Episode Notes:
Episode Transcript:
be thou my vision Oh Lord of my heart not be our else Thio me Save that heart The my best thought by day or by night waking or sleeping thy presence my light be thou my wisdom and thou my true word I ever with Andi thou with me.
Lord thou mother my great father I true son thou in me dwelling on die with one hiking of heaven My victory one May I reach heaven's joys Oh, bright hand, son. Hard of my own heart Whatever Be far still be my vision Oh roller for of a So today we're in Galatians Chapter three versus one through five You foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you before? Whose eyes? Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed his crucified.
This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by 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 in vain? If indeed it was in vain.
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. So here we have Paul's direct address where he is forcefully confronting them.
And you can feel that in the question. This is the only thing I want to know or really accusation. And in general, whenever someone confronts you and they say the one thing I want to know is you know, they probably have, ah, lot of things they want to know.
And so that's his question, and it revolves around How did they receive the spirit to remember? He's forcing them to wrestle with their own experience and the reality of the scriptural history and saying, You can't understand you or you can't understand the Bible If you don't understand the gospel, there's a couple lines in here that are really just remarkable, like I'm really intrigued by this line in Verse one, where he tells him that it was before their eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
I mean, Jesus wasn't crucified in Galicia. So what is Paul talking about? And what he's getting at is the power of faith, the eyes of faith, the reality of preaching. He's talking about when he came and preached the gospel that will be one of the main themes running through this whole chapter.
That line preached the gospel when he preached the Gospel. What that was was a public portrayal of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that's the goal of preaching. That's how we encounter him. John Chrysostom would savory, powerful e, you would say.
Is it possible to see Christ stripped, spat upon, nailed to the cross, insulted, pierced and to see all of this for you because he loved you and he gave himself for you. And then you run back to the law.
That's the shock of Paul's language, but that's the power of riel preaching that focuses on Christ and him crucified. This is convicting to me. This needs to be the central reality of what we preach. And when the public portrayal of the crucified Christ is mixed with a the hearing by faith, then the spirit is poured out and you received the spirit.
See, as far as Paul's concerned, every aspect of the Christian life grows out of and revolves around that event, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Remember, all throughout Galatians is framed as a gift, and you could see the gift language.
This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit, the spirits part of the gift Christ crucified, Risen ascended on the throne. Then he pours out the spirit. It's a gift, and you encounter that gift or you receive that gift when you hear with faith the message of Christ crucified and risen, that is an interesting line.
Oh, foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you from Bewitched. It means you've had the evil eye cast on you. It's Ah, kind of a magical term for spells or was voodoo. The idea is that someone has put a spell on them, and so the evil eye and the cross is to be the central focus of their life.
It's what breaks down the old and begins the new, but they're in danger of losing sight of the cross. They've been Bewitched. The evil eye is placed on them. There's also interesting association with the evil eye and envy that green eye of envy if ever seeing that image name image.
So he's saying, you've been given this tremendous gift and you're in danger of throwing it away. You're envious for lesser things. Then he has some of these two powerful rhetorical questions about Did they suffer so many things in vain? So he peels their suffering, perhaps from Jewish leaders, and may be excommunicated them.
The synagogues. Not sure what somehow their belief in crisis brought about suffering. And then how they receive the spirit, the spirit and suffering these air, the two realities of their experience that they can't argue with, they know, But then he balances that.
But what does God provide God has given? He provides the spirit and works of miracles. And so the two realities in their own life of the spirit than their suffering are meant to confirm the reality that they begun by the spirit.
This was all begun by the spirit, and now they're trying toe complete the faith with works. So faith is the fuel of the Christian life, and they knew that you began in faith. But they mistakenly were thinking that you continued in the flesh.
So this is a great challenge to us versus a challenge to maintain the centrality of Christ and him crucified. But a second to think right. What if Paul came to America? What? He came to Florida. What did he say? Oh, you foolish Americans who has Bewitched you? What are we in danger of selling out the gospel four.
Could he appeal to the reality of our experienced with spirit? You know, you've experienced it. Could he appeal to the reality of our previous suffering? Whoever suffered in any way for anything? Take a moment today And let's ask the Lord to help us keep Christ crucified at the very center of our life.
Our thoughts in our walk praise God, from whom all blessings slow. Praise him. All creatures here below Praise him above He heaven the hope Praise father, son. And holy goes, um