Galatians 3:1-3 Bible Teaching

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Alright, so after explaining how he had been cruficied with Christ, but that he continues to live, but not him but Christ living in him – and then adding that he would NOT frustrate the grace of God because if righteousness came through the law then Christ died in vein, Paul gets right into the kitchens of the saints at Galatia and asks: (chapter 3 verse 1-3)

Galatians 3.2-
April 7th 2019
Milk

3:1 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?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

3:1 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?

The original word here used anohtai best means oh Galatians “void of understanding!”

And we recall that even historically the Gaulish people were referred to as foolish by sectarian authors.

One dude named Callimachus calls them “a foolish people,” and Hillary, who was ironically himself a Gaul, calls them the same.

The implication is that they were lacking in character regarding sound instruction, perhaps they were moved by every wind of doctrine and therefore unstable in the apostles teachings therefore willing to be swayed and moved by the most recent thing that tickled their itching ears.

Specifically, Paul accuses them of being moved by the rhetoric of false teachers who were pushing them backward into embracing elements of the law.

Interestingly, the term uses in his question is, “Who hath bewitched you?” and that word, ebaskane, means to mislead as if by magic arts or to influence by charm.

This is actually an important insight. Human beings are easily persuaded by emotions, by song and dance, by appeals to the flesh.

This is why the film and music and entertainment industries prosper in the human community. The fantasy worlds that they present are extremely alluring because they appeal to the human need for escape, and for feeding the carnal minds we all possess to some extent or another.

Paul had presented the truth of the Gospel to them but now asks:

Who has bewitched you, enchanted you with crazy ideas that have caused you to “not obey the truth.”

(long beat)

Let me ask you, like Pontius Pilate asked Jesus:

What is truth?

What truth had the Gaul’s received that they are now not obeying?

We all have answers don’t we? The questions have pushed me my entire life as I have relentlessly pursued nothing but.

Been sidelined, been tricked and fooled, and have been moved to temporarily not obeying the truth received.

But I would gently suggest that the truth, with a capital T is simply Jesus Christ, who called Himself:

THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE.

Him born and given by God.
His Life Lived.
His Death.
His Resurrection, and
His New Commandment to Love

Again, the TRUTH is HIM. And nothing more and nothing less.

Be crucified with Him. Die with Him. Be raised with Him. Stand on Him. Cling to Him. Abide in Him and Him in You.

Everything else can be forgotten and you will have put yourself in the rare place of a Son and Daughter to God.

Of course, we have bewitchers that pop up in every corner trying to move us to disobeying the Truth with a Capital T.

They come to us with doctrine and theologies. With demands. With “musts” for the Christian life like water baptisms, embracing false priesthoods, memberships, obligations, rites, rituals, perfections of the flesh, tithes and offerings, lifestyle demands, repentance demands, service demands, marriage demands, child raising specifics, excommunications, disciplines, and participation expectations. They will cause you to worship the Bible, the words of prophets, other books, and to give allegiance to men.

All bewitching manipulations that serve to cause people to “disobey the TRUTH – with a capital T – along with promises of punishment for disobedience, with promises of glory for compliance, with emotional appeals to the senses, sometime burdening you with so much work to do you lose track of Him, THE way, THE truth, and THE life.

No matter what – NEVER ever let go of Jesus the Truth. NEVER add to Jesus the Truth. Never take away from Jesus the Truth.

You see, we did not earn Jesus the Truth from or through our righteousness and we do not keep Jesus the Truth through our goodness. We came to him by faith and we continue in Him by faith – and this faith in HIM allows Him to work out fruits of Love through us as sons and daughters of God.

That is it, my friends. That is it. He is IT.
Him.

(looooong beat)

So, getting back to our study of the Word and after I have appealing to the line,

“That ye should not obey the truth,” I have to admit that this line is suspect relative to being in the original manuscripts. The Syriac version and many of the most important Greek and Latin Fathers do not include it in their manuscripts.

It’s not essential to the passage in order to the sense and so without it we read:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

That last line is not easy to understand.
But I appreciate the Weymouth translation which says:

“You foolish Galatians! Whose sophistry has bewitched you–you to whom Jesus Christ has been vividly portrayed as on the Cross?

Because the words, Among you, are missing in most reliable manuscripts we have clarity in Weymouth which does not include it.

The meaning from Paul seems to be:

Who beguiled you with MORE than the fact that Jesus Christ paid for the sin and the world AND had the Law nailed to his cross – someone “to whom was vividly portrayed as on the cross to you.”

See, we could read this as Paul merely saying that as an apostle to the churches as Galatia he painted a vivid portrait of the physical death of Jesus on the cross to them.

I do not suggest that this is the meaning here. Because of context I think he is asking them who stole them away from the vivid teachings of ALL that Jesus accomplished on the cross, including a number of biblically based things only He could do as God with Us, perfect Holy and good.

ON BOARD

First, Paul had certainly taught the Galatians that Christ was their SUBSTITUTE.

To have an acceptable substitute before God it took Him and Him alone. The reality of substitution is at core of all that Jesus did and the Word teaches us that Jesus Christ accomplished all sorts of benefits on that cross (READY?)

IN OUR PLACE— meaning in His death on that cross he died instead of us. Because of our freewill decisions, no matter what anyone says, we all deserved to die but he took our sin upon him and paid the penalty himself.

This is what it means in Romans 5:8 when Paul wrote

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

While WE were STILL sinners, Christ died for US. Where did He die? On the cross, that is where He died. That is where the price was paid, not in the garden.

It’s what Paul meant in chapter two of Galatians when he wrote at verse 20:

“and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

And Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor”.

Its why Isaiah so many thousands of years prophetically wrote, “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities . . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Let me show more specifically what this substitution really means and I will do this with words that are not necessarily found in scripture, and are admittedly theological in nature, but help summarize biblical concepts.

But as our substitute – and I would add, as the substitute for every human being to ever live – Christ also accomplished or did or became much more when we get into the minutia.

For example, he became our RANDSOM

In and through our “substitution” we were “ransomed:”

Matthew 20:28 says,

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”

Christ’s death was a ransom for us — that is, instead of us.” For this reason, Paul writes in Galatians 3:13 that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”

Then by His death on the cross we experience a big word – expiation – which means the removal of our sin and guilt.

Again – Christ’s death on the cross removes — expiates — our sin and guilt. How? The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death.

For this reason John the Baptist says upon seeing Jesus (in John 1:29) behold “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Note that we are still talking about universal justification in and through Christ. For all. Forevermore.

For this reason Isaiah wrote (in Isaiah 53:6), “YHWH has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and that Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

It is always why we read Paul saying to BELEIVERS who place their faith in HIM (in 2nd Corinthians 5:21):

“He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become “the righteousness of God in him.”

And Peter in 1st Peter 2:24 writing to those who place their faith in Him:

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

His substitutionary death on the cross, so vividly portrayed by Paul to the Galatians, also provides another key word:

Propitiation

Where expiation refers to the removal of our sins, propitiation speaks to the removal of God’s wrath. Now note, God did not pour His wrath out on His innocent Son. But by and through His suffering and death on the cross God’s wrath toward us was propitiated.

In other words by his dying in our place for our sins, Christ removed the wrath of God that we all justly deserve.

Propitiation takes it out further actually.
A propitiation is not simply a sacrifice that removes wrath, but a sacrifice that both removes wrath AND turns the former wrath into favor – not love – God has always loved us – remember, he so loved the world he sent his son to die for it. But the propitiation of Christ allows for what was once wrath to become favor – meaning the love he has always HAD for all of us is permitted to be extended to all people WITHOUT sacrificing His traits of Justice and Holiness.

So, while God has always loved the world, his traits of holiness and being a Good God demanded that Justice had to be met to bless wicked and sinful.

Under the law, the Nation was to offer sacrifice of beloved animals to appease the demands of justice and as a means to balance God’s justice with his blessing.

But with Christ on the cross for the sins of the world, by and through propitiation, God’s love is rightfully bestowed on the just and the unjust – further evidence that this works of Christ on the cross are universally applied to all!

There are a number of passages that speak of Christ’s death as a propitiation for our sins.

Romans 3:23-26 says:

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

1st John 4:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Therefore, by dying in our place, taking the penalty for our sins upon himself, Christ’s death is also the means of propitiation.

It also brought another result – “reconciliation”

Where expiation refers to the removal of our sins, and propitiation speaks to the removal of God’s wrath, reconciliation refers to the removal of our alienation from God.

See, because of our sins, we were alienated — separated — from God. Christ’s death removed this alienation and thus reconciled us to God.

For this reason, Romans 5:10-11 says:

“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 5:18-19

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

And of course in and through all of this that was accomplished on the cross through the death of His Son we receive
Redemption

See, scripture says that our sins had put us in captivity from which we need to be delivered. Just like when a kidnapper takes a child. The price that is paid to deliver someone from captivity is called a “ransom.”

To say that Christ’s death accomplished redemption for us means that it accomplished deliverance from our captivity and captor through the payment of a price – the price of His life through the ultimate sacrifice.

There are three things we, the captive, were released from in and through His death on the cross.

At this point, we enter into the value of belief and faith on Christ’s death on the cross as everything before appears to have application to the world.

But the redemption made seems to be applied to those who choose to receive His life and death and resurrection by faith. I say this because the ransom paid for our release releases people from three key captors:

First, the curse of the law
Second, the guilt of sin, and
Third, the power of sin.

It seems to me that these ransoms are paid or made available upon faith, and are not made possible without it.

So first, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law as Paul writes in Galatians 3:13-14 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.”

Now, there are people who will say things like, the Law was never to us so this passage speaks to Jews alone.

But we note that the Gauls were not Jews and Paul wrote this to them. Why? Because they were attempting to go back and embrace elements of the Law that were given to the Jews – and so even though not Jews by blood, Paul was telling these Gentiles that Christ had ransomed them FROM the CURSE – the CURSE of the Law.

Those are his words, not mine.

Again, that curse, that comes from the Law, is that the Law puts people in captivity, and makes the sinners, guilty before God.

Christ redeemed us from the guilt of our sin in total and Romans 3:24 says that, “We are “justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” as he adds in Colossians 2:13-15 and says:

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

By removing the Law, Christ also released us from the guilt of sin.

Peter wrote, speaking of our ransom

“knowing that you were not redeemed (ransomed) with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

And we are not only redeemed from the guilt of our sin but from the power of sin that keeps us captive.

In this way Christians, by and through the ransom paid by Christ through his death on the cross are freed to live to righteousness.

That ransom paid caused Paul to write in 1st Corinthians 6:20:

“You have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies.”

Which takes us to the Christian walk which is not part of our discussion today.

Finally, and though this part is so hotly debated by the Christian world today due to the presence of human darkness on earth, Jesus:

Defeated of the Powers of Darkness on the cross. In other words, he defeated –the power of Satan once and for all by and through his death and subsequent resurrection.

Recall that Colossians 3:15 says

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

We also recall that in the very first book of the Old Testament that we discover what God would do to Satan by and through Christ when he said:

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

This prophesy speaks directly to what Jesus DID on the cross.

Even while Jesus was on earth PRIOR to his death on the cross he said in

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world (who was Satan) be cast out.

We read later in John 16:7-11

7Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when the comforter is come, he will

convince the world of sin,
and convince the world of righteousness,
and convince the world of judgment.

What did Jesus mean by these things he said that the Holy Spirit would do when it came on the day of Pentecost? He tells us, saying:

9 Of sin, because they (talking about the Jews) believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I (Jesus) go to my Father, and ye see me no more (so the world would be convinced of His righteousness) and then finally:
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

The Writer of Hebrews makes it plain, saying in

Hebrews 2:14-15 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

See, when Satan reigned he had the power over death – meaning the power to keep people separated from God – which is the best definition of death and which made physical death so frightening.

He had this power in part due to the Fall but also in part to the fact that the Law made all unjustified sinners.

To cite or recite Hebrews Jesus, who took on flesh, did so:

That THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS THE DEVIL.

I trust the Word, what it says, and the order in which it is said.

We note that the writer of Hebrews does NOT say that through death Jesus might destroy Satan’s power.

He says that through his own death he might destroy Him – HIM – the devil. And the book of Revelation explicitly says that this occurred at His coming.

All of these things –

Substitution
Redemption
Propitiation
Expiation
Ransomed from
the curse of the law
the guilt of sin, and
the power of sin.
And Satan destroyed

Occurred in and through the crucifixion of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a crucifixion that had been described to these believers in full.

And so Paul now asks them a straight up question. He says:

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

This is all I wanna know from your mouths and hearts – and the language is in the tense of a reproof as he asked

How did you ORIGINALLY receive the Spirit?

The Spirit of liberty, of freedom and emancipation? That spirit that allowed you to see that you have been redeemed by and through that detailed explanation of Jesus death.

How did it come to you, you wild, foolish, half-naked Braveheartish warriorlike Gaul’s –

This Spirit of truth –

Did you received the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith?

In other words, did I come to you and circumcise you, did I make you pay tithes, did I force you to obey the Sabbath day as a means for you to receive the Spirit of truth that would emancipate you from your guilt and do all the other things that gave you truth and freedom OR did I preach to you that all you need to do is LOOK to that crucified Jesus and his death and have faith?

What brought that spirit into your lives?

I want to point out that right here we have evidence that it is entirely possible, even probable, that Paul is admitting that these Gaul’s HAD received Christ by faith – and got lured way – something that stands in direct contradiction to the Calvinist systematic views of religion where once a person receives the Holy Spirit then can never walk.

Baloney.

So, Paul asks, how were you first converted, “By the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?”

See, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was in connection ONLY to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

It did not indwell relative to the dispensation of the Law, which again is called in scripture:

The ministry of death (2nd Corinthians 3:7)
The Ministry of Condemnation (2nd Cor 3:9)
the source of WRATH (Romans 4:15)
The Power of Sin (Romans 7:8)
a blinder (2nd Corinthians 3:14-16)

The Holy Spirit was sent to reveal the truth to the hearts which could not be denied of Jesus and because those same influences had not been imparted under the law it was impossible for the Gaul’s to see their conversions as the result of anything but by faith and not the works of the Law.

So obviously the question was to prick their consciences and to cause them to see the error of their ways.

Then he throws down another probing question and asks at verse three

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

There are several ways we can reword this verse and be consistent with the Greek original:

Are you so foolish having begun with the internal that you will now end with the external?

OR

Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit to now finish in your flesh?

OR

Are you so foolish, having started in the spirit you will now finish in the flesh?

All of it means the same: You are really blowing it to think that you can begin your walk in the faith spiritually and that this should lead to a fleshly, external finish, end, or result.

They had commenced their Christian life under the influence of the Holy Spirit – this is made clear by Paul. They had known the power and spirituality of the glorious gospel centered on the death of Christ.

They were renewed by the Spirit; sanctified in some measure by him; and had submitted themselves to the spiritual influences of the gospel but having started that way was NOT enough for them.

They now sought to finish or end through ways and means of perfecting their flesh, in this case, through the application of elements of the external rituals and rites of the Law.

(long beat)

It is my prayer, that in the contradistinction of ALL Jesus has done for the world, especially those who believe, the heinousness of incorporating the law as a means to improve upon what He has already done can be seen.

This is the real rub between those who walk and live by Him and His finished work, and those who have, like the Galatians, believed that there was more than needed to be done, by someone other than our Lord, King and Savior.

We will stop here.

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