Gospel Amnesia Text: Galatians 3:1-5
Introduction: The Bewitching Hour
There is a kind of spiritual insanity that can afflict a church, a sort of collective amnesia that makes them forget the most basic, foundational truths of their salvation. This is what had happened to the churches in Galatia. They were not drifting into some minor doctrinal error or quibbling over secondary matters. They were on the verge of abandoning the gospel itself. Paul does not write to them as a gentle counselor, offering mild suggestions. He writes as an astonished and indignant apostle, a spiritual father watching his children run back into a burning building they were just rescued from. He asks them, "Who bewitched you?"
This is not a rhetorical flourish. The word means to cast a spell, to charm, to delude with an evil eye. The Galatians were acting like men under a demonic enchantment. They had seen the truth with startling clarity, and now they were turning away from it as though it were a mirage. What was this truth? It was Christ crucified, publicly placarded before their eyes. The gospel is not a set of abstract principles; it is a bloody, historical event. It is a person, Jesus Christ, executed on a Roman cross for the sins of His people. This is the center of everything. And the Judaizers, those peddlers of a compromised gospel, were trying to cover up this glorious, grisly signpost with a thicket of rules, regulations, and religious resume-building.
They were offering a gospel-plus plan. "Yes, Jesus is wonderful," they would say, "but if you want to be truly complete, truly secure, you must add your circumcision, your dietary laws, your calendar observances." This is the oldest lie in the book, the primordial hiss of the serpent: "Did God really say?" Did God really say that the cross was enough? This is the battle for the gospel in every generation. The temptation is always to add something to the finished work of Christ, to bring our own contribution to the table, to sneak a little bit of the flesh back into the driver's seat. And Paul's response is to grab the Galatians by the lapels and shake them. He asks a series of rapid-fire, unanswerable questions designed to shatter their delusion and bring them back to their senses.
The Text
O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things for nothing, if indeed it was for nothing? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
(Galatians 3:1-5 LSB)
The Un-Bewitching (v. 1)
We begin with Paul's incredulous outburst:
"O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?" (Galatians 3:1)
Paul calls them foolish, not because they are unintelligent, but because they are spiritually senseless. They are acting contrary to the foundational reality upon which their lives were rebuilt. The antidote to this bewitching is not a secret incantation; it is a clear vision of the cross. The gospel Paul preached was not a whisper; it was a public portrayal. The Greek word here is for a public notice, a placard, a billboard. Paul had painted a picture of Christ's crucifixion for them in his preaching that was so vivid, so clear, it was as if they had been standing at Golgotha themselves.
This is the central business of all true preaching. It is to placard Christ crucified before the eyes of the people. The cross is not one doctrine among many; it is the hub from which all other doctrines radiate. It is the declaration that our efforts are worthless, that our righteousness is as filthy rags, and that our only hope is in the substitutionary death of another. The Judaizers were trying to get the Galatians to look away from this gruesome, glorious billboard and to look instead at themselves, at their own performance, at their own flesh. But any gospel that directs your gaze inward for assurance is a false gospel. The gospel directs your gaze outward and upward, to a crucified and risen Savior. The only cure for the evil eye of legalism is to fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, publicly portrayed as crucified.
The Foundational Experience (v. 2)
Paul then pins them down with a question about their own conversion, a reality they cannot deny.
"This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:2 LSB)
This is a devastatingly simple appeal to their own experience. "Just tell me this one thing. How did it all start for you?" The reception of the Holy Spirit is the definitive mark of a Christian. It is the personal application of Christ's work, the down payment of our inheritance. So, Paul asks, how did that happen? Did you get the Spirit by meticulously checking off boxes on a legal to-do list? Did you earn His presence through your own striving? Or did He come upon you when you heard the gospel message and believed it?
The answer is obvious, and they knew it. The Spirit came by the "hearing with faith." This is not a passive hearing, like listening to the radio in the background. It is an obedient hearing, a hearing that receives and rests upon the promise. Faith is not a work. Faith is the empty hand that receives the free gift. It is the opposite of works. Works says, "I do, therefore I am accepted." Faith says, "Christ has done, therefore I am accepted." The Galatians had experienced this grace. The Spirit had regenerated them, indwelt them, and sealed them, all through the channel of faith alone, apart from any work of the law. For them to now turn back to the law was to deny the very foundation of their Christian lives.
The Illogic of the Flesh (v. 3)
Paul presses the point, exposing the sheer irrationality of their new direction.
"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3 LSB)
This is the logic of the downgrade. If the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit was necessary to begin your Christian life, what makes you think you can complete it, or perfect it, through the lesser, impotent power of your own fleshly efforts? It is like being rescued from the ocean by a helicopter and then, once safely in the cabin, announcing that you intend to finish the journey by jumping back into the water to swim the rest of the way.
The "flesh" here does not simply mean our physical bodies. It refers to man's fallen nature, his unregenerate capacities, his self-reliance. The Judaizers were peddling a fleshly religion. It was a religion of human achievement, of external compliance, of things that could be measured and boasted in. But the Christian life, from start to finish, is a work of the Spirit. We are born of the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit, we are sanctified by the Spirit, and we will be glorified by the Spirit. To begin in the Spirit and then seek perfection in the flesh is to trade the engine for the ornament. It is to abandon the divine power that saves for the human effort that damns.
Suffering for Nothing? (v. 4-5)
Paul then reminds them of the cost of their initial commitment and ties it all together with a concluding question.
"Did you suffer so many things for nothing, if indeed it was for nothing? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:4-5 LSB)
When the Galatians first embraced the gospel of grace, they likely faced opposition. The gospel of grace is offensive. It tells the religious man his righteousness is worthless and the immoral man his sin is damnable apart from Christ. It creates conflict. They had suffered for this message. Was all that for nothing? If they abandon the gospel of grace for a gospel of works, then their previous suffering was pointless. Paul adds the phrase "if indeed it was for nothing" as a pastoral hook, holding out the hope that they will repent and that their suffering will not have been in vain.
He concludes by restating the central question from verse 2, but with a present tense emphasis. He points to the ongoing work of God among them. God is the one who "provides" or "supplies" the Spirit. This is a continuous action. God is the one who "works miracles" among them. This refers to the manifest power of the Spirit in their midst. How does this happen? On what basis does God pour out His Spirit and power? Is it because you are keeping the law? Is it because of your religious performance? Or is it on the basis of hearing with faith?
Again, the answer is self-evident. God's power and presence are not unlocked by human effort. They are gifts received by faith in the gospel promise. The Christian life is a life of continual dependence on God's provision, received through the same channel by which it began: faith. To turn to the works of the law is to turn off the spigot of divine grace and power.
Conclusion: The Ongoing Battle
This passage is not simply a historical reprimand to a few churches in Asia Minor. It is a timeless warning for the church in every age. The bewitching spell of legalism is always a threat. It can be crude, as it was with the Judaizers, demanding external rituals. Or it can be subtle, creeping into our hearts as a nagging sense that we need to do more to secure God's favor, that our acceptance is based on our performance this week.
The only way to break this spell is to do what Paul urges the Galatians to do. First, look again at the cross. See Christ placarded there for you. See the finality of His sacrifice. The cross declares that the work is finished. There is nothing to add. Second, remember how you began. You began not by doing, but by believing. You received the Spirit by hearing with faith. The Christian life is not a graduation from grace to works; it is a deepening education in grace, lived out by faith.
Therefore, we must be ruthless in rooting out every form of self-righteousness. We must confess that our best efforts are tainted with sin and that our only hope, from first to last, is the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us by faith. The Spirit was not given as a starter pack, leaving us to assemble the rest on our own. He is the ever-present, all-sufficient power for our entire Christian walk. We began by faith, we stand by faith, and we will finish by faith, all to the glory of God alone.