When the prophet speaks of any one living, it is by faith "The just shall live by faith." 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. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing ( Galatians 5:2 ). How apt the illustration for exposing the judaizers! Thus, going up with Barnabas, he took Titus, a Gentile, along with him; and even so by revelation. Jesus, the rejected Messiah, was the Son of the living God, the giver of life, the quickening Son of God. We'll send you an email with steps on how to reset your password. The flesh will not be ruling over you anymore. Then we come to the closing chapter (Galatians 6:1-18); and here we find the Spirit of God calling for tenderness in dealing with those who are overtaken in a fault. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage ( Galatians 5:1 ). Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ." (Compare John 1:9; John 1:17.). He had before been exhorting these Christians by love to serve one another (Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:13), and had put them in mind of what would be the consequence if, instead of that, they did bite and devour one another,Galatians 5:15; Galatians 5:15. 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. You remember as Paul defined love for us in I Corinthians chapter thirteen, he uses longsuffering. Now, if you're trying to be justified before God or being made righteous before God by the keeping of the law, then Christ is of no effect to you. He tells them (Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:13) that they had been called unto liberty, and he would have them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free; but yet he would have them be very careful that they did not use this liberty as an occasion to the flesh--that they did not thence take occasion to indulge themselves in any corrupt affections and practices, and particularly such as might create distance and disaffection, and be the ground of quarrels and contentions among them: but, on the contrary, he would have them by love to serve one another, to maintain that mutual love and affection which, notwithstanding any minor differences there might be among them, would dispose them to all those offices of respect and kindness to each other which the Christian religion obliged them to. It was, of course, altogether just and right in itself. Thus, it is seen, the truth was established. Which son represented them? Fifteen days. Thank God Jesus Christ has set me free from my bondage to my flesh. Carousing; this word (komos) has an interesting history. "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 have nothing to do with the law any more, even if I had been once under it as a Jew. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life. In the epistle to the Galatians a deeper question was raised nothing less than the fountain of grace itself. Don't revive him. The writer of First Maccabees ( 1Ma_8:4 ) says that it was by makrothumia ( G3115) that the Romans became masters of the world, and by that he means the Roman persistence which would never make peace with an enemy even in defeat, a kind of conquering patience. The apostle accepts the fact in all its strength. Ignorant or false men had made them hanker after circumcision. And I'll argue with Him for a while. Who in times past you walked according to the course of this world. Paul has in mind the issue of circumcision. In Greek there are four words for love. If your navigational instruments are one degree off, and you take your heading and you start for Hawaii, by the time you've gone that distance, you'll miss Hawaii by two hundred and forty miles.Oh, by the time you get to Santa Barbara, you won't even notice anything. Next, we are told, wherein this consisted. (iv) Sod, the allegorical meaning. What had been revealed? and circumcision, and the necessity thereof to justification and All that I have as a living man in the world is gone, not, of course, as a mere matter of fact, but, what is far more important, as a matter of faith. And thus the blessing of Abraham could flow freely towards the Gentiles who never were there. "To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed.". Peace; in contemporary colloquial Greek this word (eirene, G1515) had two interesting usages. That there is in every one a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5:17; Galatians 5:17): The flesh (the corrupt and carnal part of us) lusts (strives and struggles with strength and vigour) against the spirit: it opposes all the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual. But responsibility is always according to the relation in which one stands, and the measure of knowledge which each possesses, or ought to possess. 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. Hence the point is not at all whether we have intrinsic power, but whether He is not now abiding in us as "a Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Another thing, too, let me just point out in passing. That is why I encourage you just to read the Bible. Of these and such like, says he, I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that those who do such things, how much soever they may flatter themselves with vain hopes, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Thus, whether it be the Gentile without law, or the Jew with it, all are shut up under sin. He went simply to make the acquaintance of Peter, and abode with him how long? The way of law makes salvation dependent on human achievement; the man who takes the way of grace simply casts himself and his sin upon the mercy of God. But the fruit of the Spirit ( Galatians 5:22 ), Now, "walk in the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Far too short a time, if it were a question of due initiation into the testimony of the twelve. For if a man "keeps the whole law, yet he offends in one point, he is guilty of all" ( James 2:10 ). It is not a vague general expression for all saints, but implies that fleshly Israel was nothing now. The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. Nor had he conferred even then with flesh and blood; his mission as well as conversion and call were alike independent of it. Paul urged his readers to live unbound to the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1-12). Now. Which means: Peaceable Christians realize that apart from Jehovah God, they have no lasting peacemaking ability. Under which type did they fall Ishmael or Isaac? That is, the most simple and most obvious truth is just the last thing a man thinks about. All is confusion. I'd rather trust and be burned than not to trust. For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ." It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." against such there is no law ( Galatians 5:23 ). Hairesis was not originally a bad word at all. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. And so I said, "All right, tell me, when Jesus was baptized, who spoke and said, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" ( Matthew 3:17 )? So, joy is love's consciousness. Liberty from the law and from the bondage of the law, because that cannot make you righteous. There can be no compromise; but to be exclusive in any sense save as the expression of the truth in Christ would be in its own way an utter and heartless falsehood. Consequently, without further preamble, and with an ominous silence as to their state (for, indeed, it could not be spoken of), he at once breaks the ground. How abortive is man in the things of God! Even in Christianity how much need there is to remember what the Lord warns us of inLuke 5:1-39; Luke 5:1-39 that no man accustomed to old wine straightway desires new, but says, The old is better. And what sort of life can this be? Second, it means that we are free to follow the Spirit and produce good works that last forever because we have faith in God and obey God's word (Galatians 5:16-26). Be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. an apostle, or at any rate one that says he is an apostle, setting aside what God inaugurated in Jerusalem, not even conferring with those whom the Lord Himself called by His personal summons here below? How wholesome is the language here, "Every one shall bear his own burden!" "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?" Nevertheless, there never was one that had a deeper sense of the importance of walking, if need were, alone with God. They have not yet obtained a complete victory over it; they have still flesh as well as Spirit in them, and that has its affections and lusts, which continue to give them no little disturbance, but as it does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so as that they obey it in the lusts thereof (Romans 6:12), so they are seeking the utter ruin and destruction of it, and to put it to the same shameful and ignominious, though lingering death, which our Lord Jesus underwent for our sakes. For he comes to another and most cogent argument. Even though it might be a minor departure from the truth, be careful. God promises the final power and glory of Israel in the earth, putting down their foes, and so forth. Those that walk according to this rule would be saints in general. 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 It is for the purpose of bringing in transgression, answers the apostle. Christ on high had called him. This is the very evil which the Spirit of God so earnestly and energetically denounces here by the apostle Paul. For what the law is actually saying to you is that you should love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. When Jerusalem is humbled by the mercy of God, and betakes herself to her Messiah and the new covenant, she will "hear the law," and the prophets will be accomplished in her blessing, and in the largeness of love the present children of promise (even Christians, as being in a certain mystical sense children of Jerusalem) will be her boast. It comes from a root which means to choose, and it was used for a philosopher's school of followers or for any band of people who shared a common belief. In other words, if the believer simply were one forgiven by grace, without having either life in Christ or the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, he might, perhaps, plead that he could not avoid sinning. The way they triumph over these wrong desires is not by putting themselves under the law, but by allowing Gods Spirit to direct their lives (16-18). "And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatia was near Phrygia and the great worship of that part of the world was of Cybele. It is not simply that he was brought to follow Jesus, to believe and confess His name; but God revealed His Son in him. It is a grim illustration at which a polite society raises its eyebrows, but it would be intensely real to the Galatians who knew all about the priests of Cybele. Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious Consequently we have no allusion to the Lord's coming in this epistle to the Galatians. Accordingly, the language would have been premature and entirely beyond the conscious experience of the saints, or the real truth of the matter in the sight of God. So, Paul here exhorts us to walk in the Spirit and to live after the Spirit or on the spirit side of our lives. Now, evidently these Paul people were saying, "Well, Paul was circumcised and he's preaching circumcision. But his heart was too agitated not to betake himself at once to the point of their danger. Paul ends with a very blunt saying. Not to the place of being ridiculous. But the moment you bring in the law, you have two parties; and, strange to say, instead of the greater party being God, it becomes man, whose responsibility is to God. So, I think Paul could also have included here baptism or no baptism as far as the physical immersion in water. 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 it degenerated; came to mean the desire to have what someone else has, wrong desire for what is not for us. It was his to bear in his body a very different brand" the marks of the Lord Jesus," the scars of the only warfare that is precious in the sight of God the Father. Merge them, as unbelief does, and all is confusion and ruin. 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. that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and The action of biting and devouring is mutual. It's the operation of God's Spirit within our heart that works through love. Some are sins against the first and second commandments, as idolatry and witchcraft. The gospel, not the law, owns its kindred with the promise. (a) It means being submissive to the will of God ( Matthew 5:5; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 21:5). They're just warmed over, put in a new coat, and declared by a fresh voice, or sometimes the voices aren't so fresh, but they're things, concepts that . church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love "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." This then is what the law brought in. "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Hagar had a son called Ishmael. wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock; but For God does speak elsewhere, and even on this occasion, of a numerous seed. 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. for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me," etc. In Galatians 5:1-15, the apostle Paul discusses the nature of Christian freedom, beginning with an admonition to "stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1, NKJV).Paul contends that Jesus Christ came to set believers free from a burdensome, legalistic existence as slaves to the law. He takes the story involving Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac ( Genesis 16:1-16; Genesis 17:1-27, Genesis 21:1-34), which in the Old Testament is a straightforward narrative and he allegorises it to illustrate his point. The writer ( Galatians 1:1-2a ) i. Paul, the Apostle ( Galatians 1: 1 ) ii. Where was the harm of taking up what saints of old submitted to? 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. For it is by the Spirit and by faith that we eagerly expect the hope of being right with God. But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If we are living in the Spirit let us also keep step with the Spirit. Therefore the apostle adds, ,And as many as walk according to this rule [that is, the rule of the new creation], peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." They had so completely lost sight of the grace of Christ, the sweetness and the bloom of it, that he travailed again for them: his soul once more passed through that which had exercised him when they were converted. Why can't the Mormons tell you that? Know ye therefore that they which are of faith" (not those that cry up the law) "are the children of Abraham. "The child of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise." This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you ( Galatians 5:7-8 ). And so, such things leaves an unending list of things of the flesh. Let us never confound the two. Gentiles might boast in their freedom. He wouldn't bother correcting me. Such was the case with the Old Testament believers, and many Jewish believers then alive. Oligarchy means government by the few and can be justified by arguing that only the few are fit to govern. We are crucified unto it by grace, as the world is crucified unto us by judgment. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. has an affinity for both. See Luke 9:54. And let's go on. Who put up a road-block to stop you obeying the truth? Some would have received the inheritance because of promise, and others on the ground of law. And that's the message here in Acts 14:8-20. Thus, whatever may be the energy that seeks souls in love, there is nothing after all like Christianity for maintaining individual responsibility intact. Things which were once a mystery and I couldn't understand are now very understandable. 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. This was at work even in those early days. It meant emulation, the desire to attain to nobility when we see it. Ye did run well." 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." The Spirit against the flesh. That is, if you are circumcised ritually for the purpose of having a righteous standing before God. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. He is brought into another condition. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and joy and peace. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. "Desirous of vainglory,". Matthew 23:13; 2 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 11:5. There are many present privileges and future glories that belong to the Christian; and promise is one of them. Aristocracy means government by the best, but best is left to be defined. The Galatian Christians should have been the most peaceful people in the province. For He knows our tendency to mingle law with grace in some form or measure, and treats that which was of the fathers and long before Moses, as a foreign ingredient deleterious to Christians. May the truth of God sink into our hearts! Secular Greek uses it of the virtue of an Emperor who never lets his private interests influence the government of his people. (1) A summary statement: in light of all that Paul has previously said, he now challenges the Galatians to walk in the truth he has presented. If, when I got on board a 747 at LAX heading for Honolulu, the captain would say, "Now, folks, we're having a little problem here with our navigation instruments. Instead they are unkind and cruel to each other. That's my old prideful nature. 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. The superior Trinity is made up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this case, happily, the brethren near at hand went along with him in heart. You are saved. I violated. His spirit died, and Adam broke fellowship with God. Arabia was regarded as the land of slaves where the descendants of Hagar dwelt. 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. Up to this point it has been theological; now it becomes intensely ethical. it had a resurrection-source, instead of being from Christ on earth, and in relation to the work God was doing when He sent His Son here below. Bring in one part of law, and you fall under the authority of the whole. 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. Not at all. Reckon that to be. He does not say that it is the complement of it; but most decidedly it flows from the same divine spring of grace. Thus, the idea is, in their contentions they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each other; their characters would be ruined; and the church be overthrown. It describes not an anger which lasts but anger which flames out and then dies. . In his case the breach with man was evident; the association with heaven, and not Jerusalem, was too plain to be disputed or evaded. When once a covenant is "signed, sealed, and delivered," it must not be meddled with. "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." How little is man to be accounted of! To impugn the one is to imperil the other. 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. You ever seen a person in love and all of the joy that they have? Heathenism! In Paul's case the Holy Ghost could go a step farther, and that step He seems to me to take. When a Gentile Christian, mark, takes up such Old Testament elements, according to the Holy Ghost, it is not to him merely Judaism, but a return to his Gentile idols, little as he may think so. No effort, no work on your part. This, be it observed, was part of God's way with him beyond all others. They're just revealed by the Spirit. In grace, God in the person of His Son speaks and accomplishes ALL; and thus He is glorified from first to last. Galatians 1:1-24. I can say, "Well, this, these are the rules of righteous living. And how true all this is! consumed, &c.Strength of soul, health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed by broils [Bengel]. He was bound to do what he ought; but, in point of fact, all was a failure, and could be nothing else, because man was a sinner. As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. "Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1) "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. . The case is hit off exactly to the life. The very defence set up, and the meanings which these men put on the forms and ceremonies of which they make Christianity so largely to consist, demonstrate their most barefaced turning back to idolatry. (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. All of the law is fulfilled. That's the position where we stand. As if he had said, "You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenour of your lives, you be led by the Spirit,--if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you,--if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle,--it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Romans 8:1-14. "Now," says he, "if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practices." God asks, and man is called to give, i.e., is called to obedience. Anything else would have been imperfect; but still it had essentially a transitional character. 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. . Such is the secret of true power. Truth must necessarily be exclusive, and all who hold the truth must, in their adhesion to it and Him who is its personal expression, be exclusive too. Aristotle defined praotes ( G4236) as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness, the quality of the man who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. Up to the destruction of Jerusalem it was law; but now, under Christianity, Jerusalem, being rebellious and scorning promise like Ishmael, is cast out and has nothing. Laws are necessary to restrain unprincipled people. Or I can walk after the Spirit and say, "Oh Lord, it doesn't matter. To this he gives the most solemn asseveration: "The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not." It doesn't really matter, I'm going to walk after the Spirit and I'm going to please God in this. The deeds of the lower side of human nature are obvious fornication, impurity, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, uncontrolled temper. Not so. Every one who went back from such a gospel as this was, as far as it went, frustrating the grace of God. He went up with Barnabas, taking Titus with him. For Christ bought off those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, bringing them by grace into a place of known salvation and intelligent joy in relation with our God and Father, out of that bondage and nonage which the law supposes. Help me, Lord. Therefore law, sin, and death may not hurt you or drive you to despair. They're wanting to strive, they're wanting to argue; they're wanting to prove their points how that baptism is essential for salvation. The truth of the gospel, therefore, was compromised. God reserves to Himself this great blessedness in the gospel; whereas under the law there was nothing of the kind. Let me press this gravely upon those who are here this night. 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. And, you know, I mean, you're having now go to . Verse Meaning Apparently the believers who advocated grace and the believers who advocated law bitterly opposed one another in the Galatian churches. 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. I mean, if you're walking in love, what rules can you lay down? Thank You, Jesus, for Your forgiveness and for Your love and for Your grace to me.". And devour one another - As wild beasts do. That's just my old flesh that's upset. 1. It is not merely that I have found in Christ a Saviour, but I am crucified with Christ. In Paul's case there was nothing of the sort. Thus a decisive blow is struck at the principle of connection with the law; and it was evident that they did not truly "hear the law." 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Thus the law was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. The brethren with him ( Galatians 1:2a ) b. We're about one degree off, but we hope to correct this in flight or something." This highlights the problem of reading contemporary ideas back into Scripture. But he was not thus disobedient to the heavenly vision. You do not want to become the children of Abraham in that sense, which would be the revival of the flesh. Undoubtedly such is the assurance of God's word to His children; and thus Galatians 5:1-26 is in contrast withRomans 7:1-25; Romans 7:1-25. In it there is one party, even God Himself, who gave it, and accordingly fulfils it in that Seed to whom the covenant was confirmed. He strikes accordingly at the root of all successional or derived authority. A different issue ensued from their settling down in the mutual independence of the Gentile churches and the Jewish. There is no depreciating of any soul, but the plain statement of the positive truth, which after all is the best and the humblest way, that most of all magnifies God, and edifies His children. But at the same time it is plain that the apostle Paul here starts with the instructive fact, that the very thing for which some Judaizers then blamed him was the distinctive glory of that to which the Lord had called him. The persuasion which is being exercised on you just now is not from him who calls you. Help me, Lord, to just keep the right attitude." "Christian freedom is not licence [sic] for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not the man who has become free to sin, but the man, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin." "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.". But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" You got to walk the tight rope. The apostle was given to preach the truth more fully than any other. Nor did they understand the prophets better. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. . For Peter is not said to have withdrawn from the Lord's table where the uncircumcised met, but from the simple matter of eating with the Gentiles. ( 2 Corinthians 6:14 ) How can I really fellowship with God if I'm unrighteous? There is no mention here of grace, nor even of any special powers conferred by the Spirit of God. I'm, you know, not stupid. "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. The cross paid it all. That's all the law is saying to you. But, in point of fact, he did not see the twelve. Why then did he want he Gentiles to live as did the Jews? That's the old nature, reckon that to be dead. Everything lost then would be gained when promise has its way. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receives" ( Hebrews 12:6 ). Indeed, there is no soul really above them. The works of the flesh. This never can bring man to God any more than glory to God. Do you know what happens? It does not so much want the things for itself; it merely wants to take them from the other. Either Luke, as a doctor, did not use or have access to pharmaceuticals, which would then require that Galatians 5 says nothing of medicine, or Dr. Luke administered pharmakeia, which, the argument goes, is medicine sorcery. is this all? The organic life of the body will be destroyed by its own members. It was rather to have Gentile liberty secured by the twelve apostles, and that the Judaizers should be condemned by the church at Jerusalem. This is all that people's zeal and labour come to. Again, it is not a liberty to do anything I please. He is baptized into Christ's death, which is the sole means of deliverance out of his state of sin. It is an actual result of the cross of Christ. In the epistle to the Galatians we have another tone and style, a serious and grieved spirit, with feelings not less deep it may be, even more profoundly moved than in writing to the Corinthians; and for this reason, that the foundations were still more deeply affected by that which was working among the assemblies of Galatia. He makes one first thoroughly happy in the sense of His grace and the liberty Christ has won, and then the Holy Ghost becomes an indwelling spring of power, though His power is put forth in us only as we have Christ kept before us. take heed that ye be not consumed one of another; that is, either beware lest each other's particular peace and comfort be destroyed, which is oftentimes done this way, though a person's state and condition God-ward may be safe; or lest their church state should be destroyed and come to nothing, since love is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a dissolution; for as no civil community, either public or private, divided against itself, can stand long, so no religious one; and for want of love the Lord threatens to remove, and sometimes does remove, the candlestick out of its place. If God loved us like that then the love of Christ constrains us. So here the Christian puts on Christ, not the law or circumcision. The truth of God to our hearts.So, you has he made alive who were dead because of your trespasses and sins. Then, further, attention is drawn to another topic his own writing of this letter. It will create a lot of envy and a lot of provocation. It is no wonder that one who is thus tied and bound feels restive under it. Immediately, then, as. Along with himself he takes care expressly to couple others: "and all the brethren which are with me." That is to say, Ishmael was born of the ordinary human impulses of the flesh; Isaac was born because of God's promise; and Sarah was a free woman, while Hagar was a slave girl. For devour, comp. The kind that were always talking about numbers. The language would not have been applicable when the other apostles were called. The word used here ( dakno), means, properly, to bite, to sting; and here seems to be used in the sense of contending and striving - a metaphor probably taken from dogs and wild beasts. The meaning is that you never can get stability in blessing until you have simply God putting forth His own power according to His own grace. "Are ye so foolish? But when men would have anything fraught with distress to His people, when through their folly confusion must ensue, contrary to all that His heart loved, then it was left to others. He who bites has exhausted his angry passion, but he who devours has given a demonstration of extreme cruelty. Chrysostom. But to the end of the day there remained for Paul two obligations. 5:1 Tell me this--you who want to be subject to the law, you listen to it being read to you, don't you? (2.) But, I repeat, this simply was revealed to him. Enmity; the idea is that of the man who is characteristically hostile to his fellow men; it is the precise opposite of the Christian virtue of love for the brethren and for all men. There is no approach to a vaunt about his dignity. This, then, is not what the apostle Paul has in view, but in contrast with it. He is a new creature in Christ. You know, you come up with some heretical teaching, you get everybody excited and everybody's listening, everybody's beginning to discuss what you're teaching. To make this evident by transgressions was the object of the law. "They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." Note, If we should approve ourselves to be Christ's, such as are united to him and interested in him, we must make it our constant care and business to crucify the flesh with its corrupt affections and lusts. If Christ's, they were Abraham's seed already, "and heirs according to the promise;" for Christ, he had shown before, was the one true Seed; and if we are Christ's, we belong to that one true Seed, and therefore are the children of Abraham without circumcision at all. These things are not allowed in the kingdom of God. It is all devoted to the deliverance of the saint from this present evil age by the cross of Christ, and his consistent maintenance of the new nature and position of grace of the new creation in Christ Jesus. "Here, I'll show it to you in this book." Christian freedom does not mean that believers may do as they like. "Love suffereth long and is kind." You weren't persuaded to be circumcised because God was speaking to your heart and convicting you of this. And they say, "Oh, well, I was just waiting upon the Lord and reading the Scriptures, and the Lord showed this to me." The mind of the flesh is death.But if my life is dominated by the Spirit, then I have the mind of the Spirit. For he had shown that our purchase by Christ delivers even the Jew from subjection to the law; whilst Gentiles are set at once on the ground of grace without the intervention of any legal apprenticeship whatever, "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 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