- O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
This is a strong statement from Paul to Galatians in regards to their current belief about the gospel.
We may think what is the big deal? We still believe in Jesus and that he died for our sins. It's just that we still need to keep the law to be perfectly righteous.
Paul calls Galatians, "foolish," i.e. anoétos which means "without (proper) thinking." Galatians needed to think properly and believe the true gospel.
Since Galatians were leaning towards the false gospel of works and essentially it is a system of works where one tries to prove they are Christians by their righteous works rather than by the righteous works (death) done for them by Jesus.
When we rely on our works, we elevate ourselves and glory in ourselves rather than relying on the true Saviour, Jesus, and glorify Him only.
Paul tells, it is as if Galatians had been spellbound by some evil magic. They were led astray into believing that they had to do something to become a Christian, and be saved.
Now the centre of the message of Paul here is to look at the cross of Jesus Christ. Why had he come to the earth 2000 years ago? Why did he die on the cross? Why did he suffer on the cross, dripping blood and water?
It was all for our justification, salvation and sanctification!
We have been justified, meaning being declared righteous in the sight of God, there is no more any fault found in us on the ground of Jesus' substitutionary death on the cross. We have been saved and we will rise again after our physical death and God proved that through the resurrection of Jesus. And lastly, we are sanctified or become holy through belief and faith in Jesus' presence in us whose whole life is to become manifest in us in this life.
We died, was buried and rose from death in Jesus. That is how we were justified, saved, and sanctified. We don't become holy because we obey the law. We've become holy through Jesus' crucifixion, and that is why we obey the commandments of Jesus.
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