- Paul challenges the Galatians because they have been deceived by false teaching, by reminding them of the their experiences when they came to know Jesus. He asks them six questions- interrogating their decisions and thoughts.
- Who has bewitched you? Paul uses pagan magic language here to emphasize their foolish naiveness.
- Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Paul is asking them did God give you the Holy Spirit because you were so diligent in obeying the law or because you heard the gospel and believed?
- Are you so foolish? If someone asked you this question, wouldn't you be second guessing whatever it was that they were calling foolishness? I would!
- Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? When the Holy Spirit enters a man after receiving Jesus, transformation starts taking place. Our eyes are opened to the sin in our life and the Spirit begins perfecting us to be more like Jesus Christ. The transformation that occurs, can only be credited to the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Did you suffer so many things in vain- if indeed it was in vain? Paul, I believe, is referring to the persecution and suffering experienced by those who follow Jesus, and asked them if they went through these experiences for nothing Who would endure hardship on account of something that wasn't that important to them? Paul, I think, is asking them to remember their loyalty to Jesus when they endured persecution and suffering.
- 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? Similar to question two, would the Spirit of God continue doing miracles among them based on their obedience to the law alone? He gives the example of Abraham, who followed the law, but it was because of his faith that he was called righteous.
- In verse 11, Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, "The righteous shall live by faith," and declares that the law is not of faith. But that people who follow the law are bound to it. You don't follow a rule because you have faith, but because it's a rule! Jesus came to release us from the law so that we might have freedom in Him. If we could obtain justification and eternal life based on our obedience to the law, then Jesus didn't have to die. But we can't be saved through our obedience to the law- it is based on faith in Jesus.
- In verse 19, Paul goes on to explain the reason the law was made in the first place if it has no impact on God's plan with Jesus. According to my study notes, although there were other possible reasons made by theologians, Paul leaned on the thought that, through the law comes knowledge of sin, and it reveals the wickedness in people's hearts and shows them a need for savior.
- As a reminder again to the Galatians that both Jews and Gentiles were able to accept Jesus as their Savior, he says in verse 26, For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. Continuing in verse 28...There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- 02-09-12
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