Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On the night that God saved me, there was just one thought blaring in my mind.
[00:00:07] If this is true, then this changes everything I have ever thought about Christianity.
[00:00:17] At that time, I was a sophomore in college at a Bible study where a man was sharing the Gospel with us. And like many people in the Bible belts, I was what you might call a cultural Christian.
[00:00:30] When I was around eight years old, I had prayed a prayer and been baptized and started calling myself a Christian. I thought that as long as I was a good person and didn't do anything really bad, then I would go to heaven when I died.
[00:00:45] But there was something missing from my version of Christianity. Something important.
[00:00:52] Something so important that if God had not intervened by his grace, then I would have spent my entire life thinking I was saved and yet spent all eternity in hell.
[00:01:07] What was missing from my version of cultural Christianity was the Gospel, the very Gospel that Paul so clearly explains in this book of Galatians.
[00:01:20] In this section that we looked at last Sunday, Paul declares that we are not saved by our works.
[00:01:29] In other words, we're not saved by our obedience to God's commands, but rather we are saved through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's what was so shocking to me on the night when God saved me. I kept thinking, you mean to tell me that this whole Christianity thing isn't all about what I do or don't do, it's all about trusting in what Jesus has done?
[00:01:56] Well, yes, actually that's what God's word is telling us. But as helpful as that clarification might be to an unsaved cultural Christian, we have to remember that the Apostle Paul did not write this letter first and foremost to unbelievers.
[00:02:13] In the second verse of this book, he tells us exactly who he's writing to. And he tells us that he wrote this book to the churches in Galatia. That means he wrote this letter to Christians. He wrote it to people like us.
[00:02:30] Because understanding the Gospel is not just important for non Christians, it's important for Christians too.
[00:02:39] It's important because we are all prone to fall back into a false version of Christianity where our salvation is based on what we do or don't do.
[00:02:51] The Galatian Christians certainly were. That's why Paul gives them this wake up call at the start of chapter three.
[00:02:59] He's made his point that we are justified, or in other words, that we are declared righteous. Or in other words, that we are saved not by our works, but by faith in Christ.
[00:03:12] Now he's going to make three arguments to support a good argument, a better argument and the best argument.
[00:03:21] Let's start with Paul's good argument that we are saved by faith alone. The good argument is the experience of the Galatians.
[00:03:29] Look with me, beginning in verse one, where Paul starts by crying out in exasperation, o foolish Galatians.
[00:03:38] Now, in the book of Titus, Paul says that once upon a time, before we became Christians, we were all fools. We were all foolish. But he here, he calls the Galatian Christians foolish. Why?
[00:03:54] Because by thinking that they can be saved by their own obedience, they're acting like non Christians. They're acting like fools. Paul says it's as if someone has put a spell on them. He writes, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
[00:04:16] This doesn't mean that the Galatians were literally eyewitnesses of the crucifixion. What it means is that Paul's presentation of the Gospel was so clear, it was so detailed, that it was as if they had seen it with their own eyes.
[00:04:34] Paul starts the following verse by saying, let me ask you only this.
[00:04:38] But then over the course of the next four verses, he asks them a series of five questions.
[00:04:45] These rhetorical questions are all about their experience of salvation. If we pay careful attention to the first and last question, we'll see it's really just one big question.
[00:04:56] And that question is, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
[00:05:05] The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, a divine person? Paul asks, how did the Holy Spirit come into your life? Was it based on what you did, or was it based on what you believed?
[00:05:20] The answer should be obvious. Jesus said to Nicodemus back in the Book of John, chapter three, verse eight, that the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
[00:05:36] So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
[00:05:43] Just like you can't control the wind, you can't control the Holy Spirit. He's God. He does what he wants. And so that means, like all Christians, the Galatians received the Holy Spirit by hearing the Gospel and responding in faith. When you repent and believe in Jesus Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the evidence that you have truly repented and believed in Jesus, that you have been saved, that you have been justified.
[00:06:17] You would have to be foolish to think otherwise, which is why Paul writes in verse three, are you so foolish?
[00:06:23] Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected or could say, are you now finishing by the flesh?
[00:06:31] Their Christian lives began like all Christian lives begin. We were all spiritually dead in our sins, but then when we heard the good news of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit blew away our dead hearts and breathed spiritual life into us by God's grace, so that we responded in faith. It wasn't by our flesh or in other words, by our own effort that we began the Christian life.
[00:07:01] And so it won't be by our own efforts that we finish the Christian life. We can't spiritually pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps. That's why Paul will write something similar in Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6, promising that he that is God, who began a good work in you, he will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ from start to finish. We do not live the Christian life by our own efforts, but by the Spirit. And that's a point that the Apostle Paul is going to hammer home. In Galatians, chapter 5, Paul continues asking about their experience. In verse 4, he asks, did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, this appears to be a reference to persecution, which wouldn't be surprising given the kind of persecution that Paul endured to bring the Gospel to them. We can read in Acts, chapter 13 and 14 how Paul and Barnabas were driven out, how they were mistreated, how they were even stoned as they tried to plant these churches across Galatia.
[00:08:14] So it's very likely that the Galatians experienced some of the same kind of hostility when they became Christian.
[00:08:22] Paul says, why go through all that suffering just to deny the gospel?
[00:08:27] All their suffering would be in vain if they reject the Gospel by relying on their works.
[00:08:34] Then he comes back to a form of the original question in verse five, showing us that this was the main question all along. Verse 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
[00:08:51] Insert the question mark there at the end of verse five, because that's where it is in the original. Several English translations put it there instead of at the end of verse six, because this is the main question.
[00:09:04] Did you receive the Spirit by works or by faith?
[00:09:10] Paul assumes they know the answer to that question based on their own personal experience. They know that it was by faith. They know it, and we know it.
[00:09:21] That is, if we have genuinely experienced it and been saved.
[00:09:28] And there's the rub.
[00:09:30] An argument from experience really only works if you've had the experience.
[00:09:36] For instance, if I were to argue this morning that lomo saltado is the best, best Peruvian meal, then most of you would have no idea what I'm talking about because you've never tried it. You've never experienced it, so you can't relate to it. But if you have been on a mission trip to Peru and you've had that juicy steak sauteed in that soy sauce with those veggies, then you know I'm right. You know, because you've tried it, you've experienced it.
[00:10:06] Well, the same is true for Paul's argument here.
[00:10:09] Some of you don't understand Paul's argument because you've yet to experience what he's talking about.
[00:10:16] Paul's argument is that we know we're saved by faith alone because we receive the Holy Spirit by faith alone. But if you've never received the Holy Spirit, then this won't make a whole lot of sense to you.
[00:10:29] But the good news is you can.
[00:10:32] Paul tells us multiple times how we receive the Holy Spirit. It's by hearing with faith.
[00:10:39] But hearing what?
[00:10:41] Well, he tells us that in Romans, chapter 10, verse 17. He says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Or it could say the word about Christ. The word about Christ is the Gospel. The gospel is the good news that you are not saved by what you do or don't do. You are saved by what Christ has done and your faith in him. He lived the perfect life. You were supposed to live. He died the sinner's death. You were supposed to die. He rose again to life so that now by faith in him, you will have eternal life with him.
[00:11:21] But most of us have believed that gospel.
[00:11:24] We have received the Holy Spirit by faith. We have had that experience of salvation. And we are the ones the Apostle Paul is primarily speaking to here.
[00:11:36] But why?
[00:11:39] Because God knows that in our everyday lives, we are prone to lose sight of the gospel and go back to relying on our own efforts.
[00:11:52] And there are a couple of signs that can show you if this is going on in your heart and life. When we start relying on ourselves to be right with God or to live the Christian life, it will lead to one of two options.
[00:12:06] It will lead to pride, or it will lead to despair.
[00:12:12] Because if you're living the Christian lies in your own power and you're doing well, you're. You're making a lot of progress, then you will take pride in yourself and in your spiritual accomplishments. You'll say, look at me.
[00:12:27] I've been having my quiet time every day. I've been going to church every week I've been serving, every month. I go on a mission trip every single year.
[00:12:40] Just look at me. And you'll take pride in your spiritual progress and look down on others.
[00:12:47] You'll compare yourself to others and be impatient with those who are struggling or who aren't as far along as you are.
[00:12:56] But then, if you're living the Christian life in your own power but you're not doing well, you're not making much progress, then you will be discouraged.
[00:13:05] You'll think, oh, just look at me. I'm still struggling with the same sins I've always been struggling with.
[00:13:13] I'm still not having my quiet time like I should. I'm still not sharing the gospel like I should. I'm still not doing all the things I know I ought to be doing. What's wrong with me?
[00:13:24] And you'll be discouraged by your lack of spiritual progress, and you'll look down on yourself.
[00:13:30] You'll compare yourself to others, and you'll be jealous of those who are making more spiritual progress.
[00:13:37] But if that's you, whether you were taking pride in your spiritual progress or despairing over your lack of progress, if that's you the Apostle Paul says you're foolish Paul is asking you today the same question that he asked the Galatians 2000 years ago. How did you receive the Spirit?
[00:13:59] Was it by works or was it by faith? If your Christian life began by the Spirit, then do you really think you will make it to the end on your own efforts alone? No way.
[00:14:14] It's foolish to think that you're acting like a fool. So stop relying on your own efforts. Stop taking pride that you are good enough. If you are good enough, then Jesus would not have had to die.
[00:14:28] And stop despairing that you're not good enough because Jesus is good enough, and by faith in him, all his goodness is credited to you.
[00:14:39] Your own experience of salvation, of receiving the Holy Spirit, tells you that you are not saved by your effort, but by faith alone.
[00:14:49] That's a pretty good argument, but there's an even better one, and that's the argument from the Blessing of Abraham.
[00:14:56] In the next section, Paul's argument turns from focusing on the Galatians experience to Abraham's blessing.
[00:15:04] Look at what he says in verse 6.
[00:15:06] Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
[00:15:11] This quote comes from Genesis 15, where God promises Abraham that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
[00:15:22] But at that point Abraham was at least 75 years old and had zero offspring.
[00:15:31] But Abraham believed God. He had faith in God, and as a result, God counted it to him as righteousness. In other words, Abraham was justified not by being circumcised. He hadn't been commanded to yet, not by offering his son up. He didn't have one yet. So that makes Abraham an example for how we are all justified, how we are all declared righteous, how we are all saved. We are saved by faith, not by works.
[00:16:06] In verse seven, Paul makes the connection between father Abraham and his many sons.
[00:16:12] Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
[00:16:16] Now, both the Jewish false teachers and the Apostle Paul appealed to Abraham as proof that they were right.
[00:16:26] Essentially, they were both making an argument like father, like son. The Jewish false teachers argued that since Abraham was circumcised, and since all of his sons were circumcised, if you want to be included in the people of God and be right with God, then you need to be circumcised like father, like son. But Paul undermines that argument by pointing out that not even Abraham was circumcised when he was counted right with God. It was by faith alone that he was made the father of the people of God and made right with God.
[00:17:05] Like father, like son.
[00:17:08] The reason he says only sons and not sons and daughters is because in that time and culture, it was the firstborn son who received all the inheritance from their father. In other words, the sons received the blessings.
[00:17:21] So now all those of faith, all those who rely on faith, whether male or female, are counted as sons of Abraham. Both will receive the blessing.
[00:17:33] In verse 8, Paul quotes another word that God spoke to Abraham in Genesis, writing in the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, that is, that God would count them righteous like Abraham by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.
[00:17:56] This promise comes to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 and Genesis 18:18. Paul says it was a form of preaching the gospel. It was a preview of the gospel.
[00:18:08] Just like God made a promise of the gospel at the fall in Genesis 3:15, which when he promised that an offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, so God makes another gospel promise to Abraham, that in him, that is, through his offspring, all the nations will be blessed. Now, Abraham didn't know at that time what exactly that would look like or how that was all going to work itself out, but he had faith in God that it would.
[00:18:40] On this side of the cross, we now know the fullness of the gospel. That God's promise to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus, the perfect son of Abraham, who blesses all the nations with his perfect righteousness through faith in him.
[00:19:00] So Paul says as he concludes this section in verse nine.
[00:19:03] So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
[00:19:09] As we saw back in verse seven, those who are of faith are those who rely on faith. Both Jews and Gentiles, both men and women who believe the gospel like Abraham will be blessed like Abraham. He was blessed by faith, and we are blessed by faith.
[00:19:29] Like Father, like son.
[00:19:31] The good news that we are blessed by faith in Jesus and not by our own works and changes everything about how you respond to the blessings in your life.
[00:19:44] Another way you can practically tell if you've forgotten the gospel and you're living by your own efforts or that you're living by your own performance is by how you respond to God's blessings.
[00:19:57] Think about it. If you're living by your own efforts and you're discouraged, then how will you respond to blessings?
[00:20:06] You'll think, I don't deserve this. I haven't done enough.
[00:20:11] So you'll try to make it up to God by being a better person, or by trying to do more good works, or trying to avoid doing bad things. You'll try to pray more, read the Bible more, get angry less, cuss less.
[00:20:26] You'll try to make it up to God by being a good person. Or if that doesn't work, you'll try to make it up to God by beating yourself up and being harder on yourself.
[00:20:37] What often ends up happening is that you become suspicious of God's blessings.
[00:20:44] Something good might happen to you. Maybe you get a blessing of some sort. Maybe you get a raise. Maybe the test results come back better than you thought they were. And instead of delighting in that blessing and praising God for it, you're suspicious. You're wondering, what's the catch here?
[00:21:02] You're looking over your shoulder, wondering if this means that a trial is about to head your way.
[00:21:08] You can't enjoy the blessings God gives you because you think that you haven't done enough to deserve them.
[00:21:15] Your despair over your works makes you depressed and anxious.
[00:21:21] But the same is true if you're the person living by your own efforts and you're proud of your accomplishments.
[00:21:27] When God's blessings come to you, you'll think, it's about time.
[00:21:33] I deserve more of this. What took so long? Just look at all that I've been doing.
[00:21:38] And if that's where you're at, then Nothing will ever be good enough for you.
[00:21:43] You won't become suspicious of God's blessings. You'll become critical of them.
[00:21:50] You'll always be wondering, why am I not getting more of the things that I want?
[00:21:55] Why am I not getting the job that I want? Why am I not getting the grade that I want? Why didn't I get to retire like I wanted? Why don't I get to see the grandkids as much as I've wanted? You can't enjoy the blessings God gives you because you think you deserve more.
[00:22:13] Your pride in your works makes you entitled and discontented.
[00:22:19] But why? Why can neither the proud person nor the despairing person enjoy the blessings of God?
[00:22:29] Because in their heart they have the exact same problem.
[00:22:36] They have forgotten the gospel.
[00:22:40] They've slipped back into thinking that God blesses us based on our performance. But that's not true.
[00:22:46] The Gospel says, you are blessed with the greatest blessing of all time. You are blessed with salvation not by what you do, but by what Jesus has done.
[00:22:59] You're not saved by your works. You're not blessed by your works. And what's true of the greatest blessing is true of all the other blessings. In a sense, the discouraged person is right. You don't deserve any blessings.
[00:23:13] But what they get wrong is they think that trying harder is the solution.
[00:23:18] But what God's word is telling us right here in Galatians 3 is that the solution is to believe in Jesus.
[00:23:27] You don't deserve any blessings, but Jesus does. He deserves all of them. And by faith in him you are united to him. By faith in him you are a son of Abraham, and as a son you receive the blessings. So you are free to enjoy them and praise God for them.
[00:23:49] There are no strings attached.
[00:23:52] That's Paul's second argument, his better argument. But the best argument that we are saved by faith and not by works is not the blessing of Abraham, it's the cursing of Christ.
[00:24:05] Look with me at this final section, verses 10 through 14.
[00:24:09] We'll start with verse 10.
[00:24:11] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law and do them in verses 6 through 9. Paul was focused on blessing, but now he's focused on cursing.
[00:24:29] The original words in Greek and Hebrew for being cursed carry the idea of being deep doomed.
[00:24:36] Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 here to argue that there is no hope for those who rely on their obedience because they must obey perfectly Notice the verse says, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law and do them. Since none of us obey all the commands of God perfectly all the time, Paul says, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
[00:25:09] If we're relying on our own obedience to get to heaven, we're all doomed.
[00:25:15] Because Romans 3:23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[00:25:23] Paul continues in verse 11 by quoting another one of his favorite verses, this time from Habakkuk.
[00:25:29] Now. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
[00:25:38] The word evident there means plain. It means it's clear. It's obvious. Paul says that we can't be justified before God by the law because that's not how God's justification works. We cannot live by the law because of our disobedience. We are cursed by the law. That means if we would be declared righteous, we must live by Faith.
[00:26:04] In verse 12, Paul writes, But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.
[00:26:11] What he means is that the law is not based on faith, it's based on obedience. That's why he quotes this verse from Leviticus 18:5. Paul is making it clear that there are only two options.
[00:26:24] You can put your faith in your imperfect obedience to God's law and be cursed, or you can put your faith in Christ's perfect obedience and be blessed. The reason why you can be blessed, even though you deserve to be cursed, is because of what we read in the very next verse, verse 13.
[00:26:48] Christ redeemed us.
[00:26:51] It means he delivered us. He liberated us. He freed us from the curse of the law. How? The verse continues by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
[00:27:07] Paul is just piling on the scripture quotations in this section because he wants to show the Galatians that what he's arguing is not merely his own opinion.
[00:27:20] It's based on the Bible. And what the Bible says in Deuteronomy is that a hanged man is cursed by God. The original Greek and Hebrew words for tree both refer interchangeably to the living plant and to the wood it produces. So it doesn't matter if you were hanged by a rope on an actual tree or if you were hanged by nails on the wood of a tree. Either way, you're still cursed by God. So don't miss what Paul is saying here.
[00:27:51] What he's saying is that Jesus took the curse of death, so we get the blessing of life.
[00:28:03] Jesus took the curse of our disobedience to the law, so we get the blessing of his obedience to the law.
[00:28:14] But that's not all Paul is saying.
[00:28:16] Because notice what the verse says. It doesn't merely say, christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being cursed.
[00:28:25] It says, christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse.
[00:28:31] That original word means to experience a change in nature. It means to enter into a new condition.
[00:28:40] That's why the King James Version translates this phrase, being made a curse.
[00:28:47] That means on the cross.
[00:28:49] It wasn't simply that something happened to Jesus.
[00:28:55] He became something.
[00:28:58] It wasn't simply that he received a curse.
[00:29:03] He became accursed.
[00:29:06] Paul says something similar in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where he writes, for our sake he made him, that is Jesus. God the Son, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Do you know what that means?
[00:29:29] It means on the cross, Jesus became our substitute.
[00:29:36] It's true that Jesus took your curse so that by faith you will be blessed. But even more than that, what it means is that Jesus took your place so that by faith in him, you get his place.
[00:29:51] We are the accursed sons of Adam. That's our condition. That's who we have become by our sin. But Jesus is the eternally blessed Son of God.
[00:30:04] And on the cross, the Blessed One switched places with the cursed ones, so that now by faith in him, we become the blessed ones. So being blessed is not simply what happens to us. That's true. We do receive blessings. But more than that, we become blessed. We are blessed. That means blessed is our eternal condition, our eternal identity. It's who we are now and forever and ever by faith in Jesus.
[00:30:41] That's what we see in verse 14. Jesus was cursed, so that here comes the purpose. So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. And what is that blessing? The rest of the verse says, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
[00:31:01] The blessing of Abraham is the Holy Spirit. So the passage comes full circle. Paul answers his original question from back in verse two. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing? With faith, Christ became accursed, so that we become blessed with the Holy Spirit through faith. And nothing can ever change that.
[00:31:29] Because as the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1:13, 14, in him, that is, in Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
[00:31:55] Did you catch that?
[00:31:56] We don't just receive the Holy Spirit by hearing the gospel with faith. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit by hearing with faith. And how long are we sealed? Paul tells us, until we acquire possession of our inheritance, our inheritance of eternal life. That means once sealed, always sealed. If you have become blessed with the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ, that is your eternal condition and nothing can ever change that.
[00:32:33] Which makes all the difference for how we respond to the trials in this life, doesn't it?
[00:32:39] We already saw how the Gospel changes how we respond to the blessings, to the good times.
[00:32:45] But the Gospel also changes how we respond to the bad times.
[00:32:50] When trials come into the life of a despairing person living by their own efforts, then they will think that they deserve it. They feel like they deserve bad things to happen to them because of all the bad things they've done or because they haven't done enough good things.
[00:33:07] They feel like they deserve this suffering because they're not a good enough Christian, because they haven't been a good enough moment. They haven't been a good enough dad or a good enough child or a good enough student or a good enough employee.
[00:33:21] They think they deserve to be cursed because they think they're a failure.
[00:33:27] But the proud person living by their own efforts can't handle trials either. Because when bad things happen to them, they think they don't deserve it. They think to themselves, why is this happening to me?
[00:33:41] Look at all I've done. I don't deserve this.
[00:33:44] They might be having a hard time with their kids. Maybe their kids are grown now and they've turned their back on Christ and on the church. And they think, I don't get it.
[00:33:54] Why is this happening? I took them to church every Sunday morning. I took them to youth group every Sunday night. I took them to Awana every Wednesday evening. I did family devotions all the time. I deserve better kids than this.
[00:34:09] Or if they're having some kind of financial setback, some kind of financial struggle, they might think to themselves, this isn't fair.
[00:34:18] I mean, come on. I tithe my money. I use a budgeting app. I listen to Dave Ramsey. I followed the seven baby steps. I don't deserve this.
[00:34:30] But just like we've seen before, the gospel is the only thing that can actually humble our pride and encourage our hearts. At the exact same time, when trials come, you might Feel like you're being cursed, but the Gospel reminds you that Jesus took the curse.
[00:34:53] Jesus became accursed so that you will be blessed.
[00:34:58] So if you're a Christian, then no matter what happens to you, you aren't being cursed.
[00:35:07] You are being sanctified.
[00:35:11] You are being made more like Jesus, like a precious metal. You are being purified through the fires of affliction, as 1st Peter 1:7 says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[00:35:39] So if you are a Christian, if you have received the Holy Spirit, then your suffering will not be in vain.
[00:35:49] The Gospel reminds you that you are eternally blessed by faith in Christ. So no matter how hard your life gets, no matter how bad it gets, you will not melt.
[00:36:06] You will be purified by the power of the Spirit. You will be made spiritually stronger, better, more like Jesus. Somehow, some way, God will work all things for your good.
[00:36:24] Do you see why we need to be reminded of the Gospel even as Christians? Do you see how practical this is?
[00:36:31] If you are living life based not on your own efforts, but by faith in Christ, then it will humble you when you are tempted to pride, and it will encourage you when you are tempted to despair. It will change how you approach the good days and the bad days and every day in between.
[00:36:52] We need to be constantly reminded that we are justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, so that we don't slip back into a false version of cultural Christianity where it's all about us and what we do or don't do.
[00:37:09] You see, before God saved me, the doctrine of justification by faith was completely missing from my understanding of Christianity.
[00:37:18] But there was even a deeper problem than that.
[00:37:22] The deeper problem was not that something was missing from my version of Christianity.
[00:37:29] It was that someone was missing.
[00:37:33] What was missing from my version of Christianity was Christ.
[00:37:38] If you can be saved by works of the law, by your own obedience, then you don't need Jesus.
[00:37:44] You don't need him to become accursed so that you can become blessed. You just need to try to be a good person.
[00:37:52] But God's word makes it clear that's not going to work.
[00:37:56] Paul argues from the experience of the Galatians, from the blessing of Abraham, and from the cursing of Christ, that we cannot and will not be saved by our works, but by faith alone in Christ, alone by God's grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:38:16] We know that that gospel is true, and we know that it changes everything.
