Latest / Reformed Thinking / Faith Over Works (Galatians 3) | Matthew Poole

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Faith Over Works (Galatians 3) | Matthew Poole · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. OK, let's unpack this.
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Welcome back to this deep dive. Today we are looking into one of
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the most intense conflicts really in the entire early
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church, talking about the crisis in Galatia.
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All the sources we shared with you are centered on the Apostle
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Paul's letters to these churches.
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And he is just, well, he's outlining this incredibly firm
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argument against mixing justification by faith with any
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kind of obedience to the Mosaic law.
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What comes out of this is, I think, a spectacular and an
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absolutely necessary demonstration of the Gospels
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logic. So our mission, you could say,
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in this deep dive is to really grasp the gravity of this error.
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We need to understand why trying to add works or any legal stuff
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to faith isn't just, you know, useless.
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Paul presents it as a betrayal, A catastrophic step backward.
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We're going to try to clarify the true and temporary function
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of the law and trace the path for how all believers, no matter
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their background, become Abraham's genuine spiritual
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heirs. It's such a critical topic, it
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really is. It cuts straight to the heart of
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how any Sinner is accepted by a righteous God.
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And the sharpness in Paul's tone, you can feel it coming off
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the page. He's so direct with the
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Galatians because the very definition of Christianity is at
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stake. It's not a secondary issue.
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Not at all. If justification needs something
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more than Christ, well then Christ isn't enough.
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And that's the whole ball game. So the problem he's facing right
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away, he directs it at the quote.
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Foolish Galatians. He doesn't pull any punches,
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does he? No.
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It's a very smart and, yeah, a very strong reprimand because
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they had been seriously LED astray.
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And the sources use this, this very loaded term for their state
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being bewitched. Yeah.
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And that doesn't just mean they were convinced by a clever
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argument. It means their perception, their
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spiritual sight. It had been corrupted.
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It was preventing them from seeing the obvious truth of the
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gospel. So it's almost like a spell was
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cast on them. That's the idea behind the word.
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Paul uses it because the truth had been so plainly preached to
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them before. I mean, Christ's death and its
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effects were so powerfully communicated that Paul says it
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was as if you had seen him crucified right there in their
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own town. So they weren't just hearing a
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report about something that happened far away.
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No, they experienced the proclamation of the Cross with
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undeniable spiritual evidence. They saw its effects.
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They felt them, and then you have to look at the nature of
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the seduction itself. It's particularly sneaky.
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Because the false teachers, the Judaizers, they weren't outright
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denying Christ. Exactly, that would've been too
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obvious. They were trying for a
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compromise. They pleaded for the works of
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the law, you know, things like circumcision and other legal
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observances to be super added to faith for justification.
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So it wasn't Christ or Moses, it was Christ plus Moses.
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Yeah, that's it, precisely. And that act, that attempt to
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complete saving work of God with human effort and old
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regulations, that is what the apostles so fiercely opposed.
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And that really sets up this core logical contradiction that
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Paul just hammers home, which is why he starts by asking them a
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question. A very simple question.
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Yeah, Why on earth would you regress?
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Why would you go backward from a superior cause to an inferior 1?
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He analyzes this contrast between two sources of spiritual
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life that the Galatians had actually experienced for
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themselves. On one hand, you have their
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beginning in the Spirit, which means their conversion, you
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know, embracing the doctrine of faith and receiving the Holy
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Spirit through the simple act of hearing the gospel.
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And this gospel doctrine is called the Spirit because they
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received the actual divine Holy Spirit by hearing and believing
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it. It was this miraculous, powerful
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event in their lives. Supernatural Beginning.
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Right. And then after that amazing
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start, they were trying to be made perfect by the flesh.
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Which just sounds wrong even saying it out loud.
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It does. And this flesh?
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It refers to the works and ordinances of the Law of Moses,
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the very things they were now told were necessary to complete
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or perfect their justification. So why does Paul call the Law
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flesh here? Because those works, those
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ordinances are defined as temporary.
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They're carnal ordinances, rudiments of the world.
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They deal with the outside, with physical requirements, earthly
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rituals. It's just the height of
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unreasonableness, isn't it? You start with this magnificent
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noble divine power of the Holy Spirit, and you think you're
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going to complete it, to perfect it using temporary earthly
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carnal rules. It's like building a skyscraper
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and then deciding to finish the top floor with mud bricks.
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That's a great analogy. It's a really we drive this
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point home to show the law subordinate status now that
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Christ has come. Paul uses these really
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strikingly dismissive terms for these legal rules.
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He calls them beggarly elements. Meggerly elements.
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That's harsh. It is, but we need to really
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explore that term because it tells us so much about his
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theological viewpoint. Calling them beggarly isn't just
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saying they're temporary, it's saying they're destitute,
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impoverished, utterly weak. So they have no spiritual
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currency anymore. None.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, these ordinances were
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only temporary constitutions. God never meant for them to
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continue longer than Christ's arrival.
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The law was, and we'll get into this, more a schoolmaster, a
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guardian, and once the air comes of age, the guardian's job is
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over. He's dismissed.
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Right, so Paul is saying that once Christ, the full revelation
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of God's plan, arrived, clinging to these legal rules for
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salvation became spiritually bankrupt.
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They are weak and just not sufficient for the task.
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Their observance, especially when you rely on it for
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justification. It's described as weak and
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impotent when you put it next to the noble divine goal of
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righteousness and eternal life. So the foolishness of the
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Galatians, as he sees it, was in trying to perfect a spiritual
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blessing they got by the power of the Spirit with these
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temporary, insufficient and now completely redundant elements
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from the law. And the ultimate proof against
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this whole backward move was their own memory, their own
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experience. Yes, he brings them right back
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to their origin story. He asked them a direct question.
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Where did the Spirit come from? Did you receive the Spirit by
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doing the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
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A. Question with a very obvious
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answer. He forces them to admit the
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obvious. They received the Spirit not by
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keeping the Mosaic Law. I mean, most of them were
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Gentiles. They were strangers to the
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Commonwealth of Israel. They got it by the hearing of
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faith. Let's define that shows a little
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more What is the hearing of faith?
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It means hearing the gospel preached.
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It is the doctrine of faith which God blessed to produce
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immediate, observable spiritual effects in their hearts.
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And these effects would include things like.
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The operations of a spiritual life.
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So conversion, sanctification, and often in that context,
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miraculous gifts. This was a supernatural
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transaction from start to finish.
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And that success, the very fact that God gave them the Spirit,
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gave them spiritual life and miraculous workings when they
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heard the gospel, that proved that God was concurring with the
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ministry of the gospel, not the ministry of the law.
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The evidence is damning for the Judaizers argument.
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It just is. It proves the Holy Spirit is
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received through the doctrine of faith, and the work of the law
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had absolutely no part in their spiritual beginning.
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So the question for you, the listener, becomes very personal,
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doesn't it? Does your own spiritual origin
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come from relying on your own effort, or from accepting the
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doctrine of faith that brings the Spirit?
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Because if it's the latter, if you started by receiving the
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Spirit, then the former is just completely illogical.
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It's unnecessary for your spiritual completion.
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In this discussion of the law's weakness, you know it's
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inability to give the spirit, it leads us right into a discussion
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of the law's power. It's power to condemn, yes.
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We have to link the Galatians current error back to the
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inherent failure built into the law itself when you apply to
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imperfect people. And what's so interesting here
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is how Paul shifts from their personal experience of the
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spirit to this stark, cold theological fact about the law.
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He shows that the laws own definition of life is exactly
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what leads, without exception to its definition of curse.
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That's right. When you look at the law as a
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covenant of works, its condition is terrifyingly simple.
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It's absolute. The man that do with them shall
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live in them. A simple transaction.
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Do this and you get life. A transaction that requires
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perfect, continuous, and unswerving obedience to every
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single command. Not most of them.
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All of them. And here's the reality check
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that Paul delivers. Man in a fallen or lapsed state
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simply cannot perfectly fulfill the law, our sources say.
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The law is made weak through the flesh.
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And it's not that the law itself is faulty.
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No, the law is perfect. It's that we are faulty.
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So because we can't keep the law perfectly, and the rule is if
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you offend in one point, you're guilty of all of it, the law
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must, by its own perfect nature, pronounce a terrifying sentence.
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And that sentence is. Cursed is everyone that continue
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with not in all things which are written in the book of the law
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to do them. Let's just pause on that for a
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second. This isn't just a, you know, a
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warning. It is a legal pronouncement.
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It's a universal condemnation for failing to meet a standard
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we are inherently incapable of meeting.
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It's a setup for failure. In our fallen state, yes.
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Since no human being can keep God's live perfectly, it
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necessarily followeth as our sources say.
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It just has to follow. All who try to live under the
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law must be under the curse. Which means that seeking
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justification by the law doesn't lead to blessing.
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It guarantees condemnation. And because of that, those under
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the curse cannot be blessed in faithful Abraham.
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Because Abraham was blessed by promise and faith, he was in a
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completely different system. Trying to earn acceptance
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through works puts you under a system designed only to expose
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your failure and condemn you for it.
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Now we should probably clarify the law's role so we don't give
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the impression that Paul thinks the law is evil.
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He asks the question himself. Is the law against the promises
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of God? And his answer is, God forbid he
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insists on that. The law isn't hostile to the
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promise, but it has a fundamentally different
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function. And the law's inability to
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justify is the proof of its different function.
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Right. If the law could have given
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life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
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In the, you know, modern terms. If the system of commandments
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was capable of producing spiritual life, God would have
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just used that system. Why have another one?
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The fact that the law cannot give life proves that
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righteousness has to come from a different source.
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So that's why the scripture, which is the final authority
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here, concluded all under sin. Yes, it pleased God to give a
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law so righteous that man could not possibly keep it.
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And this showed the universal the comprehensive need for
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another method of acceptance, a method totally outside of human
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merit. This brings us right to the core
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difference between the two systems Paul is comparing.
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We have to grasp this distinction in how righteousness
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is achieved. It's crucial.
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If justification were by works, by the law, it would be a
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transaction. It would be wages and a reward
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of debt. You do the work, obedience, and
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God owes you the pay. Justification.
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The whole nature of the lie is transactional.
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Do this and live it deals in debt and merit.
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Period. But justification by faith, it
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operates on a completely different principle.
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It receives righteousness through imputation.
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It flows entirely from the free love of the promise.
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So it's not something you earn, it's not something you're owed.
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It's a gift, the gift that's assigned to your account.
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And the declaration that the just shall live by faith just
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settles the whole argument. It does.
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It means the righteous person will find his spiritual life,
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live his spiritual life, and obtain eternal life by means of
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faith. The law can't provide that
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spiritual life because it has no mechanism for it.
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It gives, as our sources say, no help either for the guilt of sin
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contracted or against the power of it.
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It only reveals how deep the guilt is.
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So to defeat this whole argument that the law is necessary, Paul
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takes the Galatians way back. He goes back to the original
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theological blueprint, centuries before Moses ever went up on
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Mount Sinai. He goes back to Abraham.
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The Father of the Faithful. Exactly.
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Abraham is the pattern for all believers because he was
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justified by faith, not by working, and not by the later
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requirement of circumcision. And the key text from Genesis is
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Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for
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righteousness. And his believing God, that
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meant agreeing to the truth of the promises about Christ and
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trusting in God to fulfill those promises.
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OK, and here is where we need to be really, really precise about
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this idea of imputation. It's a term that gets thrown
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around, but it's often brushed over.
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Our sources are very careful here.
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They define it like this. Abraham's faith itself was not
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his righteousness. Why not?
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Because faith is an act of obedience.
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It's a work of the mind and the heart.
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If faith itself was the righteousness, then we'd just be
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justified by doing the work of believing, and that would defeat
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the whole argument against being justified by works.
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So you'd just be replacing one set of works with another more
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internal one. Precisely.
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Instead, faith was the condition annexed to the promise of
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justification. Faith is the empty hand you hold
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out to receive the gift. God imputed the righteousness of
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Christ, the finished work and perfect obedience of Him, and
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whom he believed to Abraham. So faith is the instrument, not
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the substance. Perfect way to put it.
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And this establishes that justification is a result of the
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promise, which makes it an outright gift of free love.
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And that stands in complete logical opposition to a law
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which again deals only in earning a debt.
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That context is just so vital. Faith is the recipient, not the
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currency. If the currency were our own
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faith, we would still be, you know, boasting in the quality of
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our own believing. We would.
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And this brings us to this this crucial historical detail, a
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chronological point that just proves the law's subordinate
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status forever. Yeah, this is so fascinating,
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the precise timeline detail Paul brings up.
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The law was given 430 years after the covenant.
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The promise was confirmed to Abraham.
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And he's not just throwing out a history fact.
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He's using this gap as irrefutable proof of priority.
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The promise was confirmed before of God in Christ.
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So the chronological proof is powerful because it shows the
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covenant of grace was confirmed first, its primary.
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Therefore the later edition of the law cannot dissenole the
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prior confirmed covenant. It can't make the promise of
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none effect. And to dissenole means to void
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or cancel a prior agreement. Since the promise was
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established and sealed first, the law which came later simply
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cannot undo it. Pohl uses this fantastic
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analogy, moving from the divine to the human to make the point.
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He says even a man's confirmed covenant or testament, you know,
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a last will and testament, it can't be disannuled or added to
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by other people. Once a will is legally
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confirmed, no later regulation can change the terms of the
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inheritance. That's legally binding.
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It is. And if that's true for a mere
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human document which is fallible, how much less can
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God's unalterable covenant of grace be altered or voided by a
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subsequent temporary provision like the Law?
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That covenant was ratified by God's own oath long before Moses
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was even born. It makes the priority of the
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promise absolutely indisputable. And who is the focus of this
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promise? Abraham and his seed.
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Right. And then Paul just zeroes in on
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a seemingly minor grammatical point that carries enormous
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theological weight. He focuses on the singularity of
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that word seed. He saith not and to seeds as of
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many, but as of 1, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
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Yeah, So while the word seed can often mean all descendants like
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a noun of multitude, Paul stresses that the ultimate
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singular focus of the promise is Christ himself.
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And that shifts the whole argument.
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Christ is the specific, singular fulfillment of the promises.
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The promise that in thee shall all the nations of the earth be
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blessed refers to the spiritual blessings that are found only in
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Christ Jesus. He is the designated heir.
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And therefore the law could only endure till the seed should come
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to whom the promise was made. It had a built in expiration
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date. It did, since the Law was just a
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temporary preparatory framework. Once Christ, the object of
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saving faith, was fully revealed and the Gospel was published,
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that temporary measure was completely superseded by the
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permanent reality. It's time was up.
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OK, so if we circle back to the universal condemnation we talked
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about earlier. From segment 2, yeah.
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The idea that the law pronounced a curse on everyone who failed
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to keep all of it, that really makes you understand the
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necessity of substitution. It does.
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A simple declaration of forgiveness just wouldn't
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satisfy the law's demand for justice.
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Since everyone under the law it is under the curse, the only way
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to free them was by a price paid, a full satisfaction of the
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legal requirement. And this is really the dramatic
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climax of Paul's whole argument. He states it so clearly.
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Christ redeemed believers from the curse of the law by being
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made a curse for us. Which meant he had to bear the
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wrath and indignation of God do for sin upon himself.
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It wasn't just a symbolic thing. The redemption required Christ
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to take the actual wrath that was due to the sins of believers
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who would put their faith in Him.
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And to really grasp the gravity of this, we have to look at the
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specific legal code. Paul is referencing the
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scriptural backing for this exchange.
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It's very specific to the Old Testament.
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It is cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
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That phrase, which is related to capital punishment, it means
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that the person who was executed and then displayed on a tree
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like a cross was seen as being under the public curse or
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rejection of God. And Christ, hanging on the
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cross, deliberately entered into that cursed status.
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He bare the curse of God due to the sins of believers in whose
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stead he died. The shocking thing about the
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crucifixion, from a Jewish legal perspective, was precisely that
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public pronouncement of being cursed by God.
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Yes, and Paul argues this was necessary.
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Christ willingly became the object of legal condemnation.
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He took the required punishment so that those who deserve the
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curse could be set free. It was a perfect legal
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substitution and is designed to satisfy the absolute standard of
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the law. The sources affirm that Christ
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could no other way redeem believers from the curse of the
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law but by being made himself a curse for them.
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It was a non negotiable legal requirement.
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You had to satisfy the law's demand for perfect justice.
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But why? Why go through that incredible
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act of substitution? Was the goal just to avoid
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punishment? No.
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The redemption had a massive, expansive goal, and it directly
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links the finished work of Christ all the way back to the
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priority of that original covenant with Abraham.
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The goal of the redemption was that the the blessing of Abraham
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might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
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So the curse was removed, the payment was satisfied, so that
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the blessing promised to Abraham could finally be released
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globally. Exactly this ensures that all
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the nations of the earth might be blessed in Him.
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The work on the cross was designed to dismantle the ethnic
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and legal barriers that separated you from Gentile and
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make the spiritual inheritance available to everyone who
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believes without them needing to adopt the external carnal
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ordinances of the law. So what exactly is this blessing
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of Abraham? The source has defined it pretty
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precisely. They do.
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It covers those glorious spiritual blessings that came to
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Abraham when he believed, specifically justification,
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reconciliation, and adoption. These are the blessings
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conferred immediately upon faith, just like they were for
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Abraham. And the second major result of
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the redemption which flows from being blessed is that believers
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received the promise of the Spirit through faith.
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This is the great spiritual inheritance.
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And this promise of the Spirit includes all the gifts and
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habits of grace, which are the effects of the Holy Spirit,
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whether it's for sanctifying us or sealing us as believers.
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Redemption frees us from the condemnation of the law and
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delivers to us the actual present spiritual life that was
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offered through the original promise.
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So it's the complete package, justification as a legal status
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and sanctification as a spiritual experience, the whole
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work. OK, but this discussion still
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leaves us with that critical question.
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If the law can't justify and it only brings a curse, why was it
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even given, especially 430 years after the promise?
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Paul anticipates this, and he asks it directly.
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Wherefore then serveth the law? What's the point of it?
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Yeah. And the immediate blunt answer
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is that it was added because of transgressions.
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And that confirms that the law wasn't given to, you know,
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supplement or complete something that was missing from
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justification. It was given to address human
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sinfulness and disobedience. And it serves a dual function
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regarding sin. It acted like a a spiritual
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X-ray machine. How so?
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Well, first, to restrain sin, the judicial punishments and
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civil restraints. They help to limit transgression
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to the community. It kept things from descending
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into total chaos. OK, that makes sense.
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The second, and this is the critical part, to show and
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discover sin. By holding up this mirror of
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absolute perfection, the law made men realize the full depth
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of their sinful condition. It made it crystal clear that
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they stood in need of Christ. So the moral laws function was
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critical in this preparatory role.
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It showed man exactly what sin was and then it accused and
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condemned us for it. It just laid bare the absolute
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impossibility of achieving life through human self effort.
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And by revealing sin and condemnation, but providing, and
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this is key, no help either for the guilt of sin contracted or
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against the power of it within itself.
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The moral law forcefully demonstrated the absolute need
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of a mediator. That experience of being utterly
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condemned under the law was designed to push people outside
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of themselves, to make them look for external help.
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Exactly. The context here reveals God's
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strategic plan. God first propounded the
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covenant of works, the law, and then suffered man to break it.
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And until man was definitively exposed as a transgressor by
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violating that covenant, there was, as our sources put it, no
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room for a mediator, no cause for men's applying themselves to
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a mediator. You don't look for a doctor
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until you know you're sick. You don't.
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Therefore, the law was strategically added to create
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the need for a mediator confirming that justification
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could never be achieved by the law itself.
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The law function is this divine mechanism to reveal, to confine,
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and to prepare. And this preparatory function is
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precisely why the law is so poetically called our
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schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, so that we might be
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justified by faith. It's a powerful image.
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It is. Let's clarify how the law served
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as a schoolmaster. Or maybe a better word today
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would be a custodian or a tutor. The ceremonial law, the part
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contained in ordinances. It was a schoolmaster by
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consistently pointing forward to Christ through its types and
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sacrifices and rituals. Every sacrifice was a lesson
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about the future. Perfect sacrifice, right?
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And meanwhile, the moral law as we just discussed it, taught by
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showing the absolute need for a mediator through its constant
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righteous condemnation. It acted like a prison,
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confining humanity under sin until the Savior arrived.
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And this brings us back to the crucial element of timing.
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The law was only meant to endure till the sea it should come.
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It was temporary by design. This is where the practical
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application for the Galatians gets so powerful.
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The law, as a schoolmaster only served until faith has come.
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Once Christ, the living embodiment of saving faith, was
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fully revealed and the gospel was published, the time of
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nonage was over. Nonage.
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That's a great old word. It's a legal term, meaning the
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state of being a minor or a child.
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Before Christ, believers were treated legally like spiritual
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children who needed constant supervision, confined by the
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rules of the household. But once faith has come, once
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the sun is revealed, believers are no longer under a
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schoolmaster. Which means that going back to
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the law after you've received the spirit isn't just illogical,
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it's actively choosing confinement.
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It's choosing spiritual minority when full freedom and adoption
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have already been established. It's like walking out of a
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prison that was only ever meant to hold you temporarily and then
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choosing to go straight back and lock yourself in.
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It makes no sense. And this move from confinement
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to freedom brings us to the identity of Abraham's true
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heirs. The question, then, is not about
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physical dissent. It's who are Abraham's children
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now? And the sources stated clearly
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they which are of faith. That's it.
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That's the only criterion. They are the people who are
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justified in the exact same way as Abraham, by imputation upon
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believing in Christ. They don't rely on any
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righteousness of their own that comes from obedience to external
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works. They are blessed with faithful
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Abraham through the same spiritual blessings.
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And the link to Christ is what secures this lineage.
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Paul clarifies it for the Galatians.
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And if ye be Christs, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs
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according to the promise. So being Christ means they are
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spiritually implanted into Him, and even though they may not be
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physical heirs of Abraham, they inherit the ultimate spiritual
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blessing. This inheritance confirms their
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status as spiritual adults free from the schoolmaster.
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They're identified as all the children of God by adoption
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through faith in Jesus Christ. And this reliance on Christ
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instead of running back to the law is what confirms their
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freedom and their rightful place in God's family.
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And this just leads to the comprehensive, you know, the
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revolutionary reach of the promise.
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The spiritual adoption confirms their status regardless of any
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earthly or cultural distinction. This doctrine completely
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dismantles the basis for the Judaizers whole argument about
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circumcision and Jewish identity.
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It. Includes whether native Jews or
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Gentiles, right? The Scripture foresaw that God
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would justify the heathen through faith, which means all
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nations were always meant to be included in this family through
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the single criterion of belief. And in the business of
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justification, all worldly distinctions just dissolve.
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Paul declares there is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor
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female, because all believers are all one in Christ Jesus.
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Just think about what a staggering social statement that
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was in the 1st century. It's incredible.
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It meant that the most revered Jewish teacher and the newest
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Gentile convert who had never been circumcised, never followed
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kosher laws. They stood on the exact same
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legal and spiritual ground before God.
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And it meant the slave and the freeman, the male and the
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female, were identical in terms of their standing in their
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inheritance. So the inheritance is secured
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not by lineage, not by circumcision, not by physical
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status or adherence to the law, but purely by spiritual union
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with Christ, the promised seed. This unity proves that the
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criterion for inclusion is purely spiritual.
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The law was a tool of separation and condemnation.
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The promise is the unifying principle of grace.
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So let's let's try to synthesize the findings of this deep dive.
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The core conflict in Galatia was all about the logic of
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regression. The law brings a curse because
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it requires A perfection that man cannot attain, and his true
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purpose was temporary, added 430 years later because of
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transgressions only to expose sin and guide man toward a
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Savior, justification and blessing.
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They flow exclusively from the unalterable covenant of promise
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given to Abraham, which is eternally filled in Christ, the
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singular seed. Our righteousness is imputed
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through faith, completely apart from the temporary, weak and
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beggarly elements of the Schoolmaster Law.
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So what does this all mean for us today, 2000 years later?
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Well, if the law was instituted to reveal sin and to show the
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need for a mediator, it confirms that our faith is not just a
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path to salvation. It's the absolute criterion for
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recognizing and accepting the salvation that was already
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secured by God's original promise.
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And that's well, Sir. And if we recognize that the
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law, though good, was just a schoolmaster holding us in
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spiritual childhood, we have to ask ourselves how we might be
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tempted to embrace new forms of confinement.
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What practices or rules today which might feel moral or
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dutiful, say obsessive self-discipline or reliance on
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ritual observances? What things might functionally
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become contemporary schoolmasters?
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Acts that attempt to hold you in knowledge in spiritual minority,
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long after faith has come and the Spirit has been received.
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It's a challenging thought. If Christ redeemed you from the
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curse by becoming the curse, any attempt to super add works to
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that finished work is, as Paul argued to the Galatians,
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ultimately foolish and deeply insulting to the grace that set
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you free. The blessing of Abraham is yours
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through promise, not through performance.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the primacy
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of the Promise.