"What's Your Problem?" (No Other Gospel #10)

At the end of chapter 2, Paul is addressing the Judaizers, those who were teaching that salvation came through obedience to the Jewish law. But with chapter 3, he clearly moves back to addressing the Galatians. Remember, the churches in Galatia were primarily composed of Gentiles. They had heard and received the gospel, but now they were beginning to be drawn away to the doctrine preached by the Judaizers.  In the previous chapter, Paul publicly rebuked Peter for his inconstancy. In this chapter, Paul is publicly rebuking the Galatians for their inconstancy. This passage is not so much a logical argument as an impassioned plea on Paul's part, an exhortation--condemning their doctrinal infidelity and trying to lead them back to the truth. It should be read, not as the cold essay of a scholar, but as the impassioned lecture of a loving but somewhat exasperated father to his children.

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? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Galatians 3:1-5)

This passage is very emotionally charged; something that is obvious from the beginning of the first verse. Philips translates that first phrase: “O you dear idiots of Galatia.” Or we have Eugene Peterson's paraphrase: “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses?”

But though this sounds more like something you would find in an internet flame war than in scripture, Paul has a reason for his strong language. He is trying to bring them face-to-face with the absurdity of their position--really, in the same way that his rebuke to Peter was aimed at bringing out the inconstancy of Peter's position. For the Galatians, knowing everything they knew and having received everything they had received, to be swayed by the Judaizers was simply senseless and illogical, so much that it almost seemed as if it had been affected by magic. The point is that, as Paul has just shown, the gospel is of faith, not of the law--something the Galatians had every reason to know.

Why should they have known better than listen to the Judaizers?

(1) Because Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth among them as crucified. The word translated “evidently set forth” means to be placarded, publicly declared, put up like a poster. In a day before mass communication, if you wanted something publicly known, you put an announcement or placard in a public place so people could see it. We do the same thing today by putting up signs in our yards indicating something for sale. Something “evidently set forth” is something very public and very well-known.

What Paul is saying is that they knew about the work of Jesus and specifically about His death. That is the gospel that Paul and Barnabas had preached to them and there is nothing to suggest that they questioned the truth of it. Some take this verse to mean that through the preaching they had heard it was as if they had personally witnessed the crucifixion--that was how much knowledge and certainty they had of it.

They were not ignorant of the fact that Jesus had been crucified. And that just throws us back to what Paul says at the end of the last chapter. If there was salvation through the Jewish law--if doing good works or being part of the Jewish covenant--could bring salvation, then what did Jesus accomplish by dying? The death--and resurrection--of Jesus necessarily imply the insufficiency of the Jewish law. If the Judaizers had been right, there would have been no need for Jesus to die. But He did die--as the Galatians knew very well--and were they really prepared to maintain, with his death publicly before them, that it had been needless and in vain?

(2) Because they had an experience with God's Spirit. In verse 2 Paul says: “This only would I learn of you... [or, in modern vernacular, “Let me just ask you one question:”]... received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” There are actually some interesting parallels between the ending passage of Galatians 2 and this passage. The situations of the Gentiles here parallels that of the Jews in chapter 2--both should have known better than to accept legalism. 3:1 parallels 2:21, since both are appealing to the death of Christ as evidence of the true gospel. And verse seems to parallel 2:20, in which Paul speaks of the new life which a Christian has in Christ: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” But how does that happen? How can a person living in this world of death and sin have the very life of God living in him? Paul explains this in Romans 8:11. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” It is the Holy Spirit that makes possible the life of a Christian. In the last chapter, Paul talked about justification, the removal of the punishment and guilt of sin. Justification is coupled with adoption--as the guilt of sin has been removed, we can be received back into the family of God. And this once again is done or at least witnessed to by the Holy Spirit. “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

The Galatians had had an encounter with God's spirit; they had received a new life and a witness of adoption. They might even have had some kind of miraculous manifestation of the Spirit as it hinted at in verse 5 and as we see other places in Acts. That was a fact they could not deny. It was something they knew as well as the death of Christ which had been publicly declared among them. The question is, how had it happened? Had it happened by scrupulously trying to do right? No. Trying hard to do right may give you a respectable life; it may give you a feeling of contentment and satisfaction (though more likely it will bring frustration and guilt); it may salve your conscience (or aggravate it)--but it will not fill your heart and soul with new life from God. Had it happened by following the Jewish law? No. As Paul himself could attest, that was as doomed an approach as mere moralism. Had it happened by circumcision? No. For they had been Gentiles. It had come very simply by hearing the word of God and believing it. They should have known better than to listen to the Judaizers because they had personal experience with salvation through the gospel.

(3) Because it is foolish to change horses in the middle of the stream. The Galatians knew about the death and resurrection of Christ as the means of salvation. And they had personal experience with salvation; they knew it came through faith, not through the law. So Paul's question in verse 3 is this. You started out the life of a Christian by the Spirit, by the gracious gift of God. So did they now think that what was started out by the Spirit could be finished and brought a conclusion by the Flesh, by human effort and human credentials? Such an idea is “foolish” (the same word used in verse 1). If someone talented and competent begins a project, do you fire him and call in some amateur to finish it up? Only if concerns such as time and money come in. We often have to have someone better taken over a project when the person working on it wasn't competent to finish it. But you don't do it the other way around.  If God has started work in us, it would be foolish to fire him and bring in human effort to finish it. That which only God can begin only God can complete. We do not begin by faith and then go on by works (though, of course, true faith works). That is a foolish idea.

(4) Because they had already come so far and suffered so much. At the very beginning of this study, we mentioned that one of the cities of Galatia in which Paul preached and to which this letter is probably addressed is Iconium. Acts 14:2 tells of what happened in Iconium with the preaching of the Gospel. “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.” This ill-will towards Paul and Barnabas grew so great that the people planned to stone them and Paul was forced to leave town secretly. They traveled later to Lystra where people, at the stirring up of Jews from Iconium, actually did stone Paul.

Given that this was the attitude towards the preachers of Christianity, we can only assume that there was also animosity towards their converts. And this seems to have been true many places where the church was in New Testament times. Being a Christian meant dealing with at least some level of persecution, especially from the Jews (who, during the time of Acts, were the main opponents of Christianity). The Galatians were people who had borne suffering and persecution for the sake of the gospel. And now they were preparing to throw it all away; it would all be vain and empty if they accepted the teaching of the Judaizers. They had fought so hard and so valiantly, it would be a tragedy to surrender now. Were they really willing to throw aside all they had gone throw and let it all be for nothing?

There may be another thought here. As I said, the main persecution of the church came from the Jews. If the Galatian Gentiles had simply converted to Judaism, they would not have experienced persecution, at least not very much. So if salvation was possible through Judaism, if it was such a good plan of salvation, why did they ever bother accepting Christianity? Why hadn't they just become Jews, since that would have been safer? It could only be because they had seen something in Christianity which wasn't in Judaism and that something was salvation by the Spirit of God through faith without the works of the law or circumcision.

(5) Because Christianity had a power that Judaism and Judaistic Christianity did not. In the final verse, Paul refers to “He... that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you.” Some think this means Paul and Barnabas, who had been the ministers of the Gospel to the Galatians and who had performed miracles in conformation of the Gospel--we know, at least, that they healed a lame man in Lystra which made quite an impression on the people. Others think “He... that ministereth” means God, for while God used human instruments like Paul and Barnabas, it was God was really responsible for everything that happened.

In either case, the point is the same and it is something of a summary of the passage. They had been recipients of the gospel, of a ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit, filled with a power and a life which Judaism didn't have--and that ministry had been the ministry of a gospel of faith, not by the works of the law. Paul hadn't come and made such an impression on them by preaching that they needed to obey the law. Paul hadn't worked miracles by being scrupulous in obeying the law. What marked the ministry among the Galatians; what it was that made it so special; what had given it supernatural power--was that it was the gospel of faith not of the law. And therefore it would be foolish to turn away from this gospel, which they had seen and received, into any other.