Have you ever been duped into believing something, only to find out later it wasn’t true? Sometimes this happens and it is just a minor inconvenience or slight embarrassment. For example, a small financial investment that doesn’t pan out because what you were promised isn’t real. However, sometimes the consequences of being duped are huge, as if someone put a hex on you!
We are jumping back into Galatians this week in chapter 3. Paul is so outraged with the people of Galatia he calls them foolish. He is saying, “my dear idiots, don’t be so stupid.”3 Then he asks who bewitched them, as if putting a hex on them. They clearly and graphically saw Jesus Christ portrayed as if they were seeing the crucifixion with their own eyes and then received the Holy Spirit as confirmation of their faith.1 If they received by faith the very presence of God in the form of His Spirit, Paul finds it ludicrously illogical for them to think for even a second they needed to start working their heads off to keep their faith. Only crazy people think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.2 John Stott says this amounts to spiritual treason.3
A Personal Example
If I am being honest, I am kind of like that? Even if I did not believe I had to do anything to earn my salvation, I still kind of thought I had to keep God’s good favor by doing good things. And if I did said good things, He owed me. If I was keeping up my part of the deal, God should bless me accordingly. That’s what satan does. He charms us with false promises as if casting a spell or putting a hex on us. You can probably guess when this erroneous notion came crashing down all around me.
I sometimes fear if I keep sharing my suffering it may communicate that I am not progressing in my grief journey. The truth is God has delivered me from the pit of despair, but the great loss is still the thing that has impacted me more than anything else. You can insert your own means of suffering here. We all have stories. This is mine.
When my beautiful firstborn child was taken away, I cried out to my Lord and my God, begging Him to let me keep him, begging Him for favor. I did everything right. I did not deserve this. I loved God. I obeyed Him. I served Him. I raised my children to do the same. I was the best wife, mother, nurse, daughter, sister, and friend I knew how to be. I gave God all the credit. I knew I was nothing without Him. My faith was strong….until it wasn’t. And maybe, I subconsciously thought God owed me something in exchange. And there’s the lie -that God owed me something in exchange for my good deeds and that He didn’t love me if He was willing to do something so painfully devastating.
God has been faithful to help me work through these lies and replace them with Truth. And that is what Paul is doing with the Galatians.
The OT example of Father Abraham.
Abraham is a central figure in God’s faith plan. Not because of anything Abraham did, but because of what God chose to do through him. In Genesis 12, we read that Abram (his name is Abram until chapter 17) is a pagan settler when God called him to leave his country and go to a land He would show him. God said He would make of him a great nation, and bless him, and make his name great…and through him all of the nations of the earth would be blessed.4 As Abram shows a little faith through his obedience, God reveals a little more. This keeps happening for a few chapters, during which Abram gets it wrong a lot of the time. But then in Genesis 15:6, Abram believed God, and it (his faith) was counted to him as righteousness. God had been drawing Abram to Himself and at this point in time, the act of his belief was placed to his account as a credit that showed he was in right standing before God.5
It is so important for Paul to show the Gentile Galatians that God had it all laid out beforehand. They do not have to be under satan’s hex of lies. It was God’s kind intention to raise up a nation through Abraham that would show all nations what it looked like to be blessed as children of God. It was always God’s plan for all nations to be a part of God’s faith family. Anyone who came to Him by faith would be justified -declared right before God. The spiritual offspring of Abraham are not the Judaizers who try to preach a gospel of works but those who come to God by faith.
What Now?
Please join me in replacing the hex of lies with Truth. The Message says only crazy people think they can complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.2 My life in Christ began when I heard the plain and simple Truth of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit empowered me to believe. Anything I do now that is worth anything is because of His Presence working in and through me, so that He receives all the glory. I suffered a great loss that had me in a pit of despair. But God didn’t leave me there. He picked me up out of the pit, set my feet on a solid rock, and then put a new song in my heart, a song of praise I sing to Him. It is my prayer that many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.6
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by[a] the flesh? 4 Did you suffer[b] so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 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— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify[c] the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968.
Genesis 12:1-3
Amplified Bible. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation. Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Love your blog. It is very interesting to compare Paul’s words to the Galations to you and the people of faith today. Satan is clever in that he puts doubt in our minds. You suffered one of the greatest losses a mother will ever face. But God, in His mercy and grace brought you through it. Thank you for reminding us that God is always there. Love you honey.
Love your blog. It is very interesting to compare Paul’s words to the Galations to you and the people of faith today. Satan is clever in that he puts doubt in our minds. You suffered one of the greatest losses a mother will ever face. But God, in His mercy and grace brought you through it. Thank you for reminding us that God is always there. Love you honey.
Thanks mom. I love you.