Shownotes
Discover the freedom of faith in Jesus that lifts the burden of religious rules. If you’ve ever felt weighed down by checklists or unsure of your standing with God, this teaching will help you experience the gospel’s freeing truth.
Pastor Jonathan reveals how it’s not striving but trusting Christ tjat brings real belonging, joy, and authentic love. He shares how legalism and license both miss the heart of the gospel and how Spirit-led correction points us back to the cross. He reminds us that faith alone justifies, yet never stays alone; faith naturally produces love and transformation.
Step into a life of grace, purpose, and joyful obedience that flows from being fully accepted in Christ.
Scriptures Referenced
Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 22:4-7; Acts 15:10-11, 15:19-20, 16:3; Galatians 3; James 2:18-21
Key Insights
- Faith in Christ alone makes us right with God; rules and striving cannot.
- Legalism leaves us insecure, while misusing grace leaves us aimless.
- Spirit-led correction flows from relationship and points to the cross.
- Authentic faith produces love and joyful obedience as fruit, not burden.
- God’s covenant promise is an inheritance we receive, not earn.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/foundations-galatians-3
Subscribe & Follow the Podcast
Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Wednesdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I've been asked
Speaker:by our good friend, Miss Angie Bashir, to remind everybody there is
Speaker:a serving opportunity tonight at the end of service
Speaker:to help with the food ministry, and that'll be down in the foyer, right? Yes,
Speaker:sir. Okay, so let's definitely do that. So we're going to
Speaker:continue our Foundation Series tonight by working through chapter
Speaker:3 of Galatians. If you brought your Bibles, I hope you did, please
Speaker:turn there and let's read together starting in verse 1.
Speaker:It's Galatians chapter 3.
Speaker:You foolish Galatians! Okay, let's stop right there.
Speaker:Let's just camp right there for a little bit.
Speaker:So We're roughly 1,200 words into
Speaker:this letter, and the Apostle Paul shows no
Speaker:signs of slowing down on his rebuke to the
Speaker:Galatians. In fact, he seems to be doubling down and picking
Speaker:up quite a bit of steam. Now, there have been
Speaker:times in my life where I've been pretty fired up about doctrine.
Speaker:That's good. I've been fired up because I may think that
Speaker:somebody's misapplying it. in an unhealthy way,
Speaker:and I just wanna shake 'em or whatever and just get the right message
Speaker:out there. So I'll go to the only platform I have, I'll go to Facebook,
Speaker:right? And I'll write this long,
Speaker:articulate, theological, theologically
Speaker:sound in my opinion, correction.
Speaker:And then this small voice will speak that
Speaker:says, don't send that.
Speaker:And after the initial shock subsides of not
Speaker:being able to send what I've prepared that's going to change the
Speaker:world, I come to a place of
Speaker:thankfulness that the Holy Spirit intervened.
Speaker:Yeah. Because the chances of
Speaker:teaching, especially corrective teaching, making a
Speaker:meaningful impact outside of the
Speaker:context of relationship is often pretty low,
Speaker:but it's not zero. But more importantly than that, the
Speaker:chances of corrective teaching making a meaningful impact when it is
Speaker:not Holy Spirit-led— zero.
Speaker:Yes. And I say that because what I believe Paul is doing here is
Speaker:not that. Although it sounds harsh, it is both Holy
Speaker:Spirit-inspired because the Word says so, and it is
Speaker:grounded in the context of fellowship. We must
Speaker:remember that in addition to this letter, according to the book of Acts, Paul
Speaker:makes several missionary journeys to these churches in
Speaker:Galatia, 2 to 3, to strengthen them. And we see in
Speaker:some of his other letters, such as 1 Thessalonians, he was serious
Speaker:about living and working among the people he's ministering
Speaker:to. And I say all that to say, because if we don't frame
Speaker:what Paul is doing here In the context of
Speaker:Spirit-led discipleship, we may be tempted to
Speaker:look at this opening, you foolish Galatians, and
Speaker:find a sense of justification for correcting
Speaker:others without restraint and correcting others
Speaker:using this same level of zeal just for all
Speaker:topics and all discussions across the board.
Speaker:And I feel that's very unwise. I have a handful of
Speaker:trusted people in my life, in this
Speaker:fellowship, who can come up to me and call me a fool to
Speaker:my face if my teaching or if my walk
Speaker:seems out of step with the gospel. Now that I've said that, I'm not going
Speaker:to tell you who those people are, so we can play a little game.
Speaker:Okay, you all are welcome to come up and just see what happens. See if
Speaker:you're in that group. Oh, no. But
Speaker:here's the deal. By the nature of our relationship, I
Speaker:know they will not do that casually
Speaker:or carelessly. Something would have to be
Speaker:seriously wrong and harmful and damaging
Speaker:to pull that kind of response out of these people.
Speaker:So while it may be painful to hear, it would also be something I should
Speaker:probably trust and and listen to. And I believe that's what's
Speaker:happening here in Galatians 3. Paul is in Galatians, the
Speaker:entirety of Galatians. Paul is genuinely concerned for these
Speaker:people that he loves and he's invested in spiritually
Speaker:because they are being led astray away from the
Speaker:gospel that saved them. So let's continue
Speaker:reading. You foolish Galatians,
Speaker:who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
Speaker:was publicly portrayed as crucified. This is the only thing
Speaker:I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of
Speaker:the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish?
Speaker:Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Speaker:Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?
Speaker:So then, does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles
Speaker:among you do it by works of the law? Or by hearing with faith?
Speaker:Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
Speaker:righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of
Speaker:faith who are sons of Abraham. So we've learned in the previous
Speaker:2 chapters, Paul is writing to the Galatians who have
Speaker:put their faith in Christ. These are genuine
Speaker:believers he's talking to, and now he's attempting to correct the
Speaker:false teaching that they have received and adopted from the
Speaker:Judaizers that also affirm their faith in Christ. but
Speaker:then demanded they be circumcised in order to be
Speaker:justified and brought into right standing with God.
Speaker:So that would be considered a works-based salvation, and
Speaker:that keeps them under the burden and bondage of
Speaker:law-keeping, which Scripture says the blood of Christ has
Speaker:rescued us from, has purchased us from.
Speaker:So it isn't just this false teaching that's
Speaker:offensive to Paul,
Speaker:but it is what the false teaching itself suggests. It
Speaker:suggests that the sacrifice of Christ is in some
Speaker:way not sufficient to bring us into right standing with
Speaker:God. And when our
Speaker:view of Christ becomes anything less than
Speaker:all-sufficient, then all of our actions and desires
Speaker:flowing from that will be off. Amen.
Speaker:So looking at verse 1 again, you foolish Galatians, who has
Speaker:bewitched you? That word bewitched means to charm or
Speaker:to have your emotions appealed to. So Paul is warning
Speaker:us that it is possible for believers to be
Speaker:charmed and manipulated into having a view of
Speaker:God that Scripture simply, simply does not hold
Speaker:and does not reveal to be true. How we view
Speaker:God permeates through all of our life.
Speaker:When we know him as good and gracious and
Speaker:forgiving and holy, we will often
Speaker:perpetuate that. If we know him as hard and
Speaker:distant and demanding and callous, we will
Speaker:perpetuate that as well. And that view of God in our
Speaker:minds can be manipulated So easily
Speaker:and subtly if we do not stay tethered to the cross
Speaker:and to the truth of who his word reveals him to be. And one
Speaker:thing that can often skew our view of God, our perception of
Speaker:God, is our relationship with other people.
Speaker:That's what's happened here. Other people have come in and muddied up
Speaker:the whole thing. So I recently saw an interview with a very well-known
Speaker:pastor I love and respect. His name is
Speaker:Francis Chan, and he's been in faithful, fruitful ministry
Speaker:for many decades. I love his teaching, and he's now in his late 50s.
Speaker:And he was being interviewed, and he shared with the interviewer
Speaker:that sadly his mother had passed
Speaker:away while giving birth to him, and that caused a
Speaker:resent— his father to really resent him and treat him
Speaker:very harshly. And that relationship
Speaker:caused him to spend much of his life striving to earn
Speaker:his father's approval and affection. And as he's
Speaker:come to realize in these later years of his life, that
Speaker:view of his earthly father has actually begun to,
Speaker:uh, or throughout the course of his ministry life,
Speaker:blended into his view of his heavenly Father as well.
Speaker:It led him to always be striving to find ways
Speaker:to earn God's approval and feel worthy of the
Speaker:love that had been given freely and lavishly.
Speaker:And all that has caused him to be more aware and prayerful about
Speaker:his need to possess an accurate view of
Speaker:God's love for him, so we can cease striving
Speaker:and know that he is God. Be truly
Speaker:satisfied in Christ. So Paul reminds the Galatians of
Speaker:God's goodness and graciousness and points their focus back
Speaker:to Christ and his sacrifice. So When we see—
Speaker:when ourselves— when we're— when we find ourselves going astray or we see
Speaker:someone else going astray, the answer: point them to Jesus.
Speaker:Point them to the cross. Remind them of the goodness and the
Speaker:graciousness of God. So let's continue reading, starting with verse
Speaker:8 through 18. The scripture,
Speaker:foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
Speaker:Preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
Speaker:all the nations will be blessed in you. So then those
Speaker:who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. For as
Speaker:many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it
Speaker:is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things
Speaker:written in the book of the law to perform them. Now that no one
Speaker:is justified by the law before God is evident, For the
Speaker:righteous man shall live by faith. However,
Speaker:the law is not of faith. On the contrary, he who
Speaker:practices them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us
Speaker:from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is
Speaker:written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,
Speaker:in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the
Speaker:Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit
Speaker:through faith. Notice the shift, relational shift
Speaker:here that's always existed. Brethren, brothers,
Speaker:I speak in terms of human relations. Even though it is
Speaker:only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one
Speaker:sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to
Speaker:Abraham and to his seed. He does not say
Speaker:and to seeds as referring to many, but rather to
Speaker:one. And to your seed, that is Christ. And I
Speaker:love that Paul has to clarify here. What I'm saying is this, okay? I
Speaker:said all that, but this is what I'm saying. The law,
Speaker:which came 430 years later, does not invalidate
Speaker:a covenant previously ratified by God so as to
Speaker:nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on
Speaker:law, it is no longer based on a promise, but God has granted it to
Speaker:Abraham by means of a promise. So what leaves me
Speaker:Several things just mess me up and leave me in shambles about
Speaker:this passage. It says that the gospel, the
Speaker:good news of Jesus Christ, the promise of Christ, was
Speaker:preached to Abraham before
Speaker:the law, foreseeing that God would justify the
Speaker:Gentiles, meaning the Galatians and us,
Speaker:and give them and us an inheritance in
Speaker:Christ. Which means our
Speaker:gracious Heavenly Father held
Speaker:each one of us in his heart and in his
Speaker:mind all those years ago when he made that
Speaker:promise, making a way for us to be free
Speaker:in Christ Jesus. This is a covenantal
Speaker:promise, a covenant promise, not a contractual obligation.
Speaker:A contract demands that both parties abide by the terms
Speaker:in order to fulfill it and receive the benefits. This
Speaker:covenant promise is fulfilled by God himself
Speaker:through Christ, and through faith we enjoy the benefits.
Speaker:We had to do no work in that. Several years
Speaker:ago, my wife and I opened investment accounts for our children. They, uh,
Speaker:Michaela was under 1, Levi was probably 3.
Speaker:They didn't have to do any of the work to open the account. They
Speaker:didn't have to put in any of the money. The account is
Speaker:under our name, but they are the
Speaker:beneficiaries of it. They will receive it, and they will
Speaker:receive the full blessing and all the gains of that account. And
Speaker:here's the best part: my children will never have to
Speaker:work to earn what I have already made a
Speaker:way for them to Receive freely.
Speaker:How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good
Speaker:things to those who ask him? The very nature of
Speaker:an inheritance is that all the work and gain is done
Speaker:outside of us. All we have to do is receive the
Speaker:gift freely. The Galatians,
Speaker:though, have believed a lie that says the gift of grace
Speaker:is simply too good to be true. Therefore, we must
Speaker:require— or it must require something more for us in
Speaker:order to truly earn and be assured of our salvation. And there is a
Speaker:quote from the theologian Jonathan Edwards that I love: the
Speaker:only thing we can contribute to our salvation is the sin that
Speaker:makes it necessary.
Speaker:I hope I can come up with something like that one day. It's really
Speaker:clever. Isaiah 64:6, all of us have become
Speaker:like one who is unclean, and all our
Speaker:righteous acts are like filthy rags. As
Speaker:Elder Mario alluded to last week, our
Speaker:perfect church attendance, our tithing
Speaker:records, our good works do not earn our
Speaker:justification in any way. To suggest that we
Speaker:can offer anything of value in the form of
Speaker:works or improve upon our justification is
Speaker:to believe that we need Jesus plus something
Speaker:else to be saved and to be satisfied. And that
Speaker:presents Jesus' sufficient sacrifice as
Speaker:insufficient. That's worth being fired up
Speaker:about. And we look at something like that and
Speaker:we think to ourselves, surely we can never be
Speaker:deceived in that way. We know Christ is
Speaker:sufficient. We don't need
Speaker:Jesus plus anything else to survive. And we believe all
Speaker:of that while wearing our All I Need Is Jesus and Coffee
Speaker:merch.
Speaker:And cat. And cat and the beach.
Speaker:So by definition, what we are dealing with here is called legalism.
Speaker:Legalism is the belief or the conviction that law keeping
Speaker:is what brings us into right standing with God
Speaker:and not grace. So we would assume that the
Speaker:natural pathway for avoiding legalism is
Speaker:to lean further into grace. However,
Speaker:we find in Scripture that both Paul and James contend with believers
Speaker:who take this preaching of justification by faith alone
Speaker:as a license to continue to sin and
Speaker:sin in even greater levels. So there's a
Speaker:flip side to legalism, and the term coined for that is
Speaker:antinomianism. Say that 5 times fast.
Speaker:Antinomianism. Which means against the law. It is
Speaker:defined as one who holds that under the gospel of grace, the
Speaker:moral law of God is of no use or value because faith alone is
Speaker:the only necessary requirement for salvation. From what I researched,
Speaker:that term was coined during the Reformation, and I
Speaker:think what happened is the guys that got tired of being called legalists
Speaker:said, well, we got to come up with something to call these other guys that
Speaker:are calling us legalists. And
Speaker:antinomianism doesn't really flow off the tongue, you know,
Speaker:the way— I think, I think they lost that round. So,
Speaker:but the theory is With that,
Speaker:since our works have no bearing on our justification, and since I'm once
Speaker:saved, always saved, then why should I be concerned with
Speaker:obedience or good works at all? Because Jesus
Speaker:loves me anyways, right?
:18-21 says this,
:but someone will say, you have faith and I have works.
:Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my
:faith by my works. You believe that God is
:one. You do well. Even the demons believe
:and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish
:person, that faith apart from works is useless?
:Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered
:up his son Isaac on the altar? So we have a bit of
:a dilemma in that both Paul and James have called some people
:fools, okay, for reasons that
:are two sides of the same coin, and they have both used
:different moments in Abraham's life to make their case.
:Now, I hold to the view that these two positions
:are complementary and form a complete picture,
:okay, of how saving faith provides
:justification And how faith and justification
:produces work— works that
:prove our faith is alive. So Martin
:Luther describes it this way: we are saved by
:faith alone, but the faith that saves is never
:alone. In other words, works of
:love and obedience produced in us by the Spirit after
:justification Do not make us righteous, but they
:serve as the evidence that our faith is real.
:But that still leaves us with one important question. Just get real
:simple on this. What do I need to do in order
:to not be considered a fool by either of these guys?
:And part of what makes that question so difficult, I think,
:lies in our understanding of God's law, the
:purpose it served, and how we should think about it today
:as it relates to obedience. So let's keep on reading.
:We'll finish the chapter here, 19 through 29,
:Galatians 3. Why the law then?
:It was added because of transgressions, having been
:ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator,
:Until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
:Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God
:is only one. Is the law then contrary
:to the promises of God? May it never be!
:For if a law had given which was able to impart
:life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law.
:But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, So that the
:promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those
:who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in
:custody under the law, being shut up to faith which
:was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor
:to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith.
:But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor,
:for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
:For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
:yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
:slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you
:are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you
:are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.
:So in some sense here,
:according to Paul, The law worked in
:harmony with the gospel that was preached, and the law
:served a purpose to lead us to Christ.
:Yet in my experience
:growing up in and around church, when we speak about law,
:we usually speak about it strictly in the negative sense,
:such as the curse or bondage side of it. And when we think about
:something only in the negative sense, we
:will be quick to push against it. We will push against anything
:that remotely feels like it or reminds us of it at
:all. And that really begins to muddy the
:water and the conversation about how to think about walking in
:obedience to what Christ commands today, in my
:opinion. And my impression is
:the modern church and believers in the modern church often throw
:around terms like legalism or
:antinomianism, or the accusations of them saying, hey,
:you're being unloving because you're strong on your
:convictions, or you're being soft on sin. We just kind of throw those
:things around at each other to an extent that really makes
:answering these questions quite difficult. So here's where I kind of
:landed, and I hope this is helpful. It is not
:legalism to obey the commandments of God.
:It is legalism to trust in our obedience to the commandments of
:God as the basis of our righteousness before him.
:It is not antinomianism to rest in the grace
:of God. That is a great thing. It is antinomianism
:to use that grace as a reason to live as though
:The commandments of God have no authority over us.
:And I pray
:that we can be honest enough with ourselves to admit
:that unless we stay dependent on the Holy Spirit and on his
:word, we can easily find ourselves slipping
:in that. It can be really easy to let obedience
:become ritual and a source of pride
:and diminish our grace towards others who are not matching us,
:who are not there with us. And it can be
:really easy to allow grace to become so cheap
:that we are living a life that is in complete opposition to what scripture
:commands. Amen.
:Sorry. Jesus. But seriously, what do I got to do to not be a
:fool? Okay, that's the question. Jesus simplified all
:this in a really big way. This is what he said, Matthew
:37-40. Love the Lord your
:God with all your heart, with all your soul,
:with all your mind, This is the first and greatest
:commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as
:yourself. All the law and the prophets
:hang on these 2 commandments. And I actually feel
:that one of the best pictures that exists in Scripture of
:reconciling all these ideas together can be
:found in Acts 15 and 16, which is
:the basis of those first 2 chapters that we dealt with. It's the
:Jerusalem Council that settled this whole argument about
:this requirement of circumcision and affirmed Paul's teaching about
:justification by faith. So if you've got your Bibles, turn to Acts 15 and
:16. So we're going to look at
:Acts
:10-11. This is Peter speaking to Paul's opposition.
:Now then, why do you try to test God?
:By putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our
:ancestors have been able to bear. No, we believe it is
:through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved,
:just as they are. Okay, so now
:skipping down to verses 19 and 20, James,
:speaking and supporting Peter and Paul,
:gives a judgment here, and this is really important. It is
:my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the
:Gentiles who are turning to God. So he's calling back, he's saying,
:we're not going to put that yoke on them. But listen to this.
:Instead, we should write them, these new believers,
:telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols,
:from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from
:blood. So they remove the yoke of the law from them,
:but then call them to the enjoyment of holy living.
:Yet in our— it appears to
:me that in the modern-day seeker-sensitive
:church model and culture, we treat the call
:of holy living as if it is the same as the yoke of the law.
:But here's where all these ideas come together to form this
:beautiful act of love, because all this is
:talking right now, this act of love that expresses faith in Christ.
:Turn to Acts 16:3.
:So Paul, we remember, you've— he's just been affirmed by the Jerusalem
:Council that circumcision is no longer a requirement.
:This is what it says. Paul wanted to take him, Timothy,
:along on the journey, so he circumcised him
:Because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew
:that his father was a Greek.
:So circumcision is not a requirement,
:but Paul immediately requests Timothy to get circumcised.
:Why? So that the
:Jews they were ministering to would receive them.
:so that there would be no obstruction or distraction in the
:way of sharing the gospel, which is their highest
:mission here. It was an act of bridge building.
:It was an act of outreach. It was an act of love.
:And it cost Timothy.
:No cutting around it.
:Amen. I have 2 kids, it's fine.
:But here, this— listen, we gotta, we gotta zoom in on this,
:okay? We must also remember
:that God did not speak to the legality of circumcision.
:He did not forbid circumcision to happen.
:He simply spoke to its lack of effectiveness for
:justification. That's—
:that distinction is important because of this.
:We are called to love others with a self-sacrifice
:that is costly in every sense of the word,
:but our love towards others should not come at the cost
:of sacrificing our love for God or what his word commands.
:Yes. That is a
:narrow road. Amen.
:That requires the Holy Spirit to be our
:guide and the Word to be our guide.
:We cannot do that in our own wisdom at all.
:It is by faith in Christ that we are justified,
:filled with the Holy Spirit, given new hearts,
:given new minds, given new affections towards God,
:And as we find our satisfaction in him,
:his commands to love him and his commands to love
:others are no longer a burden.
:They're a joy. They become joy for us.
:Amen. Amen. Father, I thank you for your word, Lord.
:Could I have Michael, Will, and Tisha? Can we do Follow again?
:That was— it's the perfect song for this, and we have a few minutes. Father,
:I thank you for your word. I thank you
:for the gift of faith that you've given us, Lord,
:the gift of faith alone that justifies us, God. And I thank you that
:all of that produces in us a joyful obedience
:to love you, to love others, to love your word, God.
:Holy Spirit, would you help us along? Lord, as we endeavor
:to follow you with our whole hearts, we
:say yes to your word, God.
:Holy Spirit, help us, be with us, in Jesus' name,
:amen. Church, will you stand with us as we worship?
