"You Were Called to Freedom" Galatians 5:1-12 Introduction (Gal 5:1) It is for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (5:1) Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (5:13) These two statements sum up Paul's approach to the application of the gospel to daily life. Do not return to the way you once lived. I need to hear this over and over again. I suspect you may need it too. Whether you were once a legalist or a nomist, who thought that your own works could win the favor of God. Or whether you were an antinomian, who thought that you could do anything you wanted either way, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free! The freedom of the Christian is found in Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God who has entered the inheritance that God promised Abraham. And you are fellow heirs with Christ. You have entered into the freedom of the sons of God. But liberty does not mean license. If you use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, then that too is returning to bondage. Because as a son of God, every time you sin, you are denying who you are. Every time you let sin master you, you are denying the Master who bought you. You are no longer a slave. You are no longer subject to the power or the guilt of sin. You are no longer under the yoke of the law-- the burden of legalism and works-righteousness. You are free. You have been brought into the age to come, the kingdom of God, the freedom of the sons of God. Now if you were a slave, you might be expected to earn a reward. But if you are a son, you are given an inheritance. There is nothing you can do to earn an inheritance. You receive it because you are a member of the family. And Paul tells you that you receive the inheritance of Jesus Christ by being born of the free woman. And just as it is by grace that you have been born into this family, so it is by grace that you are nurtured and reared. So if you are a true child of God-- if you are a faithful son, then you will obey your father in heaven-- not to earn your inheritance, but simply because you love him. And further, Jesus Christ is your older brother-- and those who are indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit-- will begin to look more and more like Christ. After all, you know how families are: there is a certain family resemblance among the children. When you see the Hollisters together, you know that they are a family because they all look alike! When you see the Brodrechts, you can tell that they are related because there is a family resemblance Even so, God is our Father, the Church is our Mother, Jesus Christ is our older brother, If we are his, we will start to look like him. As we become conformed to his likeness-- in other words, as we are sanctified-- as we grow in grace, we will find that we start to imitate him more and more. If we are his little brothers, there should be a family resemblance. And just as he was obedient to his heavenly Father, so also, we will be obedient to our heavenly Father. In the opening verses of chapter 5, Paul reminds the Galatians of the implications of what he said at the beginning of chapter 4: So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (4:7) Why, then, would you want to go back to slavery? 1. Circumcision and Justification (5:2-6) We saw last time that Paul has turned from rebuke to request. He is now exhorting the Galatians to fix the problem that he has outlined in chapters 1-4. And so in verses 2-12 of Galatians 5, Paul is dealing with those who wish to return to Judaism those who wish to be "under the law." He starts with circumcision. The Judaizers said that baptism was not sufficient. Gentile converts must not only be baptized, they must also be circumcised, and follow the law of Moses. Paul says, 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. (5:2-3) Paul agrees with the Judaizers that circumcision would indeed entail the obligation to keep the whole law of Moses. And the problem with that is that the law was never intended to give life. Righteousness never came by the law. That was not its purpose (2:21; 3:21). So if you accept the law-covenant, and become a member of the law-covenant through circumcision, then Christ will be of no advantage to you. Why? Why does Paul say that Christ will be of no advantage to circumcised Gentiles? It goes back to the very beginning of Galatians. There is no other gospel no other good news except the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ has given himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father (1:4) If you add anything to Christ, you do not have good news. Jesus plus Moses equals bad news! Starting with the Spirit, being perfected by the flesh = bad news! Indeed, Paul states it even more strongly in verse 4: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. Paul had said earlier that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (3:27). Scripture regularly speaks of all the baptized as being in Christ. All baptized Christians participate in what we sometimes call the visible church, which is the household and kingdom of God and in that sense are connected to Christ in history, through their participation in the covenant. And so Paul can also speak of the Judaizers as being severed from Christ, or falling away from grace, because they had temporarily and partially shared in the benefits of Christ. But as Jesus puts it in the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13, such people who participate temporarily and partially in grace, do not have any root in themselves. They are outwardly connected to Christ, but there is no vital union. This is the biblical way to talk about apostasy. The apostate is severed from Christ. The apostate falls away from grace. They had once participated in the blessings of the covenant, but now the covenant curse comes upon them. But at the same time, we must also say with John, "They went out from us because they were not of us." (1 John 2:19) Paul's point is that in history they were joined to Christ, and they shared in the grace of the covenant. But John's point is that at heart they were not "of us" at all. These two things easily fit together. Some people prefer to use the language of outward and inward, others like to say visible and invisible, others prefer covenant and election, others say historically and eschatologically. But the point is the same: to use Paul's words, there are those who are severed from Christ. Because those who would be justified by the law have fallen away from grace. How do you know where you are? Paul contrasts the "you who would be justified by the law," with the "we" who "through the Spirit, by faith... eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness" (5:5). This all comes back to Paul's conviction that the gospel is Jesus Christ. Our hope of righteousness for which we eagerly is Jesus. Because the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, has now been sent into our hearts, and so through the Spirit of the Son, we have been made sons of God. We are now born according to the Spirit (4:29). And so through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. We do not look to the law for righteousness. We look to Christ, through his Spirit. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (5:6) Having emphatically stated in chapters 2-3 that we are justified by faith, and not by works of the law, Paul now adds that a justifying faith is not and can never be a barren and empty faith. Saving faith, justifying faith, is a faith that works through love. This does not mean that we are justified by faith plus works. That would overthrow everything that Paul said in chapter 3! Rather, as our Confession nicely puts it, "Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love." (11.2) It is always and only faith that receives the promises and blessings of God. There is no other instrument by which we receive God's grace. The question is what sort of faith do you have? Paul is fighting on two fronts: On the one hand he is opposing the legalists and nomists who are saying that we are saved by faith plus works; On the other hand he is opposing the antinomians who say that how you live is irrelevant and all you need is "faith" (Neatly summarized in the ditty: Free from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin as I please, and still have remission!) Paul says to both sides: NO! Justifying faith is a faith that works by love. Saving faith is a faith that because it receives and rests upon Jesus Christ alone is productive of good works. Because your righteousness is found in Jesus Christ (not in your obedience), therefore your good works flow out of your faith! To put it another way, God has justified you in Jesus Christ. He has forgiven all of your sins. He has declared you righteous in Christ. The reason why God has declared you righteous is not because of anything in you. The reason why God has declared you righteous is because God has called you into fellowship with his Son, and because Jesus is the righteous one, therefore all who are in Christ are righteous in him. Now, if all of your sins are forgiven, and you are righteous in Jesus Christ, then at the final judgment, when God judges all men according to their works, what will God see in you? Those good works that he created you to do in Christ Jesus. If you try to say, "but my works are imperfect," God will say, "yes, but I forgave those imperfections in Christ." But it is not as though your works are what will enable you to stand at the judgment! The only way that God can say to you "well done, good and faithful servant," is if he first forgives all your sins in Jesus! That is why any attempt to say that our works are equal to faith falls short of the gospel. Paul does not say "faith and works." Paul says a faith that works through love. There is no "and." It is through faith from first to last. There is no other way to receive God's blessings besides faith. But a living and active faith true saving faith is a faith that boldly and confidently produces good works. And it does so, not out of guilt or fear. But love. God has loved you. He has called you out of darkness into light. He has united you to his Son, and poured the Spirit of his Son into your heart, so that you might call him "Father!" And so the motivating power of your life is that love that flows from faith, and expresses itself in action. I must say that it brings me great delight to hear of the love that you show one another. When I hear in passing of two or three ladies getting together to go to Shipshewanna, or do some canning together or simply go for a walk!-- it does my heart good! It is faith working itself out in love. 2. The Offense of the Cross (5:7-12) But Paul wants to make sure that the Galatians understand how dangerous the Judaizers are (v7-10). You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion (the Judaizers teaching) is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Jesus warned his disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees"-- perhaps Paul is referring to this here) I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. Paul is rather bold here. There are places where Christians may differ. (And in Romans and 1 Corinthians Paul talks about such matters) But there is no place for a teaching that says that we are justified by the law. If you add anything to Jesus Christ, then you will lose the gospel. "Faith plus works" = bad news. "Faith working by love" = good news. Does that distinction seem small? Faith plus works means, in the end, that my salvation depends on me. Faith working by love means, in the end, that my salvation depends on Christ. And for Paul that is the difference between life and death! Between good news and bad news! And Paul even takes Jewish persecution as evidence of the importance of his message. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. The offense of the cross to the Jews is the curse found in Deuteronomy, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." (Dt 21:23) According to the OT law, Jesus was cursed by God because he was hanged a tree. Therefore, according to the Jews, Jesus could not be the Christ. A crucified Messiah was absurd! And Paul has told us in Galatians 3, that Jesus indeed was cursed by the law: but through that curse, Jesus took the whole curse of the law upon himself. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith." (3:13-14) It is through the cross, and only through the cross, that Jesus takes the curse upon himself. That is the offense of the cross for the Jews. But if you preach circumcision if you preach Jesus plus Moses then the law still binds us and we are still under the curse of the law! And so Paul concludes, I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (5:12) If they want to preach circumcision, then just keep on cutting!!! Snip the whole thing off! For you were called to freedom, brothers. (5:13) Conclusion Do you still have the yoke of the law around your shoulders? Do you think of the Christian life as a list of do's and don't's? You were called to freedom. Next week we'll look at Paul's exhortation against antinomianism! But today we are concerned with neonomianism the tendency to turn freedom into bondage. The whole law is fulfilled in one word: "love your neighbor as yourself." You have been set free. Whatever has enslaved you in the past has been overthrown by Jesus. You are free. If you tend to think that your standing in Christ depends on what you do, then please talk to me. If you think of the Christian life as a set of obligations, then we need to talk. Because you are not children of the slave, but of the free woman! You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.