Mesmerized by the False Gospel of Religion...

During this election season, we are looking at a letter in the Bible called the book of Galatians. This week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And in this next section of this letter, we will see Paul change the direction and the tone of his letter. You see, up to this point, Paul has been sharing his story and defending the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel that he had been proclaiming. This week, however, we will see Paul shift the focus off of himself and onto the members of the church at Galatia. And as Paul makes this shift, we will see him reveal for us another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look together as Paul makes this shift in Galatians 3:1:

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

Now I wish Paul would tell us how he really feels.”You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” What is so interesting is this phrase “who has bewitched you” literally means to hypnotize or exert an evil influence through the eye. Have you ever heard the phrase “to give someone the evil eye”? That phrase comes from this word. Apparently, the members of the churches of Galatia had been mesmerized by the false message of religion by the Judaizers and were buying into their form of religion.

Now this sentence, if communicated in the language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “You stupid, foolish Galatians. You are acting like idiots. Who has hypnotized and manipulated you into abandoning the message of the gospel that I had so clearly proclaimed and that you seemed to so clearly understand? How is it that you could be so easily influenced to embrace the false gospel of religion?

After harshly confronting the members of the churches of Galatia for their stupidity and foolishness, Paul proceeds to ask a series of questions that were designed to expose the foolishness of their decision to abandon a gospel centered lifestyle for a religious centered lifestyle. We see the first question revealed for us in verse 2:

 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

To understand the question that Paul is asking here we first need to ask and answer the question “What does Paul mean when he asks “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith?”  The Spirit that Paul is referring to here is the Holy Spirit. When a person places their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, the Holy Spirit indwells, or takes up residence, in their lives. Paul is asking “How were you rescued from your selfishness and rebellion? How did you begin your life as a follower of Jesus?” As we have previously discovered in this series, the works of the Law refers to the deeds that the Law, which are the first five books in our Bibles, commanded the Jewish people to do. The phrase “by hearing with faith” literally means the hearing that is called faith.

So this question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “I just want to understand one thing from you: How did you begin your new life as a follower of Jesus? Were you rescued from your rebellion so that you received the Holy Spirit because of what you did for God? Or were you rescued from your rebellion so that you received the Holy Spirit because you placed your confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel?”

Paul here is reminding the members of the churches of Galatia that they received the Spirit and became followers of Jesus not because of what they did for God. Instead they received the Spirit and became followers of Jesus by responding to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel that they had heard by believing and trusting in the message that they heard. And that reality leads Paul to ask the following question in verse 3:

 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

In other words Paul is asking “are you that foolish? Are you that stupid? How big of idiots are you guys!” I really wish Paul would let them know how he really felt. But what does Paul mean when he asks “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” If Paul was here this morning asking this question, he might have asked it this way: “You who began your new life as a follower of Jesus as a result of the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life, are you actually trying to live out and grow in your relationship with Christ in the power of the flesh”? When Paul refers to the flesh, he is referring to our old nature that is dominated by the evil and destructive power of sin.

So Paul’s point here is “If your old nature apart from God that is opposed to God was unable to rescue you from your selfishness and rebellion by trying to do things for God, then what makes you think that you will be able to experience a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus by trying to do things for God in the power of your old nature that is opposed to God? That is stinking thinking. That is just idiotic.”

But, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, how often do we try to do the exact same thing that these early followers of Jesus were doing? How often do we live our day to day life by saying “God thanks for saving me by faith in Jesus, but I’ll take it from here”.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul ask a third question…