In 1963 American civil rights proponent Martin Luther King said: "So let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. And when this happens, when we let it ring, we will speed that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last, free at last/Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last." http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/mlk/9.html
This week the world witnessed a historical first. In one of the most significant countries in the world, not that far removed from slavery, a black man became President of the United States. He spoke an historic address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, representing the President who introduced the Emancipation Declaration, declaring the freedom of former slaves. Imagine If Barrack Obama made his first declaration saying that Blacks needed to return to slavery.
This is exactly what the Judaizers in Galatia were calling for. They called Christians to return to a way of life under the covenant of Law after they had Christ fulfill that covenant, thereby abandoning the freedom that Christ secured for believers.
People define freedom in several ways, some see it in political terms, social, psychological or personal: being left alone by others and not having other people’s values, ideas or styles of life forced upon them. If any of these become the methods of defining freedom, they result in bondage: Bondage to a political system, group or sinful licentiousness. True freedom is liberation from the sins that so easily ensnare us. Jesus Christ is the true liberator and conversion is the act of emancipation to the Christian life of freedom: Freedom from the shackles of sin (Gal. 3:22), works righteousness from the law (Gal. 3:23) and satanic dominion (Gal. 4:3). Christianity not only represents freedom from something, it results in freedom to something: Eternal life, power, protection and hope.
The last verse of Galatians 4 (Gal. 4:31) describes the believer’s position-Freedom. This first verse of chapter 5 refers to the believer’s practice-The believer should live as someone who is free. Paul had just finished explaining that the Galatians were not children of Hagar, the slave woman, but sons and daughters of Sarah, born again free by the promise of God. Now that they needed to do was to live free in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (Philip Graham Ryken. Galatians: Reformed Expository Commentary. P&R Press. 2005. p. 192).
Galatians 5:1-6 begins the third, and final section of the letter. After defending his apostleship (chaps. 1-2) and his message of justification by faith (chaps. 3-4), Paul now applies that doctrine to practical Christian living (chaps. 5-6), emphasizing that right doctrine should result in right living (ethics). His subject is that sanctification that should result from justification. The life of genuine faith is more than the belief in divine truth; it is also the bearing of divine fruit.
The final two chapters of Galatians are a portrait of the Spirit-filled life, of the believer’s implementing the life of faith under the control and in the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit-filled life thereby becomes in itself a powerful testimony to the power of justification by faith.
In Galatians 5:1-6, we see Liberty 1) Defined (Galatians 5:1) 2) Defended (Galatians 5:2-4) and 3) Described (Galatians 5:5-6)
Liberty 1) Defined (Galatians 5:1)
Galatians 5:1 [5:1]For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (ESV)
The juxtaposition of an indicative (what God has done) is often followed by an imperative (what we should do in response). Since Christ has set us free, we must stand firm in that freedom. Because of who God is and what he has done for believers in Jesus Christ, Christians are commanded to “become what they are,” that is, to make visible in the earthly realm of their human existence what God has already declared and sealed in the divine verdict of justification. When this indissoluble connection is forgotten or downplayed, the temptation for the Christian to lapse into legalism on the one hand or into libertinism on the other becomes a serious threat to Christian freedom (George, Timothy: Galatians. electronic ed. Nashville : Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c1994 (Logos Library System; The New American Commentary 30), S. 352).
Please turn to Romans 6
In light of what Paul has been saying throughout the letter, he also here implies a disturbing question: "Why, then, do some of you want to go back to being like Ishmael, who was a slave, an outcast, and separated from God?" It makes no sense at all.
Paul exclaimed to the Roman church:
Romans 6:17-19 [17]But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, [18]and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. [19]I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (ESV)
Paul says emphatically that God’s stated purpose for redemption was for freedom of the believer.
As we have seen, Christ set us free from 1) The Curse of the law (Rom. 3:20), 2) The Curse of Adam (Rom. 5:12), 3) Spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-6), 4) the Fear of Death (Heb. 2:14-15) 5) From Condemnation (2 Cor. 5:21), 6) The Power of Sin (Ro,. 6:17-18) 7) The Authority of Satan (Col. 1:13) (Edgar H. Andrews: Free in Christ: The Message of Galatians. Evangelical Press. 1996. p. 260).
God here in Galatians 5:1 calls Christians to stand firm in their liberty. Stand firm (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13; Phil. 1:27; 4:1; 1 Thes. 3:8; 2 Thes. 2:15). Stand firm/fast is a term borrowed from the battlefield (1 Cor. 16:13). Implicit in this warning and command is the fact that our freedoms in Christ are constantly under attack. They are attacked by legalism and nomism. They are attacked by false doctrine, sin, unbelief, and by Satan. But, as just mentioned, we were delivered from these things, and, as Paul will develop, we must use the weapons supplied to us by God: faith, hope and love, through the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:5) (Edgar H. Andrews: Free in Christ: The Message of Galatians. Evangelical Press. 1996. p. 262).
o Without the empowering of the Holy Spirit, nominal outward faith, hope or love is useless. It is like using a rifle without bullets.
Stand Firm is the positive, and do not submit/be subject again (lit., "do not subject yourselves") is the negative warning for believers to persevere in freedom. Like an animal loosed from pulling a plow, we should not seek to be hooked up again.
• One of the purposes of incarceration, besides punishment, is to be a deterrent to commit further crimes, lest the newly freed person be convicted of a new crime and be sent back.
o One of the greatest tragedies is for someone who cannot adjust to life outside of bars committing a new crime with the desire to return to the only life they know behind bars.
• Christ redeems people from sin in order that they not fall back into old patterns of sin.
We have seen Liberty 1) Defined (Galatians 5:1) and now:
2) Liberty Defended (Galatians 5:2-4)
Galatians 5:2-4 [2]Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3]I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4]You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
Quote: Of this situation, Jack Hunter said: “In the Galatian situation, circumcision to Paul was not a surgical operation, nor merely a religious observance. It represented a system of salvation by good works. It declared a gospel of human effort apart from divine grace. It was law supplanting grace; Moses supplanting Christ; for to add to Christ was to take from Christ. Christ supplemented was Christ supplanted; Christ is the only Savior—solitary and exclusive. Circumcision would mean excision from Christ”. (Jack Hunter, What the Bible Teaches, Galatians – Philemon, p. 78.)
The basic doctrinal error of the Judaizers was works righteousness, the same error that is the heart of every other man-made religious system. Jews were often referred to simply as the circumcised (Acts 10:45; 11:2; Gal. 2:7), because that was their most distinctive outward mark and the one in which they had the greatest pride and confidence. Rather than looking on circumcision as God had given it-as a symbol of His covenant of promise (Gen. 17:9-10)-most Jews looked on it as having spiritual value in itself. To them it was not a reminder of God’s gracious and sovereign blessing as it should have been but a means of humanly guaranteeing His favor.
• It should be noted that the symbolism of cutting off the male foreskin was to be a constant reminder to all generations of Jews, for whom God desired to cut away the evil from their hearts (cf. Deut. 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 9:24-26). Every child circumcised was a dramatic symbol of God’s desire to cleanse the heart by faith in Him and to impute His grace to the believer.
Paul’s objection here is not to circumcision in itself. Like all Jewish boys, he himself had been circumcised as an infant (Phil. 3:5). He did not object to a Christian’s being circumcised if, as in the case of Timothy (Acts 16:1-3), the act would open doors for ministry. Because Timothy was not Jewish, Paul had him circumcised in order that they might together have greater opportunity to witness to Jews. And had he known of the possible health advantages of circumcision, he would not have objected to it for that purpose either.
Look: I, Paul, say to you undergirds the apostolic authority (see 1:1) by which Paul makes this serious assertion. He may also have been emphasizing his own Jewishness, indicating that he, Paul, a former Pharisee and "Hebrew of Hebrews" (Phil. 3:5), was obviously not speaking against trust in circumcision because of any personal or racial bias against Jews. Both as an apostle and as a circumcised and redeemed Jew, he declared that to receive circumcision, if you accept circumcision is in the present tense indicating, not one act, but a practice for the purpose of gaining merit before God was to make Christ … of no advantage/benefit (KJV Bible Commentary. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1994, S. 2395).
The atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, perfect and complete though it was, cannot benefit a person who trusts in anything else, because that something else, whether circumcision or any other human act or effort, then stands between him and Christ.
• The reason people who have previously genuinely repented of sin and trusted Christ for salvation, most often doubt that salvation, is that they misunderstand the nature of Salvation. If the understanding of your salvation was based on a profession you made or action you took, then it is natural to think that perhaps you could be wrong or weak.
o But if the assurance of Salvation rests on the work of Christ alone, whose strength and promise cannot waver, then you can have eternal security of Salvation.
All the people to whom Paul was writing had made a profession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord or they would not have been part of the churches of Galatia. Many, perhaps most, of them had genuinely trusted in Him for salvation. The truth Paul presents here applied to both groups. To those who were not saved, he was saying that they could not be saved, they could not gain any eternal, saving benefit from Christ if they trusted in circumcision. To those who were saved he was saying that such behavior was inconsistent with their salvation and that certainly they could experience no benefit of growth in their spiritual lives if they began trusting in circumcision in addition to God’s grace (cf. 3:1-3).
Please turn to Romans 9
A person becomes acceptable to God only by placing his full trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, and after one is saved people persevere in living a life acceptable to God only by continuing to trust in Christ alone. Whether before or after conversion, trust in human works of any kind is a barrier between a person and Christ which results in unacceptable legalism.
Paul explained to Roman believers
Romans 9:30-32 [30]What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; [31]but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. [32]Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, (ESV)
• The Gentiles who were not seeking righteousness nevertheless found it when they believed in Jesus Christ, whereas the Jews who were zealously seeking righteousness did not attain it, because they were seeking it in themselves. The believing Gentiles gained Christ’s righteousness, which is perfect, whereas the unbelieving Jews had only their self-righteousness, which was worthless.
Galatians 5:3 [3]I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. (ESV)
A second consequence of trusting in works (circumcision) for eternal life is that the person who does so obligates themselves to keep the whole law. To live by part of the law as a means of attaining righteousness demands living by all of it.
As we have previously studied in some detain: James 2:10 noted that:
James 2:10 [10]For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (ESV)
Legalism requires people to keep the whole law. People under law cannot accept the easy commandments and reject the others. If a person attempts to please God by being circumcised, then he is under obligation to keep the whole law. Thus someone is either entirely under law, or not under law at all.
Obviously, if one is entirely under law, Christ is valueless to this person. The Lord Jesus is not only a complete Savior, but also an exclusive one. Paul is not referring in this verse to any who might have been circumcised in the past, but only to those who might undergo this rite as a necessity for complete justification, to those who assert the obligations of law-keeping for their acceptance with God (MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer’s Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ga 5:3).
• The temple where the Old Covenant sacrifices were performed had no chairs. The priest never sat down because his job was never finished.
o Those who try to work their way to heaven quickly realize that the work is never done, it is never enough
o In the death of Christ, he proclaimed “it is finished”.
Because God’s standard is perfect righteousness, fulfillment of’ only part of the law fails short of His standard. Hypothetically, even if a person were somehow able to keep all of the law for all of his life, if he broke a commandment during his last minute on earth, he would forfeit salvation.
Paul stated previously:
Galatians 3:10 [10]For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." (ESV)
In Deuteronomy 27, Moses gave a sample of 12 curses culminating with Deuteronomy 27:26, which Paul quotes here in Galatians 5:3
Deuteronomy 27:26 [26]"’Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ’Amen.’ (ESV)
• Because God’s standard was so obviously impossible to attain, that truth quoted from Deuteronomy 27:26 should have driven every Jew to seek His mercy.
Illustration: People often think that works they do that they think are righteous are going to outweigh any faults they do?
Imagine a motorist driving down a city street and deliberately driving through a red light. He is pulled over by a policeman who asks to see his driver’s license. Immediately the driver begins to defend himself. “Officer, I know I ran that red light—but I have never robbed anybody. I’ve never committed adultery. I’ve never cheated on my income tax.” The policeman smiles as he writes out the ticket, because he knows that no amount of obedience can make up for one act of disobedience. It is one Law, and the same Law that protects the obedient man punishes the offender. To boast about keeping part of the Law while at the same time breaking another part is to confess that I am worthy of punishment (Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Ga 5)
Galatians 5:4 [4]You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (ESV)
A third consequence of seeking to be justified by circumcision or any other form of the law, is that it causes a person to become severed from Christ and thereby become fallen from grace. Severed is from katargeo, which, when followed by the preposition, means to be separated or loosed from (cf. Rom. 7:2, 6).
• Link this in with circumcision: Circumcision involved cutting off the male foreskin. In the old covenant, this was a way of saying that a Jew was separated from the world. But it was also a way of saying that if he ever rejected God, he himself would be cut off from God’s people.
• Since Christ fulfilled the works of the Law, for the Galatians to go back to a relationship with God through Old Covenant ceremonies and symbols, they were cutting themselves off from the work of Christ ((Philip Graham Ryken. Galatians: Reformed Expository Commentary. P&R Press. 2005. p. 201).
The result would be as Paul describes her in Galatians as Fallen, is from ekpipto, which means to lose one’s grasp on something. Simply stated, a person cannot live by both law and grace. To attempt to be justified by law is to reject the way of grace.
Paul is not dealing with the security of the believer but with the contrasting ways of grace and law, works and faith, as means of salvation. He is not teaching that a person who has once been justified can lose his righteous standing before God and become lost again by being circumcised or otherwise legalistic. The Bible knows nothing of becoming unjustified. The working of salvation is promised and accomplished through the work of God:
Romans 8:30 [30]And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (ESV)
Paul’s primary point in this passage, as throughout the letter, is that law and grace cannot be mixed. As a means to salvation they are totally incompatible and mutually exclusive. To mix law with grace is to obliterate grace.
• To try to work to earn God’s favor, it is like the men at Babel who were “building a tower to reach heaven” (Gen 11:1–9). Although they did not know it, what they were doing could not be successfully done. And worse, their attempt to do it was the ultimate insult to God.
For a believer to start living again under the law to merit salvation is, in fact, to reject salvation by grace. Contrary to the teaching of the Judaizers, to add circumcision and other works of the law to what Christ accomplished by grace is not to raise one’s spiritual level but to severely lower it. Legalism does not please God but offends Him. It does not bring a person closer to God but rather drives him away.
Applied to one who was really an unbeliever, the principle of falling from grace has to do with being exposed to the gracious truth of the gospel and then turning one’s back on Christ. Such a person is an apostate.
Please turn to Hebrews 6
During the time of the early church many people, both Jews and Gentiles, not only heard the gospel message but witnessed the miraculous confirming signs performed by the apostles. They became attracted to Christ and often made professions of faith in Him. Some became involved in a local church and vicariously experienced the blessings of Christian love and fellowship. They were exposed first hand to every truth and blessing of the gospel of grace but then turned away, back to works religion.
For those exposed to the greatest blessings of Christianity on earth:
Hebrews 6:4-6 [4]For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, [5]and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, [6]and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (ESV)
Applied to a believer, the principle of falling from grace has to do with a person who genuinely trusts in Christ for salvation but then outwardly reverts to a life of legalism, of living under external rituals, ceremonies, and traditions that he carries out in his own strength, instead of living with a spirit of obedience to Christ.
• He exchanges life by grace for life back under law, life by faith for life again by works, life in freedom for life back in bondage, life in the Spirit for life back in the flesh.
Obviously true Christians will not reject the true way of salvation, but they confuse themselves and others when they try to live by works, because the mark of true discipleship is continuing obedience to Christ (John 8:31). The security of salvation from the divine side is guaranteed by God to His own (cf. v. 10; Rom. 8:28-39; 11:29), but from the human side it is manifested by perseverance in grace (see John 8:31; 15:4-9, Acts 11:23; 13:43; 14:21-22; Rom. 2:7; Heb. 2:1; 3:14; 4:14; 10:23; 1 John 2:19). Paul is here calling for such perseverance in grace by the genuine believer.
Illustration: When the Judaizers told the Galatians that they had to get circumcised to become good Christians, they were adding the law to the gospel. They were saying that Moses had to finish what Christ could only begin.
To illustrate the problem with this kind of theology, consider the man who had an old baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. The man had heard that the ball might be valuable, so one day he decided to sell it. He was worried, however, because he could see that the signature was badly faded. In order to make it clearer, he took out his baseball and carefully traced over the letters with a marking pen: B-A-B-E R-U-T-H. The effect was to obliterate the real autograph, so that by the time he was finished, he had turned something priceless into something worthless.
It is the same with Jesus Christ. His finished work cannot be added to lest it be received as useless.
(Philip Graham Ryken. Galatians: Reformed Expository Commentary. P&R Press. 2005. p. 199).
We have seen Liberty 1) Defined (Galatians 5:1) 2) Liberty Defended (Galatians 5:2-4) and briefly:
3) Liberty Described (Galatians 5:5-6)
Galatians 5:5-6 [5]For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6]For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (ESV)
Here, the apostle shows that the hope of the true believer is far different from that of the legalist. The Christian eagerly waits for the hope of righteousness. This is the hope for the time when the Lord will come, when believers will receive a glorified body, and will sin no more (Rom. 8:18, 21). Notice that it does not say that the Christian hopes for righteousness; for a believer already has a right standing before God through the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
A believer eagerly waits for the moment when he or she will be completely righteous in themselves. This is not a hope to achieve this by anything that he or she can do, but rather through the Spirit and by faith. The Holy Spirit is going to do it all, and the believer simply looks to God in faith to bring it to pass. The legalist, on the other hand, hopes to earn righteousness by their own works, law-keeping, or religious observances. It is a vain hope, because righteousness cannot be achieved in this way
• Notice that Paul uses the pronoun we in this verse, referring to true Christians, whereas in verse 4 he uses the pronoun “you” when speaking to those who seek justification by works of law.
(MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer’s Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ga 5:5)
In Galatians 5:5-6, Paul mentions three characteristics of the godly life, the life that continues to live by the grace through which salvation was received.
1) First of all, it is a life lived through the Spirit rather than the flesh.
2) Second, it is a life lived by faith rather than works. And
3) Third, it is a life lived in patient waiting and hope rather than in the anxious uncertainty of bondage to the law.
Nothing that is either done or not done in the flesh, not even religious ceremony, makes any difference in one’s relationship to God.
• In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. The outward is totally unimportant and worthless, except as it genuinely reflects inner righteousness.
Life in the Spirit is not static and inactive, but it is faith working through love, not the flesh working through self-effort.
Please turn to Colossians 1
Believers are "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). But their working is the product of their faith, not a substitute for it. They do not work for righteousness but out of righteousness, through the motivating power of love.
As faith is shown in love, believers are called to:
Colossians 1:10-11 [10]so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. [11]May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, (ESV)
Love needs neither the prescriptions nor the proscriptions of the law, because its very nature is to fulfill the law’s demands (cf. Rom. 13:8).
• A person does not, for instance, steal from or lie to someone he truly loves. He certainly does not kill someone he loves. The person who lives by faith works under the internal compulsion of love and does not need the outward compulsion of law.
Illustration: The story is told of an aspiring artist who was commissioned to do a large sculpture for a famous museum. At last he had the opportunity to create the masterpiece he had long dreamed of. After laboring over the work for many years, he saw it grow not only in shape but in beauty. But when it was finished he discovered to his horror that it was much too large to be taken out a window or door and that the cost for tearing down part of the building in order to remove it was prohibitive. His masterpiece was forever a captive to the room in which it was created.
• That is the fate of all human religion. Nothing a person does to earn God’s favor can leave the room of this earth where self-made works are created.
(Format note: Some base commentary from MacArthur, J. (1996, c1987). Galatians. Includes indexes. (131). Chicago: Moody Press.)
