Some are sins against the first and second commandments, as idolatry and witchcraft. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This terminates all for me as a living man here below. Next, we are told, wherein this consisted. I would [wish that] they were even cut off which trouble you ( Galatians 5:12 ). THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ( Galatians 5:1-12 ). Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? This it is to which we are come now under Christianity. Grace brings out the faithful promise of God, and His goodness to him that deserves nothing. The salutation ( Galatians 1:1-5 ) a. The Galatians were succumbing to false teaching (7-12) III. 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? There is no law which condemns thing; like that. Thus all things fall into their place, and the Spirit connects us in heart with that which God is doing and will do for the glory of Christ. 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. "The theme of love . The law of Moses tells a man to do his duty in his own place. But if ye bite and devour one another, [you better] take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. You cannot be ruled and dominated by your flesh.Now, it is interesting, a list similar to this is given to us in Revelation the twenty-first chapter, as it tells us those who are going to be excluded from heaven and outside were those who were doing these things: "The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and the liars," those who are outside. Leave room for God, and for God alone. Gentleness; praotes ( G4236) is the most untranslatable of words. It can be used for the pus of an unclean wound, for a tree that has never been pruned, for material which has never been sifted. (1.) (Acts 15:1-41) As it is said here, "They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. He had been himself (could they deny it?) We celebrated that today in the observance of the Lord's Supper. Galatians 5 - Standing Fast In the Liberty of Jesus A. And so, the people of Galatia understood exactly what Paul was talking about. In this case it was God that gave the promise; it was He that confirmed the covenant to Christ, without saying a word about the law till four hundred and thirty years after. Eternal life is beyond doubt the gift of divine grace; but, besides, the eternal life that I have now by pure and simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what I find at the end of my course as well as at the starting. He gives freely the Holy Ghost on their acceptance of Christ's name; or, as it is here written, "He sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Thus He lived and moved here below. . "So then," says he, "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." (c) Storge (compare G794) rather means affection and is specially used of the love of parents and children. Galatians 5:15 by Grant Richison | Apr 11, 2000 | Galatians | 1 comment Read Introduction to Galatians "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!" The Galatian church entered a stage of conflict because of legalistic thinking. The truth of the gospel, to the apostle Paul's mind, was at stake. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat." Even when he has been scaling the highest heights of thought he always ends a letter on a practical note. California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. These works of the flesh, of course, are related to our body drives, so many of them. A double intervention comes between God and man, in contrast with the simplicity of His ways of grace. Help us to share the Gospel of love with everyone around us at every . The sense is, if you contend with each other; and the reference is, apparently, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts. Judaizers were saying that Gentiles had to join the old covenant if they wanted God's blessings and salvation (cf. The oneness of the saints with Christ Himself is, as we all familiarly know, clearly intimated. at least as zealous for the Jews' religion as any Jew of the straitest sect. It was to demonstrate his sinfulness, not to gain the inheritance. We can understand a foolish man making a covenant, and the next day repenting of it, which is never true of the divine purposes. I am perfectly delivered, and the measure of my deliverance is Christ, and Christ raised from the dead. They often use drugs, potions; the potions that you'd take, you know, and it'd have their drug related experiences. That it is our duty and interest in this struggle to side with the better part, to side with our convictions against our corruptions and with our graces against our lusts. The case is hit off exactly to the life. "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." All this vanishes in Christ; we are all one in Him; and if you are Christ's, what need to be circumcised! 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 ). This is the only sin Paul warned the Galatians to avoid. I can't go back to my mother's womb and be born again. Wantonness; this word (aselgeia, G766) is translated licentiousness in the Revised Standard Version ( Mark 7:22; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19; 1 Peter 4:3; Jd 1:4 ; Romans 13:13 and 2 Peter 2:18). He went up by revelation for the purpose of getting a condemnation in Jerusalem itself of those who would force Jewish principles on the church of God at large. Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? "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." If I am a Christian, I am responsible according to that position and privilege. And this life is sustained by the very same person who is its source. I really like to say that to the Jehovah Witnesses that come to my door. This must be indeed confusion; as it is, there is none. Everybody knows this. 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." To depart from this was fatal. Do I seek to please men? Can I be righteous by keeping the law? They think that it is quite right, for the church especially, to appoint days for this and that saint; to have certain seasons to remind one of the Lord's incarnation, ministry, and crucifixion, of His resurrection, ascension, and so on. In short, the man who, occupied with Christ above, enters for that very reason most into the blessedness of the body of Christ here below by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, is the very one that will know in fit season what it is not to confer with flesh and blood. They danced and laughed and sang his praises. How little is man to be accounted of! He habitually measured things not so much by their bearing on Jews or Gentiles as by their effect on Christ's glory. But God has made you alive in Christ Jesus. Indeed, there is no soul really above them. 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. I'd say, "Open the doors and let me off." The deeds of the lower side of human nature are obvious fornication, impurity, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, uncontrolled temper. And "Titus," as he says here, "who was with me, being a Greek," etc. 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. "This persuasion didn't come from Him who called you." Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ." It is liberty and not law that the Christian stands in. and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and And then he, indignant at such a thought, makes his most solemn appeals. To excite Christians hereunto, and to assist them herein, the apostle shows. It therefore often happened that the Rabbis would take a simple bit of historical narrative from the Old Testament and read into it inner meanings which often appear to us fantastic but which were very convincing to the people of their day. (i) Peshat, its simple or literal meaning. He signed ordinarily, putting his subscription at the end, i.e., his own name, to verify it; but he did not write it. 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. (Read Galatians 5:13-15) 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 obligation to avoid and subdue it. Man had his duty to God, and be ought to have. This is best seen by turning to Genesis 22:1-24, where both facts are found in the same context. Keeping God's commandments is not bondage. This is Christianity; and when the soul thankfully accepts from God this blessed liberty, the Holy Ghost is given to and acts in the believer as a Spirit of peace and power; so that if there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit resists this, in order that (for such is the true meaning) they should not do the things that they would. Christ's yoke is called chrestos ( G5543) ( Matthew 11:30), that is, it does not chafe. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. She is desolate; she is no longer in the condition of the married wife, but like the fugitive bondwoman. It's sort of comforting, you know. Again it is worth while to look at each word separately. Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you who are justified [or seeking to be justified] by the law; ye are fallen from grace ( Galatians 5:4 ). Law is gone and grace ensures forgiveness anyway." It is not merely to seek in love a fallen brother, but to be the succourer of others in their difficulties. The legal mischief had emanated from Jerusalem: the remedy of grace must be applied by the apostles, elders, and brethren there. When we seek to interpret a passage like this we must remember that for the devout and scholarly Jew, and especially for the Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning; and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important. We saw the second of Corinthians characterized by the most rapid transitions of feeling, by a deep and fervent sense of God's consolations, by a revulsion so much the more powerful in a heart that entered into things as few hearts have ever done since the world began. Usually in the New Testament eirene ( G1515) stands for the Hebrew shalowm ( H7965) and means not just freedom from trouble but everything that makes for a man's highest good. Just let our books explain for you." I just refer to it for a moment, because it adds much to the beauty of the reasoning in Galatians. (i) One he does not mention here but it is implicit in all his thinking. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. The enemy had ensnared them by crying up circumcision, in order to betray them into a link with Judaism; but they had no thought of bearing the real burden of the law. There's nothing that you can add to what Jesus paid. "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.". He will gain transgression thereby; nothing more, nothing better. 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. We have those that come around here. It will create a lot of envy and a lot of provocation. has an affinity for both. Witchcraft; this literally means the use of drugs. ", At once the apostle launches into the troubled sea. It is for this freedom that Christ has set us free. But for us now the apostle carefully adds the principle of our heavenly character. We invite you to crucify our flesh every day so that we may walk in step with your Spirit. It is the spirit which has mastered its desires and its love of pleasure. Arabia was regarded as the land of slaves where the descendants of Hagar dwelt. 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. "Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and," in order to make it still more evident, "by God the Father, who raised him from the dead." 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. They had been idolaters before they became Christians; and to take up Jewish principles in addition to Christ is to turn back again to their cast-off idols. Thus, as he says most emphatically, "I do not frustrate the grace of God;" they did, every one who substituted aught but Christ and His cross. It is the widest word for goodness; it is defined as "virtue equipped at every point." For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5:4-5) adds. On the other hand, the spirit (the renewed part of us) strives against the flesh, and opposes the will and desire of it: and hence it comes to pass that we cannot do the things that we would. It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. He had been called, as none could deny, in a way which not even any other apostle had ever known. You see, if I weren't a child of God, He would just let me go. It was they who had changed, not he. Romans 7 indicates that under the very law by which they are attempting to be justified there is no way, once a person sins, for the inner man to gain control of the tendencies of the flesh. (2) b. Circumcision obligates you to the law. But responsibility is always according to the relation in which one stands, and the measure of knowledge which each possesses, or ought to possess. Drunkenness; in the ancient world this was not a common vice. Because you'll never come to their beliefs by just reading the Bible. "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me," etc. Thus, then, God directed and ruled that the apostle should go up and have the evil condemned on the spot, and at the centre from which it had emanated. You ever seen a person in love and all of the joy that they have? You see, laws are for unprincipled people. 4. Tender and comprehensive as Christianity is, it is also the most exclusive thing that can be. It had nothing whatever to do even with the Lord Himself, in the days of His flesh, when acting as minister of the circumcision in the land of Judea. Shall we turn now to Galatians chapter five. It is for the purpose of bringing in transgression, answers the apostle. Galatians 5 shows that spiritual liberty comes from knowing the truth. And this is the thing that you try to describe to people, and they don't understand. His account proves how independent he was of the very persons whom they would have desired to have seen associated with him.
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