Beginning with the Spirit but Walking in the Flesh

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2-3 ESV)

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:5-6 ESV)

Here, at last, is the unmistakable link between the gospel and sanctification. It is easy for us to accept that the gospel is the message that leads to justification, but much harder to understand how the gospel continues to play into our sanctification.

Verses 2 and 3 are past tense. Paul asks a question; did you receive the Spirit by living in accordance with the law, or by hearing with faith? Of course you received the Spirit by hearing with faith. He addresses the fact that they were justified by faith alone, apart from works.

Verse 5 and 6 are present tense. Does God continue to supply the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law? No, your sanctification – the means by which God supplies the Spirit and works the miracles – is by hearing with faith in the same way your justification was.

This is where we often go astray in the modern church. We assume that God has supplied the Holy Spirit to us so that we may be perfected by working the law. We believe that we begin with the Spirit but then, in the name of the Spirit, we seek to be perfected by the flesh.  We think that we earn the Spirit by and for our works.

But God supplies the Spirit and works miracles among us by continued hearing with faith. No hearing, no Spirit. According to Paul, seeking perfection through law-keeping – even as believers – does not actually lead to perfection. On the contrary, we deny God’s supply of the Spirit when we refuse to simply hear with faith.

Paul instructs the Colossians,  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7 ESV) This is the same thing; as you received Christ by hearing with faith, so walk in him by hearing with faith. Again, the gospel is no ordinary message – it is the only means to the supply of God’s grace.

Let us abandon our Galatian tendencies. We can, with Paul, cast aside our feeble attempts at perfecting ourselves by the flesh. Though we may try to attribute them to the Spirit, they are not. Let us continue to allow God to supply the Spirit and work miracles among us by hearing with faith that we might truly be perfected in spite of ourselves. That is true sanctification. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless