No person can intelligently read the New Testament without perceiving the utter fallacy of such a system; for Peter was expressly, as the next chapter of this epistle tells us, apostle of the circumcision. This was at work even in those early days. "Cast out the slave girl and her son, for the son of the slave girl must not inherit with the son of the free woman." Even though it might be a minor departure from the truth, be careful. If that is the purpose, you're thinking that it's going to make you righteous before God, you think it's going to make you acceptable before God, Paul said, "Christ will profit you nothing," if that's your mental attitude towards your circumcision. She is as one that has no husband. what is today's heat index 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." You ever seen a person in love and all of the joy that they have? 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. He granted that persons might indulge in some such thoughts about him. God himself.". Again, it is not a liberty to do anything I please. I have known a divine who had a character for intelligence use these words as a motto and sanction. It is thus, then, that grace uses it to give me death in my conscience before God. Those who lived in Jerusalem were too prone to preserve the clothes and the cradle which had their place and use at first, but had no claim to be kept up among the Gentiles. For the desires of the lower side of human nature are the very reverse of the desires of the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are the very reverse of those of the lower side of human nature, for these are fundamentally opposed to each other, so that you cannot do whatever you like. It, too, is commonly translated goodness. There could be but one answer. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. 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. And "Titus," as he says here, "who was with me, being a Greek," etc. It is a joy whose foundation is 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. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. They had been lately brought by the grace of God into Christianity, where they found Jewish brethren, now made one, as it is said, in Christ. The fate of any group permitting such a development issues inevitably in that of "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat": The apostle said as much in this very passage. You cannot go farther. Having brought in the true character of the Christian's life as flowing simply and solely from Christ, and from Christ crucified too, so here he takes up the Holy Ghost. And so, I would listen to these fellows, and I listened, you know, and just said, "Well, you know, that's what the scripture says, you know," when they would quote scriptures. For every man shall bear his own 'burden." Strife; originally this word had mainly to do with the rivalry for prizes. All question of natural ties drops in death; as the cross is the disproof of any right to Christ in either. It comes by reading the book of Mormon. When we get to the root meaning of these words, we see that life has not changed so very much. Coveting is a sin which is almost never considered a crime. For what the law is actually saying to you is that you should love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. The particulars he specifies are of various sorts; some are sins against the seventh commandment, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, by which are meant not only the gross acts of these sins, but all such thoughts, and words, and actions, as have a tendency towards the great transgression. "Yeah, but I had the right to do it." Who would have ventured to say, without express scripture, that the old Jewish forms thus adopted by a Gentile believer have such an idolatrous character? 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. The law was given them with all pomp and solemnity. And, you know, I mean, you're having now go to . But we, brothers, are in the same position as Isaac; we are children of promise. The inferior trinity is spirit, soul and body of man. And no wonder. It was for the chiefs at Jerusalem to judge for themselves, and they did judge to the confusion of the apostle's adversaries. "The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me," etc. But meanwhile, under the gospel, there is an express promise of the blessing of the Gentiles when God spoke of the one seed, which is Christ. And Peter said, "I suggest that we not place a yoke of bondage on them which neither we, nor our fathers were able to bear" ( Acts 15:10 ). 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. Galatians 5:14. Ignorant or false men had made them hanker after circumcision. The whole legal institution depended on a people lineally descended from Abraham, as their priests on a similar succession from Aaron. He does not say that it is the complement of it; but most decidedly it flows from the same divine spring of grace. Therefore law, sin, and death may not hurt you or drive you to despair. For they were saying that was it was necessary to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be righteous before God, to be saved. Concerning these things, or those in whom these fruits of the Spirit are found, the apostle says, There is no law against them, to condemn and punish them. The Spirit against the flesh. There is nothing that requires more the power of grace; for even the truth itself, if severed from grace, ceases to be the truth. It is predicated upon the work of God. He wants to get rid of the first Adam and all its appliances, not to keep it on; and therefore he puts on Christ. 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 ( Galatians 5:17 ). Accordingly the duty here recommended to us is that we set ourselves to act under the guidance and influence of the blessed Spirit, and agreeably to the motions and tendency of the new nature in us; and, if this be our care in the ordinary course and tenour of our lives, we may depend upon it that, though we may not be freed from the stirrings and oppositions of our corrupt nature, we shall be kept from fulfilling it in the lusts thereof; so that though it remain in us, yet it shall not obtain a dominion over us. Love; the New Testament word for love is agape ( G26) . And you can't do this, and this, and this, and this, and this." with reproachful words, biting sarcasms, scandalous invectives, This may be concluded from what frequently happens in the divine dispensations, as well as from an express declaration by the hand of Moses. "Nevertheless" astonishing to say, for it could not be natural life "nevertheless, I live." To impugn the one is to imperil the other. The law and the promise are both from God, but the law's use is only negative and condemnatory. 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. remove, the candlestick out of its place. Pungent, abrupt, indignant, he none the less was led of God. I have not. Not striving. I mean, you never get it from reading the Bible and waiting upon God. What makes you righteous before God is your faith, which works in love within your heart and life.Now, it is interesting to me how that those who opt for rules, those who opt for laws, those who want to lay down the laws upon the people, or those who want to live under the laws that are laid down upon them, always seem to be striving. 1. IF YOU RECEIVE CIRCUMCISION. 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. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. And we can all see how exactly the phrase falls in with the words of our Lord given in the Acts of the Apostles; for the wonderful truth burst upon the apostle's ear from the beginning, in the Saviour's call to him from heaven. The apostle accepts the fact in all its strength. They often use drugs, potions; the potions that you'd take, you know, and it'd have their drug related experiences. In the epistle to the Ephesians we shall find that the apostle claims a still higher character for all ministry. And you find that these people espousing them are plagiarizing from other people who have espoused them, and it goes back and back and back. The action of biting and devouring is mutual. 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. 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. He was an enemy stopped in sovereign grace. Because you'll never come to their beliefs by just reading the Bible. Men were not his source, nor was man even a medium to him. Help me, Lord. And how the Holy Spirit had come upon those of the house of Cornelius who had known nothing really of obedience to the law. I get an attitude that is not of the Lord. They were only, as they supposed, beginning to cherish a becoming attitude toward the religion of the fathers, and of all who had before Christ honoured God on earth. It is not merely to seek in love a fallen brother, but to be the succourer of others in their difficulties. (b) It means being teachable, being not too proud to learn ( James 1:21). Writing was a somewhat laborious task in those days, and it was a kind of profession to be a writer or scribe, before printing, of course, was known. There is no recounting what God had done for them. That's all the law is saying to you. Men that have followed after my perverse teachings. Naughty Paul. . These words are used by him emphatically; for he did not merely say Bite, which denotes an angry person, but likewise, Devour, which denotes one who persists in wickedness. What can be conceived more serious or trenchant than such a statement as this? It's amazing, isn't it, what difference being born of the Spirit really makes. Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their own unregenerate selves ;along with all their passions and their desires. Because they were sons, God sent that blessed proof and power of their sonship. This is what is found under it. 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. A different issue ensued from their settling down in the mutual independence of the Gentile churches and the Jewish. "Thy seed ( i.e., the numerous seed) shall possess the gate of his enemies." It has been defined as "readiness for any pleasure." I am perfectly delivered, and the measure of my deliverance is Christ, and Christ raised from the dead. Hagar's child was born from merely human impulses; and legalism is the best that man can do. Therefore, that righteousness is perfect. The language would not have been applicable when the other apostles were called. Now notice, works of the flesh, works plural. It was from and in connection with Christ in heaven. These were his lineal posterity. Paul was pleading for the real interests of the Jew just as much as of the Gentile; but he presses this most clenching argument that Peter's conduct involved the making Christ Himself the minister of sin; "for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.". Trench says that Jesus showed agathosune ( G19) when he cleansed the Temple and drove out those who were making it a bazaar; but he showed chrestotes ( G5544) when he was kind to the sinning woman who anointed his feet. And thus the blessing of Abraham could flow freely towards the Gentiles who never were there. Paul ends with a very blunt saying. Galatians 5:1-15 New International Version Freedom in Christ 5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. He was saying that we each worship something - we seek to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts, but our worship is all vain, it's all futile, unless we worship the one true God. All this is counted a great, wise, and sensible help to devotion. 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." For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ." 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. And this leads him to speak of another trial. It's Jesus only. What does matter is faith which works through love. But God has made you alive in Christ Jesus. (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. 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. It is wholly apart from works of law. And at the end of each day, I can paste my gold stars on those that I've kept. It is not simply that he was brought to follow Jesus, to believe and confess His name; but God revealed His Son in him. Thus, going up with Barnabas, he took Titus, a Gentile, along with him; and even so by revelation. And Jesus talked to him about the spiritual rebirth, which takes place when a person by faith receives Christ as his Savior. He had felt their wrong, but at the same time had been lifted marvellously above what might be called personal feeling, and so much the more, therefore, could have the grief of love unmingled with that which really impairs its strength, and leaves its sensibilities incomparably less acute. Liberty comes first, mark; power and love afterwards. "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." Greek and Christian alike would have condemned drunkenness as a thing which turned a man into a beast. No effort, no work on your part. Nor this only. Who in times past you walked according to the course of this world. In Paul's case there was nothing of the sort. He went simply to make the acquaintance of Peter, and abode with him how long? That's where God touches me. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5:4-5) Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:13-15 The gospel is a doctrine according to godliness, 1Ti 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. 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. It is the liberty not to do those things which the flesh once forced me to do. I was crucified with Christ, but now I have to reckon it in so many situations everyday. Later, and in a far fuller way now, the gospel was the blessed answer to this early grace. "This persuasion, this ideas that you have, they don't really come from God, from the One who called you. And as, by specifying these works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, the apostle directs us both what we are to avoid and oppose and what we are to cherish and cultivate, so (Galatians 5:24; Galatians 5:24) he informs us that this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians: And those that are Christ's, says he (those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Dissension; literally the word means a standing apart. If I preach circumcision, then why would they keep persecuting me? Why not adopt what was wanting in Christianity? And the mind of the flesh is alienated from God; it cannot know God. Along with himself he takes care expressly to couple others: "and all the brethren which are with me." 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." "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. And if you have interpreted it that way, you have completely missed the message of the scripture. He begins with the works of the flesh, which, as they are many, so they are manifest. The sense is, if you contend with each other; and the reference is, probably, to the strifes which would arise between the two parties in the churches - the Jewish and the Gentile converts. Of none else could it be so said that "it Pleased God to reveal his Son in him." But because they are not born of the Spirit and have no understanding of the spiritual dimension of life, you're talking riddles to them. You got to walk the tight rope. he gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption; and that is to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:16): This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. ". The cross paid it all. Just let our books explain for you." Do not abuse your freedom (13-15) I. Christ has set us free (1-6) Discussion Questions What has Christ set us free from? Am I going to yield to my flesh, or am I going to yield to the Spirit? "But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." Christian churches cannot be ruined but by their own hands; but if Christians, who should be helps to one another and a joy one to another, be as brute beasts, biting and devouring each other, what can be expected but that the God of love should deny his grace to them, and the Spirit of love should depart from them, and that the evil spirit, who seeks the destruction of them all, should prevail? How blessed, and how all-important for our souls! It will create a lot of envy and a lot of provocation. take heed that ye be not one of another utterly destroyed. What does Galatians 5:15 Mean? You've got to do this, and this, and this, and this, and this. Paul was preaching that Jesus paid the complete price for your redemption on the cross. That it is His sacrifice for your sins that brings you redemption and the forgiveness of sins. There was no believer, Jew or Gentile, who had not gladly submitted to that very blessed sign of having part with Christ, and of that which is made good by Christ. Do not suppose that idolatry has its character saved because Jesus is worshipped. In point of fact, to bring in Christ is also best of all to secure the blessing, the privileges, the glory that God has in His grace for every one that believes. Mark it well. So "cursed is the man that continues not in the whole law to do that which is written therein" ( Galatians 3:10 ). 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. May the truth of God sink into our hearts! God did not intend man to live that way, because man living that way is alienated from God who is a Spirit. There was no such thing as a gradual training. "Be as I am." (vss. Eternal life is spoken of in this double way in scripture (Romans 6:22-23); and I also press this as a truth of no small importance and but too much forgotten. It was therefore not only for him, but for the instruction of the Galatians, and of us all. As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. 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. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit himself, who condescends to dwell in the hearts of those whom he has renewed and sanctified, to guide and assist them in the way of their duty, or that gracious principle which he implants in the souls of his people and which lusts against the flesh, as that corrupt principle which still remains in them does against it. When He had anything unfailing to do or say, He loved to appear in grace; He said it Himself, and did it for Himself. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The consequence is, "If ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law;" and more than this, if we are producing the fruits of the Spirit, he can easily say, "Against such there is no law." If we are living in the Spirit let us also keep step with the Spirit. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Can it be doubted that the special form of spiritual thought and feeling formed, for instance, by James's or Peter's teaching, yea, even by that of John, while harmonizing, where the heart was open, with the instruction of Paul, nevertheless would appear at first very different? The apostle Paul interferes in no way with the work which God had given the others to do. Paul was a trained Rabbi; and that is what he is doing here. One can readily conceive men of strong prejudice and of weak faith thus hesitating, especially in presence of the apostle's strong assertion of entire liberty from the law for the Gentiles. He fully allows that the Lord was both made of a woman and made under the law; but what was the ultimate object in view! He draws particular attention to this fact ere he closes: "You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." He did not forget His people Israel; but He had always the glory of Christ before Him; and the moment we rise up to this blessed Seed of all blessing (the true Isaac, dead and risen really, as the son of Abraham was then in figure), the blessing of the Gentiles is secured in that one sole person, before the Jews are multiplied in their land under the new covenant, and possess the gate of their enemies. Galatians 5:1-15 Inductive Bible Study Notes - Teaching Guide With Questions Outline I. Christ has set us free (1-6) II. Now the apostle in writing to the Galatians was so moved in love, and so yearned over them in their danger, that he actually wrote the epistle with his own hand. But if ye bite and devour one another At the outset here (not there) he sets aside human intervention. lest ye be consumed one of anotherconsumamini; Ah! Now, it is evident and to this I call your particular attention that the apostle here binds together his gospel with his apostolic place. "I through law am dead to law, that I might live unto God." Now you've got to defend it against the challenges and so you've got to start making up or taking positions that are thoroughly unscriptural in order to defend your position." It was really part of God's wondrous ways with him, as indicating the true character of Christianity and of its ministry as contrasted with Judaism. He acts on this in faith; he understands it with an energy and a brightness that increased even in his Roman prison. To be consumed, while the tendency of brotherly love is to produce mutual protection and kindness. The promise has another and most blessed place. He is baptized into Christ's death, which is the sole means of deliverance out of his state of sin. Why they thought they were becoming more truly religious, more reverent in their value for Scripture. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love ( Galatians 5:6 ). But this could not be. This the apostle represents as our duty, and directs us to the most effectual means of success in it. If therefore we would make it appear that we do indeed belong to Christ, this must be our sincere care and endeavour as well as the other; and that it was the design of the apostle to represent both the one and the other of these as our duty, and as necessary to support our character as Christians, may be gathered from what follows (Galatians 5:25; Galatians 5:25), where he adds, If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, "If we profess to have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper fruits of the Spirit in our lives." Proud member
Galatians 5:15 - John Darby's Synopsis It is in this liberty, the liberty of Christ, alluding to the free woman and Jerusalem above, that they were to stand fast, and not put themselves again under the yoke of the law. Invariably, where man seeks to bring in a successional apostleship, the twelve become the great model. The evil that was gaining ground among the Galatian believers legalism links the soul with the world, and indeed proves it to be evil by giving present credit to the flesh, and association with all the system that is around us now. The truth is the distinctive boon and mark of Christendom. "Before faith came we [Jews] were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. That's where I come in touch with God. 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. He who is upsetting you--whoever he is--will bear his own judgment. The apostle was given to preach the truth more fully than any other. The consequence is, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God; and this he proves, not only from the promise, but from the prophets. Now. ", I have nothing to do with the law any more, even if I had been once under it as a Jew. Josephus ascribed it to Jezebel when she built a temple to Baal in Jerusalem. For it is by the Spirit and by faith that we eagerly expect the hope of being right with God. "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." To make this evident by transgressions was the object of the law. has an affinity for both. You see, you don't need any laws. Man is only the receiver; and truly, as we know, "it is more blessed to give than to receive." For the foundation was at stake. On the contrary, "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin" not under righteousness by law. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:3.). In other words, you did not get this from God. For devour, comp. Therefore, it came to pass that there was nothing the apostle had not learned of which they boasted. Nothing that God afterwards introduced annulled this. Consequently it is plain from the beginning, that the apostleship of Paul made a demand upon faith which the other apostolate did not. 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. . Christ's yoke is called chrestos ( G5543) ( Matthew 11:30), that is, it does not chafe. This it is to which we are come now under Christianity. The history of the flesh its sad and humbling history is soon over; but the history that faith opens into never closes. As in their baptism they were obliged hereunto (for, being baptized into Christ, they were baptized into his death, Romans 6:3), so they are now sincerely employing themselves herein, and, in conformity to their Lord and head, are endeavouring to die unto sin, as he had died for it. Judaizers were saying that Gentiles had to join the old covenant if they wanted God's blessings and salvation (cf. And they are quite zealous in their beliefs, very fervent in the proclamations of their beliefs.
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