Complete notes for Galatians

Complete notes for Galatians can now be found at Dundee Believer.

Christ who lives in me - a sermon on Galatians 2:15-3:9

Christ who lives in me - a sermon on Galatians 2:15-3:9.

A book - Living by Revelation, Faith and Promise

I have published a shortish book (70+ pages) on Paul's letter to the Galatians, available on Amazon.

The book is called Living by Revelation, Faith and Promise - a walk through Paul's letter to the Galatians. It is available on Kindle from Amazon, with a paperback version probably coming soon.

Galatians 6:14-18 - A new creation

6:14,15

Paul reiterates that the Law is summed up in the command to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18). It is interesting that Paul puts the emphasis on the second great commandment, not on the first (love God). Our attitudes towards each other are so important. The Judaisers were wanting to tie the Galatians up in the Law. Paul tells them that they need to get to the heart of the Law. If they continued down the Law line they would end up devouring each other. And there is much evidence from history of churches doing that. We are to serve one another, not bite and devour each other. In Christ we are a new creation, it is the recreative work of God in our lives that counts, not any rules that we may follow. But note also that God doing a recreative work in our lives implies that we will become ever more Christlike. There are no grounds whatsoever in the Bible for thinking that Christ’s forgiveness means we can do what we like and get away with it.

6:16-18

Paul now brings the letter to a close. He has spoken firmly about false teachers, and those who follow them. Here he declares a blessing upon those who walk in faith. Paul had suffered much for Christ (and would suffer more). The Galatians dalliance with Judaism ha caused him much grief (Gal 4:19), he asks that they do this no more. The letter finishes with a typical Pauline blessing, that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirit.

Galatians 6:12,13 - Avoiding persecution

6:12

Paul then makes a direct attack on the Judaisers, calling them out for what they were. Those advocating circumcision were (i) trying to make a name for themselves; and (ii) trying to avoid persecution (by the Jews). This is so different from the way we treat opponents of the gospel today. We are far too willing to give them credit where none is due. A little more direct confrontation (verbal!) would be in order.

6:13

We have been called to freedom. The obvious danger is that we misuse this freedom, as is the case with all freedoms. We could use it as an excuse to sin without consequence (though we would quickly find that that is not the case, sin always has consequences, and the gospel does not change that). The opposite danger is that in rightly seeking to avoid that misuse of freedom we bind ourselves up with many rules, and churches or groups within churches have done that on many occasions throughout history. That does not work either. The freedom that God gives us is the freedom to live as we should live, to live for God and for each other, as the two greatest commandments say. So we take the focus of ourselves and here we are urged to serve one another.

Galatians 6:9-11 - Let us do good to everyone

6:9,10

Now living by faith does not mean we just sit back and wait for the Spirit to do something! So Paul immediately urges them to continue doing good, not to weary in doing good. It can seem for a time as if it is not getting us anywhere, and in the context of this letter it can seem as if our old nature is still alive and kicking!  But Paul assures us that “at the proper time” we will reap a good harvest.

So we should take every opportunity to do good to one another. “Especially to those who belong to the family of believers”. Paul is not trying to change the church into a cosy club looking after itself. Rather, he is countering the back-biting that was at risk of arising in Galatia (Gal 5:15). Instead of seeking how we can get one over each other, we should put our efforts into seeing how we can help each other.

6:11

Paul now draws his letter to a close, and he wants to make sure that they know it was Paul who wrote this letter, or dictated it. There was a tendency for letters to be forged, and Paul wanted to guard against any accusations that the letter was not really from him. It also counts against those who claim other Pauline letters were written by others pretending to be Paul to add some sort of supposed authority to their letters. Forging letters were looked down upon in the church and they would not have allowed a pseudographic letter to get through.

Galatians 6:6-8 - God is not mocked

6:6

It is difficult to see the purpose of this verse in context. In general we can see that it means we should respect and reward those who teach, but why say that here? Perhaps it is an attitude of sitting in judgement on teachers, we make assessments of whether we prefer that preacher over some other preacher. Or perhaps Paul was telling them to honour the teachers among them who were faithfully teaching the gospel, rather than the false teachers.

6:7,8

We commonly read this as a warning against doing wrong things. Ie, if we do bad things then we will reap a bad harvest, sin has an effect. Conversely, if we good things then we will reap a good harvest. However, true as that might be, I do not believe that that is what Paul is saying here. Look at the context, what has the whole letter been about? It has been about whether following the Law, in particular being circumcised, will help us please God or not. There is very little indication that wanting to do overt sins was an issue in Galatia. What I believe Paul is saying is that if we seek to live by the Law, then we are living by the flesh and we will inevitably reap the harvest of the flesh, as outlines in 5:19-21. God has told us that the heart above all things is deceitful, that we cannot save ourselves, we cannot make ourselves righteous. So if we then try to make ourselves better by the Law we are calling God a liar! We are mocking God. Conversely, if we sow to the Spirit, ie if we seek to live by faith in Christ then we will reap from the Spirit, we will reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:3-5 - Load bearing

6:3

As mentioned a few times before, following a legalistic path so easily leads us to feeling pleased with ourselves when we get something right, and conversely we tend to overlook or excuse our failings. Here Paul addresses the same issue, warning people who “think they are something”. We deceive ourselves so easily and need to be aware of this danger.

6:4

Now this does not mean we should think of ourselves as being complete rubbish! We are to look at ourselves honestly. Elsewhere Paul talks about taking a sober view of ourselves (Rom 12:3). And we view ourselves in the light of Christ, we do not compare ourselves to each other. You are not the measure, I am not the measure, Jesus is the measure. So we then get a true picture of ourselves.

6:5

We are to help each other carry each other’s burdens (6:2), but ultimately we are answerable for ourselves. We will have to give an account for what we have done with our lives, and saying “I was better than him or her” will count for nothing. The standard we are measured against is Christ.

Galatians 6:1,2 - Keep watch, lest you be tempted

6:1

In one sense they have been concerned about avoiding sin in its widest sense. They wanted to please God and misguidedly thought that getting circumcised was the way to do this. Paul has told them that while their motives might be good, the outcome would be more sin. Instead, living by the Spirit, living by faith, is the only way for us to please God and sin less. In a legalistic culture if someone is caught sinning the reaction is often to condemn them.  What are we to do in a faith culture if someone is caught in sin? The answer is that rather than condemn the brother, he is to be restored in a spirit of gentleness. and this is to be done by those who are “spiritual”, not those who are legalistic.

6:2

Rather than competing against each other, which is what legalism encourages, we are to “bear one another’s burdens”. We are to help and encourage each other. “and so fulfill the law of Christ”. Paul is not saying that this is an alternative law. Rather the Law was a whole way of life, influencing everything that was done, just see how widespread the laws are in Leviticus and the other books of the Pentateuch, even covering what to do about mildew! In Christ the whole way of life, the whole culture, is one of helping each other.

Galatians 5:24-26 - Let us not become conceited

5:24

So why will living by the Spirit, living by faith, produce this good fruit? Because if we belong to Christ we have crucified the flesh. We have said no to the flesh, we have given up on trying to live out of our own strength. So we have crucified the flesh. We are no longer relying on this corrupted part of our nature. This is why any legalistic approach to living will ultimately end in disaster. For if we follow a legalistic approach we are relying on the flesh, on our innate nature, and try as we might, we will inevitably reap the consequences of doing that.

5:25

We live by the Spirit and are to keep in step with the Spirit. Note the implication that the Spirit is a person, as we are to keep in step with Him. Note also that while we live by the Spirit we do not abdicate responsibility. Again and again people will try to make out that some aspect of Biblical teaching takes away our responsibility. The sovereignty of God is perhaps the biggest one, and Romans 9 addresses this issue. Then there is the canard that since there is complete forgiveness in Jesus we can do what we like, or it doesn’t matter what we do. Likewise, living by the Spirit, not law, does not mean that it doesn’t matter how we live, quite the opposite in fact.

5:26

“Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other”. Living by law can lead to these things: Conceitedness, provoking and envying one another. If someone is doing better than us at something, we start to envy them, instead of rejoicing in their success or progress. These things can also be a risk when living by the Spirit. We can become so pleased with ourselves that we are walking in step with the Spirit that pride starts to rise up. The flesh is a very tricky customer and we need to be on our guard at all times.

Galatians 5:19-23 - Works of the flesh, fruit of the Spirit

5:19-21

If live under the law we are living under the control our our flesh, and Paul now reminds us of what some of the results of this are. The flesh produces things like sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. We might think, but they are trying to be good, how can this happen? Just look at the Catholic church! (Other churches have their own share of scandals as well.) They have strict teaching on sexual morality, Pope francis notwithstanding, even insisting on celibacy for their priests, yet there have been the most horrific  tales of abuse and cover-ups in recent years. Living by the flesh inevitably produces the sorts of things in Paul’s list. We need a whole new way of living, a whole new life.

5:22,23

Following the fruits of the flesh we get the fruit of the Spirit. These are the qualities that are produced in a person’s life if they live by the Spirit. Now we need to note that this is not simply stating that one list is a list of bad things and the other a list of good things. One is what living by the Law, which means living by the flesh, produces. This happens not because the law is bad, quite the opposite is the case, but because we are bad! The other is what the fruit will be if we live by the Spirit. We should certainly seek to cultivate these things, but we need to do so by faith in Christ. If we seek to do it by setting rules we will come a cropper. “Against such things there is no law”. Why does Paul say this? Maybe it is because some were saying that Paul’s approach was antinomian, and Paul is saying that this is what living by the Spirit will produce, and the law does not forbid such things.

Galatians 5:17,18 - If you are led by the Spirit

5:17

The flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other. As mentioned in my comments on 5:13, the flesh is referring not just to overtly sinful desires. Our whole human nature is opposed to the Spirit. Living by the flesh means making ourselves king or lord, and whatever desires and aims we may claim to have, may even truly believe that we do have, we will end up opposing God, opposing the Spirit. And if we seek to live by Law we are making ourselves lord, for we are saying I can do what is right, I can live righteously by my own efforts. We cannot. The flesh will subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, lead us to do the opposite of what God wants. “There is a way that seems right to man, but it leads only to death” (Prov 14:12).

5:18

If we live by law we will find that it is our flesh that is in control, our flesh is corrupted and even though we might want to do what is right we will inevitably end up going against God. Instead we need to be “led by the Spirit”. If we led by the Spirit then we are not “under the law”. Now this does not mean that the Law is wrong nor that it does not matter, for it expresses the heart of God, it tells us much of what is right and wrong. It means that we are not living by the principle of being under the Law. Ie here are the rules, now go and get on with it. We are not able to “get on with it”, we need the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:14-16 - Walk by the Spirit

5:14,15

These verses confirm that backbiting was happening. The Judaisers were claiming that by following their way the Galatians would be following the Law and so pleasing God. In reality the exact opposite would be happening. Paul quotes one of the two greatest commandments, and note that it is the second one, loving each other. And he says that the heart of the Law is loving each other. Now this does not mean we can do what we like as long as “love” each other, if we break God commands we are not loving each other, no matter what we might claim. It is a key feature of Paul’s theology, especially in Romans, that it is only by trusting in Christ that we truly fulfil the Law. That is true in “theological” terms (ie we are justified through Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us), but it is also true in practical terms. It is only if we live by faith in Christ that we will love God better and love each other better.

5:16

In understanding the last part of Galatians we need to appreciate the situation. Galatia was not Corinth. In Corinth all sorts of sins were on the go, that does not seem to be the case in Galatia. Rather it was a matter of a church wanting to please God, wanting to resist sin, but going about it in the wrong way. They thought that living by the Law would help them “not gratify the desires of the flesh”, when in fact it would do the complete opposite. It is only by living by the Spirit that enables us to “not gratify the desires of the flesh”.

Galatians 5:11-13 - You were called to freedom

5:11,12

Paul was not afraid to use earthy language! It seems that the troublemakers were saying that Paul actually preached circumcision. Paul points out that if that was the case then the Jews would have no cause whatsoever to object to him and he would not be persecuted. At this time most of the persecution came from the Jews. Paul then closes this section by saying he would wish the agitators would castrate themselves! It isn’t always right to be nice about people!

5:13

So far Paul has been emphasising the freedom that we have in Christ, but there is a danger and he now addresses this danger. The danger is that we think, “I’m free, I’m forgiven, I can do what I like”. Our sinful nature will twist God’s grace into an excuse or a licence to sin. This happened in the early church, and happens at every stage in Christian history.  But we must not use our freedom to indulge the flesh. Older versions of the NIV (and some other versions) translated “flesh” as “sinful nature”, this is misleading. Flesh refers more widely to our human nature (which the Good News Bible used, and is actually a much better translation of the Greek word sarx). As Paul explains in Romans 8, we must not live by the flesh, but by the Spirit. If we do live by the flesh it will lead to what we think of as overtly sinful things (as listed in 5:19-21), but that is not all. It is impossible to please God if live by the flesh, including things that are not overtly sinful. For instance, if we live by the flesh we will be governed by fear and cannot please God. Look at the life of David. There were two major sin incidents in his life. One was what fits our natural conception of what living by the flesh means. This is when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Bathsheba’s husband killed. He was motivated by illicit sexual desires. We have no problem with seeing this as sinful. The second incident, however, is quite different. This is when David counted the fighting men. This second incident was counted as equally serious by God, yet to us it seems a small thing, certainly not meriting the judgement that came. But David was acting out of the flesh, rather than trusting in God.

The freedom we are given in Christ is the freedom to be the people that God made us to be, people who love and serve Christ, and, as focused on here, humbly serve each other. When people start living by Law one of things that happens is that we become competitive, seeing each other as rivals, or looking down on each other, trying to prove ourselves better than others. It seems that this is what was happening in Galatia.

Galatians 5:9,10 - A little leaven

5:9

It might be thought that a little wrong teaching does not matter, but in some cases what starts off as a seemingly small error starts to infect everything and causes major problems. Of course, we can can go to the other extreme and start pouncing on every little point of disagreement as a major doctrinal error. We need to recognise what matters and what doesn’t.

5:10

Paul has been very forthright in what he has been saying, even so he expects, or at least hopes, that the Galatians will realise the truth of what he has been saying. It appears that there was one person who was the source of all the trouble, though Paul, apparently does not know who that person was. Paul is clear that whoever they are, they will have to pay the penalty. It is not clear whether he is thinking of a church imposed discipline, or judgement from God. Whatever the case, the key point is that God is no respecter of persons. So they do not need to fear if the trouble maker is an apparently “important” person. This may be part of the reason why back in the first two chapters Paul went on about not caring about whether or not someone was “important”, it was the truth of the gospel that mattered.

Galatians 5:7,8 - Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

5:7

The Galatians had started well, but, as all of the Bible makes clear, perseverance is essential. The Old Testament is full of examples of people who started well but finished badly. This is particularly the case in 1 and 2 Kings. There were a lot of bad kings, but several who did well for a time, then they failed at the end, eg Hezekiah, Azariah. In the New Testament we are encouraged to persevere, and in Christ and through the Spirit this is possible. However, the Galatians were now in danger of falling away. A false teaching had arrived and this was keeping them from the truth.

False teachings do not just tell us wrong things, they blind us to the truth as well.

5:8

There is such a tendency today to count all views as having some merit to them, or even having equal merit. They do not. Some views are utterly destructive, that is the clear Biblical teaching. A key question is where does the teaching come from. Teaching that blinds us to the truth, or teaching that contradicts the Bible does not come from God and we need to recognise this.

Galatians 5:5,6 - Faith working through love

5:5

Righteousness can be viewed in two ways. One is our legal standing before God, and we are justified now. It can also be looked at in terms of our moral standing. Now none of us meets God’s standards in our own right, though hopefully we are making progress! If we truly belong to Christ we will long to be righteous, we will long for every aspect of our being to be in tune with God. Now the Galatians were, like all Christians, no doubt keenly aware of their imperfections, that there was still sin in their lives. This is one of the reasons why the arguments of the Judaisers would seem attractive, for it offered a way of supposedly being “more righteous” now. Paul has spent a couple chapters explaining why this is a forlorn hope. So what are we to do instead? “Through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith”. This is not a passive waiting, but a waiting that is relying on the Holy Spirit, and is by faith.

5:6

We get more of the “active waiting” at the end of this verse. Paul has been telling them that circumcision will not help them, indeed it renders Christ of no value to them. He now makes clear that uncircumcision is of no value either. Ie in terms of being pleasing to God it is totally irrelevant whether or not a man is circumcised. This is why it was fine for Jews to be circumcised, and why in Acts 16:3 we read that Paul had Timothy circumcised. The problem only arose if someone started relying on circumcision in order to be acceptable to God. What does matter in our lives now is “faith expressing itself through love”. When Paul talks about faith and waiting he is not talking about being passive. Faith is not a mere intellectual assent to a doctrine, but a living and active thing that expresses itself through love. And we will see in the following verses that theology matters, what we believe will affect how we live.

Galatians 5:3,4 - You are severed from Christ

5:3

Circumcision is only one aspect of the Law, one commandment of the Law, but if someone relied on circumcision for even the tiniest bit of righteousness they were obliged to obey all the Law. We either rely completely on Christ or not at all, there is no halfway house. Paul says “let himself be circumcised” because he is addressing Gentiles. A Jew would already be circumcised, and it was OK for a Jew to be circumcised for cultural reasons. But a Gentile would be getting circumcised in order to obey the Law, in order to be more acceptable to God.

5:4

Trying to be justified by the Law means alienation from Christ. See how starkly Paul portrays the divide, it is not a matter of a small difference of opinion. Notice also how "severed from Christ" relates to circumcision! This shows how vital it is that we rely purely on Christ, how terrible to be separated from Christ. Then Paul repeats the point, we will have fallen from grace. We tend to think of “fall from grace” as meaning to have committed some terrible sin, but here it is referring to people who were trying to please God! They were just going about it in the wrong way. To be in grace means to be depending completely upon Christ for our righteousness.

Galatians 5:1,2 - For freedom Christ has set us free

5:1

To fully appreciate the significance of “It is for freedom ...” we need to be aware of the slave system in those days. Slavery was not the same as the slave trade or slavery in America that we often think of. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was an integral part of the economy, and some slaves were quite well off. At the same time many weren’t and many were mistreated. However, it was possible for a slave to get enough money to buy his freedom. What he would then do is be “bought” by a god and he would technically become the slave of that god, but as the god was a nothing he would actually be free. Moreover, his original owner would give the slave a document stating “for freedom”. Now if a slave had bought his freedom and got this treasured document the last thing he would think of doing would be to become a slave again. Yet this is precisely what the Galatians were doing! They had been set free from slavery to sin, and now they were in danger of becoming slaves of the Law. How foolish indeed (Gal 3:1). Also with the matter of becoming a slave of a god, it gives us a better understanding of what Paul means when he talks of being a slave of Christ. Just as someone who became a slave of some god was free, so in becoming a slave of Christ we find the greatest freedom there is.

5:2

Paul then points out the stark reality of what would happen if they let themselves be circumcised. Christ would be of no value to them at all! Why so? The one and only grounds for our righteousness is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and He is the complete grounds for our righteousness. If we start to rely on something else, even if it something else as well as Christ (in our thinking), then Christ is of no value. We are saying we can earn at least some of our righteousness, we can justify ourselves to some extent. Christ died for those who have absolutely no righteousness of their own, and who know that that is the case.

Galatians 4:30,31 - Children of the free woman

4:30

Paul now quotes from Gen 21:10 where Abraham is told that he has to get rid of the slave woman and her son. Now in the original context this seems cruel, but, as noted earlier, God does actually promise to look after Hagar and Ishmael (Gen 21:13,17,18), so it is not as cruel as it might seem. We should also note the emotional attachment that Abraham had to Ishmael (Gen 21:11). Now also note this. Go and look at Gen 21:10, the words quoted by Paul as authoritative. These words were said by Sarah, yet here they are seen as inspired by the Holy Spirit, and of deep significance. This has important implications for the inspiration of Scripture. All Scripture is God breather, even when they might be thought to just be the product of an emotional reaction. Of course we must read things in their context, but Jesus and apostles had an enormously high view of Scripture, which in their terms meant the Old Testament. The fact that these are words spoken by a woman may also have implications for our view of the role of women in the church, especially as it is Paul who quotes them, and he certainly would know who said them. This is not the place to get into a deep debate on this matter, except to say I would describe myself as a “soft complementarian”. By this I mean I believe the distinction between male and female is absolutely vital, is part of God’s creation order, and is part of His blessing to us. However, I do not believe in the rigid separation of roles (eg “women shall not preach to men” type stuff, and do not believe there is much Scriptural support for this.

Anyway, back to the immediate context. There is no place for works righteousness in the gospel. They had to completely reject any notion of following the Law in order to be more acceptable to God.

4:31

Paul closes this chapter (though, of course, it was not a chapter ending when he wrote it!) by summing up the whole matter. “We are not children of the slave but of the free woman”. We need to appreciate and understand this if we are to live our lives aright and if we are to understand our lives aright. If we start having a slave mentality then it is a sign that something is going wrong in our thinking or in our emotions.