Context No. 2883 of 4322 · Galatians

Galatians 3:1-9: in context

1Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified? 2I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 6Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 7Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham. 8The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” 9So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.

Paul is exasperated. Foolish Galatians, he writes, who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified. Then he asks one question that cuts to the root: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected by the flesh?

His whole argument turns on that question of how it started. The Galatians received the Spirit by faith, not by law-keeping, so why would they now try to finish by their own effort what God began by grace? He points them back to Abraham, who simply believed God and was counted righteous, and says those who share that faith are Abraham's true children. The Christian life is not begun by grace and then completed by works; it is grace from first to last. To slip back into earning is to unravel the very thing that started it.

Having begun with God by grace through faith, am I now quietly trying to finish the job by my own performance?

Sources

Galatians 3:3: "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?"
Galatians 3:6: "Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness."
Philippians 1:6: "He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."