He is a new creature in Christ. It was rather to have Gentile liberty secured by the twelve apostles, and that the Judaizers should be condemned by the church at Jerusalem. So the minute I start peddling books and saying, "Now, to really understand the Bible, you better read my books, because you'll just, you know, read the Bible, you'll be in darkness. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem; for she is a slave and so are her children. That is not what Christian liberty is about. It was the very reverse of deriving his authority from either. Paul was a trained Rabbi; and that is what he is doing here. Thence he advances to another point of his argument. This is not a word which classical Greek uses commonly. But it degenerated; came to mean the desire to have what someone else has, wrong desire for what is not for us. Get Access To 3 Exclusive Articles (for FREE) Want articles like this one delivered straight to your email? Josephus ascribed it to Jezebel when she built a temple to Baal in Jerusalem. Nor is there a greater evidence of God's tender and considerate care for us than such a fact as this. But we, brothers, are in the same position as Isaac; we are children of promise. Hairesis was not originally a bad word at all. What a subversion, not only of the truth of God revealed in the gospel, but also of redemption, which is its basis! Later Sarah found Ishmael "mocking" (King James Version) Isaac--this Paul equates with persecution--and insisted that Hagar should be cast out, so that the child of the slave girl should not share the inheritance with her freeborn son. And "Titus," as he says here, "who was with me, being a Greek," etc. There can be no doubt about the matter. with the affections and lusts [with its desires]. Galatians 5:15 by Grant Richison | Apr 11, 2000 | Galatians | 1 comment Read Introduction to Galatians "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!" The Galatian church entered a stage of conflict because of legalistic thinking. If God loved us like that then the love of Christ constrains us. They were, after all, Gentiles, and as such ought to have had nothing to do with the law. Whoever despises the facts of Christianity, as if nothing in Scripture were worthy of meditation, or of ministering to others but exercises and speculative deductions, will be found, if he do not find himself often, on the verge of dangerous delusions, both for the mind and for the walk. The apostle goes up to Jerusalem, not only with Barnabas, who had come from thence, but taking with him Titus, who seems not to have been there before Titus, his own valued companion in labour, but a Gentile. On the other hand, the spirit (the renewed part of us) strives against the flesh, and opposes the will and desire of it: and hence it comes to pass that we cannot do the things that we would. Had they been occupied with Christ, they would have really loved one another, and in other respects too fulfilled the law, without thinking about themselves or it. "Yet undergirding all of Pauls admonitions regarding love and service is the reality of life lived by the Spirit, with references to the Spirit being more frequent in Galatians 5:13 to Galatians 6:10 than references to either love or service." And become again a spiritual being.And so, when Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus faced him immediately with this issue. Love is the sum of the whole law; as love to God comprises the duties of the first table, so love to our neighbour those of the second. The meaning of Galatians 5:1 is an incredible verse that has a powerful lesson for us today. And this life is sustained by the very same person who is its source. This then is what the law brought in. But I have confidence in you that you're not going to be persuaded by this. IF YOU RECEIVE CIRCUMCISION. And now the apostle enters on another part of his subject. The whole idea of the word is a goodness which is kind. He sees the right, feels the good, desires the holy, but never, accomplishes. The Christian needs that goodness which at one and the same time can be kind and strong. As if he had said, "You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenour of your lives, you be led by the Spirit,--if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you,--if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle,--it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Romans 8:1-14. The Lord did stamp the testimony of Peter as being truly the revelation of His Father. In this case, happily, the brethren near at hand went along with him in heart. Fifteen days. To have been with the Messiah, the hearer of His words and the witness of His work, up to His departure, was ever a condition to those who were accustomed to the twelve apostles. dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ( Galatians 5:14 ). This then is the apostle's allusion and reasoning; but he proceeds to meet a natural objection. He had been called, as none could deny, in a way which not even any other apostle had ever known. It was not merely that Paul was lowered by the carping Judaizers God's grace was being sacrificed. He will not hear of any pretended misunderstanding. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh ( Galatians 5:24 ). The writer of First Maccabees ( 1Ma_8:4 ) says that it was by makrothumia ( G3115) that the Romans became masters of the world, and by that he means the Roman persistence which would never make peace with an enemy even in defeat, a kind of conquering patience. That would not be a good example of Christian love. God promises the final power and glory of Israel in the earth, putting down their foes, and so forth. This the apostle represents as our duty, and directs us to the most effectual means of success in it. His spirit died, and Adam broke fellowship with God. Either Luke, as a doctor, did not use or have access to pharmaceuticals, which would then require that Galatians 5 says nothing of medicine, or Dr. Luke administered pharmakeia, which, the argument goes, is medicine sorcery. Help me, Lord. Law is gone and grace ensures forgiveness anyway." (14) An exhortation to the duties of charity, by the profit that follows from it, because no men proved worse for themselves than they that hate one another. Such is the effect of Christianity, and such in perfection was Christ Himself. Interesting to me that heresies is here mentioned as a part of the works of the flesh. What then is the end of the law? When we look elsewhere we end up enslaved. Heathenism! Then he takes up Abraham; for this is always the stock argument of those who would bring in circumcision and the law, Abraham being emphatically the friend of God and the father of the faithful. (Compare John 1:9; John 1:17.). So I must be righteous in order to have fellowship with God. Was this the love the law claimed? . "Hey, that old nature, that old Chuck is dead. It is to be noted that the summit of all meanings was the allegorical meaning. Carousing; this word (komos) has an interesting history. For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. "Unless," he says, "you solve the problem of living together you will make life impossible." The new creation is a present blessing that the soul already enjoys. There is no approach to a vaunt about his dignity. And this leads to another point, the relation of the law to the promises. But immediately after this it is added, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In Galatians 5:1-15, the apostle Paul discusses the nature of Christian freedom, beginning with an admonition to "stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1, NKJV).Paul contends that Jesus Christ came to set believers free from a burdensome, legalistic existence as slaves to the law. The Christian by the cross of Christ has terminated his connection with flesh, with the world, with the law. "As we have said before, so I say now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received." He speaks of "the grace of Christ." Therefore the apostle adds, ,And as many as walk according to this rule [that is, the rule of the new creation], peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." The law came in meanwhile, serving its own object, which was to bring out what was in the heart of man. Hence it is that Rome, which most decidedly in principle rests on human succession (as all worldly religion must, to a certain extent, embrace the same principle) Rome, I say, seeks to derive her authority, as all know, from Peter. Invariably, where man seeks to bring in a successional apostleship, the twelve become the great model. You cannot attack such a servant without attacking his testimony. It is wholly apart from works of law. How little is man to be accounted of! But he was not thus disobedient to the heavenly vision. Now, what does God say about it? Tender and comprehensive as Christianity is, it is also the most exclusive thing that can be. He feels what he ought to do, but he does it not, and thus is increasingly wretched. Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. He strikes accordingly at the root of all successional or derived authority. They don't come to man from God.And the Jehovah Witnesses, just the Arian heresy of the early church. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. They had been idolaters before they became Christians; and to take up Jewish principles in addition to Christ is to turn back again to their cast-off idols. It's just, you know, too difficult. or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress When the prophet speaks of any one living, it is by faith "The just shall live by faith." And mark the difference. Already "thy seed," the true Isaac, is given, and in that true seed the Gentiles are being blessed. hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies ( Galatians 5:20 ). If, when I got on board a 747 at LAX heading for Honolulu, the captain would say, "Now, folks, we're having a little problem here with our navigation instruments. Galatians 5:16. Salem Media Group. It isn't a liberty to live after my flesh. It is not simply that he was brought to follow Jesus, to believe and confess His name; but God revealed His Son in him. His is an apostleship to itself, as real as that of the twelve, but of another order, not at the same time, nor in the same manner. Even in Christianity how much need there is to remember what the Lord warns us of inLuke 5:1-39; Luke 5:1-39 that no man accustomed to old wine straightway desires new, but says, The old is better. So here the Christian puts on Christ, not the law or circumcision. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. And the old flesh likes to get people excited and stirred up like that. For the foundation was at stake. For they were saying that was it was necessary to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be righteous before God, to be saved. The apostle urges that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Now, it is evident and to this I call your particular attention that the apostle here binds together his gospel with his apostolic place. Paul cautioned both sides to love one another or they would consume each other. It was something painful to bear. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter," etc. As the principle of grace in us will not suffer us to do all the evil which our corrupt nature would prompt us to, so neither can we do all the good that we would, by reason of the oppositions we meet with from that corrupt and carnal principle. The law necessarily makes the man, and the man's doings, to be the prominent object. We find that offensive in our society today, but in those days, the area of Galatia was the center of the worship of Sybil, and the priests of Sybil would castrate themselves. For the world there is nothing yet executed, any more than the great results of grace for the saints as yet appear in their fulness. But he goes deeply. To impugn the one is to imperil the other. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. (1) A summary statement: in light of all that Paul has previously said, he now challenges the Galatians to walk in the truth he has presented. Villages had an official who was called the superintendent of the village's eirene ( G1515) , the keeper of the public peace. They're contrary, and I do not always walk after the Spirit. Strife; originally this word had mainly to do with the rivalry for prizes. Self-control; the word is egkrateia ( G1466) which Plato uses of self-mastery. Be assured that it is the same simplicity of faith which enters into both these things now. Therefore reckon ye yourselves to be dead with Christ, but alive unto God through Him" ( Romans 6:6 , Romans 6:11 ). Had Peter been right, it was evident that the gospel had put Peter in the wrong. The essence of it is that it does not describe the spirit which desires, nobly or ignobly, to have what someone else has: it describes the spirit which grudges the fact that the other person has these things at all. "Be as I am." Having brought in the true character of the Christian's life as flowing simply and solely from Christ, and from Christ crucified too, so here he takes up the Holy Ghost. And who will venture to say that the indwelling Spirit of God fails to supply power to him who submits to the righteousness of God in Christ? There was no difference in the blessing of Christ: man's guilt and God's grace were alike indiscriminate. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ( Galatians 5:5 ). Do not abuse your freedom (13-15) I. Christ has set us free (1-6) Discussion Questions What has Christ set us free from? He went simply to make the acquaintance of Peter, and abode with him how long? Paul had written in the earlier part, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" ( Galatians 2:20 ). And so, I have to reckon the old man to be dead each day, and oftentimes, many times through the day.The flesh is lusting against the Spirit. Now Paul said. A final appeal to walk in the liberty of Jesus. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. This epistle, as those to the Corinthians, opens with an assertion of his apostolic place. Immediately, then, as. The law is of a wholly different nature, and hence was ordained of angels in the hand of a mediator. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Instead of going up to Jerusalem on earth, instead of endeavouring to effect a junction with the law or anything else here below, the gospel wants no such allies, but repudiates them all. For what has a risen man to do with Israel more than the nations? You see, I don't always do the things that I would. So "stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ has made you free." The law and the promise are both from God, but the law's use is only negative and condemnatory. He refuses all cover for different thoughts. Kindness and goodness are closely connected words. Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." Because you'll never come to their beliefs just by reading the Bible. That is, the most simple and most obvious truth is just the last thing a man thinks about. He says to those who would be under the law, why do you not listen to the law? Bring in one part of law, and you fall under the authority of the whole. These things are not allowed in the kingdom of God. how lamentable the extraordinary number of those, of whom the one cuts off the life of the other. There was no insult to him, nor injury done, in saying that he did not acknowledge the law for a Christian. Christ is your liberty and life. So it was, then, that the apostle presents his own wonderful relation to Christ. The long lapse of time ought to have guarded men from mixing up the law with the promise, and thus from the appearance of annulling the promise by the law, for this would be most dishonouring to God. . You weren't persuaded to be circumcised because God was speaking to your heart and convicting you of this. And no wonder. [Note: Longenecker, p. For Christ bought off those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, bringing them by grace into a place of known salvation and intelligent joy in relation with our God and Father, out of that bondage and nonage which the law supposes. The word Paul uses for goodness (agathosune, G19) is a peculiarly Bible word and does not occur in secular Greek ( Romans 15:14; Ephesians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:11). but for what he can get out of it. The law was given them with all pomp and solemnity. The very reverse of their system is true. It will stand. The old law, while it accomplishes its purposes, makes no provisions for that "weakness of the flesh" (see Romans 8:2). As in their baptism they were obliged hereunto (for, being baptized into Christ, they were baptized into his death, Romans 6:3), so they are now sincerely employing themselves herein, and, in conformity to their Lord and head, are endeavouring to die unto sin, as he had died for it. The case is hit off exactly to the life. It was therefore not only for him, but for the instruction of the Galatians, and of us all. Hagar herself was a slave and all her children were born into slavery; and that covenant whose basis is the law turns men into slaves of the law. "Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1) "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Note, The best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit, to be much in conversing with spiritual things, to mind the things of the soul, which is the spiritual part of man, more than those of the body, which is his carnal part, to commit ourselves to the guidance of the word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us, and in the way of our duty to act in a dependence on his aids and influences. I just refer to it for a moment, because it adds much to the beauty of the reasoning in Galatians. It went on to mean canvassing for political or public office, and it describes the man who wants office, not from any motives of service. Mark, again, the strength of the expression. It is the law of Christ. The first letters of these four words--P-R-D-S--are the consonants of the word Paradise--and when a man had succeeded in penetrating into these four different meanings he reached the joy of paradise! but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. He does not condescend to reason about their place in the matter, but puts them at once in their due relationship. And so Paul is standing against this teaching in his letter to the Galatians, and in chapter five, he said. In Greek there are four words for love. Don't marvel when I say, 'You've got to be born again.'" He simply states, as I have said, that his apostolic character was not only from Jesus, but from God the Father, that raised Him from the dead. Whom did their principle make them resemble? You see, laws are for unprincipled people. The law of Christ makes the going out of love towards another, so to speak, to be his joy. It, too, is commonly translated goodness. Basil called it "grief at your neighbours good fortune." There is no law which condemns thing; like that. Flesh and blood had not revealed it. Such is the secret of true power. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust [desires] of the flesh ( Galatians 5:15-16 ). He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" It was Paul's position that the way of grace and the way of law were mutually exclusive. Christian faith and behavior are never more frustrated and disgraced than by spiteful criticisms, derogatory remarks, snide observations and poison-tongue fulminations of Christians against each other. Such is the application. Christ on high had called him. Thus it appears that the Galatians as well as the Corinthians had been similarly affected. When Jerusalem is humbled by the mercy of God, and betakes herself to her Messiah and the new covenant, she will "hear the law," and the prophets will be accomplished in her blessing, and in the largeness of love the present children of promise (even Christians, as being in a certain mystical sense children of Jerusalem) will be her boast. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. The consequence is, "If ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law;" and more than this, if we are producing the fruits of the Spirit, he can easily say, "Against such there is no law." So, Paul here exhorts us to walk in the Spirit and to live after the Spirit or on the spirit side of our lives. Romans chapter six, "Know ye that the old man was crucified with Christ? This seems to have been the reason of their being twelve; and it is to me clear that our Lord establishes this as the true reference and key when He declares that, in the regeneration, the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and they shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. In so many things. And as, by specifying these works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, the apostle directs us both what we are to avoid and oppose and what we are to cherish and cultivate, so (Galatians 5:24; Galatians 5:24) he informs us that this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians: And those that are Christ's, says he (those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. I mean, if you're walking in love, what rules can you lay down? At first he prayed the Lord to take it from him; but no! What Paul is saying is, "This legalistic movement may not have gone very far yet, but you must root it out before it destroys your whole religion.". Don't revive him. "But though we" Paul himself, or any that were associated with him "though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Need it be added that he was right and Peter wrong? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." And so then I had to go out to them and say, "Hey, you haven't convinced me of the truth of what you're declaring. The apostle does not say, if grievous wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but suggests if they themselves should act the part of wolves to one another; having reference to their controversies about the law and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, parties, and factions; and were attended with envy and malice, with reproachful words, biting sarcasms, scandalous invectives, and injurious actions, which must be of bad consequence: hence he adds. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And what sort of life can this be? The flesh began to rule, and man's consciousness was now filled and absorbed with the body needs and the body appetites. One degree, and you've only gone hundred miles, you don't even notice. You have fallen from grace. But the whole matter is decided before God. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. Such was the case with the Old Testament believers, and many Jewish believers then alive. They think that it is quite right, for the church especially, to appoint days for this and that saint; to have certain seasons to remind one of the Lord's incarnation, ministry, and crucifixion, of His resurrection, ascension, and so on. In the case of the twelve, we do find an apostle chosen to supply the gap of Judas chosen, I admit, of God, though after a Jewish sort, as Chrysostom justly remarks, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. It was the ungrateful heart of man that, in its avidity after something that would bring an appearance of strength and unity, would sacrifice that, which was of heaven for what was after all connected with the earth and the flesh.
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