Galatians 3: 1-5
You foolish Galatians,
Paul uses the word anoetos, which refers to one who is not using his intelligence, in contrast to the word moros, one who is mentally deficient.
He's saying to use their powers of thinking to not be so irrational.
who has bewitched you,
It's as though someone has magically cast a spell on them.
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
Jesus submitted to execution by crucifixion because there was no other way He could save us. Otherwise, He wouldn't have had to even come.
This is the only thing I want to find out from you:
This is the basic question, that everything else flows from.
did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Were they saved by works or by grace? There's no combination here, it's either one or the other.
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Let's think this out here, if we come into God's family by the Spirit, then does it make sense to try to live as God's child by the flesh? By trying to obey the Mosaic Law?
Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain?
Did you painfully experience so much stuff on your way to faith in Christ for nothing? Wasn't it all worth it?
So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
So is God working miracles through the power of His Spirit in you because you believe He will, or because you've obeyed some rule?
These Galatians were influenced by the Judaizers who came from Jerusalem, to try to make these new Christians into practicing Jews, bound to obey all of the Mosaic Law. But Grace and works are opposites.
We are saved by grace through faith, not because of anything we can do, but just trusting that Jesus already did all the work of Salvation for us. Now that we are born spiritually into God's family, we must live our lives by faith, listening to His quiet voice deep in our spirit, trusting that He has only the best planned for us.
All the Law and rules and precepts and ordinances are now only guidelines as to how we are to love God and love one another as He has Loved us. Loving one another will have us obeying all the laws, because we won't want to do anything harmful or hurtful to one another.
But we are no longer bound to have to obey proscribed rules. We are not slaves to rules, but servants of God.
O my Father, You planned all along, from before the beginning, how You would lead Mankind down the path of History. How You would show us that there is nothing we can do to become perfect enough for Your Presence to dwell in us, and for us to be in Your Presence without being destroyed by it.
You showed us everything our Savior would do, would accomplish for us, and how He would fulfill and finish all You said He would do, so we would recognize Him. So we could be cleansed and renewed and reborn spiritually into Your family.
Father, You planned from the beginning that the human race would be Your children. So now You are teaching us how to be Your Royal princes and princesses, so we will be skilled and equipped to govern all the Universes You plan to make, as Your family business, Your Kingdom.
Help us, Father, to grow up as Your children. Strengthen us against all the forces of evil that are arrayed against us. And send us out boldly carrying Your precious Seed of the Gospel to sow in all the fields prepared for the planting; and to reap all the fields ripe to harvest, gathering all the souls into Your barn.
And may Your house be full, every place at Your banquet table filled, to feast with you neverendingly.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord God Almighty, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
