This only I wish to learn of you, Have ye received the Spirit on the principle of works of law, or of [the] report of faith?
The Galatians had begun to look to the law for blessing. So Paul stops arguing and asks one question about their own experience. Everything hangs on one fact they cannot deny: how did the Holy Spirit come to them?
Paul brings one argument, and he expects it to settle everything.
"Let me ask you only this." It was as though Paul says: The one argument I now bring before you is enough to prove to you that you are wrong. That argument is the presence of the Spirit of God. It is, in truth, a mighty argument. The Galatians knew well that they had received the Spirit of God. They knew the mighty change which He had worked in themselves and in each other. Was this by keeping the law? They had never heard of having to keep the law when they received the Spirit of God; so certainly it was not by law.
The phrase points to something very ordinary.
The Galatian believers had experienced this abundant supply of the Holy Spirit; and now the apostle asks, Was it by law or by a message of faith? Or, perhaps we should translate it "a hearing of faith." They heard the message and believed it.
One writer draws a line between two things that are easy to confuse.
It is important to see the difference between "hearing with faith" and receiving the Holy Spirit. A soul hears the gospel of salvation and believes it. That soul is cleansed and receives the forgiveness of sins. This comes before the Spirit's seal. No one denies that all that comes before is His work. Apart from the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, no one grieves over sin. No one listens to the gospel. And no one trusts the Lord Jesus for salvation... But while all this is true, the gift of the Spirit to live in a person is a completely distinct thing. It is as if a man first built a house, and then moved in to live there. The Spirit is God's great gift to every Christian.
The Galatians could not answer "by law." The law never held out such a promise.
The law holds out no promise that if a man obeys it, God will send His Spirit into his heart to live there and make him a temple of the Holy Spirit. The law does not promise even the Spirit. Ezekiel 36:27 does promise, "I will put my Spirit within you." But the context shows this looks ahead to the future, when the remnant of Israel will turn to the Lord... The Galatians knew nothing of the law and were not under the law, for they were, by nature, idolaters. They had received the Spirit by hearing of faith.
The Galatians were in a poor state. Even so, Paul treats their having the Spirit as a fact no one disputed.
Do not let failures make us doubt that we have Him. The Galatians had fallen into a low and wretched state. Yet they never doubted they had the Spirit of God. What they got wrong was the ground they stood on: how they had received Him. So the apostle had to ask them, "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?"
One writer turns Paul's question on the reader, and uses it to test assurance.
"Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" So Paul could speak to them. But can he speak like that to you? Professing Christians, have you received the Spirit? If so, why those repeated prayers that you may receive the Holy Spirit?... Christ crucified had been set before the Galatians. By faith in that sacrifice they received the Holy Spirit. But people today who are given the law instead stay unsure whether they have received the Spirit at all.
Going back to law does more than add rules. It cuts at the very thing Paul appeals to here.
Law recognises man in the flesh and gives him a place in this world. It makes blessing depend on man meeting his responsibility. So it shuts out God's grace. It makes the work of Christ for us of no profit. It sets aside the work of the Spirit in us. And it turns Christianity into a religion of outward forms and ceremonies.
- Hearing — the Galatians heard a message and believed it. That is what "hearing with faith" means, and it is where everything started.
- Gift — God answered that faith with the Spirit. The law never promised Him, so the law cannot explain the gift they clearly had.
- Ground — their failure never put the gift in doubt. They were wrong only about how they received Him.
- Test — the question still works today. People who look to law and ceremonies keep praying for the Spirit, instead of resting in the gift God gave them.
- Loss — going back to law shuts out grace. It sets aside the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit, and leaves only outward forms.
Are ye so senseless? having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?
Paul has just reminded the Galatians how they received the Spirit — by hearing with faith, not by keeping law. So how can people who started that way expect the flesh to finish the work?
Their Christian life had already begun, and it began in the power of God's Spirit. The question is whether they will now hand the rest over to their own effort.
They had begun their Christian life in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Were they now going to turn back to the law, as if their own efforts could make them walk rightly as Christians? The law applies to man in the flesh. So in turning back to the law they were not only ignoring the Holy Spirit. They were also reviving the flesh, and seeking perfection in the flesh and by the flesh.
The verse describes something still under way. Kelly works from an older translation, which reads "made perfect" where the ESV has "being perfected."
"Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" — or, "are you being made perfect by the flesh?" They were hoping to be perfected by a process, because flesh can easily be satisfied with itself.
Paul says "flesh" where we might expect the word "law." The flesh is what a person can do by his own effort, and it belongs with the law, not with the Spirit.
But why did the Apostle speak of our being made perfect by the flesh? First, because the flesh is the very thing that opposes the Spirit. Second, because the flesh is tied closely to the law. Faith and the Spirit belong together. The law and the flesh belong together. The law was given so that the flesh might keep it, if it could. In the end it could not. Nor could the law curb the leanings of the flesh, for the flesh "does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot" (Rom. 8:7). Yet here were the Galatians, ready to turn from the all-powerful Spirit to the flesh — strong for evil, but useless for good. It was folly indeed!
The Spirit given to them was itself God's own mark of approval on the righteousness they already had.
What folly! They had received the Spirit, the seal of divine righteousness. Yet now they wanted to seek righteousness by the means of the flesh — by human faithfulness to what the law requires. The law addresses man in the flesh, and the flesh does not submit to it, and cannot.
The answer to Paul's question is no. The reason lies in God's consistency, not in our staying power.
God's ways with us are not haphazard, nor the subject of whim. They rest on His own settled purpose. What He starts with, He continues with. If He saves us by the hearing of faith, on that principle He will continue with us to the end, and we shall not be made perfect by the flesh.
The danger here is that the error sounds so reasonable. Nobody in Galatia was attacking Christ.
The Galatians had sought to hold the flesh in check by law. Restraints treat the flesh as alive, whereas God's method is to treat it as dead. That does not suit human nature! The Galatians did not take away from the Lord's person (as the Colossians did), but they sought to add to His work. The idea that God does part and man completes the rest is very plausible! Living by law works against grace, and in fact declares that Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21, also v. 4).
The same question reaches us. Will we swap the power that brought us this far for our own strength near the end?
Any effort at spiritual progress made in the power of the flesh is like the effort of drowning men. We live in the Spirit; let our actions be by His power. Think of the traveller who began his journey to America on a strong Atlantic steamer. Near the end he decided that the best way to finish the voyage was by the strength of his own arms, so he leaped overboard. Having begun in power God gave, are we to finish in our own?
- Begun — the Christian life starts in the power of the Holy Spirit. You receive Him by hearing with faith, not by keeping law.
- Perfected — "being perfected" is a process, and the Galatians expected the flesh to carry them through it. Flesh is easily pleased with itself.
- Paired — faith belongs with the Spirit; law belongs with the flesh. The flesh is strong for evil and useless for good, so it can never finish what the Spirit began.
- Unchanged — God does not start on one principle and switch to the opposite. What He begins with, He continues with to the end.
- Plausible — the error adds to Christ's work instead of denying it. That is why "God does part, man does the rest" still sounds sensible — and is still folly.