Everyone gets frustrated at one time or another. When was the last time you were frustrated? I get frustrated with those non-human telephone answering machines. Do you? I really get frustrated with Cox cable’s answering service. I would always rather speak to a human being than a machine - wouldn’t you?
I have Cox’s bundle - you know, high definition television, telephone, internet. And when ever I have to call their number, my frustration grows with all the information I have to enter using my telephone key pad. I could easily explain my problem and get help from a human then deal with all the things Cox’s system wants to do to try and help me.
And even worse are those systems that require a voice response. Have you ever called one of those help numbers, and just when it expects you to respond you cough or sneeze? And the next thing you know it has transferred you to someone who can’t help you and you have to go back and start on it all over again. I would be a lot more civil in my telephone calls if I didn’t have to deal with inanimate telephone answering machines.
Paul is frustrated! He is frustrated that the Galatians have moved away from the gospel of grace that he had preached to them, that he had taught them, that he had discipled them with. They’ve moved away from God’s truth and replaced it with the false teaching and preaching of the Judaizers. And it frustrates him. See his frustration as we read verse 1 of chapter 3.
Are you foolish?
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 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?” (3:1-3)
Everyone has a testimony of how they came to faith in Jesus Christ. It’s your story of salvation by grace apart from the works of the law. Some religious groups come to Christ based on their works - we don’t. We come by faith in Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. For us, there is no other way. Paul is calling upon the Galatian believers to remember their personal experience of the Holy Spirit when they first believed.
The Galatians themselves served as witnesses for the truth of Paul’s gospel. That is why he begins this section with a rebuke “You foolish Galatians!” The word translated ‘foolish’ literally means “without mind” or “without thought.” Paul tells them that they’ve acted without thinking. They’re gullible Galatians - they’ve bought into something without considering the gospel of grace.
Following that charge - that they were gullible - Paul asks a series of questions designed to awaken their minds to their experience of God’s transforming grace through the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s first question is, “Who has bewitched you? Who has hypnotized you?” Has someone cast a magical spell on you? Has someone given you the ‘evil eye’? The threat of the ‘evil eye’ existed as an ever present danger in the minds of many of the ancient civilizations. Many people believed that they had the power to bring destruction on others through a glance of the eye.
If the Galatians were under the curse of the evil eye of the Judaizers, what was the antidote? Paul wants them to fix their eyes on Jesus Christ, “before whose eyes (he) was vividly portrayed as crucified.” The cross is the only force that could absorb the destructive effects of the curse. Fixing their gaze on Christ as crucified meant that they have nothing to fear from the ‘evil eye’ of the Judaizers.
In verse 2, Paul raises a second question: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” If Paul could elicit the correct response to this question, he would gain the upper hand in the debate. The Galatian believers had responded in faith to Christ’s obedient death on the cross. They had received the Holy Spirit. They were experiencing the blessings of this new life in Christ. The truth that they had already received the Spirit testified to the sufficiency of the cross and deficiency of anything else to authenticate their right standing with God.
Paul’s third question is in verse 3: “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” This question assumes they answered the previous question correctly. Since they had begun their new life with the Holy Spirit as God’s gift, were they so gullible to believe that they could bring salvation to completion through circumcision?
You see, Paul wants to know if they’re going to be so foolish as to allow the Judaizers to convince them it was a good idea to choose a different gospel as the best hope of adding the finishing touches to their salvation? I can hear Paul pleading now, “Say it isn’t so!”
In verse 4, Paul poses another question: “Did you suffer so much for nothing – if in fact it was for nothing?” In other words, have you experienced suffering for your faith? We shouldn’t be surprised if they had been suffering for Christ. They lived with the pressure to worship the Roman emperor and a host of other pagan Roman and Greek gods. Recently the Judaizers had added to that pressure with their claim that the men needed to be circumcised.
The history of Christianity strongly connects standing for the truth and experiencing persecution and suffering. If they turned away from the truth now in order to avoid further suffering, their former trials were for nothing. Paul suggests that he held out hope that they would remain in the truth.
Paul’s final question is in verse 5: “So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” Based on their experience of the Holy Spirit, including God’s miraculous work among them, the way to right standing with God and right living before God was faith. Turning to a false gospel would mean forfeiting their freedom and exchange participation in the new age of the kingdom for an unchristian life in this present, evil age.
Grace is Superior to Works
“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.” (3:6-7)
Having made his point based on their experience of the Holy Spirit, Paul turned to Scripture to explain the superiority of grace over works of the law. He quotes Genesis 15:6 in verse 6, arguing that Abraham’s faith led to his right relationship with God – not circumcision. The result of Abraham’s faith was right standing with God (righteousness). So, those who have faith are the sons of Abraham. Abraham’s children are defined by their faith, not by their circumcision. Believing the true gospel of Christ are the sons of Abraham, whether Jew or Gentile. Now that Christ had come, circumcision was irrelevant.
“The 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.’ So, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (3:8-9)
Verse 13 contains a remarkable claim and promise - “..all nations will be blessed in you.” This is the gospel, preached in advance of Christ’s coming. God has accepted the Gentiles as part of God’s family based on faith and faith alone. Paul’s case did not rest merely on his experience at Galatia, when Gentiles received the Spirit. Rather, it was God’s intention from the beginning, as his scripture foresaw centuries earlier.
God promised Abraham a son, Isaac, and that through this son God would make a great nation (Israel), a nation that would be a blessing to all nations (Gentiles). This is the gospel before Christ came as the baby in the manger. The good news promised to Abraham would finally result in all who believe, Jew and Gentile, sharing in Abraham’s blessing. The good new God spoke to Abraham required that he believe the promise of a son, and then through that son a great nation would come.
God’s story begins with his creating all that exists. Unfortunately, human beings disobeyed God, and as a result sin and death hijacked God’s good creation. Despite the fact that God’s good creation had gone hopelessly wrong, God had a plan to make it right. This was good news. God began by calling Abraham. Through Abraham and his seed, God would raise up a nation - not for itself - but for all the nations.
God’s plan called for Israel to be a light to all nations - to prove that there was a good that blessed those that blessed his people and his name, and who cursed and punished those that cursed his people and his name. But Israel disobeyed God and as a result became part of the problem rather than the solution. In order to redeem these stubborn rebellious people, God would have to have a redeemer for the nation; he would have to have someone strong enough to stand up to sin.
He could find no one that qualified except himself, so he came to earth as the child of Joseph and Mary. He lived his life and performed his ministry throughout the region of Israel in a little over thirty-three years. Then he willingly sacrificed himself for the salvation of all who would believe in him and call upon him to cleanse them from their sins. Through Jesus, the seed of Abraham, God kept his word to Abraham. This is God’s good news.
Do you believe God’s good news? Have you accepted Christ as your savior? Have you begun your new life walking in faith with the son of God, guided by his Holy Spirit? Or are you still holding back?
Waiting for another day, another hour, another opportunity? God may grant you more time. He may not. With your eternity resting on your decision to exercise faith in Christ today, should you wait any longer? I’d say, ‘No’. I’d say make your decision now - today - wait no longer.
