(Episode #28): Study on Galatians: How Legalism Bewitches?: Gal 3:1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everyone. Today, we are continuing our

(00:02):
study on Galatians as we havebeen doing for quite some time.
So today, I'd like to dive intoGalatians chapter three, and
let's read from Galatianschapter three verse one. Foolish
Galatians, who has bewitchedyou? Before whose eyes was Jesus
Christ publicly portrayed ascrucified?

(00:25):
That's Galatians chapter threeverse one. We know that in
Galatians, Paul is reprimandingthe Galatians for turning to
another gospel. It's not reallyanother gospel, but rather it is
a perverted gospel in the sensethat it is devoid of the freedom
that is in Christ Jesus, but itadds a lot of rules and

(00:48):
regulations. So Paul isreprimanding the Galatians and
now he's saying, foolishGalatians, who has bewitched
you? Who has bewitched youbefore whose eyes was Jesus
Christ publicly portrayed hascrucified?
So Paul is saying here that howcould you be so senseless

(01:10):
Because that word, the Greekword translated as as foolish is
an anotos, which meanssenseless. How could you be so
senseless? Now we see this allthe time. We see that even
though many of us may preachgrace, there is this way in
which we can be pulled into somesort of legalism even without we

(01:36):
knowing about this. There aremore people believing in
legalistic Christianity thangrace, but it is easy to kind of
pull someone over by differentmeans, and it is sneaky that
way.
I've titled this legalism issneaky because of that
particular reason. And one ofthe reasons by which you can

(01:56):
fall into that is by not reallyseeing, the Bible as a whole
from old Testament and newTestament. If you just look at
the Bible, just open the bookand see a few verses, just read
that and see and and think thatis what the Bible reading is
about. And chances are that youmight fall into the trap of

(02:20):
legalism. You might think it'sthe Bible is all about a bunch
of do's and don'ts.
But the Bible has made it veryclear that you need to live in
the fullness of God, and that iswhat God wanted from the very
beginning. And by notunderstanding these truths, you
can fall into that trap. Thesecond way by which we can fall

(02:42):
into the trap of legalism is bylistening to people who can make
grace seem inferior. You musthave heard the terms like cheap
grace, and they make it seem asif the more freedom there is in
Christ Jesus, it is cheap. Butit's not cheap.
It was paid by the blood ofJesus. Whatever you do, whatever

(03:05):
kind of righteousness that youtry to earn with your own
efforts is cheap because that isyour righteousness. It has no
value. It cannot even, it cannoteven pass through the law. And
how can it actually go and standbefore the righteousness of God?
And also, we see that thelegalistic people always try to

(03:26):
make that we don't measure up.When we go with a legalistic
person, so let's say to achurch, they and if the church
practices freedom, thelegalistic person might actually
say, hey, you're joking a bittoo much before the service
starts, or you're not prayingbefore the service starts, or
you haven't fasted that morning.And that sort of the freedom in

(03:48):
which the grace person lives, hemight be able to say, hey, I
don't have to do all thatbecause I have the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. I comewith the anointing. I am the
righteousness of God in ChristJesus.
I'm one with the spirit of theLord. Now, when you say that it,
I'm pretty sure that thelegalists will roll their eyes.
There he goes again. And sooneror later, whatever you tolerate,

(04:12):
right? It seeps through and youstart seeing you entering the
field of legalism.
And why is that so? And thatmakes point that takes us to
point three by your need forapproval. One of the things, and
it's not just about grace versuslegalism. If you're planning to
stand on the truth, no matterwhat the truth is, the only way

(04:34):
by which you can stand is bymaking sure you're not gonna be
bogged down by other people'sopinions. Because more often
than not, people will not agreewith you.
But if you know that somethingis the truth, it is important
that you stand by it. When Jesuswalked on this earth, he was not
swayed by other people'sopinions. He was not swayed by

(04:56):
people pleasing. I have fallento the trap so many times of
people pleasing. I'm arecovering people pleaser and
I've known the problems that arethere in people pleasing.
So let's say your familydisapproves of your idea of
grace, your understanding ofgrace, even though it's
absolutely scriptural. You tryto if you've been like me, you

(05:17):
try to mix between legalism andgrace and try to portray as if
you are actually someone who isspiritual. You are someone.
You're not a wayward personlooking for an excuse to find to
do sin. And even Paul actuallyfell into this, and he was
trying to win over the Jews andhe even had his head shaved when

(05:38):
he went and met James.
Right? So he was trying toappease the Jews. So sometimes
we can get into that trap. Wecan fall into that trap. We have
to understand that not everyoneis going to accept the reality
of the truth.
Not everyone is going to readthe scriptures and see what is
there in the Bible. A lot ofpeople are just going to take
whatever their pastor says. Anda lot of people find it hard to

(06:01):
change their theology because oftheir age or because of their
position. They might be a pastorat a certain church. Now, if
they changed their understandingon their view on that's a
healing, grace, security ofsalvation, those sorts of
things.
Now they, they have a certainsecurity when it comes to their
ministry, they're getting theirpaychecks. And where will that
go? And so there's a lot ofuncertainty and people don't

(06:24):
like uncertainty and those kindsof things happen, right?
Sometimes we can fall into thosetraps of people pleasing. And
based on that we can put ourneed for approval.
We can create a mixture of graceand legalism. And that's why we
need to be thick skinned. Weneed to be thick skinned and we
need to understand that itdoesn't matter if the whole

(06:46):
world is against us. It doesn'tmatter because what we should
believe is the truth. Rememberwhen Paul, when he went and
sought leaders in the church inJerusalem, and he was like, even
if they don't agree with me, Idon't care.
I mean, that's not what he said,but like something along these
lines. And he said, I mean, Idon't care much about man's
opinions. This is what he meant.He was saying, I know the truth.

(07:09):
I know this is true.
I've seen in the scriptures.I've experienced it. Now I don't
care what other people say. Iwill live by that truth. So if
you are in grace, you need tounderstand that people will
ridicule you.
People will say that you aretrying to look for an excuse to
sin. People will say that youare not like the person next

(07:30):
door or the person who is ultraspiritual, who is wearing white
clothes and who's who's cleanshaven and who fasts every other
day and who goes for these allnight prayer. And they say that
they are more spiritual, but itdoesn't matter. I mean, opinions
are not what gets you to heaven.Their opinions don't matter.

(07:53):
Your point, as Paul later saysin Galatians chapter five verse
10, it says that is to live inthe freedom and use that freedom
to love others. You don't haveto care about what other people
think. And, I hope thisencourages you. And we need to
understand, that don't let thembewitch you. Don't let them pull

(08:14):
you away.
That's what happened to thesethese Galatians. They fell into
the trap of legalism, and theyalways and and Paul was very
angry at them. And I hope thisblesses you. God's grace be with
you.