Immediately the Spirit speaks to me and says, "That was wrong." [Note: Barclay, p. Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision. And so Paul is standing against this teaching in his letter to the Galatians, and in chapter five, he said. It is of course assumed that every Christian had been baptized. He strikes accordingly at the root of all successional or derived authority. But we, brothers, are in the same position as Isaac; we are children of promise. So were the others that seemed to be the chief. That is to say, the covenant that was made between God and Abraham had reference to the seed which was coming, symbolized by Isaac, but really looking onward to Christ. The apostle now demonstrates, from the result, how destructive such proceedings in the church must ultimately prove to be. To put a stop to coveting is to "head other sins off at the pass.". For what has a risen man to do with Israel more than the nations? For God does speak elsewhere, and even on this occasion, of a numerous seed. "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Later Sarah found Ishmael "mocking" (King James Version) Isaac--this Paul equates with persecution--and insisted that Hagar should be cast out, so that the child of the slave girl should not share the inheritance with her freeborn son. And your spirit being alive, again you can experience fellowship with God, the joy, the blessing of fellowshipping with God.So, "walk in the Spirit." Impossible to find a blast more withering to all that they were aiming at. So the minute I start peddling books and saying, "Now, to really understand the Bible, you better read my books, because you'll just, you know, read the Bible, you'll be in darkness. too often might be ready to turn aside. It is a grim illustration at which a polite society raises its eyebrows, but it would be intensely real to the Galatians who knew all about the priests of Cybele. By the Spirit of God, we're waiting for that hope of righteousness through faith. Then, further, attention is drawn to another topic his own writing of this letter. This is exceedingly important, and the more as I believe the scope of the allusion to Abraham and to his seed is not often appreciated. He intimates also how vain a thing is legalism, because those that were pleading for circumcision in no case carried out their own principle. He went up by revelation for the purpose of getting a condemnation in Jerusalem itself of those who would force Jewish principles on the church of God at large. He is afresh making efforts to improve, yet still in bondage and misery. When once a covenant is "signed, sealed, and delivered," it must not be meddled with. There's nothing that you can add to what Jesus paid. The cross has sentenced the world; and this very sentence of the world is our deliverance from the world. (I mean by this, of course, exclusive of sin and falsehood.) That is not the liberty that we have as Christians. If you want to be a subject in God's kingdom, then you cannot do these things. He had been called, as none could deny, in a way which not even any other apostle had ever known. 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. it had a resurrection-source, instead of being from Christ on earth, and in relation to the work God was doing when He sent His Son here below. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. But if ye bite - 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 not improbably taken from dogs and wild beasts. You're talking nonsense. That is just another way of saying that the essence of Christianity is not law but a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. What Does Galatians 5:13 Mean? A komos was a band of friends who accompanied a victor of the games after his victory. 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.". But he lists some of the works of the flesh. 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, self-control. So we, brothers, are children not of the slave girl but of the free woman. Selfishness in the end does not exalt a man; it destroys him. 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 ). What! Hence it is that Rome, which most decidedly in principle rests on human succession (as all worldly religion must, to a certain extent, embrace the same principle) Rome, I say, seeks to derive her authority, as all know, from Peter. 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. You open the door for a little error, and it will soon magnify because you see, as you've opened the door for this error, then as you are challenged on the flaws of the error, you're going to have to develop further doctrines to cover or further concepts to cover, and pretty soon, you're going to be way out in left field.There is a group called Jesus Only, and they believe that Jesus is the Father, He is the Son, He is the Holy Spirit. Had they been occupied with Christ, they would have really loved one another, and in other respects too fulfilled the law, without thinking about themselves or it. "For if the inheritance be of law, it is no more of promise:" otherwise by the condition of law you would annul the promise. So, they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. For ye are all the children of God." He speaks of "the grace of Christ." So, love is the fulfilling of the law. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, , . The cross paid it all. To excite Christians hereunto, and to assist them herein, the apostle shows. Who put up a road-block to stop you obeying the truth? Christian freedom does not mean that believers may do as they like. Now take care that you do not use your wonderful . "But neither Titus [he takes occasion to say parenthetically], being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." 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. And who will venture to say that the indwelling Spirit of God fails to supply power to him who submits to the righteousness of God in Christ? . How impossible, therefore, to add the law to the promise! Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. And this leads to another point, the relation of the law to the promises. He through law died to law, that he might live to God! consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. 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? And I can set up these rules, and I can get out my little gold stars. The names of the different forms of government are suggestive. Uncontrolled temper ; the word Paul uses means bursts of temper. Which means: Peaceable Christians realize that apart from Jehovah God, they have no lasting peacemaking ability. They are now controlled by Gods Spirit (24-26). 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." Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. Then after a certain lapse of time he does see Jerusalem, but no more than Peter and James, not the apostolic college officially. So, Peter uses this same phrase to describe the law as a yoke of bondage. Who more zealous of the doctrines of his fathers? It describes the deliberate effort--which we can make only with the help of God--never to seek anything but the best even for those who seek the worst for us. Bring in one part of law, and you fall under the authority of the whole. "Are ye so foolish? Thus is seen sovereign grace, and nothing else, as well as a heavenly link instantly formed between the Lord in glory and His servant on earth. And Paul, far from deriving his apostleship or aught else from Peter, was obliged to rebuke him, and this publicly. 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. The world of spirits can never be comfortable to those who plunge themselves in the filth of the flesh; nor will the righteous and holy God ever admit such into his favour and presence, unless they be first washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,1 Corinthians 6:11. that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. In Galatians 4:1-31 the relation is taken up, not of the law to the promise, but of the Christian now to the condition of the saints of old a very important point also. 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. 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. But it is life after death to law, and consequently in another sphere. ". We have those that come around here. with the affections and lusts [with its desires]. We invite you to crucify our flesh every day so that we may walk in step with your Spirit. If God loved us like that then the love of Christ constrains us. But meanwhile, under the gospel, there is an express promise of the blessing of the Gentiles when God spoke of the one seed, which is Christ. It was not to keep people under the law, still less could it be to put any under the law, but to bring them clean out if they had been under it before. Gentiles might boast in their freedom. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receives" ( Hebrews 12:6 ). The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and joy and peace. He heartily avows what they counted a defect; and not Only so, but with the greatest solemnity assures them that he had not seen the apostles, save only Peter, and James the brother of the Lord, and these but for a short space. That died with Christ. If any of them believe in the Crucified, they were God's Israel. "As we have said before, so I say now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received." These concepts, these heresies that develop within the church are passed on by men. Witchcraft; this literally means the use of drugs. 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. Make a child thoroughly happy, and you will soon see that its duty becomes comparatively light and a joy. 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. Laws are necessary to restrain unprincipled people. But the moment a Gentile takes the system up, or a Jew presses it on a Gentile, it is nothing but downright heathenism. 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. 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. So here Paul is "an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, that raised him from the dead.". You know, you can look down and see the Channel Islands. You got to be circumcised." Nor this only. (i) Peshat, its simple or literal meaning. 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. Now Paul said. By this he plainly means free from law. They had been idolaters before they became Christians; and to take up Jewish principles in addition to Christ is to turn back again to their cast-off idols. Next he turns to direct exhortation, the chief salient points of which will call for but few words. Our Christianity obliges us not only to die unto sin, but to live unto righteousness; not only to oppose the works of the flesh, but to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit too. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another. It cannot and ought not to spare sinners. But if I have a whole page of gold stars but yet there's one little point over here where I blew it and I can't put a gold star, then I'm unrighteous. The sense is, "if you contend with each other;" and the reference is, probably, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts. 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. He's talking about rituals and the power of rituals to make you righteous before God, and the issue is, they can't. (Compare John 1:9; John 1:17.). On the contrary, "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin" not under righteousness by law. Paul ends with a very blunt saying. Get Access To 3 Exclusive Articles (for FREE) Want articles like this one delivered straight to your email? If he had preached the full truth of the gospel, he insists that they had received it. In Greek there are four words for love. Christ's yoke is called chrestos ( G5543) ( Matthew 11:30), that is, it does not chafe. The apostle expressly reasons on Abraham, as they were always anxious to cite Abraham, the father of circumcision. Man had his duty to God, and be ought to have. To depart from this was fatal. But the fruit of the Spirit ( Galatians 5:22 ), Now, "walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh." The readers ( Galatians 1:2b ) c. The greeting ( Galatians 1:3-5 ) i. And now your spirit is alive. Then I must repeat that God could only make claims; and man had to take the place, if he could, of giving to God of rendering his obedience. Jesus has set us free - free from the slavery of sin, free from slavery to the law. It is the liberty not to do those things which the flesh once forced me to do. This passage, however, indicates they are having disputes. 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. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. He had before been exhorting these Christians by love to serve one another (Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:13), and had put them in mind of what would be the consequence if, instead of that, they did bite and devour one another,Galatians 5:15; Galatians 5:15. 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." Mark it well. It is once that I have reckoned myself to be crucified with Christ when I accepted Him. Second, it means that we are free to follow the Spirit and produce good works that last forever because we have faith in God and obey God's word (Galatians 5:16-26). (vss. You see, you don't need any laws. The very reverse of their system is true. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. 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. The comparison would take in the Old Testament saints; or the application ("even so we") is to those then alive, who had been under that state of things. It was partly directed to the hearts and consciences of the Jews, partly in view of the approaching rupture of all ties with Israel. 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. There is no approach to a vaunt about his dignity. And they glorified God in me.". What are you talking about?" And God held the reins that the truth might be kept unsullied and pure; and he goes south and north as the Lord guided His servant, but not to Jerusalem to those that were apostles before him. 1. 2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. He says to those who would be under the law, why do you not listen to the law? Heretical division; this might be described as crystallized dissension. People were trying to add to it. However, this behavior is hurting them as much or more as it is those they are attempting to hurt. There is no mention here of grace, nor even of any special powers conferred by the Spirit of God. It is wholly apart from works of law. What then is the end of the law? Her child was born free and according to God's promise--and all his descendants must be free. No man was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than Paul. How distressing, how mad is it, that we, who are members of the same body, should be leagued together, of our own accord, for mutual destruction! One of the encouragements, as we know, which God furnished to Abraham was, that he should have a seed like the sand of the sea, and like the stars of the sky. The apostle states it with perfect calmness, and without comparing others. IF YOU RECEIVE CIRCUMCISION. Further, it is laid down, if there had been a law capable of giving life, righteousness would be by the law. The apostle accepts the fact in all its strength. 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. The inheritance, therefore, depends on the grace of God fulfilling His promise, not on man's accomplishment of the law, even if possible. And no wonder. 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. Do not abuse your freedom (13-15) I. Christ has set us free (1-6) Discussion Questions What has Christ set us free from? He said, "We haven't been able to keep the law, why should we put them under it?" But in the old days the child who was born in the ordinary human way persecuted the child who was born in the spiritual way; and exactly the same thing happens now. "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Love; the New Testament word for love is agape ( G26) . When God speaks of the seed numerous as the sand or the stars, He gives them a Jewish character of blessing. Now, the law always brings fallen man into importance: such it must be in its principle. Can I be righteous by keeping the law? The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. And so, the people of Galatia understood exactly what Paul was talking about. who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? They had so completely lost sight of the grace of Christ, the sweetness and the bloom of it, that he travailed again for them: his soul once more passed through that which had exercised him when they were converted. He had the faith that could by grace cleave to God if he had not a companion; but God blesses that faith, and acts by it on the conscience of others, even on those that, alas! Because you'll never come to their beliefs by just reading the Bible. It was not merely that his apostleship was doubted God's magnifying of His own Son was set at naught. Bite, devour, and consume are used metaphorically by Paul, giving the Galatians a good insight into the wrongfulness of their attitudes and actions toward each other. For it stands written, "Rejoice, O barren one, who never bore a child; break forth into a shout of joy, O you who know not the pangs of bearing a child; for the children of her who was left alone are more than those of her who had a husband." 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. There is such a thing as, by patient continuance in well doing, to seek for eternal life. And you can't do this, and this, and this, and this, and this." But this was only provisional and parenthetic. It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. But they drank it in the proportion of three parts of water to two of wine. Reckon that to be. Therefore, when a man is baptized, he is not, of course, baptized into his own death; there is no sense in such a thought. Forgive us for the times we abuse this freedom, living more by the flesh than by the Spirit. I'm going to walk in love." Here one may be very brief: "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the father. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. This is best seen by turning to Genesis 22:1-24, where both facts are found in the same context.

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