Galatians 3:1-5 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Galatians 3:1-5. Let’s go!
Galatians 3:1-5 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing–if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
What is the most common false teaching that billions of people believe about God and heaven? It’s believing that through your own goodness or effort you can go to heaven or reach God. That’s what Paul was warning the Galatians against in his letter called “Galatians”.
Galatians 3:3 (NIV)
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
The Christians in the region of Galatia had placed their faith in Jesus previously, but were being duped now into thinking it wasn’t enough to believe in Jesus in order to be saved and forgiven of your sins. They were becoming increasingly influenced by a group called the Judaizers. The Judaizers were an unhealthy Jewish sect who taught that in order to be saved you needed not only to believe in Jesus but also to follow Jewish customs like circumcision. Since this teaching goes against the very heart of the Gospel, the goal of Paul’s letter in Galatians was to warn the Christians in Galatia about believing in a heresy (false teaching). That’s why Paul asks them in verse 2-3:
Galatians 3:2-3 (NIV)
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
I don’t personally know anyone today who believes the exact same heresy that the Galatian churches believed. You don’t see people holding up posters saying “Be circumcised or go to hell”. But in a broader sense, billions of people today make the same mistake the Galatian Christians made, duped into thinking that they can be saved by their own human effort.
For example, here are some clues that you’ve made the same mistake that the Galatians made:
Clue 1: You think that the reason why God lets someone into heaven is because they were a “good person”. Truth: The Bible says that “no one is good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). None of us can earn our way to heaven on our own merit. That’s because God’s standards are perfect whereas we will never be perfect. So if you think you can earn your way to heaven, either your view of God is too small or your view of yourself is too big.
Clue 2: You think you can get rid of your sins if you try hard enough. For example, a friend of mine has a relative who is deeply involved in a form of meditation where they will cut themselves with knives, believing that if you don’t bleed from the cut that means you don’t have any more sin. The goal is to keep cutting yourself until you don’t bleed to show that you are holy.
In India last year, a four year old boy was abducted and beheaded by a 35 year man who believed that by making this “sacrifice” he would gain divine powers.
These sound like extreme examples, but in fact, every religion in the world other than Christianity is a modern day version of the Galatian heresy. Every humanistic philosophy that preaches “Believe in yourself” is a form of the Galatian heresy. They’re all based on the same belief that through your own merit or effort you can reach God, however they define “God” to be.
So the Galatian heresy is alive and well in our day. There are people you bump into every day who believe in a form of the Galatian heresy. So when you’re having a conversation with someone who is sharing their belief in a form of the Galatian heresy (reaching heaven by one’s own effort or merit), what can you do? Do your best to gently and respectfully share with that person about Jesus. If appropriate you can say, “I used to think that I could reach heaven because I was a ‘pretty good person’. Then I realized that God’s standards are much higher than just “pretty good” and that I will never meet God’s perfect standards. But then I read the Bible and discovered some great news: while we can never reach God on our effort or merit, God sent Jesus Christ to live the life we could never live and to die on the cross for our sins. He bridged the gap between us and God, between earth and heaven. That’s why Christians sing songs like ‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me’. It’s not because I am good that I’m going to heaven. It’s because of God’s amazing grace that He loved me and, through Christ’s death on the cross, forgave a sinner like me.”
Father, please help me to be sensitive to any form of Galatian heresy that may creep into my life or the lives of those around me. May I always go back to the cross where Jesus died, remembering that it’s not our good works, but Christ’s finished work on the cross that saves us. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
