Receiving the Spirit
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Galatians 3:1-5
Galatians 3:1-5
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
As Paul wrote his letter to the church in Galatia he was most assuredly overcome with emotion for his brothers and sisters in Christ.
He cared deeply for them and used this letter to admonish, exhort, and share the absolute truth of the Gospel.
He did not want them to backslide, to fall back into the same line of thinking they were in before. To not fall into the trap of being led astray by false doctrine.
For each of you, prior to receiving the Spirit, walked a life not consistent with the Gospel, not consistent with what Christ called you to, and not consistent with true Freedom in Christ.
You may have been following a false religion. You have been following the world. Your line of thinking may have even told you, as long as “I am a good person,” then whatever awaits me cannot be bad. Why? Because your subjective belief about what constitutes good, led you down a path of destruction.
I present to you the Gospel truth. The Consistory and leaders of this church present to you the Gospel truth. Each of us desires for you to follow the teachings of Christ.
the World or any other religion or belief system. You would be foolish to do so. And it would be foolish to go back to those things. Especially, if you have received the Spirit of God.
So, to be exhausted over believers for believing their Justification in Christ is not sufficient would be understatement.
“You Foolish Christians.” What have you done? What are you doing?
Every Bible version has the same word, “foolish.”
ἀνόητος - from the root “mind”
The Vocative case is used here and it is only used 14 times in all of the New Testament.
Imagine writing a letter and you are thinking through all the things you want to say. Throughout the course of the letter, your emotions run high.
Just think, when you write a letter, or an email, or even a text. It is rarely the case your tone is monotonous. Unless you are just relaying information.
However, when there is an issue at hand, your emotions will go through various feelings about a subject. Which thankfully we have emojis.
This is the beauty of an old letter and the intricacies of a skilled writer. The scholars job is to help unravel what the author was saying. Since, the author is no longer present, we must infer what their intent and meaning are of the passage. Sometimes this is plain, other times, it is very difficult and there are many differences. Even worse, churches become divided over it.
2nd - some use the word “bewitched” and others say, “cast a spell.”
“Their new behaviour was so strange, so completely at odds with the liberating message which they had previously accepted, that it appeared as if someone had put a spell on them.” - F.F. Bruce
This statement does not imply that the Galatians were at the Crucifixion of Christ. What Paul does is paint a word picture for them. As if to say, “Let me paint you a picture of what you have heard and know.” That is, the Kerygma (Proclamation) of the truth of the Gospel. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.
There was no doubt that Jesus’ crucifixion was public. There were eyewitnesses to support the fact.
To the Galatians, are you really turning your eyes towards something else. What are you looking at? The only thing you ought to be looking at is Christ on the Cross. His death and resurrection.
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Paul used rhetoric here. How did the people in Galatia receive the Spirit? It is not a hard question! It was either by hearing and believing, that is having faith that Jesus Christ was Lord, or they earned the Spirit. He was a prize to be had by the amount of good they did. They were obedient to the Law.
Let me be plain here. How often have you gone out of your way to earn favor from someone? How often do you think you have to achieve some form of good deed or task to earn the favor of someone?
What about a family member? Do you feel like you have to do good to be loved by them? (Conditional vs. Unconditional Love)
1st - If a family member, peer at school, boss, etc. says in order for them to accept you, love you, or become a member of their club, you have to perform some task, that is not real love.
2nd - Those who accept you and love you for who are, despite all your flaws and sins, these are the ones who do not ask you to perform for their love. Their love is unconditional.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
I have thought, studied, and prayed about this. It baffles me to try and understand at what point do you truly believe good works saves you.
Who is the objective Lawgiver? God. God gave the Law because of lawlessness, to show people their sins.
Consider Hebrews 10:1-4
For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Once cleansed there is no need to offer sacrifice. Jesus cleansed us once for all.
Because, left to man, good is subjective. (This will be a majority of the message).
The Euthyphro Dilemma (Plato)
Good - God Wills it
God Wills it - Good
Neither. God is Good. He is the standard.
Without God, there is no objective standard of what is right or wrong. God gave man Law so they would know they are not righteous. Not so they could follow a list of commands which would make them righteous.
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Our actions, in and of themselves do not constitute good, without a referent.
Loving someone is good because God is good, not because you performed the action of good.
Eliana helped Beth last night. Her action does not make her good. The action is good, because it was very loving. And we thanked her for helping and acknowledged she did a good deed.
Without the Spirit, you cannot be good (righteous). For you do not belong to God.
Romans 8:9 (NASB95)
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Paul used “foolish” again, and again used by all translations. One thing you ought to know, when something is repeated in Scripture it needs extra attention.
What is Paul getting at, by calling the Galatia church foolish. He is exhorting them. He needs them to understand the truth. For if you follow any path, other than Christ, you will be separated from Him for eternity.
STOP BEING FOOLISH! Stop thinking you can follow the Law or do good deeds to receive the Spirit, to receive salvation. We have already demonstrated you cannot.
What does Jesus say?
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
He did not say, once you achieve the amount of good necessary, then I will send the Helper.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
Those who do good or follow the Law, without faith, are sinners.
Those whom have placed their faith in Christ are not sinners. Your flesh sins, yes, but God does not see you as a sinner. He sees you as His son or daughter, trying to survive in this world. And, He walks with you.
My children sin, but that does not stop them from being my son or daughter. Beth and I, as imperfect as we are, or at least I am, try to help navigate this world. Why? Because we love them.
How much more does our Perfect Loving Father love His sons and daughters. A LOT MORE!
And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
The Galatians begun with the Spirit, they received the Spirit. Now they are trying to earn salvation and trying to work for the Spirit, to keep the Spirit. Maybe this was more their struggle.
Maybe, they were saying, “I have the Spirit, but in order to keep Him and be perfect, I need to work to do so.”
HOW EXHAUSTING!!!
This is how important it is to understand grace! You do not earn grace, it is freely given by God. His grace was given through the blood of Christ.
Grace ought to free your thinking about good works. It ought to free your thinking about being a horrible, no good, sinner.
Yes, our flesh sins. But you are made righteous before God, by the blood of the Lamb--Jesus Christ!
Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Verse 4, at first seems vague. Did they suffer circumcision? Did they suffer doing good to be made righteous. That is, they were consumed with doing good and following the Law to be made righteous.
Did they suffer persecution? When weighed with the context of the passage, most scholars argue since the Galatians are working so hard at following the Law and doing good, the blessings of the Spirit appear to be in vanity.
“Have you experienced so many blessings of the Holy Spirit in vain?” - Max Anders
The stress of doing good to be made righteous must weigh on one.
His last clause of the verse strikes as odd. “If indeed it was in vain?” That is, if they are not going to follow faith. They are choosing to follow the Law. Therefore, while ultimately it will not save them, it is not in vain, since that is how they want to live their lives.
Think about your own life for a moment. Is it easier to allow the Spirit to work in your life or are you trying to earn God’s good favor?
There is something freeing about the Spirit working in our life, and on our behalf. Anything else we do, is in vain.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Christian life begins at the moment of conception, that is the moment you receive the Spirit. This is why you must be born again.
You are born, when you are conceived. It is at this point in which life begins.
When you receive the Spirit, your life truly begins. Prior to that your life was meaningless.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Paul posed a question for the Galatians to ponder. Did Jesus, who gave you the Spirit and did miracles among you, do so based on the works of the Galatians.
That is, does Jesus show-up when you do good? Does He give you the Spirit because you followed the Law?
Did Jesus work miracles among people, because they did good.
“The important thing for us to note here is that Paul came to the Galatians not as a Pharisee preaching the Law, but as an apostle preaching Jesus Christ.” - J. Vernon McGee