Intro

Hello and welcome back to Finding the Ancient Path where we are on a journey to find out whether or not our Christian faith has left the ancient paths of the word of God is there a disparity in what we believe and teach today and the word of God and what it actually says and I think what we have found up to this point is absolutely yes we’ve been going through the book of Galatians today we are looking at chapter three and if I could use one word to describe the entire letter of Galatians it is justified justified and justified you’ll

Find that Paul is constantly arguing against the dichotomy of law and grace how are you justified are you justified by observing the law or are you justified by believing by faith and that’s really the heart behind Paul’s letters not just to his letter in to the Galatians not just in his literature to the Galatians but in others as well so here we are we’re going to start right in here at chapter 3 and I have a little clip that I’m going to share with you today from a modern day rabbi to kind of make the point that I’m trying to

Drive home here and understanding Paul what Paul was not teaching against the law Paul was not telling us that we are free from obeying the law it was actually the exact opposite and we’ll see that more and more here as we continue on so let’s go ahead and jump into uh Galatians chapter three before we do that though I want to remind take us back and remind us of something that we see coming from Paul’s own mouth where he see where he says in Acts 25 that neither against the law of the Jews nor the temple have I committed any

Offense so in Paul’s own words again he is saying he is not teaching against the law or against the temple and then we see in Romans chapter 3 where he’s again discussing this dichotomy between law and grace and he asked the obvious question do we then overthrow the law by this faith by no means exclamation point no way no how absolutely not on the contrary we uphold the law so Paul is saying that we are saved justified by grace in our belief and faith in Christ but not at the expense of the law now let’s jump into Galatians chapter 3.

Bewitched

In Galatians chapter 3 verses 1 through 9 o foolish Galatians who was bewitched to you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed and among you as crucified this only I want to learn from you did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain Paul uses this word bewitched and what he’s trying to say here

Is they won’t let go of what they know they will not unlearn they’ve had the law as a part of their life for 3 000 years at this point and in their expression of their faith they are seeking to be justified by how well they obey or not and Paul is trying to get the point across here it’s not about obedience to the law it’s about your faith in Christ now we still obey the law but we’re not saved because of that you’re bewitched if you believe that your adherence to the Mosaic law is going to give you brownie points

With God you’re missing the point you’re bewitched and that’s the point that Paul is trying to drive home here in verse 5. Therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith there is that dichotomy of obedience to the law and faith in Christ just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham and the Scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preach

The gospel to Abraham beforehand saying in you all the nations shall be blessed so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham so again Paul is driving home the point here that um it is not by our faith or is not by our obedience that we are saved it is by faith in Christ now we still need to be obedient Jesus says in John 14 if you believe me if you love me you’ll obey my commandments so there is this aspect of obedience that still needs to be in place but it’s all about what you believe and

Why do you believe that by being obedient to the law or any commandment for that matter New Testament or old is going to somehow get you closer to heaven then you are just as bewitched as these Jews were here in this time it’s all about your faith in Christ without letting go of obedience does that make sense I’m hoping I’m getting this through I want to show you a quick clip of a modern day rabbi who is making this point for me now he is going to tell you in this brief clip exactly what Yeshua and Paul were both dealing

With in their time let’s go ahead and roll that clip point number two point number two which

Paul’s Innovation

Is actually more important and again I am going to get into I’m not going to get into the debate whether Jesus said it or or the apostles or later people said Paul’s innovation he created the idea that that once he gets redemption not by works but by faith for justification by faith that is the theological possibility that is absolutely inconsistent with the eternity of the Torah

Performance Theology

Absolutely inconsistent with the eternity of the Torah that justification by faith is something that Paul created do you see that even today in modern day Judaism this whole idea of not being obedient to Torah for salvation is just something they can’t fathom they couldn’t fathom it then they can’t fathom it now they hold on to their obedience to their works of the law for justification and this is exactly what Paul is writing against in his letter to the Galatians it’s still alive today uh in 2021 it still exists and believe it or not brothers and sisters I think it exists

In some of your hearts because sometimes as Christians we can have what’s called performance mentality or performance theology that the better we are in our spiritual walk the more obedient we are to the good things that we do that were somehow in better condition or better position with God that is the same exact mentality now does that mean we shouldn’t try to be righteous no of course not we need to try to be righteous but why are you trying to be righteous are you doing it because you love Yeshua or because you’re trying to help yourself be better be a

Better Christian be better this be better that whatever the case may be why do you have ten thousand books on your shelf what are you are you are you searching those books for different ways to be a better Christian I hope not because that would be no different than the Jews turning to their Talmud for instruction on how to be better Jews we need to pursue Jehovah we need to pursue the Ancient Path and only the Ancient Path because we love not because we’re trying to earn or gain anything okay let’s finish out Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 through 13

For many are as of the works of the law meaning those who rely on it are under a curse and you absolutely are if you depend on your obedience for brownie points for spiritual brownie points or for salvation you are under a curse for it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law he’s quoting Deuteronomy 27 there to do them but that no one is justified by the law and the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith yet the law is not of

Faith but the man who does them shall live by then let’s stop right there for a moment I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read that in my Bible in my earlier years and believe that if I try to obey the law or the Torah I’m going to be forced to live by them that’s what I thought this passage was teaching until I realized that Paul is once again quoting the Old Testament Scriptures he’s quoting Leviticus chapter 18 in verses 4 through 5 where God is saying you shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them

I am the Lord your God you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments which if a man does he shall live by them I am the Lord what’s another way of saying that it which if a man does he shall live because of them it’s about a quality of life issue not a spiritual life issue Jehovah is not saying here that if you follow his commandments and the statutes you’re going to heaven he’s just saying you’re going to have a better life because you obey them because all of God’s commandments after all come from his heart of love he’s

Not telling us to do this or that or not to do this or that because he’s trying to deny us of some type of joy or pleasure he’s doing it for our good and so if we embrace those our quality of life will be better verse 13 Galatians 3 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law we discussed this in earlier chapters not the law itself but from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the

Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith and then we get to this tricky little section in verses 21 through 25 something a passage that many turn to as their anchor for antinomianism or lawlessness is the law then against the promises of God certainly not the law is not a bad thing for if there had been given a law which could have given life truly righteousness would have been by the law but the Spirit was confined all the Spirit has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be

Given to those who believe but before faith came we were kept under guard by the law kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith but after faith has come we are no longer under a tutor now let me ask the obvious question as I finish reading that passage did Paul tell us without a shadow of a doubt in this passage to stop obeying the law yes or no no he did not matter of fact you cannot commit find in the entire Scripture

The entire New Testament any command that tells us to stop obeying the law Paul is talking about why you obey the law for what purposes to what end are you obeying the law but he’s not telling us not to obey the law so what could he mean hereby after faith has come we are no longer under the tutor the tutor being the law well it’s very simple as a student of driving as a 16 or 15 year old I have to pass a test before I can get behind the wheel I have to take the driver’s manual and I have

To read that for days weeks months it all depends on my learning curve until I can pass a written test on what it means to be a good student of the road a good citizen and then I have to take a driving test to prove that I have absorbed the contents of that booklet now after 10 15 20 years as a driver I no longer need that tutor I have internalized that information and now it’s almost second nature for me to know when it’s safe to turn and when it’s not safe to turn but when I violate the law and

I get pulled over and I get a ticket that booklet stands in judgment of me when I go see the judge for my ticket what is he going to hold as evidence against me well in part the information in that book that taught me what it meant to be a good citizen so do I no longer need the tutor no I don’t need it because I’ve internalized it but if I need to go back and refresh it’s there and by the way that’s what the judge is going to tell you to do you need to go take a drivers course

And what are they going to study in that driver’s course the book that you’ve studied 20 years before and so we don’t we’re not under that tutor as the law the law was meant to bring us to Christ so that we could have faith in Christ but we’re not under the two we don’t need the tutor anymore because we should have internalized the word of God and know what it means to obey Christ faithfully obey Christ does that make sense are you understanding that I hope you’re getting that because otherwise this is going to sound like a bunch of hogwash

And I don’t want to sound like a bunch of hogwash we need God’s word in our life we need to refer to it over and over and over again in our life and after all in Jeremiah chapter 31 God promised that under the New Covenant the law would be written on our hearts and in Romans 2 we learned that as Gentiles we prove that the law is right is written in our hearts by our faithful obedience to it so the law has been written on our hearts which means it it’s not done away with it’s there it can be accessed

Because of our study of it and our application of it in our lives I hope this little bit of a longer lesson has been beneficial to you uh if you differ on any point in this lesson I want to hear from you please reach out to me one way or another um next week we’ll probably finish up or next time we get together we’ll probably finish up Galatians real quick and jump into some other meaty stuff thanks for coming thanks for watching God bless and have a great day