Book of Galatians - Ch. 3, Vs. 11-19 (07/30/2000)

Justification by Faith and the Meaning of “The Just Shall Live by Faith”

Open your Bibles to the book of Galatians, to the third chapter, and we begin the lesson today with verse 11. Joy, who is it that's speaking to us? Paul. And he says this, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.

We are justified before each other in our works, but not before God. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Let's play the what-if game for just a minute.

Joy, what if we had to live by sight only, that there was no faith? Well, not what we'd miss now. I want to know what your life would be like. Dennis, can you think of an example of a person that is alive today that is living without faith?

And by without faith, I simply mean he does not consider faith a part of his life. Right. Now, they may think they're happy and prosperous, and they might be, but not totally. Malachi, that part might not be Malachi, but I go ahead.

Yeah, I think you slipped over into David also there, but that's right. So, we are to live according to our neighbors, Galatians 3 .11, those of you who just come in, the just, he's talking about the just now shall live by faith, the just, him whose way of thinking, feeling, acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, is a just person, and who therefore needs no rectification in his heart or his life.

He has already arrived, he is already in Christ, he is already alive in Christ, so he is the just that shall live by faith. The verb shall is what kind of verb? Imperative. What does it mean, imperative, Virgil?

All right, let's see if we can find out for you. Deborah, all right, who causes it to happen? All right, the one speaking it. In this case, it's God himself that is speaking it through the writings of Paul.

So, Virgil, an imperative verb simply means that you have no option. It is absolute. What? Required. It's not only required, it will be carried out. It will happen. So the just shall live. Now, back to Dennis again, does that mean that the just cannot live except by faith?

Well, you had already agreed with it, I saw you. Now, Bill, we need a good definition of the just shall live, the word live, all right? Then are you saying that living by faith is the only living that the just can do?

What about the just sinning? Are they living while they're sinning? Then they're sinning by faith. That's true. What? All right. Let's talk about that for just a moment. If you forget who you are, do you sin?

But you don't know who you are. Well, what if you have a head injury and it makes you incapable of remembering who you are? How many would agree with that? Half of them agree with that. The other? No one?

What? He not only knew it, he what? I believe you've got that down. All right. The just shall live by faith. Faith is a strange animal. How would you describe faith, Debbie? Can you describe faith without referring to God?

Believing it how? Thank you, Dennis. Faith. Let's go to the professor, David. Faith is what? And faith as though it worked. Faith is a wonderful tool. Without it, we could not operate. I'm so glad that God chose that way.

Faith, the conviction that God exists, could we say that was faith? Have you ever seen him? How do you know you haven't seen him? There you go, basing it on the Bible again. The conviction. What? The conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things.

Now, Dennis, can we include the last part of that in that statement? Is the creator of all things? Say yes. All right. The provider and bestower of eternal salvation. Is this God? Through Christ. Is that right?

How much of our life passes through Christ? How much of this life that we receive passes through Christ? Who do we belong to? What did he do with us? We belong to God the Father, and he did what? Gave us to Jesus.

So the just shall live, and the law is not of faith. Now, why? Deborah, why is the law not of faith? Dennis, why is the law not of faith? Then he concludes that verse. Yes. The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.

Not live by them, but live in them. Richard, he's here. What's this mean? If you live by the faith, the man that does the law must live in the law. What's that mean? All right. What if he cannot keep all of the law?

All right. David, by what will that man be judged? By the law. Who is it in the world that is still under the law, and who is that? All right. So all of those that are not under the blood of Christ are under the law, and they will be judged by the law.

Christ fulfilled the law. He didn't do away with it. He fulfilled it. And then the Holy Spirit placed us in him. Therefore, in the sight of God the Father, we keep the law. Right or wrong? Right. All right.

Redemption from the Curse of the Law

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now we've introduced another term into this law. By the curse of the law. Bill, what's it mean, the curse of the law? That's good. Now the law demands what?

Death. So everybody that is not under the blood of Christ is sentenced to death. Is that right? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now here's an exceptionally good word in the scripture.

Debbie, what does the word redeemed mean? Brought it back. What do you mean back? Do you see how the word redeemed proves that we were once his? Just the word itself. It proves that we were once his and we were bought back, as Deborah said.

I want you to remember this. I've said it to you several times, but I'll probably say it several times more. The worth of the item that is purchased must in parity be equal to the value of the medium of exchange.

Now Dennis, tell me what all that means. The worth of the item purchased must be equal in the value of the medium of exchange. Let's get the other Dennis to add to it. She's hiding behind that mic stand.

Worth of the item purchased. Well, first, this has nothing to do with the scripture. Just close your Bible for a moment. The worth of an item that you purchase must be equal in value to the medium of exchange.

What's that mean in the everyday world?

Here's your $5, and I don't give you the full price. Then you've been cheated, and you're not getting the value of the, you're not getting true value anymore. So it's wrong not to give back the purchase price.

All right. Well, folks, I think it's kind of backward from that. Maybe almost the exact opposite. When you buy something and you pay a price for it, then how much you pay establishes its value. It's like the stock market.

You go out and I buy a share of a stock at $40. That's the value of it. That sets the value. Purchase price sets the value. So when Christ decided, well, when God called us to sacrifice his son, he established the value because the price he was willing to pay.

And it was what? It was the totality of the price he was willing to pay. All right. In terms of salvation. Well, that was. The price of what he called salvation.

All right. The item being purchased was salvation for the redeemed. The medium of exchange in this case was the blood of Christ. He considered his blood equal in value to those that belonged to his father, to everything that belonged to his father.

He came to redeem all things that belonged to his father. So I want you to get that fixed in your mind that the worth of an item purchased must equal the value of the medium of exchange. Now, in the world, that medium of exchange is usually money.

And whether we pay too much or too little, we established in our mind that that was the value for me right now. And if I take it back and I don't get my full value, then I made a poor judgment. But with Christ, there are no poor judgments.

It's okay. Your life was worth the blood of Jesus Christ. That way or what? Yes. Sure. Because we're part of his. We're part of all that belongs to him. He will not suffer anything that belongs to him to be wasted or to go to hell.

It will all return to him. Everything. Sin being the only thing that will not. And Satan and all of his imps will end up in hell. A place prepared just for them. Fourteen. When what? Well, who placed the value?

God. And when did he do that? That's the answer to your question.

Witnessing by Faith and the Value God Places on People

So there's value still there. Yes.

On who? Certainly the value is there. They don't know it. That's another reason that since we do not know who they are, that we must witness to everyone that he brings into our life. Don't be so concerned about saving the world when there's lost people right in front of you.

Now, if we knew who they were, then we'd have a different life, but we don't. So we must witness. And by witness I mean the best witness you can ever offer is what? Yourself. Your life. The life you live.

The life you live, Deborah, when you think there's nobody watching you that would know you.

So you're right, Diane. Good point. Can we not say too that we witness by faith? That we what? We witness by our faith.

Well, that's true, but people cannot see our faith. Well, the only thing you can witness about is what has happened to you. And to talk about spiritual things to an unspiritual person is like trying to explain Einstein to an apostle because they don't understand.

We are to tell people in such a way that they understand to the best of their ability what happened to us. That's right. That's right. So if we live like that, we'll be all right. If we just do what we know to do right now, if we'd close up and go home and never learn anything else, we would have enough to keep us busy right now.

I fear that we all know more than we're practicing. I believe the promise of the Spirit through faith. There's faith again. Whose faith is it? You sure it's not ours? What's muster up me? Out of the Calvary days.

The Covenant with Abraham and Christ the Singular Seed

All right. Brethren. Paul says brethren. So who's he speaking to? I speak after the manner of men. Though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannull or addeth thereto. Now he's talking about a situation between men.

If two men make an agreement between themselves. Then it behooves both of them to either one of them to never break that agreement. Here he's using that to teach us about Abraham. Covenant was made with Abraham and it included us.

Now an Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, plural, to his seed. So David, who's he referring to? Jesus. As of many, but as of one, Jesus. And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Now, why did he not say seeds? Because there's many of us here in this room. All right. What's that do to us? How can we be part of that seed, singular? All right, we're in Christ. Again, everything points to him.

Jesus, the Christ. You cannot exist without him. That's right. Where's the first reference to that in the Bible? Anybody? Yes. To the seed of the woman. Not seeds, but seed. Talking about Jesus, the Christ.

Yes. Not only can it be interpreted that the Jews would be the only ones. It could be interpreted, as you said, that there would be many, many different ways in which we could make it to God. But, you see how important the little bitty words are?

Even if one's singular and others are plural. He said seed, singular. And that just eliminated a world of problems. With just the singular use of the word seed. Thank you, Bill. Where did you stop? And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years afterwards, cannot be disannulled.

Disannulled. David, what's it mean, disannulled? Done away with it. All right. So, it cannot be removed. You cannot do away with it. You cannot escape it. You cannot go around it. There's no congress in the world that can repeal it.

That it should make the promise of none effect. That's impossible. The promise is the promise and it will always be the promise. And man cannot change it. No matter how much they preach or teach or whatever they do.

Man has no input into it. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Was this a conditional promise? What's the difference between conditional and unconditional, Deborah?

Was this a voluntary or involuntary promise? So man had very little to do with it then, did he? Wherefore then serveth the law. Then why was the law here? What was the purpose of the law, Bill? A child is born into a home.

Is subject to the laws of the parents until he reaches an age that he can have his own home. Same way with the church. The church in the Old Testament was hidden, but it was there. And it was under instructions of the law.

It had to be. Because by the time we get to the gospel, then the church becomes manifest in the world and stands on its own. Therefore, it had to have instruction. And the law performed that. Now it's true, we were not there during the law time.

But the church was. It was just never mentioned. Now it's made open. Wherefore then serveth the law. It was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

The Purpose of the Law, Transgression, and the Fall of Man

Without the law, man would not have known sin. Now it says in the 19th verse, it was added because of transgressions. Now if there was no law, was there transgression? Then what did God mean when he said it was added because of transgressions?

Go ahead and tell us, Joy. Well, that's all true, but he said, why did the law come? What purpose was it? Then he answers it by saying that it was added because of transgressions. And we know that where no law is, there is no transgression.

So how could there be transgression before the law? Had it not already occurred? Why should I do that? Transgressions are against who? Then could he not recognize a transgression whether we did or not?

So there were transgressions even though man didn't know it. Right? Then he established a law because of his love for us that let us know when we transgressed. By the way, what's the difference between transgression and sin?

There what? Alright, that's pretty good. Always think of transgression. When you hear that word, think of trespass. Now what's it mean? Do it intentionally. You read the sign and you did it anyhow. That's right.

But in the eyes of the Father, it was a transgression. Now, sin, you can commit sin and not know it if you choose to remain ignorant, but you're still held responsible. There was a law in effect, not the law.

But they were unlawful.

It was a different... Well, what do we say? It was an abridged... When do I get to slap you down? You're right. That's a very good point, yes. The only thing I would change in your statement is God knew what was going to happen.

He ordained everything to happen that did happen. There's a difference between knowing it's going to happen and ordaining that it will happen. He ordained everything, even the fall of man.

But if I was as smart as you were, I would have said ordained. No, I think I'm not too far off. No, you're right.

So it didn't surprise God. He didn't have to come up with something new. And there's lots of people who think that, but we don't. So everything is following just exactly as he ordained it to. Even the falling of the human race.

But God is not the author of sin. Man does what he wants to. It started with Adam. All right, let's come back to our lesson for a little while. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. What do we mean here, David?

It was ordained. Talking about the law. The last part of verse 3, verse 19. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. It was that because of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Bill, help him out. Says what? Again. What is it that was ordained by these angels? And David, what's ordained mean? Well, this doesn't say foreordained.

That's right. Was ordained by angels. Angels had something to do with the ordaining of this promise. How did Abraham receive it? Was it by an angel? If it says the angel, yes. All right. Do you all think about that this week?

And we'll discuss a little bit more about this ordaining by angels. Without the law, man could not know sin. And Adam and Eve knew about good and evil. Because they were told that that was a tree of good and evil.

And they knew about it. We know about a whole lot of things. But we know, Greg, only that which we experience. After they had transgressed and disbelieved God. In fact, the sin was Adam believing his wife instead of God.

And when that occurred, their eyes were opened to what the meaning of the good and evil was. And we've been in that state ever since. All right. Is there anything else? Our time's up. Clarence, dismissal, please.