Galatians 3:1-5: ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly
portrayed as crucifi ed. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law,
or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your
goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing - if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his
Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?’
Paul, the Apostle, is angry at the folly of the Galatian Christians. After starting so well, they have been deceived
(bewitched) and cannot see it! They have ‘seen’ and believed in the crucifi ed Christ but they are now turning to the
legalistic bondage of observing the law. Having been liberated by the Holy Spirit, they are now seeking to continue
in the weakness of their human effort, despite all they have suffered for their faith.
Paul asks them if God has moved supernaturally among them because they observed the Law or because of their
faith in the gospel.
The Galatian believers had become fascinated (literally ‘bewitched’) by false teachers’ arguments, almost as
though they had been hypnotised. How else could this nonsense be explained? He was not questioning their
intelligence but their lack of discernment. They were being fooled by arguments that they should have been able to
refute.
Paul’s preaching of Christ crucifi ed was so clear and vivid, it was almost as if they had seen it with their own eyes.
By turning their eyes from the cross to the law, they were confusing the very simple facts of salvation. To rectify
their confused thinking, Paul returned to the basics. The Galatian believers, mostly Gentile in background, didn’t
even have or know the law. Their salvation began by faith; law-keeping had nothing to do with it.
Paul could point to their receiving the Holy Spirit at the time of their conversion as proof that God had
accepted them, based solely on their acceptance of the gospel message. God’s Spirit
had been within them long before the Judaisers had entered the scene.
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