Today, Paul moves on from their initiation into faith and hits them with a rapid series of questions that all find their answer in hearing the true gospel with faith. He begins with a question on completion. If they know that they were converted by faith alone what happens after that? Are they now trying to perfect themselves in the flesh on their own? The answer seems obvious, but it is so easy in this life after coming to faith to then try to do it on our own. Yes, Jesus’ blood is the entrance into the family, but now I have to work to stay in it. We take the burden that Jesus released us from and willingly put it back on ourselves. In our day-to-day lives, we forget the power of the Holy Spirit and we seek to do it all on our own power. And it doesn’t lead to transformation, but it leads us to exhaustion. The same Spirit that brought us to faith will transform us in power. That is what our hope and trust are in, not ourselves! Paul then reminds them of the persecution that they went through when they came to faith. If they turn from the true gospel then all that they suffered is in vain. Our suffering in this life is not worthless, but it is producing in us a peculiar weight of glory. It is in the suffering of Jesus on the cross that we are able to live in the sufferings of this life and not lose hope. Paul ends with an argument stemming from the miracles that they have seen. Jesus provided them with the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, something that the law could never provide. 

Paul is reminding them that all of this comes back to the single issue that the true gospel is not received by working according to the law it is received by hearing and believing with faith.