Charles Spurgeon Commentary Galatians 3

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Paul does not compliment them on being a very "thoughtful," "educated," "cultured" people; he does not care an atom about that matter, but because they had forsaken the simple truth of the gospel, he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?

Those are hard words, Paul! Why did he not say, "Who has led you forward into more advanced views?" He did not. He calls it witchery—the work of the devil—and it is nothing better. And the wisdom of it is no better than the trickery of some old witch.

If you take your eyes off Christ, it must be witchcraft that makes you do it. There is such glory, such beauty, such perfection, such wisdom, such divinity in Christ crucified that if you turn from that sight to anything else, no matter how scientific and learned it may be, you are foolish, indeed, and somebody has "bewitched you."

This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

They had gone off into legality; they were trying to be saved by ceremonies, and by works of their own. "Well," asks Paul, "how did you receive the Spirit—the Spirit by which miracles were worked among you, the Spirit by which you spoke with unknown tongues, the Spirit which changed and renewed your hearts? If you did indeed receive him, did you receive him by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" There was only one reply to the question; the Spirit came to them as the result of faith.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you,

Paul writes as if they had come under some kind of witchcraft and been deluded by it. This seemed to astonish the apostle, so he cries out to them, Who hath bewitched you,.

That ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

They had heard the plainest possible preaching from Paul and his companions. Jesus Christ had been so clearly set forth before them that they might as it were, see him as he hung upon the cross of Calvary. Yet, under some unhallowed spell, they turned aside from the faith of Christ.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

When the Spirit of God came upon you, and renewed you, – when he endowed some of you with miraculous gifts, – did this power come by the works of the law, or through your believing the gospel? Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Like little children, the Jewish believers were under the law.

They observed this ceremony and that, just as children, even though they may be heirs to vast estates, yet, while they are in their minority, are under tutors and governors. But now in Christ we have come of age, and we have done with those school-books and that tutorship, and we have received the adoption of sons. Now, we have joy and peace in believing; we have begun to enter into our possession; we have the earnest of it already, and eventually we shall receive the fullness of the inheritance of the saints in light.