Chapter Nine: Stop! Thief! (Galatians 5:1–12)
Key theme: Christian liberty in the grace of God
I.PERSONAL: GRACE AND THE GOSPEL—chapters 1–2
A.Grace declared in Paul’s message—
B.Grace demonstrated in Paul’s life—
C.Grace defended in Paul’s ministry—
1.Before the church collectively—
II.DOCTRINAL: GRACE AND THE LAW—chapters 3–4
III.PRACTICAL: GRACE AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE—chapters 5–6
D.God’s glory, not man’s praise—
The lad at my front door was trying to sell me a subscription to a weekly newspaper, and he was very persuasive. “It only costs a quarter a week,” he said, “and the best thing about this newspaper is that it prints only the good news!”
In a world filled with trouble, it is becoming more and more difficult to find any “good news,” so perhaps the newspaper was a bargain after all. To the person who has trusted Christ as Saviour, the real “Good News” is the Gospel: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures … He was buried, and … He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (). It is the Good News that sinners can be forgiven and go to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. The Good News of salvation through faith in Christ is the most important message in the world.
This message had changed Paul’s life and, through him, the lives of others. But now this message was being attacked, and Paul was out to defend the truth of the Gospel. Some false teachers had invaded the churches of Galatia—churches Paul had founded—and were teaching a different message from that which Paul had taught.
As you begin to read Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians, you can tell immediately that something is radically wrong, because he does not open his letter with his usual praise to God and prayer for the saints. He has no time! Paul is about to engage in a battle for the truth of the Gospel and the liberty of the Christian life. False teachers are spreading a false “gospel” which is a mixture of Law and grace, and Paul is not going to stand by and do nothing.
How does Paul approach the Galatian Christians in his attempt to teach them the truth about the Gospel? In these opening verses, the apostle takes three definite steps as he prepares to fight this battle.
Later on in his letter, Paul will deal with the Galatians on the basis of affection (); but at the outset he is careful to let them know the authority he has from the Lord. He has three sources of authority.
His ministry (vv. ). “Paul, an apostle.” In the early days of the church, God called special men to do special tasks. Among them were the apostles. The word means “one who is sent with a commission.” While He was ministering on earth, Jesus had many disciples (“learners”), and from these He selected 12 Apostles (). Later, one of the requirements for an apostle was that he have witnessed the Resurrection (; ; ). Of course, Paul himself was neither a disciple nor an apostle during Christ’s earthly ministry, but he had seen the risen Lord and been commissioned by Him (; ).
Paul’s miraculous conversion and call to apostleship created some problems. From the very beginning, he was apart from the original Apostles. His enemies said that he was not a true apostle for this reason. Paul is careful to point out that he had been made an apostle by Jesus Christ just as much as had the original Twelve. His apostleship was not from human selection and approval, but by divine appointment. Therefore, he had the authority to deal with the problems in the Galatian churches.
But in his ministry, Paul had a second basis for authority: he had founded the churches in Galatia. He was not writing to them as a stranger, but as the one who had brought them the message of life in the beginning! This letter reveals Paul’s affection for these believers (see ). Unfortunately, this affection was not being returned to him.
This matter of the founding of the Galatian churches has kept serious Bible students at work for many years. The problem stems from the meaning of the word Galatia. Several hundred years before the birth of Christ, some fierce tribes migrated from Gaul (modern France) into Asia Minor, and founded Galatia, which simply means “the country of the Gauls.” When the Romans reorganized the ancient world, they made Galatia a part of a larger province that included several other areas, and they called the entire province Galatia. So, back in Paul’s day, when a person talked about Galatia, you could not be sure whether he meant the smaller country of Galatia or the larger Roman province.
Bible students are divided over whether Paul wrote to churches in the country of Galatia or in the province of Galatia. The former view is called the “north Galatian theory” and the latter the “south Galatian theory.” The matter is not finally settled, but the evidence seems to indicate that Paul wrote to churches in the southern part of the province of Galatia—Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe—churches he founded on his first missionary journey (Acts 13–14).
Paul always had a loving concern for his converts and a deep desire to see the churches he had founded glorify Christ (see ; ). He was not content to lead men and women to Christ and then abandon them. (For an example of his “after-care,” read 1 Thes. 2.)
When Paul heard that false teachers had begun to capture his converts and lead them astray, he was greatly concerned-and rightly so. After all, teaching new Christians how to live for Christ is as much a part of Christ’s commission as winning them (). Sad to say, many of the Galatian Christians had turned away from Paul, their “spiritual father” in the Lord, and were now following legalistic teachers who were mixing Old Testament Law with the Gospel of God’s grace. (We call these false teachers “Judaizers” because they were trying to entice Christians back into the Jewish religious system.)
So, Paul had a ministry as an apostle, and specifically as the founder of the Galatian churches. As such, he had the authority to deal with the problems in the churches. But there was a second source of authority.
His message (vv. ). From the very beginning, Paul clearly states the message of the Gospel, because it was this message that the Judaizers were changing. The Gospel centers in a Person-Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This Person paid a price-He gave Himself to die on the cross. (You will discover that the cross is important in the Galatian letter, see ; , ; ; , ; .) Christ paid the price that He might achieve a purpose-delivering sinners from bondage.
“Liberty in Christ” is the dominant theme of Galatians. (Check the word bondage in ; , , ; .) The Judaizers wanted to lead the Christians out of the liberty of grace into the bondage of Law. Paul knew that bondage was not a part of the message of the Gospel, for Christ had died to set men free.
Paul’s ministry and message were sources of spiritual authority.
His motive (v. ). “To whom be glory forever and ever!” The false teachers were not ministering for the glory of Christ, but for their own glory (see ). Like false teachers today, the Judaizers were not busy winning lost people to Christ. Rather, they were stealing other men’s converts and bragging about their statistics. But Paul’s motive was pure and godly: he wanted to glorify Jesus Christ (see ; ).
Paul has now explained his authority. He is ready for a second step as he begins this battle for the liberty of the Christian.
“I am amazed that you are so quickly moving away!” This is the first reason for Paul’s anxiety: the Galatians were deserting the grace of God. (The verb indicates they were in the process of deserting and had not fully turned away.)
Paul strikes while the iron is hot. God had called them in His grace, and saved them from their sins. Now they are moving from grace back into Law. They are abandoning liberty for legalism! And they are doing it so quickly, without consulting Paul, their “spiritual father,” or giving time for the Holy Spirit to teach them. They have become infatuated with the religion of the Judaizers, just the way little children follow a stranger because he offers them candy.
“The grace of God” is a basic theme in this letter (, , ; , ; ; ). Grace is simply God’s favor to undeserving sinners. The words “grace” and “gift” go together, because salvation is the gift of God through His grace (). The Galatian believers were not simply “changing religions” or “changing churches” but were actually abandoning the very grace of God! To make matters worse, they were deserting the very God of grace! God had called them and saved them; now they were deserting Him for human leaders who would bring them into bondage.
We must never forget that the Christian life is a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A man does not become a Christian merely by agreeing to a set of doctrines; he becomes a Christian by submitting to Christ and trusting Him (). You cannot mix grace and works, because the one excludes the other. Salvation is the gift of God’s grace, purchased for us by Jesus Christ on the cross. To turn from grace to Law is to desert the God who saved us.
But they were guilty of another sin that gave Paul great anxiety: they were perverting the Gospel of God. The Judaizers claimed to be preaching “the Gospel,” but there cannot be two gospels, one centered in works and the other centered in grace. “They are not preaching another gospel,” writes Paul, “but a different message-one so different from the true Gospel that it is no gospel at all.” Like the cultists today, the Judaizers would say, “We believe in Jesus Christ-but we have something wonderful to add to what you already believe.” As if any man could “add” something better to the grace of God!
The word translated “pervert” in is used only three times in the New Testament (; ; ). It means “to turn about, to change into an opposite character.” The word could be translated “to reverse.” In other words, the Judaizers had reversed the Gospel-they had turned it around and taken it back into the Law! Later in this letter, Paul explains how the Law was preparation for the coming of Christ, but the Judaizers had a different interpretation. To them, the Law and the Gospel went together. “Except ye be circumcised after the manner [Law] of Moses, ye cannot be saved” ().
What was this “deserting and perverting” doing to the Galatian Christians? It was troubling them (). This verb “trouble” carries with it the idea of perplexity, confusion, and unrest. You get some idea of the force of this word when you see how it is used in other places. “Trouble” describes the feelings of the disciples in the ship during the storm (). It also describes the feelings of King Herod when he heard that a new King had been born (). No wonder Paul was anxious for his converts: they were going through great agitation because of the false doctrines that had been brought to the churches. Grace always leads to peace (see ), but the believers had deserted grace and therefore had no peace in their hearts.
Keep in mind that God’s grace involves something more than man’s salvation. We not only are saved by grace, but we are to live by grace (). We stand in grace; it is the foundation for the Christian life (). Grace gives us the strength we need to be victorious soldiers (). Grace enables us to suffer without complaining, and even to use that suffering for God’s glory (). When a Christian turns away from living by God’s grace, he must depend on his own power. This leads to failure and disappointment. This is what Paul means by “fallen from grace” ()-moving out of the sphere of grace into the sphere of Law, ceasing to depend on God’s resources and depending on our own resources.
No wonder Paul was anxious. His friends in Christ were deserting the God of grace, perverting the grace of God, and reverting to living by the flesh and their own resources. They had begun their Christian lives in the Spirit, but now they were going to try to continue in the power of the flesh ().
Having explained his authority and expressed his anxiety, Paul now takes the third step.
“Make love, not war!” may have been a popular slogan, but it is not always feasible. Doctors must make war against disease and death; sanitary engineers must war against filth and pollution; legislators must war against injustice and crime. And they all fight because of something they love!
“Ye that love the Lord, hate evil” (). “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (). Paul waged war against the false teachers because he loved the truth, and because he loved those whom he had led to Christ. Like a loving father who guards his daughter until she is married, Paul watched over his converts lest they be seduced into sin ().
The Judaizers are identified by the false gospel that they preached. The test of a man’s ministry is not popularity (), or miraculous signs and wonders (), but his faithfulness to the Word of God (see ; 1 Tim. 4; ; and note that warns us not to encourage those who bring false doctrine). Christ had committed the Gospel to Paul (), and he, in turn, had committed it to other faithful servants (; ; ; ). But the Judaizers had come along and substituted their false gospel for the true Gospel, and for this sin, Paul pronounced them accursed. The word he uses is anathema, which means “dedicated to destruction.” (Read for a forceful illustration of the meaning of this word.) No matter who the preacher may be-an angel from heaven or even Paul himself-if he preaches any other gospel, he is accursed!
But there is a second characteristic of Paul’s adversaries: the false motives that they practiced. His enemies accused Paul of being a compromiser and “adjusting” the Gospel to fit the Gentiles. Perhaps they twisted the meaning of Paul’s statement, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (). They said, “When Paul is with the Jews, he lives like a Jew; but when he is with the Gentiles, he lives like the Gentiles. He is a man-pleaser, and therefore you cannot trust him!”
But in reality, it was the false teacher who was the man-pleaser. “These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely,” Paul wrote (). “They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention” (WMS). Later, Paul also exposes the false teachers as the compromisers, going back to Old Testament practices so that they would not be persecuted by the Jewish people (). Paul was definitely not a man-pleaser. His ministry did not come from man (), nor did his message come from man (). Why, then, should he be afraid of men? Why should he seek to please men? His heart’s desire was to please Christ.
When Verdi produced his first opera in Florence, the composer stood by himself in the shadows and kept his eye on the face of one man in the audience-the great Rossini. It mattered not to Verdi whether the people in the hall were cheering him or jeering him; all he wanted was a smile of approval from the master musician. So it was with Paul. He knew what it was to suffer for the Gospel, but the approval or disapproval of men did not move him. “Therefore also we have as our ambition … to be pleasing to Him” (, NASB). Paul wanted the approval of Christ.
The servant of God is constantly tempted to compromise in order to attract and please men. When D.L. Moody was preaching in England, a worker came to him on the platform and told him that a very important nobleman had come into the hall. “May the meeting be a blessing to him!” was Moody’s reply, and he preached just as before, without trying to impress anybody.
Paul was not a politician; he was an ambassador. His task was not to “play politics” but to proclaim a message. These Judaizers, on the other hand, were cowardly compromisers who mixed Law and grace, hoping to please both Jews and Gentiles, but never asking whether or not they were pleasing God.
We have noted three steps Paul took toward engaging these false teachers in battle: he explained his authority, expressed his anxiety, and exposed his adversaries. But how is he going to attack his enemies? What approach will he use to convince the Galatian believers that all they need is faith in God’s grace? A quick survey of the entire letter shows that Paul is a master defender of the Gospel. Take time to read the entire letter at one sitting, and, as you read, note the three approaches that Paul takes.
His first approach is personal (Gal. 1–2). He reviews his own personal experience with Jesus Christ and the message of the Gospel. He points out that he had received the Gospel independently, from the Lord and not from the 12 Apostles (), but that they had approved his message and his ministry (). Furthermore, Paul had even defended the Gospel when Peter, the leading apostle, had compromised his earlier stand (). The autobiographical section of the letter proves that Paul was not a “counterfeit apostle,” but that his message and ministry were true to the faith.
Galatians 3 and 4 are doctrinal, and in them Paul presents several arguments to establish that sinners are saved by faith and grace, not by works and Law. First he appeals to their own experiences (). Then he goes back to the Old Testament Law in to show that even Abraham and the prophets understood salvation as being by grace through faith. Having mentioned the Law, Paul now explains why the Law was given originally (Gal. 3:15–4:18). He then uses the story of Sarah and Hagar to illustrate the relationship between Law and grace ().
The final two chapters of the letter are practical in emphasis, as Paul turns from argument to application. The Judaizers accused Paul of promoting lawlessness because he preached the Gospel of the grace of God; so in this section, Paul explains the relationship between the grace of God and practical Christian living. He shows that living by grace means liberty, not bondage (); depending on the Spirit, not the flesh (); living for others, not for self (); and living for the glory of God, not for man’s approval (). It is either one series of actions or the other—Law or grace—but it cannot be both.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” So wrote Emerson, and many a thinker agrees with him.
The English art critic John Ruskin said, “I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.”
The German philosopher Schopenhauer wrote, “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”
Francis Asbury, first bishop of the Methodist Church in the United States, once prayed at a deacon ordination, “O Lord, grant that these brethren may never want to be like other people.”
Of course, there is a wrong kind of individualism that destroys instead of fulfills; but in a society accustomed to interchanging parts, it is good to meet a man like Paul who dared to be himself in the will of God. But his freedom in Christ was a threat to those who found safety in conformity.
Paul’s enemies pointed to his nonconformity as proof that his message and ministry were not really of God. “He claims to be an apostle,” they argued, “but he does not stand in the apostolic tradition.” It is this misrepresentation that Paul answers in this section of Galatians. His nonconformity was divinely deliberate. God had chosen to reveal Himself in a different way to Paul.
In , Paul states his theme: his message and ministry are of divine origin. He did not invent the Gospel, nor did he receive it from men; but he received the Gospel from Jesus Christ. Both his message and his apostolic ministry were divinely given. Therefore, anybody who added anything to Paul’s Gospel was in danger of divine judgment, because that Gospel was given by Jesus Christ from heaven ().
The best way for Paul to prove his point is to reach into his past and remind the Galatian Christians of the way God had dealt with him. Paul states that his past life was already known to his readers (), but it was obvious that they did not fully understand what those experiences meant. So, Paul flashes on the screen three pictures from his past as evidence that his apostleship and his Gospel are truly of God.
Paul begins with his past conduct as an unconverted Jewish rabbi. (For a vivid account of these years from Paul’s own lips, read Acts 22 and 26, as well as Acts 9.) In this historical flashback, Paul points out his relationship to the church () and to the religion of the Jews (). He was persecuting the church and profiting and progressing in the Jewish religion. Everything was “going his way” and he was rapidly being recognized as a spiritual leader in Israel.
It is interesting to note the words that are used to describe Paul’s activities when he was “Saul of Tarsus” persecuting the church. He “consented” to the murder of Stephen (see ), and then proceeded to “make havoc of the church” (see ) by breaking up families and putting believers in prison. The very atmosphere that he breathed was “threatening and slaughter” (). So bent on destroying the church was Paul that he voted to kill the believers (; ). He mentions these facts in his letters (; ; ), marveling that God could save such a sinner as he.
Paul actually thought that Jesus was an impostor and His message of salvation a lie. He was sure that God had spoken through Moses, but how could he be sure that God had spoken through Jesus of Nazareth? Steeped in Jewish tradition, young Saul of Tarsus championed his faith. His reputation as a zealous persecutor of “the sect of the Nazarenes” became known far and wide (see ). Everybody knew that this brilliant student of Rabbi Gamaliel () was well on his way to becoming an influential leader of the Jewish faith. His personal religious life, his scholarship (), and his zeal in opposing alien religious faiths, all combined to make him the most respected young rabbi of his day.
Then something happened: Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church, became Paul the Apostle, the preacher of the Gospel. This change was not gradual; it happened suddenly and without warning (). Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians; a few days later he was in Damascus preaching to the Jews that the Christians are right. How could the Judaizers explain this sudden transformation?
Was Saul’s remarkable “about-face” caused by his own people, the Jews? Unthinkable! The Jews were encouraging Saul in his program of persecution, and his conversion was an embarrassment to them.
Was Saul’s change caused by the Christians he was persecuting? Certainly the believers prayed for him, and no doubt the death of Stephen-and especially the glorious testimony he had given-affected Paul deeply (). But the Christians ran from Paul (, ; ), and, as far as we know, they had no idea that the young rabbi would ever become a Christian.
But if the amazing change in Paul was not caused by the Jews or the church, then who caused it? It had to come from God!
No matter how you look at it, the conversion of Paul was a spiritual miracle. It was humanly impossible for Rabbi Saul to become the Apostle Paul apart from the miracle of God’s grace. And the same God who saved Paul also called him to be an apostle, and gave him the message of the Gospel. For the Judaizers to deny Paul’s apostleship and Gospel was the same as denying his conversion! Certainly Paul was preaching the same message that he himself had believed-the truth that had changed him. But no mere human message could effect such a change. Paul’s argument is conclusive: his past conduct as a persecutor of the church plus the dramatic change that he experienced prove that his message and ministry are from God.
Having discussed his past character and conduct, Paul now explains his conversion; for, after all, this was the crucial thing in his life. “What I preach to others, I have experienced myself,” he is saying to his accusers. “This is the true Gospel. Any other Gospel is counterfeit.” In these verses Paul explains the characteristics of his conversion experience.
God did it (vv. , ). “It pleased God … to reveal His Son in me.” Whenever Paul spoke or wrote about his conversion, it was always with emphasis on the fact that God did the work. “Salvation is of the Lord!” ()
God did it by grace (v. ). Paul’s experience reminds us of young Jeremiah () and also of John the Baptist (). Salvation is by God’s grace, not man’s efforts or character. Grace and called () go together, for whomever God chooses in His grace He calls through His Word (). The mysteries of God’s sovereign will and man’s responsibility to obey are not fully revealed to us. We do know that God is “not willing that any should perish” (), and that those who do trust Christ discover they have been “chosen … in Him before the foundation of the world” ().
God did it through Christ (v. ). In another letter Paul makes it clear that he had plenty to boast about when he was an unconverted man (Phil. 3). He had religion and self-righteousness, as well as reputation and recognition; but he did not have Christ! When on the Damascus Road, Paul saw his own self-righteous rags contrasted to the righteousness of Christ, he realized what he was missing. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” ().
God revealed Christ to Paul, in Paul, and through Paul. The “Jews’ religion” () had been an experience of outward rituals and practices; but faith in Christ brought about an inward experience of reality with the Lord. This “inwardness” of Christ is a major truth with Paul (; ).
God did it for the sake of others (v. ). God chose Paul, not only to save him, but also to use him to win others. In the Bible, the doctrine of election is never taught with a view to producing pride or selfishness. Election involves responsibility. God chose Paul to preach among the Gentiles the same grace that he had experienced. This, in itself, was evidence that Paul’s conversion was of God; for certainly a prejudiced Jewish rabbi would never decide of himself to minister to the despised Gentiles! (See ; ; ; , .)
God did it for His glory (v. ). As a fanatical rabbi, Paul had all the glory a man could want; but what he was doing did not glorify God. Man was created to glorify God () and man is saved to glorify God (). Bringing glory to God was ever a compelling motive in Paul’s life and ministry (; 16:27; ; ; ; ). The Judaizers were interested in their own glory (). That is why they were stealing Paul’s converts and leading them astray. If Paul had been interested in glorifying himself, he could have remained a Jewish rabbi and perhaps become Gamaliel’s successor. But it was the glory of God that motivated Paul, and this ought to motivate our lives as well.
When Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a young preacher, his father, the Rev. John Spurgeon, suggested that Charles go to college to gain prominence. It was arranged for him to meet Dr. Joseph Angus, the principal of Stepney College, London. They were to meet at Mr. Macmillan’s home in Cambridge, and Spurgeon was there at the appointed hour. He waited for two hours, but the learned doctor never appeared. When Spurgeon finally inquired about the man, he discovered that Dr. Angus had been waiting in another room and, because of another appointment, had already departed. Disappointed, Spurgeon left for a preaching engagement. While he was walking along, he heard a voice clearly say to him, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not!” (see ) From that moment, Spurgeon determined to do the will of God for the glory of God; and God blessed him in an exceptional way.
Paul has pictured himself as a persecutor, and has reviewed his character and conduct. He has also pictured himself as a believer, reviewing his conversion. He now presents a third picture.
What were Paul’s contacts with other believers after he was converted? This is a question vital to his defense. Paul had no personal contacts with the Apostles right after his conversion experience on the Damascus Road. “Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood” (). The logical thing for Paul to have done after his conversion was to introduce himself to the church at Jerusalem and profit from the spiritual instruction of those who had been “in Christ” before him. But this he did not do-and his decision was led of the Lord. For if he had gone to Jerusalem, his ministry might have been identified with that of the Apostles—all Jews—and this could have been a hindrance to his work among the Gentiles.
At this point we need to remind ourselves that the message of the Gospel came “to the Jew first” (; ). Our Lord’s ministry was to the nation of Israel, and so was the ministry of the Apostles for the first few years (see Acts 1–7). The death of Stephen was a turning point. As the believers were scattered, they took the Good News with them to other places (; ). Philip took the message to the Samaritans (Acts 8), and then God directed Peter to introduce it to the Gentiles (Acts 10). However, it remained for Paul to carry the Gospel to the Gentile masses (; , ), and for this reason God kept him separated from the predominantly Jewish ministry being conducted by the Apostles in Jerusalem.
Paul did not immediately go to Jerusalem. Where did he go? He reviews his contacts and shows that there was no opportunity for him to receive either his message or his apostolic calling from any of the leaders of the church. (Compare this section with , and keep in mind that even the best biblical scholars are not agreed on the chronology of Paul’s life. Fortunately, the details of history do not affect the understanding of what Paul has written: we can disagree on chronology and yet agree on theology!)
He went to Arabia (v. ). This was after his initial ministry in Damascus (). Instead of “conferring with flesh and blood,” Paul gave himself to study, prayer, and meditation, and met with the Lord alone. He may have spent the greater part of three years in Arabia (), and no doubt was involved in evangelism as well as personal spiritual growth. The Apostles had received three years of teaching from the Lord Jesus, and now Paul was going to have his own opportunity to be taught of the Lord.
He went back to Damascus (v. ). It would have been logical to visit Jerusalem at this point, but the Lord directed otherwise. Certainly it was a risky thing for Paul to go back to the city that knew he had become a Christian. The Jewish leaders who had looked to him as their champion against Christianity would definitely be after his blood. Apparently the “basket incident” of (see ) took place at this time. The return to Damascus and the danger it brought to Paul’s life are further proof that the Jewish leaders considered Paul an enemy, and therefore that his experience with Christ was a valid one.
He finally visited Jerusalem (vv. ). This was three years after his conversion, and his main purpose was to visit Peter. But Paul had a tough time getting into the church fellowship! () If his message and ministry had been from the Apostles, this would never have happened; but because Paul’s experience had been with the Lord Jesus alone, the Apostles were suspicious of him. He stayed in Jerusalem only fifteen days, and he saw only Peter and James (the Lord’s brother). Thus he received neither his message nor his apostleship from the Jerusalem church. There simply was not the time nor the opportunity. He had already received them both directly from Christ.
He returned home to Tarsus (vv. ). Again, the record in Acts explains why: his life was in danger in Jerusalem, just as it had been in Damascus (). As Paul went through Syria, he preached the Word, and when he arrived in Cilicia, his home province (; ), he began to evangelize (see ). Historians have concluded that he remained there perhaps seven years, until Barnabas recruited him for the work in Antioch (). A few believers in Jerusalem knew Paul, but the believers in the churches of Judea did not know him, though they heard that he was now preaching the very faith he had once tried to destroy.
In the light of Paul’s conduct, his conversion, and his contacts, how could anybody accuse him of borrowing or inventing either his message or his ministry? Certainly he did receive his Gospel by a revelation from Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must be careful what we do with this Gospel, for it is not the invention of men, but the very truth of God.
Some critical scholars have accused Paul of “corrupting the simple Gospel,” but the evidence is against this accusation. The same Christ who taught on earth also taught through Paul from heaven. Paul did not invent his teaching; he “received” it (; ; ). At the time of Paul’s conversion, God said He would appear to him in the future (), apparently for the purpose of revealing His truths to him. This means that the Christ of the four Gospels and the Christ of the epistles is the same Person; there is no conflict between Christ and Paul. When Paul wrote his letters to the churches, he put his own teaching on the same level with that of Jesus Christ (). The Apostle Peter even calls Paul’s letters “Scripture” ().
Modern-day “Judaizers,” like their ancient counterparts, reject the authority of Paul and try to undermine the Gospel which he preached. In Paul’s day, their message was “the Gospel plus Moses.” In our day it is “the Gospel plus” any number of religious leaders, religious books, or religious organizations. “You cannot be saved unless …” is their message (); and that “unless” usually includes joining their group and obeying their rules. If you dare to mention the Gospel of grace as preached by Jesus, Paul, and the other Apostles, they reply, “But God has given us a new revelation!”
Paul has the answer for them: “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed!” () When a sinner trusts Christ and is born again (), he is “born free.” He has been redeemed—purchased by Christ and set free. He is no longer in bondage to sin or Satan, nor should he be in bondage to human religious systems (; ). “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” ().
This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”
So wrote veteran news analyst Elmer Davis in his book But We Were Born Free, and his convictions would certainly be echoed by the Apostle Paul. To Paul, his spiritual liberty in Christ was worth far more than popularity or even security. He was willing to fight for that liberty.
Paul’s first fight for Christian liberty was at the Jerusalem Council (; ); his second was at a private meeting with Peter (). Had Paul been unwilling to wage this spiritual warfare, the church in the first century might have become only a Jewish sect, preaching a mixture of Law and grace. But because of Paul’s courage, the Gospel was kept free from legalism, and it was carried to the Gentiles with great blessing.
Before we look at the three acts in the first drama, the Council at Jerusalem, we must get acquainted with the participants. Paul, of course, we know as the great apostle to the Gentiles.
Barnabas was one of Paul’s closest friends. In fact, when Paul tried to get into the fellowship of the Jerusalem church, it was Barnabas who opened the way for him ().
The name Barnabas means “son of encouragement,” and you will always find Barnabas encouraging somebody. When the Gospel came to the Gentiles in Antioch, it was Barnabas who was sent to encourage them in their faith ().
Thus, from the earliest days, Barnabas was associated with the Gentile believers. It was Barnabas who enlisted Paul to help minister at the church in Antioch (), and the two of them worked together, not only in teaching, but also in helping the poor ().
Barnabas accompanied Paul on the first missionary trip (Acts 13:1–14:28) and had seen God’s blessings on the Gospel that they preached. It is worth noting that it was Barnabas who encouraged young John Mark after he had “dropped out” of the ministry and incurred the displeasure of Paul (; ). In later years, Paul was able to commend Mark and benefit from his friendship (; ).
Titus was a Gentile believer who worked with Paul and apparently was won to Christ through the apostle’s ministry (). He was a “product” of the apostle’s ministry among the Gentiles, and was taken to the Jerusalem conference as “exhibit A” from the Gentile churches. In later years, Titus assisted Paul by going to some of the most difficult churches to help them solve their problems (2 Cor. 7; ).
Three men were the “pillars” of the church in Jerusalem: Peter, John, and James, the brother of the Lord (who must not be confused with the Apostle James, who was killed by Herod, ). Peter we know from his prominent part in the accounts in the Gospels as well as in the first half of the Book of Acts. It was to Peter that Jesus gave “the keys,” so that it was he who was involved in opening the door of faith to the Jews (Acts 2), the Samaritans (Acts 8), and the Gentiles (Acts 10). John we also know from the Gospel records as one of Christ’s “inner three” apostles, associated with Peter in the ministry of the Word ().
It is James who perhaps needs more introduction. The Gospel record indicates that Mary and Joseph had other children, and James was among them (; ). (Of course, Jesus was born by the power of the Spirit, and not through natural generation; ; .) Our Lord’s brothers and sisters did not believe in Him during His earthly ministry (). Yet we find “His brethren” associated with the believers in the early church (). Paul informs us that the risen Christ appeared to James, and this was the turning point in his life (). James was the leader of the early church in Jerusalem (Acts 15; see also ). He was also the writer of the Epistle of James; and that letter, plus , would suggest that he was very Jewish in his thinking.
Along with these men, and the “Apostles and elders” (, ), were a group of “false brethren” who infiltrated the meetings and tried to rob the believers of their liberty in Christ (). Undoubtedly these were some of the Judaizers who had followed Paul in church after church and had tried to capture his converts. The fact that Paul calls them “false brethren” indicates that they were not true Christians, but were only masquerading as such so they could capture the conference for themselves.
This, then, is the cast of characters. Acts 15 should be read along with to get the full story of the event.
Act 1—The Private Consultation ()
Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch from their first missionary journey, excited about the way God had “opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles” (). But the Jewish legalists in Jerusalem were upset with their report; so they came to Antioch and taught, in effect, that a Gentile had to become a Jew before he could become a Christian ().
Circumcision, which they demanded of the Gentiles, was an important Jewish rite, handed down from the days of Abraham (Gen. 17). Submitting to circumcision meant accepting and obeying the whole Jewish Law. Actually, the Jewish people had forgotten the inner, spiritual meaning of the rite (; ; ), just as some churches today have lost the spiritual meaning of baptism and have turned it into an external ritual. The true Christian has experienced an inner circumcision of the heart () and does not need to submit to any physical operation ().
When Paul and Barnabas confronted these men with the truth of the Gospel, the result was a heated argument (). It was decided that the best place to settle the question was before the church leaders in Jerusalem. We should not think that this “Jerusalem Conference” was a representative meeting from all the churches, such as a denominational conference; it was not. Paul, Barnabas, Titus, and certain other men from Antioch represented the Gentile Christians who had been saved totally apart from Jewish Law; but there were no representatives from the churches Paul had established in Gentile territory.
When the deputation arrived in Jerusalem, they met privately with the church leaders. Paul did not go to Jerusalem because the church sent him; he “went up by revelation”—that is, the Lord sent him (compare and ). And the Lord gave him the wisdom to meet with the leaders first so that they would be able to present a united front at the public meetings.
“Lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain” () does not mean that Paul was unsure either of his message or his ministry. His conduct on the way to the conference indicates that he had no doubts (). What he was concerned about was the future of the Gospel among the Gentiles, because this was his specific ministry from Christ. If the “pillars” sided with the Judaizers, or tried to compromise, then Paul’s ministry would be in jeopardy. He wanted to get their approval before he faced the whole assembly; otherwise a three-way division could result.
What was the result of this private consultation? The Apostles and elders approved Paul’s Gospel. They added nothing to it () and thereby declared the Judaizers to be wrong. But this private meeting was only the beginning.
Act 2—The Public Convocation ()
The historical account of the Council of Jerusalem is recorded by Luke (). Several witnesses presented the case for the Gospel of the grace of God, beginning with Peter (). It was he who had been chosen by God to take the Gospel to the Gentiles originally (Acts 10); and he reminds the assembly that God gave the Holy Spirit to the believing Gentiles just as He did to the Jews, so that there was “no difference.”
This had been a difficult lesson for the early Christians to learn, because for centuries there had been a difference between Jews and Gentiles (; ). In His death on the cross, Jesus had broken down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles (), so that in Christ there are no racial differences (). In his speech to the conference, Peter makes it clear that there is but one way of salvation: faith in Jesus Christ.
Then Paul and Barnabas told the assembly what God had done among the Gentiles (), and what a “missionary report” that must have been! The “false brethren” who were there must have debated with Paul and Barnabas, but the two soldiers of the Cross would not yield. Paul wanted the “truth of the Gospel” to continue among the Gentiles ().
It seems that Titus became a “test case” at this point. He was a Gentile Christian who had never submitted to circumcision. Yet it was clear to all that he was genuinely saved. Now, if the Judaizers were right (“Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved,” ), then Titus was not a saved man. But he was a saved man, and gave evidence of having the Holy Spirit; therefore, the Judaizers were wrong.
At this point, it might be helpful if we considered another associate of Paul—Timothy (see ). Was Paul being inconsistent by refusing to circumcise Titus, yet agreeing to circumcise Timothy? No, because two different issues were involved. In the case of Timothy, Paul was not submitting to Jewish Law in order to win him to Christ. Timothy was part Jew, part Gentile, and his lack of circumcision would have hindered his ministry among the people of Israel. Titus was a full Gentile, and for him to have submitted would have indicated that he was missing something in his Christian experience. To have circumcised Titus would have been cowardice and compromise; not to have circumcised Timothy would have been to create unnecessary problems in his ministry.
James, the leader of the church, gave the summation of the arguments and the conclusion of the matter (). As Jewish as he was, he made it clear that a Gentile does not have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian. God’s program for this day is to “take out of the Gentiles a people for His name.” Jews and Gentiles are saved the same way: through faith in Jesus Christ. James then asked that the assembly counsel the Gentiles to do nothing that would offend unbelieving Jews, lest they hinder them from being saved. Paul won the battle.
His view prevailed in the private meeting when the leaders approved his Gospel and in the public meeting when the group agreed with Paul and opposed the Judaizers.
Echoes of the Jerusalem Conference are heard repeatedly in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Paul mentions the “yoke of bondage” (), reminding us of Peter’s similar warning (). The themes of liberty and bondage are repeated often (; , , ; ), as is the idea of circumcision (; ; ).
Centuries later, today’s Christians need to appreciate afresh the courageous stand Paul and his associates took for the liberty of the Gospel. Paul’s concern was “the truth of the Gospel” (, ), not the “peace of the church.” The wisdom that God sends from above is “first pure, then peaceable” (). “Peace at any price” was not Paul’s philosophy of ministry, nor should it be ours.
Ever since Paul’s time, the enemies of grace have been trying to add something to the simple Gospel of the grace of God. They tell us that a man is saved by faith in Christ plus something—good works, the Ten Commandments, baptism, church membership, religious ritual—and Paul makes it clear that these teachers are wrong. In fact, Paul pronounces a curse on any person (man or angel) who preaches any other gospel than the Gospel of the grace of God, centered in Jesus Christ (; see for a definition of the Gospel). It is a serious thing to tamper with the Gospel.
Act 3—The Personal Confirmation ()
The Judaizers had hoped to get the leaders of the Jerusalem church to disagree with Paul. By contrast, Paul makes it clear that he himself was not impressed either by the persons or the positions of the church leaders. He respected them, of course. Otherwise he would not have consulted with them privately. But he did not fear them or seek to buy their influence. All he wanted them to do was recognize “the grace of God” at work in his life and ministry (), and this they did.
Not only did the assembly approve Paul’s Gospel, and oppose Paul’s enemies, but they encouraged Paul’s ministry and recognized publicly that God had committed the Gentile aspect of His work into Paul’s hands. They could add nothing to Paul’s message or ministry, and they dared not take anything away. There was agreement and unity: one Gospel would be preached to Jews and to Gentiles.
However, the leaders recognized that God had assigned different areas of ministry to different men. Apart from his visit to the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) and to the Samaritans (Acts 8), Peter had centered his ministry primarily among the Jews. Paul had been called as God’s special ambassador to the Gentiles. So, it was agreed that each man would minister in the sphere assigned to him by God.
“The Gospel of the circumcision” and “the Gospel of the uncircumcision” are not two different messages; it had already been agreed that there is only one Gospel. Rather, we have here two different spheres of ministry, one to the Jews and the other to the Gentiles. Peter and Paul would both preach the same Gospel, and the same Lord would be at work in and through them (), but they would minister to different peoples.
This does not mean that Paul would never seek to win the Jews. To the contrary, he had a great burden on his heart for his people (). In fact, when Paul came to a city, he would first go to the Jewish synagogue, if there was one, and start his work among his own people. Nor was Peter excluded from ministering to the Gentiles. But each man would concentrate his work in his own sphere assigned to him by the Holy Spirit. James, Peter, and John would go to the Jews; Paul would go to the Gentiles (, where the word heathen means “Gentile nations”).
The Jerusalem Conference began with a great possibility for division and dissension; yet it ended with cooperation and agreement. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (). Perhaps we need to practice some of this same cooperation today.
We need to recognize the fact that God calls people to different ministries in different places; yet we all preach the same Gospel and are seeking to work together to build His church. Among those who know and love Christ, there can be no such thing as “competition.” Peter was a great man, and perhaps the leading apostle; yet he gladly yielded to Paul—a newcomer—and permitted him to carry on his ministry as the Lord led him. Previously, Paul explained his independence from the Apostles (Gal. 1); now in Galatians 2 he points out his interdependence with the Apostles. He was free, and yet he was willingly in fellowship with them in the ministry of the Gospel.
We move next from the theological to the practical—helping the poor (). Certainly these things go together. Correct doctrine is never a substitute for Christian duty (). Too often our church meetings discuss problems, but they fail to result in practical help for the needy world. Paul had always been interested in helping the poor (), so he was glad to follow the leaders’ suggestion.
Even though the conference ended with Paul and the leaders in agreement, it did not permanently solve the problem. The Judaizers did not give up, but persisted in interfering with Paul’s work and invading the churches he founded. Paul carried the good news of the council’s decision to the churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia () and in the other areas where he had ministered (). But the Judaizers followed at his heels (like yelping dogs—see ), starting at Antioch where they even swayed Peter to their cause (see ).
There is little question that the Judaizers went to the churches of Galatia to sow their seeds of discord, and for this reason Paul had to write the letter we are now studying. It may have been written from Antioch shortly after the Council of Jerusalem, though some scholars date it later and have Paul writing from either Ephesus or Corinth. These historical details are important, but they are not vital to an understanding of the letter itself. Suffice it to say that this is probably Paul’s earliest letter, and in it we find every major doctrine that Paul believed, preached, and wrote about in his subsequent ministry.
The curtain falls on this drama, but it will go up to reveal another. Once again God’s “freedom fighter” will have to defend the truth of the Gospel, this time before Peter.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!”
Wendell Phillips said that at a Massachusetts antislavery meeting in 1852, but its sentiment is valid today—not only in the realm of the political, but even more so in the realm of the spiritual. Paul had risked his life to carry the Gospel of God’s grace to the regions beyond, and he was not willing for the enemy to rob him or his churches of their liberty in Christ. It was this “spiritual vigilance” that led Paul into another dramatic encounter, this time with the Apostle Peter, Barnabas, and some of the friends of James. Again, the drama is in three acts.
Apparently, sometime after the important conference described in Acts 15, Peter came from Jerusalem to Antioch. The first thing to note is Peter’s freedom then. He enjoyed fellowship with all the believers, Jews and Gentiles alike. To “eat with the Gentiles” meant to accept them, to put Jews and Gentiles on the same level as one family in Christ.
Raised as an orthodox Jew, Peter had a difficult time learning this lesson. Jesus had taught it while He was with Peter before the Crucifixion (). The Holy Spirit had reemphasized it when He sent Peter to the home of Cornelius, the Roman centurion (Acts 10). Furthermore, the truth had been accepted and approved by the conference of leaders at Jerusalem (Acts 15). Peter had been one of the key witnesses at that time.
Before we criticize Peter, perhaps we had better examine our own lives to see how many familiar Bible doctrines we are actually obeying. As you examine church history, you see that, even with a complete Bible, believers through the years have been slow to believe and practice the truths of the Christian faith. When we think of the persecution and discrimination that have been practiced in the name of Christ, it embarrasses us. It is one thing for us to defend a doctrine in a church meeting, and quite something else to put it into practice in everyday life.
Peter’s freedom was threatened by Peter’s fear. While he was in Antioch, the church was visited by some of the associates of James. (You will remember that James was a strict Jew even though he was a Christian believer.) Paul does not suggest that James sent these men to investigate Peter, or even that they were officials of the Jerusalem church. No doubt they belonged to the “circumcision party” (, ) and wanted to lead the Antioch church into religious legalism.
After his experience with Cornelius, Peter had been “called on the carpet” and had ably defended himself (Acts 11). But now, he became afraid. Peter had not been afraid to obey the Spirit when He sent him to Cornelius, nor was he afraid to give his witness at the Jerusalem Conference. But now, with the arrival of some members of “the opposition,” Peter lost his courage. “The fear of man bringeth a snare” ().
How do we account for this fear? For one thing, we know that Peter was an impulsive man. He could show amazing faith and courage one minute and fail completely the next. He walked on the waves to go to Jesus, but then became frightened and began to sink. He boasted in the Upper Room that he would willingly die with Jesus, and then denied his Lord three times. Peter in the Book of Acts is certainly more consistent than in the four Gospels, but he was not perfect—nor are we! Peter’s fear led to Peter’s fall. He ceased to enjoy the “love feast” with the Gentile believers and separated himself from them.
There are two tragedies to Peter’s fall. First, it made him a hypocrite (which is the meaning of the word dissembled). Peter pretended that his actions were motivated by faithfulness, when they were really motivated by fear. How easy it is to use “Bible doctrine” to cover up our disobedience.
The second tragedy is that Peter led others astray with him. Even Barnabas was involved. Barnabas had been one of the spiritual leaders of the church in Antioch (), so his disobedience would have a tremendous influence on the others in the fellowship.
Suppose Peter and Barnabas had won the day and led the church into legalism? What might the results have been? Would Antioch have continued to be the great missionary church that sent out Paul and Barnabas? (Acts 13) Would they, instead, have sent out the “missionaries” of the circumcision party and either captured or divided the churches Paul had already founded? You can see that this problem was not a matter of personality or party; it was a question of “the truth of the Gospel.” And Paul was prepared to fight for it.
Bible students are not sure just where Paul’s conversation with Peter ends and where his letter to the Galatians continues in the passage. It does not really matter since the entire section deals with the same topic: our liberty in Jesus Christ. We will assume that the entire section represents Paul’s rebuke of Peter. It is interesting to note that Paul builds the entire rebuke on doctrine. There are five basic Christian doctrines that were being denied by Peter because of his separation from the Gentiles.
The unity of the church (v. ). Peter was a Jew, but through his faith in Christ he had become a Christian. Because he was a Christian, he was part of the church, and in the church there are no racial distinctions (). We have seen how the Lord taught Peter this important lesson, first in the house of Cornelius and then at the Jerusalem Conference.
Paul’s words must have stung Peter: “You are a Jew, yet you have been living like a Gentile. Now you want the Gentiles to live like Jews. What kind of inconsistency is that?”
Peter himself had stated at the Jerusalem Conference that God had “put no difference between us and them” (). But now Peter was putting a difference. God’s people are one people, even though they may be divided into various groups. Any practice on our part that violates the Scripture and separates brother from brother is a denial of the unity of the body of Christ.
Justification by faith (vv. ). This is the first appearance of the important word justification in this letter, and probably in Paul’s writings (if, as we believe, Galatians was the first letter he wrote). “Justification by faith” was the watchword of the Reformation, and it is important that we understand this doctrine.
“How should [a] man be just with God?” () was a vital question, because the answer determined eternal consequences. “The just shall live by his faith” () is God’s answer; and it was this truth that liberated Martin Luther from religious bondage and fear. So important is this concept that three New Testament books explain it to us: Romans (see ), Galatians (see ), and Hebrews (see ). Romans explains the meaning of “the just”; Galatians explains “shall live”; and Hebrews explains “by faith.”
But what is justification? Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Jesus Christ. Every word of this definition is important. Justification is an act and not a process. No Christian is “more justified” than another Christian. “Having therefore been once-and-for-all justified by faith, we have peace with God” (, literal translation). Since we are justified by faith, it is an instant and immediate transaction between the believing sinner and God. If we were justified by works, then it would have to be a gradual process.
Furthermore, justification is an act of God; it is not the result of man’s character or works. “It is God that justifieth” (). It is not by doing the “works of the Law” that the sinner gets a right standing before God, but by putting his faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul will explain later in this letter, the Law was given to reveal sin and not to redeem from sin (see ). God in His grace has put our sins on Christ—and Christ’s righteousness has been put to our account (see ).
In justification, God declares the believing sinner righteous; He does not make him righteous. (Of course, real justification leads to a changed life, which is what James 2 is all about.) Before the sinner trusts Christ, he stands GUILTY before God; but the moment he trusts Christ, he is declared NOT GUILTY and he can never be called GUILTY again!
Justification is not simply “forgiveness,” because a person could be forgiven and then go out and sin and become guilty. Once you have been “justified by faith” you can never be held guilty before God.
Justification is also different from “pardon,” because a pardoned criminal still has a record. When the sinner is justified by faith, his past sins are remembered against him no more, and God no longer puts his sins on record (see ; ).
Finally, God justifies sinners, not “good people.” Paul declares that God justifies “the ungodly” (). The reason most sinners are not justified is because they will not admit they are sinners! And sinners are the only kind of people Jesus Christ can save (; ).
When Peter separated himself from the Gentiles, he was denying the truth of justification by faith, because he was saying, “We Jews are different from—and better than—the Gentiles.” Yet both Jews and Gentiles are sinners () and can be saved only by faith in Christ.
Freedom from the Law (vv. ). At the Jerusalem Conference, Peter had compared the Mosaic Law to a burdensome yoke (; see ). Now he had put himself under that impossible yoke.
Paul’s argument goes like this: “Peter, you and I did not find salvation through the Law; we found it through faith in Christ. But now, after being saved, you go back into the Law! This means that Christ alone did not save you; otherwise you would not have needed the Law. So, Christ actually made you a sinner!
“Furthermore, you have preached the Gospel of God’s grace to Jews and Gentiles, and have told them they are saved by faith and not by keeping the Law. By going back into legalism, you are building up what you tore down! This means that you sinned by tearing it down to begin with!”
In other words, Paul is arguing from Peter’s own experience of the grace of God. To go back to Moses is to deny everything that God had done for him and through him.
The very Gospel itself (vv. ). If a man is justified by the works of the Law, then why did Jesus Christ die? His death, burial, and resurrection are the key truths of the Gospel (). We are saved by faith in Christ (He died for us), and we live by faith in Christ (He lives in us). Furthermore, we are so identified with Christ by the Spirit that we died with Him (see Rom. 6). This means that we are dead to the Law. To go back to Moses is to return to the graveyard! We have been “raised to walk in newness of life” (); and since we live by His resurrection power, we do not need the “help” of the Law.
The grace of God (v. ). The Judaizers wanted to mix Law and grace, but Paul tells us that this is impossible. To go back to the Law means to “set aside” the grace of God.
Peter had experienced God’s grace in his own salvation, and he had proclaimed God’s grace in his own ministry. But when he withdrew from the Gentile Christian fellowship, he openly denied the grace of God.
Grace says, “There is no difference! All are sinners, and all can be saved through faith in Christ!”
But Peter’s actions had said, “There is a difference! The grace of God is not sufficient; we also need the Law.”
Returning to the Law nullifies the Cross: “If righteousness came by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain” (). Law says DO! Grace says DONE! “It is finished!” was Christ’s victory cry (). “For by grace are ye saved through faith” ().
We have no record of Peter’s reply to Paul’s rebuke, but Scripture would indicate that he admitted his sin and was restored to the fellowship once again. Certainly when you read his two letters (1 and 2 Peter) you detect no deviation from the Gospel of the grace of God. In fact, the theme of 1 Peter is “the true grace of God” (); and the word grace is used in every chapter of the letter. Peter is careful to point out that he and Paul were in complete agreement, lest anyone try to “rob Peter to pay Paul” ().
So end the two acts of this exciting drama. But the curtain has not come down yet, for there is a third act which involves you and me.
We know what Peter’s response was when he was challenged to live up to the truth of the Gospel: fear and failure. And we know what Paul’s response was when he saw the truth of the Gospel being diluted: courage and defense. But the important question today is: what is my response to the “truth of the Gospel”? Perhaps this is a good place to take inventory of ourselves before we proceed into the doctrinal chapters of this letter. Let me suggest some questions for each of us to answer.
Have I been saved by the grace of God? The only Gospel that saves is the Gospel of the grace of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Any other Gospel is a false gospel and is under a curse (). Am I trusting in myself for salvation—my morality, my good works, even my religion? If so, then I am not a Christian, for a true Christian is one who has trusted Christ alone. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” ().
Am I trying to mix Law and grace? Law means I must do something to please God, while grace means that God has finished the work for me and all I need do is believe on Christ. Salvation is not by faith in Christ plus something: it is by faith in Christ alone. While church membership and religious activities are good in their place as expressions of faith in Christ, they can never be added to faith in Christ in order to secure eternal life. “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” ().
Am I rejoicing in the fact that I am justified by faith in Christ? It has often been said that “justified” means “just as if I’d never sinned” and this is correct. It brings great peace to the heart to know that one has a right standing before God (). Just think: the righteousness of Christ has been put to our account! God has not only declared that we are righteous in Christ, but He deals with us as though we had never sinned at all! We need never fear judgment because our sins have already been judged in Christ on the cross ().
Am I walking in the liberty of grace? Liberty does not mean license; rather, it means the freedom in Christ to enjoy Him and to become what He has determined for us to become (). It is not only “freedom to do” but also “freedom not to do.” We are no longer in bondage to sin and the Law. As Paul will explain in the practical section of this letter (Gal. 5–6), we obey God because of love and not because of Law. Christians enjoy a wonderful liberty in Christ. Am I enjoying it?
Am I willing to defend the truth of the Gospel? This does not mean that we become evangelical detectives investigating every church and Sunday School class in town. But it does mean that we do not fear men when they deny the truths that have brought us eternal life in Christ. “Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” ().
Many people with whom we come in contact actually believe that people are saved by faith in Christ plus “doing good works … keeping the Ten Commandments … obeying the Sermon on the Mount,” and any number of other “religious plusses.” We may not have the same apostolic authority that Paul exercised, but we do have the Word of God to proclaim; and it is our obligation to share the truth.
Am I “walking uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel”? The best way to defend the truth is to live the truth. My verbal defense of the Gospel will accomplish very little if my life contradicts what I say. Paul is going to explain to us how to live in liberty by the grace of God, and it is important that we obey what he says.
A new employee was instructed how to measure valve parts to make sure they were ready for the final assembly. But after a few hours, his foreman was receiving complaints that the parts he was approving were faulty. “What are you doing?” the foreman asked. “I showed you how to use that micrometer. You’re sending through parts that are oversize!”
The employee replied, “Oh, most of the parts I was measuring were too large, so I opened up the micrometer a bit.”
Changing the standards will never make for success, either in manufacturing or ministry. Paul maintained the standards of “the truth of the Gospel”—and so should we.
The sixty verses that make up Galatians 3 and 4 are some of the strongest writing that Paul ever penned. But, after all, he was in a battle! He was out to prove that salvation is by grace alone, and not by the works of the Law. His opponents had used every possible means to try to capture the churches of Galatia, and Paul was not going to fight them halfheartedly. The apostle was no amateur when it came to debate, and in these two chapters he certainly proves his abilities. His logic is unassailable.
Paul uses six different arguments to prove that God saves sinners through faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. He begins with the personal argument () in which he asks the Galatians to recall their personal experience with Christ when they were saved. Then he moves into the scriptural argument (), in which he quotes six Old Testament passages to prove his point. In the logical argument () he reasons with his readers on the basis of what a covenant is and how a covenant works. He then presents the historical argument (), explaining the place of Law in the history of Israel.
At this point, Paul’s love for his converts comes to the surface. The result is a sentimental argument () as the apostle appeals to them to remember his love and their happy relationship in days past. But then Paul goes right back to his close reasoning, and concludes with the allegorical argument (), based on the life of Abraham and his relationships with Sarah and Hagar. Practical application of his doctrinal argument follows in the last two chapters.
The key to this section is in the word suffered (), which can be translated “experienced.” Paul asks, “Have you experienced so many things in vain?” The argument from Christian experience was a wise one with which to begin, because Paul had been with them when they had trusted Christ. Of course, to argue from experience can be dangerous, because experiences can be counterfeited and they can be misunderstood. Subjective experience must be balanced with objective evidence, because experiences can change, but truth never changes. Paul balances the subjective experience of the Galatian Christians with the objective teaching of the unchanging Word of God ().
It was obvious that these people had experienced something in their lives when Paul had first visited them; but the Judaizers had come along and convinced them that their experience was not complete. They needed something else, and that “something else” was obedience to the Law of Moses. These false teachers had bewitched them and turned them into fools. In calling them “fools” Paul is not violating Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount (), because two different words are used and two different ideas are expressed. Foolish in means “spiritually dull” (see ), while the word Jesus used carries the idea of “a godless person.” Paul is declaring a fact; Jesus is warning against verbal abuse.
Paul reminds them that they had truly experienced a meeting with God.
They saw God the Son (v. ). It was “Christ and Him crucified” that Paul had preached in Galatia, and with such effectiveness that the people could almost see Jesus crucified for them on the cross. The words evidently set forth translate a Greek word that means “publicly portrayed, or announced on a poster.” Just as we put important information on a poster and display it in a public place, so Paul openly presented Christ to the Galatians, with great emphasis on His death for sinners on the cross. They heard this truth, believed it, and obeyed it; and as a result, were born into the family of God.
They received God the Holy Spirit (vv. ). The Holy Spirit is mentioned eighteen times in this epistle and plays an important part in Paul’s defense of the Gospel of the grace of God. The only real evidence of conversion is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (see ). Paul asks an important question: did they receive the Spirit by faith in the Word of God, or by doing the works of the Law? Of course, there could be but one answer: the Spirit came into their lives because they trusted Jesus Christ.
It is important that we understand the work of the Spirit in salvation and Christian living. The Holy Spirit convicts the lost sinner and reveals Christ to him (). The sinner can resist the Spirit () or yield to the Spirit and trust Jesus Christ. When the sinner believes in Christ, he is then born of the Spirit () and receives new life. He is also baptized by the Spirit so that he becomes a part of the spiritual body of Christ (). The believer is sealed by the Spirit () as a guarantee that he will one day share in the glory of Christ.
Since the Holy Spirit does so much for the believer, this means that the believer has a responsibility to the Holy Spirit, who lives within his body (). The Christian should walk in the Spirit (, ) by reading the Word, praying, and obeying God’s will. If he disobeys God, then he is grieving the Spirit (), and if he persists in doing this, he may quench the Spirit (). This does not mean that the Holy Spirit will leave him, because Jesus has promised that the Spirit abides forever (). But it does mean that the Spirit cannot give him the joy and power that he needs for daily Christian living. Believers should be filled with the Spirit (), which simply means “controlled by the Spirit.” This is a continuous experience, like drinking water from a fresh stream ().
So, in their conversion experience, the believers in Galatia had received the Spirit by faith and not by the works of the Law. This leads Paul to another question: “If you did not begin with the Law, why bring it in anyway? If you began with the Spirit, can you go on to maturity without the Spirit, depending on the flesh?” The word flesh here does not refer to the human body, but rather to the believer’s old nature. Whatever the Bible says about “flesh” is usually negative (see ; ; ; ). Since we were saved through the Spirit, and not the flesh, through faith and not Law, then it is reasonable that we should continue that way.
The illustration of human birth is appropriate here. Two human parents are required for a child to be conceived and born, and two spiritual parents are required for a child to be born into God’s family: the Spirit of God and the Word of God (; ). When a normal child is born, he has all that he needs for life; nothing need be added. When the child of God is born into God’s family, he has all that he needs spiritually; nothing need be added! All that is necessary is that the child have food, exercise, and cleansing that he might grow into maturity. It would be strange if the parents had to take the child to the doctor at one month to receive ears, at two months to receive toes, and so on.
“You have begun in the Spirit,” writes Paul. “Nothing need be added! Walk in the Spirit and you will grow in the Lord.”
They experienced miracles from God the Father (v. ). The He in this verse refers to the Father as the One who ministers the Spirit and “worketh miracles among [them].” The same Holy Spirit who came into the believer at conversion continues to work in him and through him so that the whole body is built up (see ; ). The Father continues to supply the Spirit in power and blessing, and this is done by faith and not by the works of the Law. The phrase among you can also be translated within you. These miracles would therefore include wonderful changes within the lives of the Christians, as well as signs and wonders within the church fellowship.
“Do you really believe the miracles in the Bible?” a skeptic asked a new Christian who had been a terrible drinker.
“Of course I do!” the believer replied.
The skeptic laughed. “Do you mean that you really believe that Jesus could turn water into wine?” he asked.
“I sure do! In my home He turned wine into food and clothing and furniture!”
Paul turns now from subjective experience to the objective evidence of the Word of God. We never judge the Scriptures by our experience; we test our experience by the Word of God. In the first section, Paul asked six questions; in this section he will quote six Old Testament statements to prove that salvation is by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. Since the Judaizers wanted to take the believers back into the Law, Paul quotes the Law! And, since they magnified the place of Abraham in their religion, Paul uses Abraham as one of his witnesses!
Abraham was saved by faith (vv. ). Paul begins by quoting Moses to show that God’s righteousness was placed to Abraham’s account only because he believed God’s promise (). The words accounted in and counted in mean the same as imputed in , . The Greek word means “to put to one’s account.” When the sinner trusts Christ, God’s righteousness is put to his account. More than this, the believer’s sins are no longer put to his account (see ). This means that the record is always clean before God, and therefore the believer can never be brought into judgment for his sins.
The Jewish people were very proud of their relationship with Abraham. The trouble was, they thought that this relationship guaranteed them eternal salvation. John the Baptist warned them that their physical descent did not guarantee spiritual life (). Jesus made a clear distinction between “Abraham’s seed” physically and “Abraham’s children” spiritually (). Some people today still imagine that salvation is inherited. Because mother and father were godly people, the children are automatically saved. But this is not true. It has well been said, “God has no grandchildren.”
This salvation is for the Gentiles (vv. ). The word heathen (), as used here, simply means Gentiles. Paul’s quotation of Moses () proves that, from the very beginning of Abraham’s relationship with God, the blessing of salvation was promised to all the nations of the world. God preached the “Good News” to Abraham centuries ago, and Paul brought that same Good News to the Galatians: sinners are justified through faith and not by keeping the Law. The logic here is evident: if God promised to save the Gentiles by faith, then the Judaizers are wrong in wanting to take the Gentile believers back into Law. The true “children of Abraham” are not the Jews by physical descent, but Jews and Gentiles who have believed in Jesus Christ. All those who are “of faith” (believers) are blessed with “believing Abraham.”
When you read God’s great covenant with Abraham in , you discover that many different blessings were promised—some personal, some national and political, and some universal and spiritual. Certainly God did make Abraham’s name great; he is revered not only by Jews, but also by Christians, Muslims, and many others. God did multiply his descendants, and God did bless those who blessed Abraham. He also judged those who cursed his descendants (Egypt, Babylon, and Rome are cases in point). But the greatest blessings that God sent through Abraham and the Jewish nation have to do with our eternal salvation. Jesus Christ is that promised “`Seed,” through whom all the nations have been blessed ().
This salvation is by faith, not Law (vv. ). Salvation could never come by obedience to Law because the Law brings a curse, not a blessing. Here Paul quotes from . Law demands obedience, and this means obedience in all things. The Law is not a “religious cafeteria” where people can pick and choose (see ). Paul next quotes Habakkuk, “The just shall live by his faith” (). This statement is so important that the Holy Spirit inspired three New Testament books to explain it as mentioned before. Romans explains “the just” and tells how the sinner can be justified before God (see ). Galatians explains how the just “shall live”; and Hebrews discusses “by faith” (see ). Nobody could ever live “by Law” because the Law kills and shows the sinner he is guilty before God (; ).
But someone might argue that it takes faith even to obey the Law; so Paul quotes Leviticus to prove that it is doing the Law, not believing it, that God requires (). Law says, “Do and live!” but grace says, “Believe and live!” Paul’s own experience (), as well as the history of Israel (), proves that works righteousness can never save the sinner; only faith righteousness can do that.
The Judaizers wanted to seduce the Galatians into a religion of legal works, while Paul wanted them to enjoy a relationship of love and life by faith in Christ. For the Christian to abandon faith and grace for Law and works is to lose everything exciting that the Christian can experience in his daily fellowship with the Lord. The Law cannot justify the sinner (); neither can it give him righteousness (). The Law cannot give the gift of the Spirit (), nor can it guarantee that spiritual inheritance that belongs to God’s children (). The Law cannot give life (), and the Law cannot give liberty (). Why, then, go back into the Law?
This salvation comes through Christ (vv. ). These two verses beautifully summarize all that Paul has been saying in this section. Does the Law put sinners under a curse? Then Christ has redeemed us from that curse! Do you want the blessing of Abraham? It comes through Christ! Do you want the gift of the Spirit, but you are a Gentile? This gift is given through Christ to the Gentiles! All that you need is in Christ! There is no reason to go back to Moses.
Paul quotes Deuteronomy again, “He that is hanged is accursed of God” (, NKJV). The Jews did not crucify criminals; they stoned them to death. But in cases of shameful violation of the Law, the body was hung on a tree and exposed for all to see. This was a great humiliation, because the Jewish people were very careful in their treatment of a dead body. After the body had been exposed for a time, it was taken down and buried (see ; ; ).
Of course, Paul’s reference to a “tree” relates to the cross on which Jesus died (; ). He was not stoned and then His dead body exposed; He was nailed alive to a tree and left there to die. But by dying on the cross, Jesus Christ bore the curse of the Law for us; so that now the believer is no longer under the Law and its awful curse. “The blessing of Abraham” (justification by faith and the gift of the Spirit) is now ours through faith in Jesus Christ.
The word redeemed in means to purchase a slave for the purpose of setting him free. It is possible to purchase a slave and keep him as a slave, but this is not what Christ did. By shedding His blood on the cross, He purchased us that we might be set free. The Judaizers wanted to lead the Christians into slavery, but Christ died to set them free. Salvation is not exchanging one form of bondage for another. Salvation is being set free from the bondage of sin and the Law into the liberty of God’s grace through Christ.
This raises an interesting question: how could these Judaizers ever convince the Galatian Christians that the way of Law was better than the way of grace? Why would any believer deliberately want to choose bondage instead of liberty? Perhaps part of the answer is found in the word bewitched that Paul uses in . The word means “to cast a spell, to fascinate.” What is there about legalism that can so fascinate the Christian that he will turn from grace to Law?
For one thing, legalism appeals to the flesh. The flesh loves to be “religious”—to obey laws, to observe holy occasions, even to fast (see ). Certainly there is nothing wrong with obedience, fasting, or solemn times of spiritual worship, provided that the Holy Spirit does the motivating and the empowering. The flesh loves to boast about its religious achievements—how many prayers were offered, or how many gifts were given (see ; ).
Another characteristic of religious legalism that fascinates people is the appeal to the senses. Instead of worshiping God “in spirit and in truth” (), the legalist invents his own system that satisfies his senses. He cannot walk by faith; he has to walk by sight and hearing and tasting and smelling and feeling. To be sure, true Spirit-led worship does not deny the five senses. We see other believers; we sing and hear the hymns; we taste and feel the elements of the Lord’s Supper. But these external things are but windows through which faith perceives the eternal. They are not ends in themselves.
The person who depends on religion can measure himself and compare himself with others. This is another fascination to legalism. But the true believer measures himself with Christ, not other Christians (). There is no room for pride in the spiritual walk of the Christian who lives by grace; but the legalist constantly boasts about his achievements and his converts ().
Yes, there is a fascination to the Law, but it is only bait that leads to a trap; and once the believer takes the bait, he finds himself in bondage. Far better to take God at His Word and rest on His grace. We were saved “by grace, through faith” and we must live “by grace, through faith.” This is the way to blessing. The other way is the way to bondage.
The Judaizers had Paul in a corner. He had just finished proving from the Old Testament that God’s plan of salvation left no room for the works of the Law. But the fact that Paul quoted six times from the Old Testament raised a serious problem: If salvation does not involve the Law, then why was the Law given in the first place? Paul quoted from the Law to prove the insignificance of the Law. If the Law is now set aside, then his very arguments are worthless, because they are taken from the Law.
Our faith is a logical faith and can be defended on rational grounds. While there are divine mysteries in the faith that no man can fully explain, there are also divine reasons that any sincere person can understand. Paul was trained as a Jewish rabbi and was fully equipped to argue his case. In this section, he makes four statements that help us understand the relationship between promise and Law.
The Law Cannot Change the Promise ()
The word promise is used eight times in these verses, referring to God’s promise to Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed (). This promise involved being justified by faith and having all the blessings of salvation (). It is obvious that the promise to Abraham (and, through Christ, to us today), given about 2000 B.C., preceded by centuries the Law of Moses (about 1450 B.C.). The Judaizers implied that the giving of the Law changed that original covenant of promise. Paul argues that it did not.
To begin with, once two parties conclude an agreement, a third party cannot come along years later and change that agreement. The only persons who can change an original agreement are the persons who made it. To add anything to it or take anything from it would be illegal.
If this is true among sinful men, how much more does it apply to the holy God? Note that Abraham did not make a covenant with God; God made a covenant with Abraham! God did not lay down any conditions for Abraham to meet. In fact, when the covenant was ratified Abraham was asleep! (see Gen. 15) It was a covenant of grace: God made promises to Abraham; Abraham did not make promises to God.
But Paul reveals another wonderful truth: God made this promise, not only to Abraham, but also to Christ. “And to thy Seed, which is Christ” ().
The Bible concept of “the seed” goes back to , after the Fall of man. God states that there will be a conflict in the world between Satan’s seed (children of the devil, see ) and the woman’s seed (God’s children, and, ultimately, God’s Son). The Scriptures show this conflict: Cain versus Abel (see ); Israel versus the nations; John the Baptist and Jesus versus the Pharisees (; ); the true believer versus the counterfeit (see the Parable of the Tares, , ). Satan’s goal in the Old Testament was to keep the Seed (Christ) from being born into the world, for Satan knew that God’s Son would one day crush his head.
In the final analysis, God made this covenant of promise with Abraham through Christ, so that the only two parties who can make any changes are God the Father and God the Son. Moses cannot alter this covenant! He can add nothing to it; he can take nothing from it. The Judaizers wanted to add to God’s grace (as though anything could be added to grace!) and take from God’s promises. They had no right to do this since they were not parties in the original covenant.
The 430 years of has puzzled Bible students for many years. From Abraham’s call (Gen. 12) to Jacob’s arrival in Egypt (Gen. 46) is 215 years. (This may be computed as follows: Abraham was 75 years old when God called him and 100 when Isaac was born, ; . This gives us 25 years. Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born, ; and Jacob was 130 years old when he arrived in Egypt, . Thus, 25 + 60 + 130 = 215 years.) But Moses tells us that Israel sojourned in Egypt 430 years (); so the total number of years from Abraham’s call to the giving of the Law is 645 years, not 430. The length of the stay in Egypt is recorded also in and , where the round figure of 400 years is used.
Several solutions have been offered to this puzzle, but perhaps the most satisfying is this: Paul is counting from the time Jacob went into Egypt, when God appeared to him and reaffirmed the covenant (). The 430 years is the time from God’s confirmation of His promise to Jacob until the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Regardless of what solution to the dating question we may choose, the basic argument is clear: a law given centuries later cannot change a covenant made by other parties. But suppose the later revelation, such as the Law of Moses, was greater and more glorious than the earlier? What then? Paul makes a second statement.
The Law Is Not Greater Than the Promise ()
The account of the giving of the Law is impressive (Ex. 19). There were thunders and lightnings, and the people were trembling with fear. Even Moses was shaking in his sandals (). It was a dramatic event in comparison with the giving of the covenant to Abraham (Gen. 15), and, of course, the Judaizers were impressed with these emotional externals. But Paul points out that the Law is inferior to the covenant of promise in two ways.
The Law was temporary (v. ). “It was added … until the Seed should come.” Now it is obvious that a temporary law cannot be greater than a permanent covenant. When you read God’s covenant with Abraham, you find no “ifs” in His words. Nothing was conditional; all was of grace. But the blessings of the Law were dependent on the meeting of certain conditions. Furthermore, the Law had a terminus point: “until the Seed [Christ] should come.” With the death and resurrection of Christ, the Law was done away and now its righteous demands are fulfilled in us through the Spirit (; ).
The Law required a mediator (vv. ). When God gave the Law to Israel, He did it by means of angels and through the mediation of Moses. Israel “received the Law by the disposition of angels” (). This means that the nation received the Law third-hand: from God to angels to Moses. But when God made His covenant with Abraham, He did it personally, without a mediator. God was revealing to Abraham all that He would do for him and his descendants. A mediator stands between two parties and helps them to agree; but there was no need for a mediator in Abraham’s case since God was entering into a covenant with him, not Abraham with God. “God is one” (), therefore there was no need for a go-between.
The Judaizers were impressed by the incidentals of the Law—glory, thunder, lightning, angels, and other externals. But Paul looked beyond incidentals to the essentials. The Law was temporary, and required a mediator. The covenant of promise was permanent, and no mediator was required. There could be but one conclusion: the covenant was greater than the Law.
The Law Is Not Contrary to the Promise ()
You can almost hear the Judaizers shouting the question in : “Is the Law then against the promises of God?” Is God contradicting Himself? Does His right hand not know what His left hand is doing? As he replies to this question, Paul reveals his deep insight into the ways and purposes of God. He does not say that the Law contradicts the promise, but rather that it cooperates with the promise in fulfilling the purposes of God. While Law and grace seem to be contrary to one another, if you go deep enough, you will discover that they actually complement one another. Why, then, was the Law given?
The Law was not given to provide life (v. ). Certainly the Law of Moses regulated the lives of the Jewish people, but it did not and could not provide spiritual life to the people. ( should be matched with .) If life and righteousness could have come through the Law, then Jesus Christ would never have died on the cross. But Jesus did die; therefore, the Law could never give the sinner life and righteousness. It was “worship of the Law” that led Israel into a self-righteous religion of works, the result of which was the rejection of Christ (Rom. 9:30–10:13).
The Law was given to reveal sin (vv. , ). It is here that we see the way that Law and grace cooperate in bringing the lost sinner to Jesus Christ. Law shows the sinner his guilt, and grace shows him the forgiveness he can have in Christ. The Law is “holy, and just, and good” (), but we are unholy, unjust, and bad. The Law does not make us sinners; it reveals to us that we already are sinners (see ). The Law is a mirror that helps us see our “dirty faces” ()—but you do not wash your face with the mirror! It is grace that provides the cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ (see ).
There is a lawful use of the Law, and there is an unlawful use (). The lawful use is to reveal sin and cause men to see their need of a Saviour. The unlawful use is to try to achieve salvation by the keeping of the Law. When people claim they are saved by “keeping the Ten Commandments,” they are revealing their ignorance of the true meaning of the Law. The Law concludes “all [men] under sin” (), Jews and Gentiles alike. But since all are under sin, then all may be saved by grace! God does not have two ways of salvation; He has but one—faith in Jesus Christ.
The Law was given to prepare the way for Christ (vv. ). Here Paul uses an illustration that was familiar to all his readers—the child guardian. In many Roman and Greek households, well-educated slaves took the children to and from school and watched over them during the day. Sometimes they would teach the children, sometimes they would protect and prohibit, and sometimes they would even discipline. This is what Paul means by schoolmaster (); but please do not read into this word our modern idea of a schoolteacher. The transliteration of the Greek would give us our word pedagogue, which literally means “a child conductor.”
By using this illustration, Paul is saying several things about the Jews and their Law. First, he is saying that the Jews were not born through the Law, but rather were brought up by the Law. The slave was not the child’s father; he was the child’s guardian and disciplinarian. So, the Law did not give life to Israel; it regulated life. The Judaizers taught that the Law was necessary for life and righteousness, and Paul’s argument shows their error.
But the second thing Paul says is even more important: the work of the guardian was preparation for the child’s maturity. Once the child came of age, he no longer needed the guardian. So the Law was a preparation for the nation of Israel until the coming of the promised Seed, Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal in God’s program was His coming (), but “before this faith [Christ] came” (, NIV), the nation was “imprisoned by the Law” (literal translation).
The Law separated Israel from the Gentile nations (); it governed every aspect of their lives. During the centuries of Jewish history, the Law was preparing for the coming of Christ. The demands of the Law reminded the people that they needed a Saviour. The types and symbols in the Law were pictures of the coming Messiah (see ).
A good example of this purpose of the Law is in the account of the rich young ruler (). This young man had everything anybody could desire, but he was not satisfied. He had tried to keep the commandments all his life, but still something was missing. But these commandments brought him to Christ! This is one of the purposes of the Law, to create in lost sinners a sense of guilt and need. The sad thing is that the young man was not honest as he looked into the mirror of the Law, for the last commandment (“Thou shalt not covet”) escaped him; and he went away without eternal life.
The Law has performed its purpose: the Saviour has come and the “guardian” is no longer needed. It is tragic that the nation of Israel did not recognize their Messiah when He appeared. God finally had to destroy the temple and scatter the nation, so that today it is impossible for a devoted Jew to practice the faith of his fathers. He has no altar, no priesthood, no sacrifice, no temple, no king (). All of these have been fulfilled in Christ, so that any man—Jew or Gentile—who trusts Christ becomes a child of God.
The Law cannot change the promise, and the Law is not greater than the promise. But the Law is not contrary to the promise: they work together to bring sinners to the Saviour.
The Law Cannot Do What the Promise Can Do ()
With the coming of Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel moved out of childhood into adulthood. The long period of preparation was over. While there was a certain amount of glory to the Law, there was a greater glory in the gracious salvation of God as found in Christ. The Law could reveal sin and, to a certain extent, control behavior, but the Law could not do for the sinner what Jesus Christ can do.
To begin with, the Law could never justify the guilty sinner. “I will not justify the wicked,” said the Lord (); yet Paul states that God “justifies the ungodly” (). King Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, reminded God to condemn the wicked and justify the righteous (); and this was a proper request in light of the holiness of God. The trouble is, nobody was righteous! It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that the sinner is justified—declared righteous—before God.
Furthermore, the Law could never give a person a oneness with God; it separated man from God. There was a fence around the tabernacle and a veil between the holy place and the holy of holies.
Faith in Jesus baptizes us “into Christ” (). This baptism of the Spirit identifies the believer with Christ and makes him part of His body (). Water baptism is an outward picture of this inner work of the Holy Spirit (see ).
The phrase put on Christ () refers to a change of garments. The believer has laid aside the dirty garments of sin () and, by faith, received the robes of righteousness in Christ (see ). But to the Galatians, this idea of “changing clothes” would have an additional meaning. When the Roman child came of age, he took off the childhood garments and put on the toga of the adult citizen. The believer in Christ is not just a “child of God”; he is also a “son of God” (see , where children ought to be translated “adult sons”). The believer has an adult status before God—so why go back into the childhood of the Law?
“All one in Christ Jesus”—what a tremendous claim! The Law created differences and distinctions, not only between individuals and nations, but also between various kinds of foods and animals. Jesus Christ came, not to divide, but to unite.
This must have been glorious news for the Galatian Christians, for in their society slaves were considered to be only pieces of property; women were kept confined and disrespected; and Gentiles were constantly sneered at by the Jews.
The Pharisee would pray each morning, “I thank Thee, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, and not a slave.” Yet all these distinctions are removed “in Christ.”
This does not mean that our race, political status, or sex is changed at conversion; but it does mean that these things are of no value or handicap when it comes to our spiritual relationship to God through Christ. The Law perpetuated these distinctions, but God in His grace has declared all men to be on the same level that He might have mercy on all men ().
Finally, the Law could never make us heirs of God (). God made the promise to “Abraham’s Seed” (singular, ), and that Seed is Christ. If we are “in Christ” by faith, then we too are “Abraham’s seed” spiritually speaking. This means we are heirs of the spiritual blessings God promised to Abraham. This does not mean that the material and national blessings promised to Israel are set aside, but that Christians today are enriched spiritually because of God’s promise to Abraham (see ).
This section of Galatians is valuable to us as we read the Old Testament Scriptures. It shows us that the spiritual lessons of the Old Testament are not for the Jews only but have application to Christians today (see ; ). In the Old Testament we have preparation for Christ; in the Gospels, the presentation of Christ; and in the Acts through Revelation, the appropriation of Christ.
Your Christian life ought to take on new wonder and meaning as you realize all that you have in Christ. And all of this is by grace—not by Law! You are an adult son in God’s family, an heir of God. Are you drawing on your inheritance? This will be Paul’s theme in the next section.
One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a “second childhood” of Christian experience. The Galatian Christians, like most believers, wanted to grow and go forward for Christ; but they were going about it in the wrong way. Their experience is not too different from that of Christians today who get involved in various legalistic movements, hoping to become better Christians. Their motives may be right, but their methods are wrong.
This is the truth Paul is trying to get across to his beloved converts in Galatia. The Judaizers had bewitched them into thinking that the Law would make them better Christians. Their old nature felt an attraction for the Law because the Law enabled them to do things and measure external results. As they measured themselves and their achievements, they felt a sense of accomplishment, and, no doubt, a little bit of pride. They thought they were going forward when actually they were regressing.
Such people are in a situation similar to the airplane passengers who heard their pilot announce: “Our navigator has lost our position, folks, and we have been flying rather aimlessly for over an hour. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that we are making very good time.”
Paul takes three approaches in this section as he seeks to convince the Galatians that they do not need legalism in order to live the Christian life. They have all they need in Jesus Christ.
Among the blessings of the Christian experience is adoption (; ). We do not enter God’s family by adoption, the way a homeless child would enter a loving family in our own society. The only way to get into God’s family is by regeneration, being “born again” ().
The New Testament word for adoption means “to place as an adult son.” It has to do with our standing in the family of God: we are not little children but adult sons with all of the privileges of sonship.
It is unfortunate that many translations of the New Testament do not make a distinction between children of God and sons of God. We are the children of God by faith in Christ, born into God’s family. But every child of God is automatically placed into the family as a son, and as a son he has all the legal rights and privileges of a son. When a sinner trusts Christ and is saved, as far as his condition is concerned, he is a “spiritual babe” who needs to grow (); but as far as his position is concerned, he is an adult son who can draw on the Father’s wealth and who can exercise all the wonderful privileges of sonship.
We enter God’s family by regeneration, but we enjoy God’s family by adoption. The Christian does not have to wait to begin enjoying the spiritual riches he has in Christ. “If a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (). Now follows Paul’s discussion about adoption. He reminds his readers of three facts.
What we were: children in bondage (vv. ). No matter how wealthy a father may be, his infant son or toddling child cannot really enjoy that wealth. In the Roman world, the children of wealthy people were cared for by slaves. No matter who his father was, the child was still a child, under the supervision of a servant. In fact, the child himself was not much different from the servant who guarded him. The servant was commanded by the master of the house, and the child was commanded by the servant.
This was the spiritual condition of the Jews under the age of the Law. The Law, you recall, was the “guardian” that disciplined the nation and prepared the people for the coming of Christ (). So, when the Judaizers led the Galatians back into legalism, they were leading them not only into religious bondage, but also into moral and spiritual infancy and immaturity.
Paul states that the Jews were, like little children, in bondage to “the elements of the world.” This word elements means the basic principles, the ABCs. For some fifteen centuries, Israel had been in kindergarten and grade school, learning their “spiritual ABCs,” so that they would be ready when Christ would come. Then they would get the full revelation, for Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega” (); He encompasses all the alphabet of God’s revelation to man. He is God’s last Word ().
Legalism, then, is not a step toward maturity; it is a step back into childhood. The Law was not God’s final revelation; it was but the preparation for that final revelation in Christ. It is important that a person know his ABCs, because they are the foundation for understanding all of the language. But the man who sits in a library and recites the ABCs instead of reading the great literature that is around him, is showing that he is immature and ignorant, not mature and wise. Under the Law, the Jews were children in bondage, not sons enjoying liberty.
What God did: redeemed us (vv. ). The expression the fullness of the time () refers to that time when the world was providentially ready for the birth of the Saviour. Historians tell us that the Roman world was in great expectation, waiting for a Deliverer, at the time when Jesus was born. The old religions were dying; the old philosophies were empty and powerless to change men’s lives. Strange new mystery religions were invading the empire. Religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger were everywhere. God was preparing the world for the arrival of His Son.
From the historical point of view, the Roman Empire itself helped prepare the world for the birth of the Saviour. Roads connected city with city, and all cities ultimately with Rome. Roman laws protected the rights of citizens, and Roman soldiers guarded the peace. Thanks to both the Greek and Roman conquests, Latin and Greek were known across the empire. Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was not an accident; it was an appointment: Jesus came in “the fullness of the time.” (And, it is worth noting, that He will come again when the time is ready.)
Paul is careful to point out the dual nature of Jesus Christ (), that He is both God and man. As God, Jesus “came forth” (); but as man, He was “made of a woman.” The ancient promise said that the Redeemer would be of “the woman’s seed” (); and Jesus fulfilled that promise (; ).
Paul has told us who came—God’s Son; he has told us when He came and how He came. Now he explains why He came: “to redeem them that were under the Law” (). Redeem is the same word Paul used earlier (); it means “to set free by paying a price.” A man could purchase a slave in any Roman city (there were about 60 million slaves in the empire), either to keep the slave for himself or to set him free. Jesus came to set us free. So, to go back into the Law is to undo the very work of Christ on the cross. He did not purchase us to make us slaves, but sons! Under Law, the Jews were mere children, but under grace, the believer is a son of God with an adult standing in God’s family.
Perhaps at this point a chart will help us understand better the contrast between being a “child of God” and a “son of God.”
The Child
The Son
by regeneration
by adoption
entering the family
enjoying the family
under guardians
the liberty of an adult
cannot inherit
an heir to the Father
What we are: sons and heirs (vv. ). Once again, the entire Trinity is involved in our spiritual experience: God the Father sent the Son to die for us, and God the Son sent His Spirit to live in us. The contrast here is not between immature children and adult sons, but between servants and sons. Like the Prodigal Son, the Galatians wanted their Father to accept them as servants, when they really were sons (). The contrasts are easy to see. For example:
The son has the same nature as the father, but the servant does not. When we trust Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us; and this means we are “partakers of the divine nature” (). The Law could never give a person God’s nature within. All it could do was reveal to the person his desperate need for God’s nature. So, when the believer goes back into Law, he is denying the very divine nature within, and he is giving the old nature (the flesh) opportunity to go to work.
The son has a father, while the servant has a master. No servant could ever say “Father” to his master. When the sinner trusts Christ, he receives the Holy Spirit within, and the Spirit tells him that he is a child of the Father (). It is natural for a baby to cry, but not for a baby to talk to his father. When the Spirit enters the heart, He says, “Abba, Father” (); and, in response, the believer cries, “Abba, Father!” () The word Abba is an Aramaic word that is the equivalent of our English word “papa.” This shows the closeness of the child to the Father. No servant has this.
The son obeys out of love, while the servant obeys out of fear. The Spirit works in the heart of the believer to quicken and increase his love for God. “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (). “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy [Spirit]” (). The Judaizers told the Galatians that they would become better Christians by submitting to the Law, but the Law can never produce obedience. Only love can do that. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” ().
The son is rich, while the servant is poor. We are both “sons and heirs.” And since we are adopted—placed as adult sons in the family—we may begin drawing on our inheritance right now. God has made available to us the riches of His grace (; ), the riches of His glory (), the riches of His goodness (), and the riches of His wisdom ()—and all of the riches of God are found in Christ (; ).
The son has a future, while the servant does not. While many kind masters did provide for their slaves in old age, it was not required of them. The father always provides for the son ().
In one sense, our adoption is not yet final, because we are awaiting the return of Christ and the redemption of our bodies (). Some scholars think that this second stage in our adoption corresponds to the Roman practice when a man adopted someone outside his family to be his son. First there was a private ceremony at which the son was purchased; then there was a public ceremony at which the adoption was declared openly before the officials.
Christians have experienced the first stage: we have been purchased by Christ and indwelt by the Spirit. We are awaiting the second stage: the public declaration at the return of Christ when “we shall be like Him” (). We are “sons and heirs,” and the best part of our inheritance is yet to come (see ).
He Laments Their Regression ()
What really happened when the Galatians turned from grace to Law? To begin with, they abandoned liberty for bondage. When they were ignorant sinners, they had served their false gods and had experienced the tragedy of such pagan slavery. But then they had trusted Christ and been delivered from superstition and slavery. Now they were abandoning their liberty in Christ and going back into bondage. They were “dropping out” of the school of grace and enrolling in the kindergarten of Law! They were destroying all the good work the Lord had done in them through Paul’s ministry.
The phrase weak and beggarly elements tells us the extent of their regression. They were giving up the power of the Gospel for the weakness of Law, and the wealth of the Gospel for the poverty of Law. The Law never made anybody rich or powerful; on the contrary, the Law could only reveal man’s weakness and spiritual bankruptcy. No wonder Paul weeps over these believers, as he sees them abandon liberty for bondage, power for weakness, and wealth for poverty.
How were they doing this? By adopting the Old Testament system of religion with its special observations of “days, and months, and times, and years” ().
Does this mean that it is wrong for Christians to set aside one day a year to remember the birth of Christ? Or that a special observance of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, or the blessing of the harvest in autumn, is a sin?
Not necessarily. If we observe special days like slaves, hoping to gain some spiritual merit, then we are sinning. But if in the observance, we express our liberty in Christ and let the Spirit enrich us with His grace, then the observance can be a spiritual blessing.
The New Testament makes it clear that Christians are not to legislate religious observances for each other (). We are not to praise the man who celebrates the day, nor are we to condemn the man who does not celebrate. But if a man thinks he is saving his soul, or automatically growing in grace, because of a religious observance, then he is guilty of legalism.
Our evangelical churches have many different kinds of observances, and it is wrong for us to go beyond the Word of God in comparing, criticizing, or condemning. But all of us must beware of that legalistic spirit that caters to the flesh, leads to pride, and makes the outward event a substitute for the inward experience.
Paul was a wonderful spiritual father; he knew just how to balance rebuke with love. Now he turns from “spanking” to “embracing” as he reminds the believers of their love for him and his love for them. At one point they were willing to sacrifice anything for Paul, so great was their love; but now he had become their enemy. The Judaizers had come in and stolen their affection.
Bible students wish Paul had been more explicit here, because we are not sure just what events he is talking about. When Paul had originally visited them, he was suffering from some physical affliction. If, as noted in Galatians 1, Paul wrote this letter to the churches of South Galatia, then he is referring to his first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13–14. Apparently Paul had not intended to visit these cities, but was forced to do so because of some bodily infirmity. We can only speculate as to what this was. Some have suggested malaria; others, an affliction of the eyes (see ). Whatever it was, it must have made Paul somewhat repulsive in appearance, because he commends the Galatians for the way they received him in spite of the way he looked. To them, he was an angel of God. It is a wonderful thing when people accept God’s servants, not because of their outward appearance, but because they represent the Lord and bring His message.
Now Paul asks them: “What has happened to that love? What has happened to the blessedness—the happiness—you experienced when you heard the Gospel and trusted Christ?” Of course, Paul knew what had happened: the Judaizers had come in and stolen their hearts.
One of the marks of a false teacher is that he tries to attract other men’s converts to himself, and not simply to the truth of the Word or to the person of Jesus Christ. It was not the Judaizers who originally came to Galatia and led them to Christ; it was Paul. Like the cultists today, these false teachers were not winning lost sinners to Christ, but were stealing converts from those who were truly serving the Lord. Paul had proved to be their loving friend. He had “become as they were” by identifying himself with them (). Now they were turning away from Paul and following false shepherds.
Paul told them the truth, but the Judaizers told them lies. Paul sought to glorify Christ, but the Judaizers glorified themselves and their converts. “Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them” (, NIV).
A true servant of God does not “use people” to build himself up or his work; he ministers in love to help people know Christ better and glorify Him. Beware of that religious worker who wants your exclusive allegiance because he is the only one who is right. He will use you as long as he can and then drop you for somebody else—and your fall will be a painful one. The task of the spiritual leader is to get people to love and follow Christ, not to promote himself and his ministry.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (). Paul had proved his love to the Galatians by telling them the truth; but they would not accept it. They were enjoying the “kisses” of the Judaizers, not realizing that these kisses were leading them into bondage and sorrow. Christ had made them sons and heirs, but they were rapidly becoming slaves and beggars.
They had not lost the experience of salvation—they were still Christians; but they were losing the enjoyment of their salvation and finding satisfaction in their works instead. Sad to say, they did not realize their losses. They actually thought they were becoming better Christians by substituting Law for grace, and the religious deeds of the flesh for the fruit of the Spirit.
Is your Christian life moving forward into liberty or backward into bondage? Think carefully before you answer.
We parents never seem to outgrow our children. “ ‘When they’re little, they’re a handful; but when they’re grown, they’re a heartful!” I remember hearing my mother say, “When they’re little, they step on your toes; but when they’re grown, they step on your heart.”
This is what Paul was experiencing as he tried to help the Galatian believers with their confused spiritual lives. When he had first come to them with the Gospel, he had “travailed” spiritually to see them turn to the Lord. But, after all, the Lord Jesus had travailed on the cross to make possible their salvation (), and Paul’s travail was nothing in comparison. But now the Galatian Christians were falling back into legalism and a “second childhood” experience; and Paul had to travail over them again. He longed to see Christ formed in them, just as we parents long to see our children mature in the will of God.
Since the Judaizers appealed to the Law, Paul accepts their challenge and uses the Law to prove that Christians are not under the Law. He takes the familiar story of Ishmael and Isaac (Gen. 16–21) and draws from it basic truths about the Christian’s relationship to the Law of Moses.
The events described actually happened, but Paul uses them as an allegory, which is a narrative that has a deeper meaning behind it. Perhaps the most famous allegory in the English language is John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress, in which Bunyan traces Christian’s experiences from the City of Destruction to heaven. In an allegory, persons and actions represent hidden meanings, so that the narrative can be read on two levels: the literal and the symbolic.
Paul’s use of Genesis in this section does not give us license to find “hidden meanings” in all the events of the Old Testament. If we take that approach to the Bible, we can make it mean almost anything we please. This is the way many false teachings arise. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to discern the hidden meaning of the Genesis story. We must always interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament, and where the New Testament gives us permission, we may search for hidden meanings. Otherwise, we must accept the plain statements of Scripture and not try to “spiritualize” everything.
Perhaps the easiest way to grasp the historical account is to trace briefly Abraham’s experiences as recorded in Genesis 12 through 21. Using his age as our guide, we will trace the events on which Paul is basing his argument for Christian liberty.
75—Abraham is called by God to go to Canaan; and God promises him many descendants (). Both Abraham and his wife, Sarah, wanted children, but Sarah was barren. God was waiting until both of them were “as good as dead” before He would perform the miracle of sending them a son ().
85—The promised son has not yet arrived, and Sarah becomes impatient. She suggests that Abraham marry Hagar, her maid, and try to have a son by her. This act was legal in that society, but it was not in the will of God. Abraham followed her suggestion and married Hagar ().
86—Hagar gets pregnant and Sarah gets jealous! Things are so difficult in the home that Sarah throws Hagar out. But the Lord intervenes, sends Hagar back, and promises to take care of her and her son. When Abraham is 86, the son is born, and he calls him Ishmael ().
99—God speaks to Abraham and promises again that he will have a son by Sarah and says to call his name Isaac. Later, God appears again and reaffirms the promise to Sarah as well (see Gen. 17–18).
100—The son is born (). They name him Isaac (“laughter”) as commanded by God. But the arrival of Isaac creates a new problem in the home: Ishmael has a rival. For fourteen years, Ishmael has been his father’s only son, very dear to his heart. How will Ishmael respond to the presence of a rival?
103—It was customary for the Jews to wean their children at about the age of three, and to make a great occasion of it. At the feast, Ishmael starts to mock Isaac () and to create trouble in the home. There is only one solution to the problem, and a costly one at that: Hagar and her son have to go. With a broken heart, Abraham sends his son away, because this is what the Lord tells him to do ().
On the surface, this story appears to be nothing more than a tale of a family problem, but beneath the surface are meanings that carry tremendous spiritual power. Abraham, the two wives, and the two sons represent spiritual realities; and their relationships teach us important lessons.
Paul now explains the meanings that lie behind these historical events; perhaps they are best classified as shown in the chart at the top of page 710.
Paul begins with the two sons, Ishmael and Isaac (), and explains that they illustrate our two births: the physical birth that makes us sinners and the spiritual birth that makes us the children of God. As you think about this, and read , you discover some wonderful spiritual truths about your salvation.
The Old Covenant
The New Covenant
Law
Grace
Hagar the slave
Sarah the freewoman
Ishmael, conceived after the flesh
Isaac, conceived miraculously
Earthly Jerusalem in bondage
Heavenly Jerusalem which is free
Isaac illustrates the believer in several particulars.
He was born by God’s power. In fact, God deliberately waited twenty-five years before He granted Abraham and Sarah their son. Isaac was “born after the Spirit” (), and, of course, the Christian is “born of the Spirit” (). Isaac came into the world through Abraham (who represents faith, ) and Sarah (who represents grace); so that he was born “by grace … through faith” as is every true Christian ().
He brought joy. His name means “laughter,” and certainly he brought joy to his aged parents. Salvation is an experience of joy, not only to the believer himself, but also to those around him.
He grew and was weaned (). Salvation is the beginning, not the ending. After we are born, we must grow (; ). Along with maturity comes weaning: we must lay aside “childish things” (). How easy it is for us to hold the “toys” of our earlier Christian days and fail to lay hold of the “tools” of the mature believer. The child does not enjoy being weaned, but he can never become a man until it happens. (Read Ps. 131 at this point.)
He was persecuted (). Ishmael (the flesh) caused problems for Isaac, just as our old nature causes problems for us. (Paul will discuss this in detail in ) Ishmael created no problems in the home until Isaac was born, just as our old nature creates no problems for us until the new nature enters when we trust Christ. In Abraham’s home we see the same basic conflicts that we Christians face today:
Hagar versus Sarah = Law versus grace
Ishmael versus Isaac = flesh versus Spirit
It is important to note that you cannot separate these four factors. The Judaizers taught that Law made the believer more spiritual, but Paul makes it clear that Law only releases the opposition of the flesh and a conflict within the believer ensues (see ). There was no Law strong enough either to change or to control Ishmael, but Isaac never needed any Law. It has well been said, “The old nature knows no Law and the new nature needs no Law.”
Having explained the significance of the two sons, Paul now turns to an explanation of the two wives, Sarah and Hagar. He is illustrating the contrasts between Law and grace and is proving that the believer is not under Law but is under the loving freedom that comes through God’s grace. Notice, then, the facts about Hagar that prove that the Law no longer has power over the Christian.
Hagar was Abraham’s second wife. God did not begin with Hagar; He began with Sarah.
As far as God’s dealings with men are concerned, God began with grace. In Eden, God provided for Adam and Eve by grace. Even after they sinned, in His grace He provided them with coats of skins for a covering (). He did not give them laws to obey as a way of redemption; instead, He gave them a gracious promise to believe: the promise of a victorious Redeemer ().
In His relationship with Israel also, God first operated on the basis of grace, not Law. His covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15) was all of grace, because Abraham was in a deep sleep when the covenant was established. When God delivered Israel from Egypt, it was on the basis of grace and not Law, for the Law had not yet been given. Like Hagar, Abraham’s second wife, the Law was “added” (). Hagar performed a function temporarily, and then moved off the scene, just as the Law performed a special function and then was taken away ().
Hagar was a slave. Five times in this section she is called a “bondmaid” or “bondwoman” (, ). Sarah was a freewoman, and therefore her position was one of liberty; but Hagar, even though married to Abraham, was still a servant. Likewise, the Law was given as a servant. “Wherefore then serveth the Law?” () It served as a mirror to reveal men’s sins () and as a monitor to control men and ultimately lead them to Christ (); but the Law was never meant to be a mother!
Hagar was not meant to bear a child. Abraham’s marriage to Hagar was out of the will of God; it was the result of Sarah’s and Abraham’s unbelief and impatience. Hagar was trying to do what only Sarah could do, and it failed. The Law cannot give life (), or righteousness (), or the gift of the Spirit (), or a spiritual inheritance (). Isaac was born Abraham’s heir (), but Ishmael could not share in this inheritance. The Judaizers were trying to make Hagar a mother again, while Paul was in spiritual travail for his converts that they might become more like Christ. No amount of religion or legislation can give the dead sinner life. Only Christ can do that through the Gospel.
Hagar gave birth to a slave. Ishmael was “a wild man” (), and even though he was a slave, nobody could control him, including his mother. Like Ishmael, the old nature (the flesh) is at war with God, and the Law cannot change or control it. By nature, the Spirit and the flesh are “contrary the one to the other” (), and no amount of religious activity is going to change the picture. Whoever chooses Hagar (Law) for his mother is going to experience bondage (, , ; ). But whoever chooses Sarah (grace) for his mother is going to enjoy liberty in Christ. God wants His children to be free ().
Hagar was cast out. It was Sarah who gave the order: “Cast out this bondwoman and her son” (), and God subsequently approved it (). Ishmael had been in the home for at least seventeen years, but his stay was not to be permanent; eventually he had to be cast out. There was not room in the household for Hagar and Ishmael with Sarah and Isaac; one pair had to go.
It is impossible for Law and grace, the flesh and the Spirit, to compromise and stay together. God did not ask Hagar and Ishmael to make occasional visits to the home; the break was permanent. The Judaizers in Paul’s day—and in our own day—are trying to reconcile Sarah and Hagar, and Isaac and Ishmael; such reconciliation is contrary to the Word of God. It is impossible to mix Law and grace, faith and works, God’s gift of righteousness and man’s attempts to earn righteousness.
Hagar was not married again. God never gave the Law to any other nation or people, including His church. For the Judaizers to impose the Law on the Galatian Christians was to oppose the very plan of God. In Paul’s day, the nation of Israel was under bondage to the Law, while the church was enjoying liberty under the gracious rule of the “Jerusalem which is above” (). The Judaizers wanted to “wed” Mt. Sinai and the heavenly Mt. Zion (), but to do this would be to deny what Jesus did on Mt. Calvary (). Hagar is not to be married again.
From the human point of view, it might seem cruel that God should command Abraham to send away his own son Ishmael, whom he loved very much. But it was the only solution to the problem, for “the wild man” could never live with the child of promise. In a deeper sense, however, think of what it cost God when He gave His Son to bear the curse of the Law to set us free. Abraham’s broken heart meant Isaac’s liberty; God’s giving of His Son means our liberty in Christ.
We Christians, like Isaac, are the children of promise by grace. The covenant of grace, pictured by Sarah, is our spiritual mother. The Law and the old nature (Hagar and Ishmael) want to persecute us and bring us into bondage. How are we to solve this problem?
We can try to change them. This must fail, for we cannot change either the Law or the old nature. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (), and, we might add, it always will be flesh. God did not try to change Ishmael and Hagar, either by force or by education; neither can you and I change the old nature and the Law.
We can try to compromise with them. This did not work in Abraham’s home, and neither will it work in our lives. The Galatians were trying to effect such a compromise, but it was only leading them gradually into bondage. False teachers today tell us, “Don’t abandon Christ; simply move into a deeper Christian life by practicing the Law along with your faith in Christ.” Invite Hagar and Ishmael back home again. But this is a path back into slavery: “How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” ()
We can cast them out. This is what we are supposed to do. First, Paul applies this to the nation of Israel (); then he applies it to the individual Christian. The nation of Israel had been in bondage under the Law, but this was a temporary thing, preparing them for the coming of Christ. Now that Christ had come, Law had to go. Jesus Christ, like Isaac, was a child of promise, born by the miraculous power of God. Once He had come and died for the people, the Law had to go.
Paul quotes , applying his words to Sarah who was barren before the birth of Isaac; but also applying it to the church (). Note the contrasts.
Israel
The Church
earthly Jerusalem
heavenly Jerusalem
bondage
freedom
barren legalism
fruitful grace
Sarah had been barren, and she tried to become fruitful by having Abraham marry Hagar. This failed and brought only trouble. The Law cannot give life or fruitfulness; legalism is barren. For the early church to go back into bondage would mean barrenness and disobedience to the Word of God. Because it held fast to grace, the church spread across the world in fruitfulness.
But individual churches and Christians can make the same mistake the Galatians were making: they can fail to cast out Hagar and Ishmael. Legalism is one of the major problems among Christians today. We must keep in mind that legalism does not mean the setting of spiritual standards; it means worshiping these standards and thinking that we are spiritual because we obey them. It also means judging other believers on the basis of these standards. A person can refrain from smoking, drinking, and attending theaters, for example, and still not be spiritual. The Pharisees had high standards; yet they crucified Jesus.
The old nature loves legalism, because it gives the old nature a chance to “look good.” It costs very little for Ishmael not to do certain bad things, or to do certain religious deeds, just so long as he can remain Ishmael. For seventeen years Ishmael caused no trouble in the home; and then Isaac came along, and there was conflict. Legalism caters to Ishmael. The Christian who claims to be spiritual because of what he doesn’t do is only fooling himself. It takes more than negations to make a positive, fruitful spiritual life.
No doubt the Judaizers were attractive people. They carried credentials from religious authorities (). They had high standards and were careful in what they ate and drank. They were effective in making converts and liked to advertise their accomplishments (; ). They had rules and standards to cover every area of life, making it easy for their followers to know who was “spiritual” and who was not. But the Judaizers were leading the people into bondage and defeat, not liberty and victory, and the people did not know the difference.
In the closing chapters of this letter, Paul will point out the greatest tragedy of legalism: it gives opportunity for the flesh to work. The old nature cannot be controlled by Law; eventually it has to break out—and when it does, watch out! This explains why legalistic religious groups often have fights and divisions (“ye fight and devour one another,” ), and often are plagued with the defiling sins of the flesh (). While every church has its share of these problems, it is especially prominent in those groups where there is an atmosphere of legalism. When you invite Hagar and Ishmael to live with Sarah and Isaac, you are inviting trouble.
Thank God, the Christian is set free from the curse of the Law and the control of the Law. “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” It may pain us deeply, as it did Abraham; but it must be done. To attempt to mix Law and grace is to attempt the impossible. It makes for a frustrated, barren Christian life. But to live by grace, through faith, gives one a free and fulfilling Christian life.
What is the secret? The Holy Spirit. And it is this secret that Paul will share in the closing “practical” chapters of the letter. Meanwhile, you and I need to beware lest Ishmael and Hagar have crept back into our lives. If they have—let us cast them out.
Paul’s doctrine of grace is dangerous!” cried the Judaizers. “It replaces Law with license. Why, if we do away with our rules and abandon our high standards, the churches will fall apart.”
First-century Judaizers are not the only ones afraid to depend on God’s grace. Legalists in our churches today warn that we dare not teach people about the liberty we have in Christ lest it result in religious anarchy. These people misunderstand Paul’s teaching about grace, and it is to correct such misunderstanding that Paul wrote the final section of his letter (Gal. 5–6).
Paul turns now from argument to application, from the doctrinal to the practical. The Christian who lives by faith is not going to become a rebel. Quite the contrary, he is going to experience the inner discipline of God that is far better than the outer discipline of man-made rules. No man could become a rebel who depends on God’s grace, yields to God’s Spirit, lives for others, and seeks to glorify God. The legalist is the one who eventually rebels, because he is living in bondage, depending on the flesh, living for self, and seeking the praise of men and not the glory of God.
No, Paul’s doctrine of Christian liberty through grace is not the dangerous doctrine. It is legalism that is the dangerous doctrine, because legalism attempts to do the impossible: change the old nature and make it obey the Laws of God. Legalism succeeds for a short time, and then the flesh begins to rebel. The surrendered Christian who depends on the power of the Spirit is not denying the Law of God, or rebelling against it. Rather, that Law is being fulfilled in him through the Spirit (). It is easy to see the sequence of thought in these closing chapters:
1.I have been set free by Christ. I am no longer under bondage to the Law ().
2.But I need something—Someone—to control my life from within. That Someone is the Holy Spirit ().
3.Through the Spirit’s love, I have a desire to live for others, not for self ().
4.This life of liberty is so wonderful, I want to live it to the glory of God; for He is the One making it possible ().
Now, contrast this with the experience of the person who chooses to live under Law, under the discipline of some religious leader.
1.If I obey these rules, I will become a more spiritual person. I am a great admirer of this religious leader, so I now submit myself to his system.
2.I believe I have the strength to obey and improve myself. I do what I am told, and measure up to the standards set for me.
3.I’m making progress. I don’t do some of the things I used to do. Other people compliment me on my obedience and discipline. I can see that I am better than others in my fellowship. How wonderful to be so spiritual.
4.If only others were like me! God is certainly fortunate that I am His. I have a desire to share this with others so they can be as I am. Our group is growing and we have a fine reputation. Too bad other groups are not as spiritual as we are.
No matter how you look at it, legalism is an insidious, dangerous enemy. When you abandon grace for Law, you always lose. In this first section (), Paul explains what the believer loses when he turns from God’s grace to man-made rules and regulations.
The Slave-You Lose Your Liberty ()
Paul has used two comparisons to show his readers what the Law is really like: a schoolmaster or guardian (; ), and a bondwoman (). Now he compares it to a yoke of slavery. You will recall that Peter used this same image at the famous Conference in Jerusalem (see ).
The image of the yoke is not difficult to understand. It usually represents slavery, service, and control by someone else over your life; it may also represent willing service and submission to someone else. When God delivered Israel from Egyptian servitude, it was the breaking of a yoke (). The farmer uses the yoke to control and guide his oxen, because they would not willingly serve if they were free.
When the believers in Galatia trusted Christ, they lost the yoke of servitude to sin and put on the yoke of Christ (). The yoke of religion is hard, and the burdens heavy; Christ’s yoke is “easy” and His burden is “light.” That word easy in the Greek means “kind, gracious.” The yoke of Christ frees us to fulfill His will, while the yoke of the Law enslaves us. The unsaved person wears a yoke of sin (); the religious legalist wears the yoke of bondage (); but the Christian who depends on God’s grace wears the liberating yoke of Christ.
It is Christ who has made us free from the bondage of the Law. He freed us from the curse of the Law by dying for us on the tree (). The believer is no longer under Law; he is under grace (). This does not mean that we are outlaws and rebels. It simply means that we no longer need the external force of Law to keep us in God’s will, because we have the internal leading of the Holy Spirit of God (). Christ died to set us free, not to make us slaves. To go back to Law is to become entangled in a maze of “do’s and don’ts” and to abandon spiritual adulthood for a “second childhood.”
Sad to say, there are some people who feel very insecure with liberty. They would rather be under the tyranny of some leader than to make their own decisions freely. There are some believers who are frightened by the liberty they have in God’s grace; so they seek out a fellowship that is legalistic and dictatorial, where they can let others make their decisions for them. This is comparable to an adult climbing back into the crib. The way of Christian liberty is the way of fulfillment in Christ. No wonder Paul issues that ultimatum: “Do not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Take your stand for liberty.”
The Debtor-You Lose Your Wealth ()
Paul uses three phrases to describe the losses the Christian incurs when he turns from grace to Law: “Christ shall profit you nothing” (); “a debtor to do the whole Law” (); “Christ is become of no effect unto you” (). This leads to the sad conclusion in : “Ye are fallen from grace.” It is bad enough that legalism robs the believer of his liberty, but it also robs him of his spiritual wealth in Christ. The believer living under Law becomes a bankrupt slave.
God’s Word teaches that when we were unsaved, we owed God a debt we could not pay. Jesus makes this clear in His Parable of the Two Debtors (). Two men owed money to a creditor, the one owing ten times as much as the other. But neither was able to pay, so the creditor “graciously forgave them both” (literal translation). No matter how much morality a man may have, he still comes short of the glory of God. Even if his sin debt is one tenth that of others, he stands unable to pay, bankrupt at the judgment bar of God. God in His grace, because of the work of Christ on the cross, is able to forgive sinners, no matter how large their debt may be.
Thus when we trust Christ, we become spiritually rich. We now share in the riches of God’s grace (), the riches of His glory (; ), the riches of His wisdom (), and the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (). In Christ we have “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (), and we are “complete in Him” (). Once a person is “in Christ,” he has all that he needs to live the kind of Christian life God wants him to live.
The Judaizers, however, want us to believe that we are “missing something,” that we would be more “spiritual” if we practiced the Law with its demands and disciplines. But Paul makes it clear that the Law adds nothing—because nothing can be added! Instead, the Law comes in as a thief and robs the believer of the spiritual riches he has in Christ. It puts him back into bankruptcy, responsible for a debt he is unable to pay.
To live by grace means to depend on God’s abundant supply of every need. To live by Law means to depend on my own strength—the flesh—and be left to get by without God’s supply. Paul warns the Galatians that to submit to circumcision in these circumstances would rob them of all the benefits they have in Christ (though circumcision itself is an indifferent matter—; ). Furthermore, to submit would put them under obligation to obey the whole Law.
It is at this point that legalists reveal their hypocrisy, for they fail to keep the whole Law. They look on the Old Testament Law the way a customer surveys the food in a cafeteria: they choose what they want and leave the rest. But this is not honest. To teach that a Christian today should, for example, keep the Sabbath but not the Passover, is to dismember God’s Law. The same Lawgiver who gave the one commandment also gave the other (). Earlier, Paul had quoted Moses to prove that the curse of the Law is on everyone who fails to keep all the Law (; see ).
Imagine a motorist driving down a city street and deliberately driving through a red light. He is pulled over by a policeman who asks to see his driver’s license. Immediately the driver begins to defend himself. “Officer, I know I ran that red light—but I have never robbed anybody. I’ve never committed adultery. I’ve never cheated on my income tax.”
The policeman smiles as he writes out the ticket, because he knows that no amount of obedience can make up for one act of disobedience. It is one Law, and the same Law that protects the obedient man punishes the offender. To boast about keeping part of the Law while at the same time breaking another part is to confess that I am worthy of punishment.
Now we can better understand what Paul means by “fallen from grace” (). Certainly he is not suggesting that the Galatians had “lost their salvation,” because throughout this letter he deals with them as believers. At least nine times he calls them brethren, and he also uses the pronoun we (, ). This Paul would never do if his readers were lost. He boldly states, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’ ” (). If his readers were unsaved, Paul could never write those words.
No, to be “fallen from grace” does not mean to lose salvation. Rather, it means “fallen out of the sphere of God’s grace.” You cannot mix grace and Law. If you decide to live in the sphere of Law, then you cannot live in the sphere of grace. The believers in Galatia had been bewitched by the false teachers () and thus were disobeying the truth. They had removed toward another gospel (), and had turned back to the elementary things of the old religion (). As a result, they had become entangled with the yoke of bondage, and this led to their present position: “fallen from grace.” And the tragedy of this fall is that they had robbed themselves of all the good things Jesus Christ could do for them.
Paul next presents the life of the believer in the sphere of grace (). This enables us to contrast the two ways of life. When you live by grace, you depend on the power of the Spirit; but under Law, you must depend on yourself and your own efforts. Faith is not dead; faith works (see ). But the efforts of the flesh can never accomplish what faith can accomplish through the Spirit. And faith works through love—love for God and love for others. Unfortunately, flesh does not manufacture love; too often it produces selfishness and rivalry (see ). No wonder Paul pictures the life of legalism as a fall!
When the believer walks by faith, depending on the Spirit of God, he lives in the sphere of God’s grace; and all his needs are provided. He experiences the riches of God’s grace. And, he always has something to look forward to (): one day Jesus shall return to make us like Himself in perfect righteousness. The Law gives no promise for perfect righteousness in the future. The Law prepared the way for the first coming of Christ (Gal. 3:23–4:7), but it cannot prepare the way for the second coming of Christ.
So, the believer who chooses legalism robs himself of spiritual liberty and spiritual wealth. He deliberately puts himself into bondage and bankruptcy.