Galatians 3:1-5

Galatians 3:1–5 KJV (WS)

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Introduction

Paul has 5 arguments against the course that the Galatians are following.

-The clarity of the gospel presentation.

-The means by which they received the Holy Spirit.

-The logic of gospel consistency.

-The price they had paid for believing the gospel.

-The means of miracles in their midst.

Verse 1 - Who hath bewitched you?

Paul refers to his audience by name for the first time since chapter 1.

It’s not exactly the way that you would like to be referred to.

The foolish Galatians.

It places a little bit of distance between Paul and his audience.

He accuses them of acting as though they are bewitched.

Paul doesn’t actually think they are bewitched.

They are acting as though someone has charmed them, though!

What could Christians do to make someone think that they were under a spell?

They are not obeying the truth after plainly seeing and believing the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion.

The gospel had been clearly shared with them.

They knew the truth of the sufficiency of Jesus’ death.

They knew their own inability to earn a right standing with God.

And yet they were willingly choosing to live under bondage when freedom was theirs.

Verse 2 - This only would I learn.

Paul isn’t really interested in learning from the Galatians about their infatuation with the law.

He doesn’t respect their position.

He doesn’t appreciate their sincerity.

There is only one thing he wants to discover.

How did they receive the Holy Spirit?

Through the law or through the faith?

This is an interesting question.

It presupposes that the Galatians can see some sort of evidence that they have the Holy Spirit.

I wonder if you were honest this morning could you say that you see regular evidence of the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life?

The only acceptable answer that the Galatians could give is that they received the Holy Spirit when they placed their faith in Jesus.

Verse 3 - Are ye so foolish?

What does he mean?

Paul is incredulous.

He finds it hard to believe that the Galatians would fall for this.

How could they believe that they could the Spirit saves, but the flesh perfects?

This shouldn’t be too hard to fathom, that someone would think this way.

We think this way all the time.

What the Galatians were saying, and what many Christians today say, is essentially...

“God, thanks for saving me, now I’ll take it from here.”

Paul is making a really strong point about the power to live the Christian life.

If you needed the power of the Spirit to save you, then why do you think you won’t need it to live unto God after you’re saved.

You see it, right?

The gospel isn’t just the entrance fee to the race, and now you have to run it yourself.

The gospel is the entrance fee, the fuel and energy to run, and the finish line at the end.

Christianity is supposed to be different at all levels.

Salvation is of God.

Right living is of God.

Death and the afterlife is of God.

We rely on Him for all of it.

Verse 4 - This is why Christians have always suffered.

Even the Galatians had suffered because of their Christ alone belief.

Christ alone in life and death is offensive to other worldviews.

Throughout history, Christians have suffered because of our belief that humans can do nothing to save themselves.

This is a threat to those who are in power.

Government

Religion

Economics

Recreation.

All of these attempt to offer salvation and better living to people.

The Christian worldview liberates people from these human masters and places all the authority in Christ.

Christ, who unlike everything else I just named, is perfect and cannot fail us.

The Galatians had paid a price for holding this position.

But now, they were waffling and threatening to betray their own cause.

They had lost jobs, family, and even done jail time for saying that Jesus is all in all.

But now, they are going to let some Judaizers come in and convince them that maybe it’s not Jesus alone?

That just doesn’t make sense.

Many have paid dearly for the gospel, only to later on abandon it.

Verse 5 - How are people currently getting saved?

Who is reaching the lost?

The legalists?

The gospel-focused?

Don’t forget that salvation is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever does.

It’s the removal of sin’s guilt and the transference of Jesus’ righteousness.

It’s the resurrection of our spirit.

It’s the moving in of the Holy Spirit.

Apparently people were still getting saved in the Galatian churches.

Paul asks the doubters to take a look and see how they are getting saved.

Are they getting saved by the works of the law?

Or, are they getting saved by the hearing of faith?

Well, since it is impossible for the law to justify anyone, it can only convict, I’m going to venture a guess that this was an easy question to answer.

The Galatians had all the evidence and experience to protect them from the false teaching of the legalists/Judaizers.

And yet they demonstrated a warning for us of how easily and quickly we can stray from the truth.

When that happens we need to be reminded of the truth of the gospel.

It does us no good to pretend like there isn’t a problem.

We must allow God to confront the issue and correct us when we begin to rely too much on our own performance.

We are all susceptible to falling into the same trap as the Galatians.

We have also received the same help that they did to prevent this from happening.

We have received a clear gospel presentation.

Christ alone.

We know the means by which we received the Holy Spirit.

Hopefully the Holy Spirit is regularly, evidently at work in your life.

The logic of gospel consistency.

You were saved by faith; you are being perfected by faith.

The price you have paid for believing the gospel.

Being a Christian carries a price.

You may not have lost your job or done jail time.

But you pay a price if you identify with Jesus.

The means of miracles in their midst.

We get to see people getting saved all the time.

Last week, 15 kids got saved.

You go and talk to our VBS teachers.

You read the material that we were using to give our lessons.

Those kids didn’t get saved because we told them they need to obey the law.

Those kids got saved because a teacher told that Jesus had done for them what no one else could do.

The way we get saved is the way we live.

Christ alone.