The Work of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:3)

Devotional

Day 1: Breathing Life into Dead Bones

A corpse cannot stir its own limbs or command its own breath. So too, the soul dead in sin lies motionless until the Holy Spirit breathes divine life into its dry bones. This regeneration happens suddenly, mysteriously—like wind stirring where it wills. The newly awakened soul feels thoughts and convictions alien to its former state: weights of guilt, hunger for holiness, desperation for a Savior not yet named. What was stone becomes flesh; what was dust becomes a living temple. [21:59]

“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
(Ezekiel 37:5-6, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you subtly relied on self-improvement instead of the Spirit’s breath? What deadness in your heart needs His resurrection power today?

Day 2: The Folly of Whitewashed Statues

Morality scrubs the surface; the Spirit resurrects the core. A marble statue may be polished to perfection, yet remain lifeless. So too, ethical living without regeneration leaves souls eternally cold. The Holy Spirit does not reform but recreates, not adorning the old man but crucifying him. No amount of rule-keeping can quicken what remains a corpse—only the shout of “LIVE!” from the mouth of God. [38:56]

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
(John 3:3, ESV)

Reflection: Have you mistaken clean habits for new life? How does your daily dependence reveal whether you trust in discipline or the Divine?

Day 3: Groans That Precede the Crown

Conviction is the Spirit’s knife, cutting away the illusion of self-sufficiency. The awakened soul writhes under this surgery—trembling at sin’s filth, starving for righteousness, aching with helplessness. These groans are not despair but birth pangs. The Spirit wounds to heal, empties to fill, breaks to remake. The valley of dry bones echoes with gasps before it dances with resurrection. [26:07]

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
(2 Corinthians 7:10, ESV)

Reflection: Do you resent the Spirit’s knife or welcome it as mercy? What present ache might be His preparation for deeper life?

Day 4: Clay in the Potter’s Hand

A lump of clay cannot mold itself. So the soul, once awakened, discovers its utter dependence—no strength to believe, no power to pray, no might to cling. The Spirit reduces us to soft, pliable earth, then shapes us into vessels of honor. Our part is not to strain but to surrender, not to achieve but to be wheel-turned by hands wiser than our own. [28:56]

“Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
(Romans 9:21, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you still gripping the clay of self-effort? How might yielding to the Potter’s pressure bring deeper freedom?

Day 5: The Wind That Blows Where It Wills

The Spirit’s work defies formulas. He comes like a sudden gale to the sailor—unpredictable, uncontrollable, undeniable. One soul trembles under preaching; another weeps in solitude; another burns while reading Scripture. All are swept by the same divine breath. Our systems cannot contain Him, our theologies cannot tame Him. We track His effects, not His path, and worship the mystery. [21:59]

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:8, ESV)

Reflection: Have you boxed the Spirit into your expectations? How might His untamable nature comfort you in areas where human effort has failed?

Sermon Summary

Paul’s sharp rebuke, “Are ye so foolish?” lays bare a folly that cleaves even to the children of God. The Galatians had begun in the Spirit, yet were tempted to seek perfection in the flesh, and this same self-confidence rises continually in hearts that know, in theory, that salvation is of the Lord alone. The Holy Spirit must begin, continue, preserve, and perfect the sacred work, while good intentions, strong resolutions, and natural strength can do nothing in his stead.

The work of the Holy Spirit stands at the beginning of all true religion in the soul. The means of grace, the hearing of the Word, prayer, ordinances, and the reading of Scripture are precious conduit pipes, but they are wells without water unless the fountain-head itself doth flow. God alone gives life through these appointed means. Man, minister, priest, ceremony, and sacrament cannot regenerate a soul, for the new birth is from above and belongs to God the Holy Spirit.

Human nature cannot commence this work because it is dead in trespasses and sins. The dead cannot make themselves alive, nor can fallen sin create heavenly grace. Human nature also will not begin it, for the true desire to be reconciled to God is already the bud and germ of divine life. The Spirit therefore finds the sinner where Adam left him, breathes into him divine life, and makes him capable of spiritual sight, hearing, feeling, and desire.

Regeneration comes before true conviction, because a dead sinner cannot spiritually discern his own death. The Spirit’s quickening makes sin a dreadful reality rather than a word lightly confessed. The Spirit also slays every refuge of self-salvation, whether morality, ceremonies, resolutions, or imagined power to believe at will. The soul then lies as clay in the potter’s hand, brought low enough to cry that none but God can save.

The Holy Spirit gives faith to lay hold upon Christ, applies the blood to the conscience, clothes the believer in Christ’s righteousness, and grants the Spirit of adoption by whom the soul cries, “Abba, Father.” Christ’s blood and righteousness are fully sufficient, yet they become savingly possessed only through the Spirit’s gracious application. The new birth therefore leaves no room for boasting, but it gives solid joy to every soul that has been made alive and directed to the cross of Jesus.

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Key Takeaways

1. The Spirit begins every saving work [09:31] God the Holy Spirit does not merely assist a sinner who has first made himself willing. He creates the life by which the sinner sees, feels, repents, and believes. Salvation begins where human power ends, because the dead cannot make themselves alive. [09:31]
2. Means without life are empty pipes [11:29] The Word, prayer, worship, and ordinances are not to be despised, for God has appointed them. Yet none of them carries life in itself apart from the Spirit’s breath. The soul may attend every ordinance and still suck the wind, unless the fountain-head of grace fills the conduit. [11:29]
3. Regeneration makes sin painfully real [24:39] The quickened soul does not merely repeat that it is sinful. The Spirit gives eyes to see transgression’s exceeding evil and a heart that trembles beneath it. Such conviction is not the cause of life, but one of the earliest cries of life newly given. [24:39]
4. Self-salvation must die before faith lives [27:18] The Holy Spirit knocks the brains out of confidence in goodness and shoots through the heart of confidence in ceremonies. The soul learns that it cannot even believe aright by its own bare strength. Faith begins in earnest when every fleshly refuge has become a carcass too loathsome to keep. [27:18]
5. Christ’s fullness reaches souls by the Spirit [32:04] Christ’s blood is sufficient, his righteousness is spotless, and his adoption is glorious. The Spirit alone sprinkles the conscience, puts on the robe, and enables the cry of a child to the Father. The gospel therefore offers not a bare idea, but Christ effectually bestowed upon those whom the Spirit quickens.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:08] - Foolishness of Beginning in the Flesh
[04:58] - Christians Begin in the Spirit
[06:17] - Forgetfulness of the Holy Spirit
[09:31] - Salvation Begins by the Spirit Alone
[11:29] - Means of Grace and the Fountain-Head
[12:29] - No Priest or Ceremony Can Regenerate
[15:36] - Man Cannot and Will Not Save Himself
[18:52] - Regeneration Before Conversion
[24:39] - Conviction of Sin Through New Life
[26:59] - The Death of Self-Confidence
[30:09] - Faith and Assurance Given by the Spirit
[34:16] - The Necessity of the New Birth
[42:01] - Christ Came to Save Sinners

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Galatians 3:1-3
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” [00:00]

John 3:3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [39:44]

Ephesians 2:1
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” [38:53]

1 Timothy 1:15
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” [43:40]

Observation questions

In Galatians 3:1-3, what contrast does Paul make between receiving the Spirit by hearing with faith and seeking perfection by the flesh? [00:25]
What are some of the “means of grace” named here, and how are they compared to conduit pipes and a fountain-head? [11:29]
According to Ephesians 2:1 and the passage’s explanation, what does spiritual death show about a person’s ability to begin new life in God? [16:08]
What changes begin to appear when the Spirit gives new life, especially in a person’s view of sin and of self-salvation? [24:52]

Interpretation questions

Why is it foolish for believers who began by the Spirit to rely on strong resolutions, natural ability, or good intentions for continued growth in holiness? [02:40]
If the Word, prayer, worship, and ordinances are good gifts, why must they never be treated as if they themselves can give life apart from the Holy Spirit? [10:47]
What does it mean that regeneration comes before true spiritual conviction of sin? How does spiritual life enable a person to see sin differently than merely admitting, “I am a sinner”? [20:43]
Why does the Spirit’s work of exposing the failure of morality, ceremony, and self-effort prepare the soul to look to Christ in faith? [27:26]

Application questions

Where is there a temptation to begin in dependence on God but continue by relying on personal discipline, good intentions, experience, or resolve? What would dependence on the Holy Spirit look like in that particular area this week? [03:52]
Which means of grace are most regularly used—Scripture, prayer, gathered worship, fellowship, or another—and is there a danger of using them merely as habits rather than coming to God for life through them? [11:11]
When sin is confessed, does it remain mostly a general word, or are there particular sins whose weight and evil are becoming clearer? How can that conviction lead toward Christ rather than toward despair? [25:29]
Is there a “fleshly refuge” still trusted for acceptance with God: moral conduct, religious activity, knowledge, comparison with others, or the ability to change at will? What makes that refuge difficult to surrender? [28:06]
When faith feels difficult or weak, what is the usual response—trying harder, withdrawing, or asking the Spirit to give strength to look to Christ? How might 1 Timothy 1:15 give hope in that struggle? [31:45]
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. How does that truth speak both to the person who feels too respectable to need new life and to the person who feels too sinful to be received? [43:24]

Sermon Clips

“This one thing I know, brethren, that whilst as a preacher I can tell you all, that the Holy Spirit must work all our works in us, and that without him we can do nothing, yet as a man I find myself tempted to deny my own preachings, not in my words, but to deny them in fact by endeavoring to do deeds without looking first to the Holy Spirit.” [00:03:12]

“Yes, we are just as foolish as that. And my brethren, it is well for us if we have a consciousness that we are foolish. For when a man is foolish and knows it, there is the hope that he will one day be wise. To know oneself to be foolish is to stand upon the doorstep of the temple of wisdom. To understand the wrongness of any position is halfway towards amending it.” [00:04:01]

“I suppose we are all of us very sound as a matter of theory upon this point. If any should ask us how we hope to have our salvation worked in us, we should without the slightest hesitation state our belief that salvation is of the Lord alone. And we should declare that as the Holy Spirit first of all commenced our piety in us, we look alone to his might to continue and to persevere and at last to perfect the sacred work.” [00:01:49]

“The work of salvation never was commenced by any man. God, the Holy Spirit must commence it. Now the reasons why no man ever commence the work of grace in his own heart is very plain and palpable. First because he cannot. Secondly, because he won't. The best reason of all is because he cannot. He is dead.” [00:15:40]

“self-confidence is a heinous sin and folly and an offense towards God. And to have that thought burned into us by God's Holy Spirit is going a great length towards the absolute casting our self-confidence away and the bringing of our souls in practice as well as in theory to rely wholly upon the power of God's Holy Spirit.” [00:04:30]

“Well, the dead may be made alive, but the dead cannot make themselves alive. For the dead can do nothing. Besides the new thing to be created as yet hath no being, the unccreated cannot create.” [00:16:08]

“You may attend every meeting for prayer. You may turn over the leaves of this blessed book, but in all this there is no life for the soul apart from the breath of the divine spirit.” [00:11:11]

“Use these means. We exhort you to use them and use them diligently. But recollect that in none of these means is there anything that can benefit you. Unless God the Holy Spirit shall own and crown them.” [00:11:26]

“God the Holy Ghost next applies the blood of Jesus to the soul, gives the soul the grace of faith, whereby it lays hold of Jesus, and gives it an anointing of holy consecration and uncction of assurance, whereby casting itself holy on the blood and righteousness of Jesus, it receiveth joy, knowing itself to be saved, and rejoices in pardon.” [00:30:16]

“There may be a false desire, a desire grounded upon a misrepresentation of the truth. But a true desire after true salvation by the true spirit is a certain index that the salvation already is there in the germ and in the bud and only needs time and grace to develop itself.” [00:17:48]

“We must always learn to distinguish between regeneration and conversion. A man may be converted a great many times in his life but regenerated only once. Conversion is a thing which is caused by regeneration. But regeneration is the very first act of God the spirit in the soul.” [00:20:17]

“Now regeneration quickens the sinner and makes him live. He is not competent to have true spiritual conviction worked in him until first of all he has received life.” [00:20:52]

“I believe then the first thing the spirit does is this. He finds the sinner dead in sin just where Adam left him. He breathes into him a divine influence. The sinner knows nothing about how it is done. Nor do any of us understand it. Thou understandest not the wind. It bloweth where it listeth. But we see its effects.” [00:21:45]

“every point that is brought out in the experience of the newborn Christian, every point in that part of salvation which we may call its beginning in the soul has to do with God the Holy Spirit. There is no step that can be taken without him. There is nothing which can be accomplished a right without him.” [00:33:04]

“And I shall now, I say, confine myself to the thought that Christians begin in the spirit. That the early part of Christianity is of God's spirit and of God's spirit only. While it is equally true that all the way through we must lean upon the same power and depend upon the same strength.” [00:05:26]

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The Work of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:3) - Charles Spurgeon Sermon