Galatians 3:3 Commentary and Bible Study

What takes place in the experience of every believer when they first believed in Christ is that the Spirit of God comes to take up permanent residence in their hearts. That beginning characterises the nature of the new life they are embarking on: it is to be a life of holiness empowered by the Spirit, for the beginning of our sanctification is the Spirit’s work of regeneration. The Christian life could not have started at all without their first receiving the Spirit of God. The Galatians had experienced the Spirit’s power to give them victory over their sins and they had learned how helpless they were to hold back their lusts before that power was given to them. By contrast, before conversion all men and women live according to the flesh, which refers to the fallen nature which we inherit from Adam. It is concerned about appearances: Has the body being washed? Have the right ceremonies being performed? Have the right sacrifices being offered? or, What do others think of me? Have I made a good impression? How do I compare with others? At best it can achieve only an outward conformity to the law, because it lacks spiritual life and therefore cannot produce a righteousness which comes from the heart, and yet without this it can never truly please God, because the law is spiritual and requires not only an external conformity to the commandment but also a right disposition of the heart. Any success the flesh has in keeping the outward commandment produces pride in the heart, which does not escape God’s notice. It is impossible that God will find pleasure in fleshly obedience, when he has given us his Spirit in order to remedy an obedience that was totally inadequate to him.How foolish therefore to think that the Christian life could be completed by returning to the flesh with all its failure and powerlessness. If the flesh was not fit to start, it is not fit to continue.