Old Habits
Galatians 3:1–6
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? 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? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 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— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
A number of years ago, I signed up for a gym membership with great expectations of renewed feats of physical strength and youthful health. The employee who walked me through the sign-up process asked, “Will you stop coming in a few months?” He was joking. I think.
It was January, and everybody knows that gyms are at their busiest in the new year with New Year’s resolutions in tow. His question got to the fact that we easily slip into old habits despite our best intentions. For what it’s worth, I made it longer than a few months, but as of today I am not a gym member, and I’m thinking once again, “I should exercise more regularly.”
Something much more pressing than physical fitness is on Paul’s mind when he rebukes the Galatians for falling back into old habits. They had started well in faith, but now they’ve slipped back into works of the law. When they first became Christians they eagerly believed in Jesus, but now they want to enforce Old Covenant laws like circumcision on everyone in the church, particularly Gentiles.
So Paul asks, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (v. 3). God sent his Holy Spirit to you which you received by faith in Jesus; you didn’t get the Spirit through law-keeping. The Holy Spirit and his gifts of love, joy, peace, and all the rest came by way of justification through faith in Jesus. So why are you backpedaling into law-keeping again?
No one would accuse us today of reintroducing Old Testament practices as necessary for the Christian life. But I wonder if we fall back into old, legalistic spiritual habits in other ways? We say, of course I believe in Jesus. I’ve believed in Jesus since childhood. But my spiritual life now is rooted entirely in my own effort. I must perform. I must attend. I must give.
Should we be doers? Absolutely! But if the doing is a replacement for faith rather than a consequence of faith then we’ve missed the heart of the gospel. I love how Martin Luther puts it: “The law says ‘Do this’, and it is never done. Grace says, ‘believe in this’ and everything is already done.”
