Can your good works add to your salvation?

No. In Galatians 3:1-14, the Apostle Paul asks the churches a sharp question: “Who has bewitched you?” In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains why adding works to faith is not a small mistake, but a dangerous one.

The Galatians had started so well, trusting Jesus alone. But now they were being talked into adding rules, as if their own effort could finish what Jesus began. Paul reminds them that they received God’s Spirit by faith, not by works. He points back to Abraham, who was accepted by God simply because he believed. So the true children of Abraham are not those with the right background, but those who share his faith. Holt’s rule of thumb is simple: if you ever hear “faith,” and then a plus sign — whatever it is — run.

Questions this study answers:

1. What does it mean to be “bewitched”? Paul uses the word to describe how the Galatians had been talked out of clear truth, almost as if under a spell. They had traded a gospel of faith for a gospel of works without seeing the danger.

2. Why is a gospel of works so dangerous? Because it steals the glory from Jesus and gives it to us. If we add our own effort to His finished work, we are saying His sacrifice was not enough.

3. How were people in the Old Testament saved? The same way we are — by faith. They looked forward to the Savior God promised, while we look back to the work Christ has already finished.

“But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’” — Galatians 3:11 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This is Part 5 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.