Inspired by Spirit #1: Are you so foolish?

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

I would like to learn just one thing from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Have you experienced so much in vain – if it really was in vain?

So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

So also Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’  Galatians 3: 1-6

Hey there! Here I am, back from my holiday and raring to go!

If you remember, before I went away, I left you with an introduction to this month’s theme and some passages to have a look at. All pretty inspiring, right? If you need a reminder, then have another read of Inspired by Spirit: Introduction.

And so here is the first mention of the Spirit in the book of Galatians – and Paul is really going for it with his questioning, isn’t he? In his opinion, the Christians in Galatia have wandered off from the truth of the Gospel as Paul is preaching it and coming up with their own misguided version of what it is to be a follower of Jesus. They’re making it all about rules – about appearing to do and say the right thing – rather than believing in the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Let’s just backtrack for a moment and see what Paul wrote in chapters 1 and 2 to lead up to this point.

After a short introduction, Paul sets out clearly his reason for writing to the churches in Galatia –

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all.  Galatians 1:6-7

Gospel means ‘good news’.  And this different way is not good news – it’s restrictive and prescriptive. Paul knows all about that way of living. He was brought up a Jew and was zealous about Judaism to the point of persecuting the church of God. But God called him to a new way by his grace. He turned his life around and began preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

This new way is all about freedom and grace, about knowing and believing that salvation does not come from following rules but from following Jesus. However, some believers found themselves drifting back into old ways of thinking and acting – and tried to persuade others in the church that this was the right way to live a life of faith.

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.  Galatians 2:4

Paul believed strongly that this good news was for all. He didn’t hold with those Christians who drew back and separated themselves from anyone outside the Jewish tradition. Including Peter. He didn’t think it was right to force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs. There is no place for the law in Paul’s world.

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:19-20

After these two chapters of background information, Paul then turns the spotlight on the churches in Galatia.

What do you think you’re playing at?

Can you not see how far you have strayed from the truth?

You started out so well. On the right path. God gave you His Spirit because you believed what you heard. Not for any other reason. There’s no need to turn back to all those rules. You left all that behind.

Our faith is about freedom. The freedom to live the life we were created to live.

If your faith doesn’t feel like freedom, then why not?

It’s easy to lose sight of the truth that it is by grace that we have been saved. There is nothing, literally nothing, that we have to do or can do to earn it. All we have to do is believe in the truth of that grace.

And yet we find ourselves so easily slipping back into feeling we need to do something to deserve it. To act a certain way, be a certain person. Because we see ourselves as not worthy as we are. We create our own straitjacket of rules, often inspired by the sermons we hear or the books we read, as to what a Christian looks like. We start to condemn ourselves and others for not being that way. We judge, we exclude, we separate ourselves from those who are doing it differently to us, who don’t want to play by our rules.

God freely gives His Spirit to inspire and guide and comfort and challenge – all those things in all those passages about the Spirit in the Bible up to this point that we looked at in the Introduction to this series. His Spirit is available to all. God’s way is freedom. It is the way we were created to live. It’s based on love and grace. It leads to freedom.

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?