who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? Know ye therefore that they which are of faith" (not those that cry up the law) "are the children of Abraham. though he had prayed thrice, as his Lord had done on another and wondrous occasion, so the apostle was to have communion with Christ in this way, and learn that there is something better than the taking away of that which makes nothing of the flesh. The apostle stands to the truth preached and received. Thank You, Jesus, for Your forgiveness and for Your love and for Your grace to me.". It is not an old creation, but a new one. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Jealousy; this word (zelos, G2205, from which our word zeal comes) was originally a good word. Had Paul gone up to present his credentials to the others, he would have lowered, obscured, and done as far as in him lay to destroy the special blessedness and peculiar glory of his apostleship. Again it is worth while to look at each word separately. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.". You are saved. And now the apostle enters on another part of his subject. (I mean by this, of course, exclusive of sin and falsehood.) Let us never confound the two. With the utmost simplicity he shows that his own separation from man was a part of God's ways for the purpose of making more strikingly felt the great truth that he was afterwards to proclaim. For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. True to the Spirit. 19 the acts of the the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and sinful nature debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5:4-5) 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? Can anything prove that it is not an old creation better than this that there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, which last at least is an absolute necessity for the perpetuation of the race? The man who practises it has been said to know no restraint, but to do whatever caprice and wanton insolence may suggest. This shows us the exceeding seriousness of a step apparently so trifling as his abstaining from further intercourse with the Gentiles in mere ordinary life. I wish that those who are upsetting you would get themselves not only circumcised but castrated! Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision. done his duty; but it was precisely what he could not do, because he was a sinner. That is, walk in fellowship with God. The particulars he specifies are of various sorts; some are sins against the seventh commandment, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, by which are meant not only the gross acts of these sins, but all such thoughts, and words, and actions, as have a tendency towards the great transgression. Carousing; this word (komos) has an interesting history. (d) Agape ( G26) , the Christian word, means unconquerable benevolence. Or am I righteous by my simple faith in Jesus Christ? In other words, if you're going to take this as an act of righteousness to make you righteous before God, as being a part of the law, then it will be necessary for you to keep the entire law in order to be righteous before God. Thus the law pulls down what is evil, and the promise gives what is good and builds it up. He had made as much proficiency as any of his day it may be, more. And it is in the realm of the spirit where man meets God. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" ( John 4:24 ). . "O foolish Galatians," he now breaks out in an impassioned appeal to them, "who hath bewitched you [that ye should not obey the truth should here vanish], before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?" I am not at all worried about anything you will come to believe by just simply reading your Bible. Yet, wondrous to say, when she desires to be under grace by-and-by, all those that are now brought in by promise will be accounted as children to her. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life. 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. A person doesn't lose his temper. Accordingly he draws from this a most weighty argument against bringing in the law as the rule of life for the believer. When in the garden, or when on the cross, Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" It's sort of comforting, you know. One of the most dangerous errors in Christendom is, that these two things are lumped together. I don't think you need anything more than the Bible to really know the truth of God. to His Father. Thus, whatever may be the energy that seeks souls in love, there is nothing after all like Christianity for maintaining individual responsibility intact. In Christ alone, in His cross, let us boast, and in the new creature which is by Christ. 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. As the soldier in Studdert Kennedy's poem said; For Paul it was essential that Christian freedom should mean not freedom to indulge the lower side of human nature, but freedom to walk in the life of the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Paul was preaching that Jesus paid the complete price for your redemption on the cross. Suppose a man desires to become a naturalized subject of a country and carefully carries out all the rules and regulations of that country as they affect naturalization. As it is reasoned out in Romans 7:1-25, the law came, and he died. In the latter part of this chapter the apostle comes to exhort these Christians to serious practical godliness, as the best antidote against the snares of the false teachers. They were better off spiritually than some other congregations to which he wrote, or possibly he did not want to deal with other needs of theirs in this letter. "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." The brethren with him ( Galatians 1:2a ) b. So here it is said that God was pleased to reveal His Son in him, that he might preach the good news of Him among the heathen. Who put up a road-block to stop you obeying the truth? 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. 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. 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.". it is added, he conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before him; but went into Arabia, and returned again, not to Jerusalem, but to Damascus, the place near which he had been called at first. 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." Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth. Stand, therefore, in it and do not get yourselves involved all over again in a slavish yoke. There was no consciousness of the identification of the saint with Christ. he gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption; and that is to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:16): This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 15.But if ye bite and devour one another. All of the bases are covered. There could be but one answer. The law holds out but never gives blessing. That's the position where we stand. That is, liberty in Jesus Christ. Peter would have been horrified at such a conclusion. Everybody knows this. 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. "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 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. If I preach circumcision, then why would they keep persecuting me? That you're not going to be otherwise minded.". False doctrine was probably a judgment from heaven upon their ambition, pride, and other offenses. "Nevertheless" astonishing to say, for it could not be natural life "nevertheless, I live." He says to those who would be under the law, why do you not listen to the law? He acts on this in faith; he understands it with an energy and a brightness that increased even in his Roman prison. . 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. Will I be mastered by the Spirit or will I be mastered by the flesh? I'm going to walk in love." The liberty that we have is not to do the things of the flesh. Forgive us for the times we abuse this freedom, living more by the flesh than by the Spirit. "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" And so, such things leaves an unending list of things of the flesh. The whole legal institution depended on a people lineally descended from Abraham, as their priests on a similar succession from Aaron. occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, Law is gone and grace ensures forgiveness anyway." Galatians 2:1-21. Why not adopt what was wanting in Christianity? 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. But the apostle here does not reason about the matter. He sees the right, feels the good, desires the holy, but never, accomplishes. This was at work even in those early days. The rod was the thing the shepherd used to hit the sheep on the flanks when they started getting out, you know, roaming out. Very powerful words for those who would seek justification through the law, through rules, through keeping rules, through keeping ordinances. And, you know, I mean, you're having now go to . "Now, the other way to be righteous is through faith in Jesus Christ, receiving that grace of God through Him, where God accounts me, as He did Abraham, righteous because I believe. No doubt this might be provoking to human importance sometimes. Galatians 1:1-24. And so, I would listen to these fellows, and I listened, you know, and just said, "Well, you know, that's what the scripture says, you know," when they would quote scriptures. And you will observe the immense importance attached to this simple account; for all here is plain matter of fact, but pregnant with the weightiest consequences as long as the church and the gospel last here below. Agathosune ( G19) might, and could, rebuke and discipline; chrestotes ( G5544) can only help. It seems to have been something which affected his speech too, and exposed him to ridicule and to unfavourable comments where men were carnally-minded. It is never used in the New Testament at all. If it should be asked, What course must we take that the better interest may get the better? Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. 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 I began to think it through and I thought, "Yes, it is a work of the flesh, because usually a person gets into heresy to attract attention to himself." 4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. For Jew and Gentile were alike guilty of crucifying Him. Mark it well. There are times when I lapse into the flesh. For what the law is actually saying to you is that you should love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. The salutation ( Galatians 1:1-5 ) a. Just let our books explain for you." 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. The application of this is as plain as it is conclusive, for those who appealed to Abraham and bowed to the word of God. (2.) (c) Most often of all it means being considerate ( 1 Corinthians 4:21; 2 Corinthians 10:1; Ephesians 4:2). The apostle, as far as I know, wrote no other letter to any one of the churches of the saints. You can see the Santa Rosa and San Miguel and San Nicolas and say, "Hey, hey, all right, we're right on course." Matthew 23:13; 2 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 11:5. I was wrong. Paul cautioned both sides to love one another or they would consume each other. How apt the illustration for exposing the judaizers! He's temperant. That is, my mind is constantly upon fleshly things. That's what God accounts, the righteousness of Christ accounted to my account through my faith in Jesus Christ.Now, because I can't keep the first, I have opted for the second. The Christian's faith is founded not on a book but on a person; its dynamic is not obedience to any law but love to Jesus Christ. "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are." For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law ( Galatians 5:3 ). Christ lived, died, and was resurrected so that we might be free. It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. The promise has another and most blessed place. Observe the place the cross has here, not merely Christ's blood, but His death on the cross. 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. 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. It might have been inferred that Paul was to do what he could with the Gentile churches, but that the twelve exclusively cared for the churches in Judea, he consequently having nothing to do with them. And "Titus," as he says here, "who was with me, being a Greek," etc. The Galatian Christians should have been the most peaceful people in the province. He shows that the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer gives no license for the action of the flesh. 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