"This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"

                            -Galatians 3:2-3 

We often talk about God's saving grace. We speak of it's power to rescue us from sin's grasp, and reconcile us to God, bringing us back into fellowship with Him. But I'm afraid that sometimes we limit God's grace, thinking that all it does is save us. The Galatians did this, and we can see by the tone of Paul's writing that he was not happy about it. I think a suiting paraphrase of these two verses would be, "Answer me one thing: Were you saved by works, or by faith? Are you so foolish to think that, having begun in the Spirit by faith, you could now be sustained by works?"

Let's look at it this way: Suppose I wanted to fly. I tried everything I could think of to get airborne: jumping off the roof, gluing feathers all over my body and flapping my arms, but nothing worked. Then one day I asked a pilot friend to give me a ride in his plane - then I could finally know what it's like to fly! He took me up in his airplane, and after we were riding the clouds 1,000 feet above the ground I said, "Thanks for getting me up this high. I think I can fly by myself now..." and I jumped out, frantically flapping my arms all the way to the ground. It would be pretty foolish of me, wouldn't it?

Do you see what Paul is getting at? The same grace that saved us is the same grace that is sustaining us, and we can't go a single day without it.