Paul continues on with his instruction to the church at Galatia concerning the contrast between the law and grace. The main theme can be seen in one verse where Paul says, “WHAT!, who has bewitched you! Why, after you began so well in the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected in the flesh!?” This book is astounding. It is also the deliverer of extremely complicated doctrine that I wanted to just brush, because it is so critical to understand to seal up our knowledge of this contrast between the law and grace, between the old Testament and the new, between the old covenant and the new. Then the rest of the epistles will confirm it.
The Galatians began so well. This was a gentile group that was never under the law of Judaism (even if they were under the law of God in the heart, that all humans are under at birth, proving so by the fact that they without the law, keep it, and are therefore a law unto themselves and prove the truth of God written on their hearts; Romans). But some of the Jewish brethren were trying to inflict the law (the letter, not the heart) upon these new believers. Paul is flabbergasted that they have so soon and so easily been bewitched, and have so accommodatingly been brought back under the law. Paul had to rebuke Peter for doing this.
He goes back to the simplicity of the faith of Abraham in order to explain better their own faith. This is wonderful.
Paul explains that the covenant of the law is not what saves. He explains that the promise (this refers to salvation by grace through faith) was given to Abraham, 430 years before the law was formally given to Israel!(the gospel was preached to Abraham). We see well here but again, all through the Word (it is even present in Genesis chapter one, but that is another topic for another day) that salvation was NEVER plan B. It was never dreamed up because the first plan failed (though Paul and others used that language to press a point, simply because there was no better language to use). Paul always says, excuse my speech, it is foolish and as a man but please hang with me and get my point.
Paul explains that Israel was formed simply because God needed a nation to bring forth Messiah and to introduce God to the WORLD. So the concept of salvation, which was in the mind of God before creation, in eternity past, was ALWAYS focused upon the whole world…all mankind.
Now he shows that Abraham was an uncircumcised heathen, from pagan people, when he received the promise (the promise that Jesus would come and save, replacing the old man with the new, the first Adam with the Last…Jesus). That is, GOD made flesh, to indwell the sinner’s heart, making him holy. Remember that Ishmael came first but was a son of the flesh (the law) and Isaac came next and was a son of the Spirit, of the promise, supernatural and not of the will of man or the works of man, but of God; that is why God let it happen in the impossible old age of Abr. and Sarah. One is a work of the flesh, the other is a work of the Spirit. Paul explained earlier that the natural comes first, then the spiritual!
He explains that the law officially came 430 years later in order to preserve mankind from himself (He needed a nation to use to reveal Christ, so He had to protect and preserve and make useful) until it was time for Jesus to arrive on the scene. So the law was the mercy of God to rein the people in, protecting them from sin, preserving
them until the DAY. We know that God was preparing all things and when the time was perfect, Jesus came to us, and the gospel that has always existed and was always preached, though hidden, was revealed in Christ. Galatians 3:8 says the gospel was preached to Abraham. But it was also preached to Adam and Eve!
Now to just disguard the heart of the law of God and say, I am free, is not right. We will see if we look hard, that Abraham believed and it was accounted to him for righteousness. But James shows us that Abraham’s faith, however, was exhibited in his doing (which is the heart of the Lord). Paul says it too. He uses the near sacrifice of Isaac (the incident) to illustrate the point, as did God. Abraham’s belief was seen by his actions…faith does. In other words, we see faith visibly in the actions of a believer. Their actions don’t save, but the actions of obedience, prove that faith is there. Disobedience proves that either there is no faith yet, and I am still a slave to sin and the law. Or it proves that I may have faith but am rebellious to come up under His yolk and my faith is not being perfected as God desires it to be. Now disobedience can be invisible in attitudes and secret thoughts of hate and resentment, self rule, asserting my rights, etc, but they always emerge as something visible. With deep study we can see that deliberate sin in a believer for a longer than allowed by God time, can result in the sin unto death. Not damnation, but a removal from the world sooner than He planned because we have refused to obey and die. I am absolutely NOT saying that early death in a believer means this has happened. The word does not teach that and that is a prefect example of adhering to the letter and not discerning the heart of the Word.
James said this in two ways: He said faith without works is dead…it is non existent. He said faith is PROVED to exist by doing the will of God. This does not mean by doing good deeds or rituals or sacraments, that I am saved. Rather, I must be saved then, if I walk the Word. If a man is baptized, it is a God given sacrament that needs doing. BUT…it does not save nor does it have a part in salvation! This is just the same as the foolish Galatians who were brought back under the law of ritual and rites, etc.
Baptism, rather, is a public statement that I believe. The proof comes when the walk is seen in a person through obedience to the Spirit of life, the Word made flesh.
James says that works make faith perfect! There it is again, the word perfect. Remember that it means sanctified fully, or single-minded or one with God, or hidden with Christ in God, and so on. So Abraham, by his work of doing the will of God with Isaac (though God stopped him) proved his faith and made it perfect. NOW I know that you fear God! He proved it by his walk. So, by the doing of the word, not keeping the letter of the law, I prove that faith has been perfected in me. Works make faith perfect. By obeying God I am sanctified. It is in the doing, not the saying, that my faith grows and is perfected and proved. “You honor Me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.”
After faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (the law given 430 years after the promise was a schoolmaster), Gal. 3:25. The schoolmaster brings us to Christ, and He is received not by any doing but by believing. And believing is perfected by obeying what faith has placed IN me.
Jeremiah said the old cov. was written on stone, but the new covenant will be written on hearts of flesh. Here is the difference between the two. The Old Testament was “hold on now, Jesus is coming”. The New Testament is, “Glory hallelujah, He is here, God is here, at last!” The promise (Jesus Christ, the sweet Lord of salvation, Lover of my soul, ruler of all nations and God of all creation) is “today, in your hearing, fulfilled”.
So we know that first the gospel was preached, then the law came to prepare and preserve, then the promise arrived in Christ when God put on flesh so by His Spirit He could indwell the believer. The promise was given in the account of the fall, in Abraham to form a people to deliver that promise, and at last it was fulfilled in Jesus. True old Test. believers were the same as us. They looked forward to the promise, we look back to it…to Him. The faith is the same.
It is interesting that Paul says here, after he mentions it in Corinthian letters, that a little leaven (sin and unrighteousness, deception) leavens the whole lump. To the Corinthians he wrote that the church is to be UNLEAVENED…that the true church IS unleavened. Jesus warned in the Kingdom parables that there would be a woman working leaven into the lump, sin and deception into the church in the last days. Paul says, “You ran well, who made you stop obeying the truth??? (Gal. 5:7). Whoever is persuading you is NOT the Spirit of truth! “Him who called you”. vs 8. He says, you have been called to liberty, but make sure you don’t abuse your liberty to make room for the flesh (license). He says that whoever is leading them in this lie stands in judgement. I would say that so do all who do the same today…first satan, then all deceivers.
He says to simply walk in the spirit and we won’t serve the flesh. Believers who are teaching deception, will not face judgement in terms of paying for that sin…it has been paid for. But all believers WILL stand at the judgement seat of the righteous and will account for all things done while in the body of Christ, whether good or bad. Rewards will be lost, in other words, for deception of the sheep, and for other things. The things some thought were fruit, will combust before their eyes, and rewards lost because they misled the brethren, or went their own way. But He will even wipe away those tears, tears of regret.
Paul ends by saying that proof of salvation and the perfection of faith is seen in the fruit of the Spirit…NOT fruits! Fruit, singular. “But the FRUIT of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…against which there is no law!
Now Paul closes by saying that he, and he is a pattern for us, walks in the spirit (the sanctified spirit which is ruled by the Spirit) and bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He is crucified with Christ. Now the marks of the Lord should be borne in our body as well if we will be crucified with Him. There are many things, too lengthy to mention all. But one beautiful one here is this: after His death, remember that the Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side to make sure He was dead. When he did it what happened? Water and blood gushed forth. Oh my. If we will be crucified, and bear the marks of the Lord, being pierced after death to self rule. What will flow from us? LIFE!!! Blood is life, the source of life. Water is the Spirit of life, Him who sustains life. Therefore I am saved and sustained by the water and the blood!
Now if I will not bear the marks of the Lord yet, how can rivers of living water flow from me and fruit be produced through me? It can’t yet. If I won’t be stricken and pierced, then all that the Lord has placed within me cannot escape and give life to others. If I am busy saving my life, preserving myself and my ways and protecting my feelings and safety from all hurt and danger, then I hold it unto myself alone, taking ,taking, taking, never pouring out…preserving my “self”. But if I will be pierced. If I will let go and dispossess my ways that come against God (and it hurts to die) then all of a sudden, I am a glorious vessel of honor, sanctified and available for the Master’s use!
2 Timothy 2:21 says, “If a man will purge himself (notice the man is doing it, God won’t) of all these things (listed above in a few verses before this one; all iniquity), he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” There are in God’s house both vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.
So, the pierced and crucified are vessels of honor who do not wake up every day saving their own lives continually…protecting themselves in a myriad of ways. But the pierced are vessels of honor through whom the Spirit of life can flow, bringing many with them to glory!!!!
Praised be God!
Love in Christ,
Cheryl