Galatians 3:18 - And the winner is...

"For if out of law [is] the inheritance, [it is] no longer out of promise.  But to Abraham through a promise God has graciously given [it]."

-Where there are sons - and sons of sons (i.e. descendants), there are heirs.  And as Paul just pointed out (Galatians 3.7), we - those who are of the faith of Abraham - are sons (and daughters) of Abraham.  God’s promise to Abraham was not only one of blessing but also descendants, that Abraham would have innumerable descendants, too many to count (Genesis 13.16, 15.5, 16.10).  Surely the two go hand in hand.  Yes, we do read of physical descendants who would possess the land of Canaan (Genesis 17.8 et al) and who would observe the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17.10) and who would be named through Isaac (Genesis 17.19).  Yet the spiritual blessing of justification through faith to all nations would be conveyed by those who circumcise not their bodies but their hearts, carried in the hearts and by the feet and lips of those Gentiles (as well as Jews) who become a spiritual son (or daughter) of Abraham when they trust in the Lord just as Abraham did.

-In this instance (and in every other), the law and the promise are antithetical, diametrically opposed.  It's the law versus the promise, and there's not room enough in this town for the both of them.  They are mutually exclusive, entirely incompatible.  Law-based righteousness comes entirely on the basis of works.  Self-effort - it is merit-based.  At least that's the idea - it sounds good in theory but real life applications are fundamentally flawed.  Work hard, work harder - and make yourself perfect.  Perfect enough to be right in God's eyes.  Ain't gonna happen.  Whereas promised-based righteousness comes strictly on the basis of faith.  It is grace-based.  That is the word which Paul uses here - grace.  A grace gift, this, this right-standing with God.  Free, overflowing, underserved favor, straight from the heart and hand of God Himself.   And the winner is... you.  And me.  And anyone who takes their stand not on flawed works but on the steady and sure promise of almighty God.

Galatians 3:17 - Promise vs Law

"But this I am saying: a covenant having been previously ratified by God, the law having come to be four hundred and thirty years after, is not canceling unto the to be nullifying the promise.’

-Now Paul summarizes.  Recall that there were those who were insisting to these Galatian believers that the covenant promise required one to be circumcised and to observe the entirety of the Mosaic law.  Every last jot and tittle.  On this point, they were sadly mistaken.  The law was given after the exodus, more than four hundred years after God made this great promise of blessing and justification by faith to Abraham.  And since - as we have just seen - one does not ever set aside or add conditions to a covenant, especially not one which has been ratified by God Himself, there can be no way on earth (or in heaven for that matter) that what was given to Moses and to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai as they prepared to take possession of the land of Canaan was binding on those who would lay hold of the promise and blessing of Abraham.  There is no universe in which the law would ever supercede or cancel out or otherwise nullify this promise God made to Abraham the believer, the man of faith, the father of the faith-ful.  The promise of being made completely right with God, in His eyes, by faith alone still stands intact.  It came first, and it still does.  It is still fully in force, for anyone who would believe - like Abraham.

Galatians 3:16 - No limits.

"...in order that He should give to you according to the riches of the glory of Him power to be strengthened through the Spirit of Him unto the inner man..."

-Power.  Limitless, life-changing, mind-blowing inexhaustible Power.  The same Power which placed a billion trillion stars throughout the universe and which sustains them still today, each blazing giant giving off power equivalent to a million atom bombs every second of every day since the beginning of time, this same Power is available to me every second of every day.  Power to love.  Power to serve.  Power to give.  Power to forgive.  Just a tiny morsel of this hyper-nuclear stuff is more than enough to set off a miracle - to heal, to move mountains, to tear down walls and rebuild a broken heart, to change a life or the world forever.  These are the greater works which Christ Himself promised (John 14.12).  This is the Power which raised Jesus from the dead. This is the very same Power which is at work in the lives of those who believe in Him.  This is the Power which Paul is entreating the Father to be detonating in the lives of these believers.  No limits.

-The extent of God's ability to answer Paul's prayer and empower these believers (and us!) is tied to the riches of His glory.  Here again, limitless.  Unfathomable, and breathtakingly great.  It will never, ever run out.  But this answer will also conform to God's glorious riches.  When the Power goes off (i.e. is exploding) in and through my life, there will be no other explanation other than that God did it.  The results themselves will take your breath away, and will show off how truly great and indescribably good God really is.  No limits.

-Two keys then to unlock this supernatural display of God's power in my inner being, as Paul puts it, in and through my life.  The first we have seen, and that is prayer.  Like Paul, on our knees, dependent, more than just a little dab'll do ya.  How much more?  Simply more.  Always more, until we are praying without ceasing (!Thessalonians 5.17).  Prayer is the fundamental currency with which we conduct the business of Heaven, energized by faith, deposited in the divine "bank" of Almighty God and His Word, trustworthy beyond measure.  Suffice it to say that you and I and all God's people most likely fall way short in leveraging this first key.  As it turns out, the second key is the Spirit, Who actually helps us with the first key (cf Romans 8.26).  He is the Promised Helper, the One Who Jesus so eagerly wanted to send in His place and into the heart of each and every person who trusts in Him.  He is called the Spirit of Power.  And each and every time He shows up and goes off we see the miraculously inexplicable, things which are humanly impossible but which are entirely possible with God (Mark 10.27).  And to the extent that my life does not fit well into the garb of greater works, it is highly probable that I need to closely consider whether I might not be able to benefit from a bit more knee-bowing and Spirit-empowering, more of the Spirit in my life.  Or rather He gets more of me... No limits.

"The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him..." -Henry Varley to D.L. Moody

Galatians 3:15 - Promises on steroids?

"Brothers, according to man I am saying.  Yet [even] a covenant of man having been ratified, no one is rejecting or adding to."

-A covenant.  A covenant.  I don’t think that means what we think it means.  In fact we have a very dim idea of what it means.  The dictionary defines it simply as 'an agreement’.  And yet moderns have rather little reluctance to modify or otherwise abrogate "an agreement".  Our word is no longer our bond.  Anymore, you can’t take it to the bank, or to the store, or anyplace else, much less to a neighbor.

-Covenants were promises on steroids.  They were solemn oaths, inaugurated and ratified by death, a rather violent sacrifice and shedding of blood, the victim literally being cut into two and the covenanters passing between the two halves (this picture is plausibly where English gets the phrase, to cut a deal).  Nevertheless, a covenant, once ratified, was both irrevocable and unalterable.  Even when made under false pretenses, both parties were under obligation to respect the covenant (cf Joshua 9.22-23, 2Samuel 21.1).  Indeed, there were curses for breaking a covenant, as well as blessings for keeping it (thus we see the covenant between God and His people, the blessing for keeping the law and the curse for breaking it - Deuteronomy 11.26-28).  To Paul’s point tho, even on a strictly human level, modifying or altering a covenant was a no-no, inconceivable.  And so the implication then is that at a much higher level, there is not even the slightest chance of God ever breaking or otherwise altering any one of His promises.  And you can take that to the bank...

Galatians 3:14 - Heavenly Alley Oops

"...in order that unto the nations the blessing of Abraham should come in Christ Jesus, in order that the promise of the Spirit we should receive through the faith."

-The direct fulfillment of Genesis 22.18, this - “All the nations will be blessed IN YOUR SEED”.  THE Seed is Jesus Messiah, the Son of God and the Coming One, prophesied Descendant of Abraham the believer, the man of faith.  And thus ALL those believing with the faith of Abraham become his descendants, his spiritual sons and daughters, and he becomes the father of many nations.  In fact, he will be the spiritual father of all the nations, since there will be believers from every nation under heaven gathered around the throne of heaven.

-What is the blessing of Abraham exactly?  No doubt it is forgiveness, and a forever restored relationship with my heavenly Father, but wait, there’s more!  Paul specifically says here that those who are of the faith of Abraham will receive ‘the promise of the Spirit’.  This is the One to Whom Jesus Himself refered when He told the disciples that it would better for Him to He leave them, because then the Father would send the Helper, the One Who would be more than with them, He would be IN them (John 16.7, 14.26, 14.17), to help them follow Jesus in the same (or similar) faith-steps of Abraham.  Not merely external makeovers, a whitewashed mix of creeds and meetings and insipid orthodoxy, of flagging obedience and flailing self-effort.  May it never be!  No, we’re talking about changed hearts and lives, other-worldly, transformed from the inside out, glimpses of glory in mere jars of clay.  Greater works and miracles and the supernatural (John 14.12).  Limitless power to forgive and forbear and to love until death.  Inexpressible joy and surpassing peace and enduring gratitude even and especially in the midst of brokenness and hardship and persecution.  Talk about an alley oop - far more spectacular than any assist you'll see in the NBA.  This is the indwelling Holy Spirit, the promised blessing poured out upon every person who follows in the steps of Abraham, the man of faith.  Each and every follower does indeed possess the Spirit, at the ready to set any one of us up for a heavenly Sportscenter Top 10 - the question is, am I possessed by Him?  Am I in step with Him?

Galatians 3:13 - The Unlikeliest Tree Of All

"Christ redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become on our behalf a curse, that it is having been written: 'Cursed [is] every the [one] hanging upon a tree...'"

-The verse Paul quotes here is a somewhat loose form of Deuteronomy 21.23.  In that passage it refers specifically to those who had been executed by hanging (i.e. from a tree) - anyone who had committed capital crimes worthy of death was most certainly under the curse of God, and to allow the dead bodies of those cursed ones to remain hanging in public would defile the land.  Thus the Israelites were being instructed to bury the bodies on the same day they were hanged.  It is a rather obscure text, to be sure, and yet somehow Paul is inspired by the Lord to see a prefiguring of the Messiah in that text.

-Truth is, we were all under a curse, literally in bondage to being bound to evil and brokenness and death, every last one of us, including all those who are now trusting in the death of Christ, trusting in all that He did on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  He paid the ransom and provided the way for us to be set free from the curse - by becoming a curse for us.  He let Himself become bound and tied and nailed to a "tree" (or that which was constructed from a felled tree), hung on a Tree of Death, where His Father laid on Him the sins of the world.  My sins.  He took on our curse.  My curse.  And paid for every last one of them, paid it all.  There, on that blessed, rugged Roman cross, that cruel instrument of torture and execution, the unlikeliest tree of all.  What a fascinating juxtaposition of symbols here, what sublime irony and wondrous love, that eternal life is to be found now not in the fruit of a living tree (the Tree of Life - cf Genesis 3.22) - but rather in the death of the eternal God upon a dead tree.  O, such infinite wisdom, amazing love...

Galatians 3:12 - Two ways of faith...?

"But the law is not out of faith, but rather, 'The [one] doing them will live in them.'"

-Yes, there are essentially two philosophies when it comes to approaching God - one is the law of works, and the other is faith.  And as has already been stated, even the law approach is a form of faith, since faith in its very essence is simply trust, and that which determines its efficacy is the object of faith.  So when Paul is refering here to the law, he is describing those folks who are placing their trust in works of the Mosaic law (including circumcision) to gain right standing with God.  THE Law, that body of some 600+ commands which was given to the Jews through Moses (and this is the way which some people were trying to persuade these Galatians who had begun to follow Christ to go).  And by faith, Paul means that trust which has as its object, Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross.  THE Faith.  And to his point, the very nature of Law-based righteousness is not only antithetical to Faith-in-Christ-based righteousness, but is also such that if you chose to trust in the way of works, you are required to live fully into that - that is the verse which Paul quotes here (Leviticus 18.5).  God says, you WILL do this (like He does in the Ten Commandments and throughout the hundreds of others).  In other words, don’t stop short or bring it in weak.  The expectation is total obedience.  You WILL live in them.  The Law itself states that if you are opting for the way of Law, of trusting in the Law, you are obligated to keep the whole darn thing, all the time.  You WILL never finish - never certain, never perfect, never saved.  Whereas the way of Faith (in Jesus) is entirely different.  I am not trusting in any of my own efforts, not a single one.  I am trusting in Another, in the work of One Who declared, "It is finished"...

Galatians 3:11 - The Faulty Default

"But that in law no one is being justified with God [is] evident; since 'the righteous out of faith will live'."

-Nobody’s perfect.  That is a universally understood truth, but if one would avoid The Curse, one is not allowed to make even one mistake (James 2.10).  And that is definitely the bad news - nobody can make it.  Nobody can keep the entire law.  Nobody can make themselves perfect.  No not one.  The most selfless loving person still falls way short of the holiness of God, comes short of His divine perfections, and that really is the most important point.  Anyone can compare themselves favorably to the poor shmuck next to them, but we are not engaged in a contest with our neighbor, trying to outdo them in good deeds.  It is not as if we are trying to escape from an angry bear and merely need to outrun the person next to us.  No, we are trying to [re]gain right standing with our Maker, to be right in His eyes.

-The truth is that the law came in in order that sin might become utterly sinful (Romans 7.13), and in doing so the curse became truly curse-ful.  And we can observe basically two fundamental approaches whereby people attempt to gain right standing with God - one is the way of works, and the other is the way of faith (which of course is the way of Abraham, and the Way made possible only through Jesus).  The former approach is entirely ineffectual, and thus is the way of the curse.  By works of law no flesh will be justified (made right or perfect) in His sight (Romans 3.20), and yet this is not only the standard approach of every major world religion, sect, cult, and worldview besides Christianity, it is also the faulty default position of humanity in general.  Even those who appear to be irreligious are generally under the assumption that they are good enough in themselves (or can be) to satisfy the minimum requirements of any religious law which might otherwise be binding on them.

-But no - if one truly aspires to gain right standing before God, the only way to do that is not by law but rather by faith.  Faith speaks to the idea of trust, and the critical question is, where (or in what) do I put my trust?  Paul is quoting Habakuk 2.4, where the righteous is contrasted with those proud and haughty people who are putting their trust in themselves, in their own abilities, in their own strength, in their own efforts.   In fact, everybody trusts in something.  Everybody has faith - it is the object of my faith which makes all the difference.  If the object of my faith is the law and in my efforts to keep the entirety of it, I will fall way short...

Galatians 3:10 - THE Curse...

"For as many as are out of works of law, these are under a curse.  For it has been written that, 'Cursed [are] all who are not abiding by all the [things] having been written in the book of the law to do them.'"

-In Hebrew the word most often used for curse contains the idea of something which is snared or bound.  It stands in stark opposition to the blessing, that which is an experience of the goodness of God.  The Lord blessed those He made in His image, He showered His goodness on them, He promised His blessings, and they chose instead to walk away in their hearts, to walk in rebellion and idolatry and spiritual adultery, to try and experience goodness on their own term apart from God.  And as a consequence of the sin of Adam, all the earth is under a curse, ensnared and bound up in an experience of that which is quite contrary to the goodness of God.  It is a promise, in fact, of evil, of that which was never part of the original design.  What tragic irony, that the very freedom we attempt to pursue apart from our Maker instead has us trapped in brokenness.  It is a catch-22, however.  There is a promised curse for those who walk away FROM the law of God and away from living in to He wants, but there is also a curse for those who depend entirely UPON the law and on their best efforts to try and perfect themselves through the law, because that of course is impossible.  The law requires that one keep all of it, dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every last ‘t’, and of that we all fall short even on our best days.  This is the essence of the curse, a double-edged curse, that the world is bound up under a law of works, and the whole world is bound to fail.  That’s precisely the point which Paul is emphasizing in the verse he quotes here (Deuteronomy 27.26).  The standard of the law - if one would escape the curse - is to keep the whole thing, every part.  All things - that is the standard.  In fact, that verse in the Hebrew does not actually contain the word ‘all’, so Paul is taking some inspirational license with the text, adding the ‘all’ for emphasis. 

-Reverse the curse.  Is not this Good News which was pre-good-newsed to Abraham about all the nations of the earth realizing a blessing instead of a curse?  THE Curse of all curses this, with all the attendant brokenness and death, not at all a part of any original design - transformed in the blessing of blessings.  It seems that quite often there is a blessing and a curse, and in fact that was the original message to Abraham, that there would be both a blessing and a curse.  There would be a curse for anyone who would curse Abraham, something not good at all, but rather something thoroughly bad.  Surely this would extend to any who might not walk in faith as did Abraham the faith[ful] one.  To not follow Abraham in his step(s) of faith would indeed be tantamount to cursing him.  And thus we have The Curse.  Not merely a place of physical death, but of eternal spiritual separation from our Creator.  Bad, not good.  Entirely and eternally bad.  This is The Curse.  And quite frankly there’s hell to pay.  Literally.

Galatians 3:9 - How to get THE Good Stuff

"So that the [ones] out of faith are blessed with the faithful [one], Abraham."

-Let us be perfectly clear: while all people here below, believers and unbelievers alike, share in an experience of the goodness of God (His sun rises and rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous - Matthew 5.45), His greatest blessings, the privilege to enter in to an eternal experience of His glorious goodness, being welcomed in to His forever family, is reserved for those who are "out of faith".  The one who would come to God, who would be pleasing enough to be welcomed into His presence, must have faith, must trust, must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who in faith do seek Him.  In fact, without faith it is simply impossible to please Him at all, much less enter in to His presence, this One in Whose presence is fulness of joy and in Whose right hand are pleasures forever.  If you want to experience the good stuff, THE Good stuff, the best that life has to offer, you gotta have faith.  Righteousness, being totally right in the eyes of your Maker, comes only by faith, by trusting in the One Who provided the one and only Way to be made right.  Jesus.

Galatians 3:8 - News of Breathtaking Goodness

"But the Scripture, having forseen that out of faith God is justifying the nations, pre-evangelized to Abraham that, 'All the nations will be blessed in you.'"

-The Scripture.  The Scripture.  The Writing (or graphé), literally.  It typically refers to a single particular verse, one which is contained within the larger collection of the Scriptures.  But when this term is invoked, there is the implicit understanding that God almighty has spoken.  He has spoken, and it will come to pass.  It is incontrovertible.  It is inerrant, and is the final word on truth, this Word of Truth (2Samuel 7.28, 1Kings 17.24, Psalm 119.43, Psalm 119.160, John 17.17, 2Timothy 2.15).  It more than contains truth - it IS truth, and is 100% totally entirely true, unchanging, timeless, forever relevant and trustworthy.  You and I and all peoples can take it to the bank.  We can guide our lives by it, and commit our lives to it.  And we should.

-Here in this letter to these Galatian believers, Paul appears to be quoting Genesis 12.3.  In the original Hebrew, the word translated as ‘nation’ here is mishpachah, which is more often rendered as ‘family’, and that is how the word is in fact rendered there.  All families will be blessed in you.  There are three Greek words which are variously translated as family - oikos, genos, and patria, but Paul here instead uses the word ethné, which of course is the Greek word for nations.  However, in the Hebrew there is a different word which is overwhelmingly used for nation(s), and that is goy.  After the covenant of circumcision is put in and the Mosaic law is laid down, the term in fact becomes rather pejorative, refering to the category of all non-jews, the morally filthy and to-be-avoided-at-all-costs Gentiles.  Clearly that is not what the Lord has in mind back in Genesis, but it is interesting to consider why Paul would substitute the word ‘nations’ here.  In Genesis 12, Abraham is still called Abram, in fact (cf Genesis 17.5).  Is it possible that Paul is thinking of Genesis 22.18?  At that point, he is now Abraham, and the verbage is similar, except that there the Lord does indeed say that all the goy will be blessed.  However, by then the Lord is saying that all the nations will be blessed "in your seed" (or descendant[s]).  Either way there is a bit of a discrepancy between what Paul is quoting and the original verses in Genesis.  It is quite possible that Paul has simply combined the essence of the two passages in Genesis in order to better reinforce the three things he is emphasizing here: the Good News of justification by faith, for all the Gentiles, and pre-evangelized to Abraham many centuries before it was formally put in thru the sacrifice of the One Who was indeed the Seed of Abraham.

-But let us be perfectly clear as to what - or rather, Whom - is forseeing and pre-evangelizing.  Paul says that the Scripture foresaw and evangelized, but is it not God Himself Who in fact is declaring Good News to Abraham?  Is it not the Word Who was in the beginning, and that, long before any line of Scripture had even been written down?  Thus we have both an affirmation here of the inspiration of Scripture, that the words contained therein are in fact the very words of God, as well as a glimpse into His heart, into the eternal plan of God.  All.  The.  Nations.  Panta ta ethne - the theme resounds throughout the pages of Scripture, this God Who blesses, that in His manifold wisdom He would gradually unfold His plan to create and then gather together men and women out of every nation-tribe-and-tongue under Heaven into an eternal experience of His glorious goodness.  That is the Good News, straight from the heart of blessing God Himself, Who is forever blessed, amen.

-Yes indeed, God is bringing into His eternally glorious presence those who are separated from Him (because of their sin) and making them totally right with Him, morally perfect, solely out of faith, the ones trusting in Him to make it so.  That is definitely Good News, more than enough to put you on shouting ground!  And who knew?  We find that the first declaration of the Good News occurred not in the Gospels themselves, not in John 3.16 or some other New Testament verse, nor even in one of the prophets.  Nope, we find it in the verse Paul quotes here, way back in the beginning, in Genesis 12.3. (altho one could - and some surely do - make a fine case that there is even good news to be found back in Genesis 3.15, but I digress...)  Yes, the great unrivaled Good News is that all nations AND families on this broken planet will be blessed.  Every tribe and tongue will be brought into the family of God, to know Him and experience His breathtaking goodness.  This is the same breathtakingly good God Who has been blessing and manifesting and bestowing His goodness on His creatures since the beginning of creation (Genesis 1.22, 1.28, 2.3, 5.2, 9.1 - it is what He does, Who He is).  Breathtaking!  Can I get an amen?

Galatians 3:7 - The Primary Object-ive

"Therefore, be knowing that the [ones] out of faith, these are sons of Abraham."

-Notwithstanding all his relapses and attendant warts, ol' Abe did believe, he trusted in God, in His promise, in His Word, began to relate to Him on the basis of this faith, and he became the father - the predecessor, the archetype - not of those who have their foreskin cut off in a religious ritual but rather of those who likewise put their trust in his God Who would thru the Seed of Abraham bless all nations (Genesis 12.3, 22.18; cf Romans 4.11, 4.16).  The Scripture which Paul just quoted in v. 6 makes it abundantly clear that God gave Abraham right standing with Him by this act of faith - BEFORE he was circumcised.  In other words, APART from the work of law which the Judaizers were attempting to foist onto the Galatians’ shoulders.  Thus we along with them can know-know-know for certain that we become his descendants, his spiritual sons and daughters, those innumerable children of promise (Genesis 15.5), when like him we put our trust in the God Who makes us right with Him.  Solely on the basis of faith.  Faith which has as its object not any work of law or ritual or any code of compliance but simply the One Whom God sent.  This promise is to all who believe, simply believe the Good News about God’s Son (John 1.12, 3.16, 6.29, 14.1, 17.20-21, 20.31; Acts 16.31; Romans 4.11, 4.16).  We choose to believe, trust, place our faith IN the promise, and IN the One Who made it.

-And ultimately this is the most important aspect of faith - the object.  The thing IN WHICH we put our trust.  Anyone can have faith.  In fact, all people have faith.  Everyone trusts in something (or someone).  Many are quite sincere, in fact, about the object of their faith, of their devotion.  They sincerely devote themselves to trusting in that person, or that thing, that teaching - or that work.  These troubling Judaizers actually had quite a bit of faith - in circumcision.  In the law.  In works and self-effort.  They had the wrong object.  And so Paul objects to their object - and rightly so.  They, like so many others even still today, were trusting in themselves, such that we could fairly say they had no faith, that they were not of faith at all.  Technically they still had faith, but in truth their faith was sorely misplaced.  The ONLY object of faith which will actually prove to be effective - worthwhile, worthy - is Jesus.  There is no other object, no other name given under heaven by which we may be saved (Acts 4.12).  He alone is worthy of our faith, our trust, our devotion. The Primary Object-ive.  Only through (faith in) Jesus can we become true sons and daughters of Abraham, heirs of the marvelous promise.  Is ol' Abe your daddy?  Who's your daddy?

Galatians 3:6 - The Genesis of Faith = the End of Abram?

"Just as Abraham trusted in God, and it was credited to him unto righteousness."

-What must I do to be saved, to be made right in the eyes of my Creator, good enough to be morally acceptable to Him?  I must be(come) perfect, which is impossible, unattainable humanly-speaking.  But there is good news!  This most fundamental of life’s great questions and the root of the controversy in Galatia has a very simple answer, as old as Genesis, revealed in Scripture before God says even one thing about circumcision or the Mosaic law or any other religious act - Genesis 15.6.  Trust.  Faith.  Believe IN God, believe what He says and commit yourself to it.  This is the entirety of what God expects of Abra(ha)m, who is clearly the poster child for justification by faith, as Paul holds him up particularly in this chapter as well in Romans chapter 4 (Romans 4.3).

-The verse Paul quotes for us here is when the Lord renews His promise to make a nation out of Abram.  It is not the first time the Lord makes this promise (Genesis 12.2, 12.7, 13.16).  And it is interesting to note on these other occasions what we see in response to God’s Word: obedience (going - Genesis 12.4) and worship (altar-building - Genesis 12.7-8, 13.18).  But we see no mention of faith.  It is certainly possible to go through the motions and rituals of worship and obedience but to do so not out of faith but merely out of self-effort.  Good works, trying to earn right standing with God.  But here we have the first mention of faith in all of Scripture.  Is it possible that in Genesis 15 Abram finally comes to the beginning of the end of himself, the end of self-effort and self-righteousness, the end of his perceived ability to obey and conform to God’s standards in his own strength?

-I say ‘beginning’, because there are relapses, places where we see faith-not-yet-fully-formed.  And to this we can all relate - ours is the way of progressive sanctification, learning and relearning to more fully follow and trust (in) the God Who saves and forgives and transforms.  Faith grows, not in its size, but in its understanding of the immense greatness and faithfulness of God Who is always true to His Word and for Whom nothing is impossible.  In the very next chapter (cf Genesis 16.3) we see in Abram a fairly significant relapse, the epitome of self-effort, as he literally fathers a child of the flesh, if you will.  He and Sarai - who had been barren prior to this whole leave-your-home-new-nation thing - had now lived in this new land, trying for 10 years to have a child, to crank up the new nation for God.  Ten long years (!) of trying and failing, and so they decide to help God out.  Abram fathers a son with Sarai’s Egyptian maid, Hagar.  It appears to be Sarai’s idea - surely she is sick and tired and weary of the disaapointment and heartache and shame of barrenness, and, to be fair, the Lord had not yet (as far as we know) specifically said anything about Sarai becoming a mother, only that Abram was to be a father.  Lo and behold, Hagar quickly conceives and gives birth to Ishmael.  Finally, success!  And as far as we can tell, nothing more is said for 13 years.  For 13 years the entire family proceeds on the assumption that it was all good, that they had done their best to comply with God’s instructions.  As far as they know, Ishmael is the heir of the promise (Genesis 17.8), both Abram and Sarai have given up hope of ever having even one child together - he’s 99, she’s 90 (Genesis 17.17, 18.11-12), AND Ishmael is now a teenager.  He is actually coming of age in that ancient near-eastern culture.  He is the man.  Literally.  Yet at just that time, the Lord comes and makes it clear that their fleshy effort was not at all His idea and in fact He was going to do something more miraculous still (Genesis 17.15-16).  Faith lays hold of wonderful impossibles.  And it is literally the end of Abram ("exalted father"), as the Lord changes his name to Abraham ("father of a multitude").

-We do see yet another relapse in Genesis 20.1-2, where Abraham lies (again) about Sarah only being his sister (she is his half-sister), not yet fully at the end of himself, not yet fully trusting in the Lord and in His promises to still one day (soon!) give them a child from whom would come kings and nations.  How comforting to know that being right in God’s eyes does not depend on our ability to be able to perfectly trust and follow, but rather in His limitless ability to take the tiniest mustard seed of faith and do the impossible, create something entirely brand new, a new creation wherein the Kingdom of God is planted and takes root and grows and multiplies and blossoms into a wondrous reflection of the breathtaking goodness of God.  Such that God gets the credit, He gets the glory.

-I wonder, what wonderful impossible might He desire to do in and through me if only I would come to the end of me?

Galatians 3:5 - Of things not seen...

"Therefore, the [One] fully-supplying to you the Spirit and working powers in you, [is it] out of works of law or out of hearing of faith?

-Paul summarizes here, and clarifies - they had seen miracles, these Galatians.  Supernatural.  Scientifically impossible.  God had shown up in Galatia after these put their trust in Christ and as this assembly was launched and began to grow.  The Lord had shown up and worked some wonderful impossibles, wondrous wonders which no eye had seen and no ear had heard (1Corinthians 2.9), which no man can do apart from the Spirit and power of God showing up and doing what He do.  Inexplicable - defying explanation.

-And to Paul’s point, there was not one thing these Galatians DID to unleash or otherwise facilitate these miracles, not one work of law, not one good deed, no not one.  There was not one eency weency good deed they did in order to receive the Holy Spirit.  All they did was believe.  THAT is the point which Paul is making.  And that, my friends, is the key to miracles, the key to unlocking the greater works which Christ Himself promised (John 14.12), that which unleashes the supernatural in your life and in mine.  Belief.  Faith.  Trusting in the truth that God is, that He is the great I AM, and that He is able.  Scripture tells us that it was actually unbelief - lack of faith and trust - which hindered Christ from doing miracles in one place (Matthew 13.58).  Faith requires that one relax their reliance on limited human reason and their absolute insistence on being able to fully explain every phenomenon in strictly scientific terms.  It’s not inconceivable, rather it’s that which is simply beyond the known laws of physics and beyond the capacity of finite man to be able to explain, much less produce.  And that’s ok.  You and I need to be ok with there being some things which we cannot explain, with the existence of that unseen Greater Power, something/someOne greater than ourselves.  That's what faith is, by definition, the conviction of things NOT seen... (Hebrews 11.1).

-Note that the Spirit and wonderful impossibles go hand in hand in the NT.  Everywhere He shows up, there are supernatural signs and wonders, visions and boldness and powerful speaking, there is fruit - genuine life-changing love and inexpressible inexplicable joy and peace and hope, sharing and serving and patience and kindness.  There is life - new life, and there is death, death to self and to the deeds of the flesh.  Make no mistake, the supernatural is part of the package Paul has in mind when he thinks about God pouring out His Spirit on the Galatians.  And ultimately, when Christ’s Spirit shows up and fills His people there is glory (2Corinthians 3.8) - and that’s precisely the point.  He comes - into hearts and lives - to show off how breathtakingly great is our Savior (John 16.14).  Glorious greater works - can that be said of my life?  Is there any aspect of my life which cannot be explained by reason and strictly human terms?  Is there any whiff of the supernatural about me?  Anything which, humanly speaking, no eye has seen?

Galatians 3:4 - Wasted Persecution?

"So much did you suffer in vain?  If indeed [it was] even in vain?"

-It is possible that the word here is neutral, that it simply means ‘experience’ and refers to the positive experience of the signs and miracles of God’s Spirit among these Galatian believers.  They had experienced so many things, things of wonder and power, simply having heard and believed, and this is consistent with both the preceding and following verse.

-The other way to translate the word is ‘suffer’, that not only did these Galatians see some pretty amazing things after that they believed (and that apart from any compliance with the Mosaic law), but they then were on the receiving end of some persecution.  While there is no explicit record anywhere else of a persecution directed at Christians arising in the region of Galatia at the time, it would not be difficult to imagine such a thing taking place, since persecution and suffering are pretty much the heritage of all believers, guaranteed by none other than Jesus Himself (John 15.20, Luke 21.12, Matthew 10.22, cf 2Timothy 3.12).  These Galatians would not have been the first nor the last to experience some form of mistreatment or loss for believing in and following after Jesus.  The way of the Cross is disruptive to both families and entire societies, not only flying in the face of long established and deeply ingrained religious and cultural identities, but also heaping condemnation on those around who are brought face-to-face with real spiritual accountability, with a message of absolute truth, of sin and righteousness and of judgment to come.  Unless one has some humility and also proceeds to understand and embrace the forgiveness which accompanies the accountability, it can be a message rather ill-suited to sit well in the heart of fallen man.  Often, those who are guilty do not enjoy being told as much, and rather than repent will reject or lash out at their accuser (or message-bearer).  These can be aided and abetted by local authorities who may be actively hostile as well or could be merely passively indifferent, simply tolerant of any injustice or mistreatment or violence directed at Christians.  This reality is played out all over the world, increasingly so today, and has been since they first mistreated and murdered Jesus (and the prophets before Him - haters gonna hate the Message and the messenger).  This could very well have happened to these new Galatian believers, and the mere fact of their suffering would have been proof positive that they were on the right track, a validation of their faith (Matthew 5.10-12, John 15.20).  Which then leads to Paul’s point: they had experienced and quite possibly had suffered so many things after having put their trust in Christ for salvation, after indicating a decision to begin following Christ.  If the path to perfection was in fact not thru faith alone in Christ alone (or if they were going to abandon said path), then whatever suffering they had endured after their profession had been a waste of time.  In vain.  Why name the name of Jesus if that’s only going to get you persecuted but not really get you any closer to heaven?  C’mon, man!

-Thankfully, tho, it is never in vain, never a waste of time to suffer or endure anything in the name of Jesus, on His behalf and for the sake of His body, just as Paul tips his hand a bit by adding the phrase, ‘if indeed’.  No indeed, it was not at all in vain, not ever!  Suffering for Christ produces endurance, and helps to actually strengthen our faith and make us more like the One Who endured the Cross and experienced the ultimate suffering on our behalf - for us (1Peter 4.12-13, Acts 14.22, 1Peter 5.9-10, Revelation 2.10, 1Peter 1.6-7, James 1.2-3)!