THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 3:1-5
AN UNASSAILABLE QUESTION

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THE APOSTLE Paul is writing this letter to the Galatians in order to put right the error which had crept into the church in Galatia. The church in every age has to be constantly watchful against error creeping in because the devil is constantly active to destroy God's work in his church. Perhaps the most common error, though it shows itself in different ways at different times, is the error which Paul is combating in Galatia, which is the tendency of the human heart to return to works of some kind that we do in order obtain or retain the favour of God. This error shows itself in all sorts of different ways even today, and the error is made more difficult to detect because it usually develops where there is a great desire for the deepest blessings of God and for greater manifestation of the power and blessing of God. Because of this when there is a move to correct the error it is resisted as unspiritual.

Before we know the Gospel and believe it, we are certain that if we are to know God's acceptance and love we must merit it by keeping of his law and by our works of charity and goodness. Even when we have believed the Gospel that only the works of Jesus for us, and excluding all works of our own, alone saves us and brings us into God's favour, there is still the tendency to believe the devil's lie that we can loose God's acceptance by our sins and failings, and that to keep God's favour we have to be good and merit it.

The problem is complicated because we are never satisfied with the progress of our Christian lives. We constantly grieve that we sin and long for holiness. We long for greater power to show the glory of God and relieve the suffering in the world, so we long for the ability to do miracles or succeed in helping people. We long for a deeper and more satisfying communion with God, and yearn for that deeper spiritual experience of God, which as yet we do not seem to possess, and we are frustrated at the fluctuation of our spiritual experience. Because of all this normal spiritual experience of the Christian, we are so vulnerable to any new teaching or emphasis which seems to offer the secret of raising us to a higher level, in all, or some of these areas of our spiritual life. As far as the Galatians were concerned this was seen in people telling them that it was alright to believe the Gospel, but for mature growth and deeper blessings they needed to add the works of the Jewish system to their living.

Paul is at pains to point out that this lie of the devil is always false, and to emphasise that it is only in the doing and dying of the Saviour for us, and sole trust in his merits, that we gain favour with God and progress into all the blessings of that favour. The answer to the hunger within us for more holiness, greater power, and deeper communion with God, is not turning to our own doing, but entering more into the glory of what the Saviour has won for us, and dwelling more deeply in the blessings that come thereby.

As Paul tackles this problem in Galatia he starts his campaign by making appeal to their experience in becoming a Christian and since. He puts to them an unassailable question which is found in verse 2 - "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard."

CHRIST PORTRAYED CRUCIFIED

Firstly, by this question, Paul presses upon us the fact that true spiritual blessings can come in no other way than in believing in the work of Jesus for us. We have this truth expressed in the statement of verse 1 - "Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified". Paul appeals to their experience - their spiritual understanding they had received, and the spiritual experience they had enjoyed.

We can't suppose that Paul means by these words that the Galatians saw Jesus crucified in a physical sense. The physical crucifixion of Jesus was a once for all event that was complete and is never to be repeated. Indeed its perfection means that it does not need to be repeated. What then does Paul mean by Jesus being portrayed as crucified before them.

Plainly in the first instant it refers to the clear preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified that Paul engaged in in Galatia, which was the means by which the Christians there believed and were saved. It was the understanding given to these Christians into the fact and the meaning of the cross, which was a revelation that God, through this work of the Lord Jesus in dying, provides all that they needed for their sins to be forgiven and for them to know God and dwell in his love. It was a revelation that in love, Jesus had died for them, and suffered death and hell for them, and released them from their sins, their guilt, and their punishment due for sin forever. It was a very powerful seeing with their minds - the seeing of the cross and its meaning for them, which had been the means whereby they had put their trust in the Saviour.

This is an essential part of the conversion experience, this dawning of real understanding of deliverance in Jesus. It is an experience of development of understanding that goes on throughout our lives here on earth, as we enter more deeply into the knowledge of what Jesus did for us on the cross. We see it at conversion, and more clearly as we progress in the Christian life, that the work of Jesus for us is our sole source of every spiritual blessing, and the event from which we enter more deeply into spiritual blessing and communion with God.

Also the meaning of this phrase that Jesus was portrayed as crucified before them is a description of the effect the cross had in their lives and experience. The blessings Christ won were very evidently felt in the hearts and souls of those who believed in Galatia. They had felt the peace with God which passes all understanding. They felt the lifting of guilt and the washing away of all their sins. They felt the presence of God loving them and drawing near to them. They had a new spiritual vision which opened up new feelings and desires after holiness and God which they had not known before. Jesus and his crucifixion had plainly been portrayed in their minds and their experience. It was something that they could not deny. However limited our understanding at conversion may be, and whatever the limitations of our experience, there is always something of this seeing of Jesus crucified for us which ravishes our souls, and testifies to the genuineness of our experience. Paul points to this first in his argument to bring the Galatian Christians to their senses.

THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT

Then Paul appeals to the evident gift of the Holy Spirit that the Galatians received. They had received the Spirit. It is plain that Paul is referring particularly to the special manifestation of the coming of the Spirit upon people in New Testament times, which was a special endowment of the gifts of the Spirit such as the gift of healing and the ability to speak in tongues and to prophecy. This was a visible evidence of the presence of the Spirit. This seems to be the case because he speaks of miracles worked amongst the Galatian church in verse 5. However the fact the Paul just speaks of receiving the Spirit in verse 2, without mentioning the outward manifestations of the Spirit's presence, plainly shows that he is thinking of the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit to dwell within the believer which Jesus speaks so clearly and eloquently in John 14 to 16.

The truth that Paul is pressing upon the Galatians and upon us is this that the indwelling of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, are given to all believers when they believe, and can only be received through faith in the doing and dying of the Saviour for us. If we seek them in some other way, so adding to the Gospel, or taking away from the Gospel by denying the unique power of the Gospel, then, if we seem to be receiving blessing, it does not come from God but from the devil. Paul plainly indicates in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 that speaking in tongues, prophecy and gift of knowledge, faith to move mountains, and ability to be martyrs for the cause, all can be spurious and not from God, if they are not issuing from love, created in us by the experience of God loving us in Christ.

In verse 3 Paul tells the Galatians they began in the Spirit, and implies that turning to works is to renounce the Spirit in their lives. He implies this by pointing out that works are inferior because they are from human means, and not divine.

The Spirit is only received as we believe the Gospel heard, that Christ died for sinners, and when we are freely and completely reconciled with God through him. Being restored permanently in this way to fellowship with God, all the blessings of the family of God are naturally ours. To return in anyway to our own effort or doing in any form, is unnecessary as we have all blessing in Jesus and through faith in him.

THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED

The problem, which I have hinted at earlier is in our desire for the best in our spiritual lives. When we see so little apparent progress in different areas, we long for greater blessing, and wonder whether there is more in the Christian Life than we have yet understood. We are ripe then for being bewitched.

This word bewitched in verse one is a very descriptive word. It describes very accurately what was happening in Galatia, and in the church when Christians add some human activity to the faith. The activity can be more discipline, or some rule of faith as in medieval times. It can be some active stages to spiritual activity which are said to be the secret of power or holiness. It can be some special activity in believing where we actively try to believe more and work at this believing. It can be as subtle as these or even more subtle, and have a cloak of great spirituality. Because of this the Christian is like a bewitched person. They see this new approach as the answer they had been looking for and which will revolutionise their lives and transport them into to a much higher spiritual plain. Thus people have claimed complete holiness and the stopping of sinning. Others have claimed that they have a closeness with God that is far greater than ever before. To persuade these people that in some way they have gone astray is almost impossible, as Paul found in Galatia.

The problem is more complicated by the fact that when we are doing in our spiritual lives in some way, we feel that we are making things happen. When we are resting on the doing of Jesus for us, seeking to avail ourselves of the fellowship with God through Christ which is our privilege, then because we are not part of the doing, we tend to feel that nothing is happening. Paul tells us in these five verses in Galatians 3 that everything is in fact happening, because we receive the Spirit, and all the blessings which the Spirit gives, by the hearing of faith.

Paul indicates in verse three something of the reason that causes people to turn to some works over and above faith in Jesus. He speaks of people with goals, who are pressing towards spiritual goals. These are the sort of Christians which are most prone to be bewitched, because they are always looking for new ways of realising their goal. They want to be the best they can for God and for Jesus. They want to be those who have a fruitful ministry. They feel so strongly their own poverty of experience when they hear or see other believers seeming to have such fruitful ministries. What we don't realise is that when people speak of their spiritual experiences or the way blessing has come in their lives, they are speaking of something that can't be verified by anyone else. We always talk about the positive more than the negative. When we talk about experience there is no means of judging whether that experience is really so much greater and better than our own.

LIVING IN THE GOSPEL

How do we live in the Gospel and so avoid being seduced by what seems to be a better and more fruitful way? First of all we need to understand that all the blessings of God are found in Christ alone and in faith in him. There is nothing that we do not possess in Christ by faith. We have all blessing already even though we may feel we have not, and the means of entering into them is by faith.

We need to remember what the Christian life is first and foremost. What it is is the experience of eternal life or the possession of eternal life. Eternal Life is being restored to the favour and fellowship with God so that we can enter into the purpose of our creation, which is know God and enjoy him forever.

Living in the Gospel first and foremost is not seeking blessings or successful ministry, but dwelling in fellowship with God and realising his love and gracious presence. This is always ours in the Gospel. We enter the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, and that entrance is open to us all the time. However we feel, we can come into the presence of God as we believe the Gospel that Jesus has brought us into peace with God and has gained us the friendship of God. As we seek to come into God's presence by faith in God's Word and through prayer, we enter the presence of God, and we will find God speaking to us in his Word, and our prayers become real communion with the Lord.

It is out of this activity that we find ourselves to be blest by God by the Spirit. God's purpose for our lives will unfold naturally before us, and we shall find a purpose and contentment which is real. We will be released from striving or of looking at others with longing. We shall just be able to rejoice in what God is doing in their lives and through them.

CONCLUSION

The answer to all our spiritual longings and aspirations, hopes and fears, is returning to the doing and dying of Jesus for us and all that it means for us in bringing us into fellowship with God. As we return to God like this we enter into the presence of God afresh and our blessing is full.