Galatians 5:1-25 (NASB)
Perhaps one of the most powerful statements in all the Bible is Galatians 5:1. It says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has summarized the Gospel.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free! What does this mean? If we understand this truth, then we understand the Gospel of Jesus. We were not set free so we might be enslaved again, no; we were set free so we could have freedom. Paul says, “therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Why would people who are free want to wear chains of slavery again?
When Jesus died on the cross, He broke the chains of sin. He fulfilled the requirements of the Law. If we believe in Jesus, have repented and found forgiveness for our sins, then we are set free from the judgement we deserve. Jesus explains this in John 8:31-38, which says, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, “You will become free?”’
Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.’”
These words of Jesus were obviously known by Paul, and that is why he says basically this same thing in chapter 4. It is also proof of the work of the Holy Spirit in the writing of Scripture, for the message is consistent: Whomever the Son sets free, is free indeed! The Galatian believers had heard this good news from Paul before, but rather than standing firm in that Gospel, they have been swayed to believe they are not free, and that they must follow the Law of circumcision. To review, the people who were swaying the Galatians, they were saying that in order to be saved, the old Mosaic Law had to be followed. That is why they wanted the Gentile converts to be circumcised. It seems preposterous to us today that this was even an argument, but at Paul’s time, this was dividing everyone, causing dissentions and factions. And if you wanted to be popular, then apparently you would side with the Jewish leaders.
This troubles Paul deeply, and we see further proof of Paul’s frustration in verses 2-12, which say, “2 Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”
Circumcision means nothing, because nothing that we do can justify us. Following the Old Testament laws cannot provide grace to anyone. These Christians in Galatia were deserting the true Gospel for a different gospel that proclaimed that in order to be saved, instead of grace, believers must still follow all the old laws, including the ceremonial laws, specifically circumcision. We know from reading more of the New Testament that some Jewish people who became Christians wanted all Gentiles who became believers to follow all the Jewish laws. Some people felt that certain foods were still off limits. And, as Galatians tells us, some people felt the laws about circumcision needed to be kept.
Who is it who has persuaded these Galatians to think that they have to be circumcised in order to be saved? Paul asks them this point blank in verses 7-12, which say, “7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is. 11 But as for me, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.”
He says that proof that he doesn’t preach the need to be circumcised is that he is being persecuted, for if he was preaching circumcision, then he wouldn’t be persecuted because then the cross wouldn’t be needed. He is persecuted because he is preaching about the cross and the cross is offensive to people. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the “stumbling block.” If he preached that the way to be saved was by following all the Laws, then the Jewish leaders would not persecute him. But as it is, Paul is persecuted, for he is preaching that Jesus died on the cross to save people from their sins.
The term stumbling block is in reference to a prophecy made in Isaiah 8:14 about the coming Messiah. It says, “Then He will become a sanctuary; but to both houses of Israel, He will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
Jesus also uses this term when He quotes from Psalm 118:22 and says in Matthew 21:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘Did you never read in the Scriptures,
“A stone which the builders rejected,
This has become the chief cornerstone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes”?’”
The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus. They did not believe that He was the Messiah. They wanted to hold on to their old ways of following the old laws. They did not want to give up the things that made them special. The idea that Jesus fulfilled the Law when He died and rose from the dead was a “stumbling block” to them. Paul is trying to get these Galatian believers to understand this point: the Gospel message eliminates the need for circumcision.
But someone else has been so persuasive that he has succeeded in convincing these believers to adopt his point of view. And as Paul said in verse 9, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” That means that even as a little bit of yeast will work its way all throughout a lump of dough, in the same way, an idea can spread all throughout a community of believers. Paul says that this man will “bear the punishment” for what he has done by spreading this false theology. Verse 12 shows exactly how upset this has made Paul, for he states, “I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.” Paul is saying sarcastically that if this man and the others who go along with him find circumcision so helpful, then they should go all the way and castrate themselves: “If circumcision is so important to you, then why not castrate yourselves?!” Some theologians think Paul isn’t saying this, and rather is saying that he wishes they would cut themselves off from fellowship, but the Greek text is very clear that Paul is speaking of emasculation. That’s how serious this issue is to Paul. And can you fault him?
That is why he picks up the rally cry of freedom again in verses 13-15, which say, “13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”
Paul is saying that Christ has brought freedom to believers, but we should not use our freedom as “an opportunity for the flesh.” We should instead, “serve one another through love. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Paul is quoting Jesus when he says that, for Matthew 22:37-40 records Jesus saying, “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
By quoting that, it is clear that Paul is not advocating for lawlessness. He’s trying to explain how we keep the commandants of God now that we have this freedom from the Law. He’s contrasting two different paths. One path is living by the desire of the flesh and attacking other believers. The second is as verse 16 says, “16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Instead of turning our “freedom into an opportunity for the flesh” we should walk with God, being led by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit leads us, our fleshly desires won’t lead us.
Paul then gives examples of what the desires of the flesh look like. In verses 17-21, he says, “17 For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The only way to be saved is through God’s grace given to us by faith. Our good works do not add to that nor save us. Yet as Paul explains, God’s grace, which is forgiveness of sins and freedom from having to follow the laws such as circumcision, does not give us a license to sin. As verse 21 says about those who practice immorality and live by the flesh, “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” In other words, we have freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.
If we look closely at the list that Paul mentions, we see it covers a wide variety of sins. Some things mentioned should be obvious sins to us: sexual immorality, idolatry, witchcraft. But he also lists things like strife, dissensions, and factions which might not be so obvious. We would be wise to examine ourselves and see if we are participating in any of those deeds of the flesh.
Paul says the Spirit is in opposition to the flesh “in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.” I think that wording is significant. Paul knows that in order to follow the Spirit’s leading, we are going to have to battle our flesh. We have to make conscious efforts to not give in to the desires of our flesh. That means exactly what he stated: we can’t just do whatever we want. That, of course, is the opposite of what the world tells us. The world tells us: follow your heart, do what feels good, seize the moment, put yourself first, and other fleshly messages. That is not the path to take in order to follow God.
Paul presents the other path. Verses 22-26 explain what following the Holy Spirit looks like. He says, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well. 26 Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
All of that fruit should grow and be evident in the life of every believer. If we are following the Lord, we will produce that fruit; for the Holy Spirit will grow those characteristics inside of us. If we truly have the fruit of the Spirit, then we will by extension keep God’s commands to love Him and love our neighbor as ourself. We won’t harm people with outbursts of anger if we are full of peace and patience. We won’t cause dissension and factions, harming the unity of fellowship if we are full of love and gentleness. We won’t just do whatever we want if we have self-control.
I don’t know if you noticed, but I want to point out that Paul warns, “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The phrase “practice such things,” according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, is the word prassó and it means, “commit, do, perform. A primary verb; to ‘practice’, i.e. Perform repeatedly or habitually (thus differing from poieo, which properly refers to a single act.”
This means that we should distinguish between willfully or regularly living according to fleshly desires, and occasionally slipping up, losing our temper or acting selfishly. We can rejoice that there is forgiveness for us when, in a moment of weakness, we fail to live by the Spirit. As we see in those two lists, living by the Spirit is chiefly a condition of our heart. We can have joy that God does not leave us alone to struggle against our flesh by ourselves. As Paul explains in Romans 8:26-27, “Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The Holy Spirit’s role is to help us battle our flesh and to fill us with the good fruit that grows when we follow His leading.
But the Galatians, they were giving in to fleshly desires. They were doing the opposite of what Paul urges them to do in verse 26 when He says, “Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” He was trying to counteract the negative influence they were under, which encouraged them to be boastful of their keeping of the Law and to challenge the believers who rightfully didn’t want to require circumcision. They wanted to go along with the popular thought that said the Gentiles were not welcome unless they became like Jews in following the Mosaic Law. But Jesus fulfilled the law for us. Clearly, they had lost sight of what that meant.
I think that bigger picture of what fulfillment means is still something the Church struggles with understanding today. While the issue of circumcision is largely laid to rest, the issue of what it means to live in freedom is still difficult for people to understand.
The purpose of circumcision was to show obedience and to set them apart from other people. What is the fulfillment of circumcision? It isn’t that we must be circumcised: true circumcision is circumcision of the heart. Even in the Old Testament, what mattered was the condition of the heart, which we know is a metaphor for faith. Deuteronomy 30:6 states, “Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live.”
Even under the Old Covenant, circumcision alone could not make a person right with God. A person still needed to have faith in God. A person still needed their heart to be circumcised. The physical circumcision was simply an outward sign of the inward work that should have taken place within a person.
I think this is a good place to make an observation that hasn’t been mentioned yet. Nothing has been said yet about something that is probably obvious to women. If circumcision is necessary for salvation, where does that leave women? Can women not be saved? I’m surprised this wasn’t an issue that Paul mentions, for it seems an obvious oversight on his part. Perhaps he was alluding to that in chapter 3:28 when he stated, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Perhaps not, but it is worth mentioning now. Women certainly are not excluded from salvation, neither in the Old Testament, nor when Jesus the Messiah came, nor today. And like men, women do not require any kind of circumcision except a circumcision of the heart: a heart that is transformed through faith in Jesus Christ. The requirement for salvation is the same for all people. We must love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and if we do, then we will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. In the words of Jesus, we must love God and obey His commands, which He summarized to be: Love God and love people.
We can only do those things if we are led by the Spirit and not led by the flesh. To be led by the Spirit means that our heart has been circumcised. Then we can be free to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will produce that Fruit of the Spirit inside of us, which will enable us to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we aren’t producing any fruit, then there is no evidence that our heart has been circumcised. As 1 John 4:20 says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
The problem I still see in the Church at large is that there is a tendency to say, “I believe in Jesus, therefore I am saved.” But the problem is, if a person puts their faith in those words and doesn’t actually have faith in Jesus, then that person doesn’t actually believe. Faith is not a matter of words. Faith is a condition of the heart. Faith is proven by our actions. If faith is alive in us, it will be evident by our works. If we are living by the desires of our flesh, and not exhibiting any fruit of the Spirit, we should not think that we are living by faith.
The Galatians were being swayed by those who wanted to put their faith in things like circumcision. But as Paul said earlier in verse 6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”
In the final chapter, Paul will mention this again, and so we will look at it again. For now, let us examine our hearts and see if there are areas in our lives where we are still living according to the flesh. Let us repent and find healing. Let us draw near to God so the Holy Spirit may grow greater fruit of the Spirit inside of us, so we can love our neighbors as ourselves and walk according to the Spirit. Let us not turn aside from faith in Jesus. Let us rejoice in the freedom that Jesus has purchased for us. We have freedom, but it is not the freedom to sin. It is the freedom to not sin. For as verse 1 tells us, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to set us free. Thank You that because He died on the cross and rose again, we are set free from the power of sin and death. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit to walk according to the Spirit’s leading. Help us not to give in to the desires of our flesh. Please forgive us when we fail and please help us in our weakness. Help us not to become enslaved again to sin. Help us walk in true freedom. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.
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