Galatians 3:1-1 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? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 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. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
In the above focus we see Paul concerned about the Galatians interspersing the law with the freedom they have earned through their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. He knows the law is a killer of the soul, for man’s strength to follow the law has been weakened by sin. Man’s inner nature is one that is in rebellion to God’s full authority over their lives. In the beginning they broke God’s one law, not to eat of the tree of knowledge. Eve was deceived by Satan, then Adam. Paul is now asking a rhetorical question of the Galatians. You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Paul knows the answer: Satan. Satan is using people, probably mainly the Jews, to do his work to bring the believers under condemnation for no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, to point out people’s sins, but to deliver them from sin and to place them in the land of freedom that is inherited by faith. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4) The righteous requirement of the law must be fulfilled down to every jot and tittle. However, man’s nature is not one of obedience to God; therefore, it is impossible for unrighteousness to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. Men and women will always fail in pleasing a holy, perfect God. And Satan knows that eternal life will escape those who try to please God through their own efforts. Eternity is righteous; no man or woman can abide there unless they are completely holy. Satan despises God and desires to destroy God’s plan of salvation that comes only through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was born out of the womb of Mary. He came in the nature of weakened flesh, but the Spirit of God conceived the baby Jesus. Mary was the vehicle of this miracle and holiness was on Jesus' head. Jesus knew who his real father was as a young child. When he was a twelve-year-old, He and his parents went to Jerusalem to attend the week-long Festival of the Passover. After the festival in Jerusalem was over, Jesus chose not to go back to Nazareth with his parents at that time. He stayed in Jerusalem, probably living and sleeping in the Temple. Since Nazareth was a considerable distance from Jerusalem, it took a few days to walk back to Nazareth. After one day the parents of Jesus realized Jesus was not with them. They had assumed Jesus was somewhere in the crowd of Galileans who were walking back to their homes in the district of Galilee. After discovering Jesus was not with them, they went back to Jerusalem to find him. Instead of going directly to the temple area, they searched for Jesus in other places in Jerusalem for three days. When they discovered Jesus in the Temple, they were relieved, but Jesus said to them, why were you searching other places for me, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? God HAD called him to the temple at that young age. He was not being disobedient to his parents, but obedient to his true father, God. Jesus was obedient to God from the very beginning of his life, for we know Jesus did not sin but lived a perfect life. Therefore, He was the Lamb of God, a lamb without blemish or imperfections, the perfect offering to eradicate sin from mankind. God would accept Jesus’s sacrifice for an eternal payment for mankind’s rebellion to his authority. God rescued men and women from their sins by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. The devil realized this plan of redemption, which had been previously hidden from him in God’s heart, was now to be implemented by the baby Jesus. The angel Gabriel had announced this Good News to Mary, even though Mary did not know the particulars of how her baby would bless all people on the face of the earth.
Paul is now wrestling with the Galatians about what the Good News entails. It does not include the works of mankind to be right with God. To include works as a way to know God would lead to failure, for man has not ever been able to please God through his own efforts or works. The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. (Psalm 14:2-3) The scriptures clearly say that all people have gone astray, unto their own way, unwilling to seek God in a faithful manner or appreciate the Creator who made them. Without the Spirit in men and women, their thoughts are foolish to God. They do such things as worshipping gods made out of stone and wood, decorated by gold and sliver. Men and women even worship and slavishly honor other humans who they believe are superiors to them in some area of life. They will make shrines to them by plastering their walls with pictures of these people or purchasing every article with their names written on them. Even in Christendom, carnal Christians elevate ministers and prophets above others who minister the word of God faithfully. The Corinthians argued over who they thought were the best spiritual leaders: Paul, Peter, Apollos, or even Jesus. Paul said that this fighting over who was the best spiritual leader revealed their immaturity and fleshliness. God alone is to be elevated, worshipped, and honored. Paul wishes for the Galatians to understand that the Good News is Christ alone. No other man or woman or actions should be honored above the knowledge of knowing Christ through faith in his work on the cross. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:13-14) Seeking God through the effort of good works is foolishness or elevating anything above God’s plan of salvation is spiritually devastating. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” Paul knows the devil is planting ideas about knowing God that will destroy them. He has planted the idea that following the law can elevate them in God’s eyes. But only the faith of Abraham, which is his faith in God’s words, can make a person right with God. Abraham believed in two things about God. First, God made all things out of nothing. Only He can create something out of nothing. He can make life where there is no life. Secondly, He can raise the dead. Abraham and Sarah were dead in the flesh, no descendant would come from Sarah’ womb. The Gentile Galatians were alive to God because they had faith in God’s Word, which is Christ. They had Abraham’s faith: God creates something out of nothing and resurrects the dead. Both of those things happened to the Galatians; they were dead to God because of their sins. God raised them, making something out of nothing.
Paul tells the Galatians emphatically that their new life has come to them only through their faith in Jesus’ Christ, not their works or effort to know God. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:19-21) Christ’s work on the cross is magnificent, for it brought the possibility of life to all humanity. All that was necessary was to believe in this work. Through Christ and IN Christ, we will never die. The penalty of sin has been paid, No more death in our future but freedom from death. Christ has sealed our souls for eternity. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) The Galatians needed to understand that their new life comes directly to them because of faith, not because of works. Works lead to bondage and constant condemnation, a position of never knowing that you are right with God. But faith in Christ leads us to be bonded with God as a member of his household. Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36) If the Galatians fall back into the thought to be right with God demands a good-works effort, they will fall back into slavery and condemnation. Paul is asking the Galatians did God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? Did God give you his love for people and the joy in your heart through your own effort or was it his unmerited grace given to you? Are the miracles that you see in your midst his work or your work? Paul is asking them to reflect back to their old unredeemed life. He wanted them to look at what God has done for them. They are now connected with their families and other brethren in love, not in dispute and envy and argumentation. He wants them to know the Good News of being right with God did not come from their effort, but it was a gift from God through the works of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now the Spirit of God, the power of God is in them. They love God and they love others. Is this but an accident? No, this is a purposeful work of God because of faith in God’s words. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31) Our friends around this breakfast table, we must not try to enter into union with God based on our own good works or behaviors; that will never make us right with God. Faith in Christ and his works makes us right with God. We will bless all people if we hold that truth in our lives. Others will be envious of our stability and happiness. They will want what we live and express. Truly our lives will bless all nations as God promised Abraham. The fields are ripe for harvest. Dear friends we do not live by the burden of the law. If so our countenance will fail to reflect the light of the world: Jesus Christ. However, if we live in his freedom by faith, people will see it in our faces, in our eyes, in the way we live. They will desire to have the same Good News in their lives. Let us be harvesters, portraying the Good News of Jesus as the light of the world. Let him shine in you today! Love, Dad and Mom
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