Who Has Bewitched You

Paul confronts the Galatian churches for abandoning the gospel of grace for law-keeping, calling them bewitched: "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you...?" (Galatians 3:1, NKJV). He argues from their own experience and from Abraham that the Spirit and righteousness come "by the hearing of faith" (Galatians 3:2, NKJV), not by works. The passage establishes that justification by faith alone is God's consistent way of saving sinners, Jew and Gentile alike.

The word pictures the Galatians as victims of a spell, blinded against the plain truth they had clearly seen. False teachers, the Judaizers, had drawn them away from the cross. Paul marvels because Christ "was clearly portrayed among you as crucified" (Galatians 3:1, NKJV). To add law-keeping to that finished work is not progress but a deception that obscures the sufficiency of Christ's death.

By faith. Paul drives this home with a question they could answer from their own conversion: "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2, NKJV). They received the Spirit when they believed the gospel, before any law-keeping. The Spirit's presence is proof that God justifies and indwells sinners on the ground of faith in Christ, not human performance.

Paul exposes the absurdity of their drift: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3, NKJV). The Christian life starts by grace through the Spirit, and it is completed the same way. To begin in grace and then seek to mature by law-keeping reverses the gospel. Reformed teaching insists sanctification, like justification, flows from union with Christ, never from confidence in the flesh.

Abraham is the test case that proves justification by faith predates the law of Moses. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6: Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Galatians 3:6, NKJV). Righteousness was credited to Abraham by faith, not earned by works. John Calvin stressed that God justifies the same way in every age. Abraham was saved by faith centuries before Sinai, just as believers are today.

True children of Abraham are defined by faith, not bloodline or law-keeping: "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7, NKJV). Paul says the gospel was preached to Abraham beforehand in the promise that "in you all the nations shall be blessed" (Galatians 3:8, NKJV). Gentiles who believe are heirs of that promise. This is covenant continuity: one people of God, justified by faith in every era.

Paul rules out law-keeping as a ground of acceptance: "no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith'" (Galatians 3:11, NKJV). Justification is God declaring the believing sinner righteous on the basis of Christ's work received by faith. The Westminster Confession (11.1) teaches God justifies by imputing Christ's righteousness, received by faith alone, which is the alone instrument of justification.

The Judaizers taught that Gentile believers must add the works of the law, including circumcision, to faith in Christ to be fully accepted by God. Paul treats this "faith plus works" formula as a different gospel that nullifies grace. Martin Luther saw Galatians as the great charter of justification, insisting that any addition to faith alone destroys the gospel. The Reformation answer is faith plus nothing.

Yes. The pull to base acceptance with God on personal performance is perennial. Whenever believers measure their standing by religious effort rather than Christ's finished work, they repeat the Galatian error. Paul's question still searches the church: did you begin by grace only to seek perfection "by the flesh" (Galatians 3:3, NKJV)? The remedy is to keep returning to Christ "clearly portrayed... as crucified" (Galatians 3:1, NKJV).

Because justification by faith alone is the gospel itself; to lose it is to lose salvation. Dr. Holt frames Galatians 3 around "faith plus nothing," anchored in the truth that "the just shall live by faith" (Galatians 3:11, NKJV). The Reformers, following Paul, held this as the article on which the church stands or falls. R.C. Sproul taught that sola fide is essential, not optional, to authentic Christianity.