BIG IDEA:
STAND FIRM IN THE LIBERTY TO WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED
INTRODUCTION:
Robert Gromacki: After the Civil War a great majority of the slaves became sharecroppers. Although they were free, they did not enjoy their freedom. In some cases they were worse off than before. Under the influence of the Judaizers, the Galatians were beginning to find themselves in a similar situation. Set free by the great emancipator of the soul, Jesus Christ, they soon were acquiescing to the demands of the legalists. The apostle wanted them to take a stand, to act like free men, not like slaves.
Warren Wiersbe: Legalists in our churches today warn that we dare not teach people about the liberty we have in Christ lest it result in religious anarchy. The Christian who lives by faith is not going to become a rebel. Quite the contrary, he is going to experience the inner discipline of God that is far better than the outer discipline of Galatians man-made rules.
John MacArthur: The freedom for which Christ sets us free (v. 1) is the freedom to live a life of righteousness in the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s standard of holiness has not changed. As Jesus makes clear in the Sermon on the Mount, it requires not simply outward performance but inner perfection. Through His Holy Spirit, believers have the ability to live internal lives of righteousness.
The final two chapters of Galatians are a portrait of the Spirit-filled life, of the believer’s implementing the life of faith under the control and in the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit-filled life thereby becomes in itself a powerful testimony to the power of justification by faith.
In making his appeal for living the Spirit-filled life of freedom rather than reverting to the futile works-bound life of legalistic self-effort, Paul begins with the negative, a warning first against false doctrine vv. 2-6) and then against false teachers (vv. 7-12). He shows the spiritual dangers of the first and the corrupt character of the second.
George Brunk: Having completed the allegory on slavery and freedom, Paul is now ready to make a strong, direct appeal to the Galatians. Paul wants them to remain firm in their first commitment to the gospel as he had preached it. Happily, the “cost” of this commitment is freedom from the yoke of slavery!
The letter is moving to its climax. Paul’s strong affirmations carry a note of finality. Now we come to the heart of the matter. As we would expect in this section, marked as it is by request, imperatives are numerous, and the language of personal appeal dominates. At this crucial point Paul’s use of freedom confirms that it is a unifying theme of the letter. After announcing this theme in his appeal to stand firm, Paul explores several specific weaknesses in the visitors’ false teaching and several strengths of his gospel. Paul’s summary formulation in 5:5-6 is one of the most striking and memorable statements of Pauline theology.
Max Anders: Six Negative Consequences of Returning to the Law
- (:2) First, it invalidates Christ’s work on the cross for Christ will be no value to you. By submitting to circumcision, a person demonstrated that they were not fully trusting in Christ. Instead they added their own works to what Christ had done, thus invalidating the sufficiency of Christ for salvation.
- (:3) The second negative consequence of returning to the law is obligation. Once a person submits to one part of the law (circumcision), he is obligated to obey the whole law.
- (:4-6) The third negative consequence of returning to the law is that it removes a person from the sphere of grace. While the legalist is insecure because he cannot know if he has done enough to merit salvation, the believer is secure because he has placed his faith in Christ and will eagerly await righteousness.
- (:7-10) The fourth negative consequence of returning to the law is that it hinders spiritual growth and development. Using the metaphor of a race, Paul states that the legalists had cut in on the Galatians’ spiritual race and caused them to stumble spiritually. As a result, the Galatians were no longer obeying the truth. Turning to a yeast metaphor, Paul illustrates how quickly a little bit of legalism can contaminate a believer and, indeed, a whole church. Paul, however, expressed his confidence that the Galatians would not depart from the truth. He warned that those who are confusing them will experience God’s judgment.
- (:11) A fifth consequence when one retreats to legalism is the removal of the offense of the cross. Before Paul was converted, as a Pharisee, he preached circumcision. Now he is being accused of still preaching circumcision. Paul denies this accusation by pointing to the offense or stumbling block of his gospel. He omitted circumcision, and this omission was an offense to the legalists who attacked him.
- (:12) The sixth and final consequence of turning to the law is anger. Paul is so angry he wishes the legalists would go the whole way and castrate themselves as did the pagan priests of the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor. This desire is not a pretty picture, but Paul is completely exasperated by these people who are preaching circumcision and sabotaging the Galatians’ faith.
David deSilva: The structural parallels between 5:1 and 5:13 strongly suggest that Gal 5:1–12 is a discrete unit, with 5:13 opening a new but closely related unit. Both 5:1 and 5:13 begin from the same premise, stated in similar terms (“Christ freed us for freedom,” 5:1; “you were called to freedom,” 5:13), which provides the launching-off point for the exhortation to follow in the second half of each verse.
David Platt: (5:1-15) Christ Our Liberator
Main Idea: Paul urges his readers to resist the dangerous message of bondage and encourages them to live in the freedom of Christ.
I. Christ Has Set Us Free: Live Free (5:1)!
II. Christ Has Set Us Free: Live in the Truth (5:2-12).
- A false message
- False messengers
III. Christ Has Set Us Free: Live to Love and Serve (5:13-15).
Thomas Schreiner: Resist the Dangerous Message of Bondage (5:2–12)
I. It involves the requirement of circumcision (5:2–6)
- Paul’s warning (5:2)
- The impossible obligation (5:3)
- The consequence (5:4)
- The contrast (5:5)
- Its irrelevance (5:6)
II. Its perpetrators will be judged (5:7–12)
- They are interlopers (5:7)
- They are not God’s messengers (5:8)
- Their pernicious influence (5:9)
- They will not succeed in winning over the Galatians (5:10)
- Their misrepresentation of Paul (5:11)
- Paul’s prophetic exclamation (5:12)
(:1) THESIS OF THE EPISTLE: STAND FIRM IN THE LIBERTY TO WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED
A. Our Calling – To Freedom in Christ
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free”
Timothy George: We will not go astray if we remember that for Paul, Christian liberty was always grounded on the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ on the one hand and with the community of faith on the other. Outside of Jesus Christ, human existence is characterized as bondage—bondage to the law, bondage to the evil elements dominating the world, bondage to sin, the flesh, and the devil. God sent his Son into the world to shatter the dominion of these slaveholders. Now God has sent his Spirit into the hearts of believers to awaken them to new life and liberation in Christ. . .
Evidently one of the major problems among the churches of Galatia was that believers there did not know what to do with their Christ-won freedom. Some were using their liberty as a pretext for license, to the gratification of their sinful nature. Others were “Lone Ranger” Christians, having forgotten the mandate to bear one another’s burdens. Still others had fallen into discord and faction, backbiting and self-promotion. Thus in these closing two chapters Paul summoned the Galatians to a mature use of their spiritual birthright, reminding them that it is love, the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, that brings liberty to its fullest expression.
B. Our Commitment – Stand Fast
“therefore keep standing firm”
Timothy George: Because of who God is and what he has done for believers in Jesus Christ, Christians are commanded to “become what they are,” that is, to make visible in the earthly realm of their human existence what God has already declared and sealed in the divine verdict of justification. When this indissoluble connection is forgotten or downplayed, the temptation for the Christian to lapse into legalism on the one hand or into libertinism on the other becomes a serious threat to Christian freedom.
Scot McKnight: This thesis has two elements: the statement of freedom (v. 1a) and the implication of freedom (v. 1b). In other words, you are free; therefore, do not get caught up in the Mosaic law.
George Brunk: To the affirmation of God’s liberating action in Christ, Paul now joins the command to continue steadfastly and firmly in the resulting condition. This is a classic illustration of how Paul typically links the indicative of divine action to the imperative of human response. Such use of language provides another window into the heart of Paul’s religious conviction, which he is struggling to express in Galatians: spiritual authenticity exists only where human religious deeds are consistent with and continuously nourished by the deeds of God.
C. Our Caution – Avoid Legalistic Bondage
“and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery”
Why do we have to constantly be vigilant and on guard against this danger?
John Piper: If you want God’s favor, there are two ways to relate to him. You can relate to him as an heir, or you can relate to him as a slave. The difference is that a slave tries to become acceptable to his master by presenting him valuable service; but the heir trusts that the inheritance of his father is his by virtue of a will that was drawn up without his earning it at all. A slave is never quite sure he has done enough to please his master and win an honorable standing in the house. A son rests in the standing he has by virtue of his birth and the covenant his father made in his will to bless his children.
I. (:2-6) FAITH IN THE LAW CANNOT BE HARMONIZED WITH FAITH IN CHRIST
A. (:2) Faith in Christ and Faith in the Law Are Mutually Exclusive
“Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision,
Christ will be of no benefit to you.”
George Brunk: In Paul’s mind, for Gentile Galatians to accept circumcision meant accepting the full validity of the Law’s demand and devaluing the work of Christ. In effect, this means denying the full sufficiency of identification with Christ (in the strength of the Spirit)!
Moreover, Paul clearly believed that if Gentiles had to become full Jews through circumcision, their new life in Christ would no longer be a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of blessing to all nations. Gentiles as Gentiles would not be redeemable. Since God’s promise to Abraham had been fulfilled in Christ, the free entry of the Gentiles into the people of God is a benefit of Christ. Christ removes the wall that separates Jew and Gentile. He does not make the one side become the other; he makes the two become a new one (3:28; cf. Eph 2:13-16). To embrace the Law in the form of obligation to receive circumcision means rejecting this benefit of freedom and equality (see 2:4 and the elaboration in 2:11-14 and 3:6-14).
B. (:3) Obedience to the Law is an All or Nothing Proposition
“And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision,
that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.”
Bruce Barton: Circumcision symbolizes having the right background and doing everything required by religion. No amount of work, discipline, or moral behavior can save us. If a person counts on finding favor with God by being circumcised, he will also have to obey the rest of God’s law completely. Trying to save ourselves by keeping all God’s laws only separates us from God.
But why, someone may ask, doesn’t keeping part of the law, or the entire law to a degree, count for something with God? Well, it may in fact count for something with God (for instance, as a conscious expression of thanks for what he has accomplished for us), but not if we are expecting God to see our flawed effort as if it were a perfect performance. The entrance requirement to the kingdom demands a holy life. Only as we are clothed with Christ can we be acceptable. Only by grace can we have this vital union with Christ that renders us complete and righteous (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21).
C. (:4) Faith in the Law Nullifies Faith in Christ
- The Profile
“you who are seeking to be justified by law”
- The Problem
a. It Cuts our Union with Christ
“You have been severed from Christ”
b. It Casts us down from our Standing in Grace
“you have fallen from grace”
George Brunk: The Law is not inherently alien to Christ or grace, but trusting it as a basis of securing one’s relationship with God amounts to rejecting God’s decisive action in the cross of Christ. Christ defines the will of God, and doing the will of God depends on the Spirit’s empowerment. Anything else is slavery, something less than freedom from sin and freedom for righteousness. Moreover, believers who have entered into grace might later abandon that same grace. In emphasizing the freedom of God in choosing a people and the initiative of God in salvation, Paul does not displace or diminish human responsibility in the covenant relationship with God. The loss of salvation is a real possibility that demands vigilance on the part of the believer.
D. (:5) Faith in Christ Has its Focus on the Future Realization of Righteousness
- The Power of This Life in Christ
“For we through the Spirit”
Nijay Gupta: What role exactly does the Spirit play in our hope of righteousness (revealing finally and completing what has already been given to us in Christ)? The Spirit is given as a deposit or guarantee of that hope (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14). The Spirit gives believers confidence and reassurance that we are fully accepted and embraced by God through participation in the life and death of Jesus Christ. Through the Spirit, we can hope and wait patiently for something we cannot see (Rom 8:5; cf. 1 Peter 1:1–9).
- The Profile of This Life in Christ
“by faith”
Bruce Barton: The words faith and Spirit provide the keys to this verse, for these words separate the Judaizers’ approach to God from the Christian approach to God. The Judaizers’ emphasis on circumcision showed that they were trying to gain salvation “in the flesh.” But Paul pointed out that Christian faith comes “through the Spirit.” The Judaizers’ emphasis on the law contrasted sharply with Christianity’s emphasis on faith. Christianity’s basic doctrine showed the Judaizers to be wrong—dead wrong.
Ronald Fung: The whole weight of the verse is on the two phrases “through the Spirit, by faith,” (RSV) which are brought forward for emphasis since they stand for the two aspects that distinguish the Christian hope from the Jewish. There is in “through the Spirit” an implied contrast with “the flesh” which is the active principle of legal righteousness (cf. 3:3), while “by faith” stands in explicit and decisive contrast with “by way of law” (v. 4). The two phrases are not, strictly speaking, predicated of “righteousness”: it is not explicitly stated here that it is “through the Spirit” and “by faith” that believers are justified, but only that it is “through the Spirit, by faith” that “we wait for the hope of righteousness.” But since the expectation of this “hope” to which believers are pointed forward by their justification is grounded in their present experience of the Spirit and in faith it is plainly not, and cannot be, based on works of the law, because justification, which gives rise to the hope in question, cannot itself be achieved by works of the law, but is attained only “by faith.” The clear contrast between faith and law in the immediate context (as well as in the epistle as a whole) shows beyond doubt that in Paul’s thinking there can be no such thing as a hope which is being awaited on the basis of faith while the ground of that hope (namely, justification) is itself based on works of the law.
- The Prize of This Life in Christ
“are waiting for the hope of righteousness”
John Piper: Righteousness is a hope and not a full present reality.
Good argument against those who would teach some form of perfectionism.
E. (:6) The Only Thing That Matters is Faith in Christ Working Through Love
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything,
but faith working through love.”
George Brunk: In some ways, this verse summarizes the whole of what Paul wants the Galatians to understand. It continues to expand the positive picture of the gospel of freedom. The phrase in Christ, the beloved expression of the apostle, stands for the whole of Christian faith and illustrates the Christ-centeredness of Paul’s theology.
II. (:7-12) STANDING FIRM REQUIRES REJECTING THE DESTRUCTIVE TEACHINGS OF THOSE OPPOSED TO THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST
A. (:7) Remember How You Started Off So Well in the Christian Race
“You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
Bruce Barton: Although Paul asked who, he already knew the answer. The word “who” is singular; Paul knew that the problem was the Judaizers, and here he was focusing on their leader, whom he probably did not know (see 5:10). Paul warned the Galatians that the Judaizers, instead of helping them along, were actually hindering their faith. Instead of opening up new truths to the Galatians, they kept the Galatians from obeying the truth. The Judaizers represented the interests of Satan. They wanted to keep the Galatians enslaved to the law and derail the new believers. The Galatians would not complete the race if they tried to do it by their own efforts.
Ronald Fung: Paul has shown up the utter futility, indeed the positive hurtfulness, of seeking to be justified through circumcision and the law (vv. 2–6). His argument now assumes, as in 3:1–6, the form of an appeal—this time to the readers’ original attitude to the gospel. Paul reminds them that they were “running well,” at least when he was with them. But since he bade them farewell someone had hindered them from “following the truth.” “Obeying the truth” (RSV, NASB, NIV) is identical in meaning with “obeying the gospel” in Rom. 10:16 (cf. RSV), “the truth” here being that which found expression in the gospel of justification by faith apart from circumcision and the law (2:5, 14). The person or persons behind the “who” of Paul’s rhetorical question evidently were the same as those envisaged in 3:1 (RSV “Who has bewitched you … ?), whom we have identified as Judaizers.
B. (:8) Contrast the Source of Your Calling with the Source of This New Teaching
“This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.”
C. (:9) Fear the Cancerous Nature of Heresy
“A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”
Timothy George: In v. 8 Paul was concerned with the methodology of the false teachers; in v. 9 he turned to consider the end result of their meddlesome interference. He did this by quoting a proverbial saying from the world of bread making: “It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say (GNT). This is a commonsense saying similar to our own English maxim, “Just one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” Paul’s point is clear: his opponents had not overturned the whole system of Christian teaching but were only making a seemingly minor adjustment to it—the imposition of the harmless rite of circumcision. But even a seemingly slight deviation on such a fundamental matter of the faith can bring total ruin to the Christian community. Just a little poison, if it is toxic enough, will destroy the entire body. Implicit in Paul’s words is a warning to every church, denomination, and theological institution. Any community of faith that is unwilling to recognize and to reject perversions of the gospel when they crop up in its midst has lost its right to bear witness to the transforming message of Jesus Christ, who declared himself to be not only the way and the life but also the truth, the only truth that leads to the Father (John 14:6).
D. (:10) Validate the Confidence of the Apostle Paul
- Confident the Galatians will Stand Fast in Faith and Liberty
“I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view”
- Confident in the Ultimate Demise of the False Teacher(s)
“but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is”
John MacArthur: Because the Judaizers stood against God and His truth, they would carry the full weight of their own judgment. False teachers often cause many others to “follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words,” Peter wrote. But “their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. . . . The Lord knows how. . . to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet. 2:2-3, 9).
E. (:11) Consider the Credentials of the Apostle Paul = His Ongoing Persecutions
“But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?
Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.”
John MacArthur: Among their other deceptions and lies, the Judaizers apparently claimed that Paul preached circumcision just as they did. Because Timothy was half Jewish, Paul had him circumcised in order to minimize criticism from Jews among whom they would minister together (Acts 16:1-3). But Paul never advocated circumcision as having any part in becoming or living as a Christian.
Bruce Barton: Paul’s message of the cross of Christ was offensive and a constant stumbling block to the Jews. The only way that offense could be removed would be if he stopped preaching that Christ died for our sins. If Paul had been preaching obedience to the law and acceptance of the rite of circumcision, then the stumbling block in his ministry would have been removed. But to remove it would be to lose the entire message; for without the Cross, Christianity has no meaning. The very fact that Paul was being persecuted revealed that he did not preach circumcision.
To human nature, and especially to Jews brought up to love and revere their law, the concept of needing someone else’s death in order to be saved was “offensive.” Paul had already referred to Christ’s death as the greatest fulfillment of the Old Testament curse: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (3:13 NIV). The very thought of describing the Messiah as an executed convict disgusted them. But the impact of Christ’s cross on their pride was the greatest stumbling block. As Paul described to the Corinthians, “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23 NIV). Paul had witnessed the rejection of the gospel by both Gentiles and Jews, each for different reasons. To the Gentiles, the message often seemed like nonsense; to the Jews, the implications were offensive.
F. (:12) Indulge in Some Graphic Sarcasm to Drive the Point Home
“Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”
William Barclay: Paul ends with a very blunt saying. Galatia was near Phrygia and the great worship of that part of the world was of Cybele. It was the practice that priests and really devout worshippers of Cybele mutilated themselves by castration. Paul says, “If you go on in this way, of which circumcision is the beginning, you might as well end up by castrating yourselves like these heathen priests.” 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.
George Brunk: With this coarse invective, he exhausts all rhetorical means of persuasion in his passionate appeal to the Galatians. We can imagine that this comment goes to the edge of propriety in his day as in ours. Clearly Paul is reaching for the greatest shock effect that he dare create to make his readers sense the depth of his frustration with the adversaries.
Howard Vos: Actually the Greek verb is in the middle voice, “cut themselves off.” A few commentators apply this to the Judaizers’ cutting themselves off from the Galatian communion as a worthless foreskin is thrown away. But the majority favor a stronger concept; as the RSV puts it, “would mutilate themselves.” The Galatians would be familiar with this practice because votaries of Cybele frequently engaged in it. In his irony the apostle may be suggesting that the Judaizers who are so interested in cutting outdo themselves and castrate or mutilate themselves. Harrison observes: “As an emasculated man has lost the power of propagation, so should these agitators be reduced to impotence in spreading their false doctrine. Such is the fervent wish to which the Apostle Paul gives expression here.”
Timothy George: It is also possible to interpret Paul’s remark with reference to this verse from the Pentateuch, “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the Lord’s assembly” (Deut 23:1). In the Septuagint the words used to translate “the Lord’s assembly” are ekklēsia Kuriou, “the church of the Lord.” By wishing that his opponents would emasculate themselves, Paul may have been intentionally weaving an ironic reversal. Just as the false teachers were urging the Galatian believers to have themselves circumcised in order to become a part of the true church or people of God, so Paul may have suggested that his opponents get themselves castrated and so, on the strength of Deut 23:1, be once and for all excluded from the church. But to be excluded from the church, that is, the invisible church of God’s elect ones, was to be excluded from Christ, placed under a curse, and anathematized. Thus 5:12, harsh as it is, is really a reiteration of Paul’s opening anathema against those who disturb the church through the promulgation of a false gospel (1:6–9).
(:13a) TRANSITION
“For you were called to freedom”