GALATIANS 5 -THE LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
GALATIANS 5 - THE LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
Preached by: Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Galatians 5:1: “STAND FAST therefore in the liberty where with Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
This verse strikes the keynote of the letter to the Galatians. It stands equally as the conclusion of what has gone before and as the commencement of that which follows. “The controversy relates to the liberty of conscience, when placed before the tribunal of God.” (Calvin)
Paul has established the doctrine of the “Justification by Faith.” He now turns to the practical outworking of this doctrine. He faces the worst misunderstanding of all: that of antinomianism, the idea that freedom from the law was freedom to disregard its precepts, and therefore to sin at will.
5: 18-21: But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like; of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
How can this be? He has hammered that Christianity is Justification by Faith plus nothing.
There is a progression of maturity once we are saved and justified by Faith. As we are sanctified and walk in the Spirit, then we will not commit these sins. This has nothing to do with our salvation and life after death. This has to do with our walking in the Spirit in the Third Realm of the Holy of Holies. If we overcome these sins of the flesh, then we are walking in mature son-ship with the full inheritance of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
The new life of the believer is not his own life at all, but rather the life of Christ in him. So Paul had earlier replied to those who accused him of making Christ promote sin (2:17): far from reducing Jews to the status of Gentile sinners, Christ has lifted both Jew and Gentile alike to an entirely new realm. Both Jew and Gentile died with Christ and now lives in His new life (2:20; 4:19).
Developing this thought, he now shows that the freedom of Christ is not freedom for willful thoughts and desires; paradoxically, that is the worst bondage of all, bondage to the flesh (the sinful nature): “ Adultery, fornication uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and revelings.”
Rather this liberty is the holy freedom of Christ Himself becoming my own freedom. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. The yoke in verse one is a yoke of slavery, and thus applicable to the slavery of the flesh as to the bondage of Mt. Sinai. 5:13: defines liberty: “For brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another”
True freedom finds its fulfillment in slavery---the slavery of love. Serve one another stands in emphatic contrast to the yoke of slavery of Verse 1. Second, the result of faith is the enduement of the Spirit and the Spirit is the opposite of the flesh (3:2, 3). The result of faith is the practical and continuing ministration of the Spirit from the Source of life (3:5). Where the Spirit reigns, the flesh cannot have the pre-eminence.
5:4-5: “You who are looking to the Law to save you are cut off from Christ. By placing yourselves under the Law, you have fallen from God’s Grace. We on the other hand who have received God’s spirit by Faith wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. There could be no compromise with those who would strangle the gospel of Christ in its cradle; nor, for its part, could the law demand other than total obedience.”
In evaluating Verses 2-5, we must remember that Paul himself circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3). It is not circumcision as an act which is in view as verse 6 shows, but rather circumcision entered into as a deliberate commitment to the Jewish rite, or as relying on its efficacy for salvation.
5:6: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love. It is the reality that matters, not the form. (1 C. 7:18, 19) “Circumcision is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.”
This is not to contradict the teaching of Galatians, and to reinstate the law upon its throne. Far from it, for Paul is to claim in vs. 14 of this chapter that the entire law is summed up in love. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is the first sign of a remarkable turn in the argument, of which he is very explicit about those who will inherit the Kingdom of God and those who will not. He now finds the law and faith ranged on the same side in this new battle against the flesh and the antinomian heresy which is its fruit. Both passages must be read in the light of Romans 12: 8-10 and 1 Co.13 (where the trinity of faith, hope and love is developed in classic form).
Verse 7 betrays the intense emotion under which the apostle wrote: small wonder, when even his own words were twisted against him. (11) “And I brethren, if I preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased? Yet his touching confidence in his converts (10) and his sense of tragedy in their lapse (7) both reveal the warmth of his heart and explain the roughness of his denunciation of the false teachers. The passage ends with a mocking reference to circumcision ( Phil. 3:2) “Look out for those dogs (Judaizers, legalists), look out for those mischief-makers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”(Amplified) N.I.V. Hints at the play on words between the Greek for cut in on you and emasculate.
5:13-15: Paul now turns to the first part of his reply to the antinomians. His first reply was a paradox. He now finds its expression in two further paradoxes, both products of the alchemy of love. As stated above, True freedom finds its fulfillment in slavery---the slavery of love. Second the law finds its complete fulfillment in the equation of faith with love. So, by a turn in the argument which was the achievement of an inspired genius, faith and law are seen no longer as antagonists, but as allies. It is a turn of thought for which the transition from the opposition of faith and law to that of flesh and Spirit has cleared the way that through the Spirit we wait for the hope of righteousness by faith; that faith which works by love.
5: 16-25: The second part of the answer to the antinomian perversion of Paul’s teaching is now developed. The answer lies in the place of the Spirit in justification by faith. The ministry, presence and power of the Holy Spirit have been seen in chapter 3 as the proof of the truth of Paul’s teaching. (Vs. 18)
Works are now seen as an essential part of the gospel of faith, but they are works expressing themselves as the inevitable fruit of salvation and of the reception of the Spirit, not works as forming a painful pathway to a salvation which it is beyond man’s power to win. Hence the apostle does not in fact use the word works’ specifically; there are evil acts of the flesh (19), but the virtues are fruit of the Spirit (22). Where such works exist, the Law is irrelevant; “against such things there is no law.”
The fruit of the Spirit are essential signs of the Holy Spirit. Here appears in embryo a theme which is later to be developed in the Roman letter: the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit (Rom. 7).
Christians have two natures and the struggle between them is a supreme truth of the N.T. This warfare is a continual battle of dying daily. The source of all desire to do evil resides in the flesh. It is animated by Satan. These two powers ( God the Holy Spirit and Satan) compete for our wills. Because of the mutual conflict between them, no matter what we would do, the other opposes it.
The Holy Spirit’s leading is resisted by the old nature and vice versa. If you want to do well, it will be opposed by your flesh. If you want to do evil, it will be opposed by the Spirit. Those who live by their old natures will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Vs.17) “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things you want.” Calvin distinguishes between the directing capacity of the law and the penalty of the law. It’s directing capacity remains, but grace frees us from the penalty.
In the chapter we started off with Stand in your liberty.
Verse 16 admonishes us to Walk in the spirit that we not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Verse 25 exhorts us to live in the Spirit. “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
When we receive Christ, we receive His death. As surely as we now live beyond the realm of the Law, we also can live beyond the realm of the flesh. This is a continual dying daily. Our existence shifts from the flesh to the Spirit (Col. 1:13).
We actually “sit in the heavenlies” in Christ. As far as eternity is concerned, both our bodies and old natures are dead. We can live on this side of the grave in eternity by living and walking in the Spirit. When death strikes, we leave our old bodies and old natures behind to be with Christ in the Spirit (2 Cor. 5:8).
A Christian must do two things: (1) Resist the devil (2) Practice the presence of Christ (dwelling in the new nature).
One is a fight the other a fellowship.
Before there can be any real surrender for the crucified life, the believer must deal directly with the one who has the power to keep him from it. The Christian warfare is real. Many who long for the crucified life have yet to start fighting. The fight comes first, for victory it-self means to triumph in battle. To be an overcomer ---means we have to overcome.
In verses 5 26- 6:10 Paul the pastor asserts himself over every other capacity. Here are the gentle and human rules which are to regulate inter-personal relations. The absence of self-centeredness, of pre-occupation with my own dignity and standing, is to be balanced by that true concern which places myself in the position of another, and acts to that other as I would then wish others to act toward myself.
Yet, this forgetfulness of self, this unselfconscious thought for others, can be expected only of one who has learned to live with himself; to accept his own abilities and callings, and the niche in which his own inherent gifts must place him. Only in this way can a man attain the quiet assurance and confidence of a responsibility taken and conscientiously fulfilled. We will finish Galatians next week.
Tonight I plan to continue the series on Spiritual Warfare with the Commander and Chief of the Armies of Heaven.
Preached by: Carolyn Sissom, Pastor,
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.www.eastgateministries.com
Scripture from K.J.V. except as notated. Bibliography F.F. Bruce Bible Commentary, F. Roy Coad and quotes from C.S. Lovett’s Lights on Galatians