Galatians 3:1–14 (NKJV)
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (1)
There is a play on words in the Greek text that does not come across in the English. Paul asks who has “bewitched” the Galatians—a term that speaks of deception through the eyes, like a slight-of-hand magician. Then Paul continues the visual imagery by reminding them of the surpassing sight that was “portrayed” before their eyes: Christ crucified for their sins. This is their true reality, and the former things are a false substitute.
The issue here is how salvation in Christ is appropriated or received. The true means of receiving is “by hearing with faith” and “by the Spirit”; but the false substitute is “by works of the law” and “by the flesh.” The problem is that Paul has to argue against the Judaizing influence on Gentile Christianity that says salvation starts by grace in Christ but then it is completed by following Jewish ceremonial laws like circumcision and table fellowship (12). Paul speaks against the necessity of these ceremonial laws, while the moral laws are still binding upon the Christian. These moral laws, like the Ten Commandments, are still binding for us because they are God’s eternal will for His people. Paul also says that all of the Law does not justify in any sense, before conversion or after. Christ alone justifies us by His perfect life and His death in our place on the cross, and we receive this by faith alone. There is no bewitching magic here, just God graciously at work through His Word, and received by faith. God gives and faith receives.
We Pray: Holy Father, we are thankful that You saved us purely out of grace and brought us to faith through the power of Your Word and Spirit. Guide us by Your Spirit to fully trust in You and Your sustaining power, which is ours by faith alone in Christ alone. In His name we pray, Amen.
