I am perfectly delivered, and the measure of my deliverance is Christ, and Christ raised from the dead. divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and Whom did their principle make them resemble? informs all of Pauls exhortations vis--vis the Galatians libertine tendencies . "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." The liberty we enjoy as Christians is not a licentious liberty: though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet he has not freed us from the obligation of it; the gospel is a doctrine according to godliness (1 Timothy 6:3), and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin that it lays us under the strongest obligations to avoid and subdue it. Try and stay right on course. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. And your spirit being alive, again you can experience fellowship with God, the joy, the blessing of fellowshipping with God.So, "walk in the Spirit." Such is the effect of Christianity, and such in perfection was Christ Himself. I'd rather trust and be burned than not to trust. 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." "Because ye are sons." His account proves how independent he was of the very persons whom they would have desired to have seen associated with him. Born and bred in the abominable idolatries of the heathen, they were strangers to the institutions of Israel. My business is to act consistently with the new place in which grace has put me. Paul begins chapter 5 by stating flatly that Christ has set us free in order that we should be free. "Oh, well, He laid down His divinity before He died." He does not even deign to fill up the sketch. It also described the bands of the devotees of Bacchus, god of wine. If he wrote to the Romans;, it was transcribed, or at any rate written, by another. The word used here ( dakno), means, properly, to bite, to sting; and here seems to be used in the sense of contending and striving - a metaphor probably taken from dogs and wild beasts. "The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Dissension; literally the word means a standing apart. He wouldn't bother correcting me. 7) Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart. He acts on this in faith; he understands it with an energy and a brightness that increased even in his Roman prison. . Hence in this epistle it is not so much the laying bare the need of man of the sinner, as the vindication of that same grace of God for the saint, with the exhibition of the ruinous results to him who is drawn aside from the deep and broad groundwork that God has laid for souls in Christ. Paul had a characteristically practical mind. Flesh and blood had not revealed it. "Cast out the slave girl and her son, for the son of the slave girl must not inherit with the son of the free woman." If Christ's, they were Abraham's seed already, "and heirs according to the promise;" for Christ, he had shown before, was the one true Seed; and if we are Christ's, we belong to that one true Seed, and therefore are the children of Abraham without circumcision at all. 18 but if you are led by (verse 16-18) the spirit, you are not under law. 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." 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. Immediately the Spirit speaks to me and says, "That was wrong." It means unrestrained revelry. Now the Galatians were unwittingly in danger of giving up the truth. 1-6) a. who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? Why they thought they were becoming more truly religious, more reverent in their value for Scripture. And I can just go and pass it by.And so, another issue arises in five minutes. And this leads him to speak of another trial. It will create a lot of enemies. 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." He is afresh making efforts to improve, yet still in bondage and misery. And it is in the realm of the spirit where man meets God. During the Medieval period it was depicted as "Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate", meaning Mary's conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem; [64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary. Idolatry; this means the worship of gods which the hands of men have made. And, you know, I mean, you're having now go to . The Galatians were succumbing to false teaching (7-12) III. He gives us a catalogue of evil things. Everybody knows this. 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. She did what any wife would have done in those patriarchal times and sent Abraham in to her slave girl, Hagar, to see if she could bear a child on her behalf. 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. consumed, &c.Strength of soul, health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed by broils [Bengel]. So, they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. You'll be disappointed. Paul ends with a very blunt saying. And then concludes the chapter with a caution against pride and envy. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded ( Galatians 5:10 ): Now Paul is now saying, "Oh, who did hinder you, you know, and this teach and all. So there's only one real fruit of the Spirit, that is love. What ground is there for boasting in this? "Then after three years," he says, "I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter." But the apostle here does not reason about the matter. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith," not by becoming proselytes of the gate, or entering on a legal basis, but "foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Accordingly the apostle lays stress on the fact that he was "unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. 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! beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves On the contrary, "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin" not under righteousness by law. Joy; the Greek is chara ( G5479) , and the characteristic of this word is that it most often describes that joy which has a basis in religion (compare Psalms 30:11; Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13; Php_1:4 ; Php_1:25 ). You are saved. What has He set us free to? Those in Christ must stand firm against anyone who would try to drag them into slavery under the law (Galatians 5:1). "You've been called unto liberty." This is all that people's zeal and labour come to. Far too short a time, if it were a question of due initiation into the testimony of the twelve. It is eritheia ( G2052) and originally meant the work of a hired labourer (erithos). occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, But there was no sense of union then. The truth is the distinctive boon and mark of Christendom. Now Paul said. It was partly directed to the hearts and consciences of the Jews, partly in view of the approaching rupture of all ties with Israel. This must be indeed confusion; as it is, there is none. Self-control; the word is egkrateia ( G1466) which Plato uses of self-mastery. He said, "You've got to be born again." Mark, again, the strength of the expression. What! You never come to believe in what the Mormons believe through reading the Bible. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband." Because you have been born of the Spirit, you can see it, you can understand it; it's as plain as can be. Very powerful words for those who would seek justification through the law, through rules, through keeping rules, through keeping ordinances. There was no difference either way. They had followed Jesus in His earthly path of presentation to Israel. "Ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." What throws most light on its meaning is that the adjective praus ( G4239) is used of an animal that has been tamed and brought under control; and so the word speaks of that self-control which Christ alone can give. Then comes the seed, and the promise is made Yea and Amen in Him all the promises of God. We're about one degree off, but we hope to correct this in flight or something." The man who makes law the principle of his life is in the position of a slave; whereas the man who makes grace the principle of his life is free, for, as a great saint put it, the Christian's maxim is, "Love God and do what you like." And Jesus talked to him about the spiritual rebirth, which takes place when a person by faith receives Christ as his Savior. If the law, introduced afterwards, were allowed to exercise control, the effect would be to set aside the promise. This epistle, as those to the Corinthians, opens with an assertion of his apostolic place. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. For his own special call was an indisputable fact; and it is a great joy to the heart to think how Christianity (while it leaves the deepest and the highest space in all directions, so to speak, for the working of the Holy Ghost, while there is more room in it than anywhere else for the play both of the renewed mind and the affections that the Spirit of God gives, while, consequently, it admits of the richest possible exercises of both mind and heart), nevertheless, in its grand truths rests on the most patent and certain facts. Witchcraft; this literally means the use of drugs. And this is a universal principle. Leave room for God, and for God alone. Do your souls go along with Paul's decision? 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. In our dealings with our fellow men we must reproduce this loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God towards ourselves. Nor is there a greater evidence of God's tender and considerate care for us than such a fact as this. He shows that God would give us a deliverance from self-importance; and what a mercy it is to be so blessed, that one can afford to forget one's self! It is the liberty not to do those things which the flesh once forced me to do. The law in itself never produces such a result. The most illuminating thing about it is that it is commonly used in the New Testament of the attitude of God towards men ( Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22; 1 Timothy 1:16; 1 Peter 3:20). The reason is, that he has not yet come to own by faith that he has no strength any more than righteousness, and that Christ is all and in all. You cannot be ruled and dominated by your flesh.Now, it is interesting, a list similar to this is given to us in Revelation the twenty-first chapter, as it tells us those who are going to be excluded from heaven and outside were those who were doing these things: "The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and the liars," those who are outside. This they never thought of doing. It was something painful to bear. (b) It means being teachable, being not too proud to learn ( James 1:21). He saw Peter; but "other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." Uh-huh, you did that five minutes. "Nevertheless" astonishing to say, for it could not be natural life "nevertheless, I live." To be consumed, while the tendency of brotherly love is to produce mutual protection and kindness. The apostleship of Paul, therefore, was entirely independent of Jerusalem and the twelve. It was ordained by angels, who had nothing to do with promise, which God gave direct to His friend. Another thing, too, let me just point out in passing. And they say, "Oh, well, I was just waiting upon the Lord and reading the Scriptures, and the Lord showed this to me." When we get to the root meaning of these words, we see that life has not changed so very much. And no wonder. It is liberty and not law that the Christian stands in. 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 ). "For I am as ye are." Paul now warns them about a consequence of this. It is not a question of my loving Him, though this is and must be true of the saints; but this would tend to throw the soul on self, and it is not the reckoning of grace. Note, (1.) When we seek to interpret a passage like this we must remember that for the devout and scholarly Jew, and especially for the Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning; and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important. 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. Tender and comprehensive as Christianity is, it is also the most exclusive thing that can be. 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. Hairesis was not originally a bad word at all. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us [all?]. And Paul, far from deriving his apostleship or aught else from Peter, was obliged to rebuke him, and this publicly. In grace, God in the person of His Son speaks and accomplishes ALL; and thus He is glorified from first to last. 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. He went simply to make the acquaintance of Peter, and abode with him how long? 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. Let us never confound the two. Coveting is a sin which is almost never considered a crime. that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and Reckon that to be. The new creation is a present blessing that the soul already enjoys. "A little leaven," said Paul, "leavens the whole lump." It is therefore a feeling of the mind as much as of the heart; it concerns the will as much as the emotions. It was a very unusual circumstance. IF YOU RECEIVE CIRCUMCISION. That's all the law is saying to you. "Hey, that old nature, that old Chuck is dead. (d) Agape ( G26) , the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence. 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. 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. Because we wait to have our baptisms 'til the water gets warmer.It's because baptism doesn't save. On the other hand, where unity becomes an object, it is never understood; and at the same time the walk of faith cannot be maintained. So far from this being the smallest allowance of Jewish prejudice, it was itself a powerful blow against it. It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. This, be it observed, was part of God's way with him beyond all others. In short, the man who, occupied with Christ above, enters for that very reason most into the blessedness of the body of Christ here below by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, is the very one that will know in fit season what it is not to confer with flesh and blood. You who seek to get yourselves right with God by means of legalism have got yourself into a position in which you have rendered ineffective all that Christ did for you. The oneness of the saints with Christ Himself is, as we all familiarly know, clearly intimated. Galatians 5 shows that spiritual liberty comes from knowing the truth. 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. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat." 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. Those that are of faith, not those who pretend to the law and do it not, are blessed with their father. [Note: Longenecker, p. Nay; he communicated unto them the gospel which he preached among the Gentiles. And mark the difference. 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." No doubt also his line of procedure did not at all consort with their desires, who were sticklers for earthly order, and a line that looks safe and respectable to natural eyes. Let's use an opposite word, intemperant. Again I give my word to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. And so I said, "All right, tell me, when Jesus was baptized, who spoke and said, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" ( Matthew 3:17 )? Therefore law, sin, and death may not hurt you or drive you to despair. Sense of duty is not power. It might seem entirely despising his brethren. 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 ). The gospel had led Peter to treat the Jews and Gentiles all alike. The Galatian Christians should have been the most peaceful people in the province. In other words, if the believer simply were one forgiven by grace, without having either life in Christ or the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, he might, perhaps, plead that he could not avoid sinning. The inferior trinity is spirit, soul and body of man. The allusion is to "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receives" ( Hebrews 12:6 ). What were they doing? church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love People were trying to add to it. And people to follow after me, you know. Do not abuse your freedom (13-15) I. Christ has set us free (1-6) Discussion Questions What has Christ set us free from? I'd say, "Open the doors and let me off." Peace; in contemporary colloquial Greek this word (eirene, G1515) had two interesting usages. 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. I can yield to my flesh and I can blow off steam and I can get in and I can fight and I can get into the striving and the whole issue. "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" That's the old nature that wants its way, that wants to insist on its own way and all. The apostle concludes this chapter with a caution against pride and envy, Galatians 5:26; Galatians 5:26. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. 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. 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. "We had ten thousand souls saved last week. For kindness the word is chrestotes ( G5544) . Know ye therefore that they which are of faith" (not those that cry up the law) "are the children of Abraham. Why this: "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other by a freewoman." Then the apostle at once explains, as annexed to this, the real state of the case. That is just another way of saying that the essence of Christianity is not law but a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. The Galatians did not think of this; people that are thus blinded by the enemy never do. Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their own unregenerate selves ;along with all their passions and their desires. Such is the reasoning in which the apostle uses this very remarkable prophecy. Now notice, works of the flesh, works plural. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. Dictionary entry details GALATIANS (noun) Sense 1 Meaning: A New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Classified under: What! He revealed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. 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. 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. It comes from a root which means to choose, and it was used for a philosopher's school of followers or for any band of people who shared a common belief. 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. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you who are justified [or seeking to be justified] by the law; ye are fallen from grace ( Galatians 5:4 ). 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. Yea, hence it appears that they are not under the law, but under grace; for these fruits of the Spirit, in whomsoever they are found, plainly show that such are led by the Spirit, and consequently that they are not under the law, as Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:18. The apostle shows that, so far from bringing in Christians and putting them on the ground of the Old Testament, God is really leading those who were in that connection out of it all by redemption. This is the very evil which the Spirit of God so earnestly and energetically denounces here by the apostle Paul. Certainly not God, nor His plain and precious word. Do not suppose that idolatry has its character saved because Jesus is worshipped. The truth of the gospel, therefore, was compromised. 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. I say something that is not of the Lord. He habitually measured things not so much by their bearing on Jews or Gentiles as by their effect on Christ's glory. In lxx metaphorically, Micah 3:5; Habakkuk 2:7. Fornication; it has been said, and said truly, that the one completely new virtue Christianity brought into the world was chastity. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ( Galatians 5:14 ). . "This persuasion, this ideas that you have, they don't really come from God, from the One who called you. ", At once the apostle launches into the troubled sea. And that's why Paul was persecuted by the Jews, because he was saying, "The law of Moses is not necessary for righteousness or for salvation. 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. The law of Christ makes the going out of love towards another, so to speak, to be his joy. There followed Paul teachers, Judaizers who brought another gospel, which was not really a gospel. It is not merely that I have found in Christ a Saviour, but I am crucified with Christ. Christianity came into a world where sexual immorality was not only condoned, but was regarded as essential to the ordinary working of life. 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. Do I seek to please men? An undue regard to the approbation and applause of men is one great ground of the unhappy strifes and contentions that exist among Christians. what is today's heat index or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress It was the very reverse of deriving his authority from either. Now when Adam sinned, his spirit died just as God had warned, "In the day that you eat, you will surely die" ( Genesis 2:17 ). Aristotle defined praotes ( G4236) as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness, the quality of the man who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. Greek and Christian alike would have condemned drunkenness as a thing which turned a man into a beast. If you want to be a subject in God's kingdom, then you cannot do these things. But for us now the apostle carefully adds the principle of our heavenly character. One of the lawyers one day challenged Jesus as to the greatest commandment. 1. Therefore reckon ye yourselves to be dead with Christ, but alive unto God through Him" ( Romans 6:6 , Romans 6:11 ). 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 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? They thus acted and pronounced according to the evident intention of God conveyed in the character of their apostolates respectively. There is nothing that requires more the power of grace; for even the truth itself, if severed from grace, ceases to be the truth. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Make a child thoroughly happy, and you will soon see that its duty becomes comparatively light and a joy. It would be first adding to it, and not only so, but annulling it. adds. Their predicament would only become worse, as evidenced by the fact that already they are biting and devouring one another instead of growing closer to one another. Created by God, in fellowship with God. But it is life after death to law, and consequently in another sphere. God promises the final power and glory of Israel in the earth, putting down their foes, and so forth. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" Christian freedom does not mean that believers may do as they like. Villages had an official who was called the superintendent of the village's eirene ( G1515) , the keeper of the public peace. Secular Greek uses it of the virtue of an Emperor who never lets his private interests influence the government of his people. He had felt their wrong, but at the same time had been lifted marvellously above what might be called personal feeling, and so much the more, therefore, could have the grief of love unmingled with that which really impairs its strength, and leaves its sensibilities incomparably less acute. "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.
Granaghan Parish Bulletin, Disability Resource Center Umn, Illinois Good Time For Inmates 2022, Portland Maine Police Chief, Mount Lavinia Hotel Buffet, Articles W