THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – CHAPTER 5:1-6 MESSAGE 17 – IN THE LONG RUN IT IS GRACE AND FAITH, ONLY THOSE, BUT STAND FIRM ON THAT FACT
[A]. VERSE 1 - KEEP STANDING FIRM IN FREEDOM AND DO NOT YIELD
{{Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore KEEP STANDING FIRM and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”}}
There are two matters Paul deals with in this verse – the first is that all that the Lord Jesus Christ did for us, He did to give us freedom. How terrible we were in the slave market of sin, all bound up. On Calvary the Lamb of God died to set us free. Sin is so horrible and it binds people up in chains and keeps them chained.
This is an awful world with people chained in poverty, and under suppression, chained in addiction, and chained up by refusal to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation.
However the Galatians were Christians but had come under the slavery of those binding them up in keeping the Law, with the Sabbath and circumcision. Paul demands the Galatians stand firm. They had put their necks again into the yokes of slavery. Christ set them free so what are they doing returning to bondage?
Christians are just the same in the matter of freedom. Delivered by the Lord from sin and being saved means that we must live in freedom. Yet Christians put themselves into bondage, sometimes in little things, sometimes in more serious things, but it is all the yoke of slavery. We must examine our behaviour, the things we practice and things that have become habits, to see that we are not in bondage. They are matters of personal bondage and addiction. Even Christians can get into bondage with alcohol, pornography, gambling, sport, and almost anything that sours our testimony and freedom in the Lord.
Yet another bondage afflicts Christians. Some of the denominational leaders have put their people into bondage so that they become slaves to a system and to a denomination. Beware of that also. Many are bound in legalistic and lifeless systems because they have surrendered their freedom to men. Stand firm and submit not to any form of slavery, personal, peer pressure, or denominational. Some try to put their people under bondage to memberships and constitutions. I have seen that.
Paul says we are to keep standing firm and that is an everyday matter. Don’t let the evil of bondage catch you by surprise. Keep on the alert. This was particularly galling to the Galatians because they had gone from the bondage of paganism to the bondage of the Law.
[B]. VERSES 2 AND 3 – REVERTING TO THE LAW WILL BE ONE’S UNDOING
{{Galatians 5:2 “Behold I, Paul, say to you that IF YOU RECEIVE CIRCUMCISION, Christ will be of no benefit to you,
Galatians 5:3 and I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation TO KEEP THE WHOLE LAW.”}}
VERSE 2 is where Paul tells them that circumcision will be of no benefit to these Galatians whatever. Receiving circumcision for medical reasons or some other reason is one thing, BUT to go ahead and comply with circumcision thinking you will get some spiritual benefit from it, is a worthless endeavour. It will amount to nothing.
Another thing to emerge here is that Paul himself uses his apostolic authority “I, Paul” – the one they loved and would have given him their eyes. Maybe some Galatians had been circumcised but some were still considering, and Paul uses the conditional tense. The terms are spelt out – Law OR rejection of Christ. No one could submit to the Law and trust Christ at the same time. This is a serious divide.
Imagine a situation where a person says he will keep the Law, but where he fails in a part of the Law, then in that part he will trust Christ. This verse overrules that false thinking. The Law has been put to rest by the cross and has no demand over the Christian; none whatever. {{1 Corinthians 7:18-19 “Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.” “CIRCUMCISION IS NOTHING, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.”}}
The group known as Seventh Day Adventists are the modern false teachers of the Galatians. They put people under the Law by entering a place where a church is already established like it was in Galatia, and turn it away from the freedom in Christ.
VERSE 3 sets out a worse case. Once a person submits to some legal aspect under the Mosaic Law then the obligation is to the keeping of the WHOLE Law. These Galatians may have held to the Sabbath and/or circumcision and certain days, but once they commenced that journey they were obligated to the whole lot.
When a person signs up to anything under the Law, and circumcision was the sign of that, then he becomes a debtor to the Law. It then has control over the person. The Law demands full obligation to keep it and we have seen already that no one can keep the Law. Why sign yourself up to something that places you in bondage and attacks the work of the Lord who came to deliver us from bondage and to set us free?
It was the Apostle James who wrote – {{James 2:10 “for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become GUILTY OF ALL.”}} The Law is like a sheet of glass; if you break it at all, it is all broken. It is like an anchor chain; if one link is broken the whole vessel comes adrift.
The viewpoint of the Galatians in the first place was stupid for they ought to have realised that Gentiles were never under Law to start with. They would have received that from Paul in his ministry among them, so how could they not remember that and get themselves confused? It all goes to show how cunning Satan is and how deceptive false teachers are.
[C]. VERSE 4 - NOW YOUR MISERABLE CONDITION, GALATIANS
{{Galatians 5:4 “You have been SEVERED FROM CHRIST, you who are seeking to be justified by law. You have FALLEN FROM GRACE.”}}
Paul tells these Christians at Galatia a double dilemma they are in. The first is that they are severed from Christ, and the second is that they have fallen from grace, all because they were trying to be justified by Law and not grace.
“Sever” means to cut off, but the Greek word here is one dealing with validation. If you have a passport and go to a country and present your passport and the machine says, “Passport invalid”, then you have no claim of entry. What this verse says is that those who turned to the Law are invalidated, in other words, “DENIED. Entry through Christ is not valid.” Christ for you is not valid. You can not be justified by the Law - only through the blood of Christ.
THE LAW IS BY WORKS; FAITH IS THROUGH CHRIST. We are justified by faith not by works. Works is human effort and certain failure. Faith is resting in the accomplished sacrifice of the Saviour. Now the way into God’s presence has been made available through faith but all that has a higher workmanship. Paul says clearly in Galatians as in other places that grace is the underlying thread woven through the whole work of Christ. It is God reaching out to you. Grace, that is God’s favour we did not merit, has rendered the Law inoperable. It is by grace we are saved.
Paul outlines this grace even more in a lot of his writing but I want to mention this verse – {{2 Corinthians 8:9 “for you know THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”}}
In all of Paul’s writings, he used the greeting, “grace and peace” and mentions grace over and over. It is one of Paul’s key words. Why? It was because of his own salvation. He knew such grace extended to him was special, but within the character of God to pour out His grace on all.
In his first letter, Peter wrote to the scattered Christians including those in Galatia (1 Peter 1:1). Then he wrote the second letter to them and included an interesting passage – {{2 Peter 3:14-18 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand which the untaught and unstable distort to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, BE ON YOUR GUARD LEST YOU FALL FROM YOUR OWN STEADFASTNESS, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, but GROW IN THE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”}}
In all probability Peter was well aware of Paul’s letter to the Galatians as it was one of the first books of the New Testament to be written. The expression in verse 17 – “fall from your own steadfastness” is the same Greek word Paul used in Galatians 5:4 – “fallen from grace”. Peter is supporting what Paul has been saying. I quote what one has said – [[“we see the great grace that is shown forth in Peter’s heart to commend especially to the Galatian Christians, the very letter that shows so clearly his own failure.”]] (G.C.Willis, missionary to China).
In the great contrast between Law and Grace we find that the Law curses the one trying to do works for it; it brings death and condemnation; and it brings wrath. On the other hand the grace of God brings salvation and freedom and hope.
We have now 6 NOTS for the Christian and 6 DOS for the Christian, all about the matter of GRACE. It is a very worthwhile exercise to meditate on each of these.
THE NOTS – THE CHRISTIAN IS NOT
[1]. To receive the grace of God in vain:- {{2 Corinthians 6:1 “and working together with Him, we also urge you NOT TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN,”}}
[2]. To set aside the Grace of God:- {{Galatians 2:21 “I DO NOT NULLIFY THE GRACE OF GOD for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.}}
[3]. To insult the Spirit of grace:- {{Hebrews 10:29 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has INSULTED THE SPIRIT OF GRACE?}}
[4]. To fall away from grace:- {{Galatians 5:4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law. YOU HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE.”}}
[5]. To fall short of the grace of God:- {{Hebrews 12:15 “See to it that no one comes SHORT OF THE GRACE OF GOD; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled,”}}
[6]. To turn the grace of God into licentiousness:- {{Jude 1:4 “for certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons WHO TURN THE GRACE OF OUR GOD INTO LICENTIOUSNESS and deny Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.”}}
THE DOS – THE CHRISTIAN IS TO DO
[1]. To continue in the grace of God:- {{Acts 13:43 “Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to CONTINUE IN THE GRACE OF GOD.”}}
[2]. To stand in grace:- {{Romans 5:2 “through whom also we have obtained our introduction BY FAITH INTO THIS GRACE in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” 1Peter 5:12 “Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that THIS IS THE TRUE GRACE of God. Stand firm in it!”}}
[3]. To be strong in grace:- {{2 Timothy 2:1 “You therefore, my son, BE STRONG IN THE GRACE that is in Christ Jesus,”}}
[4]. To draw near to the throne of grace:- {{Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore DRAW NEAR with confidence TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”}}
[5]. To strengthen the heart by grace:- {{Hebrews 13:9 “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to BE STRENGTHENED BY GRACE, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited.”}}
[6]. To grow in the grace of the Lord:- 2 Peter 3:18 “but GROW IN THE GRACE and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”}}
[D]. VERSE 5 – THROUGH THE SPIRIT: THE HOPE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
{{Galatians 5:5 “We, by faith, through the Spirit, are waiting for the hope of righteousness”}}
Again, as in all of scripture, there is much packed into small spaces, and here we have four of the great words of scripture.
(1). FAITH. Faith is believing, and what is it we believe? In the first case BELIEF is for salvation. We call it “saving faith” when a man or woman places faith in what Jesus did on the cross and hands to Him their lives. That faith results in their being born again to a blessed hope. This the Galatians had done. Paul is inclusive in his use of “We”.
There is the second aspect of faith, which is where the Galatians failed. We WALK BY FAITH, and these following verses link in nicely with our verse 5 - {{2 Corinthians 5:6-8 “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT - we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”}} In that regard, the Galatians nosedived because they thought they could walk according to the Law.
Faith holds on to the promises as trust anchors the words of scripture. In the case of verse 5, faith holds hope steady for the completion of righteousness.
(2). THE SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is given to us to make all things clear; to help us in all avenues of this life; to comfort us in trials and disappointment; and to connect us to the future. Why is it I have absolute, full confidence in the very soon coming Rapture for the Church? It is the Spirit, that fires up that hope and keeps it alive.
(3). HOPE. One of the greatest words in scripture, it means a settled assurance, a confirmed faith that what God said, He will perform. I have been writing on that in Romans a lot and in Romans chapters 4 and 5 it is examined carefully. Those messages are in the Series in Romans on SermonCentral.
Relating this to Galatians 5:5 the hope we have is in righteousness and we look at that now.
(4). RIGHTEOUSNESS. The hope of righteousness is the completion of our righteousness. Yes, we are fully righteous in the sight of God who has justified us from all sin and penalty, and made us the children of the living God. However we are in an unrighteous world and the contamination of the world can leave its mark on us. We long (in hope) to be delivered fully from even the appearance of wickedness and in heaven, our righteousness will be complete.
I have said a few times that the material in Romans parallels that in Galatians and to appreciate Galatians better, please study Romans 4 and 5.
[E]. VERSE 6 - WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE? IT CAN ONLY BE FAITH
{{Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”}}
The Jews made a lot of fuss in the matter of circumcision and rightly so because it was a sign of the covenant given to Abraham. Circumcision came to mean the adherence to the Law of Moses, and with the self-righteous Jews, it replaced faith for works. This is what the false teachers were forcing the Gentile Galatians into, a system of works.
Paul most decisively states that the matter of circumcision has nothing to do with (saving) faith. In fact it has as much to do with faith as does a white or black man. It makes no difference. This feature is covered by Paul also here – {{1 Corinthians 12:12-14 “Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ, for BY ONE SPIRIT WE WERE ALL BAPTISED INTO ONE BODY, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit, for the body is not one member, but many.”}}
It is not circumcision that counts for salvation but being in the one Body does, and that is the work of the Spirit. It is by faith, BUT IT WORKS THROUGH LOVE.
We will continue next time. The Lord bless all.
