Galatians 3 - The Christian, Law, and Living by Faith
A. The principle of continuing in faith.
1. (1) Paul confronts their blurred vision of Jesus and His work for them.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
a. O foolish Galatians! The strong words were well deserved. Phillips even translated this, "O you dear idiots of Galatia." In calling the Galatians foolish, Paul did not mean they were morally or mentally deficient (the ancient Greek word moros had that idea and was used by Jesus in parables such as in Matthew 7:26 and 25:1-13). Instead, Paul used the ancient Greek word anoetos, which had the idea of someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception.
i. The principles Paul referred to are things the Galatians knew, things they had been taught. The knowledge and understanding were there, but they were not using them.
b. Who has bewitched you: Bewitched has the idea that the Galatians were under some type of spell. Paul didn't mean this literally, but their thinking was so clouded - and so unbiblical - that it seemed that some kind of spell had been cast over them.
i. Barclay translates bewitched as put the evil eye on. The ancient Greeks were accustomed to and afraid of the idea that a spell could be cast upon them by an evil eye.
ii. The evil eye was thought to work in the way a serpent could hypnotize its prey with its eyes. Once the victim looked into the evil eye, a spell could be cast. Therefore, the way to overcome the evil eye was simply not to look at it. In using this phrasing and the word picture of bewitched, Paul encouraged the Galatians to keep their eyes always and steadfastly upon Jesus.
iii. It is wonderful to have a soft, tender heart before God. But some people have softer heads than hearts. Their minds are too accommodating to wrong, unbiblical ideas, and they don't think things through to see if they really are true or not according to the Bible. This is a sign of spiritual immaturity, even as a baby will stick anything into its mouth.
c. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified: The idea behind clearly portrayed is something like "billboarded," to publicly display as in setting on a billboard. Paul wondered how the Galatians could have missed the message because he certainly made it clear enough to them.
i. When they left the message of Jesus and Him crucified, they left the message Paul preached. Paul's preaching was like setting up posters of Jesus all over town - if you saw anything, you saw Jesus.
ii. When we see Jesus clearly before us, we won't be deceived. "If anything contrary to this comes before him, he does not timidly say, 'Everybody has a right to his opinion'; but he says, 'Yes, they may have a right to their opinion, and so have I to mine; and my opinion is that any opinion which takes away from the glory of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice is a detestable opinion.' Get the real atonement of Christ thoroughly into your soul, and you will not be bewitched." (Spurgeon)
d. Before whose eyes: Paul didn't mean that they literally saw the crucifixion of Jesus or even that they had a spiritual vision of it. He meant that the truth of Jesus and Him crucified and the greatness of His work for them was clearly laid out for them so clearly that they could see it. Actually watching the death of Jesus on the cross might mean nothing. Hundreds, if not thousands, saw Jesus dying on the cross and most of them only mocked Him.
2. (2-3) Paul confronts their departure from the principle of faith.
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
a. This only I want to learn from you: "Just tell me this," Paul said. Did you receive the Spirit through the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Obviously, the Galatians received the Holy Spirit through simple faith. The Holy Spirit is not a prize earned through the works of the law.
i. It worked like this: A Gentile was told he must come under the Law of Moses or God would not bless him. This meant he must be circumcised according to the Law of Moses. So he has the operation and as soon as the cut is made, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon him. Of course, this is not how it works. We receive the Holy Spirit by faith and not by coming under the works of the law.
b. Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? The Galatians were deceived into thinking that spiritual growth or maturity could be achieved through the works of the flesh, instead of a continued simple faith and abiding in Jesus.
i. Another way to say Paul's message is like this: "You received the greatest gift - the Holy Spirit of God - by faith. Are you going on from there, not by faith, but by trusting in your own obedience under the Law of Moses?"
ii. This lays out one of the fundamental differences between the principle of law and the principle of grace. Under law, we are blessed and grow spiritually by earning and deserving. Under grace, we are blessed and grow spiritually by believing and receiving. God deals with you under the covenant of grace; we should not respond on the principle of law.
c. Are you so foolish? This was indeed foolishness. This deception was cultivated by Satan to set our Christian life off-track. If he cannot stop us from being saved by faith, then he will attempt to hinder our blessing and growth and maturity by faith.
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