I was wrong. As for himself, he gloried only in the cross. The law of Christ makes the going out of love towards another, so to speak, to be his joy. We know how feeble and slow the heart is, and how apt disciples in general are to narrow the riches of the grace and truth of God. This, then, is not what the apostle Paul has in view, but in contrast with it. On this the apostle reasons. Laws are necessary to restrain unprincipled people. Here it means that tranquillity of heart which derives from the all-pervading consciousness that our times are in the hands of God. 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. 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. In the New Testament it has three main meanings. But before He sent the promised Seed, man's self-confidence needed the discipline of the intermediate thing, the law; and after infinite long-suffering on God's part, the people who undertook to obey it had to be swept out of the land for their disobedience. Some would have received the inheritance because of promise, and others on the ground of law. If Peter was acting rightly now, this had all been a mistake, and consequently the gospel nay, solemn to say, Christ Himself would be thus a minister of sin. 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. The persuasion which is being exercised on you just now is not from him who calls you. He refuses all cover for different thoughts. Men were not his source, nor was man even a medium to him. Does not this make very light of it? He sees the right, feels the good, desires the holy, but never, accomplishes. Now, the word temperance is one we have a little difficulty with. And if you have interpreted it that way, you have completely missed the message of the scripture. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat." Everything lost then would be gained when promise has its way. The consequence is, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God; and this he proves, not only from the promise, but from the prophets. It was something painful to bear. Indeed, there is no soul really above them. There was no doubt or difficulty on this head in these early days. She is desolate; she is no longer in the condition of the married wife, but like the fugitive bondwoman. But though the apostle here only mentions the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts, as the care and character of real Christians, yet, no doubt, it is also implied that, on the other hand, we should show forth those fruits of the Spirit which he had just before been specifying; this is no less our duty than that, nor is it less necessary to evidence our sincerity in religion. Love finds its activity in caring for those that are cast down, "and so fulfils the law of Christ." And so, such things leaves an unending list of things of the flesh. Selfishness in the end does not exalt a man; it destroys him. It was not thus that Peter or the rest were drawn to follow their Master. You know, you come up with some heretical teaching, you get everybody excited and everybody's listening, everybody's beginning to discuss what you're teaching. That's the old nature that wants its way, that wants to insist on its own way and all. "You've been called unto liberty." And become again a spiritual being.And so, when Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus faced him immediately with this issue. The outline of the story is as follows: Abraham and Sarah were far advanced in years and Sarah had no child. That's where I come in touch with God. Not at all. Nothing is so destructive to the peace of man, and to the peace of the soul, as religious disputes; where they prevail, religion in general has little place. For ye have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?" He through law died to law, that he might live to God! When He gave the promise to Abraham, He said, "I will give." who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? But when we look toward Jesus we can find freedom. Even so we, when we were children," etc. "Devour" describes hurtful actions that linger on and on as far as time is concerned. But it is not so. All is confusion. This epistle, as those to the Corinthians, opens with an assertion of his apostolic place. This is shown still more fully in the allusion to baptism: "As many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. We'll send you an email with steps on how to reset your password. For the law was used with killing power; and, slain as it were in my conscience, I found in that very place Christ Himself by the grace of God, Christ that died for me; and not merely this, but Christ in whom I died. He speaks of "the grace of Christ." In Christ alone, in His cross, let us boast, and in the new creature which is by Christ. It was ordained by angels, who had nothing to do with promise, which God gave direct to His friend. And what was the result of all this? For devour, comp. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. "The child of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise." This is all that people's zeal and labour come to. That is, he links on the heavenly character of Jerusalem for us before touching on the desolate place of Jerusalem after the flesh, or of the predicted change of heart and blessing in grace, when she will be glad to appropriate, as it were, the Christians born now after the Spirit. It has been defined as "readiness for any pleasure." 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Now you're, you know, chopping Jesus up, and said, "Well, He is God here, and but, for a while He wasn't God and the universe was without God for a little bit here, or whatever. Up to this point it has been theological; now it becomes intensely ethical. The glory which comes from men is vain-glory, which, instead of being desirous of, we should be dead to. Man had his duty to God, and be ought to have. You cannot attack such a servant without attacking his testimony. There is now much confusion of things that differ; and so, more or less, error runs through the whole of it in all its parts; but I know not anything more ruinous than this. Rather, if man had been able to obey the law and so acquire a title, then two systems would have interfered with each other as being to the same end. 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. Thus, whether it be the Gentile without law, or the Jew with it, all are shut up under sin. But if ye bite and devour one another: Such actions are the opposite of loving their neighbor as they ought. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. 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. As we go down these things here, these are the things that God will exclude from His kingdom. But his heart was too agitated not to betake himself at once to the point of their danger. All right, I'm still one of His sheep, you know. Their main support then, as they thought Abraham, had two sons; but they stood, according to Scripture, on wholly different principles. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Galatians 5 Galatians 5:7 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. And a little leaven soon leavens the whole lump. He gives freely the Holy Ghost on their acceptance of Christ's name; or, as it is here written, "He sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Well, "sensible" help in the meaning of an appeal to nature it is; but it is a sensible help to idolatry, not to living faith. For ye are all the children of God." But he was not thus disobedient to the heavenly vision. The law, accordingly, never was the truth, either on God's side, or man's. 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. Judaizers were saying that Gentiles had to join the old covenant if they wanted God's blessings and salvation (cf. The gospel had led Peter to treat the Jews and Gentiles all alike. Let us not be desirous of vainglory ( Galatians 5:24-26 ), Now, these men who were coming with this teaching were really out to get notches on their belts. Accordingly, the language would have been premature and entirely beyond the conscious experience of the saints, or the real truth of the matter in the sight of God. Thus, whatever may be the energy that seeks souls in love, there is nothing after all like Christianity for maintaining individual responsibility intact. This is what we are chiefly concerned to fight against, and that which above every thing else we should make it our business to oppose and suppress. The context behind the Galatians church We have been crucified to the requirements of the law Kill our desire or need to keep the law as a means of gaining justification Galatians 2:15-16 Being crucified to self Matthew 16:24 There is only one throne in our hearts and life, and only one person can sit on it Galatians 5:24 In this case it was God that gave the promise; it was He that confirmed the covenant to Christ, without saying a word about the law till four hundred and thirty years after. 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. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. And what is the end of them? I have not. It describes what in regency England would have been called a rout. And they ate, giving over to their fleshly appetites and in so doing, the flesh dominated. It is for this freedom that Christ has set us free. And this life is sustained by the very same person who is its source. The gospel had given him to sanction in his ways and words the overthrow of the partition wall. Just let our books explain for you." (b) It means being teachable, being not too proud to learn ( James 1:21). But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Paul cautioned both sides to love one another or they would consume each other. What makes you righteous before God is your faith, which works in love within your heart and life.Now, it is interesting to me how that those who opt for rules, those who opt for laws, those who want to lay down the laws upon the people, or those who want to live under the laws that are laid down upon them, always seem to be striving. He had been trained up under the most distinguished teacher the great Rabbin Gamaliel; but "when it pleased him, who had separated him from his mother's womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Son in him." The salutation ( Galatians 1:1-5 ) a. That's the old nature, reckon that to be dead. Remember what it must have been to one like Paul to censure the most honoured of the twelve. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. That is why I encourage you just to read the Bible. And sometimes they'll lie to me. Thus it was the ardour of love and grief; it was the earnestness of his purpose that could not bear in this instance to employ an intermediary. Thus the two totally opposite roads of grace and law would have been leading to the same result. And thus it is with the promise. you've taken a position Jesus is the only One. I say something that is not of the Lord. To the Galatians there was an exception. You know, you can look down and see the Channel Islands. In Greek there are four words for love. 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. You are saved through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? 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. The liberty that we have is not to do the things of the flesh. The gospel had brought in before God this double conclusion, founded on the first Adam and the last. Galatians 5:1-15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. I call your attention particularly to this, brethren, that an act apparently so simple as Peter's ceasing to eat with the Gentiles had such a solemn character in the eye of the apostle Paul, that he considered it a question of the truth of the gospel. He mentions another fact, and of the greatest gravity, closing this part of his argument that when Peter subsequently came down into the Gentile quarters, he had been himself affected by the subtle spirit of Judaism, i.e., the chief of the twelve! Walk on the spiritual side of your nature. Thus it wrought among the Galatians. So here the Christian puts on Christ, not the law or circumcision. It is a lovely word. Instead they are unkind and cruel to each other. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like ( Galatians 5:21 ): So, the such like covers a lot of things. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ( Galatians 5:9 ). The apostle concludes this chapter with a caution against pride and envy, Galatians 5:26; Galatians 5:26. That is just another way of saying that the essence of Christianity is not law but a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. He is occupied with himself. It was to demonstrate his sinfulness, not to gain the inheritance. The apostle Paul interferes in no way with the work which God had given the others to do. The salutation ( Galatians 1:1-5 ) a. Was this the love the law claimed? Who of his nation had advanced in Judaism beyond him? There are many present privileges and future glories that belong to the Christian; and promise is one of them. There is a warfare that goes on in the life of the believer. "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 makes one first thoroughly happy in the sense of His grace and the liberty Christ has won, and then the Holy Ghost becomes an indwelling spring of power, though His power is put forth in us only as we have Christ kept before us. "We had ten thousand souls saved last week. Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. There was no difference either way. Then the apostle at once explains, as annexed to this, the real state of the case. 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. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. 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? In Paul's case the Holy Ghost could go a step farther, and that step He seems to me to take. It was really part of God's wondrous ways with him, as indicating the true character of Christianity and of its ministry as contrasted with Judaism. As in the previous verses Paul set out the evil things characteristic of the flesh, so now he sets out the lovely things which are the fruit of the Spirit. "Love suffereth long and is kind." We invite you to crucify our flesh every day so that we may walk in step with your Spirit. He's just whacked me with the rod. This is indeed strong language for you who want to live after the flesh. Why did He do that? Thus, the idea is, in their contentions they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each other; their characters would be ruined; and the church be overthrown. I mean, if you're walking in love, what rules can you lay down? 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. How little is man to be accounted of! 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. What does Galatians 5:15 Mean? Now you've got to defend it against the challenges and so you've got to start making up or taking positions that are thoroughly unscriptural in order to defend your position." In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. The apostle himself meets that difficulty in the face, and in effect concedes to his detractors that he was not made an apostle by Christ here below. But this will be Jerusalem, under not law but promise and liberty, restored by grace after having lost everything by the law, and reduced to utter desolation. For kindness the word is chrestotes ( G5544) . There was no believer, Jew or Gentile, who had not gladly submitted to that very blessed sign of having part with Christ, and of that which is made good by Christ. "For I am as ye are." It was not another, as he says. What comforts the soul, what strengthens and keeps it up, is that He "loved me, and gave Himself for me.". THE INTRODUCTION ( Galatians 1:1-10) 1. (vss. In the meantime God had come and promised that Sarah would have a child, which was so difficult to believe that it appeared impossible to Abraham and Sarah; but in due time Isaac was born. 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