Galatians 5

== Galatians 5:1-4==
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Drawing on the conclusions of chapter 4, wherein Paul spoke of our freedom from sin and the law of sin (the Law of Moses), he makes the plea for the Gentile congregations to stand firm in that freedom and not be pulled into the bondage of sin which is all the Law of Moses has to offer.
The Judaizers were attempting to force Gentiles into circumcision, which was a type pointing to the New Testament antitype of circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the heart, the cutting away of the flesh, meant letting go of physical things in favor of spiritual ones when a Christian committed their life to Christ by being immersed into Him. Physical circumcision was a looking forward to the New Testament. With the New Testament and the anti-type of physical circumcision arrived, physical circumcision now has nothing to point forward to and no longer has a useful function as a type. It's only purpose now was to show that people rejected Christ in favor of the weaker, lesser old law of sin and death.
One of the most powerful passages in scripture in refuting the eternal security -- once saved always saved -- doctrine is Galatians 5:4. One cannot fall from what they were never in. One can only fall from Grace if they were in Grace. The passage clearly teaches that anyone who attempts to justify their actions by the law of Moses, they have fallen from Grace. That is what Paul is telling these Gentile Christians they were doing when they gave in to the Judaizers and allowed themselves to be physically circumcised.
What is truly sad about this is that in 1900+ years, things haven't changed much. We still have Judaizers in the world trying to get people to follow the "10 Commandments" (Law of Moses) or justify their practices, their organization, or their judgments based on the Law of Moses. Those who were in Grace at one time have since fallen from it. Those who were never under it, certainly cannot find themselves in it in justifying themselves by the Law of Moses. The clergy-laity system of Catholicism, the addiction of so many Catholic and Catholic-like denominations to physical things like "holy" relics, the justification of mechanical instruments in worship, and even the erroneous condemnation of any alcohol use whatsoever all begin in the Old Testament. This is not to say that the Old Testament is useless (Romans 15:4) and I certainly have used it a lot in this website, but to use it to justify or condemn as if it has any spiritual authority today is to reject Christ.
== Galatians 5:5-6==
5 For we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Paul again makes the contrast here between physical things (physical circumcision is representative of this) and spiritual things. By focusing on spiritual things, they looked forward to the end point of their obedient faith, rather than looking backward to the old law.
Physical circumcision no longer has any meaning in and of itself with reference to God's will, given that it was a type of the old law that is now not in authority. Only obedient faith in love has any purpose now that the Messiah has come.
== Galatians 5:7-9==
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? 8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. 9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Paul commends them for their past faith, the way they had lived according to Christ at the beginning. Harkening back to chapter 1:6, though, Paul chides them for their current failure to obey the truth. This disobedience does not originate with Christ, who called them by the gospel (Gal. 1:6; 2 Thess. 2:14), but with the Judaizers in their midst. Paul then writes that it takes just a small number of them to be tolerated in a congregation to ruin the entire congregation.
A word here again about Paul and faith only. So many will go to Romans and try to show that Paul taught faith only salvation. I've already shown in that letter how this is not the case. Here again Paul emphasizes faith coupled with obedience. Obedient faith saves and obedient faith maintains that salvation. This isn't earning salvation as a kind of wage, its following God's given plan, doing things His way because that's what He told us we must do in order that He will save us.
== Galatians 5:10-12==
10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. 11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. 12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
Paul edifies these congregations by expressing his confidence that they will return to Christ for their instruction and that they will reject the Judaizer(s) in their midst. He prays that the troublemaker would be cast out from among them, to face just punishment for his evil.
It is illogical that Paul is teaching that folks should obey the Law of Moses (particularly physical circumcision) because if he was, he wouldn't be persecuted by the Jews and Judaizers the way that he had so often suffered. If he were to preach a return to the Law of Moses, then the crucifixion of Christ is not an evil thing but a good thing from the Jewish standpoint. Think about that for a moment. In turning to the Law of Moses, a person makes the murder of Jesus Christ into a proper execution instead. I can think of no worse repudiation of Jesus than to say that.
Just to be clear, it is good for us that Jesus was crucified and I am thankful daily for the sacrifice that He made. But the act itself, those who called for His death, those who nailed in those nails, was murder plain and simple, and a horrific event.
== Galatians 5:13-15==
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Christ has not called His church to be the bondwoman enslaved by the Law of Moses. He has called the church to be free from that bondage and from the bondage of sin. The Galatian congregations were not to use that freedom from the Law of Moses to justify physical lusts and sinful actions. Moses condemned a number of things that the New Testament also condemns. In arguing that we are no longer under the Law of Moses it does not follow that anything condemned by Moses we are free to do now under Christ. We must first consider what is condemned by Christ.
A great example of this is homosexuality. I have heard so many times people argue "I am a homosexual and a Christian because homosexuality may be condemned under Moses but we have liberty [to do what Moses condemned] in Christ." The correct conclusion is that we are not under Moses, but under the Law of Christ and we must seek to understand what our limitations are under that Law.
The Law of Moses pointed forward to Christ and the Law of Liberty. The Law of Liberty does not mean "free to do whatever pleasese me" but freedom from sin and death which is the only thing found under Moses. In pointing to the New Testament, the Law of Moses can be summarized as loving our neighbors as ourselves. Each law in Moses was designed to help the Israelites do this, understand this. They rarely did. Christians still must do this under the Law of Christ and Christ taught us how. Backbiting and infighting for any reason is wrong, but in this context, doing so because of the Law of Moses causes the destruction of the congregation and the fall from Grace.
== Galatians 5:16-18==
16 This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.
Echoing Romans 7-8, Paul argues that Christians should let the spiritual self lead and not the physical self. These three verses are a perfect summary of Romans chapters 7-8 and show that Paul was using those chapters as a metaphor of the conflict between the Law of Moses (physical) and the Gospel (spiritual).
== Galatians 5:19-21==
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, 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.
These are things condemned by Moses, but still condemned in Christ. These are the desires of the flesh, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of this life. Particularly many of these things relate to the pagan practices with which the Gentile congregations of Galatia were familiar. These were the things Israel was to avoid in order to not be like the nations around them. These were the things Israel failed to avoid and became just like the nations around them (see Isaiah-Ezekiel). The Galatians WERE the nations around the Israelites, but came out of that into Christ and Paul encourages them not to go back into it as the Israelites/Jews had done.
Here he speaks briefly of inheriting the kingdom of God as if it is a yet future thing. I believe that Paul simply means one can not take part in the church and in these things simultaneously. I believe that Paul is saying that, like the prodigal son, those who turn back to these things squander their inheritance from God in favor of a seasons of pleasure and only by returning to God do they have hope. I do not believe this verse requires a yet future fulfillment from Paul's perspective or ours in the coming of the kingdom. It had already come and they were already a part of it.
== Galatians 5:22-23==
22 But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Whenever there is conflict within the church, these two verses should be read first and often during the conflict. Neither the Law of Moses or the Law of Christ condemns these because if these are at the forefront of our minds when we come into conflict, then everyone will come out in the resolution better off and the Savior will be glorified.
This passage also verifies that two laws are in view by Paul, the Law of Moses and of Christ, not just the Law of Moses. It is another verse that shows that Christians are still under a law.
== Galatians 5:24-25==
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Christians' circumcision of the heart, the putting away of the flesh, takes place when we die in Christ. This happens in immersion. Putting away physical desires includes glorifying self, provoking each other to wrath, and jealousy.
Note here that Paul is not referring to the Holy Spirit, the 3rd Person of the Godhead, but the spiritual self just like in Romans 7-8. Why the translators insisted on capitalizing there and not here, why they got it right here and not in Romans, I don't know. However, this passage does corroborate that the non-capitalizing in Romans is the correct understanding.
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