Galatians 5:1-15: Called to Freedom

Just as he has for the entire letter to the Galatians thus far, Paul is becoming more and more direct about what he means when he says that salvation through works is slavery. Not only is it slavery, but it completely disregards everything that Jesus did for them on the cross. A key reminder: everything that Paul is saying is out of love. He loves the Galatians so much that he’s being honest with them. He’s not saying it out of a desire to be right but out of love and care for them. If he didn’t love them, he wouldn’t be telling them the truth. In today’s day and age, we get so scared of telling people the truth out of fear of offending them. But really that means that we don’t love them like we say we do. If we didn’t we wouldn’t hesitate to be honest.

Honesty Wrapped in Love

With that being said, that doesn’t mean that we have a right to be rude. Everything that Paul is saying is direct yes, but as I said, he says it with love. It’s easy to get caught up in “I’m just being honest” energy when really the root of it is a desire to be right. And to be completely honest, that’s me. This is something the Lord has been working on in me. I can get so focused on being right that my ego becomes bigger than my love.

But as I listened to Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craige, he said that he doesn’t get heated in arguments anymore because he’s confident in what he’s saying. He knows that he’s done the research, has a solid relationship with God and wants people to know the truth. When that’s the case, he has no reason to get upset when others disagree or even get angry at him. This really resonated with me because I get heated at the drop of a hat.

For those who have been following along on this series it may seem like it has nothing to do with Galatians. However, as I read this portion of Scripture, I imagined myself writing with anger that was probably less than righteous. I could see myself getting angry (honestly at times I did get angry thinking about how people still portray a works-based salvation today) instead of leaning into love. So if that’s you, you’re not alone and God’s not done with us.

Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get into Galatians 5:1-15.

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

Paul comes in hot in verse 1, saying “for freedom Christ has set us free.” Once again Paul is making it clear that Christ set us free for the sake of freedom, not to go and try to earn it. While we have been set free from the ceremonial laws, we are not removed “from obedience to God’s moral standards.”¹ As we’ve discussed in former posts, an objection to faith-based salvation was that embracing freedom meant someone could do whatever they wanted and not be obedient to God’s moral law. A result of true salvation and relationship with Jesus Christ means that your desires have changed.

A Yoke of Slavery

Anyway, the second half of verse one is what really hits, “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Christ already did the work, already freed them. To turn back to a works-based salvation is not only not possible but it is choosing to go back to slavery. Verse 2 continues this, saying that “if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Once again, Paul makes it clear that choosing the law means no point in having Christ at all.

Verse 3 says that “every man who accepts circumcision [is] obligated to keep the whole law.” Paul isn’t saying that everyone who received circumcision is under the law. In fact, Paul had Timothy circumcised to remove that conversation from his ministry entirely (Acts 16:1-3). Paul is saying that anyone who tries to keep the law can’t pick and choose which laws to follow. He must follow them all. “Paul was strongly opposed to the Judaistic theology which insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation.”²

So this isn’t about having an opinion on circumcision (although I have a lot of them), it’s about following Jesus vs the law.

Severed from Christ

To choose the law means that “you are severed from Christ… you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4). Once again, some clarification: Paul isn’t talking about “whether a genuine believer can lose his or her salvation.”³ What he is saying is that if someone actually wants to go back to the law instead of having a real relationship with Jesus probably never had a real relationship with Him to begin with. “Anyone seeking justification by Law has been alienated (katērgēthēte) from Christ, that is, such a person would not be living in a sphere where Christ was operative.”⁴ This is as true today as it was then. To know about the grace that Christ freely gives and still turn around to go back to a works-based faith is to turn your back on Christ Himself.

Waiting on the Spirit

Verse 5 speaks to the fact that believers in Christ get to rely on the Holy Spirit. “Christians do not attempt to produce perfect righteousness in their lives by their own efforts (as Paul’s opponents were futilely trying to do), for their hope is not in themselves; instead they wait for God to complete righteousness in them.”⁵ To “wait” does not mean to just sit and be idle. It means being obedient to the Lord and allowing Him to work in us instead of relying on ourselves to change ourselves. “Though salvation is by faith apart from works, faith that is genuine does work itself out “through love.”⁶

In verse 6, Paul says something interesting. After saying that circumcision counts for nothing in Jesus, he says that “only faith working through love” is what works. “True “faith” is a living and active thing and produces love.”⁷ Like I said in the beginning, all of it must be done through love.

Who Hindered You?

Paul, in verses 7-8, says that they “were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.” Although they were doing well (as referenced in other parts of this study), something (or more pointedly, someone) threw them off track. “The result was that the believers were no longer obeying the truth, but were attempting to complete the race by legalistic self-effort rather than by faith.”⁸ Yet another reason why we have to know our Bible.

Don’t forget to study

We have to study Scripture for ourselves, have a relationship with God for ourselves, in order to truly understand what God is actually saying. “Such false teaching as the Galatians were beginning to embrace did not originate in the God who called them (see 1:6). He called them by and into grace. They were now being seduced by other voices into following a false gospel.”⁹

In verse 9 Paul quotes a well-known proverb that they understood, that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” It only takes one person to push everyone off the right track. “Its converts may have been few but the believers must be on guard lest the error affect the entire church. Paul’s point may also have been that one apparently small deviation from the truth could destroy the entire system.”¹⁰

Then Why Am I Still Persecuted?

In verse 11, a strange point is made. It seems that Paul was being accused of preaching that circumcision was still necessary. While this was what he preached before his encounter with Jesus, it certainly wasn’t anymore (as seen throughout this whole letter). “Paul countered with a simple question: How is it that he was still being persecuted by Judaizers if he preached the same message they did?”¹¹ Why would they have such an issue with him if what he said was exactly what they were saying? It doesn’t make sense.

Plus, if he had been preaching circumcision then, once again, the cross would mean nothing. He wouldn’t be talking about it at all in his ministry. “But it had not because people still found the gospel message, which proclaims man’s total inability to contribute anything to his salvation, offensive. Thus the Cross marked the end of the Law system and rendered circumcision and obedience to the Mosaic Law unnecessary.”¹²

A Harsh Word for a Harsh Error

The next verse sounds like a simple frustration statement but it goes a bit deeper than that. In Galatians 5:12, Paul says that he wishes that those who confused them “would emasculate themselves!” Because they were so excited about circumcision, he wished that they would go the “whole way and castrate themselves, as did the pagan priests of the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor… While circumcision had once been the sign of the covenant in Israel, it now had no more religious meaning than any other ritual of cutting and marking practiced by ancient pagans.”¹³ Paul was calling them out so directly, saying that what they were doing was no different than paganism. At that time, there would not be many worse insults.

Called to Freedom

Because they had experienced freedom in Christ, they “were called to freedom” (Galatians 5:13). As I said prior, that doesn’t mean that they are to use that as an excuse to live however they please. Instead, “serving and loving others is the route to escaping bondage and fulfilling the ultimate content of the law.”¹⁴ In verse 14, he said that loving your neighbor as yourself is the fulfillment of the law. This is a quote from Leviticus 19:18. Here Paul “implies that Christians still have a moral obligation to follow the moral standards found in God’s “law” in Scripture. Obedience is not a means of justification but it is a crucial component of Christian life.”¹⁵ Jesus affirmed the same truth in Matthew 22:39 and Luke 10:25-28. This Christ-like love is the actual fulfillment of the law. For more on this, dive into Romans 13:8-10.

Biting and Devouring One Another

This passage ends with a warning. “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” (Galatians 5:15). Because of the false gospel, there were arguments happening within the church. “The followers of the legalists and those who remained steadfast were biting and devouring each other. This was far from the biblical ideal of believers dwelling together in a loving unity, and threatened the churches with destruction, that is, the loss of their individual and corporate testimonies.”¹⁶

Understanding the gospel goes deeper than simply “Jesus died for me.” Yes, that is important. In fact Jesus’ death and resurrection is the proof that Jesus is who He said He is. But to simply take that and make it a casual part of your life means that you do not truly understand it. I wrote a whole post about the gospel for those who need a reminder because I’ve also fallen into that trap. This study through Galatians has revealed so much more to me than I ever thought possible. I pray that it has also helped you. The core of the message is that Jesus did the work, we simply need to rest in it.

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Footnotes

1. Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2253.
2. Donald K. Campbell, “Galatians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 605.
3. ESV Study Bible, 2253.
4. Campbell, “Galatians,” 605.
5. ESV Study Bible, 2253.
6. Campbell, “Galatians,” 605.
7. ESV Study Bible, 2254.
8. Campbell, “Galatians,” 605–606.
9. Campbell, “Galatians,” 606.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. ESV Study Bible, 2254.
15. Ibid.
16. Campbell, “Galatians,” 606.

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