GALATIANS
Liberty –
the just shall live by faith 3:11 “Stand
fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
with the
yoke of bondage.”
(wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal 5:1)
BACKGROUND
Paul
writes this epistle around 50 AD just
after he gets back from his first trip, 45 – 48 AD (the
details being in
Acts 13-14), to the region of Galatia. In this epistle he
also
records the disagreement he had at a conference with Peter and Barnabas
and
their associating with the Judaizers, as Paul calls them ‘evil
workers’, that
had come from Jerusalem.
It had
been a very profitable
trip in that he was greatly welcomed in the region and a lot of people,
generally Gentiles, had received Christ as Saviour.
But after
he left this region, there were certain false Jewish teachers
that came
along on his coat-tail, insisting that Gentiles could not
become
Christians without keeping the laws of Moses eg days, times
and
festivals (Gal 4:10), and in
particular, circumcision (Acts 15:1).
As Paul says “…certain men which
came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”
(Acts 15:1)
These false
teachers, Judaizers, were not willing to accept Paul’s
doctrine of
getting saved, and staying saved, without the works of the law. They
insisted
that a Gentile could not become a Christian unless he first adhered to
Moses’
laws. They made it their business to trouble and vex Christian
churches, being
fixed in their determination to make Christianity a sect and a branch
of
Judaism. Much like today, certain Jews, and Jew loving people, are
infiltrating
churches with their demonstrations of Jewish rites and festivals. They
are
intent on stamping “Moses” on everything and drawing believers away
from the
sufficiency of Christ.
Now the
Galatians, being a trusting (or gullible or fickle) lot, received these
false
Jewish teachers with the same enthusiasm that they had welcomed Paul.
But he
calls these teachers dogs and evil workers who put
their faith in
the flesh. He says to “Beware of dogs beware of evil
workers,
beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God
in the
spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh.”
(Phil 3:2-3). You see,
dogs rip and tear their meat before they eat it. Similarly, Paul says
these
false teachers would rip and tear at the true spiritual circumcision
that
occurs when a person gets saved. God’s spiritual circumcision is a
divine
operation whereby he separates a person from their sins of the flesh,
and
thereby creates a sinless inner man that is not contaminated by the
sins of the
flesh (Col 2:11). These false
teachers were ignoring God’s circumcision in favour of their own that
entailed
“Do this! Don’t do that! You can’t eat this! You must get physically
circumcised!” and so on. It was a ripping and tearing away of God’s
perfect
operation of removing sins and substituting it with their own physical
laws of
“Do’s and Don’t’s”. This is called concision. The only circumcision
that Paul
recommended was that of the spiritual kind where “… ye are
circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of
the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” (Col
2:11).
So what
followed in Galatia was a general explosion of circumcision among the
Gentile
Christians.
Note: As we
know, circumcision was
the introductory rite into Judaism. Gentiles could indeed become Jews
through
circumcision and the observation of all the ceremonial laws. However
the time
for becoming a Jew had passed and had been surpassed for the necessity
for all
to become Christians.
Paul
then
writes this epistle to the Galatian churches warning them with “Are ye
so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by
the
flesh?” (Gal 3:3). He urges
them to “Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Behold, I
Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a
debtor to
do the whole law. (Gal 5:1-3)
Although a
necessary part of old testament Judaism, Paul clearly states that
circumcision
has nothing to do with getting saved and nothing to do with staying
saved. It
was obsolete! Instead of becoming more perfect Paul warns the opposite
would
happen –they would end up in a worse state.
CHAPTER
SUMMARIES
Ch 1 =
Paul’s Credentials direct from God
Ch 2 =
Paul is the chief apostle
Ch 3 =
Bewitched so soon
Ch 4 = Two
sons
Ch 5 =
Liberty with freedom in Christ
Ch 6 =
Meekness and bear one another’s burdens
Ch 1 =
Paul’s Credentials direct from God
Paul
states that he marvels that just a couple of
years on from his visit to the region, the Galatians churches were
returning to
the beggarly elements of the law (Gal
4:9). They had begun to walk in the Spirit,
and according to Paul’s doctrine, after they first got saved but were
now
guilty of the heresy and blasphemy of walking in the flesh in order to
become
perfect (Gal 3:3).
Infiltrating
Jewish leaders, called the Judaizers,
were wanting to nullify Pauls’ claim to be an apostle in the eyes of
the
Galatians. They were saying that because Paul was not one of the
original
twelve (indeed thirteen if you include Matthias Acts 1:26), and was a pretender and a
fraud.
So Paul
begins this first chapter with a very
forthright claim of who he was – an apostle, not of man, but direct
from God
and not given to him by man, but again, by God himself (v1). He has a
very
strident vindication of himself as chosen by God as an
apostle born
out of due time (1Cor 15:8) with his
gospel being given direct
from God.
Now Paul
marvels they have removed themselves from
the sufficiency of Christ to another gospel (v6) and that those
preaching this
false gospel be accursed (v8). He tells how he surpassed all others in
his
pursuit of Jewish law and tradition (v14) and how he spent three years
in
Arabia (v17) after his conversion. In essence he proclaims “Look you
Galatians,
I ought to know what I am talking about, because I was the chief of all
these
false teachers. I was the first and foremost Jew of a Jew! No-one
surpassed me
in my zeal for the keeping of the law and persecuting Christians!”
After his
three years in Arabia, Paul then goes to
Jerusalem and confers with Peter and James, the Lord’s brother. He
meets with
them to see if he is on the right track, because he doesn’t want to run
in vain
in his new found faith (v18). He wants to know if he is headed in the
right
direction.
Ch 2 =
Paul is the Chief Apostle
“Then
fourteen years after I went up
again to Jerusalem…” (Gal 2:1). This
will be fourteen years after he
first went to Jerusalem to see Peter and James (Gal 1:18-19)
YEAR |
EVENT |
DETAILS |
32 AD |
The cross |
|
34 |
Paul saved |
Paul’s
Damascus road conversion |
34-37
|
Arabia |
Goes to
Arabia for three years (Gal 1:17-18). Visits Mt
Sinai in Arabia (Gal 4:25) which is
over on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba. Mt Sinai is not at
the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula – Bible maps have it completely wrong. |
37
|
Returns
from
Arabia
|
Then after
three years (in the
desert of Arabia) I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter,
and ... James the Lord's brother. Gal
1:18-19 Paul
probably says “Look Peter, you’re the knowledgeable head of the
apostles, and you James, you’re the Lord’s brother, so you know
a lot about Jesus. Let me run a few things by you what was shown me in
the desert of Mt Sinai. Tell me if I’m on the right track or not?” |
43 |
Paul
caught up to the third heaven (paradise) 2 Cor 12:2-4 |
This is
God, no doubt, preparing Paul for his first trip to begin two
years later in 45AD. God takes him up to the third heaven where
he hears “….unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter.” 2Cor 12:4. |
45-48 |
Trip 1 |
TRIP 1 to the
churches in Galatia |
50
|
14 years after AD37 |
Then
FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER I went up AGAIN to Jerusalem with
Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. Gal
2:1 This is
the meeting called the Jerusalem Council where Paul withstands
Peter for being a hypocrite Gal 2:11.
How the tables have turned! Peter guides Paul in 37AD but now the
reverse occurs where Paul teaches Peter! |
50
|
Writes
Galatians |
Two years
after his first
trip to Galatia, and after the Council at Jerusalem, Paul marvels they
are so soon removed from Christ (Gal 1:6) |
It seems
ironic that after meeting with Peter fourteen
years previous, he ends up withstanding Peter to the face (v11) and
confronts
him and Barnabas with their two faced dissimulation (v13). You
see, the
Judaizers had come from Jerusalem and had infiltrated the proceedings.
Peter,
Barnabas and others had bowed to their doctrine rather than to Paul’s
(v12).
They went and sat at the Jews table as a sign of respect to the laws
given to
Moses (v12) and so treated Paul like a leper. Although Peter and
Barnabas were
Christians, they acted like weak babies when standing for their beliefs
when
confronted by these hard headed Jews. Paul says to Peter that it was
wrong to
now compel the Gentiles who had become Christians to live like the Jews
(v14)
and to do so is to sin (v18). In fact, Paul says to do this, means that
Christ
died in vain (21).
Ch 3 =
Bewitched so soon
Paul just
can’t get over the fact that a ‘witchcraft type spell’ (bewitched v1)
seemed to
have settled on the Christian churches in Galatia. They were trying to
combine
the Jewish law of festivals, days, times and circumcision into their
Christianity (v5) and Paul stresses the fact, that this mixture
wouldn’t work
(v2). As he says “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the
Spirit, are
ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (v2-3). He goes on to
say that even
Abraham, the Jews’ earthly father, and indeed their father in the
faith, simply
“…
believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness. (v6). For
Abraham to be right in God’s eyes, all God
required from
him was that he believed God with no rites, laws, rituals or festivals.
What did
God want Abraham to believe? God wanted Abraham to believe (have the
faith) the
impossible - that he be would the father of many nations even though he
was a
one hundred year old barren man. Abraham says to himself “How can this
be
possible? Well, if God promised this, it must be true.” Dear Reader,
you have
to admit that this would be the ultimate in faith if you were told
something
similar by God?
This act
of
believing (having faith) God gave Abraham right standing with God
(righteousness) (Gen 15:6).
Paul then
says that if they wanted to keep the one law of circumcision, then they
had
better keep the lot. They would be cursed if they didn’t keep all the
laws
given to Moses. As Paul says “For as many as are of the works of
the law are
under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (v10).
This is called the curse of the law (v13) because it demands 100%
obedience.
Then Paul
says that anyone who can show faith like Abraham can be called, and
indeed are,
“… the same
are the children of Abraham. (v7) Paul
says all those
who have faith like this are justified before God – they will be
blessed
(v8-9).
Paul then
hammers home the truth that struck Martin Luther as he wrestled for
years on
how to get right with God. Luther read Habakkuk
2:4 (also repeated three other places in
the Bible Rom 1:17, Heb 10:28 and here in Gal 3:11) “But that
no man is justified by
the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by
faith.”
(Gal 3:11). You see,
Luther had submitted himself to all sorts
of restrictions, laws, physical deprivations and self-inflicted
tortures with
whippings, fastings, starvations, the wearing of jagged metal that
would pierce
his skin under his clothes, and humiliations as he lay in doorways and
let
others stand on him and wipe their muddy shoes on him. This has been
the cry of
man throughout all ages. Job asks the question “How then
can man be justified
with God? or how
can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4).
Now these
new Gentile Christians were ‘clean and justified before God’ as they
had their
sins already washed away. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the
faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the
kings of the
earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood
(Rev 1:5). But now they
were being hoodwinked into believing that if they got circumcised, that
would
enhance their Christianity and become more perfect. It’s like the lie
that
having washed your car and made it shiny and sparkling clean, you will
now make
it more clean by throwing mud on it! As Paul states This only would
I learn
of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of
faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
made
perfect by the flesh? (Gal 3:2-3)
The
remainder of the chapter (v13-29) explains the purpose of the law and
why God
cursed the Jews with its demands (v13). Because the law is from God it
is 100%
perfect as “… the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just,
and good.
(Rom 7:12). Just as fish
bait makes fish
appear, so the law does the same in exposing sin in man. So Paul
explains that
the function of the holy law is to curse man because he can’t keep its
demands
(v13).
Paul
explains that God giving the law to the Jews 430 years after Abraham
believed,
didn’t cancel or annul the promise given to Abraham by his believing
and being
justified before God (v17-18). He explains the reason that the law was
given in
that the Jews had become ignorant of their wretched sinfulness (v19).
How do
governments reduce the crime rate? Simple, just abolish laws –
abortion,
sodomy, fornication, drunkenness and so on. The opposite is true –
introduce
laws and people become aware of sin. Not a popular move.
But Paul
continues his encouragement by saying the law is good because it takes
us to
someone, Jesus Christ, who can keep it on our behalf (v24). Paul
states
that the purpose of the law was to show man that he is a sinner (v22)
and that
the law is our schoolmaster (v24) that keeps saying “You are
not
good enough! You’ve failed again! You must have 100%
perfection.”
What then
was the law? What did it demand? There are 613 commandments neatly
contained in
the Ten Commandments and these are further summarized into two. What
were these
two?
Jesus
says
“… Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On
these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt 22:37-40).
Of course,
Paul’s readers, indeed those of us today, are complete, utter and
miserable
failures when it comes to the demands of these two commandments! Even
all the
good things, our righteousnesses we do, are nothing but “…filthy rags; and we
all do fade as a
leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
(Is 64:6)
Now Paul
states that the law which was given four hundred and thirty years after
Abraham
believed, in no way cancels the promise given to Abraham (v18). But
simply
explained, the law was put on the Jews at Mt Sinai because of their
wilful
ignorance of their own sins and disobedience (v19).
Paul says
to the Jews “You need someone (Jesus Christ) to take God’s
examination
of “You must be sinless from the day you were born to the day you
die”
for you and then put his (Jesus Christ) perfect results on your School
Report!”
Such that we can say “Look God! I passed all that the law has demanded
of me! I
got 100% ! Jesus Christ sat the exam for me … and I didn’t even have to
do a
thing! How good is that!!!!” It’s like did you ever want ‘the brain’ in
your
class at school to sit your exams for you but you get his results on
your
report Card? And God says “Well done, please enter heaven.”
But they
wouldn’t.
So Paul
concludes by saying that anyone like the jailer who obeys “…
Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved … (Acts
16:31), will be called the seed of
Abraham and have their faith accounted for righteousness (v29).
What had
happened was that the Jew knew that Abraham was circumcised as a sign
of his
believing God (Gen 17:11, Gen 17:24) and this circumcision took place after
he
believed. However, after 430 years of pretending they were obeying and
believing God, the formality of the physical ritual of circumcision had
replaced ‘the believing bit’. They assumed that because they had gotten
circumcised, then they were OK with God and in his ‘good books’. This
is the
danger of churches today that water baptize people - they assume they
must be
saved because they submitted to the ritual of water or are they like
the
Pharisees “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within
full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly
appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity.”
(Matt 23:27-28)
Ch 4 = Two
sons
Now an
exasperated Paul asks further “But now, after that ye have known
God, or
rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements,
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days,
and months,
and times, and years.” (v9-10). He can’t get over
the fact
that “You are now sons of God (v6) so why do you now want to return to
the
curse of the law which you couldn’t, can’t and will never be able to
keep? Why
do you now want to rip the fulfilled law out of Jesus’ hands so that
you can do
a better job obeying it?” The curse of the law is now dead and buried.
It’s a
corpse that’s dead and buried, so why do you now want to dig it out of
the
ground, give it blood transfusion, connect it back up to an oxygen
tank, put on
some make-up and stick a wig on it’s head and pretend it’s still alive?”
You can
see
Paul metaphorically tearing out his hair by the roots.
It’s like
reasoning with a person who, after walking on crushed glass in their
industrial
strength boots, wants to remove these boots, and continue their journey
with
bare feet.
He then
questions whether he has just wasted his time with the lot of them
(v11). He
indeed has questioned them previously (Gal3:4)
whether they are saved or not. The
Galatians were excited and zealous with this new false teaching of the
Judaizers, but Paul says that this was not the right thing to be
zealous about
(v17-18).
Paul then
cleverly returns to the example of Abraham again who had two sons – one
by the
bondwoman Hagar (Ishmael) (v25) and the other by the freewoman Sarah
(Isaac) (v28). The children of Isaac, through Jacob, were the
children of
promise and therefore free while the children from Ishmael were cast
away
(v30).
The
foundation to the story is this: God told Abraham when he was 76 years
old,
that he would be a father of many nations with countless physical
children. So
Abraham says to himself “Well, sounds good.” So he waits and waits and
waits
while he tries and tries and tries with his wife Sarah. No children! So
like a good
wife she suggests he goes in to her servant Hagar and see if she will
give him
a child. Success! Ishmael is born. But here’s the catch – Abraham did
it with
his own efforts and this is why Paul equates this to the law given at
Mt Sinai.
God says at Mt Sinai “You, Israel, think you’re so clever, smart and
righteousness – well try this on for size. I am God and these are my
standards.
This is my law and you will utterly fail to keep it. I am going to
curse you
with its demands, but look, have a go anyway.” And so they try and try
and try
to produce what God wants but they fail and end up with their own
righteous
acts and obedience that Paul equates to an illegitimate child called
‘Ishmael’.
Through their own efforts they will fail miserably and completely.
This is
his
message to the Gentile Christians who were also trying to keep the
Jewish laws.
He says “If you, through disobedience to me by following the dictates
of these
evil workers and Jewish dogs, are going to jump back into the cesspool
of the
law, you will only produce a rejected and castaway spiritual child like
Ishmael. You will come back under bondage because you insist on
producing a
bastard and illegitimate righteousness by your own efforts.”
He goes on
to say “However you gentile Christians, consider that you are already
now free
and are citizens of the Jerusalem above. You now live in this new city
to come
down from heaven. This new Jerusalem is Christ’s wife.”
Now dear
Reader, where do we find this in scripture? In John’s Revelation we
have
2 And I John saw the
holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride
adorned for her husband. Rev 21:2
“….
saying,
Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And
he carried
me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that
great
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,”
Rev 21:9-10
Ishmael
was
the result of Abraham’s action in taking matters into his own hand to
produce
an heir, while Isaac resulted from Abraham believing God. God
miraculously gave
barren Abraham and Sarah the proper heir. Paul concludes by saying
“Look, do
you want return again under bondage? Of course you don’t. Cast away the
demands
of the law and be free (v30-31).
Ch 5 =
Liberty with freedom in Christ
Paul
outlines the bondage trap of doing just a bit
of the law through circumcision (v3). It’s all or nothing – it’s a
package deal
– you have to take the lot! (James 2:10)
He congratulates the Gentile
Christians for having already doing well up till now (v7). Paul says
that if
you start messing around with these evil dogs you’ll be infected. He
equates
this to a baker who puts the rising agent of yeast (leaven) into the
dough. You
know how it works – you get the yeast and dissolve it in some water and
then
you mix it in the flour in the bowl. The yeast that was separate, has
now
infused itself and joined with the flour.
Indeed
Paul
says “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of
you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” (Gal 5:4). Going back to just one
aspect of
the law to become more perfect will infect and ruin everything (v9).
But here’s
consequences, the results and the knock-on effect of it all. He says be
very
careful indeed, because if you start to introduce aspects of the law
you will devour
each other with works of the flesh (v15, v19-21).Your fruit of
the
spirit (v22) will no longer be present. Why? You will be provoking
others to be
as good as you in keeping the law. You will become self-righteous
and proud
and arrogant. You will start to set standards that others can’t
keep.
You will start to think yourselves better than others (v26). This will
result
in all manner of corruption, division and violence (v19-21). He doesn’t
say you
will lose your salvation, no, that is secure, but your inheritance in
heaven
will be zero. It’s like the person who reads the will of a deceased
person to
the remaining relatives all eager to see what has been left to them.
“Yes, the
piano goes to Bobby as he was a good boy. The car goes to Mary as she
obeyed
me. But you Gentile Christians who have come back under the law, you
get
nothing.” So God says “Yes, you are saved and you can come to heaven
all of
you, but you Jewish law abiding Christians get no rewards. You have
tried to
produce your own fruit through your own spirits with disastrous
results. But
you Christians who have been graffed into Christ (put into the death Rom 11:17, Rom 11:19 )
have produced his fruit.”
Ch 6 =
Meekness and bear one another’s burdens
So Paul
says be meek and bear one
another’s burdens (v1-2). Stop looking at other people and concentrate
on your own work for the Lord (v4). He says don’t sow to the law
(the
flesh) as this will just bring corruption (v8) and arguments and
debates and
fighting within the church. Don’t be weary in well-doing (v9).
Paul is
very perceptive when he says that keepers
of the law don’t suffer much outside persecution from others but true
Christians do (v12-13). Here’s the reasoning: “As long as you are
working your
way to heaven or trying to maintain your own salvation, then others
won’t worry
you. Why? You’re just like them. You climb two feet up the slippery
pole but
slide down three feet.” These Judaizers will bring you into bondage and
domination (v13) and will boast about it. He ends up with another
sobering fact
about who he, Paul, is and that he is not to be troubled by these evil
workers
and their converts (v17).
By Harley Hitchcock.
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
The Gnostic heresy
“Christ is all sufficient”
For more
information contact:
AUSTRALIAN
BIBLE MINISTRIES
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