THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 5:1-12
FREEDOM IN CHRIST

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PAUL IS coming to the close of his long argument concerning the one true Gospel here in Galatians in these verses before us. After a good deal of thought I believe the title given to these verses in the NIV is the most apt one. It is 'Freedom in Christ'.

RELEVANCE OF THE MESSAGE

There is no doubt that this message of Paul's in this letter to the Galatians is as relevant today as ever it was. As Paul repeats his message in these verses there creeps out of his words the underlying problem which prompts people to return to some form of personal effort or works to perfect salvation in themselves. The problem is not concerning trying to earn salvation by our own good works, but that of believers returning to their own effort and works in order to perfect salvation they possess. This is the problem which showed itself in Galatia in their returning to circumcision and the works of the law of Moses. The underlying problem is just as virulently present today as it was in Galatia, and has over the years spawned other forms of works in religion. It showed itself in Christian perfection in Wesley's day, in the second blessing of a recent period in the Keswick Convention teaching, and today in various erroneous views concerning baptism in the Spirit.

The problem lies at the heart of Christian experience, or perhaps more correctly the absence of the experience we rightly feel should follow from becoming a Christian. We cannot be born again of the Spirit and justified from all our sins through Christ, without having the desire within us for true holiness and nearness to God. Yet we find to our sorrow that the power of our sinful flesh so easily overcomes us. There are the moments of crass failure perhaps in the realms of the more gross sins. Plainly when Paul talks of wishing that the agitators for works would emasculate themselves in verse 12, there is a plain reference to the problem of sexual purity, in thought as well as action. The greatest sorrow, however, for every true believer is the fact that we love God and Christ so little, that our spiritual vitality is so low, and that we are so prone in moments unguarded and moments of stress to find our thought and behaviour marred by so much sinful anger, pride, vain talking, lack of love and caring, love of earthly things, and so on. How we long for some new power where these things could be eradicated, and we could be free.

Paul is plainly referring to this desire for righteousness in verse 5. In this verse, instead of bolstering up expectation by resorting to some new teaching or action Christians are told to embrace, Paul reminds us that the righteousness we look for, though increasing as by the Spirit we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the body, will never be as we want it to be in this life; instead by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness we hope for in the spiritual realm after God has taken us from this life into his eternal glory. It is only then, when this sinful body is separated from us, and we receive a new pure body like Christ's resurrection body, that we will know perfect righteousness, and will be able to love God with all our hearts, and without any hindrance.

It is false teaching that leads to this return to some form of works to perfect salvation. People are not taught the true nature of redemption in Christ. People are not taught that through regeneration and resurrection with Christ we are already born anew as a new person which is entirely pure and undefiled. People are not taught that while we are in this world, even though we are born anew, our body and sinful flesh is not changed one iota, and that we must wait for the redemption for freedom from our sinful flesh, that is wait until we die in this life physically. People are not taught that the fact of their desire for holiness, and true love for God, is the proof of the pure new birth within which longs to be able to express itself without hindrance from the flesh. People are not taught how the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil will not end in this life, but by the grace of God we do improve. People are not taught that part of the problem is that the nearer we grow to Christ, and the more holy we become, the more we feel the sin that lives within our flesh, and so we feel we have made no progress at all. They are not taught that God knows the truth, and others see the truth, even if we are unable to do so. If people were taught these things, then they would not resort to man made inventions involving human effort, but rather continue in faith which expresses itself in love for God and others.

FREEDOM FROM SLAVERY

Christ sets us free totally. Before we knew Christ we were slaves. People understand that this slavery consisted of sin having dominion over us, and being governed by it. Christ sets us free here, so that sin does not have dominion over us, even though it bothers us. What people are not taught and do not seem to understand, is that there is a further slavery, and that is the slavery which binds us in desperation. The slavery is to the claims of God upon us and the claim of God's law that says we must be good if we are to be loved and accepted by God. This is an awful slavery. However much we do, and however hard we work, both in high moral standards and also in religious duties and works of charity, we never feel we have satisfied God's demands. In fact we cannot satisfy God's claims upon us. Further to this, there is all the sins and failures of the past which still need to be atoned for, and there is no means for us to do it by our own effort. Even if we could live perfectly from a moment of decision onwards, this would not help. This is simply our duty. It can't help to pay for the sins of the past. We are sold under sin. There is no freedom. We are lost and hell bound.

Christ sets us free by fulfilling all God's demands for us. We have to renounce our own efforts, humble our pride to the ground, and depend on what Christ has done for us only. The answer to present failure is not to return to some human effort whether religious or otherwise. This has already been proved to be a total failure. If we do this, like the Galatians did as they returned to circumcision and the Jewish religious order, we simply blaspheme Christ by suggesting his salvation in not adequate and not perfect, and we cut ourselves off from his salvation altogether. We become alienated from Christ and are fallen from grace (v4). The answer is not in our effort, but first to remind ourselves that we are perfectly accounted righteous through Christ and so our failings do not effect our standing before God. Then to remind ourselves that we are already sanctified wholly in the resurrection life we have been raised to in Christ. Then to remind ourselves that the perfection we desire will happen when we receive our new bodies in glory. Lastly to remember that God is working in us of his good pleasure, and that he has pledged that none shall pluck us out of his hand. Here is the true freedom that is in Christ. We are free from the condemning of the Law of God. We are free from all fear of being lost in hell. We are free to draw near to God without fear. We are free to serve God in love.

THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS WORKS

It must have been very hard for the Jews to be told that 'in Christ neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value'. After all God had commanded circumcision and reaffirmed its importance in the Old Testament. God told Abraham that if anyone was not circumcised he had broken God's covenant and thus fallen from grace. The problem lay, not in the rite of circumcision, but the error that had crept in concerning it in the religious life of the Jews. God had meant circumcision as a seal to them of the promised righteousness that God would impute to them through the coming seed, the Christ. It was only a means of reassuring them that God's promise was true and would never fail. It had no virtue in itself. Instead the Jews had made it into a work. If you were circumcised you automatically by this action and religious duty became a child of God, whether you really believed the promise in Christ or not. By this act you opened yourself up to the power of God and blessing of God, and because of it God owned you as his own person. What had happened is that circumcision had become a work which then merited favour from God when it was performed. It became not an aide to faith, but a denial of faith.

We have the same error today. Take the sacrament of Baptism. It is meant to be a seal, like circumcision, of the righteousness which is by faith. It is meant to assure those who receive it that the promise of salvation in Christ to all who believe, stands and can never be overthrown. Instead it has become in the teaching of the church, and in the minds of so many, a meritorious work we have to do in order to gain the cancelling of all our sins, and the gaining of a new start, plus power to live better in the future. Paul's words in the Galatians are directed at this error just as much as to circumcision. Paul's words are thus directed at all who would turn a religious sacrament or duty into a work performed by us human beings in some way, in order to gain grace or favour. Paul's words speak against all human religious effort by which we seek to aid or further salvation before God in ourselves. The fault is not in the duty, but in the way we regard the duty, and the means we put it to in order to gain favour from God. Favour with God can only be gained through Christ, and to know God's favour is to be resting in faith upon Christ and his work for us only.

All that matters is whether we have faith in Christ and his work for us. This is always seen expressed in love for God and love for others. This alone is the real experience, and alone what we must cultivate.

THE OFFENCE OF THE CROSS

Paul ends his words with very cogent words about the offence of the cross. What is the offence of the cross. Well! as Paul speaks of it here, it is the removing of all human pride in Christianity, so that no person can glory in anything they do. All our glorying should be in Christ and in him alone.

It is a very hard thing this expulsion of all pride. It is very hard for us fallen beings to accept that we are lost and helpless and cannot contribute anything to out standing before God, and that we must with empty hands rely and believe only upon Christ. This is such an offence to us. We like to retain some vestiges of our own contribution to salvation. This is why any religion that gives us something to do ourselves, so that we are contributing, is so attractive. The cross is a total offence to our fallen natures. It leaves us with nothing in ourselves to be proud of. If however we can say we have been circumcised as the Galatians did, then we can comfort ourselves by saying, well, if we had not acted by being circumcised we would not be saved, so, hurrah, we have dome something for ourselves. We are not wholly dependent on Christ.

This pride which is offended by the cross is seen in the wrong questions we bring to God, like the rich young ruler, who said, Teacher, what must I DO to be saved'. The question was all wrong, and the conviction of this wrongness is what Jesus labours to bring home to the man in his words and actions towards him afterwards. It is so humbling to have to say in the words of the hymn 'Rock of ages' - Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked look to thee for dress; helpless look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me Saviour or I die.

We have to accept the offence of the cross and renounce now and forever all trust in ourselves and our works. We must not renounce the moral law of God as the pattern by which we please the God we love, but we must renounce it completely as a means we can gain merit and win God's favour, and win to some higher plain of living.

CONCLUSION

Christ has set us free from our own strivings and foolish weak efforts. He has fulfilled all God's law in our place, and for us. In him we have received all we need for life and godliness. We need not, indeed, we must not, return to any other man-invented effort of expertise or religious knowledge or duty. Only by faith in Christ are we saved and kept in salvation.