Salvation: By Law Or By Faith

It has been said that there are only two religions in the world really. The first is man’s efforts to do the right things to be accepted by god. The second, if the way of Scripture, the way of grace. The way of grace is where God does everything; we simply believe it and believe Him. By faith, we trust His work on our behalf when we would be much more comfortable trusting in ourselves. The first way is the way of Cain; the second, the way of Abel. The first is the religion of Esau while the second is the faith of Jacob. The first is the way of the world; the second the way of Abraham.  

Since we have looked at the first two chapters together in our first two messages, today we will move into chapter 3. 

Essentially, chapter 3 expounds upon and illustrates the nature of the gospel which Paul explained in chapters 2:15-21. The salvation of God is, as the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther said, sola gratia, by grace God’s alone; and it is sola fide, by faith alone. The great Protestant Reformation was about these very truths, in fact.  

But of course, those who all their lives had believed that to be saved from God’s wrath one needed to be good, to do good, to keep God’s laws given by Moses, this message was not received well. In his attempt to win the Galatian Christians back to the purity of the gospel, Paul must help them understand that God’s way has always been by His grace and through faith. In his explanation, Paul illuminates the Galatians’ own experience and the Old Testament Scripture. 

For our own salvation and understanding let’s consider these more thoroughly. The first thing he does is remind them of what happened to them and what message they believed at the first.