Element Christian Church
Galatians - To The Churches In Galatia
Week 10 - The Spirit's Power
How we live the Christian life is a topic of endless books, seminars, camps, and conferences; in Galatians Paul speaks of living in the Spirit’s power. When he speaks of the Spirit’s power, he is referring to God the Holy Spirit and the restored relationship that is provided in Christ. When we understand the truth of the Gospel, we have a transformative and supernatural power to live for Christ in real ways.
Galatians 3:3 ESV
Galatians 3:1-5 ESV
Galatians 1:6 ESV
Galatians 2:21 ESV
Galatians 3:1-5 ESV
John 14:16 ESV
2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV
Galatians 3:2 ESV
Galatians 3:1 ESV
Ephesians 1:18 ESV
Galatians 3:2 NIV
Galatians 3:5 NIV
• Share about your growth and life changes you have experienced. How can you credit God and the work of the Spirit in your life?
We have been offered forgiveness, grace, ever-increasing joy, and the fullness of life now and into eternity with the Creator of the universe, but we often fail miserably. This can happen two ways:
• Thinking we can earn our righteousness before God on our own. We fail to realize our righteousness is not in our deeds, but in Christ alone.
• Thinking we don’t NEED a righteousness before God. Many people today live lives trying to find their inner happiness and fulfillment—they become their own means to satisfaction.
Paul says both approaches are foolish.
• In what ways have you been foolish—in either of these areas?
• How is it psychosis believing that our own righteousness will (or can) save us?
Many people go to church thinking that if they can encounter God, their spirituality will increase and they will feel better. They don’t necessarily want any moral guidance, but rather, a “bit” of tolerable spirituality to get them further along. Paul addresses this mentality with: Gal 3:1-3…It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Paul teaches us that we can receive the Spirit. The word spirit here is capitalized because Paul is trying to get across that the Holy Spirit is not an “it,” but a “He.” He is God and He becomes, as one writer says, the “divine resident of the Christian’s heart.”
• Who is the Spirit?
• What does it mean to receive the Spirit?
• Describe in your own words what you think the author meant by the Spirit being the “divine resident of the Christian’s heart.”
J.I. Packer says that an understanding of the Spirit should “melt us with spiritual understandings of the glory that has come to us.” The Bible says that if you are a Christian, you have received the Spirit. There is a restored relationship with God and the Spirit now resides in us. Paul essentially says: Unless you receive the Spirit you are not a Christian. Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?“ Having begun with the Spirit” means that unless you have the Spirit, you haven’t even begun the Christian life.
Read Galatians 3:1-5
• Do you spend time getting to know the One who lives within you?
• How does society and the church pressure us to move away from the truth found in Galatians 3?
• Who is someone you know who has clearly been changed by Christ? How is that evident?
Paul did not give the Galatian churches a series of rules and regulations; he told them a story, the Gospel, so that they would be enlightened. Paul says, “by the Spirit of God” the story of Jesus sinks in. John Stott once commented on Galatians 3:1 that Paul does not bring advice from Jesus but brings news about Jesus.
• What aspects of Jesus’ character and the cross evoke love in you?
• What work of the Spirit can you point to and rejoice about?
• How do you believe that transformation happened?
When Paul says, “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing?” he does not mean we stop being obedient to God, it means we stop trusting the law to save us. Tim Keller writes, “You have not believed the story until you realize, ‘I’ve been trying to complete myself, and Jesus has completed me.’”
• What does it look like to live in God’s power and grace?
• How is the Gospel the Spirit’s instrument for transformation?
• Can you confidently say, “Jesus has completed me.”?
• What is the impact of that confidence?