Thomas Aquinas Commentary Galatians 3:2-5

"This only would I learn from you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh? Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be indeed in vain. He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, [doeth he it] by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" — Galatians 3:2-5 (ASV)

Having given his rebuke, the Apostle goes on to show the insufficiency of the Law and the power of faith.

First, he proves the insufficiency of the Law.

Second, he raises a question and answers it (verse 19).

Concerning the first point, he does two things:

First, he proves the deficiency and insufficiency of the Law by appealing to what they experienced.

Second, by authority and reasons (verse 6).

As to the first of these, he does two things:

First, he proves his proposition by appealing to something they experienced.

Second, by using something he himself experienced (verse 5).

With respect to the first of these, he does two things:

First, he discusses the gift they have received.

Second, the defect into which they have fallen (verse 3).

He discusses the gift they received by asking them from whom they received it. Therefore, assuming they had accepted the gift, he questions them: Although you have been bewitched and are foolish, you are surely not so deluded that you cannot explain something very obvious to me. He says, "This is the only thing I want to learn from you," because this alone is enough to prove my point. It is evident that you have received the Holy Spirit. I ask, therefore, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

To explain this, it should be noted that in the early Church, by God’s providence, and so that the faith of Christ might prosper and grow, visible signs of the Holy Spirit appeared in the hearers immediately after the apostles preached. Accordingly, it is said of Peter in Acts 10:44: While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word.

The Galatians, too, openly received the Holy Spirit at Paul’s preaching. The Apostle therefore asks them from where they obtained the Holy Spirit. It is obvious that it was not through the works of the Law, because, since they were Gentiles, they did not have the Law before they received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, they had the Holy Spirit—that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit—by hearing with faith. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, which was given in the Law (for the Law was given amid tremors), but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons (Romans 8:17).

Therefore, if the power of faith could do this, it is pointless to seek salvation by some other means, because it is more difficult to make the unjust just than to keep the just in their righteousness. So, if faith had made the unjust Gentiles just without the Law, it could no doubt keep them just without the Law. Great, therefore, was the gift they had received through faith.

Then, when he asks if they are so foolish that, having begun in the Spirit, they would now be perfected by the flesh, he shows the defect into which they have fallen. He expands on a twofold defect, concerning both the gifts they had received from Christ and the evils they endured for Him (verse 4): Have you suffered so great things in vain?

Regarding the first point, it should be noted that the Galatians, after they left what was great—namely, the Holy Spirit—clung to something lesser: the carnal observances of the Law. This is foolish. The Apostle asks if they are so foolish that, after beginning under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (that is, obtaining the beginning of their perfection from the Holy Spirit), they would now, while they are more advanced, seek to be perfected by the flesh. In other words, do they seek to be preserved by the carnal observances of the Law, from which they could not acquire even the beginning of righteousness? The flesh profiteth nothing (John 6:64).

In this way, you pervert the right order, because the path of perfection consists in going from the imperfect to the perfect. But because you are doing the opposite, you are foolish: A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun; but a fool is changed as the moon . They are like those who begin to serve God with spiritual fervor but afterward desert to the flesh. They are also like Nebuchadnezzar’s statue with its head of gold and feet of clay (Daniel 11:32). Hence it is said, They who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8), and he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption (Galatians 6:8).

Then, when he says, Have you suffered so great things in vain? he highlights their desertion by considering the evils they endured for Christ. Anyone who receives something without effort does not guard it as precious, but it is foolish to value lightly and fail to guard what is obtained by great effort. The Galatians had received the Holy Spirit with labor and tribulation, suffering at the hands of their fellow citizens. That is why he asks, Have you suffered so great things in vain?

It is as if he were saying: You should not despise so great a gift received with such effort; otherwise, you have received it in vain—that is, to no purpose. You endured these things to attain eternal life: Tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not (Romans 5:3). Therefore, if you shut yourselves out from the door to eternal life by abandoning the faith and seeking to be saved by carnal observances, you have suffered in vain—that is, uselessly.

And he adds, "if it is still in vain." He says this because it was still in their power to repent, if they wished, as long as they were alive. This shows that certain deadened works can be revived: Their labors are without fruit, and their works unprofitable ; I am afraid lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you (Galatians 4:11). If this is applied to evil people who do not repent, it can be said that they suffered without a cause—that is, a cause that can grant eternal life.

Then, when he says, He, therefore, who giveth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you; doth he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of the faith? he proves his proposition by appealing to his own experience. For they might say that although it is true that they received the Holy Spirit by hearing with faith, it was because of Paul’s devotion to the Law that they received the faith he preached. So he says: But even considering the matter not from your side, but from what I have done in giving you the Holy Spirit who works miracles among you through my ministry—do I do this by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? In truth, it is not by the works of the Law but by faith.

But can anyone give the Holy Spirit? Augustine, in On the Trinity (Book 15), says that no mere human can give the Holy Spirit. The apostles, for example, did not give the Holy Spirit; rather, they laid hands on people, who then received the Holy Spirit. What then does the Apostle mean when he speaks of himself as giving you the Holy Spirit? I answer that in the giving of the Holy Spirit, three things work together in a certain order: the indwelling Holy Spirit, the gift of grace and charity along with the other virtues, and the sacrament of the New Law through whose administration the Spirit is given. Therefore, the Spirit can be given by someone in three ways.

First, the Spirit can be given by someone who has authority over all three aspects: the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, the gift, and the sacrament. In this way, the Holy Spirit is given by the Father and the Son alone, since they have the authority not of dominion but of origin, because the Spirit proceeds from both.

Second, regarding the grace, the gift, and the sacraments, the Holy Spirit even gives Himself. This means that the giving implies the Holy Spirit's own causality with respect to His gifts, because, as the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 12:11, He divides to everyone according as He wills. However, concerning the author of the giving, it is not appropriate to say that the Holy Spirit gives Himself.

Third, concerning the sacrament which is given by the ministry of the Church’s ministers, it can be said that holy people give the Holy Spirit by administering the sacraments. This is the way the Apostle had in mind—the way mentioned in a gloss. Nevertheless, this is not the usual way of phrasing it, and it should not be overstated.

Again, a gloss says that the performing of miracles is attributed to faith, which operates above nature because it believes in things that are above nature. Therefore, because the apostles preached a faith that contained things beyond reason, they needed to offer some testimony to support their credibility—some proof that they had been sent by God, which is itself a claim that surpasses reason. For this reason, Christ gave them His own sign as proof.

Now, there is a twofold sign of Christ. One is that He is the Lord of all; hence it is said, Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages: and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations (Psalms 144:13). The other is that He is Sanctifier and Savior, according to Acts 4:12: There is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved. Accordingly, He gave them two signs. The first was the power to perform miracles, so that they could show they were sent by God, the Lord of all creatures: He gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1). The second was that by their ministry they might give the Holy Spirit, to show that they had been sent by the Savior of all: They laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17). Of these two signs it is said in Hebrews 2:4: God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders and divers miracles and distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.