Did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Paul’s language reveals what was going on in his mind and how upset he was (O stupid Galatians!). The Galatians had allowed themselves to be deceived into accepting a new teaching, a teaching that stressed the primacy of works (as opposed to faith/grace) in salvation. It was a teaching that contradicted both Paul and the Good News of Jesus Christ that he was preaching. To go back to works (of the law) was to essentially say that the death of Christ had not been enough. To give primacy to works was the same as telling God that we can do it on our own, and that the death of God’s own son was in vain. But this would be false, for the Galatians came to believe, not through works (anything they did as satisfaction) but rather on the message they heard: the message of being set free by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. “The death of Jesus Christ is moreover meritorious,” says Paul, “for in it all the works of the law have been brought to naught. If works could do it, then God would not have sacrificed God’s son. That Jesus Christ died on the cross for the expiation of sins proves that the works of the law (prominent in the old dispensation) had proved to be inefficient.” The Galatians themselves were confirmed as believers, not because of what they had done or what they promised to do, but through God’s grace through the Spirit.