Galatians 5:1-15--Christ Has Set Us Free

Christ Has Set Us Free​
5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

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Paul will continue the metaphor that we ended chapter 4 with and extend the idea of freedom and slavery to say that Christ came to set free those who were born in slavery to their flesh, sin, and the Law.  The slavery being mentioned here is not speaking of those who are slaves to human masters (Paul deals with this issue in other letters he writes though).  Paul urges the Galatians to stand firm in the freedom that Christ has purchased for them, and to never again return to the system of self-righteousness that he will refer to as "circumcision" here whereby the Jews believed that they must come to God by a combination of the righteousness of Christ and their own righteousness.

Paul then reminds them that if that's the path they are going to take (self-righteousness) then they must be all-in and must perfectly obey the Law, always, all the time--and Jesus makes it clear that it's not just external adherence to the Law, but our thoughts must also be taken captive and be in complete obedience to the law so that it's not just about not killing a person, but about not hating him so that you wish he were dead (or fantasize about killing him or what life would be like without him).

These Galatians have cut themselves off from Christ and His Body by trying to make another way.  There is only one Way to the Father and that is by grace alone and faith alone through Christ alone.  In Christ, there is no preferential treatment given to Jew or Gentile.  All that matters, according to Paul, is faith working through love (the love of God).

Paul now switches metaphors to another one of his favorites--a man running a race.  The man in Paul's metaphor started the race well and looked like he would finish and finish well, but he allowed something to trip him up.  It is for this reason that we are told in the book of Hebrews to "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely....looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."


Hebrews 12:1-2
English Standard Version
​Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.


Paul says that the persuasion to turn back to the works of self-righteousness is not from the One who gave them their original calling.  Paul also argues that this is not something that can run in parallel with true orthodoxy and orthopraxy because "a little leaven ruins the whole lump" or as we might say in English, "one bad apple ruins the whole bunch."  This is a false teaching that cannot be allowed to spread throughout the Church.  If Christ has set us free, then we should not let any man or philosophy put us back in bondage to sin, the flesh, and the Law.

Paul then seems to address an issue where it appears that the Judaisers (or at least some of them) have gone around behind Paul claiming that he has changed what he believed and started preaching a gospel of works. Paul would say if that was the case then he wouldn't be persecuted by the Jews as they would have no issue with him if he was converting people to Judaism, but he's not so the persecution should be evidence that Paul has not changed the gospel he is preaching--the same gospel for both the Jew and the Gentile alike.  If man could save himself by good works then the cross would have no power--Jesus would not have needed to come and die to take our unrighteousness and give us His righteousness if we could stand before God in any way, shape or form in our own righteousness.  Paul then makes a bold statement to say that he wishes that these Judaisers making the "circumcision" argument would go all the way and emasculate themselves while they are at it.  There is no place for these Judaisers to be welcomed as brothers in the local congregation.  Today we might say that they are a cancer that needs to be cut out for the good of the whole body.

Verse 13 transitions to Paul's next thought which we'll pick up with more next time.  What then does this new life in Christ look like?  If it is not marked by adherence to the Law, how then are Christians supposed to be different from those who are in the world?  Paul says that we are free, but not free to sin and be controlled by the flesh.  Paul returns to the Greatest Commandments saying that our lives in Christ should be summed up by the commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  There is no place in the Church for the kind of back-stabbing and back-biting that happens when men try to make themselves look good and must constantly compare themselves to one another and make others look bad so that they themselves can look good.  Such actions are like a cannibal eating his own body and destroying himself--even cannibals' are smart enough not to do that, so why then can the Church not figure that out and why do we keep attacking each other when we are part of the one Body of Christ?