An Exposition of Galatians

OVERVIEW: Having concluded in Chapter 4 that believers, like Isaac, are liberated children of promise, Paul now warns the Galatians that if they go back to observing the law, they would in effect be putting themselves back under the yolk of slavery, and Christ would then be of no value to them.
    The apostle then tells the Galatians take the people who are trying to mislead them are false teachers who themselves will be judged by God.
    Finally, Paul explains that believers, having been called to liberty, are free to resist their sinful nature. As they follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and put to death the passions and lusts of the flesh, the fruit of the Spirit should and will be seen in their lives.

Verse 1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

    What liberty did Christ bring us when He made us free? Answer: The liberty of not having to pay the penalty of our sin, not having to keep the law to become saved, the not remaining enslaved to sin and Satan.
    Once we have become saved by the grace of God, we should stand fast in that liberty. That is, we should stick firmly to the gospel of grace. Pursuing any doctrine that suggests in any way that our own works somehow contribute to our salvation will muddy the water. The question will then arise as to whether or not we have truly become saved.

    Erroneous teaching. I’ve heard preachers telling their congregations that they had better keep the commandments, because they will otherwise have to stand for judgment and give an account of what they have done. Some pastors go so far as to say, "Yes, you have been saved; but you are liable to lose your salvation if you do not live a holy life."
    Whether they realize it or not, they are bringing their congregations back under the yoke of bondage. That’s because such teaching suggests that by my holy life, I am guaranteeing my salvation. If that were the case, my salvation would then be based upon my work plus the grace of God, rather that an altogether free gift from God.
    These preachers do not understand that once we saved, we are a new creature in Christ. Having a resurrected soul, we naturally want to keep the law of God. We want to keep the law of God. We want to do so not to merit something towards our salvation, but to demonstrate our love for our Redeemer. We are the happiest when we are doing the will of God.
    No, let’s not again be entangled with a yoke of bondage. Otherwise, our salvation would be suspect.

Verse 2: Behold, I Paul say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

    In this verse, Paul zeroes in on circumcision, a seemingly incidental part of the law that the Judaizers are telling the Galatians to observe as an insurance to guarantee salvation.
    The Judaizers no doubt think that their teaching is solidly scriptural, because Genesis 17:14 does declare: "and the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant."

    What the Judaizers have failed to do is to read the Bible in the light of what the rest of the Bible teaches. True, when Paul wrote this letter, the Old Testament was the only written word of God available. The Judaizers, therefore, did not have the added truths and insights that God has revealed in the New Testament.

    Heart condition. But even in the Old Testament, God made it clear that He was mainly concerned with the circumcision of the heart, and that the physical circumcision that He had commanded the Jews to undergo was just an outward sign of what was supposed to happen within their hearts.
    Thus, God says in Deuteronomy 10:16, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." He then explains in Deuteronomy 30:6 how that is to be accomplished: "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."
    You see, it is God who circumcises our heart so that we can love God with our heart and soul. Unless He does so, we remain unsaved and are subject to eternal damnation. That is what God really means when He says in Genesis 7:14 that those who are not circumcised will be cut off from their people.
    As I noted earlier in this series of studies, many churches today teach that water baptism is necessary for salvation; others insist that to become saved, we must invite a waiting Christ to come into our heart. Like those of the Judaizers, such teachings are entangled with a yoke of bondage. They render valueless the finished work of Christ.

Verse 3: For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

    The word "testify" means to solemnly bear witness for the record. Paul uses that word here to underscore the importance of what he is saying. To wit, if anyone becomes circumcised, he is obligated to observe the whole law, which would only lead to damnation.
    A similar warning is found in James 2:10,11:

ist puts it, God is our eternal habitation. We do not understand this, we cannot draw a picture of this, but this is the language God uses to show the intimate relationship that exists between the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Faith through love. The last phrase of this verse should read, "but faith which worketh through love" because the participle "by" is from the Greek word that means "through." It teaches that the intimate relationship that exists between God and us comes through faith, a faith that worketh through love.
    The love that faith works through is, of course, the love of God. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him…" To believe is to have faith. Whoever has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ believes on Him, and that faith works through the love of God. It has nothing to do with any works or deeds on our part.
    There is another love that faith works through. Within the hearts of us believers, a love for God and for our fellow man has developed. The love for God is particularly expressed in our desire to do His will. And in our love for our fellow man, we want the best for him, which, of course, is eternal life. We demonstrate that love by doing our part in sending forth the gospel to all nations.

Verse 7: Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

    The apostle Paul often speaks of the Christian life as a race. I believe the passage that can best help us understand that concept is Hebrews 12:1,2:

caused them to disobey the important truth that salvation comes entirely from the grace of God.

Verse 8: This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

    The argument that has persuaded the Galatians into disobeying the truth has not come from God. Similarly, none of those grace-plus-works gospels that are widely being preached is of God in any sense.
    The Bible does not teach that you must be baptized in water or make a free-will decision to receive Christ in order to become saved. And the Bible never teaches that you have to do good works after you have become saved in order to retain your salvation.
    True, many of these other gospels can be backed by a selection of isolated passages in the Bible. But when a doctrine is not in harmony with everything else the Bible teaches, such a "persuasion" cannot be attributed to the word of God.

Verse 9: A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

    Here, Paul is picking up on a statement the Lord made to the disciples shortly after He had miraculously fed the five thousand and the four thousand. In Matthew 16:6, we read, "Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."
    The disciples didn’t understand what He was referring to, thinking that the Lord was talking about physical bread. Jesus then reminded them o the miraculous feedings and chided them in verse 11, saying, "How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
    We then read in verse 12, "Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." God was using leaven to symbolize false doctrines.
    Here, Paul is warning the Galatians that if those who have hindered their Christian walk are allowed to keep teaching their grace-plus-works gospel, that false gospel would eventually spread throughout the congregation.

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.

    Even though the churches in Galatia have been ravaged by false prophets, there are nevertheless some true believers in those congregations who still trusted their salvation entirely on the grace of God. To encourage these believers, Paul tells them that he has confidence in them that they would not be snared by the wrong teaching.
    How can he be so sure? Because Jesus, as we saw earlier, is the author and the finisher of our faith. He says in John 6:39: "And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Of the elect, He also says in John 10:5: "And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
    What a marvelous promise that is! If your loved ones are truly a child of God, therefore, you can take comfort in knowing that they will not become snared by any of the false gospels. Likewise, if you are truly a child of God but have followed a grace-plus-works gospel, God will eventually open your eyes to the gospel of grace. He may even use this study to convict you into repenting and coming back to truth.

    Condemnation. The second half of this verse warns, meanwhile, that he who brings a false gospel will himself come under God’s judgment. If we ever preach a gospel that would lure people away from the true one, we will have to answer to God for these sins.
    This underscores the seriousness of being a teach or a preacher. IF we eve think that we have been called to preach or teach the word of God, we had better ascertain that we have indeed been given the gift to do so. We had better ask God constantly to give us the wisdom to learn the truth so that we don’t run the dreadful risk of becoming a blind leader of the blind.
    In Matthew 18:6, god warns, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." That is language that talks about hell.
    So, while a false prophet cannot lure true believers from Christ, he does trouble and offend them. And God warns that he will be severely judged.

Verse 11: And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

    Evidently, the Galatians have been told that Paul himself is still preaching that circumcision is a prerequisite to salvation.
    Before he was converted, Paul had no doubt insisted that every male be circumcised; he was then a zealous Pharisee. But once he became an apostle of Christ, he has made an about-face turn. He now preaches the gospel of grace only.
    But it’s not unusual at all for false teachers to misinform or misrepresent others. So, as you preach the truth, don’t be surprised if you find yourself being maligned by others. Here, Paul quells the rumor by asking rhetorically, if he were still teaching circumcision, why then is he still being persecuted by the circumcision advocates; why then hasn’t the offence of the cross stopped.
    To understand the phrase, "the offense of the cross," let’s read Romans 9:31-33:

Christ. In his resurrected soul, the truly born-again Christian doesn’t have the urge to sin; he wants to lead a life that is pleasing to his Savior.

    Service through love. Paul points out that one way to live a life that is pleasing to God is to serve one another through love. We serve one another not because we want to get something in return, but out of our love for God. And we want to follow the example Christ has set for us.
    Christ Himself says that He came to serve, not to be served, and that greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Verse 14: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

    The false teachers in the congregation have been telling the Galatians that they must keep the law of Moses. In contrast, Paul tells them that all the law is fulfilled in one word, or one command, and that command is: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
    This is the same command that Jesus gave in Luke 10. When a certain lawyer asked Him, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?", He answered in verse 27, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."
    The lawyer then asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?" In reply, Christ told him a parable in which a good Samaritan helped a man who had been robbed, beaten and left half dead. That wounded man had earlier been by-passed by a priest and a Levite.
    Of this Samaritan, Jesus said in verses 34 and 35:
And (he) went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.     Jesus then asked in verse 36, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?"
    And we read in verse 37, "And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

    Parable of salvation. That parable is really a picture of a person being saved. The man was described as being half dead because every unbeliever is spiritually dead, though physically alive. The oil and wine that were applied to him represented the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ.
    So, to love your neighbor as yourself is to show mercy to your unsaved fellow human beings.
    It means that we sincerely desire salvation for the unsaved. And it involves praying for them, witnessing to them, helping them see Christ in us, and doing whatever else we can to send forth the gospel to all nations.

Verse 15: But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

    Loving one another within the family of God is especially important. Jesus says in John 13:34.35: "A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another; as I have loved you, but ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
    This is echoed in I John 4:20-5:1:

us, which, in turn, means that we are not of Christ. And if we are not saved, we will be condemned to eternal death on Judgment Day.

Verse 17: For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary to one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

    Paul stressed here that the lust of our sinful body and the leading of the Holy Spirit are entirely opposed to each other. Our body, which is headed for the grave, is in total rebellion against god, while our born-again spirit, which is united with the Holy Spirit, wants to be obedient to God’s command. So, the Christian life is a battle.
    The Apostle Paul wrote about this battle in his own life in Romans 7. Here are some of the key statements:

"the works of the flesh." The flesh, in this context, represents the sinful nature of mankind. For the unregenerated, this nature dominates the whole being. The soul, or the spirit essence, just goes along with the flesh.
    Out in the world, of course, these sins can be found everywhere we look. But these sins are also found, within the church. And that’s what we’re particularly concerned about. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at this list of sins.

    Adultery and fornication. Most people tend to think that adultery has to do with a married person having an affair with someone other than his or her spouse, whereas fornication refers to sexual relationship between unmarried people. The scriptural definitions of these words, however, are somewhat different.
    In the Bible, fornication is used to denote any kind of sexual impurity, including adultery. Actually, it’s the Greek word porneia, from which we get the English word "pornographic," which describes that which is immoral and sexually unclean.
    While adultery generally means sexual misconduct that defiles a marriage, Jesus includes in the sin of adultery even the thought of sexual lust. He says in Matthew 5:28, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." So, fornication and adultery are really closely linked.
    Could adultery ever be a product of love, as some suggest? No way. When a person causes another to commit a grievous sin against God just to satisfy his or her own lust or pleasure, that person can never have any true love for the other.
    The Bible frequently uses adultery or fornication to picture spiritual apostasy. God created man to love and have an intimate relationship with Him. But when we sin, when we go our own way, we are committing spiritual adultery, spiritual fornication. We are showing love for some other gods.
    We would also be guilty of spiritual adultery if we claim to have a personal relationship with Christ but follow after gospels that are not the true one, or if we change the commands of God to suite our own desires. Sadly, this kind of spiritual adultery is quite prevalent in the churches today.

    Uncleanness. Have you heard the statement, "cleanliness is next to godliness"? I like that statement; I think it’s fine to the clean. But that is not from the Bible. The "uncleanness" in this verse is not talking about physical dirt. It has to do with spiritual filth.
    In Ezekiel 36:25, God said, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleaned of all your uncleanness." As we saw earlier in our study of Galatians, the context of that verse is the promise of salvation. We can thus see that the "all your uncleanness" that God promised to cleanse us of is all of our sins.

    Lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is a word that expresses the unbridled character of one who is in complete rebellion against God. Another word that might be used in its stead is "licentiousness." A licentious person is one who thinks that he has a license to do whatever he wants; he has a total disregard for rules and controls.
    God speaks of this sin among the unsaved in Ephesians 4. Starting from verse 18, we read:

the word misco. In fact, that’s the Greek word used throughout the New Testament for hate.
    The word "hatred" here, however, is echthra. Elsewhere in the Bible, it is always translated "enmity." We read, for example, in Romans 8:6,7, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity (echthra) against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
    In Romans 8, God is describing the difference between the true believer and an unsaved person. A believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit; he minds the things of the Spirit. On the other hand, the carnal minded, that is, those who have the mind of the flesh, is at enmity with God.
    This enmity can be found right within the church. Those who call themselves Christians but still want the things and pleasures of the flesh are carnally minded. Hence, they are at enmity with God. They are guilty of this sin of hatred, as well as idolatry. They are still unsaved.

    Varlance. This word that is frequently translated "contention" or "strife." It conveys the idea of quarreling. If we look at I Corinthians 1, where that word is also used, we can get some insight as to what God has in mind. We read in verses 11-13:

Jesus is preaching to His own countrymen in Nazareth. They don’t like at all what He has to say. And so we read in verse 28, "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath." What did they do? Verse 29: "(They) rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong."
    You see, unrighteous wrath leads to murder. It is the next step toward murder.
    Oh, the unrighteous anger that can develop within a congregation! Have you ever been wrathful against someone so that you cannot bear the sight of him? or you actually wish that some bad thing will happen to him? Well, that’s what wrath is.

    Strife. We’ve already looked at the matter of strife in the context of another word. Here, God is emphasizing in particular the strife that is found within the congregation.

    Seditions. This is a word that means division. In Romans 16:17, in fact, it is translated "division." There, we read, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them."
    There is indeed much division within the congregations today, division caused not by contention for that which is holy. There can be a holy strife, certainly. But it is division brought on by those who come with doctrines contrary to what the Bible teaches. They have come with heretical teaching and behavior. And this brings us to the next sin on the list.

    Heresies. Heresy is a sin that is decidedly connected with the church. One of the most dominant places where God speaks of this sin in II Peter 2:1,2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of."
    God warns there that heresy is something we can expect to come from within the congregation. Frequently, it is brought in by those who come with an I-love-you attitude. They may look sincere and kindly, and yet what they teach is not totally based on the word of God. Oh yes, they may pay lip service to the Bible, but they are not ready to let the word of God be the whole authority.
    Whoever refuses to stand forthright and squarely on the word of God is guilty of bringing heresies within the congregation. But wonderfully, we can test any doctrine by the Word of God. In the Bible, we do have a trustworthy authority by which we can separate for ourselves heresies from truths.

    Envyings. We’ve already looked at the word envying under the heading of emulation. This is a different word, but has virtually the same meaning. To be sure, it can be used in a good sense. James 4:5, for example, talks about the Holy Spirit envies, or is jealous for, the holiness of God. But ordinarily, it is used in the Bible with a negative connotation.

    Murders. Have we finally come to a sin that is not found within the church? Certainly, you don’t find people in the congregation who murder others. Don’t we?

    Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5: We read in verses 21 and 22:

normal response of people who have come to know the love of God. No payment is sought or expected from being obedient. It is the fruit that is seen in the true believer’s life.
    Of this fruit, Jesus says in John 15:5,6:

    What is the reason for this "joy unspeakable"—joy that cannot be expressed in words? Our having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t see Him with our eyes, but God has given us the faith to believe in Him. Instead of heading for eternal damnation, we know that when Christ returns, we’ll inherit the new heaven and the new earth and be with the Lord Jesus forevermore.

    Peace. The great desire in the world is to have peace. Oh, we long for the time when the nations will make war no more. But when Jesus says in Matthew 5, "Blessed are the peacemakers," He is not talking about those who have won the Nobel Peace Prize. The peace that God is concerned with is spiritual peace.
    You see, before we became saved, we were at enmity with God. Being slaves of Satan, we were at war with God because Satan is the enemy of God. But once God saved us, we have entered into Christ’s kingdom. We are at peace with God. Thus we read in Isaiah 40:1,2: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem…that her warfare is accomplished (or ended), that her iniquity is pardoned."
    This is an inner peace that only the child of God rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ can experience. And what a wonderful peace it is. And what a wonderful peace it is. There is an absolute comfort, an absolute strength and security and serenity in our life. While we fear God in the sense that we revere Him, there is no fear of damnation, no fear of terror, because we are at peace with God.
    A person who is unsaved does not and cannot have that peace in his heart, because he is not at peace with God.

    Longsuffering. In I Peter 3:20, the Bible describes the longsuffering of God. We read: "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
    Going back to Genesis 6, we find that man had become exceedingly wicked. Verse 5 reads:

things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering or our Lord is salvation."
    In other words, God’s perfect salvation plan is currently being worked out. And He is withholding judgment on the world until all the elect of God have become saved. Meanwhile, He is patiently allowing all of this sin to go on. He is putting up with the rebellion of the unsaved with longsuffering.
    Thus, longsuffering is a characteristic that ought to be found in the life of the believer. True, sometimes we find it hard to forgive someone who has sinned against us, especially if that person keeps doing that same thing. But nothing he does to us can compare with the way we have sinned against God.
    We can indeed be longsuffering if we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering that we are in the hand of a loving and caring God. Everything that comes into our life is known of God and He has promised in I Corinthians 10:13 that He will not allow us to be tested about what we’re able to bear.
    Frankly, I’m convinced that God sends reverses into our life to teach us to be longsuffering, because this is the fruit of the Spirit. During these trials, it helps to remember Romans 12:19: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

    Gentleness. The Greek word for gentleness here is chrestotes, which is normally translated as "kindness" or "goodness." This is the only place it is translated as "gentleness."
    An example of how God uses this word in the Bible can be found in Ephesians 2. Speaking about our being saved by grace, God explains in verse 7, "That in the ages to come he might shows the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
    Here, God uses the word chrestotes in the context of all that He has done for us. Oh yes, our salvation is a function of His love, in that he so loved us as to die for us. It is also a function of His grace, because we do not deserve it at all. But here, God relates His magnificent salvation to His kindness toward us. It is the goodness, the wonder of God’s mercy. It embraces the very finest attitude toward those who are unlovable.
    In Romans 2:4, God speaks of His kindness toward the unsaved as well. We read, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness (chrestotes) of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
    Even though the unsaved keep rebelling against God, He continues to give them all kinds of blessings, such as the warm sunshine, the beautiful flowers, the creature comforts that come in this world, and , above all, the possibility of salvation. God always holds that out as a real possibility to anyone who would believe on Him.
    And so, we can see that the goodness or the kindness of God relates to wanting the very best for those around us. If we say that we are a child of God, then the fruit of the Spirit certainly ought to be seen in our life. If we see the lostness of this world and have no desire in our heart to send forth this precious Gospel of salvation, then we must admit that this fruit of the Spirit, this kindness, is not seen in our life.

    Goodness. The Greek word for this "goodness" is altogether different from the one above. It really means godliness.

    Remember the encounter between the rich young ruler and the Lord Jesus? That young ruler did not recognize Jesus as God Himself, but looked upon Jesus simply as a very fine rabbi. So, when he addressed Jesus, "Good Master," the Lord shot right back at him and said, "There is no one good but God." He wanted to show this rich young ruler that his standard of goodness was wrong.
    In other words, God defines there that goodness is something that is godly; it conveys the idea of that which is completely in harmony with all that God is and all that God desires.
    Is that the characteristic of our life? The fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Is it really true that as we live out our lives we find more and more in our life a desire to do everything God’s way? Remember, we still have a flesh that lusts after sin. So, we’re not going to find perfect goodness within our life. Nevertheless, we should at least become more and more like Christ.

    Faith. As in the case with peace, joy and other Christian virtues, if we want a standard of faith to look at, it has to be faith of the Lord Jesus. He was perfectly faithful in carrying out the task that God had given Him to do. Because He trusted God implicitly, His whole passion worked out to God’s glory. Remember we saw in Galatians 2 that it was Christ’s faith that saved us?
    Wonderfully, Romans 1:17 tells us, we go out of faith. The faith that is the Lord Jesus Christ finds expression in the faith that is seen in our lives. And that faith, too, is a gift of God. Remember, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. We are able to trust God because the Holy Spirit indwells us.
    Believing that Jesus is our Savior is by no means the full extent of faith that believers are to have. We can readily confess that Christ has paid for all of our sin, that by faith we know we have eternal life. But what about our day-to-day living? Do we really believe that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that He will care for us, that He will supply our need as we seek His kingdom and His righteousness?
    To strengthen our faith in this area, God often sends testing programs into our life. By forcing us to recognize that apart from Him, we really can do nothing, we begin to learn to rely more and more on His provision and His strength. And oh, how we need it, because every one of us has to admit that, even after we’ve been a child of God for a long time, our faith is so often so imperfect.

    Meekness. Normally, when we think of a meek man, we think of someone who has no courage, who has no get-up-and-go. He walks in the shadow of others. His presence is hardly known. But that is not what God has in view.
    Speaking of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, Matthew 21:5 says, "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." Note that the Lord Jesus Christ is described as being meek.
    In Matthew 11:28, Jesus Himself says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
    Was Jesus a weak person? Not at all. He came as the King. But note that He didn’t come with all the royal pomp and circumstances; He cam as the suffering servant. He mingled with the publicans and sinners, making no outward pretenses of any kind.

    Even when He went into Jerusalem, as we read in Matthew, He didn’t ride on a prancing white horse. He cam on a donkey, or rather two donkeys. None of the leaders then recognized him as the King at all.
    So, when we have meekness as the fruit of the Spirit, we live humbly in this world. We don’t call attention to ourselves. We don’t try to look important. Why? Because we know that except for what God has done in our life, we wouldn’t amount to anything at all.
    You know, one of the greatest men of the Old Testament was Moses. He was given the difficult task of taking Israel out of Egypt and leading them throughout their forty years in the wilderness. Yet, we read in Numbers 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." He walked humbly, and so do all believers who have the fruit of the spirit.

    Temperance. Temperance is an old English word that means self-control. Perhaps the best passage in the Bible that would help us understand this is I Corinthians 9:24,25:

clearly seen in some believers than in others. But we’re all growing in grace. When they are seen in our life, it is an evidence that we have become a child of God. As such, the law no longer has any claim upon us. We’re not under the law, we are under grace.
    Instead of being against us, the law has become a friend of ours, a standard by which we strive to live a life that reflects our love for Christ and our gratitude for what He ahs done for us.

Verse 24: And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

    Earlier in this study, we referred to Colossians 3:5, which reads, Mortify therefore your member which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." To mortify means to kill, to put to death.
    Here, it says that "they that are Christ’s," meaning those who have truly become saved, "have crucified the flesh…" This is a statement of fact. Putting to death our sinful nature is how the Holy Spirit sanctifies us.
    Actually, this is an ongoing process. In this live, we will never attain perfect holiness. Romans 7, which we looked at earlier, clearly teaches us that. Paul says there, "The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do." But growth in this areas is something we should expect in our life. Other, we must ask ourselves honestly if we are truly saved.

    Affections. We can readily understand that lusts are associated with our flesh, our sinful nature. But shouldn’t Christians be affectionate?
    Actually, the Greek word involved is translated "affections" only in this verse. In Romans 7:5, it is used to convey the idea of evil emotions. That verse reads, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin…did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." The word "motions" in the phrase "motions of sin" is from the same Greek word.
    Elsewhere, it is always translated either as "afflictions" or "sufferings." For example, Hebrews 10:32, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions." And II Corinthians 1:5, "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."
    Putting all this together, we can see that the affections that the Holy Spirit is putting to death in us are the sinful emotions that afflict our thinking and behavior.

Verse 25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

    We live in the Spirit in the sense that we are living in the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the Holy Spirit. We have become saved. And if we have become a child of God, then let us walk in the Spirit. That is, let us walk in a way that is pleasing to God.
    That not only is a mandate, but is a truism. It’s a mandate in that this is how God wants us to live our life. But it is a truism also because, as we saw earlier, every child of God will naturally display the fruit of the Spirit more and more.
    Why, then, has God put all these commands in the Bible? Because the word is the sword of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit uses these commands to sanctify us. He applies the word of God to our heart and conscience. That’s why as a believer grows in sanctification, his conscience increasingly reminds him of what the Bible says.

Verse 26: Let us not be desirous of vain glory,

provoking one another, envying one another.

    Back in verses 19-21, God listed sin after sin that are works of the flesh. Then, in verses 22-25, God showed us the virtues that are the evidence of God’s grace in our lives. Now, He gives us this final admonition.
    Significantly, God focuses on two particular sins. I really believe it’s because the number one sin amount believers is vain glory. And it leads directly to the sin of "provoking one another’ and "envying one another."
    Vain glory means empty glory, or futile glory. It is glory that has no substance. A believer should not desire any glory of his own at all because to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, should always be all the glory. Whatever we do, we do it to the glory of God. This is the reason why God has created us and saved us.
    But man also wants glory. Even believers often desire to have glory. We find it hard to admit that we are dirty rotten sinners. Our price does not permit this. Likewise, we find it hard to admit that we do not contribute one iota to either our sanctification or our salvation. We would like to think that somehow, there is some good in us that he enabled us to grow as a Christian.

    Jealous God. Nevertheless, God is very jealous of His glory because he rightfully deserves to receive all the adulation and all the praise and all the honor and all the respect. And this is why God comes right out flatly, as He concludes this section of Galatians, and says, "Let us not be desirous of vain glory."
    Now, the Bible does talk about believers being glorified. But it is Christ’s glory that is imputed to us. The Bible also speaks of our receiving a crow of glory. But notice Revelation 4:10,11: