Galatians | 5:13-26

Jun 23

About this series:

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia is a heartfelt defence of the gospel of God's grace; a fervent appeal to keep the gospel front-and-centre and to not allow anything to detract from it.

In this letter Paul sounds exasperated at some points - for example, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all” (1:6) and, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1), which The Message renders as, “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.”

Paul’s frustration and anger stem from a passionate concern that the churches he planted return to a full confidence that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that a person is justified by God and is included in God’s family. Nothing else is required. The message he preached to the Galatians, and which they had believed, is not so much a departure from their Jewish heritage, as the fulfilment of it. Thus, in this letter we have a window into life in early Christianity and especially some of the challenges the churches faced from false teachers as the church grew from its Jewish roots.

So in this series we’re going to get a big view of what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has achieved for mankind. And some very practical help on how we can stay true to Jesus, trusting him alone to put us in a right relationship with God, to keep us in that right relationship and to qualify us for membership among God’s people. ‘The central message of Galatians is that the freeness of God’s grace and love is not only the gateway but also the pathway of the Christian life’ (Dane Ortlund).

About this talk:

Having written in the previous section that the Galatians should be careful not to lose their Christ-won freedom, he now proceeds to highlight what they should do with that freedom - “do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (v 13). Freedom is not for selfish fleshly indulgence, but for loving service. In this section we can imagine Paul anticipating the Galatians asking two questions as a result of what he has just written about freedom:

Question 1, vs 13-15: “Are we free, then, to do whatever we like?”

- Freedom can be a very confusing concept. In most people’s minds it means the liberty to do as one pleases: “I’m free to do what I want any old time. And I'm free to be who I choose any old time” (I’m Free, The Soup Dragons).

- Yet most ideas of freedom actually involve considerable restraint too. A fish is most free when it remains in water! Being free to marry means saying “No” to any other possible partners. ‘The freedom of the road’ requires the newly qualified driver to abide by a whole load of parameters that allow that freedom to be a positive experience.

- Similarly, the Christian’s freedom from the law is a freedom for God and, in this section, for others. Christian freedom is not a licence to act however our flesh might want us to, but a new calling to humble, loving service. And, in a brilliant twist, by doing so we will actually end up fulfilling the intent of the law that we no longer rely on; that intent being to, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Freedom in Christ is not only a pool to rest in; it’s also a river that flows out to my neighbour. ‘True freedom is not freedom from responsibility to God and others in order to live for ourselves, but freedom from ourselves in order to live for God and others’ (John Stott).

- The lie of our culture is that the more I focus on my time, my finances, my home, my agenda, my life, the freer I will be. But then I’m just more tied up than ever! The paradox is that true freedom is found in surrender to God and loving service to others - when time, finances, home, agenda, life become resources laid at God’s feet for his glory and for the good of others.

Question 2, v 16ff: “But without the law to guide us in restraining the flesh, how will we know what God requires or be able to please him?”

- The practical issue here, made plain in the New Testament and confirmed by our experience, is the ongoing battle each of God’s children have to live in a way that’s consistent with Jesus being our Lord, resisting our fleshly impulses that would seek to drag us away to live as if someone or something else is Lord. So, v 17, “the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other.” And with no law to guide us, how will we stay faithful to God and love others?

- Paul’s answer is revolutionary, yet consistent with Old Testament promises and with the rest of the teaching in the New Testament: “So I say, live (walk) by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The prophets spoke of this as being part of God’s promise for the new covenant:

Jeremiah 31:33: “‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”
Ezekiel 36: 26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

- The Holy Spirit within does what no external law code could ever truly do: empower each of God’s people to love him and love others, which is what he requires (see Mark 12:28-31).

- In vs 19-23, Paul lists two contrasting sets of fruit arising from the two ways of living (by the flesh and by the Spirit). They are clearly illustrative, not exhaustive, lists but serve to highlight the dramatic differences in fruit that are produced by the two different roots. Various ways to understand the phrase, “Against such things there is no law” have been proposed. Perhaps most likely is the one expressed by David DeSilva: ‘Insofar as [people] are manifesting such virtues, they cannot be running afoul of any law.’

- And lest it should sound as if this is all of the Spirit in such a way that he bypasses our will and conscious action, he returns in vs 24-26 to something he said in 2:20: that those who have been set free from the law and have trusted in Christ alone have undergone such a change that they have made a conscious, personal, deceive break with their old, fleshly way of life which then becomes an ongoing process of pursuing a new, Spirit-fueled way of life.

- The word for “keep in step with” (v 25) means to walk in line, in strict accordance to a particular pace, to keep in step as a soldier would follow a leader. It is very similar to “liv[ing] by the Spirit” (vs 16,25) and being “led by the Spirit” (v 18) and reminds me of Andrew training his dog, Bella, to keep in step with him. She watches him, looks up at him, takes her cue from him, listens to his voice. Since we have been born again into a life that is empowered by the Spirit, let us keep in step with his word, his voice, his priorities.