3 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
Let me tell you a little about my limitations, especially regarding putting my opinions and thoughts on Facebook. I don’t post a lot on Facebook. For three major reasons: Partly because I’m just not interested. Partly because of my jobs. Being a pastor, I don’t want you to quit listening to the words from the pulpit, in Bible Study, because you disagree with a political opinion. And as a teacher, there is all kinds of danger that something I say on Facebook will make its way back to my school, students, or administration. But the main reason is, people get really angry over certain issues. It’s quite a paradox.
Online Opinions; Everybody wants to give theirs, nobody wants to hear yours, unless it agrees with theirs. As illustrated by this joke.
If you have an opinion about my life, please raise your hand.
Now put it over your mouth.
So, for those of you who aren’t on Facebook, what happens is, you express an opinion someone doesn’t like, and they “unfriend” you. Now they no longer see anything you post. So when you post something in the future, nobody sees it but those who already agree with it. So everybody ends up living in an echo chamber. You say something, and everybody in your circle of friends says, “I agree,” “I agree,” “I agree to” thumbs up, happy face.
And I am afraid that that attitude and atmosphere about keeping my opinion to myself, has crept into our defense of the gospel. We all just become silent if we sense that someone might disagree with us, so we end up only defending our faith when we are in the echo chamber of church, or around other Christians. And this includes such an important thing as the gospel as well.
Why do Defend the Truth?
Well I can sum that up in one verse. 1 John 2: 15 Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s. 17 The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.
Eternity is at stack.
Let’s pray
I. Defense of the Gospel-Paul’s life: chapters 1-2
II. Defense of the Gospel-By Grace not Law: chapters 3-4
III. Defense of the Gospel-Freedom in the Spirit: chapters 5-6
Defense of the gospel, by grace not law, or works. This epistle is a go-to epistle for conversations about how a person is saved. Specifically when you are talking to someone who is in a works-based “Christian” church. Just think about it, here is a whole epistle where Paul deals with churches who are adding good works to faith, thinking that the works will save them.
Now, we left off last week with the transition from chapter 2 to chapter 3. We left off with answering the question; how could the Galatians go from living by faith, “I am crucified with Christ, Christ lives in me.” The freedom and power of the indwelling Spirit, to being labeled, “Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you to turn from the truth of the gospel, Christs crucifixion making full payment for your salvation. How did they fall away?
Well they started, and continued listening to the Judaizers. They forgot the truth they had learned about the crucifixion. And today we begin with their forgetting their life with the indwelling Spirit. They forgot how their faith began.
Today, Paul argues from 3 areas Experience, Scripture, and Logic
A. The Experience of the Galatians (3:1–5) How did their faith begin?
3 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
Now step three
DD. Step three- forgetting the work of the Spirit
Today, we are going to talk about two confirmations of faith—experience, and the Word of God—these two come up repeatedly in Scripture
Experience
And Paul is being very sarcastic here.
He asks questions—taking them back through their experience with God-Holy Spirit—they forgot their experience with God.
4 parts of their experience
Reception, continuing, suffering, works—of the Spirit
1Your reception of the Spirit
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
This is a very simple, straightforward question. He is taking them back to when they were first converted. And he is specifically addressing the signs, or experiences that went along with their becoming Christians. When a person becomes a Christian, God puts the Holy Spirit in them. Now I’m not talking about some divine euphoria. Some churches today teach that if you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, you will speak in some kind of angelic language. You might fall down, or raise your hands, or dance or run around the church building. None of that is Biblical. In that first generation church, God did give a sign that accompanied the believer’s initial filling by the Spirit. The believer spoke in a known foreign language, that he/she had no prior knowledge of. Now why did God do this? For the first-century Jews, it was a supernatural sign that validated the truth of the gospel of Christ. Here we have those two things to validate the gospel; experience and Scripture. Just like other 1st century miracles, experience, or signs were given to convince those 1st-century Jews that Jesus was their Messiah.
And the same gift of foreign tongues was given to the Gentiles, to insure that Jewish believers knew that God accepted Gentiles.
When Jewish Peter first heard the Gentiles who believed speak in foreign languages, he took it as a sign that God accepted the Gentiles, by faith, without works, just as He did the Jews.
So, when these Gentiles in Galatia first came to faith, the Spirit of God filled them, and they spoke in foreign languages that they didn’t know.--miracle
So here’s Paul’s question. “Have you forgotten about when you first experienced the presence of God by His Spirit?” Have you forgotten how you spoke in foreign languages that you didn’t know?
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
In other words, “You think now that you have to become Jews to be accepted by God. Were you Jews when God came to live in you?”—miracle filling-- and the answer was no.
Now, today, speaking in tongues is no longer given as a sign of the filling of the Spirit. But the Galatians forgot the work of the Spirit in them, at their conversion.
2You forgot--Your continuing in the Spirit, how does your faith proceed after you are converted? Do you have to add the law later?
2nd question
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Again, this is the height of sarcasm. He’s saying, Your faith journey started with the God of the universe coming to live in you, (glorified Christ presence in you) and now you are going to improve on that by (forgive my uncouth) by removing the foreskin?
Are you made perfect by the flesh?
It is amazing what these Galatians were beginning to think, and what we think. If you are a Christian, you have God’s Holy Spirit living in you. Yet many Christians get sucked into legalistic churches.
The Galatians had forgotten God’s Spirit work in them, apart from the law. And they forgot all that they endured to have Christ.
Reception, continuing
3Your suffering in the Spirit
4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
We don’t know, in particular, what the Galatians suffered in order to come to Christ, or after. But we know that some who may have been God-fearers before, may have been driven away and persecuted by Jews who rejected Christ. We know that many Gentile Christians could have been disowned by their secular heathen families for forsaking “the gods” they had once worshipped. And since religion was so woven into the fabric of society, that means these Galatians could have been shunned in the marketplace, at their places of employment, and by their families and friends. Some could have lost everything to come to Christ.
So Paul is saying, all that stuff you endured, was it pointless? You came to Christ, by grace through faith, Did you do it for nothing? Was this work of the Spirit in you only an illusion, you threw away your life for nothing?
Have you suffered so many things in vain.
And last, they forgot how the Spirit had worked in them before all this legalism.
4Your works of the Spirit
5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, did he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
The miracles you saw, and did, was that before or after this new legalism—what miracles?
The Scripture says that every believer is given gifts by the Spirit.
Romans 12:5-7 King James Version (KJV)
5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
These are special abilities, not natural talents, that every believer is given when they become a believer. They are not things that you were able to do before you were a Christian. An unbeliever can sing well, and they can become a Christian and still sing well. But a Christian may be able to spiritually minister encouragement with the talent of singing.
Now, in the 1st century, there were also individuals who had the “sign” gifts. Speaking in languages, interpreting those languages, healing, prophesying future events. Those gifts were given as signs, in the first generation of the church, to bridge the gap until we had the New Testament Scriptures.
So some of the people in these churches of Galatia had some of these sign gifts. We know Paul and Barnabus were empowered by the Spirit to do miracles. Acts 11
28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, (prophesying future events) and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Not just “I teach 5th graders kind of gifts.”
So Paul is saying, remember all those miracles? we did all those miracles, you saw other supernatural things done among you, healing, dead raised, demons cast out, perfectly accurate prediction of future events, foreign languages, and you weren’t circumcised, you weren’t Jews, or becoming Jews. That was the work of the Spirit, before all this legalism.
What do you think you add to that power by changing your diet?
And the same argument holds true for us. Nothing we do legalistically adds to our approval rating before God. I often wonder what is going through the minds of those who are wrapped up in Christian legalism. Jesus died on the cross for my sins, but God is really happy with me because I use a horse-drawn buggy rather than an automobile. The Spirit of Almighty God is in me, but what really pleases Him is that I don’t eat red meat on Fridays.
This is what Paul is saying, are you somehow adding to the converting work of the Spirit in you with legalism? And he is arguing from their experience. But we do not have all the experiences that the Galatians did. And there is great danger in basing your faith solely on experience. Many in the charismatic movement will elevate their experience, speaking in tongues, ecstatic experiences above the Word of God. They forget that Paul said,
I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues,
yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
So what is Paul saying? The Word of God takes the precedence over experiences. And Paul does the same thing here in this letter. He calls on the Galatians to remember their experiences as evidence that salvation is by grace through faith plus nothing. But then he confirms the argument with Scripture.
Experience, Scripture
B. What does the Scripture say?
So let’s settle this question with the Scriptures. The Judaizers are quoting scripture, about being circumcised and following the law, and Paul is quoting scripture. What does the Scripture really say?
What was given in the Scriptures?
Blessings, cursings and promises—that’s all that we can expect
The Gentiles are blessed through Abraham. Everyone is cursed who is under the law. The Promise comes through Jesus Christ.
Do you want to know what the Old Testament Scripture says about legalism? Contrast two groups; Jews and Gentiles. First Gentiles. If the Judaizers were correct—the Galatians, Gentiles should be cursed for not obeying the law. Touch not, taste not. But instead,
1. The Blessing of Abraham (3:6–9)
According to the Scriptures
6 Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”Genesis 15:6 7 Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
a. How did Abraham, the Father of the Jews, make himself right with God?
6 Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”Genesis 15:6
Paul elaborates on this more extensively in Romans 4. But what it means is this; Abraham wasn’t blessed by God because he was a super righteous dude, God blessed him because Abraham believed, trusted, put his faith in God.
b. So who are Abraham’s children?
7 Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham.
If you listened to the Judaizers, God’s children are those who are circumcised, etc. But, Paul points out here and in Romans 4:10, that God considered Abraham righteous, before he was ever circumcised, based on his belief alone.
So who are Abraham’s children? Those who trust in grace through belief alone.
7 Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham.
c. So who gets the blessing?
That’s a big question in Jewish history. God looked with favor on Abel rather than Cain. Noah blessed Shem and cursed Ham. God chose to bless Abraham. God chose Isaac over Ishmael. Isaac gave the blessing of the first-born to Jacob over Esau.
So who gets the blessing? Jews or Gentiles?
8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18
Genesis 12 World English Bible (WEB)
12 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
3 groups: Abraham, Jews—make you a great nation, Gentiles
I want you to notice something about this conversation between God and Abraham. Who gets the blessing? Abraham, “I will bless you,” But it doesn’t pronounce a blessing on his physical offspring-the Jews. Who does it bless? All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Later in Genesis 18:18 –seeing that all the nations will be blessed through him… nations—in Hebrew ---non-jewish people—in Greek Septuagint Gentiles
So, out of the three groups mentioned, who gets blessed? Abraham and the Gentiles
And notice, the promise of blessing predates the curse of the law.
2. The Curse of the Law (3:10–12)
So according to the Scripture, who gets a curse? Jews or Gentiles
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”Deuteronomy 27:26 11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”Habakkuk 2:4 12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”Leviticus 18:5
a. Those who are trying to justify themselves by the works of the law.—The Judaizers
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”Deuteronomy 27:26
You remember when this statement was made in the Old Testament? God commanded that half the people stand on one side and pronounce blessings, and half on the other side pronouncing curses. Who got the blessings?
Deuteronomy 28 King James Version (KJV)
28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Who got the curses?
There was a long list of curses—dishonor your parents, liers, cheaters, uncompassionate, sexual sin, bribery, but then the last curse is a summary.
26 ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the (all the) words of this law by doing them.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
So who gets the curse, anyone who tries to keep all the rules perfectly, but breaks one, or any of them.
What does the Scripture say?
b. No one becomes right before God by keeping the law.
“The righteous will live by faith.”Habakkuk 2:4
The book of Habakkuk reiterates that it is not the law that be live by, but faith and trust in God.
As is emphasized in Leviticus
12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”Leviticus 18:5
In other words, there is no middle ground Galatians. You either keep the law perfectly, and get God’s blessing—only one man could ever do that, or you come to Him by faith.
That’s what the Jews own Scripture said. Yes, the Old Testament said to the Jews, be circumcised, yes it said, keep the Sabbath day and all the feast days, yes it said don’t eat this and that, don’t do this and that. But it also said, by the way, you’ll never keep all these laws. You need to come to me in repentance and faith.
David said in the Old Testament,
Psalm 51:16-18 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 For You do not desire
sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
There are blessings and curses. And the blessings come to those of faith, like Abraham, and the curses come to those who break any of God’s laws.
But hold on, even those who have faith have broken God’s laws. Doesn’t that bring a curse on them? So how does that work? If you are a mathematician, it would seem that we have an unbalanced equation here.
That’s where verses 13 through 14 come in
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
We come to Christ, Galatians, by faith. But we are cursed for our disobedience. But Christ redeemed us—ransomed us---bought out of slavery--He paid a price to free us from our just condemnation. What was that price?
having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), Deuteronomy 21:23
22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
Jesus, the only one who ever kept all the law, was perfectly righteous, who was righteous because He kept all the law, thus had no curse on Him, became a curse for us.
And thus He fulfilled another part of the Scriptures—the sacrificial animal system. Why did He do that? He balanced the equation.
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
So the Scripture bore out Paul’s message to the Gentiles. Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. Blessings come to those who come to God through faith. Curses come to those who try to keep all the law. No one is justified by the law.
Notice, blessings are promised through faith, before curses promised for disobedience.
The final argument from Scripture; who gets the promises?
There are all kinds of promises to Abraham in the Old Testament. The Judaizers assumed that they inherited the promises based solely on their birth as Jews. The promise of becoming a great nation, innumerable, being blessed, to have a land and a possession on this earth. Being God’s chosen people. So the Galatians might hear that from them and naturally think, “we’ve got to become Jews in order to get God’s promises.” But Paul opens the Scripture to them, and shows them “who gets the promises?”
Experience, Scripture, Logic
3. The Promise of the Covenant (3:15–18)
Follow with me closely, in the interest of time, I am placing the Holman Christian Standard Version of the Bible alongside the NKJV
15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
15 Brothers, I’m using a human illustration.[a] No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant[b] that has been ratified.
Paul is using legal agreements, made by men, as an illustration. He is talking about God’s Covenant with Abraham, “The blessing by faith” and the later giving of the law. The Judaizers would say, “The Law came later, and thus superseded “the blessing of faith.”
Paul is saying, in verse 15, that even in a human contract, you don’t add to it, or set it aside. In Paul’s day, there were certain kinds of contracts or wills, which could not be changed once they were ratified, even by the person who originally made them. We have the same thing today. If there is a legal agreement between two people in a court of law, the provisions cannot be changed unless both parties agree to the changes.
Back to Scripture; HCSB
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
So he’s saying that there was an original contract made in the Old Testament Scripture. The agreement was between God and Abraham and Abraham’s seed.
He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed,[c] who is Christ.
Now Paul makes a big deal out of one word in that original contract. The contract was between God and Abraham and his “seed” singular, not “seeds” plural. If the contract were between God and Abraham and his seeds, then one could say that the contract was not only with Abraham, but with all his descendants. Instead, the contract has to be between God and Abraham, and his descendant. One descendant. Who is that one descendant? Paul says, it’s Christ Jesus.
So what is Paul logically saying? There was an original contract between God, Abraham, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that contract was a contract of blessing to all those who come to God through faith, not works.
Even Abraham was not in a contract with God by works. Remember, when God made this contract with Abraham, all it said was “I will bless you, I will bless those who bless you, I will, I will…There’s no obligation on Abraham’s part. God didn’t say, “If you obey me, I will..” God just said, “I will.”
17 And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God[d] and cancel the promise.
So Paul uses the logic of his first statement. God made this contract with Abraham and his seed, Christ, and the later contract of the law, 430 years later, did not overturn the contract of blessing through faith. The later contract cannot overturn the promises made to Abraham and his seed. Those promises are still in effect.
18 For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.
Paul concludes this logical argument by saying, “If you say that salvation comes only by following the contract of the law, then you have violated the contract of the blessing of faith.” You can’t do that. That contract was between God, Abraham, and Abraham’s seed. You can’t break in and change someone else’s contract.
Now here is the beauty of what Paul is saying. The original contract was a promise of blessing made to Abraham and his seed, Jesus Christ. Who gets the promise? Jesus Christ. But look at how Paul concludes this chapter.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
In short, when you put your faith in Jesus, you put on Christ, you are one in Christ, you belong to Christ, therefore you inherit the blessing of Abraham from Christ.
Paul argues from their experience, the Scripture, and logic, that it is foolish to return to religious legalism, when you are the heirs of the blessings of Abraham, through Christ. The truth we defend is that you can’t do both. You can’t trust in the work of Jesus on the cross to save you and trust in your own righteousness.
Let us pray