Grace in Galatians (Part 205) – Grace Came Before The Law

https://youtu.be/QR6GHNLluq0?si=FjHBs60XTdJRsXcj

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

As part of this series, I have taught a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians. We have now studied every verse in the letter. Over the next two weeks, we are recapping the entire book.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

Galatians 3:3 TPT“Your new life in the Anointed One began with the Holy Spirit giving you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?”

Galatians 3:13-14 TPT“Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: ‘Everyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed.’ Jesus, our Messiah, was cursed in our place and in so doing, dissolved the curse from our lives, so that all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon non-Jewish believers.”

Galatians 3:17-18 TPT“Here’s what I mean: The Law, which came 430 years after God’s covenant with Abraham, cannot cancel the earlier promise of inheritance that he made. For if our inheritance is dependent on keeping the Law, it is no longer based on the promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.”

Supporting scriptures:

Galatians 3:2 ERV“I want to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the Good News and believed it.”

Galatians 3:6 TPT“Abraham, for example, ‘believed God and God, regarding him as righteous, accepted him as his friend.'”

Galatians 3:7-9 TPT“If you are to understand this properly, you must realize that those who continue to have faith are the true sons of Abraham… It’s true—all who choose to live in faith will be blessed along with Abraham, who chose to live in faith.”

Galatians 3:14 ERV“Christ did this so that God’s blessing promised to Abraham might come through Jesus Christ to those who are not Jews. Jesus died so that by believing we could have the Spirit that God promised.”

Galatians 3:26 TPT“You have all become true children of God by the faith of Jesus Christ!”

Galatians 3:29 TPT“And since we belong to Christ, we are the true descendants of Abraham who inherit the blessings of the promise given to him!”

Setting the Stage:

Today, we continue our recap of Galatians. We walked back through chapters 1 and 2 so far. Chapter 3 is the doctrinal heart of the letter. This is where Paul reaches all the way back to Abraham. This is where he proves that grace was not invented in the New Testament. Grace was God’s plan from the beginning. The Law came 430 years after God made His covenant of promise with Abraham, and that means the Law was never the foundation. The promise came first, before the Law. I remember when I brought this up in the series. Many people were amazed because they had never thought about the fact that Abraham was not under the Law. They did not realize that the Law came 430 years after Abraham. Let’s talk about it.

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. You Started In The Spirit, So Continue In The Spirit.

Paul opens chapter 3 with a slap in the face to hopefully wake them up. He said, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Paul was shocked at how quickly they had drifted. He asks them a question that should rattle every believer who has slipped back into performance. Did you receive the Spirit by keeping the Law, or by hearing with faith? You started in the Spirit. Why are you now trying to be perfected by the flesh? Here is the principle Paul is hammering. The way you started is the way you continue. You did not enter this life by your human effort. Therefore, you will not be perfected (to become righteous) by your human effort either. This is a major point.

How this applies to you:

— Grace came before the Law. Grace was God’s first move toward humanity. The Law showed up 430 years later, and it was never meant to replace what grace established.

— Galatians 3:3 TPT says, “Your new life in the Anointed One began with the Holy Spirit giving you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?” The point Paul is bringing up makes a lot of sense. The Christian life is not designed to start in the Spirit (when you are born again), but then finish in the flesh (living your life based on human effort and performance-based religion). 

— When I first got born again, this didn’t make sense to me either. I was told that all of my sins prior to the night I got born again on August 27, 1995, were forgiven. From then on out, I needed to live right in order to stay saved. If I didn’t live right, I was going to lose my salvation and go to hell. It didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now. 

— I want you to picture a believer who got saved at an altar by simply receiving Jesus. No performance. No striving. Just faith in what Jesus did. He walked out of that altar light, free and full of joy. Then religion got hold of him. He started measuring his standing with God by his quiet time, his church attendance, and his moral scorecard. And one slow drift at a time, the Spirit-led life was traded for a performance-based life. This is what Paul is bringing up here, and he tells us NOT to live this way.

— The way you entered this life is the way you live this life.

— You did not start by works, so do not try to finish by works.

— Galatians 3:2 ERV says, “Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the Good News and believed it.” Read that. You believed it. The Spirit responds to faith, not to performance. God’s power flows through faith, not through striving.

— Walk into today, living the same way you started. You started by grace through faith. Continue by grace through faith. This is how we are supposed to live.

2. Like Abraham, You Are Made Right By Believing In God, Not By Your Performance.

After scolding the Galatians, Paul takes them back. Way back. He goes back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith. He asked them (and us) to look at how Abraham was made right with God. Did Abraham earn it? Did Abraham obey his way into right standing? No. The Bible says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” That happened hundreds of years before the Law was even given. Right standing with God has always come the same way it comes today. By believing what God says. Abraham believed God, and God counted him righteous. You believe God, and God counts you righteous, too.

How this applies to you:

— Right standing with God has always come by faith, never by works.

— Galatians 3:6 TPT says, “Abraham, for example, ‘believed God and God, regarding him as righteous, accepted him as his friend.'” It does not say that Abraham obeyed God perfectly (and we know he did not). It does not say that Abraham performed a prerequisite amount of flawless religious activity (and we know he did not do that either). Abraham simply took God at His word, and God called it righteousness.

— Faith is simply taking God at His word.

— Galatians 3:7-9 TPT says, “those who continue to have faith are the true sons of Abraham… all who choose to live in faith will be blessed along with Abraham.” Not by bloodline. Not by religion. Not by performance. No. By faith! If you have faith in Jesus Christ, the same blessing God promised Abraham flows down through history straight to you.

— I want you to picture Abraham as an old man under a starry sky. God tells him, “Count the stars if you can, so shall your descendants be.” Abraham had no son. His body was as good as dead. The promise made no natural sense. But Abraham looked at the stars, and he believed God. The Bible does not say Abraham did anything. It says Abraham believed. And believing was enough.

— Believing is the highest form of activity, because it agrees with what God already said.

— Walk into today knowing that you and Abraham received your right standing the very same way. Abraham believed God. You believed God. And in both cases, God counted that faith as righteousness.

3. Christ Redeemed You From The Curse Of The Law.

This is one of the heaviest verses in the Bible, and Paul drops it right in the middle of chapter 3. He says everyone who tries to live by the Law is under a curse, because no one can keep it perfectly. But Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. Jesus did not just teach us about grace. He did not just model love. He took on Himself the full curse of the Law so that the blessing of Abraham could flow to everyone who believes. The cross was a transaction. He took your curse. You took His blessing. That is the gospel in one sentence.

How this applies to you:

— Jesus took your curse so that you could take His blessing. That’s grace!

— Galatians 3:13-14 TPT says, “Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as he became a curse in our place… Jesus, our Messiah, was cursed in our place and in so doing, dissolved the curse from our lives, so that all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon non-Jewish believers.” Read those words. Absorbed the curse. Jesus did not just protect you from the curse. He absorbed it into Himself until there was nothing left.

— The curse has been dissolved. So please stop living like you are under it.

— I want you to picture the cross. On one side, the full weight of every broken commandment and every failed performance. On the other side, the full blessing of Abraham is promised to anyone who believes. Jesus stretches out His arms and bridges the two. He takes the curse onto Himself, and He hands you the blessing. That is what happened at Calvary. That is what is yours by faith.

— You did nothing to deserve the curse Jesus took (you were born that way). And you did nothing to earn the blessing Jesus gave (you were simply born again).

— Galatians 3:14 ERV says, “Christ did this so that God’s blessing promised to Abraham might come through Jesus Christ to those who are not Jews. Jesus died so that by believing we could have the Spirit that God promised.” Did you catch the requirement? It is BY BELIEVING! Faith is the only thing that activates what grace has already provided.

— Walk into today knowing that the curse cannot curse you. Jesus already absorbed it. What is yours by faith is the blessing of Abraham, the gift of the Spirit, and right standing with God (righteousness). Receive it by faith.

4. The Promise Came First.

This is the legal argument Paul makes in chapter 3, and it is a brilliant argument. He reminds the Galatians that God’s covenant of promise with Abraham came 430 years before the Law was given to Moses. The Law cannot annul the promise. You cannot show up centuries later and add new conditions to a covenant that was already established. God’s primary way of relating to humanity has always been promise, not Law. Grace, not works. Faith, not performance. 

How this applies to you:

— Galatians 3:17-18 TPT says, “The Law, which came 430 years after God’s covenant with Abraham, cannot cancel the earlier promise of inheritance that he made… God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.” Read that again: The Law cannot cancel the promise. 430 years separate the two. The Law shows up centuries late and has no authority to rewrite what grace has already established.

— Grace was not God’s plan B; grace was always His plan A.

— I want you to picture a believer who keeps trying to qualify for God’s blessings by his behavior. He thinks if he can just be good enough, holy enough, religious enough, then God will finally release the promises (or the blessing). But God did not give him the promises through the Law. God gave them through Abraham, by promise. So all his striving and stressing are causing him to work for something he already inherited by faith.

— You do not qualify for the promise by your performance; you inherit the promise by faith.

— Galatians 3:29 TPT says, “since we belong to Christ, we are the true descendants of Abraham who inherit the blessings of the promise given to him!” By faith, you are wired into the Abrahamic covenant. Every blessing God promised Abraham is part of your inheritance because you are in Christ.

— Walk into today resting in the promise that predates the Law. The Law was a tutor; a babysitter. The promise is the inheritance. And in Christ Jesus, the promise is available to everyone (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, etc.) who believes. This is #TheGraceLife.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that I started in the Spirit, and I continue in the Spirit!

The same grace that saved me is the same grace that sustains me!

Like Abraham, I am made right with You by believing what You said!

Jesus took my curse so I could take His blessing!

The curse has been dissolved and has no claim on my life!

I am a true descendant of Abraham through my faith in Jesus!

Every blessing promised to Abraham is mine by faith!

The promise came first, and the promise always wins!

I do not qualify by Law; I inherit by faith!

I am living THE GRACE LIFE, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!