Studies in Galatians – Wayne Barber/Part 13
| By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2004 |
| Now he’s headed on toward something else, but that’s where he is right now. Salvation is not by works. This is the gospel. This is the message that we have to take to work with us, to take to our neighborhoods, to take around the world. |
The Means of Our Sanctification
Well, turn with me to Galatians 3. We’re going to pick up where we left off this past week. We’re going to be looking at verses 8-11 today. What a powerful passage! Remember, I told you to strap your seatbelts on; it is going to start getting deeper and deeper now. If you will stay with me and just pray, maybe we could start seeing this come together. It’s beautiful if you can see it. It’s really profoundly simple. Sometimes the frailty of preaching makes a little more complex.
The last time we were together we saw how Paul develops his case to these Galatian believers that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. There’s no other means to be saved. Now he’s headed on toward something else, but that’s where he is right now. Salvation is not by works. This is the gospel. This is the message that we have to take to work with us, to take to our neighborhoods, to take around the world. You know, missions and evangelism are the same thing, across the street, around the world. And this is our message, that God so loved all of us that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever—what? Believes; not works for Him, not earns it by some work—believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Recently a mother told me this story. She has four boys and she said one of her boys said, “Momma, I want to be saved. I want to go to heaven. How can I be saved?” Isn’t it a precious time when your children come and ask those questions? Well, the older brother—and that’s the way it always is, isn’t it; they are going to intimidate everybody—the older brother says, “It’s by good works. It’s by good works. You’d better be good or you can’t go.” And the mother said, “Son, you know better than that. It’s by grace you are saved by faith. You just put your trust in Jesus Christ and what He did for you.” She said that little seven-year-old looked at his brother, “works,” and he looked at his momma, “grace” and he said, “Momma, I want to be saved that way.”
You know, the apostle Paul would have risen up and called him blessed. I guarantee you right there. That’s exactly what he’s saying to the Galatians. “You want works? No, I didn’t think so. I think you want the message of grace.” Well, to prove his case that salvation is only by faith alone in Christ alone, he brings his star witness to the forefront. And that star witness is a man by the name of Abraham. Isn’t that the genius of the Holy Spirit of God? I mean, Abraham was the hero of all of the Jews. I mean, to bring Abraham’s name up would have stopped everybody. And he shows them in verses 6-7 that Abraham had to be saved by faith. Isn’t that amazing? Why is it that they haven’t thought about that? It wasn’t works that saved Abraham. He believed and it was accounted, or reckoned to him as righteousness. Look at verse 6. It says, “Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Abraham was an unquestionable witness. There’s nothing you can do with it. It’s right there in Genesis. How do you skip it? How do you get around it? If you don’t factor that into what salvation is all about and how a person can be saved, then you miss the point.
Last week we went over to Romans 4 and we saw in detail the justification by faith alone in Christ alone by Abraham. Do you realize when Abraham was saved when he believed that there was no covenant of law? There was no circumcision. Circumcision did not come about till the 17th chapter, many years later, of the book of Genesis. Abraham believed God. And the word for believed there is pisteuo. Pisteuo comes from the word pistos, which means to put your total trust into someone. In other words, you can’t trust good works, but you can trust what Jesus has done for us. Somebody gave an acrostic of the word “faith” once. It says “forsaking all, I trust Him.” And that’s what Abraham did. And it was reckoned. That word “reckoned” is an accounting word. It was written to his account. I gave the illustration last week: wouldn’t it be great to see your bank statement and have $30,000 more than you thought you had? It was just reckoned to your account. You didn’t earn it. You didn’t do anything for it. It was written beside your name in your account.
Well, this fact, this unquestionable example that Abraham was, that faith alone in Christ alone is the only way of salvation, leads us to an unchangeable truth. It has been there all along. It was there in Genesis; it’s there in the New Testament. What is that? Verse 7: “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Now, we saw how both Jesus and Paul used that phrase. You see, the Jewish mindset was “that is our term; that is our phrase, because we can track our physical lineage back to Abraham. We are his sons.”
But Paul and Jesus use it in a different way. Even Abraham and how he was saved qualifies the meaning of how they used it. It’s in a spiritual sense. Only people who have put their faith into Christ, have believed God, these are the ones who are children, figuratively, spiritually, of Abraham; those who put their faith in Christ. Now, let’s watch as how Paul continues to defend righteousness by faith as we move on. And I will tell you what, strap your seatbelts on because he’s going to deal with some interesting things here. You have to put yourself in the mindset of the Judaizers who are reading this letter. He’s going to infuriate them before it’s over with, and this is nothing compared to what’s coming in the book of Galatians.
So we have an unquestionable example, Abraham. I mean, to any person who ever doubts that salvation is by faith, take him back to Genesis and show him Abraham. That’s how he was saved, no works, none of this other stuff; it was strictly by faith. And then, secondly, an unchallenged truth. But then thirdly, as we pick up where we left off last week, we want to see an unrestricted covenant.
The covenant of grace that Paul is going to bring up here in a moment that was promised to Abraham was not restricted to Jews. In fact, when it was made there were no Jews. We do understand that today, don’t we? The Jewish race, Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had two sons. The younger was named Jacob, and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Israel had 12 sons, and there is your nation of Israel. You didn’t even have that when the covenant was given to Abraham. But it wasn’t restricted to Jews. Now, think with me just for a second. He’s about to tell them that the Gentiles are included. He’s already angered the Judaizers with faith alone in Christ alone, not the Mosaic Law, not circumcision, etc. But now he’s going to take a step further.
If you really wanted to infuriate a legalizer, a false teacher who believes in works, especially Judaizers of that day, well, you could find no better way than what Paul used in verse 8. He includes the Gentiles. Look what he says here before that. The Jews were separatists. You talk about ethnic cleansing; they were separatists. I mean, “We are the ones.” And if a Gentile was to be included in, their law allowed them to come in as a proselyte Jew. You know what that is? That’s a person who can be any age and he’s born a Gentile, raised a Gentile, but he chooses one day to affiliate with them. He wants to be a part of the Jewish people. Well, to get in you had to go through the rite of circumcision, the males, and then you had to get up under the law of Moses.
Now Paul dealt with this at the church in Philippi. There were no synagogues there when he went, so the Jewish flavor that was there was probably proselyte Jews and that’s why he said, “You think you’re a Jew; let me talk about my pedigree, buddy, if you want to compare apples and oranges.” So to them, all Gentiles had to become Jews if they were going to be concluded at all. Their system allowed for this.
Now imagine their reaction when Paul says in verse 8, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’” Now, what is he doing? He’s going back to that covenant promise that began, really back in chapter 12 of Genesis and it was finalized in the 15th chapter, that God would justify, save—the word “justification/salvation” same—that He would justify the Gentiles by faith. Now, I will tell you what, that one phrase could cause those Judaizers to start breathing fire. I mean, he has really stirred the pot on this one. Paul says that the Scriptures foresaw that salvation would come to the Gentiles.
Now, I’ll tell you what; I’m certainly glad this morning. Aren’t you glad—we’re Gentiles—that God’s love and God’s plan has always extended to both Jew and to Gentile? Now, we know that Moses wrote the first five books, and in the book of Genesis he makes it very clear, Genesis 12:3, that we are included: “And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” All the families of the earth shall be blessed.
But now listen to this: not only are they included in that original covenant way back in Genesis 12-15, it’s not just that, but how they are included is the issue. “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by [what?] faith.” Oh no, oh no. It wasn’t just that they would be included, but the same way Abraham was saved is the same way a Gentile is saved and the same way a Jew would be saved—by faith alone in Christ alone. Can’t you just hear those Judaizers? Can’t you hear them? “What do you mean? What do you mean? I mean, God, if You’re going to include them at least put them up under the law. Don’t let it be by faith. That is too easy. They grew up pagan. They didn’t grow up under the covenants and the promises; they don’t have all the background. Put them back up under the law.”
That’s not what the Scripture said. “They shall be justified by faith.” “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.” And that word, “foreseeing” is the word proeidon. Pro, before; and eiro, to clearly perceive something. It’s the word that means to look way ahead, to see afar off. If you have ever studied the book of Daniel you know what we’re talking about; how it looks through and sees Antiochus Epiphanes and then long beyond that it sees the very end of time that hadn’t even taken place yet, to see way ahead to that which has not happened yet, to see far off.
My dad, in 1966 took me out in the front yard of our house. He had been having a lot of health problems. He was 60 years old. I was 23 at the time. And he sat me down in the yard there and he said, “Son, I will not be here by Thanksgiving.” I had been off in college and I hadn’t fully understood the depth of this of what was going on. He said, “Wayne, I have been having these pains.” He said, “I just believe God has told me my time is up.” He said, “Now,” and he went through a list of things. “You take care of your mother, etc., etc.” And I remember getting up, walking away from that conversation and thinking that’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen. But on November 12, 1966, I was home from college that weekend, and my dad went on to be with the Lord Jesus by about 12:00 noon that day. Dad was able to see ahead. He was able to look afar off. Really it was not that far from that time, but he was able to see something that hadn’t yet happened and he was able to tell it to me.
The Scriptures were looking way ahead to Christ. The Scriptures understood the fact that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Look at it again. “And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith [Look at this], preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” Now that’s interesting. The word for “preach” there is the Greek word proeuaggelizomai. Now note what it says. It says, “The Scripture preached to Abraham.” I think that’s interesting. When Scripture speaks, God speaks. When God speaks, the Scripture speaks. That’s why we study the Word of God. It’s the Word of God. When He speaks, that’s the Scriptures.
Well, God spoke to him and revealed something. And Paul shows the gospel is older than the law. Do you realize that? It preached the gospel to Abraham in that day. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is before the law ever came about. This is before Israel had ever even become a nation. The gospel was preached to Abraham. The gospel, the good news, faith alone in Christ alone, is older than Israel. It’s older than the law. It was preached to Abraham in Genesis 12-15.
Well, even though it was hundreds of years away, Abraham got a preview, didn’t he? He got a preview of, something was going to happen, what was going to happen afar off, and that was going to be that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer would one day be born of a woman. And it would be through the tribes of Israel, of a nation that had not yet even come to be. “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’” And that word for “nations” is the word ethnos. We get the word “ethnic” from it. It’s the word used to denote all nations that were not Jewish. All the nations. It would include them in this passage, but it is used later on to be all the nations that were not Jewish. They too would be included into this promise.
Now, I want to make sure you understand what he’s saying here. Abraham was promised a land; he was promised a nation; and he was promised a seed. And that seed would not be Isaac that was born of faith when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. No, that just opened the door in order for Jacob to come about. And Jacob was named, changed name to Israel, and then the nation could come about. Then the land, the nation, but the seed would pass through one of those tribes. It would be through the tribe of Judah; and the line of David; that through Christ and faith alone in Him alone all nations would be blessed.
So Paul’s argument continues. He has made two very important points. Abraham was saved by faith before there was a law, before there was Israel. Abraham was saved by faith. The gospel is older than Israel. But not only that, Jew and Gentile are included in the covenant that was made to him. From the very beginning God looked out and saw the Jew and the Gentile and He included all of us in His covenant. Paul’s point has been the gospel, again, is older than the law. Abraham was saved by faith. The Gentiles are included and what he’s really saying here, I think—and it really makes an exclamation point—is if this is true; and it is, in Scripture—how are you going to argue with Scripture—and if all that’s true, then listen to this; why would the Judaizers impose a law that was only temporary at best, and came 400 years after Abraham was made this promise, why would they impose the law on anybody, especially the Gentiles?
Do you realize the very moment we started imposing law on people we have gone against the gospel which goes all the way back to Genesis? It’s amazing how erroneous we can become by thinking there has got to be works involved in any way. That has never been the way it has been. All the way back to the book of Genesis, they were saved in the Old Testament just like we are saved in the new covenant. They looked forward to the Redeemer which was preached to Abraham and certainly passed on from generation to generation that message. But we look back to the Redeemer who has already come.
So, an unquestionable example, Abraham. How do you get around him? But not only that, an unchangeable truth. The sons of Abraham, as Jesus used it and Paul used it and as seen Genesis, are those who put their faith into the Lord Jesus. And then an unrestricted covenant. It’s not just for the Jew, it is also for the Gentile. But then finally we have an understood principle. Now, there’s a transition that’s going to start taking place in verse 9. He’s addressing believers, so he has, first of all, addressed this salvation, how they got saved. Now he’s about to change it and start addressing how they live once they are saved.
Faith alone in Christ alone for salvation; well, what do I do now? Faith alone in Christ alone. It’s the same. It’s the same way all the way through. By faith alone in Christ alone. Verse 9, he says, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.” Now, I want you to notice here, he didn’t say “those who are of works”. He said those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Now, that little phrase “Abraham the believer” is interesting, because if you’ve got other translations it will bring some things out that are necessary. The word “believer” there is pistos. Now pistos is the word that means faithful, and it denotes a lifestyle. What he’s saying here is that Abraham, yes, he was saved by faith alone in Christ alone, that gospel that was revealed to him in Genesis. But once that he was declared righteous, he lived by faith alone in what God said, in who God was. This was the character of Abraham once he became righteous.
You see, that’s the issue with Galatia, because they had, as believers, jumped back under law. And he said, “Wait a minute, let us go back to Abraham again. Not only was he saved by faith, but once he was saved he lived by faith.” The faith lifestyle of Abraham, the surrendered heart of Abraham, is clearly seen in Genesis 22. I’m not going to take you back there; I don’t have the time. But in Genesis 22 God spoke to him and He said, “I want you to take Isaac.” Isaac was the apple of his eye. Isaac is the son of faith. He said, “I want you to take him up on Mount Mariah and I want you to put him to death.” Now, if you will go back sometime and read Genesis 22, Abraham never flinched. He trusted the character of God so much his faith was not in the word; his faith was in the God of the word, and that’s why when the word came he had no problems whatsoever, and he immediately moved to do what God said.
Oh, the beautiful story that unfolds there. He takes his son and a little party of people with him. They get to the foot of Mount Mariah; He says, “You guys wait here for us. My son and I are going up to worship God and we will return.” God has already told him to take his life, to sacrifice him. It says in the book of Hebrews he believed that if God made him go through with it that God would raise him from the dead. That’s how much he believed God. And here they were walking up that mountain. Nobody really knows how old Isaac was at that time, but he was certainly old enough to carry the wood of the altar.
And he is walking up, he’s carrying the wood. The dad has got the fire. He looks over at his dad and he says “Daddy, here’s the wood and here’s the fire, but where’s the sacrifice?” And his dad, well, can you believe this? I mean, here’s his son, he said, “God will provide the sacrifice.” And as they are walking up, here is a man that has learned how to trust God. I mean, this is the most precious thing in his life that God has asked him to lay down, and he says “I so trust You, God, that if you tell me to do it, I am going to do it, no questions asked.”
That’s what faith living is, folks. You just do what God says and you trust Him. And as he’s walking up one side of the mountain, the sacrifice is walking up the other, that old ram. And they got up on the top. He built the altar, laid his son down on it, took the knife, was ready to kill him. Why? Because God told him to do it. And as he brought his knife down, the angel in heaven, the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ—it’s an occurrence of Jesus in the Old Testament—and He shouted from heaven and He says, “Stop! Stop!” And boy, Abraham, that was the greatest thing he had ever heard in all of his life. And there he looked and there was a ram caught by his horns in the thicket. I will tell you what; I’m a hunter, and a lot of you guys out there are hunters. But I tell you what, what are the odds, what are the odds of any ram getting caught in a thicket by his horns? That’s where he lives. But on that day God said to the thicket, “Grab that ram.” And it grabbed it, and there was the sacrifice.
Now, listen. You say, “Why is that so important?” Well, ask the Scriptures. James 2:21 says, “Was not Abraham justified by his works?” And you say, “Wait a minute. That contradicts; he did works.” No, the word “justified” is dikaioo, which means, no sir, he was not justified, he was proven to be justified. Why? Because not only was he saved by faith, he lived by faith. And that act in Genesis 22 proved him throughout all of Scripture. Hebrews 11 brings it up again.
So you see what Paul is trying to get to the Galatian mindset: you were saved by faith. We have documented that. It has always been by faith alone in Christ alone; with Abraham before Israel ever existed. The gospel is older than even Israel and the law. And then he shifts gears just now. If you’re saved by faith, then what’s wrong with you people? Do you think, as he says it earlier in chapter 3, do you think now you can be perfected by fleshly works? You see, the law is ineffective to produce salvation. Anything wrong with the law? No, and we are going to see that coming up in chapter 3. The law is fine. It just can’t produce what it demands. Not only can’t it produce salvation, it can’t produce holy living, folks. On the external, yes, it can curb your behavior, give you morals and ethics, but it can’t change your life. It can’t change you from the inside out.
Verse 10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the law,” listen to this, “are under a curse.” You want to go back under the law? Is that what you want? I keep thinking of that little boy. “I want your way, momma. I don’t want that way.” Is that what you want? Then you’re under a curse. “For it is written, ‘Cursed is every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.’”
Now, what Paul does here, he jumps back to Deuteronomy. Don’t you love how he uses the Old Testament? In fact, remember, he was writing the New Testament as he was going along, so these are all Old Testament scriptures. And he goes back to Deuteronomy 27:26, and here is what it says there: “Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.” And the implicit thought is, all of the law. I don’t know why people can’t realize, and especially the Jews, that no Jew ever fulfilled the total law of the Ten Commandments. Nobody could do that except for one who was born of a virgin, the seed promised to Abraham. And why did He come? He came to do what all men had been proven they could not do. He didn’t come to destroy the law, he came to fulfill the law. And so therefore He is the only one. One man, born to a virgin, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who choose law and those who have chosen law unwittingly put themselves under God’s wrath. Now, why would you want to go back and get under law? Again, it’s good, but it cannot produce what it demands. Romans 10:1-10 tells us that Israel never made it. And why they can’t see this I don’t know. God is going to have to do this revealing. But here’s what Paul says, speaking of his own brethren. He says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” He even says in another passage “I would have given up my own salvation just to see my brethren come to know Christ.” Verse 2: “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God,” don’t doubt that, “but not in accordance with knowledge.” They don’t understand. “For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God,” which can only be produced by faith. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.” In other words, all of it. “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows.” I love this. “Do not say in your heart, ‘who will ascend into heaven as if to bring Christ down’, or ‘who will descend into the abyss,’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” No man can accomplish that. But what does it say? “The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we are preaching.” And Paul, can’t you see the frustration sometimes when he is preaching. He says it is right there in front of you. Why can’t you understand it? “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.”
The law never saved anyone, especially Israel. They were never able to accomplish that moral law that God has set as His standard. Then in Galatians 3:11 Paul jumps from his point—no man can obey all of the law—and then he jumps to Habakkuk 2:4. And what he’s going to show here is not only does faith save you, it’s faith that sanctifies you. The same Christ, trusting in Him, trusting His word, yielding to Him, is what saves you, and it’s the same that sustains you once you are saved.
Verse 11: “That no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith.” Now the word “evident” is the word delos. It’s a word that means totally crystal clear. Paul says it’s clear; it’s evident. Who would come against Scripture? Who would come against the covenant to Abraham? “It is clear that no one is justified by the law before God.” But then he goes on to show you why. Because if that could have justified you, then that’s the way you live after you get justified or saved. And then he says, “For the righteous man shall live by faith.” That is a quote right out of Habakkuk, their own Scripture, Habakkuk 2:4. “The righteous man.”
Verse 10, which is a quote out of Deuteronomy, proves the fact that justification, salvation, is not by law, not by law. Nobody has been able to obey the law. But then he jumps to Habakkuk and proves that salvation not only is by faith, holy living—the way we live after we get saved—is by faith. He says, “The righteous man, the man who has been made righteous, has been saved, should walk by faith.”
Leviticus 18:5. Then he jumps to this passage. He quotes another Old Testament passage. And then he’s sort of locking his whole argument up. He says in verse 12, “However, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them.” You want law? There’s no faith involved, you just go out and do it. The only problem is, you can’t. Now, is that what you want, Galatians? No, I don’t think so. That was a temporary covenant. That’s all it was, to get us ready for the message of grace. Leviticus 18:5 says “So you shall keep My judgments and My statutes by which a man may live if he does them. I am the Lord.” The law says “do and live”: he who practices and he who does them. But grace says, listen to this, “become and live”. Now, which one do we want? Which one do we want? It’s not a matter of doing, it’s a matter of becoming. It’s letting Jesus be Jesus in our life. Once we get, that’s the way we got saved; that’s the way we live after salvation.
Well, Paul’s argument is, it’s impossible to attain righteousness before salvation and after salvation, unless it is by faith, trusting, “forsaking all I trust Him and His Word.” That’s the only way righteousness can even ever come about. They would agree with verse 11. That’s the way it is in our day. I would rather be saved by faith. Everybody, it seems like, in the 21st century understands saving grace. But where they have their problem is in living grace, which takes on the other side of the cross. That’s where the struggles become.
Well, back in chapter 3, earlier he says in verse 2, “This is the only thing I want to find out from you.” And I love these questions. “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” He didn’t say “do you”. He said “did you”. He’s pointing back to their salvation. They’re already saved. He’s making his point. And then he asks a great question in verse 5. And it dawned on me when I was studying this, I really haven’t covered verse 5. Let me hit it real quickly. He says in verse 5, “So then does He who provides you with the Spirit,” listen to this, “and works miracles among you,” except it’s not “among”, it is the word “in,” in you, “do it by the works of the law?”
In other words, “Well, God, I have a quiet time every day at 4:00 in the morning; and I’ve got to pass out all those tracts; and I haven’t missed church in six years; and oh, God, thank You so much that because I have been good then You have done these things in my life.” Is that the way God does it? Is that the way He does miracles within you? And then he says, “Or is it by hearing with faith?” Hearing and understanding is saying, “God, You said it, I’m going to stand on it,” and then God begins to do the miraculous in us and through us.
The Galatian churches had made a huge mistake. Lord, my prayer is we don’t make it here. They had gone back to human good. You know why? Because it’s logical, isn’t it? I mean, let’s get together and get a committee together. We’ve got to help God out. I mean, He’s an old man sitting on the back porch. He doesn’t know what’s going on. We’ve got to do something, do something quickly. No, sir! No, sir! We get on our face before God and we find out what God is doing and we say, “Yes, Lord,” and we begin to cooperate with Him. And then what He does, everybody stands back in awe and says, “Oh, that’s God.” That’s what Christianity is all about.
The Galatians bought what the 21st century has bought. They bought back into religion, a system, a performance. Colossians 2:6 says, “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him.” Nothing has changed. I’m just as desperate today in this message, my hands are sweating right now for God to speak to your hearts, as I would have been the day that I got saved. And if we don’t understand that, then we’ve been duped. Oh, foolish believers in the 21st century, who has bewitched you? Did you get saved this way? You certainly can’t live this way. It’s by faith alone in Christ alone.