Fallen from Grace, Part 1
Galatians 5:1-6
Galatians 5 and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 12. In the book of Galatians the issues are very clearly drawn. There are only two religions in the world. It appears on the surface as though there are thousands of religions, but there aren't. There are only two religions. The religion of human achievement and the religion of divine grace. There aren't any other. Now the religion of human achievement comes under all kinds of brand names, but its all the same thing. It is Satan's system of religion. It is the system that says you can redeem yourself by your own efforts, your own good deeds, your own good works.
In the book of Galatians it happens to come under the brand name of circumcision and mosaic legalism. But it could come under any name, Muhammadism, Buddhism, etc., etc. It's all the same thing right on down to the things that bother us, right at the very steps of our houses Jehovah's Witnesses and so forth. It's really all the very same religion. It's the religion of human achievement. Now throughout all of the history of man, God's religion of divine grace as been opposed by Satan's religion of achievement or self effort or self righteousness. And the book of Galatians jumps right in the middle of this particular controversy and solves it for all time. The book of Galatians defends capably and effectively the doctrines of divine grace over against the doctrines of human achievement.
For every man who ever lived, ultimate salvation boils down to as simple a question as this, do I magnify my own achievement or do I humbly bow beneath the grace of God? That is the issue that faces every man. Today it's defined, do I magnify my own achievement or do I humbly bow beneath the cross of Jesus Christ? Now as the apostle Paul has carefully outlined the fact that grace is superior to the religion of achievement. He continues to do so even as he begins the third and final section of the book in Chapter 5. There have been three sections in the book and all of them deal with the same thing. They all deal with the doctrines of grace being superior to the doctrines of works or human achievement.
We saw in the first section, for example, the historical argument where Paul argues for grace against law on the basis of his own experience and the testimony of others. Then in the second section, we saw the theological argument where the apostle Paul amasses Old Testament scripture to defend the fact that grace is superior to works. And now as we come to this third section, we find the moral argument. Here Paul appeals to the practical inside changes brought about by justification by faith. So he shows that historically, doctrinally, and morally or practically grace supersedes works as the way to God.
And in Chapters 5 and 6, we have the third and final section. Chapter 1, Paul defends his apostleship. Chapter 2, he defended his doctrine of justification by faith, and Chapter 3, he applied that doctrine to practical living. And he shows us that the life of faith really works. And that's really an important argument isn't it. It's one thing to know it was a historical fact. It's one thing to know it's a theological fact. It's something else to know it works. The life of faith works. That is what is in Chapters 5 an 6.
Now in this practical section, Paul emphasizes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the reason he emphasizes the ministry of the Holy Spirit is this, it is the Holy Spirit who makes the life of faith work. The life of faith wouldn't work any better than the life of law or life under legalism if it weren't for the indwelling Holy Spirit who empowers us. And so in Chapters 5 and 6, most particularly in Chapter 5, he gives great emphasis to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and calls on all men to yield to the Spirit's control.
Let me just illustrate that. Look at verse 5. "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." Verse 16, "Walk in the Spirit." Verse 18, "If you be led by the Spirit you're not under the law." Verse 25, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." And there in just those simple remarks we have the emphasis of Chapter 5 on the Holy Spirit. To make the life of faith in grace work depends upon the power of the Holy Spirit. So we come to this practical section of implementing the life of faith, implementing the life of grace in the energy of the Holy Spirit. And this becomes a great argument for justification by faith, because if justification by faith really works that's a substantial amount of evidence in its favor.
Now Paul begins with a very potent exhortation to the Galatians not to surrender the freedom which they have in Christ, but to stand firm in it. They had known that freedom. They had been set free in Jesus Christ, and then the Judaisers came and tried to put them back into bondage. The bondage of legalism, and at the very start of Chapter 5, verse 1 Paul cries out to them don't do that. Don't go back into the bondage of legalism.
Let's look at verse 1, and we need to look at it very carefully and we'll use it as kind of an introduction then we'll proceed into our outline beginning with verse 2. Verse 1, "Standfast therefore," and I'm reading it out of the authorized and I'll explain perhaps a better translation in a moment. "Standfast therefore in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free. And be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage." Now the translation of the first part, right out of the literal Greek is this. "For freedom Christ has set us free." "For freedom Christ has set us free.
Now what Paul is saying is this, that Christ set us free to be free men. He did not set us free to be in bondage again. He set us free to be free. You say well, were the Galatian Gentiles in bondage? Certainly, they were in bondage to a legal system. It was not the mosaic system, but it was a system of law under which they were bound. But when Christ set them free He set them free to be free. Not to go back into bondage again. That's what it's saying at the beginning of the verse.
Our former life was slavery. Jesus Christ was our liberator. Conversion was the act of emancipation, and the Christian life is the life of a free man. And this freedom as expressed in Galatians is freedom from law, freedom from law. It's freedom on conscience. Freedom on the tyranny of the legal system. Freedom from the terrible frustration and pressure of struggling to keep the law when you can't. Freedom from the terrible pressure that comes by trying to do things that will gain God's meriting favor. It is the freedom of being totally accepted with God and knowing it, because of what Christ has done.
Now freedom from the very oppressing awareness that we can't keep the law is tremendous freedom. And this is what is given us in Christ. But let me hasten to add that freedom is more than just a negative thing. It's not just a not being under the pressure concept or a not having to keep the law or a not anything. It's also a positive endowment. A freedom is not just being out of prison, freedom has all kinds of positive factors. In fact, in Romans 8 we find that, you know, all through Romans 7 and even 6, the man there is pictured as kind of a slave. In 6 particularly, he's been a servant of sin. But he's set free in Chapter 8 and we find that all of a sudden what the law could not do, God could do by the Spirit.
Whereas, the man under the legal system could never please God, could never do what God wanted, could never really fulfill ultimately God's law, through the Holy Spirit indwelling that man, he now has the capacity to do those things, so it's not just being out from under law, it's being able to fulfill the law in the energy of the Holy Spirit. And we're just reviewing some things. Positively then, freedom as Paul sees it is the state in which a person is walking and living in the Spirit. Our freedom is walking and living in the Spirit.
Later on in Galatians he says "It is then producing the fruit of the Spirit." Also in Chapter 5, he says, "It is doing the will of God with joy." And later on in Chapter 6 he says "It is fulfilling the law of Christ." So being free in Christ is not just being out from under law, but it's having a brand new capacity to fulfill everything God wants in your life and that by the power of the Spirit who is in you, this is freedom. Freedom to do the moral law, but not out of constraint externally, but out of power internally. The Spirit produces the ability in us to do what the pressure from the outside could never do before we knew Christ.
Now notice again verse 1. And in the translation we gave you Christ has made us free to be free. That's what he's saying. And I think we ought to note this, it is Christ who has made us free. It is not our own merits. It is not our own deeds. He himself did it by becoming a curse for us. Chapter 3:13 says, "He redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us."
Now Christ paid a high price, the sacrifice of Himself to set us free. And wouldn't it be ridiculous if Christ were to set us free only to put us in bondage again. You know there are some Christians who live in terrible legalistic bondage. And this verse speaks to them. Do you think...and how ridiculous it is that Christ let you out of your cell only to put you in another cell? No, that isn't freedom, that's just transfer. You've been freed under the law a person already had no more liberty than a child under a tutor and a guardian. Not old enough to act independently and to act alone. He was always under restrictions, always giving orders, always giving commands, and so it is with the person under the law.
But once a person comes to Christ Paul has said in Galatians he becomes a mature man. He becomes a full grown son. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He is a free man. He is no longer bound by external restraints. He is free in the Spirit to act out his maturity and his liberty. And now these people had already been set free, they had already been liberated there was no reason under the sun to put themselves to put themselves under the ceremonial law of Moses. There was no reason under the sun to put themselves under the rituals of Israel. That was done away with. They were set free and yet here they go putting on a straightjacket of legalism again.
Now let me just give you another illustration that may help. The reason that we put people in prison is because they do not have the eternal restraint to keep themselves from committing crimes. We put people in prison because we have to put them under external controls because they're not able to control themselves internally, right? We say to that guy, he's got to be institutionalized. What does that mean? We've got to put him in box that he can't get out of. Why? Because he cannot control himself internally.
In other words, he does evil things. He does unlawful things. He does harmful things. Well, the same thing is true of a person who's committed to an asylum for those who are mentally ill. Those who are sick, as we use the term. And the reason we do that is because they do not have the ability inside to control themselves so we control them outside. That's exactly what the law does. The law is like a prison. It keeps people bounded by walls, because they don't have internal capacity to govern themselves within the limits of law.
Now when a person becomes a Christian, that doesn't mean that all of a sudden he is free to be a criminal. It means that he now has the capacity to walk out of his cell and still live within the bounds of law, but not by being walled in, but by the internal restraints that are built in through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, do you see? That's liberty. It's the liberty not to need to be bounded by rules, but to be free to walk in the Spirit and as he says later, if you do walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill, what, the lust of the flesh.
So it is not a question of the bounds or the walls. In the Old Testament, they needed walls and they were all in jail, because there wasn't any internal power. And so we've been set free and the Spirit of God is the control. Now if I place myself under a legal system, I go back into a cell and I get into one of these deals that we don't do this and we don't do that and I'll never do this and this is our little thing and we do this and so forth and so on and here are the rules and you better keep them or you're not going to be saved. You're going to do this or else, etc. All you have done is eliminate the necessity for the Holy Spirit, right?
You said in effect, I'm going to live within my little walls, you've rejected internal control and you've opted out for externals. That's putting yourself under bondage. You know what Christian liberty is? It's the freedom to follow the leading of the Spirit in my life independent of any external controls. The rules haven't changed. God's morality hasn't changed, but I'm not confined by it externally. It's produced internally through the Holy Spirit. Well, I hope that helps you to get at least a grasp on it.
But what happened to these Galatians? They were...they had acknowledged salvation and it was by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is then going to move in and take up a work. And He is going to guide them from the inside. He is going to change their behavior. They walked out of their prison. They don't need walls anymore, they have internal controls. They're under control internally. And what have they done? They have that Holy Spirit there. They turn right around, walk right back into a cell that they don't even need to be in and thus confine the Holy Spirit to their cell.
And that's what Paul is saying. Christ set you free to be free. Don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. You don't think he went to all that trouble to turn you loose so you can go down a corridor and back into another cell. All you've done is stifle the Holy Spirit. Now the particular yoke of bondage that the Gentiles were under at this point or were at least being brought to their attention was circumcision because the Judaisers, the teachers that had arrived in Galatian were telling them they had to be circumcised in order to be really accepted by God. That God only accepted Jews or those who had the sign of the covenant. And circumcision was the sign of the covenant. If you didn't have the sign of the covenant, you weren't accepted by God.
And so they were telling all these Gentiles that you've got to be circumcised which was just like ushering them all into a cell again. Having escaped from one ritualism are they now going to run right into another one? Now I'll be honest though, I think it's in some ways easier to live in a cell than it is to make the use of your freedom isn't it. Wouldn't you agree to that? I mean if you were in a cell, you'd probably be a pretty good person.
I mean if you were just walled in and all sealed off there wouldn't be a whole lot of things you could do. It is easier. It is easier to live in the confines of a prison as a slave than it is to make the right use of your Spirit directed freedoms. Illustration Israel in the wilderness. Wanted to leave the wilderness. Wanted to forget the promise land and go back to where? Egypt. Much easier to be a slave in Egypt than to exercise your freedom independently.
And there are some people who are just more comfortable when somebody lays down all the rules. They're not yielded enough to the Holy Spirit to live their own lives and so they have to live within somebody else's external frames. Now this is the theme of these verses. Christianity is freedom not bondage. It's not freedom to do evil. It's freedom to do good from inside power, not outside restraint. Paul specifically then attacks the yoke that has been threatening the Galatians, self-righteousness, fleshly works, religion. And it's just as damnable as any kind of aboriginal animism. It's just as damnable as Satan worship. It's just as damnable as any of the worst a cultic thing you could ever imagine, even though it comes under the title of sophistication that we know as Judaism.
In this case, the religion of self effort, the religion of works, the religion of human achievement was associated with the Judaisers and circumcision. Now Paul makes his appeal then in verse 1. He supports his appeal in verses 2-12. And we'll take verses 2-6 and 7-12 next time. The passage is divided into two parts. Now watch, Paul makes his appeal and then he starts in his attack against the error of the Judaisers. It's divided into two parts. Verses 2-6, he attacks false doctrine. And in verses 7-12, he attacks the propagators of false doctrine. So we could say that verses 2-6 the works of false doctrine. Verses 7-12, the works of false teachers. So he attacks not only their teaching, but he attacks them as well. He discusses the nature of false doctrine, then he discusses the character of false teachers.
We'll look at the false doctrine this time and next time false teacher. All right, verses 2-6 then, the work of false doctrine. Now the false doctrine said this. The false doctrine of the Judaisers and it's the same as any work system just their particular little handle on it said that Christians had to be circumcised to be accepted by God. Now you say well, that's a small thing it's only a minor surgical task. Why make such a big fuss. Besides many doctors think it's very healthy to be circumcised. What's the big deal?
Well, Paul made a big fuss over it in this case. The case of Gentiles, because the false teachers were pushing circumcision not because it was a physical health measure, not even because it was a ceremonial ritual, which he tolerated in the case of Timothy, but he did not tolerate it here because it was a saving act in the minds of the Judaisers. He didn't mind if it was health reasons I'm sure. He wouldn't have even minded if it had been a Jew who wanted to be circumcised in order that he might have a better avenue of witness with his own people. For that reason, he took care of it in Timothy's case. But he did mind it, and he minded it greatly when somebody introduced it as a saving act. It stood for a particular kind of religion that he hated and that God hated and that was the religion of human achievement. The religion of good works. The salvation that comes from legalism.
They were saying in effect that faith in Christ was insufficient to redeem them. That Moses started it, Christ continued it, but you've got to finish it, legalism. Now Paul suggests four things the doctrine of salvation by works produces. And we'll look at them. Four results of the doctrine of salvation by circumcision. Salvation by works. One, and these are really important. One, "Christ profits you," what, "nothing." Verse 2, "Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing."
Now you notice he introduces this was a strong statement of apostolic authority. "Behold no less than I Paul say unto you." And here it could be that he is establishing his apostolic authority by using his name. There is another thought, he may also be emphasiz