By Faith Alone (Galatians 3:1-9

Galatians 3:2-3 I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

ESV 3:3 Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 

Paul was reminding the Galatians that they earned the Holy Spirit by believing in Jesus. Not from how well they follows the Torah law. These laws include men not shaving their beards, to wear a pendant with the scripture on their foreheads, to circumcise male children on their 8th day, to do no works on specific days during feasts, to eat kosher, etc. Through Jesus’s death and resurrection, he was the greatest sacrifice. He was the lamb, sacrificed for all our sins. His death and resurrection fulfilled all the laws of the Old Testament. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus tell us he did not come to abolish the laws, but to fulfill them. This action of his is how we all earned God’s grace. 

We were not there to see Jesus sacrificed. But through what we have heard, thought we have not seen, we believe. And Jesus told Thomas that those we believe without seeing would be blessed. Through our obedience of God, our faith saves us. To be obedient, we must give away our old life, our life without God. We must walk away from those who talk against God’s teachings. This is the way to receive grace.

Lord, I thank you for giving us your only son to die on a cross for my sins. In his name, my God have mercy on me.