Justification By Faith In Galatians by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Abraham: The Pattern of Justification by Faith

Galatians 3:6-7. Paul reaches for Abraham specifically because the false teachers troubling the Galatian church, the Judaizers, claimed their own legitimacy through physical descent from Abraham and the law given through Moses. Paul's answer: sonship to Abraham was never about descent or circumcision. It was always about faith, and circumcision was only ever a sign pointing to that faith, not the substance of it.

If you claim to be a son of Abraham, you have to walk like Abraham walked, believing God. Jesus made the same argument to the Pharisees in John 8, telling them they were of their father the devil because they behaved like him. Descent and religious pedigree mean nothing if the behavior contradicts the claim.

The Law Demands Perfect Obedience, Which No One Can Give

Romans 3:23. The law demands perfect and total obedience, and because no one keeps the law perfectly, the law was never capable of producing righteousness in anyone. It could only expose the need for it. Galatians 3:24 calls the law our schoolmaster, meant to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Its purpose was never to save; it was to point.

Bought to Be Used, Not Merely Rescued

When you purchase something, you don't buy it simply to leave it where it was. You take it into your own possession specifically because you intend to use it. If Christ has bought you out of slavery, out of the curse, out of sin, it's because He intends to use you, and what theology calls that intended use is holiness. The Hebrew word behind holiness, kadosh, means set apart. When Moses approached the burning bush, God told him to take off his sandal, because the ground he stood on was holy, set apart specifically because of God's presence in it, not because of anything inherently different about the ground itself.

What It Means to Be Blessed, and What It Means to Be Cursed

Galatians 3:13-14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. To be cursed, in this sense, is to be separated from God; to be blessed is to receive the Holy Spirit, the actual blessing promised to Abraham. Hebrews 11:39 notes that even the great heroes of faith listed in that chapter did not receive the fullness of the promise in their own lifetime. It was always meant to be received together with us, through the same Spirit now made available in Christ.