#119-G65 ~ Galatians 3 continued
As we usually do, I begin with a little review of where we’ve been in our study of Galatians 3. The focus continues to be on salvation by grace through faith alone. The Galatians, just like people today, were having trouble accepting the truth about this. This is why I’m spending so much time on this. I never cease to be amazed at how this thing of salvation by works continues to be such a widespread problem. Our confidence must be in what God provided, His work, not what we do through some list of works to earn something as wonderful as salvation.
Paul goes back to the days of Abraham to teach salvation by grace through faith alone. The issue has never been to simply believe IN God. Instead we must believe God and what He has said. That’s what Abraham did and that’s what people must do today.
Here I talk about the importance of sharing this message of grace that God has given us. Because salvation is free, we should want to share the good news about this habitually. The word gospel actually means good news. It consists of this message of grace God has entrusted us with.
We continue our study here as I talk about how blinded people have been to the gospel message. Here we look at II Corinthians 4:3-4. I point out that even MOST people attending churches are NOT saved. There, of all places, they are taught that salvation is something of works. They want to blend grace with works and there is no blending of these two to be made. It is grace plus nothing. Salvation is all about what God accomplished through Christ on the cross and through His resurrection. We must simply believe in what He did to resolve our sin problem. What an amazing job Satan has done to hide this message. That’s why in the work of evangelism so much time has to be spent on convincing people that salvation is free and by grace through faith in Christ alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states the situation on this.
Titus 3:5 is the next passage we study. Here, too, we are told that works have nothing to do with the attainment of our salvation. But instead of accepting this, people like to go to other parts of the Bible for our gospel. But it’s not there! It is only in Paul’s epistles. Even Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John don’t present it. There we have the record of the cross and resurrection, but people in that time didn’t know the significance of these events and how they relate to salvation. They initially through the cross of Christ was a terrible thing instead of it being the glorious thing it was and is. The Mosaic Law and much more was in place then as God’s program for His people. It was by their WORK to comply with THAT that they manifested their faith. But that’s not how things are today. The Mosaic Law has now been set aside. We are not lawless but we are not under that program today. It is in Paul’s teaching that we get the answers about this and more.
I then get into some comments about water baptism. Here, too, people think this work of water baptism in some form has something to do with our salvation. However, that is not the case at all. There are NO watery ceremonies that can provide salvation. The “washing” of regeneration is the Holy Spirit’s cleansing work of the new birth, the spiritual birth, God provides for us at the point of salvation.
I then make some comments about the book of James and the emphasis on works that is there. But as we’ve seen before, that book was written to Israel, not to us today. See James 1:1 and believe it! Here I close with some comments about what a wonderful opportunity we have to present these truths. That is an opportunity we all need to habitually take advantage of. Are you faithfully doing that?
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