The Marvellous Powers (Gal 3:2-5)

The ultimate test and the indubitable proof that the Divine power had been working through Paul among the Galatians from the beginning, and that the Spirit had been given them, lay in the marvellous powers which had been imparted to them, and which they had exhibited in action.

It is beyond question that Paul believed not merely in the superhuman powers which he himself occasionally exerted, but also in the communication of similar powers to many of his converts. He appeals to the memory of the Galatians. They know that such powers have been exercised among them.

Tell me then (he says), you who received the Spirit, does He that liberally equips you with the Spirit and plants in you marvellous and extraordinary powers — does He, I say, do so because of the deeds of the Law or because you have been the listeners and disciples to the preaching of the Faith? I do not need to supply the answer. You yourselves know the facts (which the historian has not failed to record), and you can answer the question. You remember the lame man at Lystra, who had the faith of salvation (as the historian says. Act 14:9); you remember the disciples at Antioch filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Act 13:52); you remember the signs and wonders that were done at Iconium (Act 14:3),1 and among the Gentiles in general (Act 15:12), and you know that Barnabas and I could do such works only where there was in you “the faith of being saved”;2 you have learned in your own case that “God has borne you witness, giving you the Holy Spirit even as He did unto us Jews, and has made no distinction between us and you, cleansing your hearts by faith” (Act 15:8-9). All this you remember; and further, you know that these mighty gifts were granted you before you had heard of this new Gospel of works of the Law, and when you knew and believed in only the Gospel of Faith, which alone had been preached to you during my earlier visit.

Are you, then, so void of insight into the truth of actual facts that, after having received such powers through the faith in which you began, you now seek to attain a more perfect stage of Christian life through physical ceremonies and acts? Has it done nothing for you that the Spirit acted so powerfully on you and in you? Nothing, do I say? Perchance it has actually been the worse for you that you have received the Spirit and then fallen away from it.

[1] Assuming that this verse is Lukan: but see St. Paul the Traveller, p. 108. The differences of text in the Iconian episode are very great.

[2] See note, p. 333.