Paul takes the Galatians back to their first exposure to the message of Christ crucified. In verse 1, which is one sentence in the Greek text, the reminder of their vision of Christ crucified is set over against their foolish acquiescence to a bewitching influence. In other words, Paul is asking them how they could have succumbed to any other influence, no matter how charming and intoxicating, after they had once seen Christ portrayed as crucified.

This initial question reveals the nature of Paul's evangelistic preaching as he founded the churches in Galatia. His use of the term portrayed means that his preaching was like painting a picture with words or putting up a public poster for all to see. The perfect tense of the verb crucified indicates that Paul's vivid portrayal of Christ crucified was not only of the historical event but also of the present, saving power of the cross of Christ for all who believe in him.

Paul's first question drives us along with the original readers back to the foot of the cross of Christ. This is the place to find release from any enchantment that draws us away from Christ. We need a renewed vision of Christ crucified if we are to gain freedom from illusions of perfection through law observance, for such a vision is a vivid reminder that the cross, not human achievement, is the basis of God's blessing. Paul's questions move from the experience of the preaching of the cross of Christ (v. 1) to the experience of the Spirit (vv. 2-5). The two are linked: the cross opens the door for the Spirit, and the experience of the Spirit is the result of faith in the message of the cross of Christ.

The Galatian believers are taken back to the beginning, when they first received the Spirit by believing the message of the cross of Christ: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? (v. 2). The evidence of the Spirit's entrance into their lives in that conversion experience must have been undeniably clear for Paul to use it as a reference point in his argument. Their baptism (3:27) and the full assurance of the Father's love given by the Spirit (4:6; compare Rom 5:5; 8:15-16) left an indelible mark on their life. The reference to miracles in verse 5 is evidence that they also experienced outward manifestations of the Spirit's presence.

The readers are taken back to the roots of their spiritual experience to remind them that the beginning was a gift of God's Spirit. The renewal of this perspective destroys the delusion that God's blessing depends on joining a group (in this case the Jewish people) or attaining a certain level of moral excellence (observing the law of Moses). The Galatian converts were excluded from the Jewish nation, and they had not observed the law; but there was no denying that they had experienced God's blessing, the gift of his Spirit.

Paul formulates his question in verse 2 as a sharp antithesis designed to break the bewitching spell of the intruders by showing the contradiction between the Galatians' recent interest in observing the law and their initial experience of believing what you heard (see also v. 5). The readers are confronted with a clear choice between mutually exclusive alternatives. They are not permitted to accept the both-and synthesis of the intruders. It is an either-or choice.

The meaning of the alternatives needs to be clarified. We have already observed in our study of 2:15-16 that observing the law has specific reference to regulations of the Jewish community which maintained their distinctive national identity. In other words, Paul is reminding his converts that they did not need to become Jewish proselytes in order to receive the Spirit in the first place (v. 2) or to experience the continuous outpouring of the Spirit and miracles in their lives (v. 5).

The meaning of the phrase observing the law is further clarified by the reference to human effort in verse 3. Actually, human effort is the NIV translation of the word "flesh" in this verse. At the end of the letter Paul tells the Galatian believers that the intruders in their churches "want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh" (6:13). In that reference "flesh" refers to circumcised flesh. In other words, the intruders want to be able to boast that the Gentile believers have become Jews. So in the light of this understanding of "flesh" in verse 3, observing the law refers principally, though not exclusively, to circumcision of the flesh and other practices that serve as marks of Jewish identity. Paul is saying that it is not necessary to take on a new racial or cultural identity in order to experience the Spirit.