The Apostle Paul begins addressing the Galatians directly and pulls no punches: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Paul is expressing his deep concern about what is taking place in Galatia, including: enslavement to religion, failure to live out the truth of the gospel, and threats to the unity of the community. The heart of matter that Paul is addressing is the bounded set approach on the “works of the law”—-actions like circumcision and dietary rules that the agitators used to draw boundary lines. Through Paul’s rhetorical questions, he communicates, again, that they do not need to take up the Jewish customs suggested by the other missionaries in order to be worthy of God’s grace or to truly belong to God’s people. They have already experienced the reality of the Spirit and God has worked miracles without them complying with the “works of the law.” God’s actions were not conditional on them being circumcised or living like Jews. God was always working by faith as evidenced through Abraham the man of faith. The promise of God came to fulfillment in Jesus the “seed” of Abraham. “ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law” and thus made it possible for all of us to “receive the promise of the Spirit”. Here in this section of Galatians, we are again reminded that we cannot earn our belonging to God’s family. Our ethnic-racial distinctions , cultural- social distinctions, nationalism, and all other forms of belonging do not take precedent over our identity in Christ. God welcomes us because of Jesus — and we need to learn to understand the long story of Scripture as culminating in the promise of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul begins addressing the Galatians directly and pulls no punches: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Paul is expressing his deep concern about what is taking place in Galatia, including: enslavement to religion, failure to live out the truth of the gospel, and threats to the unity of the community. The heart of matter that Paul is addressing is the bounded set approach on the “works of the law”—-actions like circumcision and dietary rules that the agitators used to draw boundary lines. Through Paul’s rhetorical questions, he communicates, again, that they do not need to take up the Jewish customs suggested by the other missionaries in order to be worthy of God’s grace or to truly belong to God’s people. They have already experienced the reality of the Spirit and God has worked miracles without them complying with the “works of the law.” God’s actions were not conditional on them being circumcised or living like Jews. God was always working by faith as evidenced through Abraham the man of faith. The promise of God came to fulfillment in Jesus the “seed” of Abraham. “ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law” and thus made it possible for all of us to “receive the promise of the Spirit”. Here in this section of Galatians, we are again reminded that we cannot earn our belonging to God’s family. Our ethnic-racial distinctions , cultural- social distinctions, nationalism, and all other forms of belonging do not take precedent over our identity in Christ. God welcomes us because of Jesus — and we need to learn to understand the long story of Scripture as culminating in the promise of Jesus.