13. The Failure of Legalism: From Personal Experience - 3:1-5

The Failure of Legalism: From Personal Experience - 3:1-5

“O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you; to whom, as before your very eyes, Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified among you?” (3:1)

Paul, when he started the doctrinal section first referred back to what had taken place, the Galatians had accepted the gospel, and in the first few verses he related to what they had experienced themselves. He needed to address them very, very strongly and severely as “senseless Galatians.”This is a very strong word. It is the same word that the Lord used in speaking to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when He said to them, ‘Fools, why did you not understand the Scriptures that the Messiah must suffer and that the Scriptures must be fulfilled that way?’It means a lack of understanding. In modern English we would say, ‘stupid.’Senseless is a good translation.

‘What has happened?’Paul asked, “Who has bewitched you?”but he did not answer it. We do not know exactly what Paul referred to here; perhaps the Judaizers had even used witchcraft in order to influence the Galatians. We do not know but what we can be certain of is that there had been a strong influence and that they had been carried away. They were fascinated by the new teaching of these Judaizers just as they had been fascinated by Paul’s teaching, as we see in the same verse as indicated by this expression, “Jesus Christ has been portrayed and crucified among you.”They had been even ready to give their own eyes in order to help Paul (4:15). They had been very impressed at the time that Paul had been there. However, a merely intellectual or emotional impression can easily be replaced and that is exactly what happened. In this section Paul is asking six questions. This is the first one. The answers are so obvious they are not given. They were bewitched, they were fascinated by this new kind of teaching that had come after Paul had left them, that which Paul called “another gospel,”a counterfeit. The enemy was at work then, and he is at work also in our days in many circles, in many ways, and we are not immune. So we have to cast ourselves on the Lord, that He will protect us and that we might have the right attitude so that we do not do things just because we are impressed but rather because Christ has gotten hold of us. “Christ crucified”would be a study in itself, to see what that means, Christ taking the place of the curse.

“This only I wish to learn of you, Have ye received the Spirit on the principle of works of law, or of the report of faith?” (3:2) This is the second question. The Judaizing teachers were saying, ‘Yes, you can be saved by faith, but you then have to follow the law,’or they would say, ‘In order to be really saved, you need to be circumcised.’Then there was another danger, they would say, ‘Okay, you are saved but now in order to live a holy life you must follow the law.’They may have come with all kinds of good-sounding arguments and even today there are many people under the law in some form or another but the law of Moses has been fulfilled in the death of Christ and Christians are not under the law of Moses at all (but under the law of Christ, as we see later). So the question is, “Have ye received the Spirit?”That is another topic to study. In John’s gospel the Lord spoke about the coming of the Spirit. In Romans 5:1-21 we see that “the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Spirit whom He has given us.”The point is the reception of the Spirit. Is this because of works of the law? Obviously not. It is because of the hearing of faith, and this is explained in Romans 10:9, for example, faith comes by hearing of the Word of God, a result of preaching. And so we see here that what Paul had preached had a real impact, it was not just superficial, but those believers had received the Holy Spirit. That again would be a topic in itself to study. When you are born again you receive the Spirit at the same time, but Scripture makes a distinction because the Old Testament believers who were born again did not receive the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, although they were born again. In the day and age of grace in which we live, the moment one is born again he also received the Holy Spirit, but the two are distinct. And then, besides, we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) and also the earnest of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), another topic to study.

“Are ye so senseless? having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?” (3:3)

Again Paul uses the word “senseless.”They were not really thinking. Paul went back to the fact that they had begun right, they had started to run well, but they had been stopped. They had started on the basis of faith, they had started in obedience to Paul’s teaching, but now something had happened and Paul had to ask, “are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?,”this means, ‘Are you going to lead things to perfection in the flesh?’Earlier we saw faith over against the law and now we see the Spirit over against the flesh, the second of the seven fundamental comparisons in the Epistle.

Perfected by the law means to be ‘led to perfection by it.’It is, of course, a contradiction in terms, it cannot be. If you have started with the Spirit you will never be able to reach perfection in the flesh; it is an impossibility, but that is what these Judaizers were suggesting, that they should follow the law of Moses and then sanctification would be through the law. There was probably a mixture of teaching. There were those who taught, ‘You can only be justified by faith and circumcision’and there were those who said, ‘If you are a believer, then you need to follow the law in order to be sanctified, or in order to enjoy the relationship with God.’This is why later on in the Epistle there is so much emphasis on sonship; it is a matter of a relationship with God, which cannot be on the basis of the law, but on the basis of grace and having received the Spirit of God.

“Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if indeed also in vain?” (3:4)

They had been suffering many things. Later in this book Paul referred to this, “As many as desire to have a fair appearance in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ”(6:12). The believers were suffering because of their faithfulness to Christ, in connection with the cross of Christ. If they would give in to this pressure to be circumcised then the persecution would stop. So this obviously was persecution from a Jewish side, although maybe they also had persecution from Gentile sources but they had suffered because of their faithfulness and now they were going to give in to this new teaching with a view to getting these sufferings behind them. But, of course, that is not God’s way. It was a real temptation for them to follow this new teaching so that their sufferings would be over, but this would mean that those earlier sufferings would have been in vain.

“He therefore who ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, is it on the principle of works of law, or of the report of faith?” (3:5)

Here is the abundance of supplies that God provides in and through the Holy Spirit. We find many references to this in John’s Gospel: He gives the Spirit “without measure”(3:34); those who are thirsty may come and may receive water freely (7:37-39) and then this will become a source in the believer. So there is an abundance of supply in the Spirit which can never be connected with things of the law and then the question goes on, “......and works miracles among you.”The Holy Spirit was working miracles in those early days. Hebrews 2:1-18 shows that these miracles and signs were taking place at the beginning of a new dispensation. Then Paul asked, “Was this on the principle of the works of the law or was it because of the hearing [or ‘report’] of faith?”This is the same question that Paul had asked earlier. Again the answer is obvious. The Holy Spirit works in connection with the Word of God and with faith because the law of works had been set aside in the death of Christ. Paul’s doctrinal argument here was to show the superiority of grace over the law and that it would be stupid to go back to the law and to try to produce works in order to have a status before God or to enjoy blessings from God, or for whatever other purpose there could be: if it is on the basis of works of law it will never work, because as he proved later, if we are on that principle we are under the curse.