Galatians 3:2 Commentary

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Galatians 3:2

Comments

Paul appeals to their conversion experience. All those who know Christ’s converting power have consciously received the Spirit of God, for conversion is not possible without the Spirit coming to dwell within us forever. Nor can any receive the Spirit without being aware of what God is doing in them. The Spirit is given to us so that we may share the very thoughts of God. We grasp that he is given to us in spite of our guilt and unworthiness, for he will not allow us to persist in misunderstanding and error on this most basic point. The coming of the Spirit into the heart of the believer is the beginning of that fellowship that will go on throughout all eternity between God and his people, ever deepening and enriching.But the Spirit was not received by any act of obedience to the law, by the offering of sacrifices to God, or by any righteousness of our own, but by what Paul calls ‘the hearing of faith’. Not by doing anything, but by passively hearing, and by receiving what was heard as the truth and responding in trust to God’s message. The very means in which we receive the blessing the Spirit is designed to teach us that works count for nothing and that all God’s favour comes through faith. As we reflect on what we did we can find nothing to boast about, but we are forced to admit that God gives to those who have given nothing to him, who are already in debt to him. It is only when we abandon all thought of our own merit or deserving that we enjoy these blessings.

Application

It is remarkable that even on such a momentous occasion, the Spirit does not draw attention to himself but to Christ. As he comes to dwell in us, it is Christ we are conscious of. The Spirit recedes into the background and teaches us the wonder of what Christ has done for us and magnifies him in our eyes. He makes us aware that we are accepted in the beloved, and makes us love God’s word as a rock on which we can build our lives. The Spirit enables us to see the state of this world and to separate ourselves from its influence. But none of this comes to us from the law; there is no sense in us that we deserved these things.

All Christians are aware that they have received the Spirit, but that does not mean that they will never ask the question, ‘Have I received the Spirit?’, for when the Spirit is grieved, he may withdraw and remove the felt comfort of his presence within us. If so, we cannot fabricate a sense of his presence, nor can we store up his blessings in advance and draw on that store when trouble comes, for like the manna which bred worms when kept till the next day (Exodus 16:20) the comfort of the Spirit must be enjoyed immediately and cannot be kept for the future.

Questions

Paul appeals to Christian experience here in a way that may surprise us, for he seems to argue that we may determine the truth of the gospel by personal experience. Does he set experience above the word of God, or to give it the same authority as the Scripture? Surely the doctrine of justification by faith must rest on a firmer foundation than that. However there is such a thing as true Christian experience and it is defined by God in his word. Ultimately we come back to the Scripture, and yet genuine experience at conversion is a powerful teacher to the individual believer, as long as it conforms to the Bible.

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Purpose

Introduction

Galatians 3:2 Commentary and Bible Study