Unshackled #5
The Lure of Legalism
Galatians 3:1-14 (NKJV)
1. Personal (1-2) – Paul shares his personal experience with Christ
- False teachers attempted to discredit the message of the Gospel by discrediting the messenger
2. Doctrinal (3-4) – Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
- The false teachers were called Judaizers and they taught that Christ was not enough, salvation
included both Christ and works
3. Practical (5-6) – God’s grace and salvation lead to godly living
- While we don’t rely on godly living for our salvation, we respond with it
Six Questions (v. 1-5)
Galatians 3:1-5 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?
1. “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (v. 1)
2. “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (v. 2)
3. “Are you so foolish?” (v. 3)
4. “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (v. 3)
5. “Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” (v. 4)
6. “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?” (v. 5)
Six Old Testament Scriptures (v. 6-14)
Galatians 3:6-14 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. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Deuteronomy 27:26 ‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ”
Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
