
Galatians 3.1-4.
Because humans are selfish, we’d honestly prefer the world work to our satisfaction: We get maximum output with minimal effort, or get freebies and special favor, and who cares whether everybody else does; and if others wrong us, we take it out of ’em sevenfold. But on humanity’s better days, we’re willing to accept
Of course I remind you God’s personal practice, his ideal for his followers,
Problem is, humanity uplifts karma so much, we dismiss grace in its favor. Radical forgiveness is “unrealistic”—is idealism, is bleeding-heart liberalism, is coddling people who will just take advantage of your generosity. (You know, exactly
This is why legalism slips into Christianity so very easily. Once God initially saves us, that’s as much as he does on his end. Everything else is stuff we earn, on our own steam. You want Jesus to grant you a fancier crown
In this way, the gospel begins with God coming near to us to save us… and devolves into us chasing God lest our relationships with him evaporate. They turn into legalism. Happens all the time; even in churches which denounce legalism. Because karma is so embedded in human culture, we fall back on it by default, and wind up teaching it instead of grace.
That’s the answer to Paul’s rhetorical question, “What put a spell on you?” The Galatians had missed the point of good works. They‘re how people live now that we’re saved. Not how we stay in God’s good graces. Not how we guard our salvation, keep our salvation, even earn extra salvation in one of heaven’s higher levels. These ideas are mighty common in Christendom, but run wholly contrary to Jesus’s self-sacrifice, in which he paid for everything. Seriously, everything.
Galatians 3.1-3 KWL - 1 Unthinking Galatians. What put a spell on you?
- Before your very eyes, Christ Jesus was presented as crucified.
- 2 I only want to know this from you: Is the Spirit given to you
- by working the Law, or by hearing and trusting?
- 3 This is why you’re unthinking: You started in the Spirit, and now you finish in the flesh.
- 4 Did you suffer so much for nothing? (Because if you’re right, it’s really for nothing.)
Yeah, a lot of translations like to render verse 1, “You stupid Galatians” or “Oh foolish Galatians.” ’Cause yes, the opposite
Well, like I said: Humanity thinks reciprocity is important, so humans insert reciprocity
How’d you become Christian?
I’m not sure what Paul specifically meant by “Before your very eyes, Christ Jesus was presented as crucified” in verse 1. Before their eyes? Were some of these Galatians
- The Galatians were familiar with crucifixion. The Romans crucified non-Roman criminals all the time; who in their culture hadn’t walked past a line of crosses with gasping, groaning naked victims on them? And at some point, if not many times, if not regularly, a Christian preacher made an object lesson of them: “This is exactly how Christ Jesus died.”
- The church did some kind of passion play. True, the passion play is a medieval invention, but drama is a ancient Greek one, and there’s no reason a church couldn’t have acted out the events of Jesus’s trial and death, and given everyone a good visual reminder of what happened.
- God gave ’em visions. Sometimes he does that, y’know. So enough of them did see Jesus’s death—or more likely
an apocalyptic version of it, which didn’t show everything, but included all the details God wanted them to see.
Or choose your own theory, but something provided the Galatians a clear visual of what Jesus experienced, so Paul expected the Galatians were fully aware of it. And understood what his crucifixion meant: Jesus won us the kingdom. We don’t earn it. We can’t> But he could, and did.
So the Galatians knew the gospel, which is why Paul found it hard to imagine why they’d ditch it to follow legalists. Isn’t the gospel so much better than legalism?
Well, you gotta consider where the Galatians came from. And where we come from.
Most Christians grew up Christian. Myself included. I was baptized as a baby, went to Sunday school and Christian classes since before I can remember, and Mom shared the gospel with me while I was still in preschool. I really don’t remember my pre-Christian days.
So if I were raised in a legalist church (and thank God I wasn’t!) you do realize Paul’s next question to the Galatians would’ve had no effect on me. “Is the Spirit given to you by working the Law, or by hearing and trusting?” The legalists would’ve convinced me the Spirit was given to me by working the Law—or by obeying the rules and customs, both publicly declared and unspoken but understood, which legalist churches set up in place of the Law,
If you ever visit
And yeah,
Likewise if
But I point out: If you don’t have any prior experience with legalism, whether pagan or Christian, it can be a really easy but subtle thing to slide into. Yeah, you might begin with the gospel and freedom… and then people introduce structure and discipline and rules, usually to help us
Even those who do have prior experience with legalism can fall into it. I’ve known Christians who left one cult and fell right into another. They thought the problem with cults is
And yeah, even when they’re introduced to the actual gospel.
It’s why we have to keep returning to the first principles of that gospel. Christ Jesus paid for our salvation. We don’t achieve it with good deeds, strict obedience, orthodox beliefs, or devout practices. We trust he achieved it for us.
That’s why we repeat this idea a lot, and need to keep repeating it. And not let the definition of “faith” drift around into weird interpretations. Like
So when our religions include legalism, of course that’s gotta go. Even if we figure it helped us get more self-disciplined when we were new at this Christianity stuff, we gotta realize it’s holding us back way more than helping. It’s killing off our grace. It’s driving away people who were hurt by legalists. It’s not how God’s kingdom works at all. It’s life in chains. Break it off.