Bewitched by the Gospel of Jesus
Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29

As some of you know, my father was a career foreign service officer for our nation’s State Department. He represented our country in a variety of capacities over his long career. When I was in high school, my father was appointed to lead our nation’s diplomatic efforts in the Republic of South Africa. It was the early 1970s. Apartheid was still the law of the land in South Africa. In case you do not know, apartheid was a policy of racial discrimination that restricted where black people could live, what kind of jobs they could hold, and how much they could participate in the political process. During my father’s tenure in South Africa, I remained in the United States and attended boarding school because the language and educational systems were very different. However, I spent my summers with my parents in South Africa.

My father’s position also included a very fine residence equipped with a full staff. We had cooks, butlers, maids, gardeners, and chauffeurs! One day my mother received word that Wright, the Chief Butler, was gravely ill. My mother went to Wright’s room at the residence to inquire about his condition. She offered to summon a doctor. Wright thanked her but said a doctor could not help him. My mother discovered in due course that the Chief Cook, whose name was Maggie, had cursed Wright. Wright was just waiting to die. It turned out that Maggie, in addition to being an excellent cook, was also something of a witch doctor!

My mother called a doctor who examined Wright, but there was nothing physically wrong with him. The doctor suggested that my mother convince the cook to lift the curse! My mother spoke to Maggie privately and politely asked her to lift the curse. She also told Maggie that if she did not lift the curse, she could not continue as the Chief Cook! Maggie grudgingly agreed and lifted the curse, and Wright soon recovered. This was only one of many bizarre experiences my mother encountered managing the staff of an embassy residence.

Wright was literally bewitched, and it seems he would have died of the curse if Maggie had not relented at my mother’s urging. The experience of being bewitched literally is highly unusual and uncommon in our culture, but the experience of being bewitched metaphorically is more common to us.

When two people fall in love, it is as if they have come under a magic spell of mutual attraction and fascination. The same can be said of charismatic political or ideological leaders. If you have ever watched movies of Adolf Hitler speaking to crowds of tens of thousands of Germans, you get the feeling that he was casting a spell over his audience. Hitler’s intoxicating diatribes had horrific results. Thankfully, there are also positive examples of leaders who used their hortatory gifts for good. I think of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered to a massive crowd at the Lincoln Memorial. To be judged by the content of our character instead of by the color of our skin is still a powerful ideal for our nation.

In this morning’s reading from the epistle to the Galatians, Paul asks the Galatian Christians, “Who bewitched you?” Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. He evangelized and organized churches throughout the Roman empire. Galatians is the earliest of Paul’s letters. It reflects the early spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to the northeastern Roman province of Bithynia, which is modern-day Turkey. Right behind Paul came Christians from Jerusalem who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees. They told the Gentile Christians that trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection to receive the forgiveness of sin and the hope of eternal life was not enough. They also had to observe the Jewish law, and male Gentile Christians had to submit to the rite of circumcision. Unless they kept the Jewish law and were circumcised, they were not part of God’s chosen people; they were not saved. The effect of the Pharisaic Christians' bewitching version of Christianity was to divide the church and to threaten the salvation of Gentile Christians.

This was much more than a fine theological point or a nuanced understanding of Christianity. Paul emphatically denied the Pharisaic Christian message as damning, dangerous and divisive. Listen to what Paul wrote in Gal. 1:6-9. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!” Paul goes so far as to pronounce a curse of his own upon this spurious gospel.

This remains the litmus test for authentic Christianity. If anyone tells you that you must trust in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and the hope of everlasting life and then quickly adds other moral, theological, or ritual requirements, you know you are hearing bewitching words. Trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and the hope of everlasting life plus anything else is a false gospel that is a danger to your soul and to the unity of the body of Christ.

Unfortunately, this is not just an arcane problem of the early church that is now part of the dustbin of church history. There is a strong human tendency to add human requirements to the gospel. For instance, fundamentalist Christians tell us, “Trust in Jesus, but Jesus must also be the unrivaled Lord of every aspect of your life according to our understanding of the Bible, and you must be a baptized member of our church to be a genuine Christian." Racist Christian ideologies say, “Trust in Jesus Christ, but you must also be part of our racial group.” Progressive Christians say, “Trust in Jesus Christ, but you must also fight against systemic racism, gender inequality, and climate change to be an authentic Christian.” Conservative Christians say, “Trust in Jesus Christ, but you must also embrace traditional values and a conservative political platform to be truly Christian.” Although people are usually not this direct in presenting their versions of a “Jesus-plus” Christianity, there are numerous other gospels floating around in our culture.

Paul warns us to beware of them all, but Paul’s message to the Galatians was not only the denunciation of a false gospel. He also affirmed the true gospel and its fruits.

The first thing about the simple and true gospel of trust in Jesus’ death for the forgiveness of sins and in Jesus’ resurrection for the hope of eternal life is that we receive the Holy Spirit by faith. Look at verses two and five of our text. “The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?” Trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection for salvation confers the Holy Spirit.

Further, it is the Holy Spirit in us who assures us we are God’s genuine children. As Paul will say in Galatians 4:6, “And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Certainty about our relationship with God comes from the Holy Spirit in us, not any external set of requirements.

Paul shows that the principle of trust was always at the heart of God’s plan. In verses 6-9, he returns to the example of Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham trusted in God and God’s promises before circumcision was required or before the law was given to Moses. Trusting in God and God’s promise was what put Abraham into a right relationship with God. Similarly, trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection is what puts us in a right relationship with God and imparts the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father,” is the assurance that we are children of God and part of God’s chosen people.

God’s law (external requirements) played no role in Abraham’s justification, nor does it play a role in our salvation. The law was given to humans to keep us in check until Christ came. The basic purpose of God’s law is to restrain evil. In verses 23-26, Paul calls the law a disciplinarian who imprisoned and guarded humanity. “Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore, the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”

By faith and by the Holy Spirit, we are assured that we are all children of God. Now there is a new internal reality that is guiding our lives, guiding what we believe and do. What guides and constrains us now is not the works of the law but the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” (Gal. 5:22-23).

Essentially, what Paul is saying, which is something radical and revolutionary, is that external markers no longer determine who is a child of God or who is included in God’s chosen people. Faith has come. The gift of the Holy Spirit has been given. Through the sacrament of baptism, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and clothed with Christ. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal 3:27). The old human markers of identity have been supplanted and surpassed. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (vs. 28).
Nationality or race (Jew or Greek), social status (slave or free), and even gender (male or female) are no longer what really matters.

Trusting in Jesus’ death for our sins and his resurrection for our mortality bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit, who testifies that we are children of God. We are no longer under the disciplinarian of the law. The works of the law cannot and never could save or assure us.

Being baptized into the body of Christ and being clothed with Christ are what sets us apart and places us in the new community of God’s chosen people. We belong to Christ; we are Abraham’s spiritual children; we have inherited the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. We are truly blessed. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (vs. 28).

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Beware of anyone who would bewitch you with a “Jesus-plus” gospel. There is no other gospel besides grace alone, in Christ alone, by faith alone. Let us come under the spell of the true gospel. Let us be bewitched by Jesus Christ’s mighty acts for us. Let us never turn from this new way of life and liberty.

Thanks be to God for the grace to trust in Jesus. Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit who testifies in us. Thanks be to God for baptism into Christ’s body and the garment of Christ who covers and cloths us. Alleluia! Amen.