From the Pulpit...

The Galatian believers were spiritually dull, not understanding the impossibility of salvation based on works. Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions designed to cause the Galatian believers to return to the true foundation of their faith: Christ alone. Spiritual maturity has the same starting point as salvation: faith in Jesus Christ. Faith changes the motivation of our hearts from seeking to be acceptable to God through our own efforts to wanting to live for Him. When the Galatian believers broke away from the law, they suffered great persecution. To return to the law would make their suffering meaningless. The Judaizers were proud of being "Abraham's seed." Paul then asks: How was Abraham justified? The answer: Abraham was counted as righteous when he believed God's promise to give him descendants as numerous as the stars. The gift of the Holy Spirit-and His mighty power working in us-depends on faith. The Christian life is a supernatural one that exhibits the supernatural power of God. There was no stronger argument for a Jewish Christian at that time than that Abraham had been justified in exactly the way Paul was declaring. Faith is not a work that makes one righteous, but by faith we are united with Christ, who is our righteousness. Like Abraham, we are justified, or counted as righteous, by believing God.