How great a blessing the Spirit of God is to us! We have the Scriptures opened to us so that we know the mind of God and think his thoughts after him. The Spirit takes the things of Christ and reveals them to us. We are convicted of sin when we turn aside and progressively sanctified. We are conformed into the image of Christ. We are strengthened for the good fight of the faith. How then can the Galatians wish to return to the law when by being released from it they have been given so much?
When was the Spirit first promised and was that promise part of the Abrahamic covenant? Paul seems to connect the coming of the blessings of Abraham to the Gentiles, and the promise of the Spirit. Here and in the previous verse he writes ‘us’ and ‘we’ and includes his Gentile readers who have also received the promise of the Spirit. But how can the giving of the Spirit have been part of the Abrahamic covenant when Pentecost took place so long after the promises were first made to Abraham? This need not trouble us, for the coming of Christ was also part of that covenant and yet this too was delayed for the same length of time. God had to complete his dealings with Israel, the typical people of God, Abraham’s physical descendants, before blessings of Abraham could be given to the Gentiles. Not until Christ came would the Spirit be given, for he could not be given to unregenerate Israel since they remained under the law and therefore under its curse. The mixed multitude of the Old Testament had to be replaced by the regenerate church of Jesus Christ, composed of believing Jews and Gentiles on an equal footing. But where in the terms of the Abrahamic covenant was the Spirit promised? Surely in the promise to Abraham that he would receive not only forgiveness, justification, but also the promise of an exceeding great reward - God himself. ‘Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward’ (Genesis 15:1). This promise included the gift of the Spirit, for it is only through him that any man can know and enjoy fellowship with God.