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The Amish Voice 2
we know that God will accept us and give us life with Him forever?
The answer to this question is the discussion of the present passage.
There are six proofs that God will justify us by faith alone, six proofs
that God will not justify us by works and law.
SECTION OUTLINE:
1. The proof of a believer’s experience (3:1-5).
2. The proof of Scripture (3:6-14).
3. The proof of God’s Covenant or promise (3:15-18).
4. The proof of the law’s powerlessness (3:19-22).
5. The proof of what faith does for us (3:23-29).
6. The proof of Christ and the fullness of time (4:1-7).
INTRODUCTION:
Christian songwriter Andrae Crouch captured the essence of this ses-
sion when he wrote, “I didn’t think it could be until it happened to me.
And you’ll never know that it’s true until it happens to you.” (From
Andrae Crouch and the Disciples: Live at Carnegie Hall
. Light Rec-
ords, a division of Word).
Until someone has had a spiritual experience with Jesus Christ, their
concept of salvation will be built on a foundation of works. The natural
mind has no concept of grace and faith. The Christian believer’s expe-
rience validates the truth of this line from a great hymn: “Just as I am
without one plea.” You will note that the rendition does not say “Just
as I
will be,
” but “just as I am.” Hallelujah! We can not add one thing
to our salvation. Christ comes to each one of us...just as we are.
Some influential people had joined the churches of Galatia; and the
churches took pride in their presence. The new members were so capa-
ble and the churches were so glad to have them that they were immedi-
ately placed in positions of leadership and teaching. However, these
new members had not been truly converted by Christ or else their un-
derstanding of the gospel was all confused. They began to teach that
faith alone was not enough to save a person, that a person had to un-
dergo the basic ritual of religion (circumcision) and focus his life upon
the law in order to become acceptable to God.
Paul’s answer is direct: the
experience
of the Galatian believers dis-
proves that a person becomes acceptable to God by law. The
believer’s
experience
proves that he is justified by faith alone, and all a believer
has to do is to rethink his experience and he will see the truth.
OUTLINE:
1. A believer corrects errors (v.1).
2. A believer receives the Spirit by faith, not by observing the law
(v.2).
3. A believer grows by faith (v.3).
4. A believer suffers because of his faith (v.4).
5. A believer experiences God’s miraculous work by faith, not by
observing the law (v.5).
1. A BELIEVER CORRECTS ERRORS (v.1).
There are four reasons why a believer must correct the errors that he
comes across.
1. Error makes a person
foolish
. Note that Paul calls the Galatian
believers “foolish Galatians.” The word
foolish
means misun-
derstanding, thoughtless, and unthinking. The Galatians were
listening to false teaching and passively drinking it in. They
were not thinking through what was being taught. They were
lazily sitting and soaking it up, not applying their minds to see
if what was being taught was true or not. They were
foolish
,
acting like senseless people who were incapable of thinking.
2. Error deceives a person. The word
bewitched
means to fasci-
nate, cast a spell upon, mislead, deceive. The false teachers
were, as so many are, very capable, fluent, and persuasive
speakers with dynamic personalities and charisma. Their
teaching sounded reasonable and logical.
A man must keep the ritual of religion.
A man must do good works to be good.
A man must keep the law in order to be acceptable to
God.
It all sounded reasonable and logical, especially to a person
who was not thinking and comparing the teaching to the gospel
of Christ. The error was
bewitching
, deceiving the believers.
3. Error shows disobedience. The Galatians simply were not
obeying the truth. They were trying to become acceptable to
God...
by undergoing the ritual of religion (circumcision, bap-
tism, etc.) instead of trusting the death of Jesus Christ.
by subjecting themselves and focusing their lives upon
the law instead of Christ.
4. Error leads a believer away from Christ. This is tragic, for the
true believer is a person who has seen Christ crucified for him.
The Galatians had clearly seen the death of Christ through the
preaching of Paul. Paul’s preaching had plainly pointed out
and explained the death of Christ. In fact, the Lord’s death had
been so clearly explained that it was as though the Lord Jesus
had been crucified in their presence, before their very eyes.
There was, therefore, no excuse for their following false teach-
ers. They knew what Christ had done for them, that Christ had
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