Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Okay, we're back to Galatians still.
We've been in Galatians for a while, haven't we?
I have no idea when we started, but you can turn to Galatians.
We are getting through. We're definitely over halfway.
We are in chapter five now out of six.
So we've covered a lot of ground.
I hope that, you know, we can remember where we've been, though it's been so long. So that's why, you know, I take pains to help us remember what this book is about each week. So we know we've been studying inductively and we've defined that many times to kind of understand, studying from the inside, the details immediately around each word and sentence, extending further and further outward to incorporate the entirety of God's revelation, everything he has put in his Word and what and what and how that helps us understand this text. Galatians is a great exercise in that, as we can see, some subtle allusions to different parts of the Bible and some that are not so subtle, explicit, as he tells us about Abraham and the promise to Abraham.
Now, again, let's remind everyone, especially for those maybe don't remember having been here in a little bit, what.
What is the issue? What's the occasion for this letter that Paul wrote to the church in Galatia?
Yes.
They're being legalistic and how.
They're adding more to the requirements.
That's true. Namely circumcision.
And they were kind of being led this way by a certain group of false teachers.
What are they called? I don't think Paul uses the term, but it's used elsewhere. And so we can kind of understand he's talking about a specific group of people. What are they called?
Yeah, Judaizers.
That's the name. They are trying, you know, just to uphold old Jewish tradition and to kind of graft that in as requirements to enter into the church, to truly be among God's people, to be real Christians. You could say, though, that's not necessarily the wording they would use, but that's kind of their goal. And so Paul be. What does kind of Paul do in the first, what, two chapters?
Anyone remember?
How does he start to establish the foundation of the argument. Yeah.
That I share with people is from God, and it doesn't have anything to do with what you're.
Yeah, yeah, you're right. So he's starting by kind of establishing he preached the gospel, they're out of line with that gospel. And so he first wants to show them that the gospel I have preached to you is the real one. I didn't make it up.
It wasn't something that was just passed down to me from other guys either, where you, you know, it could maybe be mistaken in translation from one person to the next. No, he got it directly from Jesus. He saw the glorious light from Christ and was converted that way, received the gospel from him directly, preached it, and then it was later. So he gets it from Christ, but it's later affirmed by apostles who are eyewitnesses. So that kind of gives more credibility even to his message. And in fact, he was so strong and faithful to the true gospel, he even tells a story of opposing Peter when Peter is being hypocritical and not living in accord with the gospel, sinning in that way.
And even Peter, you know, references this and repents and changes his way because of the faithful rebuke of Paul.
And then, you know, he gets into justification. We talked a lot about justification, but what does that mean again?
It's been a little bit. What does it mean?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Being right before God?
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, being right, or it's kind of like a declaration. So being declared right or righteous before God, being declared holy. He sees you as being innocent, though we aren't, because how. How can God see us as holy and righteous and innocent if our works are bad?
Christ the sacrifice.
Yeah, Christ the sacrifice. And so through faith, his righteousness is credited to you. We actually get this language of credited. You know, this is the fancy word imputation, but credited, given to your account.
We actually get that from an example he gave us from Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It was reckoned to him as righteousness. You might also read that's the same sort of language that we then see in the New Testament using to refer justification.
Righteousness is declared, credited, reckoned to you through faith, because you believe God, you believe in Christ.
So Paul is saying that's the only foundation for justification. It's through faith, not by works of the law. Right.
So he gives these examples from Abraham. The promise, coming to Abraham before the law. The law cannot accomplish this.
And he kind of goes into chapter four addressing his concern, namely that they don't seem to really be believing the gospel. They don't appear to really be Christians. So he's perplexed, but he still loves them. He still believes that their faith will prove true, which he will see if they repent of their ways from this letter.
And then last week we had that example of Hagar and Sarah, which was heavily referenced then in the sermon by Ryan and read in the service, which was not planned, but the exact text. So we were in 4, 215 1.
Can anyone give us a summary? What. What exactly was going on there with this allegory? Or probably more appropriately said, a metaphor.
We'll just run through it real quick. He says these women are two covenants. What are the two covenants he's referring to? Anyone remember?
I'm sorry?
Well, yeah, one is free and one's a slave. But think of Old Testament covenants, you know, where God makes a covenant with his people.
You know, we have.
And there are a couple different ways to render this. You know, there's debatably, at least a debate, covenant with Adam, with Noah, Abraham, the people of Israel, through Moses, and then David.
But what we're seeing is probably, you know, the covenant give either the Mosaic covenant, Hagar representing the law, or a covenant of works given to Adam to obey and live with God or disobey and receive death.
But probably he's calling her Mount Sinai. He's referring to Hagar as mount the law. And he's referring to Sarah, Abraham's wife, as kind of like the new covenant, the covenant of grace through Christ.
And he calls her the Jerusalem that is above and free. This is the heavenly Jerusalem.
And so what he's trying to do is saying Hagar, we remember, remember who is Hagar?
Who's Hagar?
She's the slave. But you know who. Whose slave?
Abraham's. And what is Abraham and Hagar and Sarah?
What do they conspire to do?
Yeah, through Hagar. Because they did not trust, at least at that point, God's promise to give Sarah an heir for Abraham. So they took it into their own hands.
And so they took the slave and had Ishmael.
And he was not the child of the promise.
In fact, we saw that even referenced last week during Ryan's sermon.
He was not the son of the promise. Isaac was. And Isaac, in our progress in Genesis, is yet to be born. He is born out of the promise, out of faith. Ishmael was born out of sin.
And even further in his life, he continues to sin and reject God. And they, though Abraham sends them out, they don't go seek a wife for Ishmael from Abraham's people, but from the people of Egypt. And so we see that this, though Ishmael is circumcised, that's kind of the point of this. He is not part of Israel. He is a completely separate nation.
In fact, this is where Muslims trace their lineage to Ishmael he is a completely different nation, but he's circumcised. And so Paul's point is, this is not the sign of the people of God. This is not what actually gets you in. It is faith in the promise, or now that Christ has come, it's faith in Christ.
And so that was kind of the point of this metaphor.
The point is in Christ. You, you are free for freedom. Christ has set us free. So stand and do not submit again to slavery. Don't shackle yourself to the law again.
So now, chapter five, verse two.
I'll read through verse 15. We'll try to cover that, but we may not.
He 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.
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.
You were running well.
Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view. And the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?
In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves, for you were called to freedom. Brothers only. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Okay, so let's walk through verse two.
Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. So, based on this verse, what topic is Paul introducing? What's he trying to do in this section?
He is trying to destroy and dismantle the circumcision party and their logic and the Judaizers, and specifically the one among them that is troubling them that he mentions, they are accepting circumcision. So you can imagine this. You know, people preach or give speeches this way. He gives this metaphor an example from the Old Testament. And now he's explaining, he's saying, look, here's the application.
That's what he's doing here. If you accept circumcision, Christ is of no advantage to you. The freedom that he offers is nothing because you are chaining yourself to the law, saying, you know what? No, I'm going to choose works to justify me, which as we've seen before, is stupid.
In verse three he says, I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
And so, as I kind of just explained, he's saying, you are choosing a life justification by works of the law. And so that means you don't just have to circumcise, you need to be completely holy according to the law, keep every last bit of it and be totally righteous throughout it.
And we know this would not work.
Said in chapter two.
For by works of the law no one will be justified.
They can't be.
No one is good, not a single one. Those accepting circumcision are choosing to make their own path to heaven.
Instead of choosing the road that has been paved by Christ, they're trying to search through the jungle without a map. They're going to get lost and turned around. But there is a paved path with lights to heaven if you have faith in Christ.
But they are choosing their own a way that is doomed to fail.
That's the seriousness of this section and you can tell how serious he is by just a few places. He uses very strong language like verse four. He says, you are severed from Christ, cut off.
And he specifies you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
So he is saying that legalism severs you from Christ.
It is as if you are on the vine feeding off of Christ. And then you take your own machete and chop yourself off of the life giving vine, saying, I'll get my life and nutrients from somewhere else.
It's not just a theological disagreement of, you know, we want to be ecumenical and involve others. And so maybe some people think that you need to do this.
This is a deadly change of direction.
This is going to the very heart of the gospel to distort it so that it is no gospel at all.
This is a very, very serious position for them to take.
Now verse 5 he says, for through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Now remember or try.
Maybe you want to glance at chapter three. He brought up the Spirit there and there he says, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
So now he's bringing up the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, again.
Why? Why do you think he's bringing up the Spirit again?
Let me help you. What is the Spirit's role in the Christian life?
What are his roles?
Guide and convict believers. That's right. Yeah.
What else?
If someone doesn't have this guidance and holy conviction, what does that tell you about that person?
They're not a believer.
So another way, the Spirit is a sign and a seal leading to assurance of faith.
And so if someone's not feeling this, it's not that the Spirit has gone to sleep, quit his work.
No, that would be blasphemy to suggest that. It means the Spirit is not indwelling such a person.
The Spirit through his work is a seal and a sign even to us that you have been born again.
And so he's bringing up the Spirit to remind them of this fact.
Are you in the Spirit, or are you under the law?
Are you indwelt or not through the Spirit by faith? Then we wait for the hope of righteousness.
That's what we hope for.
The hope that Christ's righteousness is on us. The hope that we have in the cross that is affirmed for us through the Spirit.
So he continues in verse 6.
For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Okay, so this is Paul. You see the Word for a lot of times, this will kind of give us a conclusion. Not every time. It has different functions, but here's kind of giving us one of those kind of conclusion type statements to kind of help us. He's said some things, here's the conclusion, he'll say some more. And he kind of helps kind of chain his argument together so we can make it easier to follow.
And so he's trying to help us.
What he's saying is it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not.
He's not saying those who have been circumcised are, you know, chained to the law necessarily, but those who are requiring it, he's saying it doesn't matter. That's not what gets you into God's family. Just like Ishmael, it didn't get him into Israel.
This does not justify.
He's telling us what is central is faith working through love.
So do you trust in Christ alone?
That's what he wants them to ask. Do you trust in Christ alone? Do you love him?
Do you have faith through love in Christ?
Be careful. This is kind of the implied warning for them and for us.
Be careful that you don't begin to love rituals and commands more than you love Christ and His Word.
You know, I fear this is something that it's easy for people to kind of subtly start to love.
I know many, I know far too many people that have turned into Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism because they love rituals and commands and confessions and all of these things. And what I'm afraid is that they don't love the Word in Christ enough.
And so be sure that you love those things. I'm not advocating for chaotic, crazy, no form churches, not preaching the Bible with no ritual, no tradition. I'm not saying that. But I think some people, and it's kind of a fad, they love rituals and commands more than Christ and His Word.
So we should be first devoted and totally in love with Christ and His Word.
Now, verses seven and eight, he says, you were running well.
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? What do you think he means by running well?
Yeah, you're being faithful. This is kind of another metaphor for the Christian life.
It's like a race, a long race, maybe more of a marathon, a race of endurance, to be continued, to chip away step by step through your life.
And it kind of goes along with another, you know, illustrative phrase you might see in the Bible and hear people say. You hear people talk about their walk, right?
You know, from an outsider, that might be a little weird. Your walk. What do you mean? Your walk with Christ. You like walking down the beach?
It's kind of a little foreign. You know, you grew up in a church. That doesn't sound foreign, but it might be a little foreign.
But this word walk in the New Testament also actually means live. The verb itself has a wide range of meaning. And so he's saying, your walk, your race, the path you're on is your life.
And they were running well, but their race now is going poorly. They've stopped, sat down.
They're no longer obeying the truth.
And so it's like stopping in the middle of a marathon to have a drink at the pub. You know, it makes no sense. You are not going to do well. You are not running well. You're not running at all. And you're going to make it harder to run when you decide to get back up.
He says the persuasion then is not from him who calls you. So Paul is pointing out that this is not God's will for you to stop. He wants you to run. Well, he does not desire Christians to swerve from the truth and accept legalism. And he explains in verse nine, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
What do you think this means? A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
And you can explain what it means? Not in, like, a spiritual sense. Like what. What is he saying? What is leaven? What is this lump?
Anybody know what leaven is?
[00:24:02] Speaker B: It causes bread to rise.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it causes bread to rise. So a little leaven, it makes a whole lump rise. Right. It doesn't take a lot, just a little bit.
I'm sorry, I thought you said something.
So what is his point? What's maybe the spiritual point? He's obviously not talking about bread randomly. What is he trying to tell them?
Does anyone think. Does it feel out of place when you read? Does it kind of jump out at you?
Yeah. Is it like talking about little faith, like having not a lot of faith?
I think you're onto something.
And in fact, a little bit of faith would help them. But I think he's using it more on the negative side, because Paul uses this phrase in First Corinthians also, and there it's also used that way. So that's why I think it's maybe on the negative side. So he's. I think he's saying a little bit of compromise.
False teaching can destroy a church, but again, a little faith would help them rise.
But he. In First Corinthians 5, he's urging the Corinthians to expel a member via church discipline. He says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Now, he doesn't mention discipline here, which could just mean that the false teacher is not a member of the church, but just someone in the community that they're all familiar with. But he's telling them to not listen to such false teachers. Don't give them a foothold. Don't let them in. Don't let their teaching in. It will destroy and leaven the whole lump.
Verse 10.
I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view.
So despite hearing only bad news from Galatia, just think about this. He's only been hearing bad stuff. He's still confident that they'll listen to his warning.
Confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view.
Now, a helpful comment I read from one of my old professors. He said, the incredibly strong warning in 5, 2, 4 is now balanced by the word of assurance.
Perhaps it is better to say that the warning actually becomes a means of assurance, for Paul is persuaded that the Galatians will heed his admonitions and continue on the road of faith.
But we should add here that Paul's assurance does not rest on any recent good news from Galatia.
His confidence rests in the Lord, whose grace will sustain the Galatians to the end.
So, Dr. Schreiner, he says this warning can be a means of assurance for the Galatians.
How can that be? How can a warning be a means of assurance?
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Maybe similar to church discipline. When a pastor comes to you and gives you warning, he said, hey, I think that you're going this wrong way, but I think that you're a Christian. And he wouldn't give you that correction if he didn't think that they were genuinely Christians.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I definitely think that's a large part of it. Yeah.
Someone else going to say something?
You just look like you're mulling it over, but it's okay if you don't have it formed yet.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: I mean, they're probably like a little bit confused if all these people are coming in, telling the different things that what they were doing and just kind of like they were doing the right thing before and they don't need to be confused anymore, like, which one was the right.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. He's reminding them of what they already believed.
He's showing that he has confidence that they at least have appeared to be believers. It's like they received the word well.
And I would add, in addition, maybe kind of referencing our discussion on the Holy Spirit a few minutes ago.
If they repent, if they do make the right decision here and heed this warning, that is evidence of the Spirit of God in them, their conviction and repentance and desire to follow the truth.
If they lack the Spirit, which is the seal of a true believer, then they won't want to repent and they should have no assurance in that case, we too sin all the time.
Whether you're a Christian or not in the room, you too sin.
And if being perfect is the only means of assurance, then we would all be wrecks.
There is no assurance if perfection is the only way to be sure that you're in the faith, but rather repentance is a much better assurance when we earnestly repent. So repentance, turning from your sin into holiness when we Earnestly repent because of sorrow towards our sin.
That is the best way to be assured of the faith. If you lack that sorrow and repentance, that's when you should be a little troubled and, and pray and think through that. But when that desire is there, that is your assurance.
And then he continues, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. So such assurance will not come for the false teachers.
Jesus says in Matthew 18:7, woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes.
Verse 11. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. So this verse seems to imply that the false teachers have accused him of preaching circumcision, which is a little surprising.
There might be some hints of that earlier, but I didn't get that. It seems like they've. They're accusing him. There's no, no, we're us and Paul are the same. I'm not teaching you anything different.
So let me untangle this a little bit, since it does seem to kind of come out of nowhere.
So maybe these false teachers are referencing Paul's pre Christian teaching, you know, when he was teaching Jewish law, but I'm not totally convinced of that, but it's possible.
I think what I think is happening is they were basically calling him a hypocrite.
We know that Paul wasn't always opposed to circumcision for cultural reasons after this letter. So admittedly, this example we have is after he wrote this letter. But this could have. Something like this could have happened before. But after this letter, he eventually would have Timothy get circumcised, you know, for cultural reasons.
His objection is actually for justification. You can't be circumcised for justification. But he was okay with it for cultural reasons.
And so maybe this is why these teachers are saying he's a hypocrite. He tells some people to be circumcised and others not to be.
So again, he's probably fine with it in Jewish contexts for Jews.
And so they're just calling him inconsistent.
Then Paul points out the absurdity of this claim, and he points out that he's being persecuted for not holding to circumcision, saying if I was doing this, if I was really teaching that this justifies you and gets you into the church, then why are people persecuting me for not teaching that?
And he adds in in that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. What do you. What is the offense of the cross?
What does he mean by that?
Okay, so the cross is offensive, right? But why? Why would it offend somebody?
When a sinner looks at the cross, what do they see?
Well, they might see sins removed if they have faith in Christ, but they see their sins, and they see a perfect man, God himself, hanging dead.
That's the image.
The cross offends those calling them sinners by calling them sinners. Sorry. It defends them by calling them sinners, declaring that everything they've done is worthless and filthy rags, even to these Jewish Judaizers who have kept the law and the traditions for their whole lives.
And now the offense is. That is all gone.
All of that is done. That was never going to justify you. You must now have faith in this man who died on the cross.
That is the offense.
And so if he preached circumcision, you know, justification by works of law, then his preaching would be less offensive.
It would be affirming of these Judaizers, and he'd avoid persecution. But that's not what is happening. He is still receiving persecution.
And then in verse 12, he says, I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
So this is a shocking statement, but it does help us grasp the seriousness of the false teaching.
Because he's saying this, but I mean, there's no other. Just to address it, not to be crude, Paul's essentially saying that these circumcisers should, as my professor, Dr. Schreiner says, go the whole way with the knife and emasculate themselves.
So the way that these false teachers have twisted and abused this doctrine has made the practice of circumcision no more holy than pagan cutting or mutilation.
Now, instead of circumcision, bringing someone into God's family, Paul is saying it quite literally cuts them off.
That's his point there.
But he continues after this statement. He says, for you were called to freedom, brothers only. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
So let's remember, they're called to freedom. Freedom from the law.
But Paul knows that freedom can be abused.
In this case, freedom from the law can be abused, too.
What are some examples, either in the Church or the world, in how freedom can be abused?
How can Freedom be abused.
You can act recklessly with it. You can act recklessly with it. That's true.
I don't think we always think of this way. I think we're maybe kind of conditioned to think, well, you know, total freedom, autonomy, people doing what they want is, is a good thing.
But, you know, typically to the world, freedom does mean just doing whatever you want, regardless of whether it harms yourself.
Maybe there's some caution around harming others, but not necessarily so. We can harm society and harm children by affirming, you know, transgenderism, for example, but that's total freedom. But we see how this freedom is, is abusing people and mutilating them and hurting them. That's one example that's prevalent in the church.
People use freedom from the law to, let's say, not go to church to skip it entirely.
Or people use their freedom to justify over drinking or overeating.
So freedom can really be abused in a lot of ways. I'm not even scratching the surface.
According to Paul, freedom, true freedom, true liberty causes us to serve, or more literally to slave the world.
So where are we? He says, through love, slave for one another.
Serve and slave are the same word.
Freedom causes us to be slaves out of love toward one another.
The most free being God, the most free being, he became a servant or a slave on earth.
Freedom is fulfilling the law of God because the law reflects his heart.
We need to reorient in our minds what freedom actually means.
Loving your neighbor as yourself is true liberty. This is what freedom is. Loving and serving others.
How is this true freedom?
God knows what sinful humanity will do if we abuse freedom instead of using it in God's intended way. We will bite and devour one another in society and in the church. In this context, do you know this is likely the reason that God shut Adam and Eve out of the garden? In Genesis 3, the Lord said, behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden.
If Adam were to eat from the tree of life and live forever, his sinfulness would abound eternally forever.
Sin would continue to eat away at each person forever and ever.
God showed mercy through death, Death which ends it for those in Christ, brings them into his glory. An escape from the fallen sinful world.
God does not free us from the law to abuse freedom and sinfulness. He frees us that we may love others and channel this freedom in godly ways. Ways.
Now I need to stop. We've gone too long. But we did get to the end there.
And so just reflect on how we can love and serve others with freedom.
Father, thank you for your word and for the freedom we have in Christ. Lord, we pray that you will call those to yourself, give repentance and faith that all may see your glory and love and serve you and others. And we pray this in Christ's name, Amen.
