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Galatians
Chapter 6 - Paul's Defense of Sanctification by Faith
Galatians 3:1-5
All our lives, all our training is in performance-based acceptance. We earned our grades based upon performance. Whether we made the team and how much playing time we received was determined by our performance on the field or on the court. We acquired our job and kept our job according to how well we performed the tasks assigned. Our life experiences make it difficult to suddenly flip the switch and change that mindset when it comes to spiritual matters.
We live in a world of cause and effect, and we like to be the cause of our effects. We like to feel in control. Furthermore, our spiritual leaders often directly or indirectly encourage the mindset of performance-based acceptance. Therefore, we are told if you want God’s approval and blessing in your life then you must tithe or volunteer or study or pray. We are told if we try harder and stay the course the blessings of heaven will be ours in abundance.
To live out the ramifications of this philosophy of “trying harder” we must stay motivated, but how? Well, we sometimes we will let guilt be my motivator…and guilt can provide some of us all the motivation we will ever need. Others opt out of guilt motivation and look to gratitude to provide the proper motivation. Christ has done so much for us…should not we, out of gratitude, be willing to make some sacrifices for Him?
Truth be told, most of us vacillate between the two: guilt and gratitude. Too much guilt is a bad motivator, but gratitude alone seems insufficient. So, we look for the perfect balance of guilt and gratitude to keep us motivated.
There is a saying, “You can open any door if you only have the right key.” Most of us spend our lives looking for the key that is going to open the door to getting our
Christian act together. Due to this tendency, we can be all too easily bewitched by some seminar, some book, or some pastor who promises to provide us the key. The sad thing is, we always have had the key…like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz always had the ruby slippers that could take her home. Our problem is we are just so busy trying to get some wizard to help us we never notice what we already possess.
Galatians 3:1
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
We all know nothing opens the floodgates of communication…nothing greases the skids of understanding quite like calling your listeners idiots. The word “foolish” means “mindless” and sure enough people who are mindless tend to act irrationally. How were the Galatians acting foolishly? The Galatians were foolish in that they were flirting with a doctrine which declared the death of Christ unnecessary. Paul found it hard to believe they would abandon orthodoxy so readily. Paul sarcastically suggests they have been bewitched, cast under some evil spell by some malignant influence.
Paul certainly knew it was not due to inadequate teaching for Jesus Christ had been clearly portrayed (lit., "to write for public reading" as with the posting of a public announcement) as crucified before them. Paul had given them the correct message, but their eyes had been diverted from the Cross of Christ to the Law of Moses.
In his contrasting of himself with the Judaizers, Paul employs a play on words. The Judaizers’ gospel had “bewitched” the Galatians. Their method was devious, underhanded, and detrimental. Paul’s gospel openly portrayed Christ crucified. His method was honest, direct and for their benefit. To convincingly demonstrate that faith alone is God's only methodology Paul asked four questions.
First Question: Did you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by works?
Galatians 3:2
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
First Question: Did you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by works?
The answer to his first question is when they heard Paul preach the gospel and believed what they heard they received the Holy Spirit by faith. They did not perform some work or ritual to receive the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit was given by grace. With God whatever you receive you receive as a gift; you never receive anything from God as compensation. How could the Galatians be so foolish to suppose that they were saved by faith and yet sanctified by works? If keeping the law cannot save, how can it sanctify?
Martin Luther once said something to the affect that the most important appendages on a Christian were his ears. That is all the Christian really needs. He needs ears that listen so he can respond by faith.
Second Question: Can you attain spiritual goals by human effort?
Galatians 3:3
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Second Question: Can you attain spiritual goals by human effort?
Paul asked if they were so foolish as to think they could begin the Christian life in one way (by faith) and move on to spiritual maturity in another (by works). This was what the Judaizers were teaching…faith opens the door and works lead you the rest of the way.
Verse 3 presses home the point of verse 2. Verse 3 uses the word (attain your goal) which refers to being brought to a point of completion. Does the Lord save us and then just leave us alone to attain our goal? No, of course not. Did the Lord deliver the people from the slavery of Egypt and say, “Well there you go…your welcome and bye-bye?” No, He delivered them from Egypt to continue to lead them into the Promised Land.
In the same way we were saved by grace through faith and the Holy Spirit goes on saving us (in the sanctification sense) by grace through faith. Why were they so foolish as to trust in the work of Christ by faith for salvation, but not for sanctification? Paul’s argument is that the means for justification is the same means for sanctification. Everything is by grace through faith!
Galatians 3:4
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing-if it really was for nothing?
Third Question: Have you suffered for nothing?
The third question looked back on the persecution the apostles and new believers experienced in the region of Galatia. When Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps at the end of the first missionary journey, they warned the Galatian converts that they would suffer as Christians:
Acts 14:21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.
Now that message is not getting a lot of playing time these days. Many people today think that God is their ticket out of hardships. In any event persecution soon followed this church after they received the good news, and Paul now reminded them that if they turned from grace to law, it would classify their former position as error and whatever they had suffered because of that previous position would have been in vain.
We have that saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” but for some folks, “What doesn’t make you stronger eventually kills you.” The Galatian church had been through some hardships; these hardships did not reinforce for some reason the lessons of faith and they did not get stronger. They were growing weaker as some now tried to perfect by works what can only come by faith which was killing off (or nullifying) grace.
Why does Paul mention their suffering? The subject of suffering might have been raised by the Judaizers who may have tried to convince the church they were suffering because they were disobedient to the law. There were plenty of Old
Testament passages which declared blessing was the result of law-keeping, while suffering was the consequence of neglecting the law. Or if the source of their suffering were their persecution by Jewish unbelievers the Judaizers might have suggested that keeping the law would appease their anger and alleviate their suffering.
Galatians 3:5
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Fourth Question: Does God work miracles among you by His Spirit because you observe the law?
On what basis does God perform miracles? By what principle does God so graciously bestow His blessings through His Spirit? Is it the principle of faith or the principle of works?
In verses 2 and 3 Paul focused more on the beginnings of the Spirit’s working in the life of the Galatian saints. In verse 5, Paul views God’s interest and activity in the lives of His people as on-going. It is not our performance that moves God to act graciously but believing. Verse 5 reminds the Galatians of the generosity of God in their lives. To stress the works of the law implies God’s lacks sufficient graciousness to act apart from us earning a blessing. It downplays God as a giver and plays us up as an earner. The emphasis is off Him and on you.
Note how in these verses the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have all been involved personally in our lives and our salvation.
In verse one, Jesus Christ and his saving work clearly and publicly proclaimed.
Galatians 3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
In verses two and three, the reception of the Holy Spirit and His work on our behalf is presented.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
In verse five, the grace of the Father to respond to us and give us what we need through grace based on faith.
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
Here are these provisions of God that took place in our past and continue into our present. Paul says, "Look at all these ongoing provisions. They came not because of your works; they came by faith. Your works are only the effect that these provisions cause.”
Please go to Observations & Applications for Galatians 3:1-5 for further observations and applications.
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.