If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my two decades as a professional journalist, it’s that a lot of people simply don’t want the truth. They love their personal comfort/security level more.

Whether it’s the emotional escapism that comes from dancing the “Jitter Bug Jesus,” or somberly kneeling in “holy awe” before a “man of the cloth” inside a grand cathedral, the reality is a lot of Christians are scared to actually sit and think about exactly what they’re doing when they go to church.

Paul says in Gal. 2:9, “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?. . . Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

“People make distinctions between law and grace but don’t make distinctions between Israel and the Body of Christ—between the prophetic program of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry and the mystery program given to Paul—and you know what happens as a result?” says my pastor, Richard Jordan. “They lose the ability to maintain the distinction between law and grace. You can’t get people out of the law program by following the book of John or Matthew, or the early part of Acts. You know why? Because they’re under the law program. It’s the Messianic law, but it’s still the law program. You can only get grace through Paul’s program.

“I had a five-year-old girl come up to me one morning as I was heading for the service, and I said, ‘Are you going to go into the meeting?’ and she answered, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Why not?’ and she said, ‘Borrring.’

“Well, for a five-year-old it would be, wouldn’t it? That’s why you send her to children’s church and they play some games, feed you some snacks and do a little flannelgraph for you. Now, we do that here up to 10 years old, but if you go to a church for Baby Boomers and they’re still doing that for adults, well, that’s a church designed for foolish Galatians.”

When Paul uses the word “bewitched” in connection with the Galatians, he’s talking about them being put under the spell of the Adversary.

“If you put the evil eye on somebody, what does that mean?” says Jordan. “You know what witches did in the Bible? Take the witch of Endor in I Sam 28:7. Saul wanted to talk to Samuel, who was dead, so she goes out and does her thing and Samuel comes up.

“Witches communicate with dead people. To be bewitched is to go back—the supernatural attempt by the Adversary is to put you under a spell that goes back and resurrects something God said is dead.

“So here’s a program God’s set aside, and said isn’t operating anymore, but Christian people try to bring it back on them, and Paul says, ‘What’s happened is you’ve been put under the spell of a witch. You’ve been bewitched.’

When Paul talks about the Galatians being foolish, you see another reference to it Gal 2:17: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.”

Jordan says, “What I’ve discovered through the years is people like to quote Gal. 2:20 (‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’) but they don’t pay attention to the context. And if you ask them about the context, most people draw a blank.

“In Chapter 2, Paul has defined and defended his apostleship and now his message. And then, after he talks about how these people back here endorsed his message, he talks to you in verse 11 and following about how Peter even came down to Antioch. Peter goes to Antioch, eats with the Gentiles, then, in verse 12, somebody comes from James.

“Here comes the denominational leaders from James up there and they’re going to catch Peter not acting according to his religion, and so for fear of the Jews, Peter separates himself. He was living with the Gentiles, eating their pork and bacon and eggs and pork roast, acting like there wasn’t any difference because he learned in Acts 10 that it was okay to eat all that stuff.

“But when the Jews came along with their rules and regulations and all the legal stuff that they had from the system he’d been a part of, he separates himself and he caused a big mess. In verses 12 and 13, other Jews descended.

“Now Paul’s going to withstand him to the face, verse 11 says. Who was to be blamed? Peter was. In verses 14-16, Paul explains what he said to Peter and what the problem was.

“Verse 2:17 is Paul’s conclusion. When you read down through that passage, it’s kind of hard to tell where Paul quit talking to Peter, and when he starts talking to the Galatians. And whether you think Paul said all this to Peter or not, the point is verse 17 is Paul’s conclusion about Peter’s conduct: ‘If while we seek to be justified by Christ we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?’

“People really get bound up about that verse. If you just notice he says ‘if.’ This verse is an argument. ‘If we’re going to be justified by Christ (and that’s what he says back in verse 16) then therefore who produced sin?’

“Well, if you’re justified by Christ, and then you’re found sinners, then who is it that produced your status as sinners? Christ? That’s the logic they used and Paul said, ‘NO!’

“If you’re justified by Christ, are you found a sinner? No. What are you found? You’re a saint. You see the whole thing rests on what is your identity now that you’re justified in Christ. And now that you’ve been justified in Christ, if you still think of yourself as a sinner who needs to gain acceptance before God through your performance, then you make Christ the author, not of righteousness, but of sin. You see that?

“That’s why verse 21 says, ‘I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.’ Boy, people hate that verse in the King James Bible because the (corrupt) Greek text (behind all the new versions) doesn’t say ‘Christ is dead in vain.’ It says ‘Christ died in vain.’ Their verse says He’s dead. Is He dead? He’s not dead; He’s alive today! But that verse says He’s dead!’

“There’s an argument going on here. If you think that righteousness comes to you by your performance, than Jesus Christ is dead. You’re saying, ‘The death of Christ didn’t put away my sin completely and totally,’ and if that’s true, could He have been resurrected? No, the only way He could be resurrected if He completely put away sin.

“So to say you need righteousness to get justified, or to have right living in your life as a Believer, which is what the Galatians were saying. . . If you’re saying you’re going to get it on your own basis, you’re saying the Cross wasn’t enough and therefore Jesus Christ is still dead!

“The whole thing revolves around how do you identify yourself? If you’re justified by Jesus Christ, how do you understand that impact in your life? If you say that wasn’t enough to make you a saint, and that’s what Peter did—Peter fell back under the idea that, ‘In order to be accepted, I’ve got to separate and go back under the law.’

Paul explains in verse 18, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor,” meaning, “If I put the law back up, what does the law do? It condemns me. Why? Because I don’t do it all.”

The law program says a person is a “debtor to the whole law,” so if you put yourself under the law, the law just says, “Eehh, sinner, sinner, sinner.”

Paul says we’re ‘made complete in Christ’ and ‘blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.’ We’re made perfect in Him.

“There’s not anything you need before God to be accepted, or to have a fully functioning effervescent, victorious Christian life that you don’t already have in Christ,” says Jordan. “Every time you go to God and say, ‘Oh, lord, would you forgive me,’ he says, ‘I already have!’ Well, why keep asking him for something He’s already done?! Why not thank Him for what He’s done and let what He’s done have an impact in your life?!

“Grace is victory and law is defeat because grace is who God’s made you in Christ and that’s what God’s doing. He didn’t put you under the law; He put you in His grace. He’s made you a saint and He’s given you life in Christ, and going back to all that law program stuff, and all those attempts on your own. . . Chapter 4:21 says, ‘Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?’

“You see, people want to trust their ability. Even as Believers you do. You want to trust your wisdom to solve problems. And you want to believe that grandma knew better than, say, Brother Rick, and you want to trust all the things that you do, and Paul says all of that stuff is what God put away when He left you with only one thing to rest in.

“I think one of the greatest definitions of faith is rest. Just relax. Take a deep breath. Shake it all out and relax. And you say, ‘But if I do that I’ll lose . . .’ Whatever you think you’re going to lose, you’re going to lose anyway.

“What are you scared of losing? Can I tell you death’s going to take it all anyway? The fact is everything you struggle so hard not to lose is temporary anyway. And all the things that you’ll never lose that are eternal—that are yours in Christ—you can’t lose.

“Paul says in II Cor. 4:18, ‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.’

“Now that doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate the things that are seen. It’s just a difference between walking by faith and walking by sight, and when you get all uptight, just shake it out. And sit down and relax in Christ—in the absolute complete total victory that you have in Him. You know, when you have the most trouble believing that is when you’re conscious of your failures, isn’t it? But you can say, ‘You know, nobody else might accept me, but Christ does.’ ”

In Galatians 5:4, Paul argues in a sarcastic manner, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Jordan explains, “Paul says, ‘Can you be justified by the law?,’ so you know he’s making an argument. He’s being sarcastic. You wouldn’t think Paul would do that, would you? You don’t know preachers then. The Galatians are saying, ‘We’re being justified by the law,’ and he’s saying, ‘All right, you guys who professed to be justified by the law—you know what you do when you try to bring righteousness into your life? Bring holiness into your life? Bring right living into your life by your performance? You make what Jesus Christ did for you of NO effect.’

“When you get under a performance-based system to serve and please God, you temporarily take the impact of your identity of Jesus Christ and make it inoperative in your life.

“When he says ‘of none effect,’ to understand that, look at I Corinthians 1:17 where Paul testifies, ‘For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.’

“He’s saying, ‘You know all about the gospel but it has no impact in your life. You know all about Christ, but it has no impact in the experience of your life on a daily basis.’

“Do you know why it is when you look back over the last 2-3 hours of your life, and then broaden it out to the last 2-3 years, that you see you on the pages of the diary of your life and not Christ? It’s because you were doing it. It was you and not Him.

“Now, I don’t know about you, but if God said to me, ‘What five minutes would you like to take of your life, and I’ll let all of your eternity hang on that five minutes,’ I don’t have five minutes I’d want to put on the table! I mean, I wouldn’t even put five minutes when I was asleep!

“Folks, if you think you’re Israel, you’re never going to understand who you really are in Christ. But knowing that distinction isn’t enough—you need to find out who God made you in Christ and what that means—what it means for Him to forgive you, totally, completely, and forever, and for sure, and why you don’t need to keep begging God to forgive you, and every time you mess up, think, ‘Oh, man, I messed up, what’s He going to do to me now?’

“You don’t need I John 1:9 (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”) in your life. It never was in your life, by the way. It was written by a circumcision apostle for the people over in the tribulation.

“Right division alone helps you with that. But you need to understand who you are to know what it means to be ‘accepted in the beloved’; what it means to be ‘chosen in Him before the foundation of the world,’ and a part of this great cosmic plan God has to exult His Son as the head of all things in the universe, and how He’s made you a part of that.

“You ever get disgusted and mad with yourself? You know what I found out? I found out people can beat you up pretty good, but there is nobody who beats you up as bad as you do? You know that? In your self talk you’re tough on yourself. The help—the answer—is in Christ, and when you live under a performance-based acceptance program, you don’t get any help from who you are in Christ. It renders it completely profitless.

“You can be alive in Christ and not walk in it. That’s a terrible thing, and the law will temporarily ruin a Believer’s walk with the Lord. You’ve got victory in Christ—every Believer does—but entanglement with the law and with performance-based acceptance, kills the opportunity to experience grace in the details of your life, and that’s why Paul says, ‘Oh, foolish Galatians who have bewitched you,’ because that’s what’s happened to them.

“When Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that you ‘may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,’ the comprehension comes in your mind so that you might have some understanding that gets down into your soul, and your faith can rest in it, and it produces life in you.”