Galatians 5:1

Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love. (Galatians 5:1-6)

Christ has set you free—so why be entangled again in a yoke no one was ever able to bear?

The Setting in Galatia

Paul is writing to the churches of Galatia, a region we associate with modern-day Turkey. There Paul and his co-laborer Barnabas had planted at least four churches. Shortly after they left, a group of false teachers connected to Christianity but coming out of Phariseeism began telling the people that you could not be saved unless you were circumcised.

This issue was so serious that a council was called in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, where Paul, Barnabas, and others from Antioch went up to discuss it. Unbeknownst to them, these false teachers had gone into Galatia and spread their teaching among the Christians there. So Paul answered by writing this letter and would soon visit the believers in person.

Stand Fast in Liberty

In chapter 4, Paul used the illustration of Abraham's two children—one by the bondwoman Hagar, the other by his wife Sarah—and concluded in verse 31 that we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. In Christ we have been given liberty. Therefore Paul says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

The phrase "stand fast" translates the Greek steko, a military term meaning to stand when the onslaught of the enemy comes—to persevere, to persist, to maintain allegiance. The enemy was coming against these new converts to destroy their young faith, as he always does. Some of the Galatian Christians had been swayed and tossed.

There is a very real danger for an immature follower of Christ. I don't use "immature" derogatorily; when we come to Christ we are babes who need the sincere milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2). The aim of any pastor is that we would not remain needing milk but move on to strong meat. Paul says in Ephesians 4:14 that we should "be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine." Even today, there are those carried away by every new teaching that blows into the church.

These men had come to draw the Galatians away from the gospel Paul preached—a gospel that came not from man but by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1). They perverted the simplicity that is in Christ. We must take careful note: it is Christ who has set us free.

Slaves of Sin Set Free

Free from what? Turn to John 8. Early one morning Jesus was teaching in the temple when religious leaders brought a woman taken in adultery. (And notice—it takes two to tango; where was the man?) They said Moses commanded such be stoned, tempting Jesus to find something to accuse Him with.

Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground. When they pressed Him, He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." Convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one. The law did command death for adultery, but capital punishment required two witnesses. Jesus, the only sinless witness there, had no legal grounds to condemn her—so His release of her was actually in accordance with the law. He didn't break it; He gave her liberty: "Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more."

Notice that command—we'll return to it. Then in John 8:34 Jesus says, "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." Paul echoes this in Romans 6:17: we were slaves of sin—every one of us, including the woman, and no less the Pharisees who dragged her there. They left convicted but not forgiven, because they had not placed their faith in Him.

Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin spread to all men (Romans). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. We are in inescapable servitude to sin, headed toward death. Yet Romans 6:6 says our old man was crucified with Him, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. "Being then made free from sin, you are servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). And John 8:36: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

The Prophesied Liberator

This freeing ministry was prophesied 700 years before Christ. Isaiah 61:1—the very words Jesus read in Luke 4 and applied to Himself—says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me... to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound."

Why are we captive? Psalm 107:10 describes those who "sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in iron," because they rebelled against the words of God. God told Adam not to eat of the tree, and Adam—the champion of humanity—failed. Sometimes we arrogantly think we would have done better, but if anyone could have stood in our place, he would have. Death entered, and we became slaves.

Isaiah 49:9 says the Messiah comes and tells the prisoners, "Go forth." Psalm 102:19-20 says the Lord looked down from heaven "to hear the groaning of the prisoner and to loose those that are appointed to death." Jesus not only looked down—He came down. All humanity sits in the prison house awaiting judgment, justly condemned to hell. Yet God does not delight in the death of the wicked; He desires that sinners come to repentance and find that their sin can be forgiven in Christ.

The Yoke No One Could Bear

The Galatians had been set free by the gracious gospel, yet someone came in and bound them again with a yoke. They claimed: you're not really saved unless you do fill in the blank—for them, you must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.

At the Jerusalem council, Peter had already addressed this. In Acts 15:10 he said, "Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" The law was never meant to justify—it was meant to reveal that we need a Savior. Then verse 11: "We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved." Peter recognized that adding anything to the cross was sin, a yoke no one could bear.

The Pharisees were experts at building yokes, and there are still people in the church and world today expert at building legalistic standards. But 2,000 years ago Jesus bore the yoke for us when He carried the cross to Calvary. Now He calls, in Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Every religion in the world, save one, fashions yokes for people to bear. Dr. TV pointed out to me that yoga actually means "yoke"—bringing your body in submission to a yoke. There are many yokes people seek to bring themselves under, but only Christ offers a yoke that is easy.

Christ Shall Profit You Nothing

What does Paul respond? "Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing" (5:2). This is a heavy statement whose strength we may not fully grasp. The work Jesus did on the cross is completely worthless if you rely on your own religious service and merit.

If you say the cross is great but I must knock on doors, or be baptized in this church, or partake of communion here, or tithe here, or be a member here—then the work Jesus did has no value to you. The one who seeks right standing with God based on his own works literally considers God's gift of His only Son to be valueless. You may say, "I'm just trying to be a good person." That's fine—but if you do it to earn favor with God, you're saying Jesus' work is insufficient.

Hebrews 10:28-29 says he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?" If breaking the law of Moses brought death, how much worse for one who counts the work of Christ as nothing? And such a person becomes a debtor to do the whole law.

Imagine you owed a million dollars, and as you prepared your first payment someone offered to pay the full debt for you. How foolish—and insulting—to say, "No, thank you. I can afford the minimum payment myself." You'd be a slave to that balance for six lifetimes and never make a dent. So if you rely on your circumcision or law-keeping, Christ has become of no effect for you.

On the day of judgment you would stand before God as your own attorney in your own merit. Baptism will avail nothing then, though Jesus commanded it. Communion will mean nothing, though Jesus ordained it. Church membership will avail nothing—you'll say, "I went to Calvary Chapel for forty years," and God will say, "Calvary what?" Keeping the Sabbath, knocking on doors—none of it will get you in.

The Hope of Righteousness by Faith

So what can we do? Verse 5: "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."

After Israel's seventy-year exile in Babylon, Cyrus allowed them to return. Zerubbabel, of the line of David, went to rebuild Jerusalem and found a city in ruins, overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. Some of you, when you came to Christ, came to the promised land and found your own life in ruins. God spoke to Zerubbabel through Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Our justification is not by our might but by the work of God's Spirit.

So we wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. When we hear "hope," we often think of blind anticipation—"I sure hope so." But the Greek word is not blind anticipation; it's an absolute expectation of coming good. Why? Because Jesus paid it all. On the cross He cried, "It is finished." It's based not on my merit but on what He did.

The Pharisee—and the religious person generally—lives in fear of not being accepted at the judgment. Ask a good Mormon if he'll reach the highest heaven: "I sure hope so." He's been baptized, knocks on doors, yet has no assurance. The Muslim believes two angels record his good and bad works, weighed on scales at judgment, with no assurance of paradise—unless he dies in jihad as a martyr. Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims—go down the list, and every religion produces a fearful expectation, save Christianity.

Because our justification rests not on our works but on the good work Jesus did 2,000 years ago and on our faith in Him, true Christians do not wait wondering if they'll be accepted. We are accepted because of Him, awaiting with absolute expectation the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8). And so faith works itself out by love (5:6). Other religions do good works to earn love or enlightenment; we do good works because God has given us salvation, and we love Him and the people of this world, not wanting them to remain in the prison house.

Who Hindered You?

Verse 7: "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" Many begin the race well but are "hindered"—not merely grabbed from behind. The word is a military term for breaking up the road in front of you, devastating it to render the way impassable.

Consider the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). Seed on the wayside is snatched by birds—the enemy taking the word from a hard heart. Seed on stony ground springs up but is burned by trials. Seed among thorns is choked by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. All were hindered, beaten back from obedience to the truth. The word "obey" can also be rendered "have confidence in"; they were beaten back from confidence in the simplicity that is in Jesus.

This still happens 2,000 years later. A cultist enters someone's life and says, "I know you believe that, but it's not enough—you need to be baptized in our church, pay tithes, have membership." None of that is biblical. It goes further: our media, science, and education hinder confidence in God's word with "millions and millions of years ago." There is a growing group within churches today—300,000 Christian churches in America—who do not believe the first eleven chapters of the Bible: not a six-day creation, not the fall, not the flood, which is perhaps the best explanation for the geological features we see. If the first eleven chapters aren't true, why not throw the rest away too?

The Simplicity That Is in Christ

Verse 8: "This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you." Christ had not called them to this view, but the enemy would love nothing more than to distract us from the simplicity that is in Christ.

The work Jesus did is, in itself, a complex thing. The transaction between the Father and the Son—as Jesus became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5), and the Father poured out wrath to crush Him, and the crushing of the Son pleased the Father—holds theological depths we could study for years. But the simplicity of the gospel is this: Jesus died in my place and yours. We were in the prison house, bound in affliction and iron, slaves of sin, and He paid the price to get us out. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.

So stand fast in that liberty. Don't allow yourself to be brought into a legal relationship where you think God is mad at you today because you didn't read your Bible. Don't misunderstand—sin does separate us, and remember Jesus' word to the woman: "Go and sin no more." She was given tremendous liberty, an opportunity to misuse it, yet He called her to walk in righteousness.

Paul warned the Corinthians, "I fear, lest by any means... your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Then in verse 9, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." When you base your relationship with God on your standing in the law, things blow up quickly. You set a standard by which you judge others—"He's not going to heaven, he wasn't baptized in my church." That's Phariseeism, the same as the Pharisees adding the traditions of men to the word of God.

He Will Complete the Work

Verse 10: "I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." Note: confidence "through the Lord." Paul says the same in Philippians 1:6—"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

I praise God that your sanctification does not depend on me; God is the one who sanctifies. The pastors labor that you would run unhindered, and we labor to bring you the word, because the word transforms us—Jesus washes us by the washing of the water of the word (Ephesians 5), and He prayed, "Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). But I have confidence through the Lord that He will perfect that work in you.

I can't be with you every day—and you're probably glad of that. But Christ is with you wherever you go. How that changes our mindset if we truly realize it! When we're yelling at the driver who cut us off, it changes things. Richard tells the story: you're sitting on the couch with your girlfriend in high school, doing things her dad wouldn't appreciate, when his car lights glaze across the window—how quickly your heart changes. That mindset of knowing God is with us wherever we go changes everything.

The Offense of the Cross

Verse 11: "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased." It seems the false teachers claimed Paul taught circumcision everywhere else and simply forgot, or was too timid, to tell the Galatians. Paul answers: if I still preached that, why would I be persecuted?

Verse 12: "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." Broken down literally, this is pointed. Among certain pagan religions, sacred castration was performed as an obligation to a deity to show holiness. Paul essentially says: I wish these circumcisers would take it all the way and cut themselves off from you—if they really think this makes them holy, why not go to the total extreme?

Liberty to Serve in Love

Verse 13: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." Some throughout church history have called this teaching dangerous, claiming it produces Christians who do whatever they want. People today pursue freedom—millions came to this nation, perhaps the freest on earth—but we have misunderstood freedom. Our day defines it as "do whatever you desire as long as it doesn't hurt anyone." That is the freedom of Satan; the Satanic Bible boils down to "do what thou wilt." But that is a false liberty.

God has called us to liberty—but not as an occasion to sin. In John 5, Jesus healed the man lame for 38 years and then said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." Now able to walk, run, and jump, that man could go and pursue active sin he never could before; Jesus told him not to use his liberty that way. He says the same to us. How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it?

So what do we do with our liberty? "By love serve one another"—literally, by love be a slave. In our minds, servitude is the complete lack of liberty, yet Paul says: as one set free by Christ, use your liberty now to serve the world in love. God's economy is drastically different from anything we'd imagine. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."

The religious individual does good works selfishly, to make himself righteous. Christianity is totally different: we have been set free and called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves—not to attain righteousness, but because He has made us righteous.

Boldness to Declare the Message

There is a great famine of the gospel message today. While going through Acts 10:36-43, one of the brothers asked to make a postcard from that passage. It reads: Peace with God is through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power. He did good works, healing the sick and oppressed, as God was with Him. He was crucified in Jerusalem and rose from the dead three days later. He was seen by many witnesses. He commanded His disciples to testify of what they had seen and heard. And He is ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. This is what we preach; any other preaching is vain.

May the Lord give us boldness to tell this world—many of whom are bound in affliction and iron, awaiting the day of judgment before a holy God. Their good works will not stand up. Their baptism will not stand up. Their membership will not stand up. Only Christ alone can plead our case before the Father. May we never forget that.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for the truth of Your word. Write Your word upon our hearts and give us boldness to share it with those we come in contact with. Help us to see, as we go about our week, that the majority of those we meet don't know You and are headed toward hell. It's not mean to say it; it's the truth. We don't desire that any would go to hell, and You do not delight in the death of the wicked, so You've sent us forth to give the message. Help us never to add anything to it. If we share the gospel with someone and they receive it, may we never say, "Now that you believe, you must do this to be saved." Thank You for the liberty You've given us. Teach us by Your Spirit to live it out in love and joy and peace and kindness and gentleness and self-control. We praise You and thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.