Galatians 3:1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has deceived you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? …Did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
The work of the Holy Spirit and the work of grace are one and the same. The Apostle Paul is saying: Having been transformed by grace, are you now trying to be made perfect by the flesh – or by the law?
But this is what many sincere Christians have been taught by the church. We get people saved by the amazing grace of God. And then we put them through discipleship factories that start teaching them how to change the way they live – clean up your life, cut your hair, dress conservatively, stop smoking, stop swearing, stop this and start doing that. We start filling them with keys, steps, laws and teachings that they now need to follow to become “perfected”, more like Christ.
And consequently many sincere Christians live powerless lives and carry a confused and even contradictory perception of God. One day they think God is pleased with them and the next day they think God is angry with them because of something they did or didn't do. They even think that sickness and disease can sometimes be brought upon them by God to teach them something.
This mindset that Christians can carry would make God a schizophrenic!
The cause of this confused mindset is mixing the two covenants of the Bible – they mix the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. They mix the Law with Grace.
They are trying to become more like Christ through their own efforts (what Paul calls “being made perfect through the flesh”).
This is why Paul is mad at the Galatian church in today’s scripture and if he were here today he would be just as mad at many churches for the way they are discipling people with “works” rather than through “grace”.
Here is the truth of the Gospel as outlined in all of the Apostle Paul’s teaching:
We are saved by grace, not by our own works (Ephesians 2:8-10)
We are transformed into Christ’s likeness also by grace and not through our own works. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The same way you put your faith in Jesus' grace through the work of His blood to receive forgiveness and receive the gift of His righteousness, continue to rely upon His grace to finish its work and transform you into His image.
Your part is to feed upon Christ daily and be cross conscious every day – that means every day carrying a consciousness of His forgiveness through His blood and the gift of His righteousness you now possess.
These are real and they will do all the transforming for you, enabling you to rest in God’s love.