"Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)

Paul the apostle had founded a number of churches in Galatia, leading many Gentiles to saving faith in Christ, but soon found that his teachings were being undermined by Judaizing Christians with their legalistic insistence on circumcision before these converts could really be Christians. Therefore, Paul had to remind the Galatians rather sternly that they had received the Holy Spirit as their in-dwelling guide and witness when they accepted Christ and that was sufficient evidence of their salvation.

Believing Christians today also have received the Holy Spirit, and thus have already been redeemed, "so, having begun in the Spirit," we do not need any further "fleshly" actions to be saved. Good works are vitally important, but they are the results of, rather than prerequisites to, salvation; "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," Paul writes, for if we "walk in the Spirit, |we| shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:25, 16).

We need to realize the tremendous privilege of the Spirit's presence within us once we have believed on Christ. In His resurrection body He is in heaven, but the Holy Spirit has been sent by the Lord, to be with us and in us. God, therefore, can and does hear even our silent prayers, and we should be "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18), for we "have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18). It is through Him that we "worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3). We must remember that "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9). HMM