Five Good Questions
Galatians 3:1-5

How are we to know if we might be drifting towards a performance-based walk with God? Part of Paul’s correction process involves forcing the Galatian believers to respond to several challenging questions, like:

1. Who is influencing you? (3:1)
2. How did you get saved/get the Spirit? (3:2)
3. How is the Spirit’s work completed? (3:3)
4. Is your suffering worth nothing? (3:4)
5. Are the spirit’s works earned? (3:5)

Once we get beyond verse 5, the apostle Paul is going to take us well into theology. He’s setting us up for it by asking five questions. They are, I believe, designed by the apostle to be rhetorical questions, in other words, simply designed to make a person think. For our part, we’ll go a little further with it.

Galatians 3
¹ You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
² This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain?
⁵ So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

You know, as we go through life, stuff breaks. Cars break, computers crash, we start wearing out. When things are not as they should be, often we will go to get help. We will take our car to a mechanic, our computer to somebody considerably smarter than we are, we will take our bodies to a physician.

These are all being asked to correct something that is out of whack. Isn’t it interesting that when we take ourselves or our possessions to get them fixed, the fixer always asks questions. “Where does it hurt?” “How long has it been doing this?” “Does this hurt?” Asking basic questions.

The apostle Peter, in previous verses, was clearly out of whack. The churches in Galatia, about whom Paul is so very concerned, are out of whack and he is going to help be part of the solution. He begins by asking basic questions as well, and as he does this through these first five verses, I find myself wanting not only to answer them but even to apply them. Lord, where am I here?

Before he moves into the fix, which begins in the sixth verse, he first sets us up with these questions. Being corrected, being fixed or made right, often involves responding to tough questions. He is going to challenge their faith with these questions. He is going to challenge ours too. Let’s ask them in order.

Question 1 - Who is influencing you?

He begins his discussion very deliberately and very pointedly when he says, “Oh foolish Galatians.” Two things to keep in mind: the one is that whenever Paul speaks to a group of people and addresses them by who they are, Galatians, Philippians, Corinthians, it isn’t necessarily because he is at the end of his rope with them, it’s because he passionately cares about them, because he has made a considerable investment in them. Anybody who invests in anything knows that the heart always follows the investment.

Paul refers to them as foolish Galatians. It’s a very interesting term that he uses and he pulls the term from their culture which was influenced largely by the way the Greeks thought about their being two separate realities -- the physical and the spiritual. The physical reality being the inferior, things you can touch and so forth, that’s passing away, that’s no good. But what’s really cool is the upper story phenomenal stuff, the ideal, the spirit.

They drew a distinction between the two and what evidently was going on with the Galatian believers is that they were beginning to think of themselves, if they only would add works to their faith, as a little better than the rest, than the rank and file Christians who didn’t get on board with them. They were creating a two-class Christianity, the haves and the have-mores.

The have-mores, Paul knew, would have considered themselves to be upper story, the ones who know. What he’s doing by using the word foolish, and he uses it twice, is saying to them just with a word, “You really don’t know after all.”

“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” He says, “Before whose eyes Jesus was publicly depicted as crucified.” That’s an interesting expression. What he means is, “What we did, Paul and my friend Barnabas, when we were among you in Galatia, we could not have done any more than we did in presenting Jesus to you in the clearest possible terms.” “We left no doubt,” he says.

When he mentions that Jesus was publicly displayed before He was crucified, it’s as though Paul was saying, “Look, we showed up. We opened our Bibles. We walked you through line by line. We proved our points. We demonstrated our positions. We got sandwich boards and painted our message and walked on your sidewalks. We took out a full-page ad in the paper on Sunday. We rented a blimp and put the message on the side. We couldn’t have been more thorough. We put it, Galatians, before your eyes in the clearest possible terms. Galatians, who has pulled the wool over them? Somebody has pulled the wool over your eyes. Who was it? Who fooled you? Someone has done this. Who was it?”

What I see in this verse is the potential for Christian people listening to someone other than the Holy Spirit of God through the Scriptures. Christians are not immune to being groupies or to following gurus. Somebody comes along who is splashy or flashy. “Oh, that person must have the message. I’ll go there.” One makes a particularly convincing appeal. “Oh, that one must be right.” Sometimes they are individuals with television notoriety. Other times, perhaps they are theologians or authors or teachers and they’re not intending, necessarily, to gather a following but their teaching clicks in someone’s mind and suddenly we can’t think or do anything that this particular author, this particular preacher, this particular guru doesn’t approve of or endorse it.

It seems to me that the difference between a guru and a Bible teacher is that a guru tends to draw us to himself or to his position rather than to the Bible or to Jesus. I would be unsuccessful teaching or preaching the Bible if everyone went away thinking, “Well, Carlson said it. It must be so.”

I would be successful if folks go away saying, “Is that what the Bible says? I need to look further” or “I appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ more now.” That’s where we want to go. Who are we listening to? Does our practice as Christians need to line up with someone who is saying something other than from the text?

Question 2 - How did you get saved/get the Spirit?

How in the world, he says in verse 2, did you get the Spirit of God in the first place anyway? That’s another way of saying, “How did you come to faith?” In the Bible, when the Spirit shows up, you’re saved. He that has the Spirit of God is the one who is the son of God, he who does not have the Spirit of God is not the son of God. Believers correctly associate the arrival of the Holy Spirit with their personal salvation. For by one Spirit, Paul says in I Corinthians 12:13, are you all placed into one body.

How did this whole thing start with you? That’s the question. Was it by the Spirit or by the works of the Law? Did you know there are 613 Old Testament laws. That would include the Ten Commandments, from which all others follow. “You tell me,” Paul is saying, “which one of that assortment did you keep to get saved?” Thou shall not what? And once you kept that law, God came into your life? God did a work in your heart because you kept rules? Did it start that way? Paul says that’s absurd.

When was God’s great saving work in the history of Israel? What is the one high water mark of God’s salvation of Israel? It was the Passover. Getting the children of Israel out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and to the Promised Land. Their deliverance as a nation, their salvation.

Remember how that worked in the book of Exodus? Moses is out there in the desert and gets the word from the burning bush. God tells him what’s up, here comes Aaron, we’re going to work this together, they show up to visit with the Israelites who are in bondage in the land of Egypt. Do you remember their message? It was not, “OK, folks, gather around here are 613 rules.  Now God is in a good mood today, we only have to keep half of them. But we all have to do them and we all have to do it perfectly. We have to keep the rules. And once we’ve hit it on the rule meter and measured at a certain click, guess what? God’s going to get us out of here. Let’s go! Let’s go to work. Let’s keep those rules.”

That’s not how it worked at all. Moses shows up, Aaron with him. “Pack your stuff, we’re leaving.” After the plagues, of course, when the Egyptians were thoroughly evangelized. “Set that sheep out for four days, then take its blood and apply it to the doorposts of your house and don’t cook anything. Eat standing. We’re out of here.”

When they realized God was saving them they packed up and got out of town. They stood at the edge of the Red Sea and here again God didn’t say, “OK, let’s get the other half of the rules done now and I’ll get you across the water.” No, it was, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Trust Me.”

Never forget, in our understanding of Scripture, that Passover came before Sinai. We got brought out, we got saved, and then God said, “Here are the guidelines, the rules, for our relationship.” Passover always preceded Sinai. I though about this in a Christian context more particularly and I thought about Acts 1:8. Think of it this way,  Jesus speaking, telling his disciples upon his departure from earth and return to glory, Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria even to the remotest part of the earth.” That’s what he said, and by the way that’s exactly what he meant.

What if He said, “OK fellows, gather around. Here are the rules. Now we have narrowed them down from 613, we’re down to 120. How’s that? Keep them. And when you’ve done things right, consistently, impressively, over a period of time, OK then we’ll send the Spirit.”

No! When God is in it, when it is God’s idea and God’s program and God’s glory, it is God’s grace. That means God takes the initiative, God steps in, God invades, and God gets all the glory. We don’t start with the rules.

“So how did you get saved anyway?” Paul is obviously asking a question that is absurd because he knows and they know that there isn’t any keeping of the rules to get the Spirit. The Spirit fell, just fell on them as they believed.

Question 3 - How is the Spirit’s work completed? (3:3)

Verse 3: Are you so foolish? We’ve already answered that. It’s the same word that is used in the first verse. Do you really think you are in that upper story? I have a hunch that by verse 3 they’re beginning to wonder if they really belong in that special class of have-more Christians. I think they’re seeing themselves a little more accurately by verse 3.

Then he says this: Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh? When we read the letters of Paul in the New Testament, we need to keep a couple things in mind. One is that every one of his letters was brought on by a problem, precipitated by a problem, and he is writing the letter to fix a problem.

There is a problem in Galatia and he’s going to deal with it. By the way, the problem isn’t always explicitly shared; sometimes it’s implied. Secondly, when we read an epistle it’s like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. You know enough to get to where you can ask the right question, but you’re not hearing the other party, particularly.

Studying and pondering our side of the conversation in Galatians takes us to chapter 3, verse 3 and in a nutshell, if there’s anywhere else in the book of Galatians, it’s here where the apostle puts his finger most specifically on their problem. Right here in chapter 3, verse 3 and it is this: Are you now being perfected in the flesh? That’s the problem. They don’t seem to have a problem with Jesus dying on the cross for their sin. They don’t seem to have a problem with trusting him in order to access his salvation.

Where they have a problem is what they do next. That‘s where the problem comes in. “What do we do now? We‘ve trusted Jesus and He has saved us. Now -- to be right with God or to be spiritual or to be a good Christian, now do we bring out the rules and begin saying, “We need to add more. You can get saved this way, but how do we stay saved? Now do we keep the rules? And the apostle is saying, “You know what you people are doing? You’re trying to be perfected in the flesh. You’re thinking now it’s up to you and it’s now your job, your turn, your work.” He will go on to say, “That doesn’t work.”

How is the Spirit’s work completed in you and me? Here is a question I put to myself because we all want to be growing Christians, fruitful Christians, Christians who are used of God in some God-honoring capacity. Is the Spirit’s work completed in me by what I master, by how good I get at something? Or is the Spirit’s work completed in me by who masters me?

There is a big difference in who I master or what I master, how good I can get at it -- or in who masters me. There’s a verse in the Bible we all ought to know because it’s fundamental: Philippians 1:6 where the apostle writes to the church at Philippi and says:

He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

Whose work is it? It’s His work. Further in Philippians is the key to this whole issue. This is where Paul will take them more than once. Philippians 3 is the chapter where the apostle says all the good stuff he used to have and all the credentials he used to be so proud of don’t matter because now he’s a Christian. It would be the most ideal time for him to say, “And now I do this right and I do that right and I keep that rule and look at me!” He doesn’t say that at all. In Philippians 3:7 he says whatever I used to think was gain, now I think of as lost.

 ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

That’s where he’s going: that I may know Him. What’s missing? It’s about a person, not a program. It’s about a relationship, not a list of rules. Brothers and sisters, if we set out to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, the rules will take their proper place.

It’s about a person and a relationship. It’s not about me. It’s not about how I perform, not about how I appear, not about how I compare to other people. My Christian life, my Christianity, my faith - it’s about Jesus.

I ask this question in a different way. How is the Spirit’s work completed? Here’s another way to answer that question. Is my Christianity self-serving or Christ-serving? Let me suggest it’s self-serving if in fact I spend my time comparing myself, my performance, to that of other Christians. If I’m caught in that trap, my faith is for me. If it’s Christ-serving, these verses in Hebrews are key.

Hebrews 12:1-3
¹ Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

He’s not saying let us let up on battling the enemy. It’s the approach the apostle is coming at here. Let’s lay aside every encumbrance. Let’s do away with the sin which so easily entangles. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. How do we do that? By coming up with a bunch of rules for ourselves and imposing them on others and working on being as righteous as we can be? The apostle says no, by fixing our eyes on Jesus. He’s a person. It’s a relationship.

The author and finisher of our faith. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6). Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith and for the joy set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him. He put up with a lot. Consider Him that you may not grow weary and lose heart. The rule makers and the rule keepers grow weary. We will beat ourselves to death with that.

Eyes on Jesus. He’s a person and it’s a relationship.

Question 4 - Is your suffering worth nothing? (3:4)

Is your suffering worth nothing? This is a tricky point he makes. He’s talking to these folks in Galatia, today Turkey, Asia Minor. I’ll skip through the book of Acts and touch down on three spots very quickly  so we remember a historical review of what had happened.

Paul took the gospel to at least four places. We know there are more but there are four named, and in almost every place he got a lot of grief for it. The people who had signed on with Jesus Christ got a lot of grief for it. Who did they get the grief from? Jews. Very interesting. And he is going to use that point.

In the first stop - Persidia. Acts 13:50

Acts 13
⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

So they had to move.

In Iconium in Acts 14:2

Acts 14
² But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.

⁵ And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them,

They went on to the next place, to Lystra, where God did a phenomenal miracle before their eyes and through their agency. The Jews show up, stir things up again, throw rocks at Paul, knock him down and leave him for dead. This is not fun. This is kind of the down side and those who were believers participated in that persecution.

To us in our culture, normally persecution doesn’t take the shape of large projectiles thrown at our heads. In our culture it’s more like inconvenience, sometimes ridicule. It’s hard to live consistently for Christ in a fallen world and not be inconvenienced and ridiculed and make sacrifices somewhere along the line.

Paul is saying, “Is that for nothing?” Why did you go through all that if in fact the ones who were throwing the rocks were right after all. Were they right after all?

Jesus made many startling claims and one of them should make us squirm just a hair. As He is preparing to leave the disciples, He gives them some final instructions and insights

John 15
²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;’

A slave is not greater than his master. Jesus said if they persecuted me they will persecute you. I’m the master; you’re the slave. You’re not greater than I. If I got it, you’re going to get it. Abide in me and you’ll get it.

Oh my. If they hated Me, they’re going to hate you. You’re headed for some rough water from time to time.

The apostle wrote to the church in Colosse and said this in verse 24 about suffering:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

What he is saying is that once Jesus died on the cross, He wasn’t finished suffering. His body will still take hits. His body is His people. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” on the road to Damascus. “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Who is Saul persecuting? He’s persecuting the church. They are making up the difference in the sufferings of Christ. Paul encouraged Timothy in the same directions. What’s going here comes right back to the point I just made. Being a Christian is a relationship of intimacy and identity with Jesus, the person of Jesus, the risen Savior. Do we have that relationship? If we do, in certain measure, sometimes worse than others, depending on when and where and who, we will take part in His sufferings.

Paul is saying, “Is that worth nothing to you people? Or are you going to concede that those throwing rocks at you were right after all and you do need to add something to faith.” They’re stuck on that one. Is their suffering worth nothing?

Question 5 - Are the Spirit’s works earned? (3:5)

Paul is saying, “Could it be that God in His sovereign goodness did marvelous things among you just out of grace, or did you keep rules for that one too?”

In Iconium (Acts 14:3) they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was bearing witness to their phenomenal keeping of His rules? Was it by granting signs and wonders? No, bearing witness to the word of His grace by doing outstanding, miraculous works among them.

At Lystra there was sitting a certain man without strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb. He had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. When Paul had fixed his gaze upon him and saw that he had faith to be saved, he didn‘t say “Keep the rules.” He said, “Stand up,” and God’s grace powerfully worked in that individual. He leaped up and began to walk.

Do we begin to see the difference? We think in terms of our situation. Sometimes God miraculously heals or miraculously delivers. Is it after we’ve run so many laps, after we’ve jumped through so many hoops, after we’ve pushed certain buttons, that God says, “Well, you’ve earned this one.”

When in stress or trial or dilemma the peace of God which passes all understanding, truly the outworking of the Spirit within -- when that grips our hearts is it because we’re so good at being Christian or is it because He loves us and has brought us into a relationship with Himself and He’s committed to seeing it through. Could it be?

Any fruit borne, love joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, all that good fruit of the Spirit, does that come about because we so wonderfully deserve it? Or could it be that God means what He says and that His Spirit lives through us and we simply trust Him day by day, moment by moment. When it’s time to make a choice we choose God’s way. That’s living by faith. That’s what it’s reduced to.

I’ll close with several verses from II Corinthians Here the apostle is encouraging the believers in Corinth to be generous. Why? Because God is generous.

2 Corinthians 9
⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
⁹ as it is written,
"⁽HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR,
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER."
¹⁰ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;
¹¹ you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.
¹² For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.