The Triumph of Grace

All right, so we are in Galatians chapter 5 verses 5 and 6 this morning. So, I always like to back up a little bit, give a little bit of review, get the big picture in mind. What are we talking about? What is Galatians about? We all have a lot of things in our minds. from week to week, and we need to really have the context in view when we're studying here.

So one question that came to mind here in terms of Galatians is kind of an interesting thought. You'll often hear that Galatians is a mini-Romans, or has a lot of parallels to Romans. So why is that? Why does Galatians parallel Romans in so many ways?

Give me your thoughts on that. That's a very good point. I didn't have that in my notes. That's really good. Profound. It's true. That's actually very central to kind of where my mind's going on this. So what else? What's she saying? It's written by the same person.

Yeah. That's very good. What else about that? early ministry and some, what, maybe 15 years later he fully developed it when he sent his letter to the Romans. Yeah. About 15 years between. Yeah. Go ahead. No, I was just going to just, there's a gap of time between the two. That's significant.

And Romans extends far beyond Galatians in terms of what the new life under grace and truth looks like, right? So I think the timing of a 15-year delay in Romans probably related to Paul's own maturity in the Lord. And the vision now presents to a more mature believer that perhaps has been through the salvation really means in terms of sanctification. Yeah, absolutely. So the way that I come to look at Romans as kind of a general view of it is that what Romans does is it records Paul's basic grace doctrine.

So the way I see this is that because Paul couldn't get to Rome, and he wanted to, but he couldn't, right? He wrote to them what he taught everywhere when he established a church, because Romans is sometimes called Christianity 101. Some people kind of feel that Romans is very advanced, but it's not. Romans is very basic Christian doctrine, right?

He builds from, you know, man's problem through to justification in Romans 3 and 4, and then in Romans 5, he begins to introduce the Christian life. So we've got the doctrine of the two men, you're in Adam, you're now in Christ, and then he unfolds. What does that mean in chapter 6, 7, 8? But he's building his whole doctrine of the Christian life.

Galatians is written to correct the church that has departed from that basic message. So the way I see Romans is basically in written form what Paul preached everywhere he established a church. And I would assume that that's what he taught to the Galatians. So Miles, even though Romans was written late in Paul's ministry, everything in Romans he taught all through the book of Acts.

Yeah, I agree. And so what's interesting is, you know, Bobby mentioned there's about 15 years in between. Paul's message hadn't changed in all those years. Most of us, I mean, our message changes because we learn and we grow. But remember, Paul had his message directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he delivered everywhere he went. And it didn't change because he didn't have the authority to change it. He was delivering God's message.

And so I think that's why there's the parallels. He had been to Galatia, he taught the Romans doctrine, and then he'd gone away and they'd fallen away from grace into law, and he's correcting them on that. So just a little bit of just getting the wheels turning and thinking about what's going on in Galatia. So let's read Galatians 5, 1 through 6. Does someone want to read that out loud? Someone who can see the screen or from their own Bible?

It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. Awesome. Thanks, Heidi.

So, in verse 1, We have Paul exhorting the Christians, the Galatians specifically, but we can expand this to apply to all Christians, to stand firm in their freedom and not be subject to a yoke of slavery. A yoke of slavery is an interesting thing. Anyone have a visual in mind for that? Oxen. It's a farm kind of situation. Yeah. Any other? I was just trying to figure out if I could sketch on the screen here. Marriage? Did you see marriage? OK. OK. Yoke of slavery? Oh, OK. Yoke of slavery.

Now I've jumped ahead one slide. I was trying to figure out if I could draw. Let me just see if I can do that. We'll talk afterwards. OK. Let's see if we can do a stick man here. OK. Oh, this is with a mouse. Oh, very crooked arms. OK. Have you seen something like this with a load on either side?

That's what I want you to picture over here, a yoke of slavery. The idea is a yoke, it goes around your neck. It's the same thing with a yoke of oxen, where they're yoked together with this two yoke that connects them together. But you can also use a yoke, masons, bricklayers, carrying a heavy load. You lay it across your shoulders, balance it with your arms. You've got a heavy load that's balanced on both sides, and it's a yoke.

It's a yoke for carrying a heavy burden. And over in Acts, when at the Jerusalem council, Peter called the law of Moses a yoke, which neither we nor our fathers could bear. So the law is a heavy burden. It's a burden that's too much to bear. We can't lift it. And so Paul is exhorting Christians to not be subject to a yoke of slavery, the heavy burden of the law. And then in verse 2, Paul tells us the consequences of putting yourself under the law as a believer.

And what does he say? He says, Christ will profit you nothing, or Christ will be of no benefit to you. NASB is Christ will be of no benefit to you. Any other translations on that that you guys have? No benefit to you. Profit you nothing is out of the interlinear United Bible Society interlinear. I like that. New King James is the same as will profit you nothing. Okay, so no benefit. So explain to me why that is.

Why will Christ be of no benefit rather than some benefit? Shouldn't we get still a little bit of benefit out of Christ? You know, just because we put ourselves under the yoke of law, you know, why is it no benefit and not some benefit? Once you add something to grace, you destroy grace completely.

That's well said, yeah. And he says in verse 3, whoever receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the whole law. It's an all or nothing kind of a deal, right? There's two principles at play. I don't want to turn the panel off. And we're operating under one or the other at any given time, either under law or under grace. It's an all or nothing kind of a deal, right? And so you can't get some benefit from Christ while you're operating under the principle of law.

So still kind of doing a review here, look at verse four, and I know Andrew's covered this, and I just wanted to get a running start into our verses, because verse five follows directly after this. So, does verse four mean that a person has lost their salvation? Verse four says, you have been severed from Christ, you are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. Does it mean loss of salvation? No. So what does it mean? If it doesn't mean loss of salvation, what's it talking about?

People always say fellowship. Okay, fellowship. That's a way to put one word on it. I think that's good. Maybe, I'm not sure if it was Andrew who said this, I wrote it down, lose hold of grace. I'm not sure who said that, but I like that. Lose hold of grace. Lose hold of grace, yeah.

Paul has been, he says, you have been, you who are seeking to be just, he's talking to his audience, he's talking to the Galatians. All throughout the letter, he has referred to them as brethren, right? These are believers. So they're not, they haven't lost their salvation, they haven't become unsaved.

Flip back, if you've got your Bible, flip back to chapter four, verse nine, just to kind of compare Someone want to read chapter 4 verse 9? But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? Okay, very good. So, he says, you have come to know God, or rather, be known by God. He's being very clear that these are believers, and he says, how is it that you turn back to these weak and worthless elemental things?

Which, if you read that in context, we know what that is. The weak and worthless elemental things, it's the law. It's the law. That's a reference to the law in that chapter. And so he's talking about believers turning back to law from grace. So we just have to be really clear on that, that as a believer, you can be operating under law, which means you've severed yourself from the grace that God has provided to you, not for eternal salvation from the penalty of sin, but the grace that he's provided to you for right now, in the moment by moment. We can either be walking by grace or by law, it's one or the other at any given moment.

We can be walking in dependence on the Lord to produce the life of Christ in us, Galatians 2.20, no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. we can put ourselves under law as believers, right? Not losing our salvation, but operating under law as a believer. And what we do is we immediately cut off the life of Christ in us. We don't lose our identification with him. We don't lose our position in Christ, but we cut off that operation or outworking of the life of Christ.

And it's one or the other. Okay, so. To recap, verse four is not talking about loss of salvation, but believers who refuse to allow the life of Christ to operate in them. It's not about position, it's about condition, or standing in state. I almost prefer.

That's what the context is. So that sets us up for verse five. Verse five, let's just refresh our memory. It says, for we through the spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. And this is the NASB translation. So what is hope in verse five?

Is this, I hope so? You know, okay. I'll admit the grammar is a little, even just in the English, you kind of read that and you think, hey, what exactly does that mean? Right? For we, through the spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. It's a little bit vague. What does this mean? Through the spirit by faith? We have this hope. What is hope? Would it be a guaranteed expectation? That's pretty good. Yeah, that's really good. That's really good. Notice that this hope... Sorry, I keep jumping back to the verse because I want to look at it. Notice that this hope is by the Spirit or through the Spirit and it's out from faith. Ek is the Greek word, out from faith.

Let me just scratch here. Yeah. And so, go ahead. Did you have a comment? Sorry. provides the new life we have in Christ, right? That's the hope, that this, by faith, this righteousness will declare itself. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So, so, um, let's see if we can use our little pen again. Um, what we have here is we have the Lord's part, and we have our part, okay?

And so faith is the thing by which we receive or accept what God has done. Right? So there's something that we have by the spirit or through the spirit and we have it or we receive it by faith. So by faith, we receive what the spirit has promised. So is that a sure thing or an uncertain thing? As Bob said, that's a very sure thing because it's based on the Lord, the spirit, on his word, right? What he's promised. So hope here, don't think of a, I hope so, I sure hope that this happens. No, we have a firm expectation, an assurance we could say.

So what is it that we are assured of? Sorry, there we are, this is an absolute assurance. And what is it that we are assured of in that verse? our position, our salvation. We're assured of who we are in Christ. Absolutely. So position, we have assurance of that.

What is the word in the verse? I'm trying to get a little better. Righteousness. Righteousness, yes. Righteousness. That is what we are assured of. Now, to Margaret's point there, Is this positional righteousness or a righteous walk? Yeah, absolutely. We have assurance of both. And that's really important because we tend to recognize, at least here amongst this group, we recognize that position is unchanging. We don't hope for positional righteousness. We have it, right? And it's a certainty. So that's true. We have that. But we also need to understand that in the context here, Paul is talking about a righteous walk, as we've kind of pointed out in our review here.

Miles, I think if you dismiss the relationship between the two, we're falling short. Him who knew no sin to be made sin for me, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him, that encourages me endlessly. Now, I may fall short in my faith, but the issue is it's both. I think too often we're so worried about the condition, we forget our position. And I think if we don't I think our walk becomes hampered. That's a really, really good point. We shouldn't separate the two so much that, you know, that we think, okay, I've got position, but condition over here is this, you know, uncertainty.

What Paul is saying here is that it's as because it flows out of your position. Your position being your identification with Christ. You're joined to him, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. And so, yeah, I don't mean to separate the two too much, but in the context here, Paul is talking about our walk how do we have a righteous walk? And it is rooted in our position. And so he's explaining to the Galatians, you're justified, you're born again, you're positionally righteous, now don't turn back to the law to try to crank out a righteous walk, right? Because the whole, idea behind, you know, the problem here behind what's going on, the reason for writing this letter is that the Galatians, they were justified, but they turned around and tried to, you know, produce a life out of works of the flesh, out of the law.

So what we have here in this verse is the assurance of a righteous life as Christians, which is, of course, the Galatians 2.20 theme verse. It's important, you mentioned already, the key aspect from our perspective, from the believer's perspective, is our contribution is always the same, it seems like, across the board, in all the scripture, is faith. Believing what God has said. It comes down to that. We don't have to think, well, what should I do here? Should I make a list? Make a list about being righteous? No. Christianity has no clue about this. That's the most frustrating part.

It is. My next point on the slide here is that we have assurance of the righteous life that God has provided. And we have that life because we are in Christ. That's, as you're saying, position and condition are inseparable, and yet most Christians separate them. that was the Galatians properties. They separated out the walk and they tried to figure out how they could do this apart from everything that had been provided in Christ Jesus. And so, I think that's what Paul is getting at in this verse.

Yes? So like Roger just said, we don't need to crank out a list. But if we are walking by faith, it results in a list. That's a good point. I like that. So what would that list look like? If we were to make a list. Go on in chapter 5, the fruit of the spirit. That's what I expected, yeah.

522, the fruit of the spirit. And it is a list, and yet we also know that it's singular. Right, it's a singular. This is a singular fruit described in a multitude of words. love, joy, peace, patience, and so forth, which is a description of the life.

And so you can do that. You can look at the life and you can say, this is what it looks like. And that is what these imperatives in the New Testament all do. They describe what the life of Christ looks like when it's functioning. And what he goes on to say here in chapter five is that the needs of the flesh are evident.

And the fruit of the Spirit is also evident. That said, we're not always real good at evaluating fruit of the spirit or fruit of the flesh. I know. Or worse, the flesh. A lot of things that we look at and people say, oh, it looks really good. Maybe entirely out of the flesh. Isn't it kind of interesting that the fruit of the spirit is singular, but the first thing that's always listed is love?

Yes. And you can almost put everything after that under that category. Bob just finished my entire last Sunday school lesson. But we'll get there. You're exactly right. And he's going to get to that in verse 6, as we'll see. So let's move on to verse 6 here.

So we're talking about the assurance of a righteous life. Well, I should make one other point. When we talk about hope, and in the NASB translation especially says, we eagerly await, or whatever it said, the hope of righteousness, and we kind of tend to think, okay, that's for someday way down the road. And I don't want us to read verse five that way because this is, I think, a right now expectation for now and from here on out. This is what we expect. We have the assurance and the expectation of this for right now and here on forward. Okay, so now verse six.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. And as the word love pops up a number of times following this verse in this chapter. We have here the means nothing or, you know, the, however you, you know, again, nor circumcision means anything. So the NASB is, translated this, that circumcision, non-circumcision means nothing. But in verses three and four, Paul's already said that if you accept circumcision, you're severed from Christ.

So we gotta be careful how we read this. It's not that Paul's saying, yeah, it's no big deal. It's just circumcision, no. Because it is a big deal. There's very serious consequences. So what is Paul saying here? He's not saying that it's not a big deal. When he says that it means nothing or doesn't avail anything, he's not saying it doesn't matter. What he's saying is that it doesn't have any value. Or as Darby said, it doesn't have any force.

And we want to understand why that is. So on the one hand, circumcision had big consequences. So it mattered. We don't want to understand that it doesn't matter, but we want to understand that it doesn't have any value or any force or any power for you in Christ. So let's unpack a little bit. What does circumcision deal with? Doctor? The flesh. The flesh, okay. Cutting around. Andrew's message to the flesh. It deals with the physical, the earthly body and that's really key to understand that. Because are we earthly or are we heavenly people? As Christians, we are heavenly, right? In Christ, we are heavenly. And that's why Paul is so specific here to begin this verse by saying, in Christ.

It's very critically put that at the beginning of that, because it's in Christ that circumcision has no value or no power. Circumcision adds nothing to you in Christ. It has no strength, has no ability, has no power, has no value. So circumcision has no effect whatsoever on the heavenly new creation man. Circumcision was kind of the initiation rite into the law of Moses. And it deals with man in the flesh. And that's because law was designed to deal with the earthly man. Law can't touch the new man in Christ Jesus, because the new man in Christ Jesus is a heavenly man, not an earthly man.

So, look quickly, flip over to Galatians 6, 15. Paul says exactly this, right there. It's almost his closing thought. He says, for neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation. So that's actually his summary kind of thought, this whole letter. And so that's his point here.

In Christ Jesus, as a new man, new heavenly man, circumcision can't touch that, so to speak. It has no bearing upon us. So circumcision means nothing to the heavenly man. However, And this is what he just said in verses three and four. To receive circumcision, because we all still have a physical body, right? Even though we are heavenly in Christ Jesus.

If you receive circumcision, it's an indication that you as a believer are submitting yourself to a legal system that is designed to deal with the old man. Okay, so failing to recognize that you are an entirely new heavenly creation in Christ Jesus. is what circumcision is indicating. If you were to go and get yourself circumcised, right, as a Christian, you are failing to recognize the reality of your...

St. Miles? Yes. Back then, I think a lot of the Judaizers was accusing Paul of being against circumcision. Right. And he wasn't against circumcision. Circumcision is just fine. It just has nothing to do with righteousness. Yes. But neither does uncircumcision. And neither does uncircumcision. Neither one has anything to do with the righteous life that you have in Christ Jesus, the heavenly life. But that was one of their arguments against Paul's ministry. Well, you can think of the pride within the body in Galatia that maybe, gee, I'm not circumcised, so therefore, I could be circumcised, but look at me, I've got value. Anyway, so it could be a human pride kind of thing, too, not to be circumcised.

Exactly. So, um, no, that's, that's really good. And so, so that's what, that's what he's saying here. Circumcision or uncircumcision, it means nothing because you're not, you're not identified with this thing anymore. You're identified with that man who is seated at the right hand of the Father and the heavenlies.

And so you can do, you know, whatever. It's like we get really hung up about things like tattoos or piercings these days. It's nothing. It's not that we should just, ah, do whatever. We do have, we have scripture talks to us about, you know, proper, you know, treatment of the body and so forth. But it means nothing in terms of your righteousness in Christ Jesus. But in a sense, circumcision can be important because Paul had Timothy circumcised, but it had nothing to do with the spiritual life.

It was his ticket in. That was all it was. It was, hey, if I do this, I can minister to these people. And for Hudson Taylor, it was wearing a braid. and Chinese clothing, right? You can, you know, we make, we can make use of these bodies as the Lord directs to, you know, to serve as strangers in this world, right?

But circumcision, non-circumcision, all these things have nothing to do with who we are in Christ Jesus. If we, however, submit ourselves to circumcision as a way of entering in upon the Mosaic Law, then we have severed ourselves from the grace that we operate under.

And that's where it's really important. So that's where we need to understand, OK, it doesn't have any effect on me and my position, whether I'm circumcised or not. That's not the point. However, if, in my mind, and we're going to talk about this a little bit because this isn't the case for us today. We don't really think about, oh, well, I want to put myself under law. I'm going to go get circumcised. That's not our cultural context.

But it was for them. If you wanted to enter into the Mosaic law, step one was go get circumcised. So just a brief question here. Is it a physical surgery that's the problem? This is what we just dealt with, right? It's not the physical surgery, it's the mentality behind the surgery. It's the legal mentality behind what they were doing.

And that's why we need to talk about this because, as we said, we're not probably inclined to go out and get circumcised. You're probably not even inclined to go out and try to follow the law of Moses, though there are a lot of people in America today who are under that mindset. But amongst us here today, probably not. You're probably not, you know, going out to, you know, look for, you know, pure fabric or whatever, you know, you gotta camp or blend fabrics and stuff like that. You know, you're probably not Though some people are. But Miles, there are a lot of Christians today who are going out trying to follow different rules. Exactly.

And that's why I say we have to recognize that it's not just about circumcision or the law of Moses, it's about the legal mentality, the whole law principle. And we're just as inclined to, or attracted to, you know, putting ourselves under law as the Galatians were. So the term legalism is very important here. Yeah. Do you want to define it a little bit? Legalism is following a set of rules.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's very good. OK. So we all have a tendency to put ourselves under law. And the Lord allows us to do that often so that we discover our failing. And we find out that I can't. I can't do this, I can't keep this up, I can't crank this righteousness that I thought I could. Because whenever you put yourself under law or a legal mentality, you're putting yourself under the idea that I think I can produce what God wants for me. That's what you're thinking.

And we have to find out that we can't. And remember here, in laws, almost any law system, right? This is not the Mosaic Law, but in context it's the Mosaic Law. In the immediate context, yeah, but the principle applies just as much with any And he says to the law. So circumcision, and now reading to that, you know, law or works mentality or legalism, right? It's worthless to you as a Christian, but what? What does he say? What is of value? What is effective? What is powerful? What does it say in verse six?

But? Faith. But faith. This is what Roger said earlier. is powerful and effective, not because faith in itself is powerful and effective, but because faith is the means by which we take hold of what God has offered or what God has provided. So Christ Jesus accomplishes in us what works of the law could never accomplish through the flesh, right? And we simply depend on Him for that righteousness. So faith is effectual. Faith is powerful, not because of what it is, but because it's taking hold of what is truly powerful, which is Christ Jesus.

And I've got to hurry now because we're towards the end of time. Through what does faith accomplish this work? And this is coming back to what Bob was saying earlier. Faith, what does the verse say? Faith working through love. Faith working through love. And this is really interesting that Paul uses this word.

And the more I, The more I think about this, and the more I study in the Word, and the more I come to know Christ, the more I'm convinced that the life of Christ is summed up in this one word, love. And as we come to recognize Jesus Christ, who He is, the preeminent thing about him is this perfect, pure, totally selfless love. And the more we come to know him and recognize him and what he's all about, and the longer you live as a Christian, the more you begin to realize that you don't have that. And that's kind of a devastating sort of a thought to our ego, because we think of ourselves as wonderful and good, and we love people, but we really don't. We have this very self-centered heart.

And the more we come to know Christ, the more we recognize that the love that He has, the love that characterizes His life, and that's why He leads the fruit of the Spirit, you know, I think it stands at the top of the fruit of the Spirit as a banner, like a heading.

All the others flow out of His love. And so that's what this is all about, faith working through love. Faith in what God has provided, working through the love which is not our love, but which is Christ's love. And that's the wonderful thing. We don't have this love, but it is exactly what he will produce in us if we'll let him. It takes the pressure off, doesn't it? Well, not, let's close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the life that we have in your son, Christ Jesus. We're not only identified with him, positioned in him, which is all very true, but his life is our life because of that, because of that identification with him. And Lord, we thank you for revealing to us, teaching us that we don't have anything like that selfless love that we see in your son Christ Jesus. And so Lord, we're totally dependent on you to produce in us anything like that.

And so Lord, we just pray that you would continue to reveal that to us, that you continue to make that clear, that the love that Christ has, the life that he has, is what we don't have and is what we so desperately need, and that it's all provided in a totally, completely unlimited way by grace, and that it's always what's available. And we have your word on that. We have the word of your spirit. That's the case. That's true. And Lord, teach us to depend on that by faith, moment by moment. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.