09 Galatians 5:1-12 For freedom Christ set us free

Speaker 1: This is Wednesday in the Word, Women's Ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today is November 2nd, 2011. Our passage is Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through 12, and our teacher is Terry Weiser. For more talks in this series, please visit our website at www.wednesdayintheword.com. Speaker: Well, good morning. I know that it seems funny to have someone besides Krisan up here. For those of you whom I haven't met yet, my name is Terry Weiser, and I'm going to be teaching for our last four weeks. So kind of giving Krisan a break after eight straight weeks of teaching. Eight straight weeks. So I did want to just take a moment to say this. Um, Krisan. You blessed my heart with your teaching. And I know you blessed all of our hearts. And it was wonderful. It's sometimes it's hard as a teacher to sit under another teacher. But um with you, I just I trusted you so completely that you were handling God's word accurately. I I was blessed in my heart. You taught me things, you unfolded difficult passages and you made them seem easy to understand for us. And so I know I speak for everyone. Thank you very much. Now I will tell you that um I recently went to a concert um and uh it was a Taylor Swift concert. I follow her everywhere. No, it was for my granddaughter's birthday, but um what I noticed there was you know they have a a warm-up band and then the main person comes out. Well, we had the main person first, and now we're having the warm-up band afterwards. So anyway, so no, truly, it was it was a real blessing for us. The other thing that I do, a little note that I want to make as we begin is that our our focus this morning is on chapter 5, 1 through 6, I mean 1 through 12 of um Galatians. And try as I might, I found that I couldn't cover it all thoroughly. I just couldn't. There's just too much in those first six verses. So what I'm going to do is our our what we are going to spend our main time on is verses one through six. But I will briefly, in a moment, I'm going to read through our passage. And when I get to verses seven through twelve, I'm just going to real briefly tell you what's going on there. And I'm I really did want to do the whole thing, but we would have been here until Thanksgiving. So I um so that's kind of how I'm going to look at me shaking. Um so that's kind of how we're going to do that this morning. Now, the first thing that I'm going to do before we begin is to kind of summarize where we have been. We, as you know, Krisan has told us that the book of Galatians is divided into three broad sections. It's pretty easy to divide it. Chapters one and two is uh a biography, chapters uh three and four is doctrine, and chapters five and six is what we call practical living, what I'm going to call how shall we then live. But what what I need to say is that in order to enter into the the section that we're now beginning, um the section on how shall we then live, we have to have a firm grasp of where we have been. And I I kind of like to think of that as that that as we look at those first four chapters, they give us a roadmap that we know how to walk through the terrain of what we're going to be talking about. If you don't have a firm grasp of what we have just studied in our past eight weeks, then it's very easy to get lost in chapters five and six. So I'm going to spend a few minutes going through what Krisan has has taught us just to make you help you stir your remembrance of what she taught taught us, and then we'll go into our lesson for today. So let me pray for us before we begin. Father, um, you know that um I am nervous about this morning, and um I pray that you would not let that get in the way of your word. And I pray, Lord, that you will um use my words to adorn the gospel. But Lord, I pray that um you would let not let me speak anything that would be untrue or unworthy of you. And Lord, I thank you for this privilege. And um I pray, I know you've taught me so much, I pray that you will use me as an instrument of your grace. I pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. Paul begins in chapter one and two, and that's the biography. I like to think of it as Paul's spiritual testimony, but in that section, Paul right away tells us what the problem is, what he's dealing with, and he says this. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another gospel, but as some, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. So, right away, what Paul is telling us is there's trouble going on in the Galatian church, and that there are those who are coming in and tempting the people in these churches to desert the faith, to be religious turncoats, so to speak. And so Paul begins to make a defense against this. Paul is going to be very passionate in what he does, and so he begins his defense about this distortion, and and he is he is going to show the seriousness of what is going on in these churches. And he does that first by defending his apostleship. Now, an apostle is one sent forth by God, and what Paul begins to teach us right away is that he said, I did not receive the gospel from any man. No man taught me, I received it as a revelation from Jesus Christ. And Paul then goes on to say, here's what my life was like. I was seeking to violently overthrow the church of Jesus Christ. And as I was in the process of doing that, God reached down and he poured out his grace upon me and revealed his son to me. So in the midst of seeking to destroy God's church, God reached down and he completely turned around Paul's life. Paul goes on to say that he says this about him, he says, this is Paul after he had been called by grace. He says this, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. This is the man who had been persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ. This is how his life has turned around. So that's what Paul reveals to us, a lot of other things, but that's the main thing that Paul reveals to us in the first two chapters. And then from that we come into the section of doctrine. And Krisan, obviously, she just unfolded that for us. She showed us that Paul does not leave any stone unturned in his defense of the gospel. That he is fighting for the very heart of the gospel, and he is fighting for the hearts of his spiritual children. And he is going to do that as thoroughly and as passionately and as forcefully as he can. So, as Krisan showed us, there were five basic arguments that Paul is going to use to defend the truth of justification to show us that justification is by faith alone and not by works of the law. So, just real quickly, let me run through these Paul's first, his the first thing that Paul does is he draws on the experience that the Galatians had when they first received the gospel. He said, Did you receive the gospel by works of the law or by hearing with faith? And having begun by the Spirit, are you now seeking to be perfected by the flesh? Paul is trying to get them to look at their lives, to remember what it was to first believe, and to not turn away from what happened to them at that point. And then Paul defends the gospel with scripture. Not only was the experience that the Galatians experienced was one that they received the faith the gospel by faith, but Paul then goes on to say that that's how Abraham heard God's promise. And he believed it, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And then Paul goes on to argue that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And from that then Paul calls on the Galatians. The next thing he he does is that he's calling them to use common sense, as Chris Hunt told us, that there is a difference between promise. Um, there is a difference between a deal and promise. And he goes on to say that the law, the law is a deal, and there are two parties involved in that, but promise is held all in God's hand. God is the one who says, I will, I will, I will. And that's the difference between a deal and a promise. Then the next thing that Paul shows is that what is then the purpose of the law, if that's true, if if justification comes to us by promise, then what's the purpose of the law? And Paul says, it the law was never ever meant to give you life. It was never ever meant to do that. The law was given to show that you needed a savior. And Paul says that that what the law was, it was a guardian, and and Krisan told us like a drill sergeant, that that it was to keep us until the fullness of time would come when God would send forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Okay, the next thing that Paul draws on, this is the fifth thing that he the fourth thing that he draws on, and that is that Paul it calls on the the uh Galatian churches to remember the relationship they had with Paul. That when he came he had some sort of disease, something going on, he was not pleasant to be around, but when he spoke the gospel to them, they treated him as if he was an angel from heaven, Jesus Christ himself. And Paul says, Have I now become an enemy to you? Have I now become your enemy? When you treated me in that way before. And then what we learned last week, Paul's final defense comes concerns Abraham's two sons, one born of the slave woman and one born of the free woman, one according to the flesh and one according to the promise. And Paul uses an allegory to say that those who belong to Christ are children of the free woman and not of the slave woman, and the slave woman should be cast out. So, as we see, Paul's you you can hear, if I if I could just read through those passages, you you could hear Paul's passion for the hearts of these churches. And so now we're going to go into our passage for today, and uh I want you to listen as Paul continues this passionate argument. So, chapter one, uh beginning in verse one. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Okay, that's the text we're going to be working with today. But let me read on. You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? Okay, I said I would unfold this just briefly. What Paul is saying is that you began the faith well, and he's using a term that is um is like a race, and he says, Someone has come into your lane and caused you to stumble. That's what he's saying. Well is and is trying to cause you to stumble. He's hindering you from obeying the truth. And he said, This persuasion that is coming to you, this thing that is coming into the church, it's not from God. It's from something else, but it's not from God. And then he goes on to say, Paul goes on to say, and a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So Paul is just reiterating, this is so serious. He is saying that this may seem small and may start out small, but it can destroy the whole church. But then Paul says, and we'll deal with this a little more in a few minutes, but Paul says this, and it's it's so encouraging, he says, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and that the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. So what Paul is saying is, My faith is in the Lord, and I trust that he will do what he has promised to do. And then evidently, what is going on in verse 11 where it says, But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. Evidently, there were some in uh who were coming who was who were saying that you had to be circumcised and were saying something like this. Well, Paul it teaches circumcision too. And so Paul is saying that no, I don't teach circumcision. I do not use circumcision as something you have to add to Christ. And Paul is saying, if I did that, then why would I still be being persecuted? Then the the stumbling block of the cross would be completely removed because I would be teaching law and not grace. And so Paul says that. And then his final thing, very strong, he says, I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. What one commentator said about this, he said, Paul is saying that he wishes he is using the picture of circumcision, that Paul wishes that the knife would slip and they would become eunuchs so that they couldn't propagate this false teaching anymore. So that's kind of what's going on in that last part. It's kind of strange to tell you what's going on in the last part, and now go back and unfold. But um, let's begin in verse one. For freedom of Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. As one author puts it, and I love this Christ has freed you to be free. So be free, my beloved. It's an incredible statement. That Christ has brought you freedom. He has come into your life, he has set you free, and he has brought you freedom. You are not made for slavery. You were in slavery before, you were not made for slavery. You should not enter into bondage again. I love that word freedom. I when I was reading this. I don't know. There's just something about reading that word and and your heart feels good. And um I think it's such a big word, and and when I hear it, what I I realize that as I was thinking about that, I thought of America. Um, I thought how generation after generation, people from other countries who are in bondage have wanted to come to America. They've wanted to come to America and be free. And I and I think that gives us a picture of what Paul is fighting for here. You see, he wants the churches of Galatia to leave, not go back into bondage. Why would you come to America and then go back into bondage? And that's what Paul is saying. You've you've come to freedom in Christ, and he's saying, why? Why would you want to turn around and go back into the bondage of the law? And Paul, listen, let's think about this. Christ won that freedom for us, and it was a hard-won battle. It cost him everything, it cost him his life. He fought for every inch that we might be free. And Paul is saying, don't give up the ground of your freedom. Don't do it. Christ has set you free. Now, as Paul goes forward, what he's going to do, he that we're going to use that passage. That passage is setting the tone for all the things we're going to be talking about in the next four weeks. And Paul is going to use it in various ways. But now, as he goes forward today in our in what we're talking about, he's going to talk about a way of freedom and a way of slavery. And Paul is saying there are two ways of living. One is in the freedom of the gospel, and the other is in slavery under the law. And Paul is saying that these two ways of living make all the difference in the world. They make all the difference in the world. And we're going to see how that unfolds. So, Paul has been arguing in this letter about these people who are coming in. And let me tell read to you from Galatians 15, I mean from Acts 15.1, what the Judaizers, who were these false teachers, what they were actually teaching. This is what it says in Acts 15.1. They were teaching that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. This was not a little thing. This was not just a little slip. This was a big thing. And so what they were doing, one of the commentators said this, that what they are arguing is that Moses must complete the work of Christ. They weren't saying that you had to do completely away from Christ. They were adding something to Christ. But when they added that thing to Christ, they were completely removing Christ. That's what they were doing. They were saying, Christ is good, but you need now to live by the law because you need to be holy and Christ doesn't make you holy. That was their argument. That's what they were talking about. That's what Paul is fighting about. And in doing so, Paul is going to give us four arguments. Why that these false teachers coming in, why what they are doing is that they are really calling you to leave Christ, to be treasonous, and to submit again to a yoke of slavery. So that's what Paul is going to talk about next. So what do we have? What is Paul saying here? He's saying four things. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. Let's look at these. Um we'll look at them two by two. The first thing Paul says, he says, If you accept the teaching that these false teachers are teaching, then Christ will be of no advantage to you. And then he builds on that and he says, Not only that, if you accept circumcision, then you're obligated to keep the whole law. These Jews. Are coming in and telling you that believing in Christ is not enough. You need to be circumcised. And Paul says, no, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. He doesn't say it will lessen the value of Christ. He says it will eliminate any value that Christ has. And then Paul goes on and he adds to that. And he says, number two, he says, if you are circumcised, you can't stop there because circumcision is more than minor surgery. It's much more than that. And Paul knew that because why? He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He knew exactly what they were doing. And Paul said that if you do that, you will have to keep the whole law and you will be put back under a yoke of slavery. Now, Paul's words are going to get even stronger as we go on, because the next two things Paul says is the first thing he says, you will be severed from Christ, and the second thing he says is you will have fallen from grace. Does that cause you to question, what on earth is Paul talking about here? Wait, wait. He can't be saying that we can lose the gospel. He can't be saying we can lose Christ if we're truly in Christ. We believe that the preponderance of Scripture teaches something completely different. So we have to try to figure out what Christ, what Paul is saying here. Well, I um read several commentators on this, and what I discovered is that there are two general things that the commentators believe that might be being said here. I tend to lean toward the second one I'm going to tell you, but the first one is the one we usually lean on, is that the ones who turn away were never really believers at all. That maybe that that the gospel had come and they had seemed to accept it, that it would be like the the uh sower in Matthew 13 who sowed the seed on rocky soil and the the seed took root right away and and it and it um bloomed and but then it withered away because it had no root. And what pa what these commentators say is that that the Holy Spirit had not taken their was not in their hearts and had not implanted faith in their heart. That's that's one explanation. But the other explanation, and I'll show you why I think this one is more likely to be true about what Paul is talking about, and that is this. In scripture, this is a little more difficult to follow, so um I hope I can explain this to you. But do you know how in scripture that there's always this two-sided coin that's on one side we will have man's responsibility, but on the other side is God's responsibility, what God does. And and so that we we can we read something and and we hear it directed toward man, but we know on the other side of that coin that we're also dealing with God's sovereignty in that. So what these commentators believe is that Paul is speaking from the standpoint of human responsibility. And what Paul is doing here in all four of these things is that he is warning the Galatian churches of the dire consequences of accepting circumcision. He is saying, these consequences are real. If you were to do this, this is what it means. And what Paul is trying to do is to get the churches of Galatia to really deeply see how serious this is. That it means complete separation from Christ. That's what it means. And so Paul is speaking from that human point of view, but the other side of that, and we see a hint of this in verse 10, and and I read this a few minutes ago. He because Paul says here, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine. So what Paul is doing here is he's warning the churches that there's another side that Paul says, My confidence is in the Lord, because here's what I know: no one can ever snatch you out of God's hand. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the promise. God will never let that happen. But Paul's responsibility is to warn these people as if that could happen, that they might see the seriousness of what they're facing. So that seems to be what's going on. Does that make sense of arguments? Um anyway, that when I first read that passage, I thought, oh my gosh, that it just seems so severe to hear that you are severed from Christ and you have fallen away from grace. So thanks be to God. That will not happen if we truly belong to Christ. Now, what is going to happen next is there is just a complete change in Paul's whole demeanor. That um it's almost as if Paul has been giving these horrible warnings, and then it's almost as if he opens his arms to embrace the churches of Galatia. Because now he's going to speak about true life in the gospel. He's going to speak about living free in the gospel. This is what he says. He says, For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. Now, notice the first thing that Paul does, he he changes the pronoun. He's been talking about you, you, you, and now he says, we ourselves. He is including them. They are a family. Paul is embracing them, and he says, we ourselves, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. So Paul is addressing believers and he's telling them that here's our hope. I want to remind you of what our hope is in Jesus Christ. And he says, we wait in faith. And he says, this faith that we wait in is held in the grasp of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And Paul is telling them, This is your hope. This is your treasure. I want you to hold on to this. And so when Paul says that we wait in hope, remember that hope in Scripture is not something that, oh, I hope this happens. It is a certainty. This is a certainty that this is what is going to happen. So let me answer one question first that might come up, and that is this. I thought that when we first became believers, that we were righteous in Christ, that we were declared righteous in Christ. So, what is Paul talking about that he says that we are waiting for the hope of righteousness? What is he talking about here? Well, it's two different things. It's the already and the not yet that Paul is talking about. We are declared righteous in Jesus Christ. When we first believe, the moment we believe, we are declared not guilty. Not because we are not, but because our lives are hidden in Jesus Christ. But now what Paul is talking about, he is talking about the freeness of that hope in the not yet. And what he is talking about is that this final true reality that is ahead of us. And he's reminding the Galatian churches of what that is. It is that final day, it is that day which comes on the judgment of all days. It is that day when the final verdict will be brought forward and made visible. It is that day when everyone will see us running into the embrace of the Father. It's that picture of everything being made whole. It's when we're freed from all sorrow and all sin and all death and all tears. It's that moment when faith turns to sight and hope turns to fullness. It's that moment when we receive our glorious body. It's that moment when creation is set free and all things are made new. And it's that most glorious moment when we will see Jesus face to face. And we will be like him because we will see him as he is. It's that moment when our righteousness becomes real. And that's the hope that Paul is saying. That's the hope I want you to think about. That hope which is coming. Now, the next statement that Paul makes is astounding, and this is when when you first read it, you're not quite sure what Paul is saying, and this is what he says. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Now, what Paul is saying here is this neither seeking to keep the law nor living without the law counts for anything or makes any difference because whether you are living a life of debauchery or you're living trying to keep the law, neither one of those matters, even though they're at opposite ends of the spectrum, they make no difference because of this. In both cases, you were are without the benefit of Christ's saving grace. You're still in slavery. No matter, you look a lot better over here keeping the law, that's true. And living in debauchery is something else. But both of those things are slavery, and that's what Paul is talking about here. Remember that the Galatian churches are composed largely of pagan, of those who used to be pagan Gentiles. So they tended to live a life of debauchery. They tended to be those who had many gods, and that was the way they lived before. And Paul is saying, when you were living that life, you were in slavery at that time. Now Paul is saying, and you now you want to go into another slavery by receiving circumcision. And Paul says, no, that's just putting you back in another form of slavery, and it leaves you without the glorious freedom that comes in Jesus Christ. And so Paul is saying, those things do not, in essence, matter at all. The only thing that matters is freedom in Jesus Christ, the gospel in Jesus Christ. And then Paul tells them something else. He says, the only thing that counts is faith working through love. That's how you live in freedom. Now, let's ask this question. Do you think that Paul is saying then even though you're in Christ, that therefore it doesn't matter if you keep the law, or it doesn't matter if you live in without any law at all, you're just freedom and you're doing whatever you want to do. Do you think that's what he's meaning as he um talks about this? Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. And of course, I mean, we have to say no, that isn't what Paul is talking about. Because that's why Paul adds these utterly astounding words. They are amazing words. What counts is faith working through love. Now, I have to tell you, as I was struggling with work trying to um work out, okay, what does that mean? My heart began to say, well, what does that mean? What is Paul talking about when he says, What counts as faith working through love? I love the words, it sounds good, but but what I want to know is, okay, Paul, I want to know what that looks like in my heart. What are you saying to me? How do I begin to grasp what you're saying? Does that mean then that I should that I should take a meal to m to my neighbor and maybe work at the homeless shelter? Does it does it mean that I I should come and babysit for all your kids? No, it doesn't. But um, but um, is that what Paul is talking about? Well, it might be, but it's not a list of things to do. My friends, faith working through love is not less than the law, because the law does show us what is good and what is perfect and what is righteous. But faith working through love is so much more than that. Faith working through love is taking God's law and it's seeing it inhabited in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith working through love is broader and deeper and wider and freer than the cold words of the law, which stand outside us and only condemn us and give us no power to live them. They are words that enslave unless they are held in the nail-scarred hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying that faith working through love means putting our hand in the hand of Jesus and trusting him and trusting what he has done for us, and through his love being changed forever. As Paul was changed. Because as we walk with Christ, the Holy Spirit is about pouring his love out in our hearts. That's what begins to happen. The deeper we go into what Christ has done for us, the freer we are going to be. And in that, what will begin to happen is that rivers of living water will begin to pour out of our hearts. Put your faith deep down into Christ and all that He has done, and love will begin to flow out of your heart. It may start slowly, but it will begin to change. Let me just remind you of this. You are perfectly loved forever and ever. He will never let go of you. Jesus will never, ever, ever leave you. Your sins have been paid for, every one of them. The sins you have committed in the past, the sins you will commit, they have all been covered by Jesus Christ. You have freedom from fear, because perfect love casts out fear. You have freedom from Satan's attacks in Jesus Christ. Because he may come and accuse you outside of you, but you can say those things may be true of me, but you bear no guilt because your life is hidden in Jesus Christ. You are an adopted child and an heir of Christ. You will never face God's wrath because Jesus faced it for you. You have freedom from death because death has lost its sting in him. He conquered death. And we can indeed wait eagerly for the coming of the Lord Jesus. When Jesus looks at you, the look on his face is love. That's all it is. That's how he sees you. It isn't that we won't have discipline, but it's always the discipline of love. That is the freedom that we have in the gospel. That is the fullness. No wonder Paul is so passionate for these churches. How could they turn back to the law? How could they turn back to this thing that offered them no power to learn to love? How could they turn back to this thing that all it does is defeat you? You can never live up to the law. But you see, you don't have to live up to Christ. He is going to teach you how to love him more and more. He is going to teach you how to love others more and more. For freedom, Jesus has set you free. So be free, beloved. There's a song that we sing, and I I love this song. It says this: it says, O love that will not let me go. I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in your ocean depth is flow. May richer, fuller be. What that song says is this, that everything that you have you can entrust back to Christ, and He will give it back to you, and it will be richer and fuller than anything you could ever imagine. Why would you ever turn to something besides Christ?