Galatians 3:O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by 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 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
As we have seen in the opening two chapters, Paul was very concerned about this church, as many within had fallen for "another gospel." Who did this? How did it happen? Did they know what they had done? They were returning to a "works" righteousness, acting as if their standing with God was based upon their willful obedience to the law. This carried through to how they then sought to live their lives: in their own spiritual strength. Paul goes on in the chapter to remind them that the original covenant God had made was one of faith - trusting in God to supply His way of salvation in His time. If they were to go back to the "original", it would not be obedience to the Law of Moses, but the faith of Abraham.
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