I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. The key to freedom is whether God comes down to help us do what he requires and whether we live by faith in that work of grace. "[14] None of the Galatians, therefore, could misunderstand Paul's ironic, and perhaps humorous, remarks here. Verses 2, 3, and 4 each portray a way to stay under a yoke of slavery. From the above citations, there can be no way to avoid the truth that Christians are in Christ, and Christ is in Christians. Do you exercise as much diligence in prayer and study to stand fast in freedom as you do to decide about home, job, school, marriage partner? 1. 2 Mark my words! Learn more today! "The priests of Cybele, whom the Galatians had formerly worshipped,"[13] made themselves eunuchs. The key to freedom is whether we have to do the work ourselves to escape punishment, or whether our Father comes down to be with us and help us. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If we really rely on our Father to help us, he helps us. This verse teaches that the mindset of slavery is the mindset of a debtor—one who is under pressure to pay back what he has borrowed or needs to borrow. We’re finally in chapter 5 of Galatians. Strangely enough, some who believe that those omitted things are the fruit of the Spirit very frequently stop being faithful to the church. [14] Herman N. Ridderbos, op. I say this is surprising because there is a very common view of Christian behavior which this verse contradicts. It is a clear and unqualified command: "Stand fast and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." That's what Paul means in 5:1 by "stand fast and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." It happens that Paul used the expression "circumcision nor uncircumcision, etc." Freedom Series. It is Christ that liveth in me (Galatians 2:20). To: Previous Page - Contents Galatians - Martin Luther - Project Wittenberg. The question is how are we waiting: as free or as slaves? | 1,080 views. EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: Paul established the church in Galatia (4:13-14), but had moved on. It is not easy to please a 10, 7, and 3 year old with one game. [5] James MacKnight, Apostolical Epistles and Commentary, Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1969), p. 108. IX, p. 82. Try it free for 30 days. • To understand the purpose of freedom/liberty and recognize the trap it can become if not governed by the Spirit. These are descriptions of ONE CONDITION, the saved condition; and there is no stretch of philosophical doodling that can find one iota's difference in the true meaning of the above descriptions of the state of enjoying the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. But do you see what that superficial reading does: it makes non-circumcision into something just as dangerous as circumcision, namely, a work that you can use to earn things from God. Then verse 5 gives a positive description of how to stand in freedom. It is an ongoing way of waiting for the hope of righteousness. Home / Commentary / Galatians / Galatians Chapter 5 / Galatians 5:1-6. Finding the new version too difficult to understand? But so do the Judaizers! As a new year dawns, consider that God’s word offers great treasures on a first reading, and many of its greatest ones as we reread year after year. "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law." There is a clue here for how we can live in freedom and obey Galatians 5:1. The human side of freedom is faith. When I say, "OK, Abraham, pick up the blocks and put them in the cart," there are two possibilities: 1) I can leave him to his own and threaten punishment if he does not get the job done. 20, p. 242. [6] James MacKnight (on Galatians), op. These two verses are the summary of the thoughts in mind in the following verses, where Paul described the two kinds of life, that of the flesh and that of the Spirit. The other begets children of freedom (like Isaac, Galatians 4:26, 31). This persuasion came not of him that calleth you. Sometimes we get bogged down in a quandary about God's will. Ye are severed from Christ, ye that would be justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. m Stand firm, n then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. But what is grace? cit., p. 192. His will for us is that we be free—that we recognize that the whole debt is paid. For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. The present tense in this verse must be read as indicating that some of the Galatians had actually defected from Christianity in the manner indicated, with the result that they had "fallen from grace." We do not think the same or act the same because we serve a different Master. three different times thus: Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ... but a new creature (Galatians 6:15). The total corruption of the antediluvian world had been achieved by the evil one when the "imagination of men's hearts" had become evil, and only evil, without intermission (Genesis 6:5). He does not stand aloof and make demands. I think this will be evident from Galatians 5:2–5. The apostle called the attention of the Galatians to this operation of faith, because they were deficient in love to each other, Galatians 5:15.” Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:1-6 Christ will not be the Saviour of any who will not own and rely upon him as their only Saviour. Continuing to walk in the Spirit, centering and continuing the thoughts and meditations of the heart upon the teachings of the Lord, actively seeking to maintain identity with the mind of Christ, consciousness of the indwelling Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - these things will indeed "crucify" the lusts and evil imaginations which feed them. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the … God abideth in us ... we abide in him and he in us ... God abideth in him and he in God ... he that abideth in love abideth in God and God abideth in him (1 John 4:11-16). "[17] All of the miracles of our Lord were done as a result of prayer to the Father. Commentary on Galatians 5:13-15 (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. 2) Or I can get down on the floor and help him and turn the job into fun. . Also, it is a commandment to the church of all ages that they shall "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). [1] R. E. Howard, Beacon Bible Commentary, Galatians (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1968), Vol. Therefore, we must never try to relate to God as a debtor trying to pay back a debt, no matter how thankfully. Any effort to increase, from our account, the deposit made for us by Christ at Calvary is an insult to its infinite value. There were exceptions to this rule, for Paul himself had been circumcised; and what is meant is "that circumcision with any view to its aiding or leading to one's justification would be a denial of Christ, a repudiation of the Christian gospel and the forsaking of Christianity." And here is one: "For freedom Christ has set us free." Freedom is worth … By their failing into Jewish observances, they were neglecting and had stopped obeying the teachings of Christ. To be sure, people do not like this verse, rendering it "faith inspired by love" (New English Bible margin), or otherwise avoiding the word "working" as they would strive to avoid the plague! So your enjoyment of freedom is much more important to God than many of the day-to-day decisions that fill us with so much concern. Behold, I Paul say unto you that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Christiansstill have their own desires. Commentary on Galatians 5:1, 13-25 View Bible Text . So these verses function as warnings against slavery. Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. But it doesn't. Apparently, Paul was no Calvinist. Christians are unavoidably out of step with this world. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17).SIZE>. We can choose not to dowrong things. Abraham's experience is very different in those two cases. This means "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is relevant to Christianity." Date: July 6, 2011; Reference: Galatians 5:1-16 ; Series: The Freedom of Truth: Commentary on Galatians; Teacher: Pastor Robert Furrow For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love. We are free when God freely comes to help us and we joyfully trust his help instead of turning to the yoke of law. Through his allegorical interpretation of the story of Hagar and Sarah in chapter four, Paul has argued that in Christ, God has made us children of the free woman and not the slave woman. I think this will be evident from Galatians 5:2–5. He may pout and fuss, but generally the job gets done. First, he clarifies that if someone seeks to obey the law in order to gain a right standing with God they have to keep the entire law. Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us freer and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. What's the difference? We exalt the cross and grace and Christ when we admit we have no assets to invest, and that Christ's investment at Calvary was totally sufficient to win free dividends of righteousness and life for all who trust him. This is by no means an experience attributable to the Holy Spirit as separated in any manner from the other persons in the Godhead, or even apart from the mind of Christ and the word of Christ dwelling in people's hearts. That is, do not let the Judaizers bewitch you into thinking that circumcision or any other outward act of obedience can be offered to God as a benefit to him, which he must then reward with some payment. "[3] Of course, this is true; and the allegation that Paul was, in these chapters, displaying a brand new conception of being saved "by faith only" is absolutely foreign to the entire Galatian letter, and the whole New Testament. The pursuit of sacred studies, the thinking of loving and generous thoughts and the soul's welcome of the thoughts and attitudes of the Saviour, all of these things coming from the indwelling Spirit but remaining only if they are desired and welcomed - all of these things "lust against the flesh." I have a playtime with my sons after supper each evening until about 7:00 p.m. Now I have two possibilities. Search. We are not perfect yet, so we still *sin. Go to, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use our convenient. Circumcision happened to be the foremost requirement of the Judaizers who were teaching the Galatians to work their way into God's favor. This is the will of God for you: your freedom. Galatians 5:7-15 Love Fulfills The Law. I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision. Christ does not want you to relate to him as a debtor who uses the law to make installment payments on an unending loan. Here he cited the great motivator of Christian morality, namely love of the brethren. Before moving to a study of the next paragraph, the student should observe the double reference "in Christ" (Galatians 5:6) and "in the Lord" (Galatians 5:10), indicating the ever-present consciousness on his part of the dominating concept which pervades all of his writings, that salvation is always a matter of one's being "in Christ," who alone is righteous, and whose perfect faith and perfect obedience are the only true ground of redemption for any man. 194-216. Jump to Passage. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. And Paul says that if you try to earn dividends from Christ from your own investment of circumcision or dietary rules or feast days, Christ will profit you nothing. And note well in Galatians 5:5 that faith is not merely a past decision. "[11] The danger of the situation, however, was not to be judged by the small size of the defecting group. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535) by Martin Luther Translated by Theodore Graebner (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1949) Chapter 5, pp. 2 Mark my words! The third reason why the gratitude ethic is wrong is that it tends to think of God's work for us as only in the past. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof. He goes about his work as though a yoke of slavery were on his back and a big heavy frog were on his bottom lip. If you take upon yourself the yoke of the law and aim to use it to achieve your own righteousness before God, you have submitted to a yoke of slavery and are not standing in the freedom for which Christ freed you. The obvious and undeniable teaching of the New Testament is that the Spirit is in Christians and that Christians are in the Spirit. [17] John William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 471. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 143. The cross of Christ was preeminently above everything else the center and citadel of Christian hope; and if Paul trusted circumcision for anything, reliance upon the Great Atonement would have been forfeited. Galatians 5:1(NASB) Verse Thoughts. Recently we've hit on a new idea: Karsten reads The Tower of Geburah to all of us while I build towers out of blocks with Abraham on the floor. A. Now verse 4 says the same thing as verses 2 and 3, warning us to stand fast in freedom and not submit to a yoke of slavery: "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by law; you have fallen away from grace." Paul in this summarized his teaching of the last three chapters preceding this (Galatians 5:1-5), and then distinguished between the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit, appealing to the Galatians to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:6-26).For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Liberty characterizes the Christian life. Extensive comments on various items in this list have already been made in my commentary on Romans and my commentary on 1,2Corinthians in this series. 194-216 Galatians 5:1-13 _____ The apostle Paul did not list tongue-speaking, charismatic experiences, visions, premonitions, and things like that as being connected in any manner with the "fruit of the Spirit." Galatians 6 Commentary; Galatians 5:1-6 Born to Be Free. In this passage is the key to righteous living, Everyone is familiar with the seductive force of carnal, or fleshly desire, a force that operates subjectively within the minds of people, aided, of course, by all kinds of external suggestions and allurements. Embrace your freedom to reject those values and ways. So verse 2 teaches that slavery is when you reject Christ as the merciful benefactor who gives us freely a share in his endless profit. 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