 theses on the wittenberg door and that echoed ultimately throughout the world his name of course is martin luther he was seeking to reform the church he was naive enough to believe that they would examine those theses and put them to the test and hopefully cause some reforms of some of the many abuses that were going on at that time the church leadership had just the opposite reaction and they excommunicated him as a heretic and they were going to kill him except he had enough popularity with german princes and stuff that his life was spared he went on of course to spark the whole reformation he wasn't the only one doing it through others but his particular situation really energized what came became known as the reformation and he went on of course to write commentaries that are now classics even to this day he wrote hymns the mighty fortress is our god he translated the entire bible into german that in itself is a classic and now boy we could talk more and more about that um i have to interest we'll insert one small parenthetical topic here one of the things that made the reformation possible wasn't just this it was an invention by johannes gutenberg of movable type that allowed and for the bible to be printed you realize the culture did not have access to the word of god it was the style of the medieval church to keep that from the common people it's very amusing to me as i see churches trying to go back to the practices of the dark ages how stupid those practices were geared to a time when you didn't have the word of god you had to lean on icons and whatever if you want to go back go back to the first century all the way back to acts everything that happened in the book of acts happened in holmes you want to talk about argument argument you know the once in future church is in homes it's interesting to me that the movable type the invention of gutenberg came at the time to fit god's purpose to provide a reformation to put the word of god back in the hands of the common people which of course is the whole history of the 15th 16th 17th onward centuries i believe that the internet is a technology that's comparable to that for today because it's now possible for people like you and me to carry six bibles in our telephone hebrew greek searchable whatever if you so choose you have compute i travel with a laptop that has more volumes in it that than populate most seminaries except it's word searchable somebody gave me the 30 volumes of the antenna scene fathers i don't have time to read those but i now can search it and find out exactly what irenaeus said to so and so on on some topic and it takes me 30 or 40 seconds i mean the resource that you every one of you can search the hebrew of the greek without knowing hebrew or greek because the computer will do it for you you put your little cursor over a word and it'll put a little box up and tell you what that word is what part of speech is it'll diagram the sentence for you if you like so you can go to the original what's what translation is best doesn't matter because you don't deal with translations if you want you can go right to the root language if you want you certainly don't deal with the paraphrase if you are serious about your bible study which version you i finally found the version i like best by the way everybody asks me chuck what version do you use i found the version i like best it's the giant print version the new testament has of course 13 epistles that are attributed to paul i say 13 plus one probably and eight pistols that are called the hebrew epistles it's interesting that just shall live by faith this little verse from habakkuk 2 4 is the centerpiece of three of those epistles book of romans book of galatians and the book of hebrews are a trilogy explaining that verse believe it or not most people miss this they notice that it's quoted in all three they don't they don't realize the role it plays if you go back to habit 2 4 it says behold it's just more than just what we generally attribute to it says behold his soul was which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith there are two groups implied in here those whose soul is lifted up and those who live by faith whose soul is not upright the babylonians in the context of the verse here pride leads to death because it will not receive by faith the grace of god is the point of the verse will you analyze it in the context and look at their leader nebuchadnezzar as an example this is the verse that led to the trilogy in the in the the epistles of the new testament the just shall live by faith okay who are the just that's what the book of romans nails it defines justification and it's quoted in that context in in romans chapter 1 verse 17. okay the just shall live by faith how shall the just live that's exactly what the book of uh galatians nails down in chapter 3 verse 11. how do they live the whole book of the galatians is going to climax and it's chapters five and six as how does the justified live the just shall live by what by faith that is amplified in the epistle to the hebrews and it's quoted in hebrews 10 verse 39 which is the verse just prior to the famous hall of faith in hebrews 11. by the way it's just a footnote this implies to me that the same author wrote all three that romans galatians and hebrews are a trilogy on habakkuk 2 4. that's one of the many reasons i got other ones but main reasons that i believe that paul wrote the epistle to the hebrews and if paul didn't write the epistle of hebrews i got even bigger miracle because the holy spirit orchestrated it in any case because each used habakkuk 2 4 is a cornerstone in their arguments and hebrews habakkuk 2 4 became the battle cry of the reformation which of course changed the history of the world changed history of the world but moving on the law is not a faith but the man that doeth them shall live in them the law is not faith according again from the old testament paul proved that the law and faith are mutually exclusive and he's quoting here from leviticus 18 18 5. only perfect performance could win divine approval under the law but since that was not achievable the law could only condemn a person be and cause him to cast himself to god on faith you can't you can't earn it so paul continues christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us you realize christ was cursed we don't think of it that way do we christ's name is from the curse of law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree the positive side of paul's argument emphasized there's hope for all who have broken the law and are therefore under its curse but that hope is not in man but in christ who redeemed us from the curse of the law now the word redeeming there how can how can how did christ redeem the word in the greek there really means to buy out of slavery he purchased us if you will how by becoming a curse for us this is a strong declaration of the substitutionary redemption whereby christ took the penalty of all guilty lawbreakers on himself see we were in barabbas's shoes barabbas was guilty knew he was guilty christ was innocent barabbas knew christ was innocent and the freedom of christ and the the the uh restrictions of being they trade places created places we were in rubbish shoes brabus was free because christ took his place thus the curse of the law was transferred from sinners to christ the sin-less one and he delivered the people from it this phrase cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree the word there isn't really tree it's zulon which means wood not usually a tree it's a term that's used typically of gallows crosses that sort of thing it really just means an instrument of wood so it's not like a tree with branches it's a it's an idiom that encompasses a guillotine a gallows whatever and that's a quote from deuteronomy 21 23 see in the old testament criminals were executed normally by stoning but they would then be displayed on a stake or a post to show god's divine rejection that's the that gives rise to the idiom it's rather fascinating to realize that the description of crucifixion in psalm 22 is so precise that there are articles in the american medical association journal which determined the cause of death by all the details and symptoms that are there it's fascinating that that description in psalm 22 reads as if it was dictated first person singular as christ hung on the cross except it was written 700 years before crucifixion was invented it was invented by the persians and then obviously widely adopted by the romans about uh anyway 700 years after david somehow penned those words and uh it's amazing that the old testament prophecies of christ being pierced and crucified and so forth are in the the form of that capital punishment in the old testament was stoning not not crucifixion but anyway when christ was crucified the way it was gave evidence in the jewish mind at least that he had come under the curse of god and the manner of his death was a big obstacle to faith for jews that realized that the curse he bore was for them you find it described in psalm 22 of course in detail and in isaiah 53 in fact isaiah 53 lays it out probably more explicitly than all paul's epistles put together christ was made a curse for us when when was he made a curse for us it is incarnation i don't think so when he was born is called that holy thing in luke 1 35. well was he made a curse during the silent years of which we have so little record no it says he advanced in favor with god and man in luke 2 52. what made it curse then was he made a curse during his ministry no during his ministry his father said this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased doesn't describe a curse then does it so when was he made of curse for us while he was on the cross not during the first three hours because when he offered up himself he was without blemish the scripture tells us huh it was during the last three hours of the cross that has made a curse for us it was then that it pleased the lord to bruise him and put him to grief he made his soul an offering for sin other words in isaiah 53 verse 10. you know it's interesting shifting sort of for a moment here when you go back to numbers 21 there's a strange situation where the lord sent fiery serpents among the people that bit the people and many of the people died therefore the people came to moses and said we've sinned for we have broken again spoken against the lord and against thee pray unto the lord that he may take away the serpents from us and so moses prayed for the people and you know i think you all know the story the lord said to moses make me a fiery or a brass serpent and set it up on a pole and it'll come to pass that everyone that is britain when they look upon it they shall live kind of weird strange remedy god's going to save him great why this a brass serpent on a pole that doesn't make sense moses did they reached old made a brass serpent put it on a pole came to pass that if a serpent bit had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived well fine that's great it was good for them but you can read the entire old testament to try to figure out what's that all about and you'll get no answer doesn't make sense it's not common on except when you get to the days of hezekiah this brass thing was still around and they were worshiping it so he destroyed it so it wouldn't become a a a fetish an idol the hushdown the thing of brass strange you know it's interesting that you won't figure this out until you get to john 3 where jesus will explain it to you i'm fascinated by this you see all through the bible but especially the old testament you find these strange little episodes or laws or rules and you discover something very strange if you study it diligently there's nothing in there accidental every little rule every little detail every little place name is there by deliberate design and when you uncover that design all these little details of what the the rabbis call a rem is a hint of something deeper and this one you don't get solved in the old testament you've got to go to the new in john chapter 3 nicodemus comes to christ by night and during that discussion jesus explains to nicodemus as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but ever the whole thing set up in numbers 21 was a deliberate attempt by god to establish the pattern that would be significant that would happen on that cross many years later and what's really fascinating to me i see the serpent is a symbol of sin or or evil a brass is the levitical material that can sustain fire so a brass serpent is a serpent judged it is a symbol for sin judged in effect and just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness so was the son of man lifted up in on a cross at calvary and you can always remember where this occurs because this verse sets up the most well-known verse the entire bible because the next verse says forgot so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life that famous verse that we've all memorized is set up by jesus explaining the brazen serpent continuing the blessing of abram might come on the gentiles through jesus christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith two purposes for christ's redemptive work are given here each introduced by the greek conjunction uh you know in order that in order that that the blessing of abraham might come on the gentiles through faith in christ and that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith those are the two purposes of the redemptive work here encapsulated in galatians 3 14. the first one that gentiles might receive the blessing to abraham has already stated this is a reference not to personal or national blessings but to the promised blessing of justification apart from the works of the law available to all who believe available to all who believe not those that practice those that do it's not works it's all that believe the second one is that we might receive the promised holy spirit [Music] the law didn't give us the holy spirit grace did and again the apostle emphasized that salvation and sanctification come by faith not by works and don't get confused by some of the things that james says because james is saying if you have faith we'll tell we can see that you have faith by the works but it's not the works that save you it's the faith that saves you so we have six old testament quotes here verses 6 and 7 he quoted genesis 15 6. the next two verses he quoted genesis 12 3 the next one he quoted deuteronomy 27 verse 26 and the next one the the famous habakkuk 2 4 and then leviticus 18 5 and deuteronomy 21 23. six old testament quotes this was the second major argument you may recall the scriptural argument we went through the first one the the personal argument first five verses then we took the scriptural argument the six quotes to finish the chapter we've got to go through his logical argument and i'm going to do you a favor i'll let you do that after a good night's sleep okay we'll take the logical argument as part two of chapter three if you will and so we'll let's close with the word of prayer

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Length: 53min 32sec (3212 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020