01/08/2024: Galatians 3:1 – Legalism bewitches with its lie.

Galatians 3:1 (NKJV)

¹ 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?

Thought for today – Legalism bewitches with its lie that I can earn a right relationship with Jesus.

Bewitch – to cast a spell on someone so they will choose evil.  When Paul asked the Galatians Christians who had bewitched them, it was not hyperbole; he was asking a serious question.  People who are bewitched do not recognize that they have been deceived, and these Christians had come to deny the truth they had witnessed of the grace of God in Paul’s life and teaching.  He had clearly demonstrated the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead so that salvation was by grace through faith and not the works of the Law.  To deny this truth of the gospel was the result of the “bewitching” teaching of the legalists, and Paul wanted these new believers to recognize the serious wickedness of this false teaching.

That’s what the Book says!