Galatians 3:5

My Notes

What Does Galatians 3:5 Mean?

"He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Paul asks the Galatians a diagnostic question: how did you receive the Spirit and experience miracles? Through law-keeping or through faith? The answer is obvious: through faith. The Spirit arrived when they believed, not when they were circumcised. The miracles happened through faith, not through Torah observance. The evidence of their own experience refutes the Judaizers' theology.

The present tense ("ministereth... worketh") means the Spirit and miracles are still active among them. Paul doesn't appeal to a one-time experience. The Spirit is currently being supplied and miracles are currently happening — all through the hearing of faith, not through works of law.

Reflection Questions

• 1.How did the Spirit come into your life — through performance or through believing?
• 2.What does your own spiritual experience (how faith began, how God moved) say about the relationship between faith and law?
• 3.Where are you adding requirements to what God already demonstrated works through faith alone?
• 4.How does Paul's appeal to experience (before theology) model a powerful way to address doctrinal confusion?

Devotional

How did you get the Spirit? How did the miracles happen? Through law-keeping? Or through believing? Paul asks the Galatians to consult their own experience — because their experience contradicts the theology they're being sold.

He that ministereth to you the Spirit. God supplies the Spirit to the Galatians. Present tense — ongoing, active supply. The Spirit isn't a one-time gift that arrived at conversion. He's being ministered — supplied, provided, poured out — continually. And the channel through which the supply flows: the hearing of faith. Not the performance of law. Faith.

And worketh miracles among you. Miracles — dynameis — are happening. Present tense. Among the Galatians. Right now. While Paul is writing this letter and the Judaizers are telling them they need circumcision, God is working miracles among them through faith alone. The evidence is real-time: miracles happen through faith. Circumcision adds nothing to the miracle-producing equation.

Doeth he it by the works of the law? The question is rhetorical because the answer is known. No. God didn't supply the Spirit when the Galatians were circumcised (they weren't). God didn't work miracles when they started keeping dietary laws (they didn't). The Spirit arrived and the miracles started through one channel: the hearing of faith. The Galatians' own biography is the evidence against the Judaizers' theology.

Or by the hearing of faith? Akoē pisteōs — the hearing that produces faith. Not hearing alone (the demons hear and tremble). The hearing that generates trust. The message heard, received, and believed. That's the channel. That's how the Spirit was supplied and the miracles were performed. Through believing what was heard.

Paul's argument is experiential before it's theological: before I prove this from Abraham (v. 6-9), before I prove it from the law (v. 10-14), before I prove it from the covenant (v. 15-18) — look at your own experience. How did the Spirit come to you? How did the miracles happen? Through faith or through law? Your own life answers the question the Judaizers are raising. And your own life says: faith.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture