Are You Living by Faith? Truth and Promise (Galatians 3)

Introduction

This Sunday, at Tokyo Christ Church, we opened the third message in a series on the letter to the Galatians. After two weeks spent laying out the theological heart of the book (justification by faith in Christ, not by works of the law), the preacher wanted to bring it down a notch, toward something more practical. The question posed was direct: are you living by faith?

The starting text is Galatians 3:1-3: "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?"

The tone is head on. Paul is not looking for a polite way of saying it. He calls the Galatians "fools," "senseless." If a pastor spoke like that to his congregation today, the video would go around social media before the next morning. But this letter, some say, remains Paul's most personal. It is sometimes even called the fifth gospel. It is precisely because it burns that it reaches us too: it asks us, as well, whether we are really living by faith.

Outline of the article

1. Truth, not lies

If Paul rises to this level of tension, it is because a complete lie had taken hold among the Galatians. Faith in Jesus Christ had been presented to them clearly, and yet the gospel had been subtly distorted. Something false had been added to the true, and the disciples had let themselves be taken in.

This speaks to us today. A study cited by the preacher estimates that about 62% of information online is false, and that on average 40% of content shared on social media is deceptive. Even more troubling: faced with a piece of false information, nearly half of people perceive it as true or probably true, and a quarter go on to share it. That figure comes from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications last year. We are not merely exposed to lies, we let ourselves be carried along by them.

And if you tell yourself, "I'm not part of the smartphone generation, this doesn't concern me," remember that the world of rumor and gossip works in exactly the same way. In every era, human beings are easily deceived.

Why? Partly because of what is called confirmation bias: we more readily believe information that lines up with what we already want to hear, with our convictions, with our values. The Galatians likely had a familiarity with the Old Testament, which made the additions to the message seem more "plausible" to them.

So how do you recognize the truth? Read verses 1 and 2 carefully again. Paul says: "Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified before your very eyes." The expression is striking. "Before your very eyes": clearly, unambiguously. In other words, the truth was visible. It still is. The question he asks ("Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by faith?") is almost rhetorical. The answer is obvious once we calm down and look.

Those who had troubled them were skillful. They did not bring a completely different message, they added "just a little." That is what makes a lie dangerous: it almost looks like the truth. But if we take the time to think calmly, the truth is right there in front of us.

The preacher shares a personal memory. A few years ago, he had prepared a sermon he was very pleased with. The text had inspired him, he really felt carried by the message. He had a more experienced brother review it, who told him: "Honestly, this isn't good." A shock. He tried to defend himself: "But it encouraged me..." The other insisted: "For the person listening to you, it doesn't land, it doesn't touch anything, there's no empathy in it."

Looking back, it was true. He had been carried along by his own inspiration, without putting himself in the listener's shoes, without making himself vulnerable, without a concrete example. He resisted for a while, then finally received the word. What that truth allowed him to learn about himself, he could not have learned any other way.

What God has grown in him has almost always come by this path: someone who, with patience, refused to let go of the truth. This is why living by faith requires a community posture: telling one another the truth, with humility and love, without settling for surface level peace.

Why is a lie so hard to leave? Because it is comfortable. It avoids waves. It puts a lid on the smell. It gives the illusion that there is no longer a problem. It seems painless, whereas the truth often hurts. But that is exactly where the real lie is hiding: the lie is not comfortable, it is not painless. Studies confirm it: the longer we push a problem back, the bigger the pain grows. A lie always ends up costing us dearly. The smell never actually goes away.

Let us choose the truth. Let us root ourselves in the God who is truth, and in the Word which is his concrete expression. Let us help one another with humility, sincerity, and genuine love.

2. Not the Law, but the promise

Let's now read Galatians 3:6-9: "So also Abraham 'believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.' Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.' So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."

Paul returns tirelessly to his thesis: we live by faith, not by law. Here, he says even more. He affirms two enormous things: those who live by faith are descendants of Abraham, and the blessing announced to Abraham was already, in seed form, the gospel. What God promised to Abraham ran through all of history to arrive at Jesus Christ, and that promise runs all the way to us.

To grasp the weight of this statement, you have to picture the biblical timeline. Abraham appears right at the beginning, in Genesis. He is called the father of believers. Paul says his blessing pointed toward Christ. And because we belong to Christ by faith, we are grafted onto that same promise.

A little further on, in Galatians 3:17, Paul sums it all up: "What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise." The law arrived 430 years after the promise made to Abraham. But it does not have the power to cancel that promise. What was sealed first still holds.

The consequence is enormous: God's promise is stronger than the law. Righteousness by faith stands above it, and nothing can shake it. That promise keeps running all the way to us.

See what that means. What, for many, is the most trustworthy mark of Christianity is precisely this: something that does not waver. A coherence from beginning to end. A promise that holds through time. Our lives waver. The world wavers. The more seriously we try to live, the more we bump into its contradictions. And yet something remains stable, coherent, eternal. What grace!

Concretely: since the law that arrived 430 years later could not cancel the promise, do you think your failures, your weaknesses, your powerlessness are going to manage it? No. Can shifting values, trends, the cultural climate of the day cancel God's promise? No either. The promise holds above everything. Root yourself in that certainty.

Another consequence: every one of our actions has meaning. Even the things that, to our eyes, seem tiny, almost motionless, are tied to this promise. That is exactly why we have no right to give up. Paul says it: "All nations will be blessed in Abraham," "those who believe are blessed along with Abraham." We are carriers of that blessing.

In recent weeks, while preparing for the year with several church members, I have heard so many small testimonies: "I regularly visit so and so who can no longer come to the service..." "I kept talking with someone for months, and they finally came back to church..." Our acts as disciples are often very small. Very concrete, very ordinary. You will probably find yourself wondering: "Is the time I'm giving really useful? Is my word really helping?" Each of these things is precious, because each one is connected to the promise. We are blessed with Abraham in order to be a blessing.

Paul concludes this chapter in Galatians 3:29: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." That is our status: heirs of a promise. Let us live out of it.

3. A practice rooted in the promise

This is not a recipe, but a few very simple ways to "start from the promise" instead of from our inner states.

• Prayer as a check on the contract. Let's not just pray by saying, "Lord, please do this." Let's anchor our prayer in what God has already promised: "Lord, you promised this, you gave me that, so act according to your word, I trust you."
• Giving thanks starting from the promise. Before giving in to complaint, to worry, or to the idea that "I still have to force it," first measure what God has already given you in promise. Giving thanks means recognizing the contract.
• Worship as a renewal of the contract. Sunday is not just a weekly routine. It is the day we check together what God has promised, and the covenant made with us is, so to speak, renewed within us.
• A testimony that starts from the covenant. Because we are blessed with Abraham, we become able to pass on this blessing with joy and peace, not out of obligation.

Live by faith. Stay anchored in the truth. Rely on the promise. Turn your eyes toward this world so that God's will may be accomplished in it.

Key takeaways

1. Paul raises his tone because a real lie had slipped in alongside the gospel. The most dangerous lie is never very far from the truth: it resembles it, it accompanies it, it adds "just a little."
2. The truth is often right in front of our eyes, as long as we are calm and honest. Christ crucified was clearly "portrayed" before the Galatians. It is up to us to choose to look.
3. Living by faith requires a community that agrees to tell one another the truth in love. No one becomes a disciple alone.
4. The promise made to Abraham was already the gospel. The law, arriving 430 years later, could never cancel it.
5. Our weaknesses cannot cancel God's promise. We are "heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). Let us pray, give thanks, celebrate, and testify from that place.

Personal application

1. What is one "small" distortion of the gospel in my life that I tolerate because it feels comfortable?
2. Do I let someone tell me the truth (a brother, a sister, a leader), even when it hurts?
3. What do I need to repent of today, not out of guilt, but because the truth has reached me?
4. Am I living out of my own efforts, or out of the promise God has made me in Christ?
5. This week, what is one very simple action I can take while remembering it is tied to Abraham's promise?

Verses cited

• Galatians 3:1-3 · "You foolish Galatians!..."
• Galatians 3:6-9 · "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness..."
• Galatians 3:17 · "The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God..."
• Galatians 3:29 · "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

FAQ

Why does Paul call the Galatians "fools"?

Because he is struck by how clearly the truth of Christ crucified had been presented to them, and yet they agreed to add the law to it. The word is not pastorally smooth; it carries at once Paul's urgency, his love, and his disappointment toward these disciples he cares deeply about.

What does "living by faith" actually mean?

It means refusing to make our own efforts the basis of our relationship with God, and starting instead from what God has promised in Christ: praying from the promise, giving thanks from the promise, celebrating and testifying from the promise.

So is the Old Testament law cancelled?

Paul does not say that. He says the law cannot cancel the promise made to Abraham, which was already the gospel. Justification comes by faith, not by works of the law; the promise stands above it.