The Principle of Spiritual Power: Bonus Material

Hey everybody, welcome to my book-strewn office. I'm so glad you could be here. I decided to add some extra bonus video content to this week's message because Paul has this intricate, complicated, intellectual argument in the last several verses of Galatians 3 that we just didn't have time to do justice to in the message.

So I want to cover those with you today because these are hugely important. I think that they answer what you could call the top three questions that a lot of people have about the Christian faith. Question number one, why believe in Christ when there are much older religions? Question number two, why can't I just try to be a good person and get to heaven through good works? Question number three, if you're saying that I'm saved by grace, then what's the point of the Ten Commandments? What's the point of the Jewish law? Are you saying that that stuff is not just outdated but bad? Is this a grace versus law thing? Is this an anti-Semitic thing? These are really important questions to answer.

They're questions people have today and they're questions people had way back in Paul's day as well. So let's go through these things. If you have your Bible, open them to Galatians 3. We're going to start in verse 6 because starting there, Paul answers the first of those three questions. Why believe in Christ when there are much older religions, specifically the Jewish faith? And Paul answers this way. Actually, the gospel of grace is more ancient than the law of Moses. And I would argue that he's implying is more ancient than any other ancient faith system.

Look at this, Galatians 3, starting in verse 6. Consider Abraham, Paul says. And then he starts quoting one Hebrew scripture after another, one Old Testament passage after another. He says, "He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham. The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations, all nations, every society on the planet, all cultures, all nations will be blessed through you.

Paul goes on, "So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." He's saying that his opponents were arguing that this whole Jesus idea was a new idea and Moses was much more ancient than Jesus. So people should just forget about Jesus, follow Moses, follow the Old Testament law. And Paul's saying, "Listen, Abraham, who was also a patriarch, the Jews and many others like to say we are children of Abraham." Paul is saying, "God saved Abraham by grace through faith, 430 years before the law was given to Moses."

In fact, that's what he says in verse 17. What I mean is this, the law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. He's saying Abraham was saved by faith in God's grace. That was always God's plan. Grace is not a new idea. Grace was the first idea.

All right? Then the second question people have, a lot of people, is why can't I just try to be a good person? Forget all the 10 Commandments stuff, forget all the Jesus stuff, forget all the religious stuff. I'll just try real hard to just be good and maybe use the 10 Commandments as a guideline, right? Well, Paul kind of addresses this and says it's impossible to earn God's favor through good works because nobody's perfect.

He says in Galatians 3:10, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.'" So clearly no one is justified before God by the law because the righteous will live by faith. And there again he's quoting Habakkuk, a prophet, and saying it's always been God's plan to save us by faith, not by observing the law or any other religious good deeds.

Because to get to heaven, an ultimately holy place, your soul would have to be completely holy, completely perfect, and nobody's completely perfect. And he says if you rely on observing the Old Testament law for salvation, then you're never going to make it because nobody can keep that formula perfectly. But that begs the question, why then did God give the 10 Commandments? Why did God give the law of Moses? Why did God set up a temple if we're saved by grace through faith? Are you saying that the law is bad?

And Paul answers the question this way. He's not saying the law is bad. He's saying the law had a purpose, but its purpose is not and never has been to save people. So what was the purpose of the law? Well, for two reasons. Number one, to hold back evil, basically to keep human civilization alive until the time was ripe for Jesus Christ.

I want you to think about this. In the first century Roman era, that was the first time in human history that a message could really spread like wildfire, because for the first time there was a network of international highways. For the first time there was a globally known international language, Koine Greek. For the first time, people were really prepared to receive the gospel message in one generation.

Before the first century Roman era, Jesus probably would have just been a local phenomenon. It wouldn't have been able to spread like wildfire, and that's why God introduced the law to kind of keep evil in check until the time was right for the Messiah. That's basically what Paul says in verse 19 of chapter 3. What then was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.

And then it was also here to lead us to Christ by helping us understand we are not holy. We are unworthy to come into God's presence by our own good deeds. Verse 24, so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But next verse, verse 25, now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

Now why is this complicated argument important? Because to this day there are very religious people who will come up to you and tell you you need to keep all these Old Testament laws. And they'll quote Old Testament dietary laws. They'll quote all kinds of Old Testament law, and they will say unless you keep these laws perfectly, you are not saved. You are not going to heaven.

Or maybe you can't receive the extra special second blessing of God, and they will introduce a legalistic religion. And so you need to know the purpose of the law. It is not to save us. It is there to lead us to Christ. It's not a matter of grace versus law, though. That's very important because if you get this wrong, you could veer off into all kinds of bizarre, even anti-Semitism, because you can come off as being against Judaism, against the law of Moses.

Paul clarifies that is not the case here. We are not against anybody. We're not against the law of Moses. The law has a purpose. The law had a purpose, but its purpose was not to save us. We have always been saved purely by God's grace through faith. Very important. Hope that makes sense for you.