The apostle began to apply the principle stated in 2:15-21 to his audience.
3:1 It is folly to mix law and grace. The Galatians were behaving as though they were under some kind of spell and not in full use of their rational faculties. Paul had drawn graphic word pictures of Jesus Christ crucified as their substitute when he had been among them, and they had understood the gospel.
To bring them to their senses Paul asked four more questions of them in verses 2-5. Paul probably intended his introductory rhetorical question in this verse as a rebuke.84Fools in Scripture are people who disregard God's revelation (cf. Luke 24:25).
". . . Paul regards his Galatian converts as having unwittingly come under the spell--the hypnotic effect--of the false teachers . . ."85
The public portrayal of Christ crucified (Gr. perfect participle estauromenos, crucified with continuing results) probably refers to the fact of Jesus' death as the crucial event in salvation history. It probably does not refer to some description of the crucifixion that Paul or someone else had presented to them nor to Christ as presently still crucified in some sense.86The Galatians would not have found false teaching attractive if they had truly appreciated the major significance of Jesus' crucifixion.
3:2 Question 1: How did you receive the Holy Spirit? The answer to this one question should settle the whole debate (cf. v. 5). It was obviously not by keeping the Law but by hearing and believing the gospel, the message of Christ crucified (cf. Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13). Paul assumed his readers' salvation.
Justification (2:16) and the Holy Spirit become the believer's possession not by the works of the Law but by faith through one act of believing. Receiving the gift of God's Spirit is one of the highest privileges mortals can experience. Since God gives us this gift when we believe the gospel (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13), believing the gospel is clearly superior to obeying the Law. Furthermore since the Spirit is the guarantee of final salvation (glorification; cf. Eph. 1:13-14), and the Spirit comes to us by faith, final salvation must depend on faith.
". . . those who stressed the law put no emphasis on the Holy Spirit. But from the day of Pentecost on, the Christians emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit for Christian living."87
3:3 Question 2: How is God sanctifying you? Their justification had been a work of the Holy Spirit in response to believing faith. Likewise their sanctification was also a work of the Holy Spirit in response to believing faith. The idea that keeping the Mosaic Law will somehow help the Holy Spirit is a fallacy that persists to our day.
"The Judaizers in Galatia, it seems, claimed not to be opposing Paul but to be supplementing his message, and so to be bringing his converts to perfection . . ."88
"Flesh"here refers to one's sinful human nature, the seat and vehicle of sinful desires. This is a metaphorical use of the word. Notice that reception of the Spirit does not mark a second or higher stage after justification, a "second blessing."It belongs to initial justification and takes place at the moment of conversion (cf. John 7:39; 16:7; 20:22; Acts 1:8; 2:38; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13).
3:4 Question 3: Have your experiences been useless? "Suffer"can mean suffer persecution or simply to experience something. In the former case it would refer to the persecution the Galatians had experienced since they became Christians (cf. Acts 14:21-22). The point would be that all of those afflictions would have been needless suffering. In the latter case it would refer to all the experiences that the Galatians had gone through, good and bad, since their conversion. The point would be that all of those experiences would have been meaningless. Perhaps we should prefer the wider significance here since the other questions in this pericope concern positive benefits the Galatians had received from God by faith.
3:5 Question 4: What accounts for the miracles you witnessed (cf. Acts 14:3, 8-10)? God did not perform them because the Galatians did something special to earn them. He gave them freely in response to their believing the gospel.
Paul knew, of course, that miracles do not necessarily evidence that God is at work. Satan can empower people to do miracles too (2 Thess. 2:9; cf. Exod. 7:22; 8:7). He regarded the evidential value of miracles as secondary (e.g., Rom. 15:19). Here he appealed to the fact that miracles accompanied his preaching to the Galatians whereas presumably they did not accompany the preaching of the Judaizers. He did this to remind them of the Holy Spirit's miraculous confirmation of his gospel. These miracles may have been those the Holy Spirit continued to work among the believers even after Paul left. Note the present tense of the word translated "works"(Gr. energon). He continues to do miracles in and through believers even today not the least of which is the miracle of regeneration. However, Paul was speaking of the miracles that his original readers had witnessed.
For Paul the Mosaic Law and the Holy Spirit were as antithetical as works and faith regarding what makes people acceptable to God now (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6).
Thus Paul reminded his readers of their own experience of salvation to prove that it was by faith alone.
