The apostle's first argument in this controversy.
I. APPLICATION OF THE TEST OF EXPERIENCE. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?" He begins by a practical test, which can be easily settled by experience and history. He refers to the time of awakening grace and first love. They had "received the Spirit."
1. He concedes that they were Christians, though they were neither faithful, nor stable, nor sound. "The Holy Spirit is the characteristic possession of believers." "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." The reference may have been both to ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit.
2. He concedes that they were conscious of the possession of the Spirit. They had no occasion to ask him what he meant by their receiving the Spirit. Christian people ought to possess, not only a good hope through grace, but "a full assurance of hope."
II. THE RECEPTION OF THE SPIRIT POSSIBLE, NOT ON THE PRINCIPLE OF LAW, BUT OF GRACE. Though the Spirit was given under the Law, it was never given on a principle of Law, but it was under the gospel dispensation that it was given in Pentecostal power and abundance. No man ever yet received the Spirit, as the Author and Sustainer of the new life, by "the works of the Law," or by a course of obedience specially designed to work out salvation. Conspicuously, as to historic fact and inward experience, the Spirit was given to men in connection with the first promulgation of the "word of faith" at Pentecost. The Spirit was given "by the hearing of faith." "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Yet the hearing that brings faith with it is only possible through the Spirit's power, for many hear who do not believe, and therefore receive not the Spirit. There is no inconsistency here. We need the Spirit to enable us to believe, but the hearing is instrumentally necessary to our fuller reception of the Spirit. The apostle here, however, seems primarily to refer to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, of which Peter spoke when he said that, after his preaching the Word, "the Holy Ghost fell upon them as upon us at the beginning" (Acts 11:15).
III. THE DONATION OF THE SPIRIT IS NOT ON PRINCIPLE OF LAW, BUT OF GRACE. "He that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles in you, doeth he it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?' He first spoke of the reception, now he speaks of the donation of the Spirit: he first referred to a particular point of time, namely, their conversion; he now speaks of the principle of God's continued action. It is God who ministers the Spirit—not the apostle—whether to work miracles of power or miracles of grace. But he does it, not on the principle of legal obedience, but on the principle of grace working through the instrumentality of the preached gospel. He is "the God of grace," who sent his Son, "full of grace and truth," to pour grace into innumerable hearts.
IV. THE FOLLY OF ATTEMPTING TO BEGIN ON ONE PRINCIPLE AND TO END ON ANOTHER. "Are ye so foolish? having begun with the Spirit, are ye now being completed with the flesh?" This is folly, for it is to reverse the natural order of things. The opposites here are not Christianity and Judaism, but the essential and vital principle of each. If we begin our life with the Spirit, it must reach its maturity with the Spirit. The introduction of the flesh would be the annihilation of the Spirit. Judaism ministers to the sensuous element in our nature by making religion a thing of rites and ceremonies; but this is to go back upon all the progress we have made in life, light, and blessing.
V. THE USELESSNESS OF THEIR PAST SUFFERINGS, "Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain."
1. It is a sign of sincerity to suffer for our opinions. There is no record in the Acts of a persecution in Galatia; but the Jewish element was strong enough there as elsewhere to resent by violence the contempt put upon their Law by the Gentiles being freed from it. There is a possible reference to these sufferings in the Epistle (Galatians 5:1).
2. You stultify all your past sufferings if you recede from the gospel. All these sufferings represent so much wasted endurance or misery.
3. The apostle's reluctance to think their sufferings were in vain. "If it be yet in vain." He hopes better things of his converts. He knows that God keepeth the feet of his saints, so that they cannot altogether lose the things they have wrought.