Galatians 3: Living Only for JesusSample

What is the purpose of the law? Firstly, the law is not in competition with faith. In other words, the law is not another way for a person to come to God and be accepted by Him. The only way is by faith. If it had been possible for God to accept us as a result of our obedience to some law, then that’s how it would have been.

But that’s not how it is! We can’t obey. We can’t because we won’t. The real problem is our sin. We are all sinners. If you look up Romans 3:23, you will see that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. I’ll explain.

Have you ever tried archery? How many times have you shot the arrow and missed the target completely? Well, that’s exactly what Romans 3:23 means. We have all ‘missed the mark’ as far as God is concerned. We’ve completely missed the target, let alone the bull’s-eye! 

We are so far short of being the human beings God designed us to be, that we are under His judgement. That’s the real problem. We, and the whole world, are under the power (or the guilt) of sin. We’re all guilty of missing God’s bull’s- eye of a righteous life.

So then, God’s gift of life to us is promised on the basis of faith, not on the basis of trying to obey law. As we have faith in Jesus Christ, so we receive God’s promised blessing. It is given to those who believe (verse 22).

In verses 23 to 25 we see the second thing about law. It has a very important function in that it pushes us into a corner and shows us that we really are sinners. It shows us that we need to be saved. It shows us that we are in need of being salvaged—rescued !

Take a very simple example. When you are asked by someone in authority to do something (and that’s a law to be obeyed) and you deliberately don’t do it, how do you feel? Why do you feel that way? Where does your guilt come from? Can you see that any law which we don’t obey produces guilt in us? It shows up the fact that we’re rebellious and disobedient! 

We would not know that if there were no laws in the world Of course, if we were not sinners, then we’d always obey without question. But because we are sinners, law always stirs up our rebellious nature.

This brings us to the important subject of faith: Faith is not something we’ve got, it’s something we get. FAITH IS A GIFT FROM GOD!

Verse 25 talks about the ‘time for faith’ or ‘now that faith has come’. This refers to the fact that God is the One who gives us faith to believe in Him, and in Christ, and in the Gospel. Look up Ephesians 2:8-9. It says that faith is a gift from God. That’s why we need to be asking God for faith. 

If you find it hard to believe, then ask for faith. If you are having a struggle to accept all that God has done for you, then ask for faith. THE TIME FOR FAITH HAS COME. It is no longer law-way, it is now faith-way. We are accepted by God (justified and made right with Him) through faith in Jesus Christ (verse 24).

Do you remember that in a previous study I talked about Abraham? I said that all those who truly believe are the real descendants of Abraham. Then we saw that Abraham really only had one descendant as far as God is concerned—Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God. 

Jesus was the true descendant of Abraham. Jesus was the true man of faith. Now in verse 26 Paul says an amazing thing. He says that every one of us who truly has faith in Jesus is a son of God ! We are sons and daughters because we are in the Son.

Galatians 2:20 says you have been crucified with Christ and He now lives in you. We have been united to Christ. We have been baptised into Christ. We have been made a part of Him. Or, to say it yet another way, we have put on Christ. He became what we are, so that we can become what He is. He became our sin so that we might receive His righteousness. He became our curse so that we might enjoy His blessing.

This applies to every single person in the world who has faith in Jesus. That means there are no longer any distinctions between persons, races, colour, nationality or anything. We are all in Christ. We are all one in Him. All Christians are accepted by God in exactly the same way. By faith in Jesus Christ. 

All Christians are the true off spring of Abraham. All Christians share in the same promise of blessing that Abraham was given, because’ all Christians have to come to God in the same way that Abraham did—by faith.