In Galatians 3:1-5, Paul asks the Galatian church to remember how they received the Holy Spirit. Additionally, he asks them if it is possible for the flesh to perfect what is begun by the Holy Spirit. He points out that Abraham was not counted as righteous because of any work but simply by believing. Paul is attempting to get the church...
To rethink to react differently to the Judaizers’ arguments for work-based justification and sanctification
Many Christians rely on gratitude or guilt or a blending of the two rather than grace for motivation to behave in a sanctified manner. The error of the Galatians was this idea that God only began our spiritual life by grace so that we could take it from there by works. In this line of reasoning Jesus is not so much a Savior…He is more like a jump-starter of our spiritual life and the Holy Spirit is an occasional power booster. Paul is trying to convince them that such a belief system is equivalent to thinking you can improve upon what God has started.
To illustrate this point, imagine someone gave me a sculpture by Michelangelo and they delivered it to my home, and I put it in the garage. What if one day you were over at my house and you heard something going on in the garage? So, you start to walk over to my garage, and you hear, “chip, chip, chip, tink, tink, tink.” You look inside my garage and much to your horror I have in my hands a hammer and chisel and I am going to town on the sculpture. So, you shout, “Stop, what do you think you’re doing?” And I respond, “Well that Michelangelo is good but to be honest he’s no Jeff Harrington.”
Whenever we forgo dependence upon the Spirit and rely on our own strength, we are saying, “The Holy Spirit is good, but frankly He’s not us.” In Philippians 1:6, Paul states God will finish what He begins. Despite what Paul says for some church becomes equated to an institution where we are taught to perform better in the hopes of one day giving the testimonial:
“You know before I came to the Performer’s Institute, I needed 100% of God’s grace but now thanks to their training I only need 75.6% of God’s grace…soon with the proper motivation I won’t need God’s grace at all!”
We do not come to church to wean ourselves off God’s grace! We need 100% of His grace 100% of the time.
Paul is trying to get them to rethink what he taught so they will react differently: instead of focusing upon self-improvement by means of self-reliance he wants them to focus by faith on Spirit-improvement by Spirit-reliance. Why is this important?
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Tell me what a person believes, and I tell you what the person will do.”
What we believe determines how we behave…so that is why what we believe is important. If we believe it is up to us to find the proper motivation and power to live the Christian life, then we will behave in ways that focus more on self than on the Spirit. God has already given us everything we need to live sanctified lives…we lack nothing. No book, no seminar, no sermon can provide us with something we do not already possess.
One of the greatest difficulties we face in speaking with unbelievers is trying to convince them there is nothing they must do to become a Christian…anything that must be done has already been done by Jesus. Ironically, one of the greatest difficulties in speaking with Christians is trying to convince them there is nothing they can do to behave like a Christian…anything thing that needs doing the Holy Spirit will do when we rely upon Him by faith. This is akin to what the prophet, Zechariah said:
Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.
Why were we even given the Spirit? If the Holy Spirit only begins what we later perfect God could have simply told us, “Your sins are forgiven in Christ, you have my written Word, now just do what it says!” However, God gave us His Spirit for the very reason He knew we could not do what He says. Just as God had to take care of our justification needs in Christ, He now must take care of our sanctification needs through the Spirit.
What does the Holy Spirit provide? Sometimes, it is to courage. Sometimes, it is strength in our weakness. Sometimes, it enables us to stand firm against temptation. Sometimes, it is to invigorate us to press on through persecution and suffering. What does the Holy Spirit provide? He provides whatever we need, but only as a gift, only by grace and only through faith.
So now it is time for us to rethink differently.
When you became a Christian what did you understand about the necessity of Christ’s crucifixion? Why did He do that? He did that because you and I were hopeless and helpless with nothing to offer. His death, burial and resurrection were 100% necessary because we had 0% to contribute.
Okay now if 100% of Jesus was necessary to save us why would we need anything less than 100% of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us? Remember, whatever God does He does fully…with Him it is all or nothing. He does not help those who help themselves…He helps only those who admit they cannot help themselves and look to Him in faith to help them. The power of God does not become less necessary after you get saved.
Now most of us know that we cannot begin with the Spirit and then attain maturity by human effort, but we often react in ways as though we did we could. Particularly if things are going wrong…if we are suffering in some way. It is hard to resist the pull of human effort…it is easy to believe that we are not trying hard enough.
Paul says twice in these five verses, “Believe what you heard.” We mature the same way we were born…by grace through faith. That is the only way God works.
Let me close with this example:
When I was a kid, my dad had this lawnmower where the mower engine would engage when you grabbed the handle and when you let go of the handle the mower engine would disengage. In this way, I only got power to take control of the mower when I grabbed the handle. God works along the same principle only in reverse…whenever we grab the handle to take control His power disengages. Are you grabbing the handle for control? The choice is ours: the might and power to live in a sanctified manner will come from us, or it will come from God, but it will not come from both.