September 01, 2025 | Be God's Family
Who Has Bewitched You?
Scripture: Galatians 3:1-5 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Devotional
“How many times do I have to tell you? Haven’t you learned this by now?” During your childhood, you probably heard your mother or father ask these questions. Sometimes it seems we just don’t learn something the first time. Philosopher George Santayana wrote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Paul dealt with this learning challenge with the Christians in Galatia. In his letter to them, he addressed the Christians about the wrong teaching of the “Judaizers,” teaching that all Christians should be circumcised and conform to the Jewish law. Paul was a converted Jew and believed this teaching was exchanging Christian freedom for slavery (Zondervan Handbook to the Bible). In his visits to them, Paul repeatedly taught that repentance and faith were all that was needed to receive God’s forgiveness and live the new life God had given them.
However, he knew that some of the teachers insisted that non-Jewish converts must also be circumcised and observe the Jewish laws (or become Jews). This same thing happened at Antioch (Acts 15:1). Undoubtedly, he reminded them of the thief crucified beside Christ. Because of his belief in Christ alone, he was promised a home in Paradise even though he may or may not have been circumcised or followed Jewish law. As He was dying on the cross, Jesus tells the penitent thief, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23.43).
Paul believed that the Galatians were returning to their legalism and undoing the work of Christ on the cross. Again, he reminded these believers that Christ set them free from the Jewish law. He asked, “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (v. 3). In other words, “haven’t you learned by now; salvation is by faith in Christ alone?”
Like the mother or father who asks the question to the erring child: “How many times do I have to tell you?” Paul was frustrated and distraught at this teaching that made “obedience to the law just as essential to salvation as trust in the crucified Messiah” (Zondervan). He knew that it struck at the very roots of the Christian message. Salvation – new life—is God’s gift to all who believe. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it!
Have you been bewitched by the world’s teaching and a slave to its opinions and morals? Or are you free in Christ and submit to His law of love?
Poem
Renewed Spirit
Psalm 51
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psalm 51:10-11
I knew the Holy Spirit’s pow’r
I knew the quick’ning life
I knew God’s heart as He knew mine
I knew God’s peace in strife
But then I turned away from God
But then I lived my way
But then my rebel spirit rose
But then my love did stray
The darkness then became a void
The darkness in me creeped
The darkness suffocated me
The darkness, vast and deep
In helplessness I cried to God
In helplessness I laid
In helplessness I felt no hope
In helplessness I prayed
Create in me anew, O God,
Create in me Your pow’r
Create in me Your Spirit, Lord
Create me in this hour
The Lord, so faithful, heard my cry
The Lord, did draw me near
The Lord, renewed His Spirit’s place
The Lord made Himself clear
Ne’er let me ever turn again
Ne’er ever leave Your call
Ne’er let me e’er forget Your love
Ne’er let me ever fall
