Galatians 3:1

Galatians 3:1 says, 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?  The Galatians were now attempting to add requirements to faith in Christ as being necessary for salvation, and Paul called them foolish and bewitched.  When we try to change the gospel, whether by our own understanding or by following what someone else teaches, we are indeed foolish or bewitched.  Christ was the fulfillment of the Law.  Verse two adds, This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  As Paul asked the Galatians, we must ask ourselves if we attempt to add to the requirement of faith in Christ alone for salvation, are we saved by keeping the Law or by faith alone?  We are saved by faith in Christ alone and given total access to God through that faith.  Knowing this, we need never add to the free gift of Christ.  Verse three continues, Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?  Paul asked if the Christians at Galatia had received salvation by faith alone would they now be foolish enough to add justification by means of the flesh to the requirement for salvation for others.  Verse four asks, Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.  If Christ died in vain, then anything that we have suffered because of our faith in Him would be in vain.  Either Christ alone is the only way to salvation, or He is not Who He said that He is.  Verse five adds, He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Paul asked the Galatians if they thought that he had ministered unto them and preformed miracles by the power of the law or by the hearing of faith.  Paul was a completely different person, and he had definitely been under the law of God when persecuting Christians.  The ministry he now practiced was because of the hearing of and acceptance of faith in Christ alone.  Verse six continues, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.  Paul said that Abraham's belief in God was what accounted for his righteous.  Verse seven concludes, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.  The Jewish people were proud to be children of Abraham by the fact of their physical birth, but Paul said that wasn't enough.  To be a true child of Abraham, and therefore a part of the promise of God to him required faith in God.  It does not matter what family we are born into physically, because we can only become a part of the family of God through faith in Christ.  Verse eight states, And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.  Paul said that even the scripture foresaw the salvation of the heathen, those who were not Jews, when God said to Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed.  Salvation was not just for the Jews as some of them had started to believe.  Salvation today is not just for a select group of people in a particular part of the world but is for everyone everywhere who will accept Christ as their Savior by faith.  Verse nine adds, So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.  Paul said that it is by faith, and not by anything physical, that people are blessed along with faithful Abraham.  Verse ten continues, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.  Like those Jews that Paul was writing to, if we want to be under the law, then we are cursed, because to fail in any point of the law judges us as guilty before God.  Verse eleven says, But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.  Paul said that no one could be justified by the law, and that included even him.  Paul had been one of the most devout Jews, following the law of God religiously, but he knew that was not enough.  Paul said that it was evident that the just shall live by faith.  Verse twelve adds, And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.  Paul declared that the law was not of faith but could only lead to a people recognizing their own inability to live justified before God of their own goodness.  All fall short of keeping the entire law of God at all times, but through faith in Christ all can be justified before God.  Faith in Christ as Savior and Lord is the only way to salvation, and this gift of salvation is available to all.