Immediately the Spirit speaks to me and says, "That was wrong." He also warned them against using their liberty as a license to sin to prevent them from overreacting. Exhortation to Stedfastness; Persuasives to Stedfastness. "Thy seed ( i.e., the numerous seed) shall possess the gate of his enemies." And then there's another reference also in Revelation, "but outside or the dogs and adulterers and so forth.". Will I be mastered by the Spirit or will I be mastered by the flesh? In the epistle to the Galatians a deeper question was raised nothing less than the fountain of grace itself. "For I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all." Causes me to become judgmental. And become again a spiritual being.And so, when Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus faced him immediately with this issue. It is the characteristic of the man who is reliable. Hence, you see, all exactly suits the gospel as Paul insisted on it. . If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ's, and that we are partakers of his Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. You couldn't believe the things the Jehovah Witnesses believe, unless you read their screwy attitudes and ideas in their books. For the Jew leaven nearly always stood for evil influence. Men that have followed after my perverse teachings. The legal mischief had emanated from Jerusalem: the remedy of grace must be applied by the apostles, elders, and brethren there. "Before faith came we [Jews] were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. In so many things. It was not to keep people under the law, still less could it be to put any under the law, but to bring them clean out if they had been under it before. But in truth the Lord "gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. And that's the message here in Acts 14:8-20. It had nothing whatever to do even with the Lord Himself, in the days of His flesh, when acting as minister of the circumcision in the land of Judea. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Liberty comes first, mark; power and love afterwards. But as in the end the child of the slave girl was cast out and had no share in the inheritance, so in the end those who are legalists will be cast out from God and have no share in the inheritance of grace. I could quickly get in trouble. It is the obligation to God. As you know, he had been under law as a Jew. Our Christianity obliges us not only to die unto sin, but to live unto righteousness; not only to oppose the works of the flesh, but to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit too. In Paul's case the Holy Ghost could go a step farther, and that step He seems to me to take. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do." I choose the best facts; for I have no wish to rake up abuses. But what does the scripture say? ", At once the apostle launches into the troubled sea. But this was not all. However, this behavior is hurting them as much or more as it is those they are attempting to hurt. These are sins which will undoubtedly shut men out of heaven. Here it is the total judgment of flesh in its religious pretensions, and more particularly a blow to that which is an essential principle of law. Generally speaking the word is not used of patience in regard to things or events but in regard to people. Uh-huh, you did that five minutes. is the cement of it, which being loosened, threatens a They spring from unbelief from undue thoughts of self, from ignorance of God, from slight thoughts of Christ. And so, I have to reckon the old man to be dead each day, and oftentimes, many times through the day.The flesh is lusting against the Spirit. The organic life of the body will be destroyed by its own members. Now, let us not believe or think that this liberty that we have is the liberty to do anything we might want to do in the flesh. Such was the serious but necessary import of Peter's act. From the beginning Hagar had been inclined to triumph over Sarah, because barrenness was a sore shame to a woman; there was an atmosphere charged with trouble. . Thus the law was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. Don't be entangled again with rules, regulations, a yoke of bondage. After one of his great victories Nelson attributed it to the fact that he had the happiness to command a band of brothers. 50.]. This is Christianity; and when the soul thankfully accepts from God this blessed liberty, the Holy Ghost is given to and acts in the believer as a Spirit of peace and power; so that if there is the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit resists this, in order that (for such is the true meaning) they should not do the things that they would. His account proves how independent he was of the very persons whom they would have desired to have seen associated with him. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN. Is He a ventriloquist? They're contrary, and I do not always walk after the Spirit. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you ( Galatians 5:7-8 ). Because you'll never come to their beliefs by just reading the Bible. Both sides of the dispute are guilty. The Spirit against the flesh. Thus all things fall into their place, and the Spirit connects us in heart with that which God is doing and will do for the glory of Christ. (Acts 15:1-41) As it is said here, "They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. There was no insult to him, nor injury done, in saying that he did not acknowledge the law for a Christian. He draws particular attention to this fact ere he closes: "You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." During the Medieval period it was depicted as "Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate", meaning Mary's conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem; [64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. and devour one another -- As wild beasts do. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ." As for me, brothers, if I am still preaching that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? He acts on this in faith; he understands it with an energy and a brightness that increased even in his Roman prison. But his heart was too agitated not to betake himself at once to the point of their danger. As made under the law He was for Israel; but He died and rose, and was thus free to bless a Gentile as much as a Jew. Now you're, you know, chopping Jesus up, and said, "Well, He is God here, and but, for a while He wasn't God and the universe was without God for a little bit here, or whatever. This it is to which we are come now under Christianity. Galatians 5:15 - John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible BUT IF YE BITE AND DEVOUR ONE ANOTHER,.. But if ye bite and devour one another Freedom, though, requires resistance against a return to bondage. If the law, introduced afterwards, were allowed to exercise control, the effect would be to set aside the promise. Galatians 5:22-23 THE END (GOAL) IS GROWING FAITH IS LOVE 2 Peter 1:5-7 PAUL'S GREAT DESCRIPTION OF LOVE 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 BOTH GOD & LOVE INCLUDE Joy Peace Forbearance Kindness Faithfulness Gentleness Self-control Faith Goodness Knowledge Self-control Perseverance Godliness Mutual affection Patient Kind Truth Protection Trust Hope Perseverance As if he had said, "You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and tenour of your lives, you be led by the Spirit,--if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you,--if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle,--it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Romans 8:1-14. What a subversion, not only of the truth of God revealed in the gospel, but also of redemption, which is its basis! 5:1-12 Look now it is I, Paul, who am speaking to you I tell you that if you get yourself circumcised Christ is no good to you. I mean, you never get it from reading the Bible and waiting upon God. And they ate, giving over to their fleshly appetites and in so doing, the flesh dominated. He had been called, as none could deny, in a way which not even any other apostle had ever known. In fact, what Jerusalem had done, as far as this was concerned, was to let slip men that would impose circumcision evil workers, as he in a later epistle contemptuously calls such like of the concision; for they were corrupting the Gentile churches by Judaism, instead of helping them in Christ. He specifies the works of the flesh, which must be watched against and mortified, and the fruits of the Spirit, which must be brought forth and cherished, and shows of what importance it is that they be so, ver 19-24. He is brought into another condition. "Desirous of vainglory,". You know, you come up with some heretical teaching, you get everybody excited and everybody's listening, everybody's beginning to discuss what you're teaching. Usually in the New Testament eirene ( G1515) stands for the Hebrew shalowm ( H7965) and means not just freedom from trouble but everything that makes for a man's highest good. As the child of the slave girl persecuted the child of the free woman, the children of law now persecute the children of grace and promise. And devour one another - As wild beasts do. Another reason inducing to love is taken from the pernicious Now, in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts, when this same issue had arisen in the church in Antioch, when certain of the brethren came down from Jerusalem and were hassling the Gentile saints in Antioch and said, "You can't be saved unless you are circumcised and keep the law of Moses," Paul and Barnabas and others from Antioch took these brothers right back to Jerusalem, because they came unto the pretense of, "We have the authority of the Jerusalem church to declare these things." His theology always ran one danger. And so, Paul is picking up, now, the same phrase. Everybody knows this. Vincent Taylor once said, "The test of a good theologian is, can he write a tract?" "I through the law am dead to the law." Finally, he concludes by putting the sentence of death, if I may so say, on circumcision, and all such as might adopt it. They had followed Jesus in His earthly path of presentation to Israel. You've got to do this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And the mind of the flesh is alienated from God; it cannot know God. Once the spirit has come alive, now there comes this striving for the mastery of me. If you are circumcised, Christ is no value to you. If a person is living by right principles, he doesn't need any laws. Galatians 5:16. Truth must necessarily be exclusive, and all who hold the truth must, in their adhesion to it and Him who is its personal expression, be exclusive too. But in this he could glory. Now, it is evident and to this I call your particular attention that the apostle here binds together his gospel with his apostolic place. Galatians 5:13 (NASB) Verse Thoughts We are not under the Law, but under grace. No man was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than Paul. It was the ungrateful heart of man that, in its avidity after something that would bring an appearance of strength and unity, would sacrifice that, which was of heaven for what was after all connected with the earth and the flesh. And so Paul is standing against this teaching in his letter to the Galatians, and in chapter five, he said. You open the door for a little error, and it will soon magnify because you see, as you've opened the door for this error, then as you are challenged on the flaws of the error, you're going to have to develop further doctrines to cover or further concepts to cover, and pretty soon, you're going to be way out in left field.There is a group called Jesus Only, and they believe that Jesus is the Father, He is the Son, He is the Holy Spirit. "But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter," etc. Partisan strife will be fatal to the Christian community as a whole. The readers ( Galatians 1:2b ) c. The greeting ( Galatians 1:3-5 ) i. And so, such things leaves an unending list of things of the flesh. Thus, whatever may be the energy that seeks souls in love, there is nothing after all like Christianity for maintaining individual responsibility intact. But it is not so. He had been trained up under the most distinguished teacher the great Rabbin Gamaliel; but "when it pleased him, who had separated him from his mother's womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Son in him." He says, "If, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin?" The Galatians did not think of this; people that are thus blinded by the enemy never do. If he wrote to the Romans;, it was transcribed, or at any rate written, by another. We are not to suppose that a higher and more heavenly character blots out the lesser place; of this the apostle takes advantage here. It is quite obvious that there was a hindrance of some sort. How blessed, and how all-important for our souls! Hagar's child was born from merely human impulses; and legalism is the best that man can do. And so, it was something that was quite familiar the castration. As it is reasoned out in Romans 7:1-25, the law came, and he died. too often might be ready to turn aside. True to the Spirit. You are saved. Heretical division; this might be described as crystallized dissension. It might seem entirely despising his brethren. We are free, but our freedom loves its neighbour as itself. The case is hit off exactly to the life. This is best seen by turning to Genesis 22:1-24, where both facts are found in the same context. Just as he had shown that God in His love to man had given the promise direct, so the apostle Paul acts in his care for the saints of God where all the foundations were endangered. (2.) But at the same time it is plain that the apostle Paul here starts with the instructive fact, that the very thing for which some Judaizers then blamed him was the distinctive glory of that to which the Lord had called him. Those that are of faith, not those who pretend to the law and do it not, are blessed with their father. (2.) I. Circumcision is part of the old law that enslaves us. So all of these things fall under the category of works of the flesh, but the "fruit of the Spirit," fruit is singular. He had the faith that could by grace cleave to God if he had not a companion; but God blesses that faith, and acts by it on the conscience of others, even on those that, alas! And so then I had to go out to them and say, "Hey, you haven't convinced me of the truth of what you're declaring. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention. Christian freedom is not licence, for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not a man who has become free to sin, but a man, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin. Need it be added that he was right and Peter wrong? Idolatry; this means the worship of gods which the hands of men have made. For what the law is actually saying to you is that you should love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. Was this then a reproach? You never come to believe in what the Mormons believe through reading the Bible. [For] if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If I am mastered by the flesh, then I have the mind of the flesh. Which son represented them? That it is our duty and interest in this struggle to side with the better part, to side with our convictions against our corruptions and with our graces against our lusts.
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