Galatians 3:1-5
By Faith, or by Works of the Law?
3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by 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 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Oh, the great chasm that hinders our walk of faith in Christ. It is said that what we believe forms the foundation for how we behave. If that is so, our struggles (behavior) in life are a result of our beliefs. When we misbehave and engage in our sinful fleshly desires, we are walking in the flesh and not according to the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). Yet, those in Christ are promised the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit who teaches and convicts us of sin. This conviction brings remorseful sadness to our hearts that leads us to repentance if we truly indeed are in Christ. But take note, it is not because of the inadequacy of Christ, that we continue to sin. Rather, it is because of His efficacy that we come and walk by faith in Him. Knowledge is power, in a sense. The application of today’s Scripture passage will help us reconcile our identity in Christ with our practice of living by faith in Christ.
To understand the context, Matthew Henry says, “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 obedience to the moral precepts as their righteousness before God.” The Galatians professed their faith in Christ, which is good. But the Apostle called them foolish because they were bewitched, tricked, or fooled to trust another gospel that was not a gospel (Galatians 1:6-7). They trusted Christ to save them from the wrath of God and receive the gift of eternal life, but they continued to trust in their works of the law to keep them justified before God. After all, remember the Old Covenant required a blood sacrifice over and over again because those sacrifices were temporary until the coming of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Lord. The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk said the righteous shall live by faith, even during difficult times (Habakkuk 2:4). Additionally, the early church had confusion in regard to faith and works. James says in his letter, that we are not hearers of the word only, but doers of the word as well. James was addressing a concern that since we are saved by grace through faith and not of works, we do not need to do good deeds. The Apostle Paul address this heresy of antinomianism in Romans 6:8, 6:11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him … So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Since we have saving faith, we also need a working faith that sustains us too. The question is, is saving faith the same as sustaining faith? It seems that the crux of the matter may be that we do not know what faith truly is. For example, many say that faith is the belief of their own volition to trust in God; yet, they struggle and do not have the joy of walking by faith, during times of affliction as well as in times of prosperity. Probably because the belief of their own volition is a poor foundation and does not sustain. Humanly speaking, whatever belief comes from within man wavers and may change in a moment without notice. Consider, on the other hand, faith that is not based on man’s volition, but rather, according to Scripture and the reformed traditions of Christianity, faith that is a gift from God in our new birth (Ephesians 2:8-10, John 1:1-13, John 3:3-8). With this faith, we come to believe in Christ, repent of our sins, and trust in Him as our only hope for life now and life to come. We can either believe that faith is from within, or totally from God. And since our belief affects our behavior, when we struggle with the cares and temptations of the world, for some, their faith from within themselves does not sustain; but, the faith that comes from God is efficacious and victorious! As the Apostle Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:12, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (KJV). All faith, that is, saving faith and sustaining faith, are the same; they are a gift from God.
Jesus Christ gives his Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. The disciples asked Him to explain the meaning to them. And in Matthew 13:18-23, Jesus explains and says some seed will fall on good soil and produce grain. Additionally, some seeds will also fall on rocky ground; and since there is no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes, they fall away quickly. Still another amount of seed will fall among thorns. When troubles of the world come, their growth is choked and they do not produce fruit. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we must have a proper understanding and belief in what our sustaining faith is. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith; and, we are also sustained by grace through this faith from God as well.
Faith is available to all believers so they may walk by faith in their Christian life. Our problem is the enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. So, of course, his whispers of lies will cause us to doubt and not believe and trust God. We will trip and fall because we sub come to believe the lies and not the truth of God’s word. And to make things worse, the enemy continues to keep us away from God’s Word so we become ignorant of the power and effective grace of God in our lives. We have it all, but we do not engage the Holy Spirit with the truth in our lives to make faith applicable in all things. It’s like James who says to believers who do not ask God for wisdom; James 1:6 says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” We have not because we as not. We ask not because we do not read and study God’s Word. Galatians 6:16-17 says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
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My Lord God and Savior, You are holy and righteous. You command me to be holy because you are holy. Thank you for giving me the righteousness of Christ when I believed by faith in Jesus. Thank you for giving me the free gift of faith. Teach me, Lord Jesus, that this faith that saved me is the same faith that will sustain me when temptations of sin come my way. Teach me to live a life of faith that is pleasing to you as I read your Word. For your glory, may I have a working faith as I serve You and others in my church! In Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen!
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Faith is the Victory by John H. Yates in 1891
