In this episode of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we dive into the rich apostolic teachings in the book of Galatians, focusing on the theme of grace versus law. Pastor Skip unpacks Paul’s passionate letter, tackling the harmful influence of the Judaizers while emphasizing the true essence of justification by faith. Get ready to uncover the profound implications of choosing grace for spiritual maturity as opposed to reverting to the law.
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, our mission is to help you know God’s Word and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement every day. And if you’d like to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip’s free weekly devotional. You’ll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, an exclusive resource offers straight to your inbox. Plus, when you sign up today, we’ll send you a free digital download of a chapter of Skip’s book, Biography of God. It only takes a minute to sign up. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That’s connectwithskip.com. Now let’s dive into today’s teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
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So we’re in the book of Galatians chapter three. Now the theme, remember the theme of this book, It’s the theme of grace, and Paul is stressing that. It’s the gospel of grace. It’s how God lavishes his love on undeserving sinners. Aren’t you glad for that? I’m looking at a whole group of undeserving sinners, and I am in your midst as one with you. Paul called himself the chief of sinners. And so God’s grace, grace, an acronym also, G-R-A-C-E, God’s riches at Christ’s expense. It’s unmerited favor, undeserved favor, lavished on those of us who have no standing before God except that we believe in what he has done through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians is a letter that Paul writes, six chapters in all, in which he is very passionate, even emotional, because he is fighting a battle against a group that has infiltrated this church or these church congregations in Galatia, a group known as Judaizers who believe that you have to keep the law to go on to maturity. Faith in Jesus Christ is fine, but you also need something else. And that’s when it becomes dangerous. When somebody says, if you ask them, on what basis are you made right with God? If they answer you and say, I am right with God because of my faith in Jesus Christ, that’s the right answer. But as soon as they say, I am right with God because Because of my faith in Jesus Christ and or plus you’re in trouble. You’re going down the wrong track. And Paul is now fighting the battle for this very essential Christian doctrine that was the hallmark of the Reformation. And the first night we taught through Galatians, I brought out my Martin Luther commentary that he wrote, and he wrote a lot of words on it because it so resonated with him, the book of Romans and the book of Galatians. So, In this letter, there are a couple of key words we told you about in our first study I’m reminding you of tonight. One key word is the word law. It appears 32 times. The other key word is the word faith. It appears 21 times. That’s important to make note of because therein lies the tension. The tension that Paul is working with, the tension that Paul is setting up is the tension between the law and faith. Are you justified before God? Are you made right with God because of the law, that is your keeping of it, or simply because you believe? Is it by faith? And that’s the crux of this letter. Now, I have not told you yet how the book is divided. Shame on me for that. You think by now, after two chapters, I should have told you sort of the division of the book. So it’s very simple. You can divide Galatians up into three equal sections. Two chapters, two chapters, two chapters. The first two chapters is personal. That is, it is autobiographical. Paul tells you about himself personally. and what happened to him and what he personally discovered about salvation by faith, by grace through faith in Christ. That’s chapter one and two. Chapter three and four, we’re gonna begin chapter three tonight. Chapter three and four is doctrinal. These two chapters are filled with reasons and examples and scriptures to prove his point of salvation by grace through faith. The last two chapters, chapter 5 and 6, are practical, practical application. He shows you how believing in Jesus alone and knowing that you were saved by faith alone how it is practical in maturing you spiritually. So we have personal, doctrinal, and then practical. Now, when we were together last time in Galatians, we read through and covered chapter 2. But I want to go back to a word that is another important key word in chapter 2. It is introduced in chapter 2, spoken about a lot in the New Testament. That is the word justified or justification. A word that is mentioned four times in two verses. Go back to chapter 2, verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh or no one shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. Quick theology lesson. Justification, justified. It’s a word that shows up about 30 times in the New Testament. It’s one of the important words you should add to your vocabulary. You need to know what this is. It is a huge deal. Justification is a legal term. It’s a forensic term, and it means to simply make a declaration or a proclamation, to declare someone as righteous. In an ancient courtroom, if you were tried, there were one of two verdicts that would be rendered. One verdict, condemned. Second possible verdict, justified. It’s a proclamation, it’s a declaration. When God justifies you, he declares you righteous. He proclaims you as right before God and righteous as an individual. I mentioned it’s a proclamation, it’s a declaration. That’s an important nuance. Justification doesn’t make you righteous. It proclaims you righteous. It declares you righteous. Now that’s important and here’s why. It doesn’t make you righteous. You’re not righteous. If you know yourself, you know that to be true. And if you don’t know that about yourself, I’m guessing somebody who’s closely related to you does know that about you. You’re not righteous. You still mess up. You still blow it. You still fall, right? We all do. However, you are being made more and more righteous. That’s a process called sanctification. After justification comes sanctification. And sanctification is the process where you grow, you mature. And you think differently, you have different values, you love certain things you didn’t love before, like Bible study and prayer and Christian fellowship. You hate other things that you loved before, like sin. And because you love it less, you sin less. Doesn’t mean you’re sinless, but you do sin less. So that’s sanctification. Justification is God looks at you and pronounces you, declares you to be righteous, and treats you based on the declaration as righteous. See, it’s a beautiful thing to know. It’s a beautiful thing to be aware of. God declares you righteous and treats you righteous. And perhaps the best way to understand justified is to simply break the word up. Just if I’d never sinned. That’s how God treats me. Just if I’d never sinned. Justified. It’s a declaration. It’s a proclamation. So that’s the other key word, and he’s going to now go into the doctrinal parts of this in chapter 3. Chapter 3 and 4 are two of perhaps the strongest words ever penned by Paul the Apostle. As I said, he’s passionate, even emotional in these chapters because he is fighting a battle. This assault has come in and disrupted the church in the form of the Judaizers. So once again, Paul’s premise is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Salvation by grace alone, unmerited, undeserved favor, by faith, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And he’s going to put on the gloves and get down to brass tacks in this chapter. So what he does is, first, he wants them to think back and recall their history, their biblical history, their own history in Scripture. Now, chapter 3, verse 1, O foolish Galatians! See, he’s sort of turning the heat up a little bit. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Evidently, Paul’s preaching was so effective in Galatia, it was as if they could picture Jesus being crucified. He had made such a point of it when he established the churches there. He painted the picture so dramatically. It was as if they were standing there at the cross watching Jesus being crucified. He was clearly portrayed before them as crucified.
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This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. When you give to this ministry, you help reach thousands of people every day with God’s life-changing truth, encouraging them to know Him, trust Him, and walk in His freedom. And this month, we want to thank you with a special resource package. You’ll receive Skip’s book, Biography of God, which helps you explore God’s nature, His power, the mystery of the Trinity, and the hope that comes from removing the false limitations we sometimes place on Him. Plus, you’ll get Skip’s six-message CD series, Expound Galatians, where Skip unpacks the book of Galatians and the freedom believers have through grace, not works. Your gift today helps bring the life-changing message of Jesus to people around the world through Connect with Skip. Request your resources when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com slash offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here’s more from Pastor Skip.
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Now, every time we take the Lord’s table, and next week I think we’re having communion, we’re going to take the elements. It is a portrayal. It is a picture that causes us to remember what he did at the cross. And it’s a beautiful portrayal. But Paul’s preaching was that before the Galatians, when he first went there and established the church, and that is what he is referring to. But notice what he says. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Now, I brought with me another book tonight, not an old book. It’s not as old as that book. This is from like the 70s. To some of you, that would be considered a classic, but it’s not. But this is the New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips. And J.B. Phillips was a New Testament translator and scholar, and he uses colorful language in his translation. I like to refer to it from time to time, and I thought this would be a good rendering. So here it is. Oh, you dear idiots of Galatia. Now, I like that J.B. Phillips put in dear idiots because Paul is being emotional and he’s being confrontational, but he’s also being loving. And so I think it’s actually a good translation. Oh, you dear idiots of Galatia who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I will ask you one simple question. Did you receive the Spirit by trying to keep the law or by believing the message of the gospel? Surely you can’t be so stupid as to think that you begin your spiritual life in the Spirit and then complete it by reverting to physical observances. His point is pretty clear. If you can’t be saved by works, then why are you reverting back to the law of Moses to become mature? If it gives you no standing to begin with, why are you going back to something that was a source of bondage and thinking that that is going to make you mature? I do find this same tendency on many different levels, even today. For example, there is an allurement to Messianic Christianity. You find Jewish people who come into a relationship with Christ and it’s awesome, it’s beautiful. But oftentimes I find that Gentile Christians who are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ. They take a trip to Israel or they get involved in a Jewish Seder and they think they need to now keep the Sabbath and they have this Shabbat every Friday evening in their family and they keep the Pesach and they do all the Jewish liturgies. It’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with doing that if you want to get in touch with some of your roots. But They then go around and proclaim that they do that and try to get others to do it, almost that they proselytize those rituals more than the simple, pure gospel. They become just so on fire for, you know, being messianic, and they’ll even say, oh, I’m Jewish, even if they’re not. That’s an affront to a Jewish person, by the way, to act like you’re a rabbi when, I mean, look at, I would never pretend to be that. I am a German Gentile who loves Israel. I have no natural reason to love Israel, but I love them because of the covenant. But I don’t try to act Jewish and think, well, I’m a cut above everybody else because I practice a messianic form of Judaism. Or, They get saved by faith in Jesus Christ and then feel the need to add liturgical practices to their faith. They’re beautiful, but it can also become a hang-up. Or they’re saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ and they read a few books by John Calvin and Calvinists and they get a little narrower and a little bit more legalistic. So Paul says, oh, you dear idiots of Galatia, or oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Or as J.B. Phillips writes, who cast the spell on you? It could be translated, fascinated you. Who has fascinated you? That’s a good question. What makes legalism fascinating to people? Well, I can give you a couple reasons. Number one, it appeals to the flesh. Legalism always appeals to the flesh because it appeals to me adding something to the finished work of Christ. I feel better if I do this and I do that and I practice this and I practice that and I keep that ritual and that ceremony. I have now done something. Makes me feel good about myself because I’m a good person because I do. So it appeals to the flesh. Number two, it appeals to the senses. And human beings are very sensory-oriented creatures. They love to smell the incense. They love to hear the chants. They love to see the rituals displayed in front of them. It can be very appealing. It can be very fascinating. So Paul begins this chapter just right up front being confrontational. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed 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. Now, the Holy Spirit has a relationship with the Christian, does a work in the life of every believer. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us. Before we are saved, he convicts us. Jesus said, when the Spirit has come, he will convict the world of sin. and righteousness and judgment of sin because they do not believe in me. So the first thing the Holy Spirit does is convict us. He convinces us that we’re hurting for certain. We need help. We need Christ. We need salvation. He convicts us. The second work of the Holy Spirit is the new birth. We are born of the Spirit, Jesus said in John chapter 3. Unless you are born of the water and the Spirit, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So the new birth is a spiritual act. He regenerates us. The third work of the Holy Spirit is he baptizes us into the body of Christ, into the community of faith. The fourth thing the Holy Spirit does is he seals us. So we are kept unto the day of salvation. So the entire experience of salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. So Paul says, so I’d like to know this from you. I’m curious. I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? Did you work hard to get all that done in your life? Or by the hearing of faith? You heard the gospel, you met it with faith, you believed, and you were justified. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, one of my favorite questions in the Bible, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? Do you really think you can improve on what God has done? Are you that lame? Are you that dumb? Are you that lacking? Or a better term than dear idiots or stupid is spiritually dull. Are you this spiritually dull that you think you can improve on the finished work of God in Christ on the cross? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain for nothing, for no good reason, if indeed it was in vain? Now, I’m sure when you were living in Galatia and you believed in Jesus and you told people, I believe in Jesus, you got persecuted. They suffered for it. They suffered from the townspeople. They suffered from their relatives. You and I do the same oftentimes. They suffered from the Judaizers who came in and said, it’s not enough, you need more to really, really be a Christian and really mature. So they’ve suffered a lot. So Paul says, have you suffered for no good reason, for nothing? 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? Would you ever tell a person who said, they came up to you and said, hey, I’m suffering this physical ailment. Would you lay hands on me and pray for me? Would you say, well, I will. But first you have to prove that you’re worthy by performing a certain work. And when you perform that work successfully, then I’ll know that you’ve earned it. You’d never do that. We don’t believe that. But he alludes to that idea, he who works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Now just a note about what he is talking about. Miracles among you could also be translated, and often is in some translations, miracles within you. So it could be referring to the miracle within you of salvation. That is totally miraculous. You were going to hell, now you’re going to heaven. That takes a miracle. You were a part of the kingdom of darkness, now you’re in the kingdom of light. That’s God’s miracle. Salvation is a spiritual work of wonder. It’s miraculous. God opened your eyes. Now you see.
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Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God’s Word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. And this month, we’d love to thank you for your support by sending you a special resource bundle, Skip’s book, Biography of God, along with his Six Message CD series, Expound Galatians. Together, these resources help you explore who God really is and how to live in the spiritual freedom He offers. Give today at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip.
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Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing.
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Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God’s never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
