Walking Through The Epistles: Galatians 3 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Passage: Galatians 3:1-10, 13

Galatians 3:1-10 — Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you — does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness — therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them."

Galatians 3:13 — Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

The Theological Meaning of "Foolish"

The Greek word for "foolish" in Galatians 3:1 is anoetos — without mental agreement. It is translated elsewhere as unwise or unintelligent. But this is not a comment on IQ. It is a theological statement.

Wisdom can be understood in several layers:

• Ability to discern value — to pick the superior over the inferior. If sin is inferior, it is wisdom to walk in righteousness. It takes a level of foolishness to pick something you know will make you feel bad and still go and do it. Obeying God is therefore a wise choice, because if God — who is alpha and omega, who has seen the end from the beginning, who gave his own Son for you — is telling you something, it takes foolishness not to listen. Your tomorrow is his yesterday.
• Ability to identify foolishness and abstain — not just knowing something is wrong, but separating from it. A major sign of foolishness is that people cannot be talked out of a decision by information alone. They only learn by experience, not from experience. If it hasn't happened to them, it's not a reality.
• Valuing God's word above everything — Jesus is the word of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and that fear is proportional to understanding his word. Wisdom therefore is the application of what is known.

Knowledge alone is not enough. Understanding produces application. The understanding that God wants your best, that God loves you, that if you leave God the devil is not better — that understanding is what makes you act wisely.

You will stop sinning when you understand why God said not to sin. There are two reasons for gates — restriction, or protection from thieves. It depends on how you see it. The word of God is powerful enough to change you. You cannot do the Christian life by strong-willed determination. "I will never do it again" is itself sin-consciousness, and it is what you amplify that you do. The Spirit is there to guide and lead you.

Paul Is Making a Theological Statement, Not Giving an Insult

When Paul says "oh foolish Galatians," knowledge is present. You cannot call somebody a fool unless there is a presence of knowledge. Foolishness is when knowledge is present and you are doing the wrong thing by choice. Paul is saying: knowledge is present but not being used. They are mentally disengaged from what was already revealed.

Look at how the same word is used in Luke 24:25 — Jesus said, "Oh fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?" What was he talking about? Believing in the Christ and his resurrection — the finished works of redemption.

In Deuteronomy 32:6 — "Do you thus deal with the Lord, oh foolish and unwise people? Is he not your father who redeemed you?" The Hebrew word for bought there is gaal — to redeem. The word foolish in that context is embedded in the story of God's redemption of his people. In every occurrence:

• Luke 24 — foolishness in the context of believing in the Christ who came to redeem.
• Deuteronomy 32 — foolishness in the context of forgetting the God who redeemed them.
• Galatians 3 — foolishness in the context of not holding fast to the gospel of grace.

The pattern is consistent: foolish in scripture is always used in the context of soteriology and unbelief. A fool to God is someone not in faith. To be foolish is to relegate the finished works of Christ. Psalm 14:1 — the fool says in his heart there is no God.

Bewitchment: What It Actually Means

The word bewitched in Galatians 3:1 is baskaino in Greek — to malign, to speak evil of another, to defame, to slander, to fascinate or to provide false representation. It means to speak evil of someone, to slander, to defame, or to exercise a kind of harmful enchantment through false portrayal.

This is why gossip is witchcraft in diapers. When you check the Greek word for witchcraft, you discover that a gossip is exactly what they are doing: speaking evil of another, defaming, providing false representation. And when the gospel of grace is misrepresented — when someone tells the Galatians that grace is not enough, that you must add law-keeping — they are bewitching. They are maligning the gospel. They are providing false representation of what Christ has done.

In Galatians 3:5, the evidence is clear: the Spirit is being supplied among them, miracles are being worked among them. They have evidence. Yet they are being pulled back. Who has caused you to disengage mentally from what was already revealed to you?

Faith vs. Works of the Law

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? The answer is obvious. Everything that has happened among them — the supply of the Spirit, the miracles, the transformation — none of it came through law-keeping. It came through faith. And yet they are now being pulled back toward performance.

The curse Paul refers to in Galatians 3:10 is the curse of the law — the burden and weight of a system that demands total compliance. Christ has redeemed us from that curse. He became a curse for us. This is why when people argue about whether curses can work, it is a misappropriation of scripture — the curse Paul is addressing is the curse of the law, not a generalized curse-power floating in the air. The deeper redemption is from the system of performance-based acceptance.

Habakkuk 2:4 — the just shall live by faith. The vision in Habakkuk 2 is not your personal vision-board; the vision is Christ, accessed by faith. The law is not of faith; it says the man who does them shall live by them. But Christ redeemed us from that, so we can live not by performance but by believing.