This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust [desires] of the flesh ( Galatians 5:15-16 ). 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 ). Theirs was the slave's son Ishmael. Tender and comprehensive as Christianity is, it is also the most exclusive thing that can be. It is the power of that love, and not the constraint of law, that will keep us right; for love is always more powerful than law. As we go down these things here, these are the things that God will exclude from His kingdom. At the same time he insists in the most peremptory manner that our liberty in Christ is to be used for holiness. Even as in a natural man there is something of this struggle (the convictions of his conscience and the corruption of his own heart strive with one another; his convictions would suppress his corruptions, and his corruptions silence his convictions), so in a renewed man, where there is something of a good principle, there is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature, the remainders of sin and the beginnings of grace; and this Christians must expect will be their exercise as long as they continue in this world. When in the garden, or when on the cross, Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" And I can just go and pass it by.And so, another issue arises in five minutes. Paul takes that old story and allegorises it. No one's ever seen this before but oh, bless God, He's revealed it to us in these days. He specifies the works of the flesh, which must be watched against and mortified, and the fruits of the Spirit, which must be brought forth and cherished, and shows of what importance it is that they be so, ver 19-24. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love ( Galatians 5:6 ). Take heed that ye be not consumed - As wild beasts contend sometimes until both are slain. But the whole matter is decided before God. But not from God. "But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." They are ideas that have been planted in your mind by men. 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. What the Jews would have liked, no doubt, was power (and the Galatians, after all, were in danger of slipping into the same snare; for the law suits the world, as grace does not), and in the world present power and honour. salvation; which were managed with great heat and bitterness, It means that no matter what a man may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation we will never seek anything else but his highest good. 5:1-12 Look now it is I, Paul, who am speaking to you I tell you that if you get yourself circumcised Christ is no good to you. "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That's the position where we stand. I once was in horrible bondage to my flesh. But the moment a Gentile takes the system up, or a Jew presses it on a Gentile, it is nothing but downright heathenism. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female;" all is Christ and only Christ. . But the son of the slave girl was born in the ordinary human way, whereas the son of the free woman was born through a promise. They had been by degrees instructed according to the testimony which the Lord Jesus was pleased to give; and most suited it was, of course, to the time, people, and circumstances. My business is to act consistently with the new place in which grace has put me. He had been himself (could they deny it?) Legal activity is but labouring in the fire for vanity; and if, alas! You're talking nonsense. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ( Galatians 5:5 ). But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us [all?]. "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." Aristocracy means government by the best, but best is left to be defined. "Ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." The liberty we enjoy as Christians is not a licentious liberty: though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet he has not freed us from the obligation of it; 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 obligations to avoid and subdue it. And I had some who were determined that they were going to convert me to their way of thinking.And I would listen to them and listen to them and listen to them; I don't really make a practice of arguing scriptures. There you have in a figure the two parties that are still found on the earth: the law party symbolized by Ishmael, the child of flesh; and those that cling to the grace of God, who have their pattern in Isaac, the child of promise. Both sides of the dispute are guilty. But its most suggestive use is that katharos ( G2513) is used of that ceremonial cleanness which entitles a man to approach his gods. 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. From the nature of the subject, as well as from the language employed, we may conjecture that the Galatians had disputes among themselves; for they differed about doctrine. He does not say that it is the complement of it; but most decidedly it flows from the same divine spring of grace. Paul reminded Christians: " You must love your neighbour as yourself." The apostle Paul himself, inRomans 14:1-23; Romans 14:1-23, insists upon the forbearance of a Gentile even towards the Jew that might be still encumbered by his days, meats, and so on. Now, the law always brings fallen man into importance: such it must be in its principle. The law brings man in his nothingness into evidence, it proves that he is only a poor lost sinner. ", But, he adds, faith is come (that is, the testimony to be believed by man now, or the gospel). 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. You do not want to become the children of Abraham in that sense, which would be the revival of the flesh. He said. If I am a Christian, I am responsible according to that position and privilege. The history of the flesh its sad and humbling history is soon over; but the history that faith opens into never closes. And let's go on. Euripides called it "the greatest of all diseases among men." The law is never life to the dead, but kills morally those who seem alive. Thus it was the ardour of love and grief; it was the earnestness of his purpose that could not bear in this instance to employ an intermediary. "Now, the other way to be righteous is through faith in Jesus Christ, receiving that grace of God through Him, where God accounts me, as He did Abraham, righteous because I believe. Forgive me, Lord. Coveting is a sin which is almost never considered a crime. Get Access To 3 Exclusive Articles (for FREE) Want articles like this one delivered straight to your email? Greek and Christian alike would have condemned drunkenness as a thing which turned a man into a beast. There followed Paul teachers, Judaizers who brought another gospel, which was not really a gospel. "Devour" describes hurtful actions that linger on and on as far as time is concerned. 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. 7) Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And, doubtless, God had all this in view when He pledged Himself with an oath to Abraham. The first letters of these four words--P-R-D-S--are the consonants of the word Paradise--and when a man had succeeded in penetrating into these four different meanings he reached the joy of paradise! Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth. Well, they thought that they had me convinced to their way of thinking. What had been revealed? Now, the word temperance is one we have a little difficulty with. 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. Where was the harm of taking up what saints of old submitted to? Makrothumia ( G3115) ; this is a great word. That is, the apostle, instead of regarding his despised freedom from the law as a just reproach, glories in it. And I'm thinking of God, and I'm thinking upon spiritual things, and the result of life and joy and peace in the holy Spirit. They often use drugs, potions; the potions that you'd take, you know, and it'd have their drug related experiences. 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." My responsibility is defined by the place in which I am found. Not to the place of being ridiculous. And thus it is with the promise. It is therefore a feeling of the mind as much as of the heart; it concerns the will as much as the emotions. Galatians 5:1-15 Inductive Bible Study Notes - Teaching Guide With Questions Outline I. Christ has set us free (1-6) II. They're wanting to strive, they're wanting to argue; they're wanting to prove their points how that baptism is essential for salvation. Thus is seen sovereign grace, and nothing else, as well as a heavenly link instantly formed between the Lord in glory and His servant on earth. Flesh alas! Be assured that it is the same simplicity of faith which enters into both these things now. And it is in the realm of the spirit where man meets God. In its positive form (katharos ( G2513) , an adjective meaning pure) it is commonly used in housing contracts to describe a house that is left clean and in good condition. I really like to say that to the Jehovah Witnesses that come to my door. It was, of course, altogether just and right in itself. Christ on high had called him. He who is upsetting you--whoever he is--will bear his own judgment. Even so we, when we were children," etc. 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 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. Hagar stands for the old covenant of the law, made on Mount Sinai, which is in fact in Arabia, the land of Hagar's descendants. The Stoics defined it as "grief at someone else's good." Further. another; 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. As the child of the slave girl persecuted the child of the free woman, the children of law now persecute the children of grace and promise. Was this then a reproach? Help us to share the Gospel of love with everyone around us at every . though he had prayed thrice, as his Lord had done on another and wondrous occasion, so the apostle was to have communion with Christ in this way, and learn that there is something better than the taking away of that which makes nothing of the flesh. "This persuasion didn't come from God.". That is to say, the covenant that was made between God and Abraham had reference to the seed which was coming, symbolized by Isaac, but really looking onward to Christ. . It is the virtue which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others. 1-6) a. They were grieved to think that the Jewish church, with its twelve apostles and its elders, with its manifold links with antiquity and God's past testimony on earth, should seem separated in any measure from the apostle and his work. Born and bred in the abominable idolatries of the heathen, they were strangers to the institutions of Israel. 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. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 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. "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. 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. What Satan aims at is, that people should not count themselves what they are, and that they should be always slipping into what they are not. 3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Invariably, where man seeks to bring in a successional apostleship, the twelve become the great model. 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 it came to mean work done for pay. Christ has set us free! 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. Matthew 23:13; 2 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 11:5. They're contrary, and I do not always walk after the Spirit. Besides, we have a more daily duty: "Bear ye one another's burdens." "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Now, the whole idea is to be righteous before God in order that I might have fellowship with God. Such is the only possible way in which blessing can be brought in, in order that such souls as we are should be blessed and maintained in it. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat." Instead they are unkind and cruel to each other. Nor this only. But now I have liberty in Christ Jesus, for I don't have to follow after the flesh anymore. Indeed, we may say that now he thunders on the Galatians that were dragging in the law. Therefore, when a man is baptized, he is not, of course, baptized into his own death; there is no sense in such a thought. It was an offence in the eyes of the Jewish Christians, and perhaps specially of the Christians that Judaize, that the apostle had been so little at Jerusalem that his intercourse was so scanty with the twelve. The Galatians were succumbing to false teaching (7-12) III. they are in conflict with f sinful nature each other, so that you do not do what you want. Witchcraft; this literally means the use of drugs. 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