Galatians 3:4-6 Did you suffer so many things in vain; if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Paul continues his series of rhetorical questions. Each of these questions intends to wake up the Galatians to the dangerous situation in which they were at that time. The situation was serious because the gospel was being preached in the wrong way. Paul knew the dangers of legalism and trying to earn salvation by “works of the law.” He also had seen how a legalistic interpretation of the law and imposing certain Jewish customs upon Gentiles could put up a wall to their salvation. He had experienced his own struggles with the law and had seen other Jews struggle to measure up to their perceived need to follow laws and rituals. Those who took this path had missed what God’s intention was through the new covenant fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Verse 4 implies that the Galatians may have experienced some type of pain or suffering for their new faith in Jesus Christ. They had suffered so many things. It cost them to put their faith Jesus. Why would they suffer for no reason? Paul is essentially reminding them of their earlier faith with the implied question, why had they departed from this? They had experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit even to the point that they went against the culture and politics around them. This brought a negative response from people and some form of suffering for the Galatians.
Paul repeats the key question again in v. 5. This verse gives further insight into just how the Galatians had experience the Holy Spirit. They had experienced miracles because they believed with the result that their faith was confirmed even more. God grants miracles to help people grow in their faith. The Galatians did not experience these miracles by anything they had done but simply in opening themselves in trust to what God wanted to do in them. Miracles are not the result of works of the law or any special spoken formulas or symbolic action. Miracles are God’s sovereign grace intervening in a situation.
Paul introduces one of his favorite examples for dealing with faith: Abraham. Paul uses Abraham also in Romans 4 to illustrate how faith is the only route to receive God’s gift of righteousness. Paul quotes one of his favorite prooftexts for this from Genesis 15:6. Abraham was considered righteous because he believed in God’s promise. Faith in Christ is the only way to be justified before God. Christ died in our behalf so that our penalty of sin might be removed and resolved and we may be counted or considered righteous. When our new life of faith is lined up with God’s law, we are found righteous because the power of the law to punish sin has been transformed because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul will get deeper into this topic in the following verses.
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