Monday, July 11, 2016

Testimony of the Galatians – 3:1-5

So I really like dubstep music, and I really like Star Wars, so when the two were combined and my brother sent me a playlist he had compiled, I ate it up. One song contains the following quote from Darth Vader found in Episode V: “The force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.” It got me thinking, “Can I say something similar as a Christian: ‘The Spirit is with you, young Wingerd, but you are not a Christian yet’?” Absolutely not! The definition of a Christian is one who is indwelt by the Spirit. To say that something else must happen first is to cheapen everything about Christianity. The Spirit is with me, and I am a Christian. If the Spirit is with you, you are a Christian. Since the Spirit was with the Galatians, they were Christians, and this is what Paul will prove in these five verses. They were foolish to say anything else was necessary!
Galatians 3:1-5 says, You foolish Galatians! Who has hypnotized you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified?  I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?  Did you suffer so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing?  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?”
This passage basically picks up where 1:9 leaves off. “As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” He then spent almost two whole chapters explaining why he could be trusted as a reliable person to hear the gospel from. And now, in 3:1, he jumps immediately back to where he left off in 1:9. He asks who is responsible for preaching a different gospel to them. In fact these five verses read like an interrogation. So, even though verse 1 talks about Jesus, verses 2-4 talk about the Spirit, and verse 5 talks about the Father, I’m going to work through it question by question.
Paul begins by making a conclusion. He calls the Galatians foolish. Now, lest we think he’s insulting their intelligence, it’s important to see the difference between the word he actually uses and another word he could have used. The word he could have used is where we get our word “moron” from, which means foolish or stupid by necessity. The word Paul uses means more closely to “absence of mind” and insinuates “mental laziness and carelessness. . . . The Galatians had foolishly fallen into Judaistic legalism because they had stopped believing and applying the basic truths of the gospel Paul had taught them and by which they had been saved.”[1] When we start believing everything we’re told, we’re ceasing to practice discernment, and it is a sign of spiritual laziness. This is Paul’s point in the introductory phrase. He says, “Look, I have proved that my gospel was not from men and was not altered by man, and that I have torn down, and refuse to rebuild, my life according to the law. Now let me ask you some rhetorical questions to prove that you are foolish.”
Verse one concludes with the question, “Who has hypnotized you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified?” Paul’s point in this question is not so much, “Who did this to you?” but more accurately, “How’d you let them hypnotize you, considering your experience?” The word translated “vividly portrayed” refers to a public notice being placed on a wall (think, “Wanted: dead or alive”) where people can see it and respond to it. Another good example of a public notice would be in the book of Esther when Haman has the king write an edict for all his kingdom to see.
Letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.  A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples so that they might get ready for that day.  The couriers left, spurred on by royal command, and the law was issued in the fortress of Susa (3:13-15).
Paul wants the Galatians to remember just how convinced they were by Paul’s preaching that Jesus Christ had been crucified. And he flat out tells them, “You’re not thinking clearly. Snap out of this trance and tell me how you could let someone deceive you like this?” It’s very interesting that this verse comes right after 2:21, because Paul concluded that point by saying, “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” He wants them to remember the vividness of the reality of Christ’s death that he had convinced them of so that they would remember that Christ’s death really happened and was really necessary, and that the legalism purported by the false teachers was undermining Christ’s death.
I imagine their rhetorical answer being silence out of shame.
But Paul doesn’t care. He writes in verse 2, “I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” Paul drops the bomb on them. He asks, “How did you get into this race? How’d you become a child of God? How’d you receive the Spirit? Did you have to keep law to get the Spirit or did you just hear my gospel?”
And I imagine their rhetorical answer is, “Of course by faith.”
Then Paul responds again. “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” Literally there is only one question in this verse, and it reads more like the following: “Thusly you are foolish: After beginning by the Spirit are you now to be fulfilled by the flesh?” Paul wants them to see that starting by faith—all of grace—only to revert back to the law is the epitome of what it means to be lazy in the arena of spiritual discernment.
And far too often in modern Christianity, we do the same thing, even though our reverting back to the law doesn’t look like obeying Mosaic rituals. We come in by faith, and accept the grace that washes us clean of all the junk in our past, but then act as if we have to perform now in order to stay in God’s good graces. This is exactly what Paul is arguing against here. All we’ve done in modern, American evangelicalism is westernize the law to suit our tastes.
Here’s a fictional (though completely possible) example: let’s say there’s a homosexual man (since this is basically the “unforgivable sin” in our church world today) who is truly born again in Christ. For one, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 would immediately say that he is no longer a homosexual—he used to be one. And let’s say, by God’s grace that he hates his sin. He hates that he is drawn toward men the way other men are drawn toward women. However, while he hates it, he still finds himself acting out on it (even if acting out on it goes no farther than thinking a guy looks attractive), but then feels absolutely convicted and crushed afterwards. And our modern church world of “once in, keep yourself in by following the laws” would have absolutely nothing to offer this man except condemnation.
If you want to follow the laws to stay saved, James says, “For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all” (2:10), as if to say, “once you’ve broken one part of God’s law, you’ve broken His law and are guilty eternally because you’ve broken an eternal law.” Therefore, to trust the law after trusting Christ is to tell Christ, “You’re not good enough for me.” However JESUS IS BETTER. He’s better than sin, better than the law, better than the best earthly blessing God has ever bestowed on you. And, it’s not just trusting God’s laws for salvation that is wrong. Paul condemns the whole world, even those who’ve never even seen a Bible, because they can’t even perfectly keep the laws they place on themselves. Romans 2:14-16 says,
So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts will either accuse or excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
So when we say, “I won’t do this, so that I don’t do that,” and begin to trust “this” and “that” to keep us holy instead of trusting God and seeking Him, we are making laws for us to follow, laws that prove that we aren’t righteous if we break them.
This is why Paul is incredulous that someone who starts the Christian faith by faith would ever walk away from faith to be perfected by law. It’s why we must never place extra laws on those we are trying to help break free from sin or addiction. The Spirit is our only hope, and to confound the Spirit’s work by inserting legal codes instead will never sanctify. Romans 8:13 says, “for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (emphasis added). The only way to have victory over the flesh is by the Spirit, and we’re not very good at putting sin to death “by the Spirit” because it involves faith and not noticeable actions on our part. But I digress.
Regardless of that, I can see the Galatians responding to Paul’s question by saying, “Yes. We can do it ourselves, and we will. The law gives us power.”
Then verse 4 gives Paul’s next question based on that answer. “Did you suffer so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing?” Paul’s point is that whatever they experienced was in vain if they continued down the path of rejecting grace in favor of law. However, he trusts that they have only been sidetracked for a short time, and will be back on track again soon, because he offers, hopefully, “if in fact it was for nothing.” He doesn’t really believe that their Christianity is a sham. He trusts that the God who saved him and who saved them, who chose them before the world’s foundation (Galatians 1:15-16; Ephesians 1:3-6; Romans 8:28-30), would rescue them from the hypnotization they had experienced. This tells us that we should always be hope-full in our dealings with other, weaker believers.
And I imagine their answer to be, “No, no, no. We didn’t receive God’s Spirit in vain!”
Paul concludes his interrogation with verse 5, which looks an awful lot like verse 2. “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?” This tells us that God is the source of the Spirit. If a person has the Spirit it is for no other reason than for the fact that God gave it to that person. No one has to do a single thing to get the Spirit and no one has to do a single thing to keep the Spirit (cf. Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:38-39). Also important in this verse (though we don’t see specific examples in Acts) is that apparently miracles occurred among the Galatians during Paul’s time there. Paul points out and makes clear that they didn’t have to obey law for God to display His power mightily amongst them. It was all by faith.
And I imagine the Galatians saying, “Of course it was by faith,” pausing, and then adding, “Oh, I’m starting to understand.”
But that’s all for today. Paul will take his proofs for a law-free gospel (but not a law-less gospel) in a different direction next time. The point to be elaborated here is that the Gospel is believed by faith, Christian living starts by faith, and Christian sanctification continues by faith. At no point should a Christian ever revert to living under the law. Once the Spirit has been given to a believer, he or she has all he or she needs for a life of godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Don’t revert back to the law. Run for refuge to Christ. He alone can save, and He is better!
Til next time.
Soli Deo Gloria



[1] John MacArthur, Galatians, 63.

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