DAY 5: GALATIANS 3:1-6

Sanctification Comes by the Spirit, Not Self-Reliance
Spurgeon’s note on 3:2

We have received the Holy Spirit to help us in our sanctification, but we have obtained no sanctification apart from believing. If we have reached after sanctification by our own efforts, made in unbelief, we have never succeeded. Unbelief works toward sin and never toward sanctification. Our good works are fruits of sanctification, not causes of it; and if we put the fruit where the root should be, we greatly err. If we have gone out to fight against a temptation in our own strength, have we ever returned a conqueror? It has been written of all other believers, “They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:11). And this is true of us also. Sanctification does not come to us from self-reliance but as a work of the Spirit received by faith in Christ. Believing in him, he is “wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).