Five Questions

 Hello everyone.

We will continue our examination of Galatians 3.  Paul is rebuking the Galatians for their 'foolishness' in turning to the 'other gospel,' one which is really no gospel at all.  He wonders whether someone had cast a spell on them to get them to turn away from the grace given them through the Cross.  As he continues as says that there is just one thing he wants to know, then asks a series of five questions of them.  He is trying to get them to see the foolishness of what they have been buying into. Here is my translation of these five questions from Galatians 3:2-5: 

2 There is just one thing I want to know from you.  Did you receive the Spirit from your works of the Law or from your faith gained from what you heard? 3 Can you really be that foolish?  Having started out with the Spirit, do you now think you can be made complete by human effort? 4 Have you all experienced so much for nothing? (If indeed it was for nothing.)  5 Is the One providing the Spirit to you and working powerfully among you, at work because of your efforts to obey the Law, or because of your hearing by faith?  

These questions largely deal with where the Spirit that is living within them comes from.  Was it as a result of believing the message, or was it because of their adherence to the Law? We will look at each question. 

First question: Did you receive the Spirit from your works of the Law or from your faith gained from what you heard? 

Paul's first question is not whether or not they had received the Spirit.  He does not question that.  Instead, he wants them to consider whether the Spirit came to them because of their faith, or because of their obedience. It is a rhetorical question, becasue the answer is obvious. The Spirit came to them because of their faith. Paul has recently said in 2:16, “We have faith in Christ Jesus, so that our righteousness comes from our faith in Him, and not from works of the law.” 

Second Question: Can you really be that foolish?  

Paul’s second question, “Can you really be that foolish?”  Stresses the point that Paul is making.  To choose obedience to the Law, and legalism over grace is just foolishness.  Nothing can earn our salvation, our relationship with God or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  These are gifts that come out of God's graciousness toward us, and the idea that somehow the Law can make them more worthy of them is pure foolishness. 

Third Question: Having started out with the Spirit, do you now think you can be made complete by human effort? 

This is an important question. They began with the Spirit, why would they now resort to their own efforts to be made complete. Is the Spirit somehow incomplete?  Common sense would tell us otherwise. Does allowing yourself to be circumcised make you more complete than the Spirit has already made you?  Again, apply common sense.  God's Spirit is all we need.  

Fourth Question: Have you all experienced so much for nothing? (If indeed it was for nothing.)

In the fourth question, Paul asks whether they had all of these experiences in vain.  The experiences that Paul refers to here are unclear.  Anyway, the Greek word ἐπάθετε (epathete), which is often translated here as experience, could also be translated as suffer.  Was Paul saying that their choices were now rendering their previous sufferings pointless, or was he suggesting that all of their previous experiences in the Spirit were being ignored so that they could travel down this different (and wrong) path.  The latter makes more sense to me.  

There is an add-on statement to this question, “If indeed it was for nothing.”  It seems that Paul is hopeful for his converts, that they are not really just throwing away their freedom, faith, grace and the Spirit, for a lesser gospel, one that is really no gospel at all. 

Fifth Question: Is the One providing the Spirit to you and working powerfully among you, doing those things because of your works of the Law, or because of your hearing by faith?

Paul sums up his questioning with verse 5.  It is very nearly the same question that he started with, having only minor differences.  The first question, Paul mentions only receiving the Spirit, while this one talks about where the Spirit comes from, but also how the Spirit continues to work powerfully within them.  Here is the one thing that Paul wants to know. Does that sustaining relationship with God’s Holy Spirit continue because of their obedience or because of their faith?  We all know the answer to that.  Paul’s point is that it is their faith that sustains their relationship with God, not their obedience.  

As we continue our study of Galatians, we will continue to see the Gospel of Grace and Freedom that Paul presents, compared to "gospel" of adherance to the Law that his detractors are presenting.