Freedom In Christ (Part Two)

The doctrine of grace is a very misunderstood doctrine. To so many freedom means doing what you want to do except for 1 day where you go to a church building.

It is challenging to live dependent on God’s grace. It means that we have to come to terms that we are not good enough. In a world that teaches whatever you do is good enough, that you can be whatever you want to be, to listen to a message and follow the doctrine of grace can seem very silly.

Let me tell you something you might or might not know. You are not good enough. You can never be good enough. No matter how hard you work how many days you do a great job being nice, you cannot earn God’s grace.

Now before your feelings get hurt too much let me say this. God doesn’t need you to be good or even good enough. God doesn’t leave those He calls sitting on the side of the road hoping the gospel train will stop for them.

God will give you His grace and then you just respond in faith. Nothing else, nothing more. This is why Paul wrote this letter for the church.

The first two chapters of this letter are a personal defence of Paul’s apostleship. Chapters 3 and 4 are doctrinal in which Paul defends the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

In Chapter 5, Paul starts giving us some application. He is taking the doctrine of justification and showing us how it works in our lives. And with a life of faith, we will find freedom in Christ. Not a freedom to do anything we want but a freedom from sin and it’s consequences and a changed life with a changed motivation.

If you have your Bibles, open them to chapter 5. Our passage today is verse 7-12 but I want to read this who section together so I will start reading in verse 1.

Galatians 5:1–12 NASB 2020

1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is. 11 But as for me, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.

In a NCAA cross-country championship held in Riverside, California, 123 of the 128 runners missed a turn. One competitor, Mike Delcavo, stayed on the 10,000-meter course and began waving for fellow runners to follow him. Delcavo was able to convince only four other runners to go with him.

Asked what his competitors thought of his mid-race decision not to follow the crowd, Delcavo responded, “They thought it was funny that I went the right way.”

Delcavo was one who ran correctly. In the same way, our goal is to run correctly—to finish the race marked out for us by Christ.

The apostle Paul is waving to us to follow him in the passage before us. He knows that some believers have followed the wrong leaders, and now he writes to show us the right path.

Let us review what we covered last time in Galatians 5:1-6.

I. The Thesis Concerning our Freedom (5:1)

Paul began this section with his thesis given in a statement and a command.

A. The Statement (5:1a)

Paul’s statement was that it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

B. The Command (5:1b)

Paul’s command is that we keep standing firm and do not put on the yoke of slavery again.

II. The Consequences of Embracing Works (5:2-6)

After his thesis concerning our freedom in Christ, Paul gives us for consequences of embracing a works theology.

A. Christ Will Have No Value (5:2)

The first consequence of embracing works is that Christ will have no value.

We will want to add our righteousness to the perfect righteousness of Christ, and as soon as we do that Christ becomes of no value to us. That is why the apostle Paul says in verse 2: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”

B. We Will Have to Keep the Whole Law (5:3)

The second consequence of embracing works is that we will have to keep the whole law.

Did anyone speed a little bit on the way here? Or maybe not come to a complete stop at every stop sign. Did you use your turn signals every turn even when no one was around?

We cannot pick and choose which laws to obey. God only accepts perfection into heaven and therefore if we try to justify ourselves by our own efforts at obeying the law, we would need to obey every single law. And so Paul says in verse 3: “Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.”

C. We Will Fall from Grace (5:4)

The third consequence of embracing works is that we will fall from grace.

We cannot lose our salvation. Paul does not say that we will fall from salvation. Rather, we will fall from the sphere of God’s grace. Paul says in verse 4: “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

D. We will Abandon Faith for Works (5:5-6)

The final consequence of embracing works is that we will abandon faith for works.

We begin operating out of the flesh instead of faith. We are governed by the law instead of the Spirit. That is why Paul says in verses 5-6:

Galatians 5:5–6 NASB 2020

5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

Having reviewed the consequences of embracing works, Paul not concludes this section by asking some questions for those who have “fallen away from grace.”

III. Questions for Those Who Have “Fallen Away from Grace” (5:7-12)

Paul’s intense love for Christians trapped by works shines in Galatians 5:7-12.

Here he expresses belief in them and comes down hard on those who have led the Galatians astray.

A. Who Hindered You? (5:7)

The first question Paul asks is, “Who hindered you?”

Paul tells them they were running well. They had started their Christian life believing in God and the work of Christ to bring salvation. They were living under the grace of God. But someone cut in on them. Someone cut them off and caused them to slip and fall in their obedience to the truth.

I remember the 1988 Summer Olympic Games that were held in Los Angeles. One of the key events was the race between the United States’ Mary Decker, and the young South African, Zola Budd, who was actually running for Great Britain. I believe the race in which they met was the women’s 5,000 meter race. After a few laps Zola Budd attempted to pass Mary Decker and cut in front of her. Somehow she clipped Mary Decker who fell, and was out of the race. I can still picture Mary lying on the grass in pain, crying with frustration and disappointment. Eventually she was literally carried off the field, still in shock and disappointment.

Paul is saying that the Galatians are like Mary Decker. They started a good race but someone cut in on them and they have lost their joy (cf. 4:15). Bruised and battered, they are being carried off the field by works. Where there was once joy there is now discouragement and disappointment.

The thing about laws and rules is each one confines us; each one is a burden; each one makes life a little more frustrating.

Around military bases, speeding is an issue. Soldiers are being pulled over all the time for speed. I developed a theory about why. On most military installations, the speed limit is very slow, usually around 25 mph. When you get into a residential section or near one, it normally drops to 15 mph and parking lots are either 5 or 10 mph. Do any of you drive through a parking lot at 10 mph or slower?

So you take these young soldiers that you want to be ready to fight, force them to drive slow, put MPs all over the place to make them drive that slow and then wonder why they chance speeding tickets when they have the chance to go fast.

The speed limit is there for everyone’s protection but it is also a burden.

It is so with everyone who starts the Christian life by grace and then surrenders to works. Joy is replaced with burden. Delight is replaced with frustration and disappointment.

B. What Effect Is Works Having? (5:8-9)

Paul now wants to know what effect living under works is having on them.

Paul reminds the Galatians that God would not have hindered them in this way. The Lord had given them a radically new life. He had not let them run freely in order to trip them up and burden them down. This is what Paul says in verse 8: “That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.” This obstacle came from another source—one whose contaminating works had spread throughout the whole church, slowly but surely. Paul says, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (5:9).

And this is exactly what non-Christians use to take over churches. Just a little bit of truth mixed with un-truth.

Someone used this example once. If I bake some brownies and use manure, then you are eating manure. If I bake more brownies and use just a little manure, you are still eating manure, it just seems to taste a little better.

That’s how it is with works. If you give in even a little, it will eventually permeate every facet of your life and cause you untold misery.

C. Where Will Works Lead? (5:10)

Paul also asks where a works theology will lead.

Paul is confident that the Galatians will turn from the self-righteous works theology back to a life of grace.

Paul also tells them he is persuaded in the Lord, or confident in the Lord that they will return to the life they had been called. I think the reason he is so confident is because he knows the love and power of God and that Jesus will never leave one of His own.

However, at the end of verse 10 Paul gives a dire warning to those who lead people away. God will judge the false teachers, those who lead people away from the truth in the church no matter how much they believe their own truth.

Those who are in positions of leadership, positions of teaching and preaching will be judged for what they did and did not do as a leader and I think they will be judged a bit harsher than the ones they led away. James writes in

James 3:1 NASB 2020

1 Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment.

It is a tremendous responsibility to stand in front of the church and teach or preach.

I know I have said that I get nervous being in front of a group, and that has not changed. But honestly, the most difficult part is working to teach what I believe God wants me to teach and do so without leading people away from God’s truth.

With that, let me ask this of you, pray for me. Pray that I not only preach well but that I listen even better. Pray that I stand here as a witness for God instead of a witness for me. Pray that what you hear is from God. And pray for me that I may walk accordingly.

On top of this, I also ask that you pray for all the teachers and leaders in this church. We should have them on our prayer list daily.

D. Why Are You Still Being Persecuted? (5:11-1 2)

And finally Paul asks, “Why are you still being persecuted?”

The legalists claimed that Paul was really in their camp on the issue of circumcision. They probably pointed to the time when Paul circumcised Timothy (cf. Acts 16:1-3). Because of Timothy’s good reputation, Paul wanted to take him along on their missionary journey. There was a problem, however. The Jews to whom Paul would be preaching the gospel would be offended if a man with a Jewish mother was uncircumcised. So Timothy was circumcised.

Now this appears to contradict Paul’s teaching concerning circumcision in Galatians 2:3-5 where he refused to let Titus be circumcised.

The two situations, however, were different. In Galatians 2 Paul is defending the doctrine of justification by faith and not by works. In Acts 16 Paul did not want circumcision to be an obstacle to obtain a hearing for the gospel. Paul acted for the sake of the gospel, and it was a prudent move on his part.

At any rate, the Judaizers tried to convince the Galatian believers that Paul did teach a faith-plus-works salvation. Paul wields a decisive blow to their claim. “Brothers,” he asks in verse 11a, “if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?”

The gospel is naturally offensive to people. Our pride leads us to believe that our own righteousness is pleasing and acceptable to God. The reason Paul is still being persecuted is because he is not preaching self-righteousness but the cross. If he were preaching circumcision, then there would be no offense from the cross. As he says, “Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated.” (5:11b).

Paul concludes with a very strong picture to the Galatians in verse 12.

Galatians 5:12 NASB 2020

12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.

To help understand this in the context, Galatian was near Phrygia, and the great worship of that part of the world was of Cybele. It was a practice of priests and really devout worshippers to mutilate themselves by castration.

Paul suggests those who were leading the Galatians away from the truth would castrate themselves instead just circumcision of the foreskin.

Circumcision or castration have the same effect when it comes to salvation and that is none.

Self-righteousness counts for nothing. No matter how small our self-righteousness. It is a stench in the nostrils of almighty God. To think that we can add anything of our self-righteousness to the perfect righteousness of Christ is foolishness in the extreme.

Christianity does not give us the privilege of sitting on the sidelines. The Gospel demands a definite decision. Either you respond to God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone or you don’t. Either you are in a relationship with God or you are not.

Either you think you are good enough and one day God will say, great try. I am so happy you came to play. Next time maybe you can do a little better.

Or God will tell you well done because you responded in faith to Christ.

John 8:34 NASB 2020

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.