The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 16
Galatians 2:17 - 3:9
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 16
Galatians 2:17 - 3:9
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September 16 – Galatians 2:17-3:9
“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
Now in this portion of Scripture Paul goes deep into the meaning of how faith in Jesus Christ brings total forgiveness to sinners. We don’t earn it by trying to obey all of the moral laws given through Moses. He explains in verse 19 how this works by saying that I through the law have died to the law that I might live for God. In other words, the law requires punishment for sin and Jesus Christ paid the ultimate punishment when he died on the cross. He could do this in our place, as our substitute because he did not have any sins of his own to pay for. It’s as if when Christ was crucified that Paul also was crucified on the cross not literally but Christ became Paul’s substitute, taking his place paying for all of his sins through his own death. This is the meaning of “I am crucified with Christ.”
Paul continues saying nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives within me. This refers to the new creation, the new birth when a person believes on and receives Christ. Jesus promised his new life to enter us after we believed and received him in John 1:12-13 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I will never forget how I felt the first day that I was born again back in 1982. After receiving Christ, I felt his love, peace, joy and it seemed like the hope of Christ filled my heart and I knew that I had connected to God and everything was going to be all right! I did not achieve this new peace with God through renewed effort’s to keep the written laws of God. No, I was changed from the inside out by receiving Jesus into my life by faith to save me and the Holy Spirit did the rest causing me to be born again as a child of God.
Paul summarizes his thoughts at the end of chapter 2 by saying that if righteousness came by the law then Christ died in vain or for nothing. Paul continued by saying that the life that he now lived he lived by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself to save him. He goes on to say that he does not frustrate the grace of God meaning that it is this free gift of salvation that he’s talking about that can’t be earned through self-effort but through faith in Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God and given right standing or the gift of righteousness. This is foundational to true Christianity versus self-effort trying to get saved through the law which is impossible. The only one that ever kept the law of God perfectly without sin was the Son of God, Jesus Christ which fact alone makes him the only Savior of a lost world bound by sin.
To emphasize the truth of salvation by grace apart from the law, Paul asks the Galatians a couple of questions about their experience with the Holy Spirit. Did they receive the Spirit by keeping the law or was it because they heard and believed? Obviously, it wasn’t because they were trying to be good enough to qualify for this gift, no it was because they heard the gospel and believed and so were filled with the Holy Spirit. Next Paul asked does God do miracles among them by faith or by the works of the law? Again, it was not a result of keeping the laws that God did miracles but it was directly a result of hearing the Word of God and being receptive by faith that miracles were happening. With these two questions answered the third question logically follows; If you have begun your Christian walk in the Spirit by faith are you now going to perfect it by going back to doing it yourself trying to please God by keeping his laws in your own power? No way! It’s only because of God’s grace to us that we are saved and experience the Holy Spirit’s miracles.
Paul concludes this section of reasoning using Abraham as an example of faith to be justified. Why Abraham? Because when God revealed to Abraham that one of his descendants would be the Savior of the world Abraham believed God and was justified by his faith in the promised Savior to come. This was hundreds of years before the law was given through Moses. So it’s those that have faith and believe in the fulfilled promise of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ that are justified, forgiven and made righteous with God. These are considered the true children of Abraham, those that believe as Abraham did and that includes all the Gentiles and more specifically, those gentiles in the province of Galatia where Paul preached the gospel of Christ and established a new church. These were all very solid reasons to not listen to the false teachers that were trying to twist the message of God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) Paul explains the meaning of the cross of Christ as the point of our salvation
2) Being crucified with Christ means Jesus took our place on the cross and died to pay for our sins.
3) A Christian has been born again with Christ now living on the inside.
4) If Christ died to save us then we can’t save ourselves by self-efforts.
5) We didn’t get the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the law.
6) If we start our Christian life by faith in Christ and being born again by the Holy Spirit we can’t finish it by now trusting ourselves and working hard to be perfect in our own strength.
7) Let’s follow the example of Abrahams faith who believed in the promised savior and was justified by his faith in God and not by self-efforts to earn forgiveness because it’s a gift you receive by faith in the grace of God to us through Jesus Christ.
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll
“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
Now in this portion of Scripture Paul goes deep into the meaning of how faith in Jesus Christ brings total forgiveness to sinners. We don’t earn it by trying to obey all of the moral laws given through Moses. He explains in verse 19 how this works by saying that I through the law have died to the law that I might live for God. In other words, the law requires punishment for sin and Jesus Christ paid the ultimate punishment when he died on the cross. He could do this in our place, as our substitute because he did not have any sins of his own to pay for. It’s as if when Christ was crucified that Paul also was crucified on the cross not literally but Christ became Paul’s substitute, taking his place paying for all of his sins through his own death. This is the meaning of “I am crucified with Christ.”
Paul continues saying nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives within me. This refers to the new creation, the new birth when a person believes on and receives Christ. Jesus promised his new life to enter us after we believed and received him in John 1:12-13 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I will never forget how I felt the first day that I was born again back in 1982. After receiving Christ, I felt his love, peace, joy and it seemed like the hope of Christ filled my heart and I knew that I had connected to God and everything was going to be all right! I did not achieve this new peace with God through renewed effort’s to keep the written laws of God. No, I was changed from the inside out by receiving Jesus into my life by faith to save me and the Holy Spirit did the rest causing me to be born again as a child of God.
Paul summarizes his thoughts at the end of chapter 2 by saying that if righteousness came by the law then Christ died in vain or for nothing. Paul continued by saying that the life that he now lived he lived by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself to save him. He goes on to say that he does not frustrate the grace of God meaning that it is this free gift of salvation that he’s talking about that can’t be earned through self-effort but through faith in Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God and given right standing or the gift of righteousness. This is foundational to true Christianity versus self-effort trying to get saved through the law which is impossible. The only one that ever kept the law of God perfectly without sin was the Son of God, Jesus Christ which fact alone makes him the only Savior of a lost world bound by sin.
To emphasize the truth of salvation by grace apart from the law, Paul asks the Galatians a couple of questions about their experience with the Holy Spirit. Did they receive the Spirit by keeping the law or was it because they heard and believed? Obviously, it wasn’t because they were trying to be good enough to qualify for this gift, no it was because they heard the gospel and believed and so were filled with the Holy Spirit. Next Paul asked does God do miracles among them by faith or by the works of the law? Again, it was not a result of keeping the laws that God did miracles but it was directly a result of hearing the Word of God and being receptive by faith that miracles were happening. With these two questions answered the third question logically follows; If you have begun your Christian walk in the Spirit by faith are you now going to perfect it by going back to doing it yourself trying to please God by keeping his laws in your own power? No way! It’s only because of God’s grace to us that we are saved and experience the Holy Spirit’s miracles.
Paul concludes this section of reasoning using Abraham as an example of faith to be justified. Why Abraham? Because when God revealed to Abraham that one of his descendants would be the Savior of the world Abraham believed God and was justified by his faith in the promised Savior to come. This was hundreds of years before the law was given through Moses. So it’s those that have faith and believe in the fulfilled promise of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ that are justified, forgiven and made righteous with God. These are considered the true children of Abraham, those that believe as Abraham did and that includes all the Gentiles and more specifically, those gentiles in the province of Galatia where Paul preached the gospel of Christ and established a new church. These were all very solid reasons to not listen to the false teachers that were trying to twist the message of God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) Paul explains the meaning of the cross of Christ as the point of our salvation
2) Being crucified with Christ means Jesus took our place on the cross and died to pay for our sins.
3) A Christian has been born again with Christ now living on the inside.
4) If Christ died to save us then we can’t save ourselves by self-efforts.
5) We didn’t get the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the law.
6) If we start our Christian life by faith in Christ and being born again by the Holy Spirit we can’t finish it by now trusting ourselves and working hard to be perfect in our own strength.
7) Let’s follow the example of Abrahams faith who believed in the promised savior and was justified by his faith in God and not by self-efforts to earn forgiveness because it’s a gift you receive by faith in the grace of God to us through Jesus Christ.
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll