Foolish Galatians: Galatians 3:1-14

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?

Foolish. Anoetoi. Without understanding. Mindless. Paul was not calling them stupid—he was calling them thoughtless. They had stopped using their minds. They had been bewitched.

Bewitched—as if under a spell, as if enchanted, as if their rational faculties had been suspended by dark magic. Something had captured their minds and led them away from the obvious truth.

Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

Clearly portrayed. The word is prographo—written before, publicly placarded, displayed like a public notice. Paul had preached Christ crucified so vividly that it was as if the Galatians had seen the cross with their own eyes.

Before your very eyes. They had watched, in Paul's preaching, as Jesus was lifted up. They had seen the nails, the blood, the darkness, the death. And now they were turning to law-keeping as if the cross meant nothing.

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?

One question. Just one. And it would settle everything.

The Galatians had received the Spirit. They knew it. They had experienced the presence of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of transformation. How did that happen?

Did they receive the Spirit by circumcision? By kosher observance? By Sabbath keeping? By any work of the law?

Or did they receive the Spirit by believing what they heard—the gospel of Christ crucified?

The answer was obvious. They believed, and the Spirit came. Faith, not works.

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

The logic was absurd. They started with the Spirit—the highest, the divine, the supernatural. Now they were trying to finish with flesh—the lower, the human, the natural.

It was like climbing a ladder and then jumping off to crawl in the mud. Like flying and then choosing to dig tunnels. Like resurrection followed by crucifixion.

The Spirit began the work. The Spirit would finish it. Not flesh. Not human effort. Not law observance.

Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?

All those experiences with the Spirit. The worship, the gifts, the transformation. In vain? Meaningless? Wasted?

Paul couldn't quite bring himself to say it was all for nothing. If it really was in vain—he left a sliver of hope. Perhaps it wasn't too late.

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?

The question repeated. The miracles had been real. God had worked among them—signs, wonders, healings. By what means?

Not by law. By faith. Believing what they heard.

So also Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Abraham. The father. The original. If anyone could claim law-keeping righteousness, it would be Abraham. But what does Scripture say?

Abraham believed. That's it. He believed God's promise—impossible as it seemed, absurd as it sounded—and God credited it as righteousness.

Not Abraham's circumcision. Not Abraham's sacrifices. Not Abraham's obedience. Abraham's faith.

Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

The definition of Abraham's children. Not genetics. Not circumcision. Not ethnicity. Faith. Those who have faith—Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised—are Abraham's true descendants.

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."

The gospel in Genesis. The good news before Moses, before Sinai, before the law. God told Abraham: all nations blessed through you. Not just Jews. All nations. Gentiles included. Blessed—justified, made right, accepted.

Scripture foresaw Gentile justification by faith. This wasn't Paul's innovation. This was God's plan from the beginning.

So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Blessed with Abraham. The faith connection spans millennia. Abraham believed; we believe. Abraham was blessed; we are blessed. Same faith, same blessing, same family.

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."

The alternative is devastating. Rely on law? Then you must keep all of it. Everything. Continuously. Without fail. Without exception.

And if you fail—even once, even slightly—cursed.

The law doesn't grade on a curve. Doesn't offer partial credit. Doesn't accept good intentions. Everything or curse.

Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because "the righteous will live by faith."

Clearly. It should be obvious. No one is justified by law. The prophet Habakkuk settled it: the righteous live by faith. Not by law-keeping but by trusting God.

The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, "The person who does these things will live by them."

Law and faith are different systems. Law says: do and live. Faith says: believe and live. Law demands performance. Faith offers promise.

You cannot mix them. Do or believe. Works or faith. The law is not based on faith.

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."

Here is the gospel. We were under the curse—law-breakers, failures, condemned. The curse hung over us.

Christ redeemed us. Bought us back. Paid the ransom. Freed us from the curse.

How? By becoming a curse for us. Taking the curse onto himself. Absorbing what we deserved.

Cursed is everyone hung on a pole. Deuteronomy's word about execution. The cross was that pole. Jesus hung there, bearing the curse, becoming what we were so we could become what he is.

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.

The purpose clause. Why the curse-bearing, the cross, the redemption?

So that Abraham's blessing—justification by faith—could come to Gentiles. So that the Spirit—promised, received, experienced—could be given. By faith. Through Christ.

The curse is lifted. The blessing flows. The Spirit is given. Faith receives it all.

Foolish Galatians. Why would you go back to the curse when the blessing is yours?