How can you spot a biblical conman?
Text: Galatians 3:1-25
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2025 CrossTalk Global
Brian: History is rife with accounts of morally questionable people who dupe unsuspecting victims into giving them their money. One of the best known con artists in America was Bernie Madoff. In the 1960s, Madoff founded a small trading firm which helped revolutionize the way stocks are traded. This success led him to launch an investment advisory business in the 1990s, where his scheme began. Madoff paid investors with funds from his more recent investors, allowing his earlier investors to enjoy incredibly high returns. It was those high returns and those satisfied investors that allowed Madoff to get away with his scheme for so long that even banks looked the other way. How did he get caught? The 2008 economic crisis caught up with him. As the stock market dropped, many of Madoff's clients started withdrawing money faster than he could attract new investments. When he told his brother and two sons that he had defrauded thousands of people out of hundreds of millions of dollars, they reported him to federal authorities. The next day, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts of fraud, money laundering and perjury and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he later died. Conmen are not only found in the financial district, they also lurk in Christian circles, even among the early churches of Galatia. That's why in Galatians 3, Paul outlines the biblical evidence that exposes Christian con artists from authentic biblical communicators. Join Nathan Norman, Vicki Hitzges and Kent Edwards as they help you learn to spot a biblical con man From Galatians, chapter three, verses one through 25. Welcome to Crosstalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, Dr. Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzges and Nathan Norman continue their discussion through the book of Galatians. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Galatians, chapter three, verses one through 25, as we join their discussion.
Kent: Vicki? Nathan, have you ever known someone who has been conned?
Nathan: Yes, and I don't want to share too personal stories because I don't want to out the people who've been conned because the reason cons work so well is because.
Vicki: Because they're conned.
Nathan: Yeah.
Vicki: I don't know the verb. But they can con you. Yeah, right.
Nathan: Cons don't work because we're stupid. Con works because we're human and they have used our humanness against us. Right. So I have seen people Conned into giving money over potential romantic interests. Hey, I have investment for you. And so they'll invest because they, quote, unquote, trust this person, even though they've only met him on the Internet and never actually seen him face to face. Kristen, my wife's cousin, married a man, and he works in a large financial firm that's working against con Investments. And so I've been chatting with him quite a bit about this. And it's rather incredible how people are conned and what they'll do when they're conned. I mean, there was a situation where I used to live where this lieutenant was telling me this woman had received a phone call who claimed to be her grandson. Help me. I've been traveling out of country and now I've been arrested. And if you don't send me X amount of dollars in gift cards, they'll never let me out of jail. And so, very distressed, she goes to the Dollar Tree and is going to do this. So the police found out about it. The family sent the police. They intercepted her at the Dollar Tree, and they intercept her with the grandson who is purported to have been abducted on the phone saying, grandma, I'm fine. It's me. I'm safe. This is a con. Please don't do it. Governments don't accept gift cards from the Dollar Tree as financial remuneration. And he said, she would not listen to us and we can't detain her.
Vicki: The grandson was right there.
Nathan: The grandson was on the phone.
Vicki: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Nathan: He was on the phone even so. And so this woman's mother was calling her, her son was calling her. No, she wouldn't listen to anybody. So she went in and bought thousands of dollars of gift cards from Dollar Tree to a variety of different places and lost her money. That was how strong of an emotional fear that she had. Even if this is true, it doesn't matter. It's just money I need to save my grandchild.
Vicki: Oh, bless her heart. I gotta say, if her grandson was on the phone, you kind of lost my sympathy for her.
Nathan: But that story happens over and over again. And I could tell you actual stories of people that I've met face to face where that's happened to. And when you look back at the pieces, you say, oh, come on, that's ridiculous. I would never fall for that. But in hindsight, of course, you can see it when you're in the moment of it. I mean, there was just a story a few weeks ago where there was the guy who ran a bank who got Scammed out of millions of dollars over a scam. Yeah. Yeah. So we're not scammed because we're stupid. We're scammed because we're human. And the cons, they can be pretty convincing. They don't play off of our logic, they play off of our emotions, off of our fears. Yes. Better put. Thank you.
Kent: My father in law, who is now with the Lord, almost got conned. He got one of those same phone calls that you're mentioning, Nathan, and your son is in trouble. And this is where you need to send money. And fortunately, he had the foresight to call one of his other sons and tell them what was going on. And it was exposed before he lost any money. Another time, he got one of those things show up in your computer. Your computer's been compromised and all your data is going. And unless you do this, you know, we are. You know, we won't be able to save it. And he, again, he panicked. And fortunately, another son helped him out of that situation, too, to give a little. But cons are everywhere. People are trying to take advantage of others for their own benefit. They want to enrich themselves by preying on other people. That happens in the world. It happens in the church. There are people in our church circles who would like to advance their own cause, advance their own purposes at the expense of others. It happens today. It happened even in the first century among the churches of Galatia. But the book of Galatians makes that clear. Vicky, do you remember what Paul said in chapter two, verse 16?
Vicki: He says, we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
Kent: Well, that's pretty clear, isn't it?
Vicki: It's very clear. You've got to have faith. You're not going to get to heaven by what you do.
Kent: Yeah, but in chapter three, we read that the Judaizers, as you would expect, decided to change that by adding law to the doctrine of justification by faith, they change the element of the gospel. You're not saved just by faith, but faith plus obedience to the law, why is that appealing? Why would that be a. For many people, obviously, in the Church of Galatia, that was a road that they were willing to walk down.
Nathan: There's less faith involved. The appealing thing of works is that I can do something and I can qualify it, and I can say, yes, I have done this. Yes, I have avoided this, therefore, I'm okay with faith. I'm not in the driver's Seat. I have to trust that God can be trusted for what he said would happen.
Kent: Yeah, yeah, that's true. I think also when you say, yes, I have faith, but I also keep the law, that makes me better, right? That differentiates me from the others. So, yeah, you may be a Christian, I may be a Christian, but because I do this and you don't, I'm in a better category. I am higher. I'm elite in that. Every cult that I know of plays to that. Every cult that I know of says, yeah, other people may be okay, but we are in the special group. We feel better about ourselves. We rank ourselves higher, we look down at others. That's tempting. We always wanted to be an elite group. I remember playing hockey as a kid and I was in the house league, which means the lowest you can be, you paid to get on the ice. It was not skill related, but I really wanted to be in the select team. Or maybe I want to play in the junior A team because those players were held in higher regard. That's fine in sports, but when it comes to a relationship with Christ, that is disaster. Paul knows that the only way to be saved is only through justification by faith. And so he wants to help the Galatian Christians be able to spot these con people and avoid the trap that they are setting for them. And so he's going to what I will summarize as asking three separate questions in order to be able to determine if the person that we're listening to is a conman or a legitimate representative of Christ himself. First question I'm going to ask is, does this new teaching that I'm hearing, does it deepen my relationship with Christ? Now, Vicki, start us off by looking at the first few verses of chapter three.
Vicki: Okay. He says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? So again I ask, does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?
Kent: So simply by your faith in Christ, you received the Spirit. He gave you His Spirit and worked miracles among you. He gave us his gifts. These gifts, who do you give gifts to?
Nathan: Your family? Your friends? Children?
Vicki: Somebody you love?
Kent: Yeah, those you're in close relationship with. Right. And Paul's comment here is, look, God is your friend. You are in relationship with Him. He gives you gifts. I find it helpful to think about Christmas time in our family, as in probably many Our family exchanges gifts one to another. And my wife is probably the best at it. I know she is. She spends a long time trying to find out what gift someone could benefit from and purchase that. And she's excited to see them on Rapid. But what if one of my sons opened the gift and said, gee, that's great, let me pay you back for it. Can you show me what it cost and I'll write you a check? If someone did that to you, how would you feel? Vicki?
Vicki: Oh, the joy of giving a gift is to bring delight to somebody. It's not to get repaid. It's an insult for someone to ask you.
Kent: That really violates the friendship, doesn't it? Friends give gifts one to another. And Paul is saying, God has already given you a gift. You are his friend. You can't improve that relationship by working harder. You are because you are a child and he has given you a Christmas gift. Paul is saying, have your attempts to please God with your obedience to the law brought you closer to him? Has it deepened your relationship with Him? The answer, of course, is no, it doesn't. I think of a healthy marriage. I like to think my wife and I have that. This summer we celebrated 44 years of marriage.
Brian: Wow.
Vicki: All right.
Kent: But a good marriage has a mutually enriching relationship. That's why I enjoy doing things for my wife. I enjoyed doing things that would help her, that would bring joy to her, giving her things. But if I started doing things for my wife, like doing the dishes, cleaning the house or chores around the house in exchange for her doing nice things for me, if our love relationship were reduced to a quid pro quo situation, our relationship would suffer. Wouldn't would be almost like an employee employer relationship, doing things in exchange for payment. It's not deepening my relationship with my wife that cheapens it. And that's what Paul is pointing out. When you try to add to the gift that God has already given you, try to improve it. You're not just accepting it. You're saying it's not fully there, that you've been holding out on me. That's an insult. And that is what Paul is warning the Galatians about. If we try to earn God's favor, instead of freely accepting his favor and faith, we have poisoned the well, damaged or lost the relationship we once had. Paul says we should ask ourselves, as I listen to this teaching, as I expose myself to these people's leadership, has my relationship with God, the intimacy we once had, improved or diminished since we started adopting this teaching, has it improved? Has it deepened or has it been weakened? As Paul is saying, God already gave you everything. Why would you insult him by trying to pay him back or try and get some more? The second question I would ask is, does this teaching align with Scripture? Does it deepen my relationship with Christ? But is it in agreement with what the Bible says? In chapter three, verse six, it says.
Nathan: So Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Kent: So that first verse you read, verse six, where was that originally found?
Nathan: All the way back in Genesis 22.
Vicki: Genesis.
Kent: Right. So Paul is defending his position on justification by faith by going back to a passage they should know. Well, very few of our listeners have not heard the story of Abraham and his sacrifice, or almost sacrifice of his son Isaac. All the Jews, all the Judaizers would have heard this same story and known that. And Paul goes back to that scripture and says, look, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. It was not earned, it was given, it was credited to him. And he's saying these teachers are not to be believed because what they've said is not true to the clear teaching of Scripture. And Paul points out that the Judaizer's teaching doesn't even make sense with the timing of when the law was given. Not only does it discredit what Abraham did, but it distorts the whole purpose of the law, doesn't it? Look at what he says in verses 17 and 18.
Vicki: He says the law introduced 430 years later does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise. But God, in His grace, gave it to Abraham through a promise.
Kent: Why does Paul point out the law came 430 years later saying that God.
Nathan: Was working based on faith 430 years before the law came about? This is how God has always operated.
Kent: Always. And the law came later because it's not essential to the relationship with God, Right? It doesn't form the relationship with God. No. Paul's saying the teaching you've been given by these Judaizers is all wonky because the timing is off. The law did not create Israel's relationship with God. It simply described how Israel should live within the relationship that they had received through faith. That's an important distinction, isn't it? My relationship with my wife was not formed because of works, but out of my love for my wife, it results in works. Those are completely different things. And that's the point that the Apostle Paul is making. Besides, the law itself is very, very clear that it doesn't create the relationship with God. Because in Deuteronomy 27, it's very clear.
Vicki: It says, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse as it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law, because no one can. This is Vicki now. No one can keep all of the rules. No one.
Kent: So it cannot lead to salvation or forming a relationship because no one can do it. It cannot because it wasn't intended to do that. So Paul is saying to the Galatians is not only does following these people not strengthen your relationship with Christ, but it doesn't agree with the clear teaching of the Bible. Well, that's kind of scary, isn't it? Because if the Galatian Christians could be fooled by someone twisting the Scriptures into saying what it didn't really say, that could happen to us, couldn't it? Hasn't it?
Nathan: It happens today quite often.
Kent: And Paul is giving us here a warning. He says there are con men, there are people who will twist the Bible for their own advantage, and it's your job to find their error. You have to test and see whether the teaching you're hearing is in accordance with the Scriptures. It means that every Christian needs to be a student of the Bible, not just a listener to sermons. But they have to be able to evaluate what they hear. Is this true to the Bible? The Galatians failed to do this. And Paul says this put their Christian life in peril. That's kind of scary, isn't Is, if.
Vicki: You don't know the word and test everything. Paul and Silas did that. In Acts 17, it says, Paul and Silas arrived in Berea and went to the Jewish synagogue. Now, the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
Kent: Yeah, it's fascinating that in that passage that you just read that Jewish Christians studied the law, studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true to the Bible, and they didn't fall into this heresy, did they?
Vicki: They did not.
Kent: The people did not fall into this heresy. And they studied for themselves what the Bible had to say on this subject. And they were not conned by these conned people. Which means everyone has to be a student of God's word. Not just the preacher, not just the teacher, the professor. Everyone is. It's easy to defer to authorities, isn't it? That person's a priest, that person is a pastor. That person quoted the Greek language, so they must be right. But God says that all people can understand His Word. We all must know what God is saying in Scripture. We have a responsibility to understand and to apply what God is saying and double check what we hear according to God's Word. Because there are con men out there. That's what this passage, what Paul is saying to us as laypeople. But what are the implications for us as preachers, Nathan? Those of us who are Bible teachers of some kind, small group, or to a congregation, what's our obligation?
Nathan: We better be sure that when we speak on behalf of God, we're actually saying what God says.
Vicki: Amen.
Nathan: So that's why at crosstalk we believe in expository preaching, which isn't a style. It is a commitment to reveal or expose what scripture says in Scripture in the order that it's inspired so that we can understand God's unfurling plan in our lives, so we can see. So that we are revealing to people what God has said so they can see it for themselves.
Kent: Yeah. So good Bible teaching and whatever the context is not just telling. It means to show and tell. I need to show you. I need to be able to put my finger on the text and explain to you why this is the clear teaching of Scripture and even deal with objections. Because there are con men, as we've said out there, who will teach something different. And I need to make sure that people understand why this truth from this passage is in agreement with all of Scripture. Just as Paul has been doing with the Galatians. We've seen already today that people can have confidence that their relationship with Christ will continue to deepen because the teaching that they have heard aligns with Scripture. So the first two does this teaching enrich my relationship with Christ? Does this teaching align with Scripture? But a third question I think that Paul wants us to ask as we listen to teachers, is does what we are being taught encourage the spread of the Gospel? We see that when Paul goes on to emphasize the saving work of Jesus on the cross in Galatians 3, 13.
Vicki: And following that says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who was hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Kent: That's the gospel. That's the gospel intended for all people in all places and all times. Yet it's interesting that following the teaching of the Galatian heretics, we don't see an outward focus, do we? Last podcast we saw there was an inward focus. The Judaizers wouldn't even eat with Christians who were not trying to keep the law.
Nathan: Right, Right, the Gentiles, yeah, they would.
Kent: Not eat with them. What do you think their opinion would be of Gentiles when they walked through the streets and saw people selling idols to other gods or selling their bodies for exchange for money? What do you think their attitude of the Judaizers would be to those people who were obviously living deeply in sin?
Nathan: At best, they would look down upon them as lesser individuals, lesser people. Worst case scenario, they dehumanize them. You know, you don't deserve what I have. You don't deserve God's love and favor. It's the exact opposite of what we should do and respond when we see people deeply in sin and realize that they're enslaved to their own sin. They're imprisoned to sin and they desperately need Christ. It should break our hearts, not make us look down on them or puff ourselves up.
Kent: Absolutely. The same self righteousness that comes with saying, I'm better than you who are just saved by justification, by faith because I keep the law. I'm in a different category as a Christian. Keeps me away from doing evangelism, reaching out and caring and loving those who are far from Christ because we think they maybe don't deserve it. I think that's true of every culture that I know of. Decades ago, my parents fell victim to false teachers and they got involved in what I would call was a cult. And that was traumatic to say the least. I identify with the figure that Paul is defending the truth of the gospel and confronting those who would distort the Bible and con others. Because one of the things that this group taught was that there are levels of Christians that those can be saved by faith, but they're saved as one, by fire. But if you're part of their group and you follow Christ with a deeper zeal and passion, you follow them all the way that they would have you live. Then you'll have a special status. You will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Others may watch from a distance, but if you're with them, you are a marriage supper of the Lamb. You know, I had great comfort when I read in Revelation 19 what's really going to happen at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Vicki: I said after this, I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting, hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. And then a voice came from the throne saying, praise our God all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small. And then I heard a great multitude like the roar of rushing waters shouting, hallelujah. For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.
Kent: Who is going to be there sitting around the marriage supper of the Lamb? The multitudes. Not the few, but all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ because they are his sons and he's given them the gift of salvation. I'll tell you, we are surrounded today by the phrase new and improved. But is newer always better?
Nathan: Certainly not.
Kent: This is what the con artist wants us to believe. The false teachers want us to believe. They want to take the simple gospel and add a new twist to build a following to advance themselves at our expense. Paul will have nothing of it and he shows us how we can avoid being taken advantage of these cons. Are we asking yourself the question, does this new teaching enrich my relationship with Christ? Does this new teaching align with God's Word? And does what we're being taught encourage the spread of the Gospel that was Jesus passion and should be ours. Lots of con artists out there, but we don't have to a victim. By following what Paul has said, we will not be victims.
Brian: We don't save ourselves. No one does. That's because we are not saved by works. We are saved by faith. How can we help others understand that salvation is never earned? We can point out that the Bible never tells us we need to be good enough for God to love us. We are justified by faith in Christ's work on the cross. I trust that today's discussion of God's Word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the Word, but doers. Together, let's bring God's Word to life to our lives. This week, the crosstalk podcast is a production of crosstalk Global equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. we're getting ready for CrossTalk. Events in Salina, Kansas and Moldova this month help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by rating it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you find it. Be sure to listen next Friday as we continue our discussion of the Epistle of Galatians. You won't want to miss it.
Vicki: Vicki Nathan, well, before you start, have you known someone who's been conned? I don't know that I have. Have y'. All? Y' all being Nathan.
Nathan: And the many people inside? Yes, I do.
Vicki: Okay, because we have an answer.
Nathan: I got to figure. No, I got to figure out which one I can share so that people listening to be like, hey, that was me.