Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 5:1-15…
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.
Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
In this section of his letter, Paul sets before us two ways of life and he invites us, once again, to choose the way that we will follow. One way of life he calls the way of freedom. The other he calls the way of slavery.
John Stott once wrote, “Freedom is a word on everybody’s lips today. There are many different forms of it, and many different people advocating and canvassing it.”
So, let’s examine together exactly what Christian freedom involves. As we did last week, let us examine how these two ways, the way of freedom and the way of slavery, line up, and let us look closely at what characterizes each way of life…
Freedom vs Slavery
First, let’s look at the overall contrast Paul draws between Freedom and Slavery. Paul says in verse one, “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.”
This sounds like a tautology. A better word-for-word translation from Greek to English would run like this: “In freedom Christ has set us free.” The statement refers to the comparison Paul made in chapter four between Hagar and Sarah. We Christians, Paul says, are not children of the slave woman, Hagar, but of the free woman, Sarah. Now Paul tells us who it is that has set us free. Who has given us this freedom in which we stand? It is none other than Christ.
Considering what a great freedom is ours, bought at such a great price, by the blood of Christ shed for our sins on the cross, how then ought we to live? Paul tells us. He urges us to stand firm in the freedom which is ours and not allow ourselves to be entangled in slavery again.
Remember the backdrop to this whole discussion in Paul’s mind. In the back of his mind, Paul has the picture of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness of Sinai on their way to the Promised Land. They were free, certainly, to go back to Egypt if they wanted. And some of them, at times, did express the desire to go back to Egypt. Some considered life in the desert so hard that they would have preferred slavery to the freedom they were experiencing in the wilderness. Paul is urging the Galatians, and us, not to be like the Israelites of old, but to stand firm in our freedom and keep moving ahead. Don’t go back to Egypt!
Christ vs Circumcision
Secondly, let’s examine the contrast between Christ and Circumcision. Paul says in verse two, “Mark my words! I tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”
This may seem like a strange contrast to us. After all, as a Jew, was not Paul circumcised? Yes. And was not Paul a follower of Christ? Yes. So why does Paul contrast circumcision and Christ? Why does he present them as mutually exclusive?
Again, we must remember the context. Some Jewish Christians have come to these new Gentile Christians among the Galatians, and they have told them that if they want to follow Christ, they must obey the Jewish law, starting with circumcision. And that is what Paul is objecting to. He says, in effect, “You can’t have it both ways.” And that is true because of what circumcision represents in this case. It represents an entirely different way of life than the Christian way. We will see why as we proceed through Paul’s tightly reasoned argument.
Grace vs Law
Third, let’s look again at the contrast between Grace and Law. Paul says in verses three and four, “Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”
So, what Paul is pointing out here is that circumcision is just the first step in a lifetime of obeying the law. He is saying, if you take the first step then you are obligated to obey the whole law. He calls this the attempt to be justified by law. But we must remember what Paul tells us elsewhere, namely that we cannot be justified by law because we do not and cannot obey the law completely.
C. S. Lewis writes, in Surprised by Joy, about the attempt he made to obey his own conscience before his conversion. He writes,
For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me: a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was legion.
Of course, I could do nothing—I could not last out one hour—without continual conscious recourse to what I called Spirit.[1]
If you think that you can do better than Lewis, I urge you to try an experiment. Try reading all 613 laws of the Torah and try to follow them all starting tomorrow and see how far you get. I would be willing to bet that before the end of the day you will have failed in some aspect of the law. Remember, even modern-day Jews know how tough it is, and so there are some Jews who don’t even try to keep all the law, like the kosher laws for example.
OK, so maybe the experiment I have suggested sounds unfair. If so, why not try a more modified version of the same experiment. Try obeying the Ten Commandments for one day and see how far you get, not just in outward obedience, but inward spiritual obedience as well. Or try the Sermon on the Mount. Or just the two great commands to love God and love neighbor. If you are anything like me, then you haven’t obeyed these commandments fully, 100% of the time.
Paul is saying to the Galatians, look, if you start with circumcision then you are going to have to keep all the other 612 laws and if you do that you will be alienated from Christ. There is a better way, Paul says. It is the way of grace.
Spirit vs Flesh
Fourth, let’s look again at the contrast between Spirit and flesh. In verse five Paul says, “For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” And then in verse thirteen he says, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.”
As I have said many times, as Christians we are not following a rule book; we are following a person, the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus communicates what he wants us to do, how he wants us to live, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us as we trust in Christ.
This is the exact opposite of following in the way of the flesh. As we saw earlier in our study of Galatians, flesh is not the same as body. When Paul uses the word “flesh”, he is talking about our sin nature which we have inherited from Adam and Eve. When we receive the Holy Spirit, that old sin nature does not immediately go away. Yes, we are justified by faith. And that means we no longer experience the penalty for sin. And as we grow in grace, even the power of sin becomes less and less in us. But we will not be removed from the very presence of sin until that day we are glorified in Jesus’ presence. We are, as Paul says elsewhere, God’s workmanship, but we are works of art in process.
Now that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us by the Holy Spirit, we have the power to choose. We can choose to follow the Spirit, or we can choose to follow the flesh. Paul clearly urges the Galatians and us to follow the Spirit.
Serving vs Biting/Devouring
Fifth, let’s look at the contrast between serving versus biting/devouring. In verses thirteen through fifteen Paul says…
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Next to these verses in my Bible, I wrote, many years ago, the name of my former denomination. It occurred to me at that time, and still seems true to me today, that whenever we get caught up in legalism, we end up biting and devouring one another. That’s what I saw happening in my former denomination. And the truth is, I do not know of a single denomination or church that is not, at some time, tempted to slide into legalism.
“What is legalism?” you ask. There are two types of legalism that I have seen in churches. One is the attempt to be saved by obeying God’s law. The other is the attempt to add to God’s law. Paul, as a Pharisee, had experienced both these types of legalism. Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul thought he was going to be saved by obeying God’s law.
The Pharisees were also famous for adding to God’s law. In their minds it wasn’t enough just to keep the Sabbath holy as God had instructed them to do. They had to spell out for themselves and others exactly what they thought was allowed and what wasn’t allowed in terms of work on the Sabbath.
Unfortunately, both these types of legalism are alive and well today in the church of Jesus Christ. And they are deadly. Legalism is spiritually deadly. If you follow the way of legalism, it ends in death. If you follow the way of Christ, it ends in life.
Those who get wrapped up in legalism go to extremes. Sometimes they are proud, as Paul was for a time, proud of their obedience. Other times they despair because they realize they don’t measure up to God’s standards. And the deadliest thing about legalism is that legalists are extremely judgmental, towards themselves and others. The role of judge and jury is a load too heavy for any human being to bear. Only Christ is the perfect judge.
So, what’s the antidote to legalism? The antidote Paul presents is service. Instead of judging yourself and others, forget all that, and throw yourself into serving others. But don’t do it to be noticed. Do it humbly.
It is important to note that by “humility” Paul doesn’t mean looking down on yourself. The humble person neither exalts self nor debases self, because the humble person has given up comparing themselves to others. The humblest person forgets about themselves altogether.
So, forget yourself and throw yourself into service. And do it as an act of love. Paul reminds us of the second great commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” See, there it is again. If you are going to love your neighbor you must love yourself first, or better yet, accept God’s love for you in Christ. Then you will have love to give away.
In verse six Paul says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Got that? God doesn’t care about ritual. What he cares about is relationship: faith expressing itself through love.
Conclusion
So, here is the bottom line. Here is the most important question… which way are we going to choose? Are we going to choose the way of freedom or the way of slavery? Christ or circumcision? Grace or law? Spirit or flesh? Serving or biting and devouring? I know that sounds like several questions, but it really comes down to one question: Are we going to choose the way of freedom or the way of slavery?
In verses seven through twelve Paul expresses his total frustration over the fact that the Galatians who had tasted of freedom were now choosing to return to slavery. Understand Paul’s frustration here. It is the frustration of a spiritual parent who sees his spiritual children doing something that he knows is going to hurt them.
Paul uses one of his favorite metaphors, that of the Christian life being like a race. He says, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”
Can’t you picture it? It’s like the Galatians are running a race in the Olympics. Instead of staying in their lane, the legalists have come into the Galatians’ lane on the running track. The legalists have cut off the Galatians, slowing them down and even sending them in the wrong direction.
Paul says, “That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.” Paul wants the Galatians to know that the way they are being redirected, to pursue the way of the law instead of the way of grace, that redirection has not come from God.
Then Paul uses another metaphor. He quotes a proverb: “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” Paul is using yeast as a metaphor for the teaching of the legalists. In this case, yeast is not a good thing.
Again, Paul has in the back of his mind the whole picture of the Exodus and how the Israelites were set free from slavery. Remember how on their last night in Egypt the Israelites didn’t have time to put yeast in their bread? So, they had to eat flat bread. And they have commemorated Passover by eating bread without yeast ever since. In fact, devoted Jews will remove every speck of yeast and dirt from their homes in preparation for Passover every year. Yeast has become for them a symbol of sin. So, Paul is saying to the Galatians, don’t let the sinful teaching of the legalists infect the bread of your lives.
Paul is hopeful that the Galatians will choose to stand firm in the way of freedom and not return to the way of slavery. Paul is so frustrated with the legalists who are interested, literally, in their pound of flesh, that he wishes they would go the whole way and not simply circumcise themselves but emasculate themselves. But in the end, Paul trusts that God will judge the legalists. Paul knows that those who follow the way of the cross are swimming upstream against the way of the world and so will face persecution.
The bottom line for Paul is this: Christian freedom is freedom of conscience; it is freedom from the awful bondage of having to merit the favor of God. It is not freedom “to do whatever you want”. It is freedom to do whatever pleases God. Christian freedom is freedom from sin not to sin. It involves unrestricted liberty of approach to God through Christ.
Martin Luther summed up Paul on freedom when he wrote in 1520, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”[2]
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