Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
Parallel translations
- KJV Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
- BSB Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?
- NKJV Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
- NASB Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
- NLT How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Having begun by the Spirit, are they now trying to be perfected by human effort? Paul calls this folly.
Overview
Paul presses the inconsistency: a life that started by the Spirit cannot be completed 'by the flesh,' meaning by self-effort and law-keeping. To shift from grace to works for sanctification reverses the whole logic of the gospel. The Christian life is finished the same way it began, by faith and the Spirit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gal 5:4–8You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
- Gal 4:7–10So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
- Heb 7:16–19who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life:
- Heb 9:9–10which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect;
- Gal 6:12–14As many as desire to look good in the flesh, they compel you to be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
- Heb 9:2For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 3:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.