⏱ 9 min read

• It’s Day 3 and we’re reading Galatians 3 (which begins with a big bang!!).
• God bless you all for joining in and sharing your lessons also🔥🤗🤍
• As iron sharpens iron, may we all continue to sharpen each other in the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God📖🔥

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” – Galatians 3:1-4 NKJV

Shots fired – bang bang!! The opening verses of Galatians 3 have very strong and stern words by Paul. The Apostle called unto the Gentiles, was now ‘giving it to them’ strongly (rebuking them). But having read the first two chapters, perhaps we can now appreciate better why Paul reacted this way.

• It seemed that the believers in Galatia had been ‘hypnotized/ charmed/ enchanted‘ by the teachings of the false brethren, without recognizing the danger behind it.
• The effect of the false Gospel on them was as though a ‘juju’ spell (voodoo or witchcraft) had been applied on them; and Paul couldn’t believe they had left the truth to follow these teachings.
• I believe we should all take a cue from this. There are false teachings, with smooth-sounding arguments and revelations that can have a hypnotising effect on us.

A young lovely lady moved to a new city and joined a certain church. There, she was assigned to one of the Lady Pastors (LP) who used to teach her in Bible study and fellowship meetings, etc. 

One Sunday, on a climax of a  powerful convention or camp, the young lady asked her LP, "Mummy, the convention has been very powerful, when will there be the bath?" The LP, puzzled, asked, "a bath?" 
The young lady explained: "Yes, the bath by Bishop. Because where I'm coming from, after every convention the main pastor bathes us one-on-one." 

The LP gasped with hands on her face: "Ow sister, but where in the Bible is this written?"
Young lady: "Ow, the pastor explained to us that we need that for a final cleansing..."

So all the time this lady was in church (like if she was in your church), she was waiting for the time your head pastor will bathe her! God forbid! But this is the ‘juju-like’ effect of a false teaching.

• You see, the Gospel of Grace in Christ Jesus is just so good to be true. Believe and be saved? Believe and be made righteous? Believe and inherit all these promises?
• Yes sir, yes ma’am! This is it! Faith in Jesus + Nothing = Everything!

You see, Paul had ministered to the Galatians time and time again. They had received the Holy Spirit by believing; they had experienced God's miraculous power by believing in the Gospel Paul had preached. So they knew that they hadn’t received God’s Holy Spirit by obeying the Jewish laws.

• And Paul was saying that it is foolishness to begin your Christian life believing in Christ and in the power of the Spirit; and not continue to grow by the Spirit’s power.
• When we insist on keeping to religious laws and legalistic rules, we take a huge step back on our spiritual growth.
• We grow spiritually because of God’s work in us by His Spirit, not by human effort or by following special programs and rules.

Many people still feel insecure in their faith because faith in Christ alone seems too easy. They prefer following rules because there’s something about earning what we get, that makes us feel like we deserve it. But Grace is getting used to ‘earning’ things you don’t deserve because Christ gave them to you!

Dear friend, even though disciplines (eg Bible study and prayer) and service help us grow in God, they must not take the place of the Holy Spirit and become ends in themselves. Like, “if I do these, then God will accept me.” Nooo!!

Anyway, so Paul was asking the Galatians these hard questions, hoping to get them to focus again on Christ alone as the foundation of their faith. Because they had turned away from the Good News to the ideas of the newest teachers in town.

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

• Dear friend, the Holy Spirit gives us great power to live for God.
• Often, the Holy Spirit’s greatest help comes from teaching us to persist, to keep on doing what God wants even when it no longer seems interesting or exciting.
• Abraham had to keep believing God for a long time; all through His life. May you and I persevere in faith to the end!

Alright, so far we’ve seen that the law cannot impart the Spirit, it cannot make us perfect and it cannot work miracles in our lives! Trying to be right with God (justified) by our own effort doesn’t work (v10-11). Good intentions such as “I’ll do better next time or I’ll never do that again” will usually end in failure.

• If you want to keep the law, you have to keep all of it o (the commandments, the feasts, the rituals, sacrifices, every single one of the over 600 instructions). Ei… we can’t!
• The just shall live by faith!! By believing in God’s provision for our sins and living each day under his direction and in his power— we can break any cycle of failure and live the new life He promises (Habakkuk 2:4).

v22. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

• The confinement of sin, weights, and addictions is a reality for all people.
• Before faith in Christ delivered most of us, we were imprisoned by sin (like I was with pornography, lust, etc), beaten down by past mistakes, and bound up by desires that we know are wrong.
• God knew we were sin’s prisoners, and He provided a way of escape—faith in Jesus Christ.

Without Christ, sin holds everyone in its grasp, but those who place their faith in Christ break out of these chains. If you are in a similar position like I was, please look to Christ—He is reaching out to set you free.

Let’s conclude for today. When we are joined with Jesus in baptism, we put on His righteousness like new clothes. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

"That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24)

• This simply means that we take up a new identity and a new nature. So a good question for us today is this: have you updated your closet or wardrobe?
• To put on Christ means to be clothed with Him; to assume His person and character.
• You and I have to now live or act out the character of Christ in our daily lives.

To profess Christianity means we take on the life and works of Christ, we follow in His steps, and we do His works! (John 14:12-15). Ask yourself today: “Am I living like Christ?” May the Holy Spirit help us live like Jesus!

Hey, you're blessed and highly favoured and dearly loved! Do share your lessons from Galatians 3. Remember to tag us and your friends on 📲:
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