The Galatians' attraction to the false gospel is so irrational that Paul describes them as "bewitched," as if they have come under a spell. The question posed here ("Who has bewitched you?") is rhetorical. It is not as if Paul does not know or if he is interested in discovering the one responsible for leading his readers astray. And it does not necessarily mean that someone has wielded demonic powers on the Galatians in the process of advancing the false gospel. Rather, "bewitched" corresponds to "foolish," and accentuates the irrational nature of the Galatians' error, especially when considered against the nature of the gospel of Christ, and the force and clarity with which Paul had delivered it to them when they were converted.

He writes, "Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." Of course, the Galatians were not present at the crucifixion, but Paul announced the event and its significance to them through his preaching. He preached with such force and clarity that the event was placarded before their very eyes, and it was as if they had become personal witnesses to the crucifixion. Or as Calvin writes, "By this he suggests that the actual sight of Christ's death could not have affected them more than his preaching." It is in this sense that all believers are witnesses to the Lord Jesus – not as eyewitnesses, but as those who have received the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the life and work of Christ through the testimony of Scripture.

Paul preached to the Galatians "Jesus Christ crucified." And of course he explained to them the significance of the event, that by it Christ had satisfied divine justice, having endured upon himself the wrath of God deserved by the sins of men. As Paul states in 2:21, unless Christ "died for nothing," which is inconceivable, this work of redemption excludes the idea that "righteousness could be gained through the law," and by implication, any other system of belief or ethic.

Since this one truth so clearly excludes the corresponding error, since this true gospel so obviously precludes the false, to Paul it is astoundingly stupid for the Galatians to be led astray by the Judaizers. Somehow they have lost their focus on the truth of Jesus Christ crucified, and are therefore succumbing to error. It is this truth that would now break the spell of heresy upon the Galatians, and the same truth would break the spell of heresy among our congregations today, especially when it comes to the doctrine of justification. If Christ was crucified for our sins, and if his death was not for nothing, then this makes impossible the recent errors that have been advanced on the matter of justification.

Now although the expression might place emphasis on the crucifixion, by "Christ crucified," Paul does not refer only to the crucifixion and the death of Christ to the exclusion of all else, but it seems to be a shorthand that represents the entire gospel. To illustrate, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." But this does not mean that he refused to speak to them about the resurrection!

In fact, later in the same letter when he reminds his readers of "the gospel I preached to you" (15:1), he says he preached "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born" (15:3-8). In other words, he related to them the full account of Christ's redemptive work from both the historical and theological perspectives – not just that "Christ died," but that he "died for our sins according to the Scriptures," and also that "he was raised on the third day."

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