Foolishness

Greetings everyone.

Today we will start our examination of Galatians chapter 3.  Paul tells them what really here, calling them fools.  Here is my translation of Gal. 3:1: "Oh, you foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Was it not before your own eyes that Jesus Christ was clearly proclaimed to be crucified?" 

So, we start chapter 3 with a rebuke.  “Oh, you foolish Galatians.” By buying into this “other gospel” the Galatians are acting foolishly.  Certainly, they are setting aside the superior Gospel for something that in Paul’s words, is actually no gospel at all.  By setting aside God's grace to obey a gospel where salvation is somehow earned is indeed foolish.  

Do you remember what Paul says to the Galatians in 1:6-7?  “I am astonished that you are so quick to depart from the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ for a different gospel, one which is really not a gospel at all.” (My translation.)  Paul expresses the same thinking here.  He is astonished by the foolishness of their thinking, and how they were able to change paths when some new thought came along. 

Then he asks, “Who has cast a spell on you?” or in the NIV “Who has bewitched you?”  Paul uses the the Greek word βασκαἱνω (baskaino) which means “to exert an evil influence through the eye.”  You might say that Paul is asking them, who gave them the evil eye that is making them think this way.

Paul follows with this question, “Was it not before your own eyes that Jesus Christ was proclaimed as crucified?”  When grace in the fullness of its awesomeness, paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, has been presented to you, why would you listen to someone who preaches a different message?  It is, indeed, foolishness. 

The crucifixion on our behalf is the central tenet of Paul’s message.  Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians.  (1:23-24 - “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  Then later in 2:2, 4 - For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”  Both times Paul says that the Cross is his message, and then connects it to the power of God. The Cross is powerful, and the grace that comes from it is much more powerful than I could ever be on my own.  

Jesus’ death on the Cross had been presented to them vividly as completion of everything necessary for their salvation. They had not seen the actual crucifixion. So, when Paul says "before your own eyes that Jesus Christ was clearly proclaimed to be crucified," we can understand that he undoubtedly painted the narrative of the crucifixion in vivid word pictures for them, and they received it, gaining the power of the Spirit through faith. 

Paul's point: If they have received this good news in faith, what more do they need to add to it. Douglas Moo says, “When truly appreciated, the cross of Christ, the manifestation of God’s wisdom, power, and grace, should rule out of court the kind of human-oriented law program that the agitators are perpetrating. (Moo, 182.) In other words, they should have understood enough to see through this false doctrine, why didn’t they?  

Ok, so what?  What does this all mean for us?  Are we trying to earn it somehow through our rule-keeping? I think that we, as humans, tend toward wanting to earn it somehow.  But there is no earning it.  I can't obey enough to deserve God's grace.  Rather, in faith, I accept His grace.  I still want to be obedient, but as a response to His grace, rather than as a catalyst for His grace.  Plus, I would not want to be seen as foolish. 

       Douglas Moo, Galatians, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2013.