Galatians 5:16-17 says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. To Paul all that mattered was faith which works through love. "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." 17 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. But where the Gentiles are mentioned, God only speaks of seed without reference to number. The organic life of the body will be destroyed by its own members. For the foundation was at stake. All therefore becomes a matter of the pure grace of God; and He is pleased to bless the Gentiles in the Seed, even Christ dead and risen. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their He's just whacked me with the rod. Strife; originally this word had mainly to do with the rivalry for prizes. It is evident that the thorn in the flesh was something which left him open to a slight, and made it difficult indeed for any one to understand how a man who was called to be an apostle should find it hard to convey plainly his mind in preaching. But the liberty is not a liberty to indulge my flesh in anything that I may desire to do after the flesh. It was a misuse of the respect naturally accorded to some who came from Jerusalem; and so God took care to correct the evil by a formal, public, authoritative sentence of the body there, instead of a pure and simple rejection of the error among the Gentile churches, which might have looked like a schism, or at least a divergence of feeling between them and the apostle Paul. Not so; it is exclusively of grace by Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. At the outset here (not there) he sets aside human intervention. 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. "Wherefore then serveth the law? But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. The law was given them with all pomp and solemnity. Those in Christ must stand firm against anyone who would try to drag them into slavery under the law (Galatians 5:1). Why did He do that? "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." Christendom is built upon this footing. And in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, we read how that Peter stood up and told the brethren how that the Lord had called him to go to the Gentiles to the house of Cornelius. It is the liberty not to do those things which the flesh once forced me to do. They were, after all, Gentiles, and as such ought to have had nothing to do with the law. Hence, you see, all exactly suits the gospel as Paul insisted on it. Can I be righteous by keeping the law? Was this then a reproach? 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. It was used of the serenity which a country enjoyed under the just and beneficent government of a good emperor; and it was used of the good order of a town or village. ", At once the apostle launches into the troubled sea. The gospel, not the law, owns its kindred with the promise. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter," etc. The brethren with him ( Galatians 1:2a ) b. As God has wrought for us on the cross, and delivered us from every atom of sin in Christ, so He will not allow us to mix one earthly or legal element with the revelation of His grace, which He has made ours in redemption, and proclaimed to us by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But what does the scripture say? Indeed, we may say that now he thunders on the Galatians that were dragging in the law. They're trying to cause you to be circumcised, I wish they were castrated." Paul urged his readers to live unbound to the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1-12). They had fallen from the grace of the Gospel; and, as Christ no longer dwelt in their hearts by faith, pride, anger, ill-will, and all unkind and uncharitable tempers, took possession of their souls, and they were in consequence alternately destroying each other. 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. I admit that this was all in place and season then for Jerusalem. "For if the inheritance be of law, it is no more of promise:" otherwise by the condition of law you would annul the promise. The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. Read Galatians 5: 14-17. It, too, is commonly translated goodness. 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. It is a lovely word. The Galatians did not think of this; people that are thus blinded by the enemy never do. So it came to mean work done for pay. You are saved through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. 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. No doubt there was a difference of tone. He does not condescend to reason about their place in the matter, but puts them at once in their due relationship. 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. 2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth. and devour one another -- As wild beasts do. 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. 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. The gospel had brought in before God this double conclusion, founded on the first Adam and the last. That's where I come in touch with God. Nor did they understand the prophets better. After one of his great victories Nelson attributed it to the fact that he had the happiness to command a band of brothers. In so many things. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love ( Galatians 5:6 ). And what sort of life can this be? 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. 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. 1-6) a. 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. 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. This the Jews are destined to have by-and-by; for the promises to Abraham are not exhausted yet. But there is more for us. Those who lived in Jerusalem were too prone to preserve the clothes and the cradle which had their place and use at first, but had no claim to be kept up among the Gentiles. He strikes accordingly at the root of all successional or derived authority. But it is life after death to law, and consequently in another sphere. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ( Galatians 5:2 ). That is, if you are circumcised ritually for the purpose of having a righteous standing before God. Both sides of the dispute are guilty. He also warned them against using their liberty as a license to sin to prevent them from overreacting. It is the law of Christ. He acts on this in faith; he understands it with an energy and a brightness that increased even in his Roman prison. He wants to get rid of the first Adam and all its appliances, not to keep it on; and therefore he puts on Christ. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. Law is gone and grace ensures forgiveness anyway." Under law all is lost; under grace all is saved. All is confusion. 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. Basil called it "grief at your neighbours good fortune." wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but how lamentable the extraordinary number of those, of whom the one cuts off the life of the other. Tender and comprehensive as Christianity is, it is also the most exclusive thing that can be. 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." And it proclaimed the full and equally blessed standing of those who received Christ. Whoever despises the facts of Christianity, as if nothing in Scripture were worthy of meditation, or of ministering to others but exercises and speculative deductions, will be found, if he do not find himself often, on the verge of dangerous delusions, both for the mind and for the walk. And the old flesh likes to get people excited and stirred up like that. It is interesting to note the earnestness and strength with which the apostle speaks, now the question had been fairly raised. He wouldn't bother correcting me. 25 Mar 2017 23:00:00 -0500 1896 sunday full false Wednesday Night | Galatians 5:5-6 Part 2 | Dr. Jimmy Young But in this he could glory. So, Peter uses this same phrase to describe the law as a yoke of bondage. "Bite" refers to the sudden action brought on by uncontrolled emotions that hurt other members of the church. But in truth the Lord "gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Be assured that it is the same simplicity of faith which enters into both these things now. The new creation is a present blessing that the soul already enjoys. It was to demonstrate his sinfulness, not to gain the inheritance. There are two things in the Christian; he has a life, a new life in Christ, but he has also, the Holy Ghost. I once was in horrible bondage to my flesh. Not contention. It is wholly apart from works of law. I wish we could always remember, when the devil tempts us to disputes, that the disagreement of members within the church can lead to nothing else than the ruin and consumption of the whole body. (c) Most often of all it means being considerate ( 1 Corinthians 4:21; 2 Corinthians 10:1; Ephesians 4:2). Leave room for God, and for God alone. The apostle now demonstrates, from the result, how destructive such proceedings in the church must ultimately prove to be. And you keep dealing with me until I'll finally say, "Oh, God, I'm sorry. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. remove, the candlestick out of its place. Promise was before the law, and flowed out of the grace of God. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. The truth of the gospel, therefore, was compromised. 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. 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. 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. they are in conflict with f sinful nature each other, so that you do not do what you want. What can you say to a guy? He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God, Galatians 4:6; Galatians 4:6. 5) Psalm 88:13 (NIV) But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 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." It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. Being found only in Christ, it supposes the manifestation of grace; light does not in the same way that truth does. dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, He leaves it to spiritual wisdom to gather what was the evident impression of the truth. And I can set up these rules, and I can get out my little gold stars. (iv) Sod, the allegorical meaning. How could it be otherwise with one persecuting at the moment that he was arrested, in hot deadly opposition to God's church up to his most unexpected call from heaven? Galatians 5:13 (NASB) Verse Thoughts We are not under the Law, but under grace. Now, man was created and by God as a living spirit. 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. When we look elsewhere we end up enslaved. Further. The law forbids these things, but the law of love also forbids them. A final appeal to walk in the liberty of Jesus. 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. What Paul is saying is, "This legalistic movement may not have gone very far yet, but you must root it out before it destroys your whole religion.". "The death of Christ for you isn't sufficient. All this vanishes in Christ; we are all one in Him; and if you are Christ's, what need to be circumcised! 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. No, this persuasion doesn't come from Him who called you. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. But he lists some of the works of the flesh. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another: for wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not strange; but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. And people to follow after me, you know. Matthew 23:13; 2 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 11:5. Practical Godliness Enforced; Works of the Flesh and of the Spirit; The Fruits of the Spirit. And so, Rev 21:8 if you want the reference on that. Such was the serious but necessary import of Peter's act. But the whole matter is decided before God. The power of Christ must rest upon him. As the principle of grace in us will not suffer us to do all the evil which our corrupt nature would prompt us to, so neither can we do all the good that we would, by reason of the oppositions we meet with from that corrupt and carnal principle. 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." Theirs was the slave's son Ishmael. 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 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! This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do." And this is of immense moment to remember. But it degenerated; came to mean the desire to have what someone else has, wrong desire for what is not for us. The apostle does not say, if grievous wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but suggests if they themselves should act the part of wolves to one another; having reference to their controversies about the law and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, parties, and factions; and were attended with envy and malice, with reproachful words, biting sarcasms, scandalous invectives, and injurious actions, which must be of bad consequence: hence he adds. we know too well the result from sinful man. But, in point of fact, he did not see the twelve. Self-seeking; this word has a very illuminating history. 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." 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