Let us never confound the two. It describes not an anger which lasts but anger which flames out and then dies. It is a joy whose foundation is God. The law, accordingly, never was the truth, either on God's side, or man's. It is wholly apart from works of law. (I mean by this, of course, exclusive of sin and falsehood.) If you're looking to that as a righteous standing before God, then you are not experiencing the grace of God in your life. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. So, "do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love," the real key is love, "serve one another.". His spirit died, and Adam broke fellowship with God. He signed ordinarily, putting his subscription at the end, i.e., his own name, to verify it; but he did not write it. The apostle does not say, if grievous It was Paul's belief and experience that the Christian died with Christ and rose again to a life, new and clean, in which the evil things of the old self were gone and the lovely things of the Spirit had come to fruition. "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. (a) It means being submissive to the will of God ( Matthew 5:5; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 21:5). having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? And thus the blessing of Abraham could flow freely towards the Gentiles who never were there. When He had anything unfailing to do or say, He loved to appear in grace; He said it Himself, and did it for Himself. 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. You see, I don't always do the things that I would. The most difficult thing in Christendom is for people to know what it is to be Christians, and to take this place by the faith of Christ themselves. It was by revelation, not by summons from Jerusalem, or to acquire a title thereby. It is never used in the New Testament at all. The whole legal institution depended on a people lineally descended from Abraham, as their priests on a similar succession from Aaron. Paul says, "If you go on in this way, of which circumcision is the beginning, you might as well end up by castrating yourselves like these heathen priests." But for us now the apostle carefully adds the principle of our heavenly character. Therefore the apostle adds, ,And as many as walk according to this rule [that is, the rule of the new creation], peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a But when we look toward Jesus we can find freedom. You can't do anything to buy redemption. It is liberty and not law that the Christian stands in. Is He a ventriloquist? "Now, a lot of times when people come to me with some weird concept, I'll say, "Where in the world did you get that idea?" It can even be used in a good sense in that connection, but much more commonly it means the rivalry which has found its outcome in quarrellings and wrangling. 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. Thus the two totally opposite roads of grace and law would have been leading to the same result. It was rather to have Gentile liberty secured by the twelve apostles, and that the Judaizers should be condemned by the church at Jerusalem. Do not suppose that idolatry has its character saved because Jesus is worshipped. Strife; originally this word had mainly to do with the rivalry for prizes. It is used of the athlete's discipline of his body ( 1 Corinthians 9:25) and of the Christian's mastery of sex ( 1 Corinthians 7:9). People were trying to add to it. "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Even though it might be a minor departure from the truth, be careful. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. The apostle, as far as I know, wrote no other letter to any one of the churches of the saints. Paul ends with a very blunt saying. Christian baptism, contrariwise, supposes man dead; and the only death that can deliver man out of his own death is the death of Christ. I have not. adds. That is, the most simple and most obvious truth is just the last thing a man thinks about. 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. Again it is worth while to look at each word separately. Why can't the Mormons tell you that? 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. The rod was the thing the shepherd used to hit the sheep on the flanks when they started getting out, you know, roaming out. Up to this point it has been theological; now it becomes intensely ethical. That died with Christ. Only we must carefully bear this in mind, that in the epistle to the Galatians we never rise exactly to church ground. And this I say, that the covenant confirmed before by God unto Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, can not annul so that it should make the promise of none effect." So "stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ has made you free." Here I've got this new twist on the scripture. Then comes the seed, and the promise is made Yea and Amen in Him all the promises of God. And so, Paul is picking up, now, the same phrase. Jewish elements were borne with in a Jew. 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. If any apostleship would have served for the Gentiles, it ought to have been Paul's then; for Paul was the apostle of the uncircumcision. 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. You are saved. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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. Had a man come down from the teaching of the twelve, albeit inspired of God to write, as we know some of them were, and all of them having a most truly apostolic place, he might have been startled by the teaching of St. Paul. 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. Not so; it is exclusively of grace by Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 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 ). Galatians 5:1-15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. Now, Paul taught righteousness through faith. informs all of Pauls exhortations vis--vis the Galatians libertine tendencies . Stand, therefore, in it and do not get yourselves involved all over again in a slavish yoke. 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. Practical Godliness Enforced; Works of the Flesh and of the Spirit; The Fruits of the Spirit. Paul cautioned both sides to love one another or they would consume each other. It was the ungrateful heart of man that, in its avidity after something that would bring an appearance of strength and unity, would sacrifice that, which was of heaven for what was after all connected with the earth and the flesh. 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 ). The forgiveness of your sins and your redemption is totally predicated upon the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross.These people were adding to it. 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." Let's use an opposite word, intemperant. 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. Besides, we have a more daily duty: "Bear ye one another's burdens." Where was the harm of taking up what saints of old submitted to? Whom did their principle make them resemble? The glory which comes from men is vain-glory, which, instead of being desirous of, we should be dead to. God himself.". Monarchy is government by one, and began in the interests of efficiency, for government by committees has always had its drawbacks. 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." 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 ). "You don't know how long I've been taking it, Lord. "The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. and injurious actions, which must be of bad consequence: hence he Can you seize the gravity of this? And what sort of life can this be? Paul had a characteristically practical mind. [Note: Barclay, p. Don't revive him. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. This was at work even in those early days. This agape love is gentle; it is good. He granted that persons might indulge in some such thoughts about him. Jesus, the rejected Messiah, was the Son of the living God, the giver of life, the quickening Son of God. Your mind has to be bent in that direction through their writings. They often use drugs, potions; the potions that you'd take, you know, and it'd have their drug related experiences. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. another; The Christian by the cross of Christ has terminated his connection with flesh, with the world, with the law. In his case the breach with man was evident; the association with heaven, and not Jerusalem, was too plain to be disputed or evaded. He saw that the tree was pleasant to look upon, it was tasty to eat and it would make him wise as God. Self-control; the word is egkrateia ( G1466) which Plato uses of self-mastery. And it proclaimed the full and equally blessed standing of those who received Christ. Galatians 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious consequences of a contrary spirit and conduct. THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ( Galatians 5:1-12 ). He is baptized into Christ's death, which is the sole means of deliverance out of his state of sin. I was wrong. And no wonder. The Galatian Christians should have been the most peaceful people in the province. But as for the apostle Paul, he says he was called, and this by his master from heaven; but by his own showing nobody heard the call of Christ but himself. 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. How wholesome is the language here, "Every one shall bear his own burden!" But to the end of the day there remained for Paul two obligations. Accordingly, in Galatians 3:1-29 he pursues his reasoning. Nothing that God afterwards introduced annulled this. 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." 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. And thus it is with the promise. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." He had made as much proficiency as any of his day it may be, more. That is not the liberty that we have as Christians. 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. "The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. The truth is the distinctive boon and mark of Christendom. What is good fruit in the Bible? And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? 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. self-seeking, dissension, heretical division, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and all that is like these things, I warn you, as I have warned you before, that those who do things like that will not inherit the Kingdom of God. The flesh began to rule, and man's consciousness was now filled and absorbed with the body needs and the body appetites. against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). But when one is miserable, does not every duty, even where it may be as light as a feather, feel as if it were an iron chain on you? For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Help me, Lord. "This persuasion didn't come from God.". (2.) The way of law makes salvation dependent on human achievement; the man who takes the way of grace simply casts himself and his sin upon the mercy of God. So, they went right up to settle the issue, and the church had one of the first church councils gathered to settle a dispute, a problem within the church. 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. You see, laws are for unprincipled people. The law is of a wholly different nature, and hence was ordained of angels in the hand of a mediator. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. To worship the living and true, creator God - and not the false gods, false religions we pursue. This closes the course of the apostle's argument. All is confusion. Why not adopt what was wanting in Christianity? 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. The cross has sentenced the world; and this very sentence of the world is our deliverance from the world. False doctrine was probably a judgment from heaven upon their ambition, pride, and other offenses. What does matter is faith which works through love. 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. Now, the whole idea is to be righteous before God in order that I might have fellowship with God. So he calls on them to be as free of the law as himself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. For it is by the Spirit and by faith that we eagerly expect the hope of being right with God. 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. Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? It is the spirit which has mastered its desires and its love of pleasure. 1. Accordingly he draws from this a most weighty argument against bringing in the law as the rule of life for the believer. The goal that the law aims at is not reached by trying to keep the law, but by acting with true Christian liberty (13-15).Sooner or later Christians find that they do not always do the good that their consciences tell them to do, because the sinful human nature fights against Gods Spirit within them. 4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the 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. I would [wish that] they were even cut off which trouble you ( Galatians 5:12 ). The law came in meanwhile, serving its own object, which was to bring out what was in the heart of man. The Spirit against the flesh. And I'll argue with Him for a while. There was no difference either way. 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. For devour, comp. 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." This is the only sin Paul warned the Galatians to avoid. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ( Galatians 5:2 ). Far otherwise is God's way with souls. Ignorant or false men had made them hanker after circumcision. Need it be added that he was right and Peter wrong? You see, it isn't a once-in-forever kind of a thing. Not at all. The long lapse of time ought to have guarded men from mixing up the law with the promise, and thus from the appearance of annulling the promise by the law, for this would be most dishonouring to God. But its most suggestive use is that katharos ( G2513) is used of that ceremonial cleanness which entitles a man to approach his gods. Born and bred in the abominable idolatries of the heathen, they were strangers to the institutions of Israel. GALATIANS 5:2-12. Christianity refuses to be mingled with anything but itself. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. It was not merely that Paul was lowered by the carping Judaizers God's grace was being sacrificed. This is best seen by turning to Genesis 22:1-24, where both facts are found in the same context. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness [sexual impurities], [wantonness] lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft [drug abuse] ( Galatians 5:19-20 ). Christ's yoke is called chrestos ( G5543) ( Matthew 11:30), that is, it does not chafe. 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. Galatia was near Phrygia and the great worship of that part of the world was of Cybele. Can you give me, you know, a hundred dollars for this watch?" And sometimes they'll lie to me. 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. with the affections and lusts [with its desires]. She is desolate; she is no longer in the condition of the married wife, but like the fugitive bondwoman. He tells us that fourteen years after he again went up to Jerusalem. What the Jews would have liked, no doubt, was power (and the Galatians, after all, were in danger of slipping into the same snare; for the law suits the world, as grace does not), and in the world present power and honour. God did not intend man to live that way, because man living that way is alienated from God who is a Spirit. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The noun GALATIANS has 1 sense: 1. a New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians Familiarity information: GALATIANS used as a noun is very rare. This, be it observed, was part of God's way with him beyond all others. He feels what he ought to do, but he does it not, and thus is increasingly wretched. 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. If you want to be a subject in God's kingdom, then you cannot do these things. 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