As we begin to study the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, it is apparent that the apostle Paul is in agony over the Galatians because he fears that they have become fools under the binding spell of Satan who wants to destroy the freedom they have found in Christ.
Paul’s opening words in verse one of this chapter, where he says – “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you” – recalls images of people blindly following a kind of false theology that will ultimately lead them off the cliff of deadly legalism.
It is as though; Paul’s beloved Galatians are in complete awe of the false teaching that says that we have more to offer to the process of salvation and sanctification than our own sin. It seems like the Galatians have blinders on; they are in a state of numbness as they begin to backslide like hypnotized robots into a performance-based religion.
Do you know what it is like to be so blinded, so numb, so caught up in something destructive that you are completely unaware of how foolish you are? I remember watching a video recently of people who had willingly submitted themselves to the work of a hypnotist. The hypnotist was able to control his subjects because they had surrendered to him completely.
Under his control, the hypnotist was able to convince one of his subjects that he had no butt because someone had stolen it and he needed to find it at all costs. This poor kid was nearly in tears as he tried to find his butt all over the room without success. It was a hysterical comedy as this kid acted like a complete fool in front of the entire audience who could clearly see how bewitched and foolish this kid was behaving.
This is the essence of what Paul is trying to unveil for the Galatians. The Galatians had been willingly hypnotized by the false and demonic doctrine of legalism – they had begun to believe that their performance played a part in their being able to finish the race of following Jesus; it was not just their understanding of salvation that was at risk here, their understanding of sanctification was beginning to get warped as well, and their foolishness was reaching an alarming level.2
There are so many ways that we become spellbound fools as we seek to follow Jesus. The “give to get” heresy produces fools who go to church so that God will fix their problems, or they give their money so that God will bless their finances, or they serve in leadership so that God will increase their influence.
“Tribalism” is another phenomenon that produces fools (at least in the sense of competitive pride) who act like their tribe is better than the rest or they look down their noses at other groups because of their secondary differences or they find some missional endeavor (i.e. ending abortion, political power, reaching a subcultural group that no one else is reaching) and they act like if you are not into what they are into then you are living a subpar Christian existence.
In the case of the Galatians, they were beginning to believe that the act of circumcision would solidify not only their salvation but also their sanctification; they could be assured that God had saved them and that they were holy enough to be accepted by him and bring honor to him, if only they got circumcised.3
They were under the spell of a demonic false theology that was causing them to act like fools; spellbound fools are what they were becoming. How do you wake up from this? Paul asks the Galatians a set of rhetorical questions to get them to wake up from their slumber. In asking these rhetorical questions, Paul reminds them that they need to hear the gospel once again with faith. Look at the text with me…
1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4Did you suffer so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain? 5Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?
#1: LOOK TO CHRIST CRUCIFIED (V. 1)
After Paul calls the Galatians “Spellbound Fools” he immediately turns their attention to Christ who was crucified on their behalf when he says in verse one, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”. The Galatians may not have personally witnessed Christ’s crucifixion, but we can rest assured that Paul wasted no words and no amount of energy in portraying the crucifixion of Christ to them and for them.
The job of a preacher is to paint pictures with words that by the power of the Spirit have the ability to bring sinners to salvation by grace through faith in Christ according to the Scriptures for the glory of God alone. Paul’s starting point, in attempting to set these Spellbound Fools free from slavery is to remind them of the crucifixion of Christ because it is that image of the horror of the bloody cross that sets men free from a life of sinful rebellion against God; in the cross of Christ, sinners like you and me, have the image of the complete and gracious work of God in ransoming and redeeming his enemies so that they can become his family.
In this image of the bloody cross, we also have to be reminded of the work of the Spirit of God in saving and sanctifying us. This is why Paul turns our attention to the Spirit of the living God in the next two verses of our text.
#2: IT IS THE SPIRIT WHO SAVES & SANCTIFIES (VV. 2 – 3)
Spellbound fools typically have the look of a zombie on their face as they run after false teachings. In this case, our zombie-like spellbound fools seem to be blinded to the initial work of the Spirit of God in saving them as well as his ongoing work in sanctifying them.
This is why Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions that go like this in verses 2 – 3 where he asks: “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In other words, Paul is asking why the Galatians would believe that works of the law could perfect them when they knew that hearing the Spirit with faith was what saved them?
How could you and I be saved from the presence, the penalty, and the power of our sin by the unmerited work of the Holy Spirit and then turn around and believe that our performance is what makes us holy? This would be like my son receiving the gift of a brand-new motorcycle from me and then immediately finding ways to work off the price of the motorcycle so that he could go and enjoy riding it with me. That would be one of the most foolish things a person could do, right?
In the case of the Galatians, Paul simply cannot believe how they had begun by being saved as they received the Spirit by hearing with faith and then immediately turned around and began living as though they needed to add works of the law to their lives so that God would continue to accept them. Only a foolish person believes that a gift needs to be earned.
Maybe, just maybe, the Galatians had grown weary of suffering for the gospel at the hands of the Judaizers. Paul’s suffering for the gospel at the hands of these heretics is well documented all over his writings. Sometimes, suffering has the effect of making you question whether it is all worth it or not; making you question whether you have believed the true gospel or not. Maybe this is why Paul turns our attention to suffering in verse fourof our text where he basically says that the Galatians had not suffered in vain.
#3: YOUR SUFFERING WAS NOT IN VAIN (V. 4)
We all need to hear this sometimes: Your suffering is not in vain if you have suffered because of the gospel. It is not a stretch of the imagination to think that the Galatians had suffered the loss of friends and family once they publicly confessed their faith in Christ. One of the most painful things we can endure is the relational division that sometimes accompanies our profession of faith. Relational pain like this can cause us to begin looking for relief even if it means doubling back on what we once believed.
I think this is why Paul asks the Galatians in verse four, “Did you suffer so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain?” I think Paul is asking the Galatians to evaluate their suffering to see if it was useless suffering or if it was profitable suffering. Was their suffering worthwhile or was it foolish? The point obviously is that their suffering was not foolish, and it was worthwhile, and it was profitable because their suffering was a result of hearing the gospel with faith.
We must remember that these words are coming out of the mouth of the man who just said “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20).
What could be more worthwhile than suffering for a perfect Savior who willingly suffered in the place of sinners like you and me? There is nothing vain about that kind of suffering because that kind of suffering reminds us of the God who freely and graciously gives us the eternal life we do not deserve.
#4: GOD IS THE ONE WHO GIVES FREELY & GRACIOUSLY (V. 5)
If the Galatians and we – foolish spellbound people that we can so easily become – ever fall into the trap of thinking that we need to do something to get into God’s good graces (as much of an oxymoronic saying as that is) or if we ever begin to think that we can pursue holiness in our own performance, Paul’s closing words should wake us up from our hypnotic trance when he asks: “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” (v. 5).
The obvious answer here is that our works of the law are useless as it pertains to salvation and sanctification because God is the one who freely and graciously gives us the Spirit who works the miracles of salvation and sanctification. The only thing we can do is to hear with faith, remembering that even the faith we hear with is a gift from God; without Christ as the author and the perfector of our faith, we would not have the ability to hear with faith.
Therefore, the way to continue in this journey of becoming holy, the way to finish this race of following Jesus and becoming more like him, is to continue just like we began. The starting line is the same as the finish line in the Christian faith; we start by hearing with faith, and we end by hearing with faith.
This is where both salvation and sanctification begin and end: hearing with the faith that has been given to you by a good and gracious father who loves you enough to give his one and only Son to be your substitute at a bloody cross, to be your victor in an empty tomb, and to be your hope in the promise of heaven.
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, I do not know if you have ever experienced what it is like to wake up from what seemed like a beautiful dream in your sleep but turned out to be a horrific nightmare once you awoke, or if you have ever come to your senses and realized that you were acting the fool while believing you had your ducks in a row.
Every one of us can probably attest to what it is like to having been under the spell of some kind of belief or dream that promised us something that it could not deliver. While we may have never been under the spell of a human hypnotist, I am certain we all know what it is like to be under the spell of Satan, Sin, and Death; to be deceived into believing that we are worthless, hopeless, and doomed. Those lies – that we are worthless, hopeless, and doomed – are the very ways that our enemy seeks to hypnotize us into becoming fools as we work to earn our salvation or attempt to further our sanctification through our own performance of religious laws.
If you have ever been there, if you are there now, you can break the spell and quit acting the fool if you would look to Christ who was crucified on your behalf. You can break the spell and quit acting the fool if you would remember that it is the Spirit of the living God who saves and sanctifies.
You can break the spell and quit acting the fool if you would remember that your suffering for Jesus is not in vain because he suffered in your place, first. You can break the spell and quit acting the fool if you would remember that God is the one who graciously and freely gives you the Spirit who works the miracles of salvation and sanctification apart from all your performance.
If you and I are guilty of being spellbound fools, running around the room and trying to earn God’s favor and friendship, the way to be set free is to look to the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the hope of Heaven that our crucified, risen, and returning Savior has promised us.
Remember that we have been called to walk according to the Spirit not according to the flesh (Rom. 8). Remember that Christ suffered to bring value to our suffering. Remember that salvation and sanctification come by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to Scripture alone for the glory of God alone. – Amen!!!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Philip, Graham, Ryken, Galatians, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2005), 80 – 83.
3 Todd A., Wilson, Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living, Preaching the Word, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 91 – 93.