成績單

Many years ago, seven people died in the Chicago, Illinois, area from taking over-the-counter pain-relief medicine. The investigation that followed determined that somebody had laced the pills with poison, evidently while the bottles were sitting on the store shelves. The authorities were never able to solve the crime and find out who did this terrible deed, but it led to some critical changes with the introduction of new safety standards.

Today, if you buy medicine—in fact, when you buy any number of products from the grocery store—you will notice they now have an extra covering of paper or plastic that you have to peel off. Even a jar of peanut butter has a paper covering. And I am glad for that because I eat a lot of peanut butter.

Going back to that original crime, it was ironic—and tragic—that a product designed to relieve pain resulted in multiple deaths. And it was all because somebody added poison to the pills.

Well, as we set sail back into the little book of Galatians, the apostle Paul is adding some extra protection to the gospel. There were false teachers who were tampering with the truth—adding to it the deadly poison of legalism by adding works to the gospel of grace.

In chapter 3 Paul is busy protecting this pure, untainted gospel—that salvation is by grace alone and received by faith apart from works. You want relief from the guilt and pain of sin? Here it is.

The first thing Paul does is remind the Galatians that they are on dangerous ground. He reminds them of their own personal experience when he writes in verse 1, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”

In other words, he is saying, “Do not be deceived. If keeping the law can get you into heaven, then Jesus died for nothing.”

Paul asks this question in verse 2: “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” The answer is obvious. They were saved and given new life in Christ by the Holy Spirit; it had nothing to do with how many commandments they had kept.

Paul asks another question in verse 3: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” If keeping the commandments has nothing to do with salvation, it has nothing to do with sanctification either—that is, spiritual growth in Christ. You are not saved by keeping a list of rules, and you do not grow up in Christ by keeping a list of rules.

Paul illustrates this with Father Abraham: “Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (verse 6). Abraham was justified, meaning he was declared righteous, or right with God. But how? By believing the word of God when the Lord appeared to him back in Genesis 15. So, Abraham was counted as righteous—right with God—several hundred years before God gave Moses the law.

This is why Paul says in verse 7, “It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Here is what Paul means. The Judaizers—these Jewish false teachers—wanted the church to adopt the law of Moses. They were teaching that Christians had to be connected to Abraham through ancestry, so every Gentile believer had to effectively identify as a Jewish person by obeying the law and submitting to circumcision.

This was adding the poison of legalism to the pain relief of the gospel. In verse 10, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 to show that those “who rely on works of the law are under a curse.” They are effectively poisoned because the law condemns anyone who does not keep it in its entirety. This is the curse of the law—it cannot save you; it can only condemn you.

Paul quotes the prophet Habakkuk (2:4) here in verse 11: “The righteous shall live by faith.” This is the pure, untainted gospel. Paul adds in verse 13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Jesus took the poison of sin upon Himself and died under the curse of sin, allowing us to receive the pure, relief-giving grace of salvation by faith alone.

Paul promises that “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham [has] come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (verse 14). In other words, Jews and Gentiles get saved the same way—by faith alone in Christ alone. No one can earn it, attain it, maintain it, or add to it.

In verse 15 and following, Paul explains that the original promise to Abraham—we call it the “Abrahamic covenant” (see Genesis 12:1-3)—has not and cannot be added to or erased. It was God’s unconditional promise to Abraham and his offspring. His spiritual offspring—those who come to God by faith alone—share in the spiritual blessings of the covenant. Mankind might try to tamper with it, but God has sealed it with His own promise.

Now, if this is true, Paul knows that people are going to be asking the question, What good is the law? What is the purpose of the law of Moses? And Paul answers that in verse 19, “It was added because of transgressions.” That is, the law was given to restrain sin—to punish lawbreakers, transgressors. And it certainly does that.

Paul also tells us that the law reveals sin in us and reminds us that we are all transgressors—and we certainly are! Have you ever stolen a piece of candy from a grocery store? I have. Did you ever tell your parents or your teachers a lie? I have. Well, then, according to the law, I am a thief and a liar. I am a transgressor. And the law that I have broken cannot save me; it can only condemn me.

So, Paul explains that the purpose of the law was to show people, especially Israel, here in this context, that their sin was revealed by the law. They needed a Savior.

Paul describes the law as a “guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (verse 24). The law could not redeem life, but it could regulate life. The word here for “guardian” was a reference to a schoolteacher back in Paul’s day. The law kept writing on the chalkboard, so to speak, the word guilty. The law kept teaching mankind that we are sinners, but a Savior is coming.

What about Christians—those who have believed in Christ? How does the law relate to you and me today? Paul answers that in verse 25: “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” He is saying that the law served its purpose by revealing our guilt so that we repented and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. We are not under the law.  

Through faith in Christ, we are free from the curse and the condemnation of the law, we are free from the power of sin, we are declared righteous, and we are empowered for life by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word to live for God’s glory.

Now that does not mean we can act in a lawless manner—speed down the highway and steal from our employer. The law is a reminder, to this day, that we continue to transgress, and it is a reminder of why we rely entirely upon the blood of Christ—as the apostle John writes—to continually cleanse us from every sin (1 John 1:7).

We are saved through faith in our Redeemer; and every single day, we depend upon the sacrifice of our Redeemer, who ensures that we are no longer condemned.

Beloved, do not add anything to that message. Do not add the poison of works to the purity of the gospel of grace and faith in Christ alone.