Who's bewitched you?

Galatians Chapter 3

Previously we looked at Galatians chapter 2. Let’s move onto the bewitching notion that we have to obey laws to be saved…

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?

Paul is so shocked by the Galatians falling from grace that he doesn’t mince words when he basically says “You idiots! Who’s put an evil spell on you? You know the truth about Jesus’ crucifixion and resulting grace of God, so what the heck are you doing?” But when legalism creeps into the church today do we hear any such strong denunciation of error from the pulpit? Mostly not. We are so used to a mixture of grace and works that we can feel a message of grace alone is a bit extreme, maybe a bit crazy! But this gospel of grace needs to be defended by those who would want us to be under the bondage of the law, even though we have been liberated completely from the law. The Living Bible translates “who hath bewitched you” as “what magician has hypnotised you and cast an evil spell upon you?” Witchcraft is apt here, as it is fundamentally an evil manipulation. Paul understood the seriousness of the manipulation and because of his great love for the Galatian believers he wasn’t about to hold back. This was a tough love moment.

2. This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

The Passion translation paraphrases it this way: “So answer me this: Did the Holy Spirit come to you as a reward for keeping Jewish laws? No, you received him as a gift because you believed in the Messiah.”

If there ever was a ‘crux of the matter’, this is it - salvation comes through faith in the work of the cross and not the keeping of the law.

3. Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

This foolishness doesn’t seem so foolish from the perspective of the carnal mind. That is, the mind that relies on the senses (the carnal or sensual nature) rather than the spirit. The word ‘foolish’ here, anóētos (ἀνόητοί), means unintelligent; by implication, sensual. Spiritual realities are not comprehended by the carnal mind the natural thing to turn to is what the carnal mind understands. And what it understands is following a set of rules, doing and performing to attain favour with God. “If I just do this or that, then I’ll be more accepted by God.” Legalism is sensual - that’s its nature - but spiritual realities are apprehended by faith as they don’t (usually) intersect with our physical senses.

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?

The Galatians had endured trials and persecutions for the sake of the good news of Jesus Christ. Were they now going to make all of that count for nothing? The primary source of persecution was coming from the religious Jews because of their departure from law and turning to the grace of God. If they had continued in the law, with a token acknowledgment of Jesus, then it’s unlikely they would have suffered much at all from the hands of the religious Jews. But they had suffered persecution for being what was perceived as a heretical and idolatrous departure from the Jewish faith.

6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

The religious leaders would say they were the “children of Abraham” and therefore true Jews. Their thinking was always on natural (carnal) lines, and not spiritual. But Paul is about to turn that thinking on its head by saying that the people of faith (not genetic lineage) are the children of Abraham - a completely shocking and offensive statement to the religious Jews. In Romans 2:28-29 Paul says “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” I like the way the Passion translation paraphrases these same two verses: “You are not a Jew if it’s only superficial - for it’s more than the surgical cut of a knife that makes you Jewish. But you are Jewish because of the inward act of spiritual circumcision - a radical change that lays bare your heart. It’s not by the principle of the written code, but by power of the Holy Spirit. For then your praise will not come from people but from God himself!” So true Judaism is a matter of the heart, not genetic inheritance, and a Jew who doesn’t have the faith of Abraham is not a true Jews and a Gentile who does have the faith of Abraham is a true Jew! Wow! Start preaching that in down town Jerusalem today and you’ll probably get lynched!

8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Paul continues to reiterate the fact that God’s plan, through the faith of Abraham, was to bless the entire world on the basis of faith and not just Jewish lineage (or of the Jewish laws passed down from Moses, and elaborated upon along the way).

10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

And here’s the great danger of going down the track of trying to be justified before God by trying to keep the law. You bring yourself under the curse of the law because you are not going to be able to perfectly keep all of the law. The Passion translation says it this way: “But if you rely on works of keeping the law for salvation, you live under the law’s curse. For it is clearly written: Utterly cursed is everyone who fails to practice every detail and requirement that is written in this law.

11. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

12. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

There was only one who was justified under the law and that was Christ - everyone else fell short because of their sin nature. But we are justified (like Abraham) by faith, so we should live by faith and not the law. Again, law keeping is by self-effort, whereas faith in what Christ has done for us is how righteousness is imputed to us. The Message paraphrase puts it this way, “Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: ‘The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.’”

It’s all very one sided, to the extreme - it’s all about what Christ has done for us (the work, the effort, the obedience, the sinless life) and if there is any ‘work’ on our part it’s only to believe.

13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Paul is reminding the Galatians of what they already knew - they had been persecuted for these very truths! Christ crucified on our behalf has freed us from the curse of the law, and indeed any and every curse, so we might be in right relationship with God and his Spirit would come and dwell within us. This is the radical, mind-blowing truth, that offends the Jews and seems stupid to the Greek intellectual - God dwelling in people who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

15. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

17. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

18. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Paul presents an argument on legal grounds about the temporary nature of the law. 430 year before the law was given to Moses a better covenant was in effect with Abraham, based on faith. Then the law came with Moses, the purpose being to show sin for what it really is (see the next verse). This was a temporary measure until Jesus came to deal with the sin problem once and for all.

The Living Bible paraphrases it this way: “Here’s what I am trying to say: God’s promise to save through faith—and God wrote this promise down and signed it—could not be canceled or changed four hundred and thirty years later when God gave the Ten Commandments. If obeying those laws could save us, then it is obvious that this would be a different way of gaining God’s favor than Abraham’s way, for he simply accepted God’s promise.”

Again, the Passion translation says: “This means that the covenant between God and Abraham was fulfilled in Messiah and cannot be altered. Yet the written law was not even given to Moses until 430 years after God had “signed” his contract with Abraham! The law, then, doesn’t supersede the promise since the royal proclamation was given before the law.

If that were the case, it would have nullified what God said to Abraham. We receive all the promises because of the Promised One—not because we keep the law!”

19. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Now here’s a great, and obvious, question - why impose the law in the first place? I mean, couldn’t we have just stuck with the promise to Abraham? The problem was sin. God, through the law, was showing us just how serious the sin problem was, how it was separating us from him, and the consequences of sin was death. The sacrifices attached to this law were bloody - something was always being put to death to cover over the sin of the people so the people didn’t suffer the death sin demanded. Without the law the Israelites would not have had such a stark and horrendous realisation of the seriousness of sin and that they, of their own effort, could never escape sins stranglehold. No matter how many sacrifices were offered, sin remained. The Jews, under the law, were a great cosmic spectacle of the fallen nature of man and desperate need for salvation. But salvation was coming. The prophets could see him coming. Even long before Abraham prophets could see him coming (Enoch, the seventh from Adam saw the Messiah coming). And, in one sense, the Messiah had been “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelations 13:8).

20. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

21. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

22. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

23. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

God didn’t throw in the law as something contrary to what he had promised Abraham, or just to put Israel under bondage like the Pharaoh he’d just liberated them from? No. The law amplified that fact that sin produces death and separation and that they (and us) cannot be saved from this death by self effort. In fact, Jesus, delivering his ‘sermon on the mount’, was describing what righteousness looked like - and it was a measure totally out of reach of anyone except himself. But thank God we are no longer under this ‘schoolmaster’! We are under grace. By faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have been made free from the law of sin and death!

26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Whatever separation the religious law created between Jew and Gentile, male and female, etc, no longer exist when we are in Christ Jesus. When we are joined with Jesus, by faith, we become a new creation, one new man, free from sin! Not only that, but heirs to all that is God’s, as his children of promise. This is so wild, most people don’t believe it. This is probably why Jesus said “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:8)