What does "who has bewitched you?" mean (Galatians 3:1)?

‘What has happened?’Paul asked, “Who has bewitched you?”but he did not answer it. We do not know exactly what Paul referred to here; perhaps the Judaizers had even used witchcraft in order to influence the Galatians. We do not know but what we can be certain of is that there had been a strong influence and that they had been carried away. They were fascinated by the new teaching of these Judaizers just as they had been fascinated by Paul’s teaching, as we see in the same verse as indicated by this expression, “Jesus Christ has been portrayed and crucified among you.”They had been even ready to give their own eyes in order to help Paul (4:15). They had been very impressed at the time that Paul had been there. However, a merely intellectual or emotional impression can easily be replaced and that is exactly what happened.

In this section Paul is asking six questions. This is the first one. The answers are so obvious they are not given. They were bewitched, they were fascinated by this new kind of teaching that had come after Paul had left them, that which Paul called “another gospel,”a counterfeit. The enemy was at work then, and he is at work also in our days in many circles, in many ways, and we are not immune. So we have to cast ourselves on the Lord, that He will protect us and that we might have the right attitude so that we do not do things just because we are impressed but rather because Christ has gotten hold of us. “Christ crucified”would be a study in itself, to see what that means, Christ taking the place of the curse.

"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?" Every word of scripture is important. "Who hath bewitched you?" How little they had been aware that those false brethren who had turned their eyes from Jesus Christ crucified, to something else, were under the power of witchcraft. That is, that they were the ministers of Satan, under the power and guidance of a false, evil spirit. To Paul it was either this witchcraft or the Spirit of God.

The Apostle had just written the words: "The Son of God loved me and gave up Himself on my behalf." That was the theme, the center, the substance of Paul's message. "Christ died for our sins." 1 Cor. 15:3. You remember when he went to Corinth he determined in himself not to know anything except "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. Paul had told this story until the Galatians had, as it were, seen Him with their own eyes nailed on the cross over against them. He had publicly placarded "Jesus Christ crucified" before them."

The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself up for me. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was grace, all unspeakable grace: but the Galatian Christians had "set aside God's grace" and had chosen the law. The Galatian Christians had turned their eyes away from Christ crucified, and were looking for righteousness to come by the law. If this is true, "then Christ died for nothing!" The very thought makes Paul indignantly exclaim, "O senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Who has fascinated you? Who has cast on you 'the evil eye'?" How well can we in China understand this question! How many a mother is afraid that someone may "cast the evil eye" on one of her children! How many are frightened of witchcraft! So was it in Galatia. The Galatians also knew all about these things of heathendom; and Paul uses this that they will so well understand, to show that it was the devil's evil work, not the work of God to turn their eyes away from Christ to the law. These false teachers were nothing better than the heathen fortunetellers about them, practicing witchcraft, and they had bewitched the Galatians.

THE APOSTLE CALLS them "foolish" or senseless, for they had not themselves had the spiritual sense to see whither these false teachers had been leading them. They had been like men bewitched, and under a spell of evil, and they had been led to the brink of the awful conclusion that Christ had died for nothing — that His death had been in fact a huge mistake! On the edge of this precipice they were standing, and the Apostle's pungent reasoning had come as a flash of light amidst their darkness, revealing their danger!

What made their folly so pronounced was the fact that formerly there had been such a faithful preaching among them of Christ crucified. Paul himself had evangelized them, and as with the Corinthians so with the Galatians, the cross had been his great theme. It was as though Christ had been crucified before their very eyes.

Moreover, as a result of receiving the word of the cross, which Paul brought, they had received the Holy Spirit, as verse 2 implies. Well, in what way and on what principle had they received the Spirit? By the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? There was but one answer to this question. For the Galatians to reply, "We received the Spirit by the works of the law," was an absolute impossibility, as Paul knew right well.

In the light of this we may more fully appreciate the indignant outburst of the apostle in Galatians 1. They had been brought into the enjoyment of the grace of Christ by God Himself who had called them into it. They had now listened to "another gospel" which based itself upon circumcision, the symbol of law-keeping. To exchange Christ for the law of Moses, to embrace the demands of the law instead of the grace of Christ, and thus depart from the One who had called them out of the one and into the other, was such incredible folly that the apostle marvelled. They were like people "bewitched," and in Galatians 3:1, he plainly calls them "foolish" or "senseless." Later on he has to say, "I stand in doubt of you" (Gal. 4:20).

He appeals to them, however, in the first place, as having received that Spirit of Christ which was the distinctive feature of Christianity. It was nothing less than a bewitchment for them now not to obey the truth, when Christ Himself — Christ crucified, as announced in the gospel, yet in the power of His grace — had been received in faith and owned by them. It was in consequence of their reception of Him that the Spirit was given. Manifestly through all the dispensation of law there was nothing like this. There was no Spirit of adoption. It had never come to any by the works of the law. It now came in universally as the result of the hearing of faith. As has often been said, if it were declared in the Old Testament that God was a Father to Israel, this was the very opposite of owning as His family those who were truly His children — for all were not of the true Israel even, that were Israelites. It was a nation in the flesh that God had been pleased to take up, and to put them in a certain relation to Himself not in that spiritual relation which Christianity implied, for as to any of this people of God, there was no settlement of the eternal question. They might drop out of this place into hell. There was no security as to those in mere Judaism. Thus the Galatians had experience of the power of the gospel and of its being a power which the Jew, as such, knew nothing of. They had suffered, too, for the gospel, as the apostle implies. Was it all a mistake? Had it been in vain? The Spirit was "ministered" manifestly through those who preached the gospel to them and who preached, as would ordinarily be the case then, with accompanying signs and wonders on God's part, in witness to His word. Was it by the works of the law (according to that principle) that these things were wrought, or according to the opposite manner of the hearing of faith? The law said doing, not hearing. The gospel said hearing, not doing.

"0 foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" (v.1). Little wonder, as Paul considers the principles and tremendous issues involved, that he speaks out in words of earnest remonstrance and entreaty. Had it not been portrayed before their very eyes, preached with diligent insistence, that Jesus Christ had been crucified? Would they again exchange the blessedness and joy of the knowledge of the Son of God, who had willingly given Himself for them, for the hard, cold requirements of the Law that could give nothing? Would they lightly turn away from the sight of the bitter agony of Calvary's cross and from the sight of the world's most respected professors of law keeping (Scribes and Pharisees, etc.) pouring contempt, insult and injury upon the Son of God? Would they turn from His cry of tender compassion from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Lk.23:34) or from the heartrending cry of pain and anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mt.27:46). Nothing can be so dreadful as turning away from Christ. Nowhere else is there a ray of hope. It is choosing darkness rather than light, death rather than life. Of course, it had not come to this with the Galatians (and indeed God would not allow it to go to such an extent with any believer) but Paul is not careless in warning them what estrangement of heart from Christ might lead to, for he was alarmed in regard to what sort of attitude they might eventually hold toward Christ if the Law assumed a place of importance in their eyes.

So grave was the departure that the apostle is moved to exclaim with feelings of deep emotion, "O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you?" How great was their folly in turning to the law for righteousness after having known the grace of the gospel. It seemed as if a bewitching power was drawing them away from divine grace. in which the doctrine of the Cross of Christ had been conspicuously presented to them; desiring to add their own supposed righteousness to the justification procured on the principle of faith; or having recourse to a system of ordinances to make up for their defect in righteousness. In both cases it is the fascination of law preventing them from looking to the Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone righteousness can be found. Observe how strong is the expression. "before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you." The publicity and prominence which the apostle gave to the doctrine of the cross was that of a proclamation set forth by authority in the most frequented part of the city. The doctrine of the cross strikes at the deeply imbedded roots of all man's pretensions to wisdom, righteousness and strength: and it is this that still makes this doctrine offensive to them: but how acceptable it is to those who know that through the cross, God was "making an end of sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness."

Then the apostle asks, Did you receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by believing the testimony of the finished work of Christ? The Spirit is God's seal on those who believe the gospel, who have come under the efficacy of Jesus' blood; a work to which the flesh can add nothing. God had given them His Spirit that all might be wrought in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Moreover they had been sufferers: was it because of their attempts to keep the law, or because of their confession of Christ? How easy the answer to such questions.

There was folly in looking to the law for righteousness after they had known the grace of the gospel. The grace of the gospel had been presented to them most conspicuously in the doctrine of the Cross of Christ, but there was a 'bewitching' power which drew them off from the Cross, and made them turn to the law for righteousness. It was as though the law had set its eyes on them, like the snake on its victims, so that they were utterly powerless to get away from it. No language can more forcibly present to us what the law really is; whether moral or ceremonial, we need not enquire, for the Scripture regards the law as a whole. Some would fain add their own moral righteousness as a make-weight in the scale of their justification; others have recourse to a system of ordinances, to make up for the defect of moral righteousness; but, in either case, it is the fascinating power of law which prevents them from looking to Jesus Christ, as the object which God proposes for righteousness to every one that believeth. Again, how strong is the expression, "before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." The publicity and prominence which the apostle gave to the doctrine of the Cross, was that of a proclamation set forth by authority in the most frequented parts of the city. Such appears to be the force of 'set forth.' Had the eye of the Galatians been fixed on the cross of Christ, they would not have turned to law for righteousness. When the doctrine of the Cross is set forth in all its stern truth, it is God's verdict against man's pretensions to wisdom, or righteousness, or strength; and it is this which makes that doctrine still offensive. But at the same time, the doctrine is full of comfort to those who know it; for it is the "making an end of sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness."

Verse 1. "O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you," etc. His speech is rough and unceremonious, such as charity is wont to use when seeking to pull out of the fire those who are unconscious of their danger. These much-loved children, whom in Christ Jesus he had begotten through the gospel, and nourished for a while on the sincere milk of the word, had been living latterly upon the flatteries of Satan, and under their influence were fast sinking into what must prove, if they remained in it a fatal sleep. He hastens, therefore, to shake them rudely from their slumbers, and to shame their delusions by the searching words of light and truth. And it cannot be denied that they had doubly earned the opprobrious title which he here confers upon them. They were senseless, in allowing themselves to be imposed on by a class of pretenders, whose call for their subjection to the law of Moses should have been its own immediate refutation in the eyes of those who were already under Christ. They were foolish, also, in that they did not become instinctively aware of their descent from heaven to earth under the false leading of these treacherous guides, who were drawing them, they should have felt, from the green pastures of Immanuel's land to wander in the wastes of Sinai. Who then did bewitch them that the Scriptures, which could make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, should now, by their perversion and false application, be made to defraud them of their proper hope by turning them from grace to works? One answer only can be rightly given to this question. The wizard who then prevailed with his enchantments, is the same father of lies who practises not less successfully in our days.