You Can't Attain Perfection By Human Effort

Galatians 3:1-14

INTRODUCTION

Paul's letter to the Galatians is issue oriented. It's a very practical letter, but it is aimed at a nasty problem that had disturbed the unity of the Galatian churches. The first two chapters make it clear that the gospel was being undermined by teachers who led the people to believe that Gentiles must be forced to subjugate themselves to the law of Moses in order to be Christians in good standing with God. Paul considered that a reprehensible point of view. The Galatian letter is - at one level - a refutation of the teachings that had recently been popularized in Galatia.

In the first two chapters, Paul basically defended his right to challenge the things that were being taught. In the middle two chapters, Paul presented a well reasoned, logical rebuttal to the premise that one can be saved as the result of keeping the law. The specific point of application is the inability of the law of Moses to save people from their sins, but in a larger sense, he renounces all legalism and the premise that people are saved through their own effort. This letter is not just a historical record of church troubles in Galatia. It has pointed application to the lives we live in the here and now.

In chapters 3 and 4, Paul organized his thought around the theme of justification for four different perspectives

1. The perspective of experience (verses 1-5).
2. The perspective of scripture (verse 11-14).
3. The perspective of logic (verses 15-29).
4. The perspective of history (chapter 4).

This presentation will involve the first two perspectives.

THE PERSPECTIVE OF EXPERIENCE

I choose to call Paul's first approach to the discussion, "the perspective of experience" because Paul sought to persuade his readers on the basis of what they had experienced in their walk with Christ.

What they were experiencing at that moment was not good. In verse 1, he expressed his exasperation at the things that were taking place. "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?" What happens when people are bewitched? Normally, we tend to associate that term with the occult. That's not exactly what it means here. It's a term that refers to winning another person over to your point of view through charm and pretended praise. Translated into our contemporary language, Paul might have said, "Why did you let these people do a snow job on you?"

In Romans 16:18, Paul described people who influence peddlers, who ". . . by smooth talk and flattery . . . deceive the minds of naive people." The Galatians had been fascinated with the rhetoric they heard. The Galatians were good people, noble people, loving people. They had responded to the love of Christ, but someone had diverted their attention and their relationship with God was now in jeopardy as a result, so Paul reminded them of their positive experience with the gospel.

The experience of receiving the gospel. "Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified." Notice how he cut through the veneer of sophisticated rationalization and came back to their fundamental response to Christ. Jesus had been "portrayed" to them - boldly, understandably and clearly presented. There had been no hidden agenda, no fine print, no smooth talking - just a straight-from-the-shoulder proclamation of the gospel in plain language. The Galatians could not plead ignorance. Their experience was so open-and-closed, why was there now a fascination with something else?

The experience of the Holy Spirit. He asked them this question, "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? There was no question about the fact they had received the Holy Spirit. The issue was not debatable. Who receives the Holy Spirit? According to Acts 2:38, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes in response to repentance and baptism. When Paul speaks here about the reception of the Spirit in response to faith in Ephesians, he includes what Peter talked about in Acts 2:38. We'll have more to say on that later.

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