Clothed With Christ 

Galatians 3:1-9

4 Groups in Early Church Communities:

• Jewish Christ-followers observing the Torah

• Jewish Christ-followers not observing the Torah

• Gentile Christ-followers not observing the Torah

• Gentile Christ-followers who might observe the Torah

Galatians 1:1-4 CSB

Galatians 1:4-5 The Message

We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue. Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

Galatians 1:6-10

Paul understands how deeply tempting it can be to turn back to a more familiar, comfortable version of faith—one that demands less but feels safer.

Galatians 2:19-3:6

Galatians 3:1-6 The Message

3 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, workingthings in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

Paul's Questions in Galatians 3

• Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 

• Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 

• Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 

• Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact, it was for nothing?

• ...does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law?

Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 

• This is a question of proportion.

• The cross of Christ is the central event to which all other events are subordinate.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?  

• This question puts us in touch with our own experience.

• The primary experience is faith, the basic trust that God is for us and shares his life with us.  

Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 

• This question puts in touch with common sense.  

• Only as we remain rooted in the gospel can we apply the great truths of love and forgiveness and grace to everyday affairs.

Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact, it was for nothing?

• This is a question of values.

• If we lose touch with our values, we are at the mercy of every seduction, every inducement, every claim on our money, our energy, our time. 

...does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law?

This question puts in touch with God.

God is an overflowing source of blessing—He supplies us abundantly in every way.

When we lose touch with God’s abundance, we lose our way.

Apart from the reality of God’s grace, we live clumsily—grasping, fearing, faltering. But Paul urges us to stay rooted in the truth of the gospel so that we live with holy abandon: freely trusting, freely hoping, and freely loving.