63208 8. Paul’s Warning : “O Foolish Galations!”

Today many Christians understand that a mix of grace and self-effort will never save us. Martin Luther clearly taught the truth that we are justified by faith alone. Eternal life is not earned by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

However, Luther did not teach Jesus’ New Covenant love. He did not emphasize that “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He did not clearly portray the life-changing significance of Jesus’ New command, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Luther realized the importance of love in Scripture, but he seemed to see it as something to be earned under the Old Covenant—rather than as something to be received in the New. Therefore, even though he knew the law was impossible to obey, he treated love as a work to be accomplished under the law—by the independent soul. After trusting God for eternal life, Luther tried to live his life on earth by loving God and others with his own self-effort. He wrote, “Since you have found Christ by faith … begin now to work and do well. Love God and your neighbor.”1

Many of us today have inherited that same wrong thinking. For living a life of love on earth we are trapped into relying on a mix of grace and works. We are caught in the bondage of the Old Covenant. Despite having a born-again spirit, we keep trying to do “good” things to live rightly on earth. We ask God to help us with our plans, rather than embracing His. Adam’s independent, sin nature has a deep-rooted strangle hold.

Before we are saved, Satan fights to keep us from Spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. However, once we have God’s Spirit in us, his tactic is to keep the Holy Spirit bottled up inside our spirit so God, who is love, cannot express Himself to the world. One of the ways he does this is to disguise evil by calling it “good.” He masquerades as an angel of light bombarding us with “good” things for the independent soul to do after receiving Christ by faith. He deceives us into thinking that after we are born again, we can somehow—by following a set of rules or good advice—love others and live on earth as God intends.

That is a lie.

In the New Testament, Paul confronted Peter for teaching similar falsehood. When Peter was teaching faith in Jesus and obedience to Jewish laws and traditions, Paul “withstood him to his face” (Galatians 2:11). Paul did not want Christians falling back into living under the bondage of the law. Jesus did not begin a good work and then leave it to Moses to finish. Any mix of faith and flesh—any combination of grace and law—is toxic and cannot produce life as God designed.

With strong words, Paul warned the believers in Galatia: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth…. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1–3). The believers in Galatia had begun well; they were born of the Spirit. But now they were attempting to live their Christian lives in the flesh—by the strength of the independent soul.

Flesh is the combination of soul and body. Just as the heart refers to the spirit and soul together, the flesh refers to the soul and body together. The flesh is neither sinful nor righteous. It is made sinful or righteous depending on who leads it.

When the flesh controls itself—when the soul is master—it is sinful. Although it may look good on the outside, such as when it does good and avoids evil, the flesh, cut off from God, cannot produce life as He intends. At its best, flesh describes a Pharisee in the temple; at its worst, it describes an unrepentant murderer in prison. Paul says, “In me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find”(Romans 7:18).

However, when the Spirit is Master, the flesh radiates the nature of God—the glory of God. It is through the flesh of the Man, Jesus Christ, that we see spiritual God in a physical, earthly form we can understand. The Bible says, “And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). Paul goes on to tell us, that the life of Jesus is “manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). When God’s Spirit lives in our spirit and when the Spirit leads our soul, we function in the Spirit and radiate God to the world. When I surrender my I will to God’s will, God pours through my spirit-soul-body channel and waters the world with His love.

Paul also said to the Galatians. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”(Galatians 5:25). To live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit are two different things. The first begins at the moment of salvation. When we live in the Spirit, we are born of the Spirit and become children of God. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The second—walk in the Spirit—happens in a continual love-relationship with God as we walk out our life on earth. We walk in the Spirit by living our lives guided by God. Our soul gives up its own will and surrenders to the Spirit. We die to our will and desires and become one with Jesus. When we let God lead, we become mature sons and daughters of God. Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

But how does one become a son or daughter of God who is continually led by the Spirit? If choosing to walk in the Spirit is something I try to do, I put myself back under the law. If I make walking in the Spirit (or loving others) a rule, I put myself back under the impossibility of the Old Covenant. Even if I am born-again in my spirit, my independent soul won’t be able to consistently yield to the Spirit. The soul, with all its good rules and self-effort will fail. (I know. I have tried and failed miserably.)

Yet the Bible clearly tell us, “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). God has done it. Jesus accomplished for us everything we need for eternal life and for living lives of love on earth. We just need to believe in Jesus as He really is—full of love for us. God is the source of the love for which our soul so desperately longs. His love completely satisfies the soul and holds it in a position of surrender to the Spirit. The love of God draws us and cradles us in unity with Him 

Earlier in Galatians, Paul put it this way. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul is living life on earth, by faith in Jesus who he knew loved him. Obedience to both parts of the New Covenant—the faith command and the love command—brings life as God designed.

Paul longed for the believers in Galatia to live life as he experienced it. He addresses them, “My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). Paul had labored for their salvation. They were born again—children of God. But now he was laboring again—in order that Christ might be formed in them. Paul desired that they be remade in the image of Christ—and become sons/daughters of God.

But what does it look like to have Jesus formed in us? Is such a life really possible?

Reflection Questions:

  • How is Paul’s warning to the Galatians relevant to you today?
  • Give an example of an evil-looking behavior that is the result of living in the flesh. Give an example of a good-looking behavior that is the result of living in the flesh.
  • How is it possible to be born-again, yet still live in the flesh?
  • Share some good rules or traditions you might be using to guide your life. In what ways might these be beneficial or detrimental to your life?
  • How is a Christian transformed from living life on earth in the flesh to living life on earth in the Spirit?
  1.  Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 43.