It was, of course, altogether just and right in itself. His account proves how independent he was of the very persons whom they would have desired to have seen associated with him. 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. If you're looking to that as a righteous standing before God, then you are not experiencing the grace of God in your life. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. I choose the best facts; for I have no wish to rake up abuses. 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. Alas! So, Paul here exhorts us to walk in the Spirit and to live after the Spirit or on the spirit side of our lives. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." So, "do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love," the real key is love, "serve one another.". The reason is, that he has not yet come to own by faith that he has no strength any more than righteousness, and that Christ is all and in all. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. It's faith which works by love.Now Paul said, Again, you remember he said, "You did start well. but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And he gives to us here a listing, incomplete to be sure, because he ends it by saying, "And do such things." May the truth of God sink into our hearts! I'm still His child. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. "Devour" describes hurtful actions that linger on and on as far as time is concerned. occasioned great contentions, and threatened them with divisions, "But the fruit of the Spirit". Carousing; this word (komos) has an interesting history. (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. Not at all. It is no wonder that one who is thus tied and bound feels restive under it. In that chapter of Romans we have a man converted indeed, but without liberty, and consequently powerless. And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. They were better off spiritually than some other congregations to which he wrote, or possibly he did not want to deal with other needs of theirs in this letter. But the apostle here does not reason about the matter. (ii) There is the obligation to our fellow men. In verse 17 it is written, "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." When He had anything unfailing to do or say, He loved to appear in grace; He said it Himself, and did it for Himself. GALATIANS 5:2-12. Thence he advances to another point of his argument. 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. You cannot weaken his apostleship without endangering the very gospel that you have received yourselves. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. If I sow to the flesh, I shall of the flesh reap corruption; if I sow to the Spirit, I shall reap life everlasting. And it is given to me through my faith in Jesus Christ. Impurity, then, is that which makes a man unfit to come before God, the soiling of life with the things which separate us from him. Christian baptism, contrariwise, supposes man dead; and the only death that can deliver man out of his own death is the death of Christ. "For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself. Ye did run well." Why, to feel himself a dead man. But then there is another point of exhortation too; and surely we ought not to forget that there are not only the common links of love, and the willingness to succour one another, as we see, beginning with a most extreme case and ending with a general one; but still further, "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things;" and not only that, but also the general responsibility of the saint and in a solemn manner. 18 but if you are led by (verse 16-18) the spirit, you are not under law. This it is to which we are come now under Christianity. Partisan strife will be fatal to the Christian community as a whole. 15.But if ye bite and devour one another. 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). 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. There was no difference either way. 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. But in the old days the child who was born in the ordinary human way persecuted the child who was born in the spiritual way; and exactly the same thing happens now. As God has wrought for us on the cross, and delivered us from every atom of sin in Christ, so He will not allow us to mix one earthly or legal element with the revelation of His grace, which He has made ours in redemption, and proclaimed to us by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. He speaks of "the grace of Christ." I can't go back to my mother's womb and be born again. It is to be noted that the summit of all meanings was the allegorical meaning. Here they might flatter themselves were plain tangible facts; here the amplest testimony on the Lord's part that the twelve are really His chosen apostles. "If righteousness come by the law," (he does not merely say, "come of the law," but come by it,) "then Christ is dead [died] in vain." He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God, Galatians 4:6; Galatians 4:6. Bring in one part of law, and you fall under the authority of the whole. Not that they have actually broken down and failed; but so incapable is man of standing before God on the principle of doing the law, that it is all over with him the moment he pretends to it. Uh-huh, you did that five minutes. It doesn't really matter, I'm going to walk after the Spirit and I'm going to please God in this. So here the Christian puts on Christ, not the law or circumcision. And so, such things leaves an unending list of things of the flesh. Rather, if man had been able to obey the law and so acquire a title, then two systems would have interfered with each other as being to the same end. Help us to share the Gospel of love with everyone around us at every . It's Jesus only. The apostle accordingly now turns to the great argument of his epistle, and the discussion of those grand principles that are characteristic to Christianity, and in full agreement with the facts that have already been brought before you. "Have you been reading this book?" It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable. To depart from this was fatal. They're covered by the fact that you're walking in love. To them, no doubt, it appeared as if they were zealous and sincere champions of unity. THE INTRODUCTION ( Galatians 1:1-10) 1. If the world were the great enemy at Corinth, the law perverted is that against which the Spirit of God raises up the apostle in writing to the Galatians. People were trying to add to it. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. The apostle takes notice of the latter here, because he is speaking of their behaviour towards one another; and, when he makes use of this as an argument to persuade them to mutual love, he intimates both that this would be a good evidence of their sincerity in religion and also the most likely means of rooting out those dissensions and divisions that were among them. Can I be righteous by keeping the law? This is all that people's zeal and labour come to. In the meantime God had come and promised that Sarah would have a child, which was so difficult to believe that it appeared impossible to Abraham and Sarah; but in due time Isaac was born. 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. The argument is founded upon the unity of the seed of promise in this connection. Such is the application. 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. 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. lest ye be consumed one of anotherconsumamini; Ah! The context behind the Galatians church We have been crucified to the requirements of the law Kill our desire or need to keep the law as a means of gaining justification Galatians 2:15-16 Being crucified to self Matthew 16:24 There is only one throne in our hearts and life, and only one person can sit on it Galatians 5:24 In his case the breach with man was evident; the association with heaven, and not Jerusalem, was too plain to be disputed or evaded. But this will be Jerusalem, under not law but promise and liberty, restored by grace after having lost everything by the law, and reduced to utter desolation. The other apostles enjoyed this more. Mark it well. There was no such thing as a gradual training. And, as this would be the best means of preserving them from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, so it would be a good evidence that they were Christians indeed; for, says the apostle (Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:18), If you be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 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. It's a solemn warning to every one of us who would live after the flesh or would want to live after the flesh to know that you cannot do these things and inherit the kingdom of God. Monarchy is government by one, and began in the interests of efficiency, for government by committees has always had its drawbacks. Later Sarah found Ishmael "mocking" (King James Version) Isaac--this Paul equates with persecution--and insisted that Hagar should be cast out, so that the child of the slave girl should not share the inheritance with her freeborn son. Let us never confound the two. If Peter was acting rightly now, this had all been a mistake, and consequently the gospel nay, solemn to say, Christ Himself would be thus a minister of sin. He heartily avows what they counted a defect; and not Only so, but with the greatest solemnity assures them that he had not seen the apostles, save only Peter, and James the brother of the Lord, and these but for a short space. The law, accordingly, never was the truth, either on God's side, or man's. (b) It means being teachable, being not too proud to learn ( James 1:21). Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious But they drank it in the proportion of three parts of water to two of wine. Therefore, when a man is baptized, he is not, of course, baptized into his own death; there is no sense in such a thought. Already "thy seed," the true Isaac, is given, and in that true seed the Gentiles are being blessed. Successor to Paul there is none; if so, who and where? He had derived the gospel that he preached from the Lord, and not from any of his fellow-servants who had been engaged in the work before him. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat." Then he takes up Abraham; for this is always the stock argument of those who would bring in circumcision and the law, Abraham being emphatically the friend of God and the father of the faithful. This is the only sin Paul warned the Galatians to avoid. That is not the liberty that we have as Christians. Not striving. How blessed, and how all-important for our souls! The very reverse of their system is true. A final appeal to walk in the liberty of Jesus. It is evident that the thorn in the flesh was something which left him open to a slight, and made it difficult indeed for any one to understand how a man who was called to be an apostle should find it hard to convey plainly his mind in preaching. ", But, he adds, faith is come (that is, the testimony to be believed by man now, or the gospel). Then, bringing in the name of Jerusalem, the Spirit leads him to apply the prophecy of Isaiah, which shows that millennial Israel (in their turn abandoning self-righteousness, and made free by God's grace in Christ) will look back and count as their own those now brought in as Christians, and find far more children begotten by the gospel, in the time of their own desolation, than even when they flourished of old, and had ,all that earthly power and glory could give. 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. 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. 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