There was no difference in the blessing of Christ: man's guilt and God's grace were alike indiscriminate. Not at all. And they glorified God in me.". That is to say, Ishmael was born of the ordinary human impulses of the flesh; Isaac was born because of God's promise; and Sarah was a free woman, while Hagar was a slave girl. Not to the place of being ridiculous. Dissension describes a society in which the very opposite is the case, where the members fly apart instead of coming together. No doubt there was a difference of tone. But not from God. And Paul said, "Hey, wait a minute. On the other hand Sarah stands for the new covenant in Jesus Christ, God's new way of dealing with men not by law but by grace. But in this he could glory. It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable. The message of redemption through the cross was offensive. He refuses all cover for different thoughts. "Bite" refers to the sudden action brought on by uncontrolled emotions that hurt other members of the church. Now, in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts, when this same issue had arisen in the church in Antioch, when certain of the brethren came down from Jerusalem and were hassling the Gentile saints in Antioch and said, "You can't be saved unless you are circumcised and keep the law of Moses," Paul and Barnabas and others from Antioch took these brothers right back to Jerusalem, because they came unto the pretense of, "We have the authority of the Jerusalem church to declare these things." Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." Paul was pleading for the real interests of the Jew just as much as of the Gentile; but he presses this most clenching argument that Peter's conduct involved the making Christ Himself the minister of sin; "for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.". It was not that they communicated to him the gospel they had learned from Jesus here below, but he communicated to them that gospel he was in the habit of preaching among the Gentiles. 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. 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. And the mind of the flesh is alienated from God; it cannot know God. Thus all had been duly prepared of God, with a far-reaching wisdom, to make the call of Paul an evidently and entirely separate thing, to make his apostleship as distinct in fact as in form; to give him fresh communications, even as to the Lord's supper, and to convey anew the very gospel that he preached as the revelation of the Son in him. "For I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all." And in these are all the law and the prophets" ( Matthew 22:37-40 ). "Unless," he says, "you solve the problem of living together you will make life impossible." [For] if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. It is not only that we are put now where we can be the witness to grace in all its outgoings, but, besides that, we are where flesh might show itself. 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." And I had some who were determined that they were going to convert me to their way of thinking.And I would listen to them and listen to them and listen to them; I don't really make a practice of arguing scriptures. He sees the right, feels the good, desires the holy, but never, accomplishes. 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." 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. He saith not, And to seeds, as to many; but as to one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness [sexual impurities], [wantonness] lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft [drug abuse] ( Galatians 5:19-20 ). This then is what the law brought in. These things are not allowed in the kingdom of God. He is occupied with himself. Here they might flatter themselves were plain tangible facts; here the amplest testimony on the Lord's part that the twelve are really His chosen apostles. Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? It is . Why this: "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other by a freewoman." 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. II. Help us to share the Gospel of love with everyone around us at every . (i) One he does not mention here but it is implicit in all his thinking. Bring in one part of law, and you fall under the authority of the whole. "As we have said before, so I say now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received." Being found only in Christ, it supposes the manifestation of grace; light does not in the same way that truth does. The rod was the thing the shepherd used to hit the sheep on the flanks when they started getting out, you know, roaming out. No effort, no work on your part. It is never used in the New Testament at all. That they should not strive with one another, but love one another. 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. Jesus said, "I'm not talking about that. you've taken a position Jesus is the only One. Peter would have been horrified at such a conclusion. This is what is found under it. That it is His sacrifice for your sins that brings you redemption and the forgiveness of sins. (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. I get an attitude that is not of the Lord. You do not want to become the children of Abraham in that sense, which would be the revival of the flesh. And this leads him to speak of another trial. Abraham never. Galatians 5:15 - John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible BUT IF YE BITE AND DEVOUR ONE ANOTHER,.. Such is the reasoning in which the apostle uses this very remarkable prophecy. But this could not be. You are bound to carry it out consistently. So there's only one real fruit of the Spirit, that is love. Fidelity; this word (pistis, G4102) is common in secular Greek for trustworthiness. It describes not an anger which lasts but anger which flames out and then dies. The Spirit of God can employ it to make a man feel that all is over with him; but He goes farther in grace, and by that very law brings the man in dead to the law, and not merely condemned. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. Self-control; the word is egkrateia ( G1466) which Plato uses of self-mastery. Thus a decisive blow is struck at the principle of connection with the law; and it was evident that they did not truly "hear the law." Flesh alas! Because you'll never come to their beliefs by just reading the Bible. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another ( Galatians 5:13 ). Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like ( Galatians 5:21 ): So, the such like covers a lot of things. For as the first epistle had put down man in every form, and more particularly man as an expression of the world in its pride, so the second epistle breathes the comfort of God's restoring grace, and is characterized therefore by the strongest emotions of the heart; for he ardently loved these saints. The enemy had ensnared them by crying up circumcision, in order to betray them into a link with Judaism; but they had no thought of bearing the real burden of the law. Hagar stands for the old covenant of the law, made on Mount Sinai, which is in fact in Arabia, the land of Hagar's descendants. Now, there are two ways that I can be righteous. Or are you inclined toward the easy-going yieldingness of Peter? No one's ever seen this before but oh, bless God, He's revealed it to us in these days. When the prophet speaks of any one living, it is by faith "The just shall live by faith." A double intervention comes between God and man, in contrast with the simplicity of His ways of grace. For if a man "keeps the whole law, yet he offends in one point, he is guilty of all" ( James 2:10 ). Now the Galatians were unwittingly in danger of giving up the truth. Christianity is the only true democracy, because in a Christian state everyone would think as much of his neighbour as he does of himself. The mind of the flesh is death.But if my life is dominated by the Spirit, then I have the mind of the Spirit. Now, the whole idea is to be righteous before God in order that I might have fellowship with God. 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. Plutarch says that it has a far wider place than justice. He was legitimately angry at self-proclaimed followers of God who abused followers of God -- just as Jesus was. The truth of the gospel, to the apostle Paul's mind, was at stake. against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). This it is to which we are come now under Christianity. 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. If understood, it completely cut all the earthly swaddling-clothes of the heavenly church, and of the Christian. The warfare going on. Certainly not God, nor His plain and precious word. Verse Meaning Apparently the believers who advocated grace and the believers who advocated law bitterly opposed one another in the Galatian churches. Trench says that Jesus showed agathosune ( G19) when he cleansed the Temple and drove out those who were making it a bazaar; but he showed chrestotes ( G5544) when he was kind to the sinning woman who anointed his feet. This he means here by "faith." Don't be entangled again with rules, regulations, a yoke of bondage. In point of fact, to bring in Christ is also best of all to secure the blessing, the privileges, the glory that God has in His grace for every one that believes. New American Standard Version It has been defined as "readiness for any pleasure." but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. Everybody knows this. Basil called it "grief at your neighbours good fortune." take heed that ye be not consumed one of another: The Galatians are warned earnestly and intently to view their predicament and to decide not to destroy each other spiritually. Help me, Lord, to just keep the right attitude." Indeed, we may say that now he thunders on the Galatians that were dragging in the law. He does not say, that the Gentiles were under that curse, but that Christ bought off us who were in this position from its curse; for in truth, whatever might be our boast, all we (the Jews) got from the law was a curse, not a blessing; and what Christ did for us was to purchase us from that awful plight in which the law could not but put us because we had transgressed. Christ has set us free! My business is to act consistently with the new place in which grace has put me. May the truth of God sink into our hearts! She is desolate; she is no longer in the condition of the married wife, but like the fugitive bondwoman. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. [Note: Barclay, p. In Romans he wrote one of the world's great theological treatises, and then, quite suddenly, in Romans 12:1-21 the theology came down to earth and issued in the most practical advice. Even though keeping God's law cannot earn us salvation, God clearly expects us to keep His law after we've been forgiven (through repentance and baptism) for breaking it. In my spirit, in the realm of the Spirit. To him a theology was not the slightest use unless it could be lived out. another; having reference to their controversies about the law And Peter said, "I suggest that we not place a yoke of bondage on them which neither we, nor our fathers were able to bear" ( Acts 15:10 ). Arabia was regarded as the land of slaves where the descendants of Hagar dwelt. Then we come to the closing chapter (Galatians 6:1-18); and here we find the Spirit of God calling for tenderness in dealing with those who are overtaken in a fault. THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ( Galatians 5:1-12 ). The works of the flesh. Thus all things fall into their place, and the Spirit connects us in heart with that which God is doing and will do for the glory of Christ. Walk on the spiritual side of your nature. Why, that though there were "false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage," Paul did not give place by subjection even for an hour, "that the truth of the gospel might continue with them." The apostle was given to preach the truth more fully than any other. But his heart was too agitated not to betake himself at once to the point of their danger. All therefore becomes a matter of the pure grace of God; and He is pleased to bless the Gentiles in the Seed, even Christ dead and risen. church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love And, as this would be the best means of preserving them from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, so it would be a good evidence that they were Christians indeed; for, says the apostle (Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:18), If you be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Such is the application. The flesh began to rule, and man's consciousness was now filled and absorbed with the body needs and the body appetites. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet, if it be confirmed, no man annulleth or addeth thereto." But it was true from the first. Such was the case with the Old Testament believers, and many Jewish believers then alive. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. The law forbids these things, but the law of love also forbids them. He leaves it to spiritual wisdom to gather what was the evident impression of the truth. Stand, therefore, in it and do not get yourselves involved all over again in a slavish yoke. The cross has sentenced the world; and this very sentence of the world is our deliverance from the world. But then there is another point of exhortation too; and surely we ought not to forget that there are not only the common links of love, and the willingness to succour one another, as we see, beginning with a most extreme case and ending with a general one; but still further, "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things;" and not only that, but also the general responsibility of the saint and in a solemn manner. Or literally, "I wish they were castrated who trouble you. So "stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ has made you free." And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. Be assured that it is the same simplicity of faith which enters into both these things now. He is a new creature in Christ. Christendom is built upon this footing. One of the lawyers one day challenged Jesus as to the greatest commandment. Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. This is all that people's zeal and labour come to. They are acting like animals, satisfying their own desires of the flesh, in order to get back at those who differ with them. But we, brothers, are in the same position as Isaac; we are children of promise. Dr. Jimmy Young Buzzsprout-11368979 Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:00:00 -0500 1898 Dr. Young,DJY,Grace Evangelical,Grace Evan,Germantown,Memphis,Collierville,Bible,Jeremiah,Church,God full false You Owe Me | Matthew 20.1-16 . This is Christianity; and when the soul thankfully accepts from God this blessed liberty, the Holy Ghost is given to and acts in the believer as a Spirit of peace and power; so that if there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit resists this, in order that (for such is the true meaning) they should not do the things that they would. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." Galatians 5:22-23 THE END (GOAL) IS GROWING FAITH IS LOVE 2 Peter 1:5-7 PAUL'S GREAT DESCRIPTION OF LOVE 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 BOTH GOD & LOVE INCLUDE Joy Peace Forbearance Kindness Faithfulness Gentleness Self-control Faith Goodness Knowledge Self-control Perseverance Godliness Mutual affection Patient Kind Truth Protection Trust Hope Perseverance You ought to be circumcised, you know." And there were reasons why Peter was grievously in fault, particularly as he did no longer adhere to the law, but lived as one conscious of the freedom from it which the gospel gives those who believe in a risen Christ. So Paul argued that if a man were circumcised he had put himself under an obligation to the whole law to which circumcision was the introduction; and, if he took that way, he had automatically turned his back on the way of grace, and, as far as he was concerned, Christ might never have died. Enmity; the idea is that of the man who is characteristically hostile to his fellow men; it is the precise opposite of the Christian virtue of love for the brethren and for all men. For the foundation was at stake. Christian churches cannot be ruined but by their own hands; but if Christians, who should be helps to one another and a joy one to another, be as brute beasts, biting and devouring each other, what can be expected but that the God of love should deny his grace to them, and the Spirit of love should depart from them, and that the evil spirit, who seeks the destruction of them all, should prevail? 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. though he had prayed thrice, as his Lord had done on another and wondrous occasion, so the apostle was to have communion with Christ in this way, and learn that there is something better than the taking away of that which makes nothing of the flesh. So, Peter uses this same phrase to describe the law as a yoke of bondage. Nothing more in keeping with the wants of those addressed, who had so soon turned aside from the grace of Christ to a different gospel. It brings in deliverance for man in the accomplishment of God's purpose in Christ. And he justifies this strength of warning: "For do I now persuade men or God? [Note: Longenecker, p. "You've been called unto liberty." The contents of the greeting ( Galatians 1:3a ) ii. It will create a lot of enemies. Mark, again, the strength of the expression. The fleshly desires will not be dominating your life, but your life will be dominated by the Spirit, and thus, by God. He who is upsetting you--whoever he is--will bear his own judgment. They are now controlled by Gods Spirit (24-26). Galatians 5:15. Love is the fulfilling of the law. You couldn't believe the things the Jehovah Witnesses believe, unless you read their screwy attitudes and ideas in their books. That's my old prideful nature. at least as zealous for the Jews' religion as any Jew of the straitest sect. But as in the end the child of the slave girl was cast out and had no share in the inheritance, so in the end those who are legalists will be cast out from God and have no share in the inheritance of grace. This never can bring man to God any more than glory to God. What can be conceived more serious or trenchant than such a statement as this? What! "Yeah, but I had the right to do it." Some would have received the inheritance because of promise, and others on the ground of law. Meanwhile another and a better sort of blessing is given, as a better Seed also is given the true Heir of all the promises of God, even Christ the Lord. Don't revive him. We shall find he does not forget this elsewhere: he reasons on it in another part of the epistle. provoking one another, envying one another ( Galatians 5:26 ). "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Others are sins against ourselves, such as drunkenness and revellings; and he concludes the catalogue with an et cetera, and gives fair warning to all to take care of them, as they hope to see the face of God with comfort. All this is counted a great, wise, and sensible help to devotion. So it was, then, that the apostle presents his own wonderful relation to Christ. The Galatians were succumbing to false teaching (7-12) III. This they never thought of doing. The law is never life to the dead, but kills morally those who seem alive. He is afresh making efforts to improve, yet still in bondage and misery. 5:1 Tell me this--you who want to be subject to the law, you listen to it being read to you, don't you? Legal activity is but labouring in the fire for vanity; and if, alas! At the same time it is shown to be, not what it might seem, a negative power only, but along with it is the new creation into which grace forms us. But spite of, or rather because of, their use of law, they were self-important, without holy power, and judged instead of loving each other. Because they were sons, God sent that blessed proof and power of their sonship. 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! (c) Most often of all it means being considerate ( 1 Corinthians 4:21; 2 Corinthians 10:1; Ephesians 4:2). Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. And you will observe the immense importance attached to this simple account; for all here is plain matter of fact, but pregnant with the weightiest consequences as long as the church and the gospel last here below. Can it be doubted that the special form of spiritual thought and feeling formed, for instance, by James's or Peter's teaching, yea, even by that of John, while harmonizing, where the heart was open, with the instruction of Paul, nevertheless would appear at first very different? Nothing that God afterwards introduced annulled this. Here particularly the Christian is guarded against the inroads of legalism. The apostle urges that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Paul went on to argue that if you accepted circumcision, that is to say, if you accepted one part of the law, logically you had to accept the whole law. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:13-15 The gospel is a doctrine according to godliness, 1Ti 6:3, and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin, that it lays us under the strongest obligation to avoid and subdue it. They had somehow become uneasy. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ( Galatians 5:5 ). Again, it is not a liberty to do anything I please. Make a child thoroughly happy, and you will soon see that its duty becomes comparatively light and a joy. Here he takes up, not the mischievous troublers of the Gentiles, whom he does not hesitate to call "false brethren," but the highest in office he found there. And what is this? He went up with Barnabas, taking Titus with him. We are not to suppose that a higher and more heavenly character blots out the lesser place; of this the apostle takes advantage here. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." (a) It means being submissive to the will of God ( Matthew 5:5; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 21:5). I can say, "Well, this, these are the rules of righteous living. And he gives to us here a listing, incomplete to be sure, because he ends it by saying, "And do such things." If I am a Christian, I acquire a new kind of responsibility. "Paul closes this little section on the idea of circumcision and all and he gets a little testy with those. The inheritance, therefore, depends on the grace of God fulfilling His promise, not on man's accomplishment of the law, even if possible. The apostle's discerning eye at once judged by Christ and by that gospel which he had learned from Him. But because they are not born of the Spirit and have no understanding of the spiritual dimension of life, you're talking riddles to them. 18 but if you are led by (verse 16-18) the spirit, you are not under law. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit himself, who condescends to dwell in the hearts of those whom he has renewed and sanctified, to guide and assist them in the way of their duty, or that gracious principle which he implants in the souls of his people and which lusts against the flesh, as that corrupt principle which still remains in them does against it. Hagar had a son called Ishmael. We don't understand that word too much. The readers ( Galatians 1:2b ) c. The greeting ( Galatians 1:3-5 ) i. But God has made you alive in Christ Jesus. 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. 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.". they are in conflict with f sinful nature each other, so that you do not do what you want. So far from this being the smallest allowance of Jewish prejudice, it was itself a powerful blow against it. They were, after all, Gentiles, and as such ought to have had nothing to do with the law. They thought that Christianity would be all the better for adopting the ancient forms and beautiful figures of the law. 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. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Dictionary entry details GALATIANS (noun) Sense 1 Meaning: A New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Classified under: That is not the liberty that we have as Christians. GALATIANS 5:2-12. He had been brought to a place of blessing outside himself and by another, the Saviour, which in itself gives the soul motives indeed but not power; whereas, for the soul who is brought to God by the gospel, and planted in the liberty wherein Christ makes free before God, it is no more a question of flesh, but of the Holy Ghost who is given to him. Crucified with Christ. In verse 17 it is written, "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." (2.) In its positive form (katharos ( G2513) , an adjective meaning pure) it is commonly used in housing contracts to describe a house that is left clean and in good condition. Self-seeking; this word has a very illuminating history. (ii) There is the obligation to our fellow men. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ( Galatians 5:5 ). Here it means that tranquillity of heart which derives from the all-pervading consciousness that our times are in the hands of God. It is the power of that love, and not the constraint of law, that will keep us right; for love is always more powerful than law. It is of course assumed that every Christian had been baptized. You cannot lawfully add to it, any more than set aside its provisions. (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. There's nothing that you can add to what Jesus paid. 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. After all their vapouring about the law, they were biting and devouring one another. Be it so: such was true. Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their own unregenerate selves ;along with all their passions and their desires. It was therefore not only for him, but for the instruction of the Galatians, and of us all. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" ( John 4:24 ). It can mean the beneficent use of drugs by a doctor; but it can also mean poisoning, and it came to be very specially connected with the use of drugs for sorcery, of which the ancient world was full. In either case "let him be accursed.". Do not abuse your freedom (13-15) I. Christ has set us free (1-6) Discussion Questions What has Christ set us free from? 25 Mar 2017 23:00:00 -0500 1896 sunday full false Wednesday Night | Galatians 5:5-6 Part 2 | Dr. Jimmy Young You see, I don't always do the things that I would. how lamentable the extraordinary number of those, of whom the one cuts off the life of the other. 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 ( Galatians 5:17 ). who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? And you keep dealing with me until I'll finally say, "Oh, God, I'm sorry. Thence he advances to another point of his argument. Leave room for God, and for God alone. There is a work of God's Spirit within his heart, and he is born of the Spirit, and now again has a spirit that is alive and is conscious of God. He is baptized into Christ's death, which is the sole means of deliverance out of his state of sin. "This persuasion didn't come from Him who called you." When a Gentile Christian, mark, takes up such Old Testament elements, according to the Holy Ghost, it is not to him merely Judaism, but a return to his Gentile idols, little as he may think so. Thus it wrought among the Galatians. And then he, indignant at such a thought, makes his most solemn appeals. I would [wish that] they were even cut off which trouble you ( Galatians 5:12 ). Further, it is laid down, if there had been a law capable of giving life, righteousness would be by the law. How do they stand related? The allusion is to This highlights the problem of reading contemporary ideas back into Scripture. But the apostle here does not reason about the matter. Thus it is evident that the legal system is a parenthesis. Now, the law always brings fallen man into importance: such it must be in its principle. Immediately the Spirit speaks to me and says, "That was wrong." But to the end of the day there remained for Paul two obligations. What did hinder you? He habitually measured things not so much by their bearing on Jews or Gentiles as by their effect on Christ's glory. Let us never confound the two. Concerning these things, or those in whom these fruits of the Spirit are found, the apostle says, There is no law against them, to condemn and punish them. It is not merely to seek in love a fallen brother, but to be the succourer of others in their difficulties. You cannot weaken his apostleship without endangering the very gospel that you have received yourselves. Then, bringing in the name of Jerusalem, the Spirit leads him to apply the prophecy of Isaiah, which shows that millennial Israel (in their turn abandoning self-righteousness, and made free by God's grace in Christ) will look back and count as their own those now brought in as Christians, and find far more children begotten by the gospel, in the time of their own desolation, than even when they flourished of old, and had ,all that earthly power and glory could give. Now, let us not believe or think that this liberty that we have is the liberty to do anything we might want to do in the flesh. 1-6) a. To this the apostle endeavours to persuade these Christians, and there are two considerations which he sets before them for this purpose:-- (1.) . So, I think Paul could also have included here baptism or no baptism as far as the physical immersion in water. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. But responsibility is always according to the relation in which one stands, and the measure of knowledge which each possesses, or ought to possess. But it degenerated; came to mean the desire to have what someone else has, wrong desire for what is not for us. Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. Can you give me, you know, a hundred dollars for this watch?" (i) Peshat, its simple or literal meaning. Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision. Well, then, it stands written in it that Abraham had two sons; one was the son of the slave girl and one was the son of the free woman. He draws particular attention to this fact ere he closes: "You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." He saw Peter; but "other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." This was at work even in those early days. It was Paul's position that the way of grace and the way of law were mutually exclusive. one another is unnatural. It was from and in connection with Christ in heaven. In this case, happily, the brethren near at hand went along with him in heart. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. That's just my old flesh that's upset. But if you snap at one another, and devour one another, you must watch that you do not end up by wiping each other out. For He knows our tendency to mingle law with grace in some form or measure, and treats that which was of the fathers and long before Moses, as a foreign ingredient deleterious to Christians. He was saying that we each worship something - we seek to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts, but our worship is all vain, it's all futile, unless we worship the one true God. "A little leaven," said Paul, "leavens the whole lump." Galatians 5:1-15 New International Version Freedom in Christ 5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Invariably, where man seeks to bring in a successional apostleship, the twelve become the great model. They had been by degrees instructed according to the testimony which the Lord Jesus was pleased to give; and most suited it was, of course, to the time, people, and circumstances. His Father had made a revelation to Peter. has an affinity for both. This, be it observed, was part of God's way with him beyond all others. Under law all is lost; under grace all is saved. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith" (not those that cry up the law) "are the children of Abraham. It is not the joy that comes from earthly things, still less from triumphing over someone else in competition. having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? If you are circumcised, Christ is no value to you. 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. One of these covenants--the one which originated on Mount Sinai--bears children who are destined for slavery--and that one is represented by Hagar. Galatians 1:1-24. He intimates also how vain a thing is legalism, because those that were pleading for circumcision in no case carried out their own principle. How apt the illustration for exposing the judaizers! I. Impurity, then, is that which makes a man unfit to come before God, the soiling of life with the things which separate us from him. Saints they may have been; and such, we know, moved about from Jerusalem. As we lived to fulfill the desires of our flesh and of our mind, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And we can all see how exactly the phrase falls in with the words of our Lord given in the Acts of the Apostles; for the wonderful truth burst upon the apostle's ear from the beginning, in the Saviour's call to him from heaven. They were happy persons while under the ministry of the apostle; as a Gospel ministry is a great happiness to any that enjoy it; for this is the way to find eternal life, to have spiritual peace and pleasure, joy and comfort, light and liberty, whereas a contrary doctrine leads to all the reverse. Truth must necessarily be exclusive, and all who hold the truth must, in their adhesion to it and Him who is its personal expression, be exclusive too. If I am a mere man, a sinner, the end of that is (for responsibility is not like power, destroyed by sin) the eternal judgment of God. In so many things. I'm still His child. Christian freedom does not mean that believers may do as they like. And Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself. If, instead of acting like men and Christians, they would behave themselves more like brute beasts, in tearing and rending one another, they could expect nothing as the consequence of it, but that they would be consumed one of another; and therefore they had the greatest reason not to indulge themselves in such quarrels and animosities. Who put up a road-block to stop you obeying the truth? But there is more for us. But the Jerusalem which is above is free and she is our mother. If any of them believe in the Crucified, they were God's Israel. and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and Man had his duty to God, and be ought to have. Your mind has to be bent in that direction through their writings. She is as one that has no husband. the only system of earthly worship which had ever possessed God's sanction. Was this then a reproach? Who of his nation had advanced in Judaism beyond him? "Now, the other way to be righteous is through faith in Jesus Christ, receiving that grace of God through Him, where God accounts me, as He did Abraham, righteous because I believe. And mark how the Holy Ghost turns Abraham into an additional and most unexpected proof of the grace of God and the truth of the gospel. What can you say to a guy? You see, you don't need any laws. That is why I encourage you just to read the Bible. "But neither Titus [he takes occasion to say parenthetically], being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." It was by revelation, not by summons from Jerusalem, or to acquire a title thereby. After wishing those addressed grace and peace, as usual, he speaks of the Lord in a manner singularly in unison with the object of the epistle: "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us" not from judgment, not from the wrath to come, but "from this present evil world." Paul always triumphantly satisfies that test, just as here the whole matter is brought to the acid test of daily living. Far otherwise is God's way with souls. It is not simply that he was brought to follow Jesus, to believe and confess His name; but God revealed His Son in him. It was ordained by angels, who had nothing to do with promise, which God gave direct to His friend. The apostle takes notice of the latter here, because he is speaking of their behaviour towards one another; and, when he makes use of this as an argument to persuade them to mutual love, he intimates both that this would be a good evidence of their sincerity in religion and also the most likely means of rooting out those dissensions and divisions that were among them. When God gives a pledge not of possessing the gate of enemies, when He speaks of the blessing of the nations, instead of the overthrow of Israel's foes, then he speaks simply of "thy seed." Democracy means government of the people, by the people, for the people. They have not yet obtained a complete victory over it; they have still flesh as well as Spirit in them, and that has its affections and lusts, which continue to give them no little disturbance, but as it does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so as that they obey it in the lusts thereof (Romans 6:12), so they are seeking the utter ruin and destruction of it, and to put it to the same shameful and ignominious, though lingering death, which our Lord Jesus underwent for our sakes. for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does He says, "If, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin?" "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me," etc. "Now," says he, "if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practices." And this is a universal principle. There is no depreciating of any soul, but the plain statement of the positive truth, which after all is the best and the humblest way, that most of all magnifies God, and edifies His children. Thus, then, God directed and ruled that the apostle should go up and have the evil condemned on the spot, and at the centre from which it had emanated. I don't believe that." It had tainted among others the Galatians; for although, in point of fact, what had converted them was the heavenly testimony of the apostle Paul, nevertheless they had in time become acquainted with Christians who had not been so favoured, perhaps from the churches in Judea. In fact, what Jerusalem had done, as far as this was concerned, was to let slip men that would impose circumcision evil workers, as he in a later epistle contemptuously calls such like of the concision; for they were corrupting the Gentile churches by Judaism, instead of helping them in Christ. And then concludes the chapter with a caution against pride and envy. You got to be circumcised." How abortive is man in the things of God! It was a very unusual circumstance. He visits Arabia and Damascus once more. There was no such thing as a gradual training. Love finds its activity in caring for those that are cast down, "and so fulfils the law of Christ." Even as in a natural man there is something of this struggle (the convictions of his conscience and the corruption of his own heart strive with one another; his convictions would suppress his corruptions, and his corruptions silence his convictions), so in a renewed man, where there is something of a good principle, there is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature, the remainders of sin and the beginnings of grace; and this Christians must expect will be their exercise as long as they continue in this world. Drunkenness; in the ancient world this was not a common vice. The Christian by the cross of Christ has terminated his connection with flesh, with the world, with the law. But at the same time it is plain that the apostle Paul here starts with the instructive fact, that the very thing for which some Judaizers then blamed him was the distinctive glory of that to which the Lord had called him. They had been lately brought by the grace of God into Christianity, where they found Jewish brethren, now made one, as it is said, in Christ. 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. And any kind of a relationship with God that causes me to strive with my brother, causes me to become contentious, is really something that I'm not interested in. The apostle expressly reasons on Abraham, as they were always anxious to cite Abraham, the father of circumcision. When he declared that the end of the reign of law had come and that the reign of grace had arrived, it was always possible for someone to say, "That, then, means that I can do what I like; all the restraints are lifted and I can follow my inclinations wherever they lead me. That they should all strive against sin; and happy would it be for the church if Christians would let all their quarrels be swallowed up of this, even a quarrel against sin--if, instead of biting and devouring one another on account of their different opinions, they would all set themselves against sin in themselves and the places where they live. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love ( Galatians 5:6 ). 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 ). You were running well. I really like to say that to the Jehovah Witnesses that come to my door. He had derived the gospel that he preached from the Lord, and not from any of his fellow-servants who had been engaged in the work before him. The other apostles enjoyed this more. You say that the promise is everything, and that the law cannot either set aside the promise or add other clauses to it. "Because ye are sons." And Jesus talked to him about the spiritual rebirth, which takes place when a person by faith receives Christ as his Savior. If your navigational instruments are one degree off, and you take your heading and you start for Hawaii, by the time you've gone that distance, you'll miss Hawaii by two hundred and forty miles.Oh, by the time you get to Santa Barbara, you won't even notice anything. The Galatians did not think of this; people that are thus blinded by the enemy never do. That's what God accounts, the righteousness of Christ accounted to my account through my faith in Jesus Christ.Now, because I can't keep the first, I have opted for the second. of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ( Galatians 5:21 ). When the emphasis of man became on the physical fleshly side of him, he no longer was one with God, who is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. It cannot and ought not to spare sinners. He had been himself (could they deny it?) There is no law which condemns thing; like that. (vss. Proud member then is the offense of the cross ceased ( Galatians 5:10-11 ). This immense privilege had no connection with law whatever. Here he comes to the positive blessing; for the Spirit cannot rest in what is but negative. If ye bite and devour one another These Churches seem to have been in a state of great distraction; there were continual altercations among them. Indeed, there is no soul really above them. He says to those who would be under the law, why do you not listen to the law? It is the liberty not to do those things which the flesh once forced me to do. To cite Abraham, as they like those early days this ; people are! 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