Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
Galatians 3 belongs to the question of the law in Galatians that many have taken positions on without fully understanding, and taking wrong positions while failing to cherish the Spirit of Christ has brought sad loss upon the church. The verse recalls the Galatians' first Christian experience, when Christ crucified was plainly set forth before their eyes, truth was opened to them, and they received the Spirit by hearing with faith and began in the Spirit. It asks whether they suffered so many things and endured so many trials and hardships for nothing, in vain.
It adds a hopeful reservation that their suffering may yet prove not to be in vain. It exposes as folly turning from obeying the truth and beginning in the Spirit by faith to trying to be made perfect by the flesh through reliance on the flesh and the works of the law. Abandoning the faith and the spiritual course begun would make those sufferings and experiences fruitless.
Carrying forward God's work in human strength is counted as such a fleshly course that makes past suffering vain. Trusting education and wisdom of words to fit a person for a place in the work is counted as that same attempt to be made perfect by the flesh. Trusting education and wisdom of words to obtain a knowledge of God is likewise counted as turning from obeying the truth begun in the Spirit.
Galatians 3 belongs to the question of the law in Galatians that many have taken positions on without fully understanding, and taking wrong positions while failing to cherish the Spirit of Christ has brought sad loss upon the church. The verse recalls the Galatians' first Christian experience, when Christ crucified was plainly set forth before their eyes, truth was opened to them, and they received the Spirit by hearing with faith and began in the Spirit. It asks whether they suffered so many things and endured so many trials and hardships for nothing, in vain.
It adds a hopeful reservation that their suffering may yet prove not to be in vain. It exposes as folly turning from obeying the truth and beginning in the Spirit by faith to trying to be made perfect by the flesh through reliance on the flesh and the works of the law. Abandoning the faith and the spiritual course begun would make those sufferings and experiences fruitless.
Carrying forward God's work in human strength is counted as such a fleshly course that makes past suffering vain. Trusting education and wisdom of words to fit a person for a place in the work is counted as that same attempt to be made perfect by the flesh. Trusting education and wisdom of words to obtain a knowledge of God is likewise counted as turning from obeying the truth begun in the Spirit.