Galatians 3:5
"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?" Galatians 3:5. It has been a few weeks since we have been here in Galatians. Let us quickly recap. The Galatians had allowed false teachers to come in and teach. They were swayed by these false teachers. These false teachers were preaching a false gospel. There is only one true Gospel, anything else is a perversion that takes people away from Christ, not to Him. These false teachers were convincing the Galatians that in order to be saved and to stay saved you must adhere to the Mosaic Law and be circumcised. As appealing to the flesh as this is, it is not God's prescribed plan. No one works to be saved, and no one works to stay saved. We are saved by grace through faith, and both are gifts of God. Our salvation is secure because it is God who saves us, and He keeps us saved. No one can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8).
Paul, as directed by the Holy Spirit, writes this letter of rebuke to the Galatians. How stern is this rebuke? More than once Paul calls them stupid (Galatians 3:1, 3). The Galatians were taught the truth, but they were bewitched by false teachers. This has a snowball effect. This is a slippery slope away from truth. Man ends up replacing the Holy Spirit with works of the flesh (verse 3). God is not working how you think He should work so you fabricate what appears to be spiritual, but is in fact simply a working of the flesh. This is evident in the shallow theology that is produced through this. Shallow theology results in sinful living. People become more concerned with what the Scriptures mean to me, than what the Scriptures actually mean. You end up with shallow theology, if any theology, and people who are focused on self, not on Christ. Those who are focused on self will not serve others, but will want others to serve them.
We have learned through this study that we cannot live for Jesus Christ without the aid of the Holy Spirit. We are learning that we serve Him and others by that which the Holy Spirit furnishes us. What is it that the Holy Spirit furnishes us? Gifts of the Spirit. Let us continue this study by again looking at the definition for the word "Spirit" in verse 5. The definition is, "Specifically, of the empowerment imparted by the Holy Spirit on and after the day of Pentecost, by which the apostles and early Christians were endowed with high supernatural qualifications for their work; knowledge equivalent to a full knowledge of gospel truth and the power of prophesying, working miracles, and speaking with languages previously unknown to them; all done in evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit." These supernatural qualifications were given to the early Christians to validate the messenger and the message. The question always comes up, are all these gifts still in use today? The answer comes from the Scriptures, and is validated by history.
When Galatians was written, all of these gifts were still in use. Galatians is the first epistle Paul wrote. The next epistle Paul wrote was I Corinthians. Paul does not give a list or explanations of the gifts in Galatians, but they fully understood what he was talking about. In I Corinthians Paul does give a list, and he also points out how they were being misused (chapters 12-14). Like the Galatians, the Corinthians were trending away from sound theology. The Corinthians looked at the sign gifts as being the most desirous because they got the most attention. They were no longer serving Christ in the Spirit, but in the flesh. The problem here is that we cannot serve Christ in the flesh, because we end up serving self. Simply put, we cannot serve Christ in the flesh (I Corinthians 3:12-15).
As we continue looking at spiritual gifts, we must remember that we cannot choose our gifts (I Corinthians 12:1-11). "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will," I Corinthians 12:11. We cannot choose our gifts, not should we covet someone else's gifts. God has saved you, and furnished you with what He wants you to have, to be used for His glory in and through His church. When you want someone else's gift you will not appreciate your gift from God, and you will not be using it. Can you picture a church gathering together and all of them are wanting those gifts that get the most attention? It would be utter chaos. That is what you find at the church of Corinth. Look at I Corinthians 12:27-31. Plainly put, Paul is telling them not to desire what you do not have. If you do, then you will resort to the flesh. You will fabricate what appears to be spiritual, but in fact is simply a working of the flesh. These people end up putting on a show within the walls of a building, but they do not take this to the world because it is not of God. We can fast forward to today and ask this question, where are all these so called faith healers? Why aren't they at the hospitals, nursing homes, on the streets healing people from addictions etc. They are not at those public places because they cannot do what they pretend to do. Behind their walls they can put on a show. They can move people with great feelings, emotions, and experiences. They are good at dealing with psychosomatics, but not real sicknesses. Those who are not under sound doctrine will be moved by these charlatans. This is another reason it is so important to be part of a church that teaches sound doctrine and upholds the Scripture as its final authority.
Let us turn to Romans 12. Remember that we mentioned early that the question always comes up about which gifts are still in use today, and that we find the answer in the Scriptures which are validated by history. Galatians briefly speaks of the gifts, while I Corinthians rebukes the misuse of the gifts. These were the first epistles Paul wrote. It is interesting, and should be a red flag, that the sign gifts are not mentioned in any other epistle. The gifts that are mentioned in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and I Peter 4 are the gifts that are still in use in the church today. These gifts are also the ones that are most beneficial for the church today. We do not see the miraculous sign gifts because they were ending. They were temporary gifts to validate the message of the messenger. By the end of the first century the sign gifts were no longer in use. We do not hear about them again until the early 1900's. A detailed study on the last 120 years will show how unbiblical these sign gifts of today are.
The church must strive to preach, teach, and receive sound doctrine. If we do not, we will find ourselves being bewitched like the Galatians. Lord willing we will learn more next time about the Spiritual gifts that are still in use in the Lord's church today. Until then I want to encourage you to carefully examine yourself by the Scriptures to make sure you have not been bewitched.
Please send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com Soli Deo Gloria.
