GALATIANS 3:11

The Bible says in Galatians 3:11, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith.” In the book of Galatians Paul makes very clear over and over again that salvation comes by faith and not by law. There were false teachings in the first century just as there are false teachings today that have the same kind of emphasis. If you talk to people today and ask them why they are a Christian, many of them will refer to their works and their ability to keep some set of moral laws or religious regulations. But the Bible says here, “No man is justified by the law.” If you really understand salvation, instead of talking about what you have done, you will talk about what you believe. You will say that it is faith in Christ that saves, or as the Bible says here, “The just shall live by faith.”

The Bible says in Galatians 3:12, “And the law is not of faith; but the man that does them shall live in them.” Paul quoted from the book of Leviticus in this verse to show that what he is teaching comes from the Old Testament law itself. The only way that anyone could become justified by the law is to obey it totally and completely without fail. The law requires total obedience, so once you fail, you are under the condemnation of the law. You are guilty of having violated the law. That is how law works.

Thank God that He has provided a solution to the condemnation that the law brings. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree.” The righteous demands of the law had to be met. God could not just let us go free without punishing sin. A judge who lets the guilty go free is not a just judge. God is just so He still had to punish sin. The way that He did that was through Christ. Christ was made a curse for us.

Concerning the results of Jesus dying for us on the cross, the Bible says in Galatians 3:14, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” The blessing of Abraham refers to the blessing that God pronounced on Abraham. The promise refers to the promise that God made to Abraham. God cannot lie, so when He makes a promise you want to get in on it. How do you become a part of the great promise that was made to Abraham: faith in Christ.

Galatians 3:15 says, “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls or adds to it.” We are talking about a covenant here: the Abrahamic covenant. God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham entered into the benefits of the promise by believing it. That is how you please God and that is how you live for God in this world: faith, faith in the promises. Make sure you know the promises so you can believe them and rely upon them. God made an eternal promise to Abraham. God said to Abraham in Genesis 13:15, “For all the land which you see, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” The promise was given this way in Genesis 22:18, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

Paul explains the meaning of this promise that was made to Abraham in Galatians 3:16. It says, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” In other words among other things, the great promise made to Abraham was a Messianic promise. It was a promise that would be fulfilled in Christ.

In the next two verses Paul points out that the law has nothing to do with the promise that was made to Abraham because the law came hundreds of years after the promise. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:17-18, “And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Faith in a promise stands in direct contrast to how law works. Law says, If you do such and such, then you receive a reward. But the promise that God made to Abraham had no legalistic conditions: no requirements of human behavior or action to enter into the promise. True spiritual life still works that way. There are no legalistic requirements that you can obey in order to please God. If you want to please Him, then find out what the promises are and believe them. Believe in Jesus Christ.

If it is true that the just shall live by faith, and that without faith it is impossible to please God, and that justification is by faith and faith alone, then what is the purpose of the law? The Bible says in Galatians 3:19-24, “Wherefore then serve 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. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

One of the things that Paul says in this passage is, “for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” In other words the law is good and holy and just. If humans perfectly obeyed the law without fail, they would be righteous. The problem with the law for the human race is the fact that everyone except for Jesus Christ has failed to keep the law perfectly. Romans 3V23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

If people do not become righteous through the law, then what does the law do for people? It helps people come to Christ. That is what Galatians 3:24 says: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” It works like this: when an honest human being tries to keep the law, he comes to the conclusion that he cannot do it; that he has failed and sinned. Therefore, he comes to the realization that he needs a Savior to forgive him of his sins. That is the purpose of the law: to teach people that they are sinners who need a Savior and to convince people of the importance of turning to Jesus Christ and believing on Him. Once someone turns to Christ, they become justified by faith.

So the law was mainly for the unbeliever: to bring him to Christ. But once someone has learned that lesson from the law, he does not need the law any more. That is why Paul wrote in Galatians 3:25, “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” In other words once we have faith in Christ, we no longer need the law. Its purpose has been fulfilled in our lives.

Once you come to faith in Christ, there are things that happen to you as a result. Paul speaks of some of those things in Galatians 3:26-29 where the Bible says, “For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Listen to all of the things mentioned in these verses that we gain once we have faith in Christ:

- We are children of God

- We have been baptized into Christ

- We have put on Christ

- We are one in Christ

- We are Abraham’s seed

- We are heirs according to the promise

Those are all wonderful things to have, and only those who have faith in Christ have them. If you have these things, then no matter what else you have, you are blessed beyond compare. If you are child of God, you get to go to heaven. Only the children of God go to heaven. Notice one of the benefits of coming to faith in Christ has to do with those who have been baptized into Christ. This is spiritual baptism. You are immersed into Christ when you believe on Him.

There is a great emphasis here upon the equality of believers. Many people of the world long for true equality because they see all around them injustices and prejudices and a lack of equality. No one will ever find a greater equality than exists among the believers in Jesus. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Hopefully you treat all other believers as equals since the Lord says that you are equals.

The last of the things mentioned in these verses, being heirs of the promises, is expanded upon in the first part of Galatians chapter four. Galatians 4:1-5 says, “Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

An heir may have a great inheritance awaiting him, but until that inheritance comes into his possession, he is under tutors and governors that guide his life. Those who have not yet come to Christ and who have not yet come into the great spiritual inheritance that Christ would have given them are under something also. They are “in bondage under the elements of the world.” The elements of the world refer to the basic characteristics of the world in which we live. This world that is so often based upon greed and selfishness and cruelty and deception, brings people into bondage. People become enslaved to the things that grab hold of their lives, and they remain slaves until they meet Christ who sets them free.

One of the things that people are in bondage to is the law, the law that makes them guilty and condemns them. Beautiful pictures are painted in these verses of what God has done for us. These verses say that we were under bondage and that we were servants. This is language that those in the first century would understand very well as applying to slaves. One thing about slaves in the first century is that they were bought and sold in the market place. The word “redeem” literally means to buy out of the marketplace. Galatians 4:5 says that God redeemed “them that were under the law.” We were under bondage, but God paid a price for us: the price of the blood of His own Son. Once He redeemed us, He took the poor slaves to sin that we were, and He elevated us to a great standing: the sons of God. Now we have an inheritance of a son of God, the best inheritance of all.

In speaking of God’s plan to provide salvation for the sinners of the world and to send His Son to die for us, it says in these verses, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.” God planned it all. The world was then as it still is now on His timetable. Jesus was destined to die on the cross, and so He came into the world when the ruthless Roman Empire was in control, using crucifixion as a form of tortuous capital punishment. The Messiah had to be rejected by His people, and so Jesus came into the world just when organized religion had reached a pinnacle of pride and self-righteousness. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.”

Unlike man and unlike you and me, God knows when it is just right to do something. He knows when it is just the right time to visit each person and draw them to Christ for salvation. You do not know that time for others, and so you must be careful to be led by the Spirit in your witness. God knows just the right time for a change to come into your life. Timing is everything. One of the challenges of the Christian life is to move when God wants you to move and to stay when God wants you to stay. Some Christians have caused themselves many sorrows by doing things in their own selfish timetable and not finding God’s time to do something.

Concerning the right time to get saved, the Bible says in Second Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

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