Galatians 3: 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?[a] 4 Have you experienced[b] 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? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[c] 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”[d] 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”[e] 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”[f] 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”[g] 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[h] 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. The Law and the Promise 15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[i] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Children of God 23 Before the coming of this faith,[j] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

As you study the entire book of Galatians, you’ll understand why Paul made the statement above, chiding the Galatian Christians: they had strayed from the message of the Gospel, the Word of faith, which they had received. Some false teachers came, teaching them that they had to obey the Law to be justified; as a result, their faith began to waver. Decrying their deviation from the message of faith, Paul asked them, “…having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” He wanted them to remember how they received the Holy Spirit; it wasn’t through obedience to the Law, but by faith. The salvation they had received didn’t happen by keeping the Law: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Your righteousness and right-standing with God aren’t the results of your good works; they’re by the faith of Christ, the result of what He did. Galatians 2:16 says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” The righteousness, which is by faith, doesn’t rely on the works of the Law, but on faith in the God that justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). 
By faith, you received eternal life, and the Holy Spirit to live in you. By faith, the righteousness of God was imparted to your spirit. Therefore, continue in faith, grounded and settled, and refuse to be moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you’ve heard (Colossians 1:23). 

In this epistle of Paul to the Galatian Christians, he calls out their outright repudiation of the message of faith. They had left the simple message of grace in Christ to keeping the Law of Moses in order to be justified. Having learnt that they had accepted the teachings of false teachers, Paul chided them, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth…” (Galatians 3:1). There are some like that in the church today; they started well but went on listening to wrong doctrines and were misled. They became argumentative, confrontational, disorderly, rude, and unruly in the house of God, and some even stopped fellowship with the church altogether. 

When you have a brother or sister in the Lord or a whole family disobeying the truth of God’s Word, obstinate, and walking contrary to the instructions of the Spirit, it’s because the spirit of foolishness has taken over their minds; thus, it’s time to travail in birth again until Christ is formed in them, as Paul the Apostle did. Why did Paul have to travail in birth again for the Galatians? He travailed in birth previously, by which they came to Christ. He determined to do so again now that they were falling away from the truth. This travail in birth is intercessory prayers that lead to salvation and deliverance of one who’s lost or fallen out of the way. That’s what you do for such people; you pray again and again, in intercession and fasting—that the Christ-life gains the ascendancy in them, and they be fully yielded to, and established in God’s truth and righteousness. The words “…travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” show that the life of Christ wasn’t being manifested in them; they had become worldly, living on the wrong information that was destroying their faith. So, learn to pray fervently in the spirit for new converts and new members in the churches of Christ around the world. Pray that they’ll increase in the knowledge and revelation of Christ, and be established in the faith through the ministry of the Word and the Holy Spirit, fulfilling their purpose and leading others to Christ. Also, pray for those who may be facing difficult times and persecutions, or wavering in their faith, that they be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, rooted and grounded in love, pleasing Him in all things, in Jesus’ Name. 

It appears that a Jewish group of professing Christians who claim to have James on their side (2:12) are teaching that it is not enough to trust Christ for righteousness. If you rely on faith alone, you become a “Gentile sinner” and make Christ the agent of sin (2:17)—they said. So faith must be supplemented with “works of the law.” Trusting in what Christ did for you has to be supplemented by what you can do for Christ. God’s work plus your work equals justification. So the Judaizers required circumcision (2:3), dietary restrictions (2:12, 13), and the keeping of feasts and holy days (4:10), and at least implied that by these works the Galatians could contribute their part to the transaction of justification. As far as Paul is concerned, if you buy into this mingling of faith and works, you nullify the grace of God (2:21), you step out of sync with the truth of the gospel (2:14), and you remove the stumbling block of the cross (5:11). 

As close as it may sound to the truth, as close as it may seem to be tied to the apostles, it is another gospel, which is no gospel (1:7), and those who follow it will be accursed and cut off from Christ (1:8, 9). It appears that some Christian denominations of professing Christians who claim to have Moses on their side are teaching that it is not enough to trust in the salvation we received in Christ for our righteousness. They claim you must live a “Holy” life by keeping the law of Moses otherwise you are still a sinner and you make Christ an agent of sin. So your eternal life is not really eternal yet and you will not know if you have eternal life until after you die and get judged by God Hence their prayers “May we make it to heaven on the last day after judgment”. They believe that the work Jesus did on the Cross which he boldly declared “It is finished” was not finished yet. You have to supplement it with “works of the law”, with performance, with what you can do for Christ. They have taken away grace which is the free gift of God and introduced a transctional message in which you must do something for God if you want God to do something for you. You must give a dangerous seed for God to give you a dangerous blessing You must give God your first month’s salary or income for God to bless your career and your business. You must give God your tithe for things not to be tight for you. You must receive pastoral permission to travel or take any step in life so that you can remain under the covering of pastoral blessings. You must adhere to a dress code provided by the church for you to be accepted as a born-again Christian. Outward appearances that can easily be copied and mimicked by anyone became the standard by which we measure who is heaven-bound and who is not.

The Galatian church was one of the first churches to fall for these religious messages. A lot of churches all over Africa have fallen for the same message and doctrine today. Their General Overseers have become like God unto them and they had progressively grown a slavish mentality that makes them question their divine standing and godship daily God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”:
Psalms 82:2-8 “2 How long will you[a] defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?[b] 3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. 5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’ 7 But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.” 8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance. They make a god of men and they serve these men, forgetting that they themselves are gods by right. I have said “Ye are Gods and Children of the Most High” but if you refuse to know this and understand this, if you choose to walk on in darkness, you will die like mere mortals”

The reason many Christians are afflicted and have become victims in life is that they have refused to acknowledge that their divine status was bequeathed upon them by Jesus the moment they became a born again Christian. They want to become what they already are by hard work and adherence to rules, laws, doctrines and standards not set for them by God but by men. They have been bewitched by a trust in their own strength. They forget that by their own strength, they can never prevail Learn from the Galatian church, rest in the finished work of Christ today. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, you have eternal life, you are the sinless generation in Christ! Blessed be God. 

–GSW–