LETTER TO THE GALATIANS
Living as Sons and Daughters Apart from the Law—
INTRODUCTION
Too often, Galatians is viewed primarily as the way a person gets saved. That, though, is not the main point of Galatians. Rather, the point is how the Christian lives his life once he has been saved. Paul's thought flows like this: we need salvation which can come only by faith in Christ. This salvation process will not be complete until Christ returns. Because the process started in faith, it must be carried out by faith. Moreover, this process transforms us into being sons and daughters of God. Law (living by law) is designed for slaves; on the other hand, sons are destined for freedom. Doing the works of the Law is an act performed by slaves. Living by faith in freedom is the lifestyle of the sons and daughters.
Well, in the eyes of the Judaizers, Paul has got a problem on his hands. He has basically put the Law aside as a means of not only being saved but also of living the Christian life. Well, then. If you put the Law aside, what is to guide you through life? According to the Judaizers, if you don’t have the Law to guide you, you have nothing. The result is going to be spiritual chaos, even worse, fleshly living, pure carnality, lawlessness, spiritual anarchy. Paul, though, rejects the 2 alternatives the Judaizers pose here. There is a third way to live life besides obeying the Law and living a carnal life.
This passage hopefully helps us understand the reason Paul goes into detail about the way a person is saved. Paul contended in Gal. 3:1-5 and contends here that the way a Christian is saved is also the way the Christian lives the Christian life. He is saved by faith and therefore must walk by faith. Following the Law of Moses didn’t save him; therefore, following the Law of Moses is not the way a person should live the Christian life. Consistency is going to be the key here. The God who saved us by faith is the same God who tells us now to live by faith.
Hopefully as a result of this, we have a better understanding of the nature of salvation. Too often we view salvation only as confessing faith in Christ and then being put into a right relationship with God. Period. Fini. No mas. Actually, the moment of salvation in which we do confess Jesus and are put in a right relationship with Him through faith initiates the entire process of salvation, being conformed to the image of Christ. The Christian life and the moment of salvation are not separate; they are parts of the same whole. As a result, faith starts the process and faith finishes the process. Paul puts it this way: "For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from ______________ to ______________. As it is written, 'The righteous man shall live by _______________'" (Rom. 1:17). From beginning to end it is all by faith.
FREEDOM FROM THE LAW, BONDAGE TO THE SPIRIT-TRUE FREEDOM! (5:13-18)
| 13 For you yourselves were called to freedom, brethren; only do not pervert your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love continue serving one another. 14 For the whole Law stands fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 15 But if you bite and devour one another (as you seem to be doing), take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk continuously by the Spirit, and you will never, no never carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh continuously sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are continuously opposing each other, so that you may not do the things that you will to do. |
Commentary
Although Christ has called us to freedom, there is always the danger that this freedom can devolve, degenerate into carnality, an opportunity for the fleshly, sin nature within us to run rampant. The goal, though, is not for the flesh to run rampant but rather to live a life of love. If the Judaizers were serious about keeping the Law, then they should obey the command of love: “Love your neighbor as yourself” because “the whole Law is fulfilled” in this one statement.
Notice that whenever we are not living in the Spirit but in our own flesh, the first casualty is love. I’ve seen a lot of “righteous” people and the last thing you can say about them is that they love.
We were on a trip one year, and one lady who was greatly admired because of her youth and vitality was actually extremely selfish. We were scheduled to leave on an outing at 8:00 the last day of a mission trip we were on. At 8:00 the lady shows up having not eaten but also insisting that she should have the right to eat breakfast. I would have left her or else let her get on the bus hungry, but the missionary we were with relented and allowed her to eat breakfast. We ran fifteen mins. late because of her selfishness.
On our way to the sightseeing place, we were barreling down the road and accidentally clipped a car which spun out of control and ended up in the ditch. The missionary stopped his vehicle and rushed to the aid of the injured people in the vehicle. He had a cell phone and so called their version of 911. The ambulance came and helped the people.
After we got back on the bus and started back on our way to the site, the lady said: “You see, Carey; aren’t you glad I was late? If I hadn't eaten breakfast, we would not have been there to help those people!” I couldn’t believe my ears! I responded: “Don’t spiritualize your irresponsibility.” If I had thought quicker, I would have said: “If you hadn’t been late, we wouldn’t have been at that spot and caused the accident.” Being vibrant and youthful are not true indicators of spirituality; living lives of unselfish love is a true gauge of spirituality. That is the kind of life we are to live.
The truth, though, is that we can’t do this in our own strength and power; such a life requires power greater than human might. If Christ is God the Son and if He comes to live in us, then He will give us the power to love. HOWEVER, for this kind of life to happen, we must have Him living in us. That is the key to experiencing the life of Christ, of living the life of love, of living the righteous life.
It will be a struggle to live this righteous life of love even in the power of the Spirit. Why? Because we have a fleshly nature within us, the sin nature, which plans on warring against the Spirit of Christ who came to live within us at the time of salvation. (Remember that we live at the dawn of time spiritually; noon has yet to arrive. Darkness and light are co-existing not only in the world but also in ourselves.) The good thing about the war that is going on within us is that it shows that we have 2 natures within us, not only the fleshly nature we are born with but also the Spirit of Christ who came to live in us at the time of salvation. Be encouraged! A Christian who does not struggle spiritually is either dead or else has given into the flesh to such an extent the Spirit has given up on him/her. The flesh never gives up. The Christian who does not experience the struggle is the person who needs to fear.
One of the scariest episodes in the entire Bible is that between Jesus and Pilate (John 18:28-19:15). At first when Pilate asks Jesus about whether or not He is a king, Jesus is a fountain of information, gushing forth the wisest and most profound statements to Pilate. Pilate, though, basically dismisses Jesus and returns to talk to the Jewish religious leaders. When the religious leaders insist that Jesus must die because He claims to be God the Son, Pilate begins to freak out because he senses that there is something special about Jesus. When he approaches Jesus the second time, Jesus is deathly silent. Why? Because of Pilate’s initial cavalier response to Him. When we ignore Christ, He can get deathly silent. That is when it is time to fear. Jesus is such a communicator He is called the Word, not a Word, but the Word. Something is wrong when He is not communicating.
Many of us, though, get easily discouraged because whenever we try to get closer to the Lord, we discover things about ourselves that we just really don't like. The truth, though, is that this should encourage us because whenever we get closer to Jesus, we are closer to the Light. The closer we get to the Light, the more we see our true selves. For example, everybody looks good in a dark room in which the person stands in one corner and a little candle is shining in the opposite corner. However, if a bright light is shining right on your face, you are going to see the blemishes, wrinkles, crow's feet, etc., you would never detect in the darkness. The fact that you are seeing all these defects just merely proves that you are closer to Jesus, the Light.
Whereas that might seem just a little preposterous, the truth is that when you read the stories of the great Christians, you see that this principle operates. One of my Christian heroes is William Carey, no relation. Carey was a self-taught man who mastered Hebrew, Latin, Dutch, Italian, and French. After much adversity, Carey was finally able to convince the British Baptists to sponsor him as their missionary to India where he taught himself Bengali, Sanskrit, and 9 other Indian languages and dialects. He realized that Christianity is based upon the Scripture; therefore, he wanted to make it as available as possible to the Indian people. He went on to establish the William Carey College for the purpose of training Christian ministers and also to develop a publishing/printing company for the purpose of printing the Scriptures in the Indian languages/dialects. During Carey's first seven years in India, he could only claim one convert.
On March 11, 1812 after Carey had been in India for 19 years, a fire broke out, destroying the printing press/publishing house. All seemed lost; however, news of the disaster hit Britain. The story of Carey touched the hearts of so many of the English that it launched a new Protestant mission force to the countries of the third world.
Towards the end of Carey's life, you would think that he would rest in peace at the wonderful things God had done in his life: the translation and printing of the Bible into numerous Indian dialects and languages, the launching of the modern Protestant mission movement, etc. The truth, though, is that in spite of the dedicated life he had lived for Christ, people would find him in his study weeping. When asked why he was weeping, he responded: "How can I stand before a holy God?" That said by one of the godliest men in the history of the church. The principle is true: the closer we get to the perfect Christ, the more we are aware of our own imperfections.