Paul, in these few verses, now moves from generally speaking about the Law to specifically speaking about one aspect of it that was being pressed by the legalistic and religious Jews, circumcision!

Yet before he does that, he makes a bold and general statement: when Christ set us free it was so that we would REMAIN FREE! Immediately he notes that that won't necessarily happen automatically, we need to STAND FIRM. In other words we need to take a positive stand and resist anything which would come into our lives and take away that freedom. If we do allow any such thing into our lives, then it will become a burden and a bondage to us, and that wasn't Christ's purpose in saving us!

Then he goes on to show something that does just that. Look, says Paul, if you start insisting on circumcision again you are back into the "you must" legalistic rule-keeping mentality which will do you no good at all. If you are going to start keeping one bit of the law for your salvation, you will have to keep it all, and that just brings a sense of failure and defeat. Possibly these few words of Paul need to be spoken loudly to parts of the church of today!

D. Application?

1. Salvation is not Grace plus anything, it is God's complete free gift earned

by Jesus on the Cross. We cannot add to it!

2. Receive God's love freely, without trying to earn it in any way.

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:4-6

A. Find Out:

1. What were the Galatians trying to do? v.4a

2. But what had, in fact, happened? v.4b

3. How should we wait? v.5a

4. For what should we wait? v.5b

5. What has no value? v.6a

6. What is the only thing that counts? v.6b

B. Think :

1. What happens when we try to achieve salvation?

2. Why is that so?

3. What, again, is the necessary ingredient for the Christian life?

C. Comment :

First, let us note today the primary criticism that Paul brings: if we try to bring about our acceptance by God by our own activities, we are being self centred (and not God centred) and we push aside the work of Christ on the Cross and make it worthless. In other words, we fall away from the one thing that can save us, the grace of God and replace it with works that cannot be acceptable to God because they are imperfect.

Against the man-made-salvation-by-works, Paul contrasts salvation by grace which allows the Holy Spirit to be released in our lives to lead us and enable us to be righteous in our activities.

Again, against the salvation-by-works Paul declares a salvation that comes by faith. Look he says, circumcision or uncircumcision isn't really the point. Works, one way or the other, are not the point. Doing or not doing cannot achieve your salvation, it is whether you believe in Christ and his saving work, and are led by the Spirit of God.

THAT is salvation, faith that expresses itself through love for the Lord, love that responds to love, love that allows the Spirit to lead it to do wonderful things. Focusing on the outward (e.g. circumcision) completely misses the point. Trying to be religious misses the point. Have we seen that?

D. Application?

1. Faith when it works produces love works.

2. God's love received, releases love and faith

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:7-12

A. Find Out:

1. What had they been doing? v.7a

2. What were they now doing? v.7b

3. What didn't cause that? v.8

4. What does Paul fear? v.9

5. What was happening to them? v.10

6. What would preaching circumcision be? v.11

B. Think :

1. How in these verses does Paul describe their departure?

2. What warning is given as to how that comes about?

3. What warning does he give to those who bring it?

C. Comment :

At first sight not very exciting verses but as we start to consider them, perhaps, we may begin to observe some important truths. First, the Christian life is a clear cut observable life which you go into and can leave. It is a life of truth and you can depart from that (v.7)!

Second, the leaving of truth can be very gradual, starting with something very small which, (v.9) once established, spreads and spreads and takes over the whole life. We need to be aware that when we countenance untruth in our lives it can have the effect of pushing truth from all of our life.

Third, where that departure from the truth is brought about by another person, they will not be allowed to get away with it. Eventually they will pay the price of deception in their own lives. (v.10,12)

Fourth, the Cross destroys all other possible means of salvation. Either they push out the Cross or the Cross pushes them out. Whatever else is preached is an offence to the Cross and opposes it. You cannot have the Cross AND "good-works-salvation"; the Cross ALONE is the means of earning our salvation, Jesus ALONE has earned our freedom. (v.11)

D. Application?

1. If we consciously allow any pretence or untruth in our lives, it will spread

and distort our whole lives. Check it out!

2. The Cross ALONE is my means of access to God.

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:13-15

A. Find Out:

1. To what were we called? v.13a

2. What are we NOT to use it for? v.13b

3. How are we to use it? v.13c

4. How is the Law summed up? v.14

5. What does Paul warn against? v.15a

6. What consequences will that produce? v.15b

B. Think :

1. What two ways may we use our freedom?

2. Why is the latter way so important?

3. Why is it so important not to go the former way?

C. Comment :

Yet again in so few verses we get so many important truths. We need to learn to meditate slowly on a few verses rather than skim read many! First, Paul reiterates that our calling is to freedom. We may be taking that for granted in these studies but it is essential that we don't. Freedom is at the very heart of the purposes of God for us, and it was the very thing these Galatian Christians had thrown away.

Second, Paul says it is possible with the freedom that we have to go the way of self pleasing, and the choice is always ours! The "self-pleasing" may be gratifying physical desires constantly, or satisfying our ego as we defend ourselves and attack others. This, says Paul, will only lead to our destruction.

Third, he points to the correct way of using our freedom, that is by loving one another. The reasons for this are twofold. First if we serve one another in love, we will not give way to self-centredness and will avoid destruction. Second, if we love one another we will actually be fulfilling all of the law in the second half of the ten commandments, and will thus be fully obeying God in respect of other people. We need always to remember we have been saved FROM something (self-centred living) and saved TO something (a life of love).

D. Application?

1. "Self-pleasing" or loving others as Christ did?

2. Self-centred or God-centred?

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:16-18

A. Find Out:

1. How does Paul encourage them to live? v.16a

2. What will that do? v.16b

3. What does sinful nature require? v.17a

4. What does the Spirit require? v.17b

5. What effect does this conflict have? v.17c

6. When are we not under the Law? v.18

B. Think :

1. What internal war does Paul now speak about?

2. How are we to overcome?

3. What do you think that means in practical terms?

C. Comment :

Paul having spoken earlier (v.13) about the "sinful nature" now enlarges on that. Earlier versions speak about "the flesh". "Flesh" in Scripture can mean a) the physical body of a human being (e.g. John 1:14) or b) the godless human personality that seeks constant self gratification, which is what we have in this passage.

So, says Paul, the way to overcome this constant self gratification is to be led by the Spirit, i.e. to allow your life to be led by the Holy Spirit from within you. As you allow Him to lead you, you will find that he will overcome the self gratifying side of you. But, Paul goes on, be aware that the Spirit and the flesh are at war against each other. Self ignores the Spirit and doesn't care for what God wants, only what it wants. The Holy Spirit wants what God wants and that is always the best for you, but it may not be what the flesh wants.

What you find therefore, is that your Godward desire and the Holy Spirit within you want one thing but the self side of you, wanting to just gratify your physical or emotional needs as it sees them, wants the opposite. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and you will know a new freedom which enables you to live righteously without being rule conscious all the time.

D. Application?

1. We need to check: are our lives God-centred and directed or purely

satisfying self?

2. The Holy Spirit will lead if we let Him.

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:19-23

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul say the acts of the sinful nature are? v.19

2. How many does he list? v.19-21

3. What is the consequence of living like this? v.21

4. How many fruit of the spirit are listed? v.22,23

5. What does he conclude about them? v.23

B. Think :

1. How would you summarise the acts of the sinful nature"?

2. Whose fruit is love, joy etc.?

3. How does fruit grow?

C. Comment :

In these verses we have stark black and white contrasts. Within them, we must remember, Paul is emphasising the difference between a life that is submitted to the old self-centred sinful nature (or flesh) and one that is submitted to the Holy Spirit. For meditation purposes, perhaps the best way to consider the list of acts of the sinful nature is to say, what sort of life is being experienced by a person who is involved in some or all of these? The answer must be, one of godless chaos, personal stress, upset and pain. People involved in these things so often portray on the outside a life of careless abandon to self but internally they are in deep distress.

Each of the fruit of the Spirit could form a basis for a separate meditation but instead let's consider the origin of fruit. Fruit comes from a growing plant or tree. That listed is fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit Himself being manifested in our lives. It is not us; it is Him living in us, expressed through us. It is not a case of trying to have more peace, but of allowing Him to rule our lives and express Himself in us and through us. These are things that His presence in us brings when we allow Him to rule in us.

D. Application?

1. The choice is clear: do we live according to OUR own whims or according

to the leading of the Spirit of God within us?

2. HE is love, joy, peace etc.

Chapter: Galatians 5

Passage: Galatians 5:24-26

A. Find Out:

1. What have the followers of Jesus done? v.24a

2. How does the sinful nature express itself? v.24b

3. How do we live? v.25a

4. What are we to do? v.25b

5. What are we to avoid becoming? v.26

B. Think :

1. What does Paul declare is a PAST reality in our lives?

2. What does he say is a PRESENT reality in our lives?

3. But what responsibility do we still have?

C. Comment :

Observe first what Paul says HAS happened to us: we have crucified the flesh or sinful nature. When and how did that happen? It happened when we came to Christ in repentance and asked Him to be saviour and Lord of our lives. If it was a true work of the Holy Spirit, at that moment we laid down our old life and its driving self-centred forces.

Note second that Paul states as a FACT that we live by the Spirit. He doesn't say, "If you manage to live by the Spirit" for he assumes that the ONLY way to be a Christian is to be led and motivated by the Holy Spirit. It is a fact of the Christian life that He is there seeking to lead us. That brings us to the third point of note: if He is seeking to lead us, we should be seeking to follow. That is our side of it; we are to seek to keep in step with what he is doing in our lives as He teaches and guides us (see John 14:26 & 16:13).

As we do this, fourthly we should note, we are to oppose wrong attitudes creeping in with subsequent wrong actions. The Lord has provided daily guidance for us, and it is now our responsibility to ensure we follow in it, opposing the works of darkness that would seek to come back into our lives.

D. Application?

1. When I was "born again" (John 3:3) I died to the old life of self-rule!

2. The Spirit IS seeking to lead me today. Am I seeking to follow?

RECAP: "Freedom in the Spirit Life" Galatians 5

SUMMARY :

In these 7 studies we have seen Paul:

- call the Galatians to reject the slavery of circumcision thinking,

   requiring them to DO things to be saved

- show that freedom is expressed in living by the Spirit not

   following self-desires

- show that real Christians do just that and are blessed as they

   live that way.

COMMENT :

Christ has set us free, free from external activities thinking, like having to be circumcised. This freedom is based in love and is expressed as the individual Christian is led on a daily basis by the Holy Spirit.

As this happens we find that there is no room for sinful, self-centred, personal pleasure seeking desires to dominate us. The wonder of the Holy Spirit working in and through us produces love, joy, peace and so on, all of the characteristics of Jesus in us.

LESSONS :

1. God's free gift of salvation brings real freedom

2. Faith produces love works

3. Pretence or untruth spreads & distorts

4. Self-pleasing releases destructive tendencies in my life; God-pleasing releases life.

5. The Holy Spirit IS working in the life of a Christian to bring forth Christ's fruit

6. When I was born again, the old life was crucified.

PRAY :

Thank the Lord that His Holy Spirit within you is leading your thinking as you submit your will to Him.

PART 5 : "Restoration, Sowing & Motivation"

In this last chapter watch for Paul challenging them on their attitudes towards each other, and towards life and their reasons for wanting circumcision. Powerful closing words! Watch for them.