Galatians 5 v 13 – 15 - The boundaries of Christian freedom

 ‘For you were summoned and called on the basis of freedom, brothers, but not the freedom to penetrate into a starting point of the flesh. On the contrary, we are serving one another by means of practical beneficial love. 14 For the whole law is made full and complete within one saying, within this: ‘You will beneficially love those close by in the manner of yourself’. 15 But if you are biting and eating up one another, look, in case you are consumed under one another’, (Galatians 5 v 13 – 15).

Paul says that the Judaizers are undoing the whole object for which Christians were called. Christians are not called to legal bondage, or enslavement to the Sinai Covenant with its written codes of law, but to freedom. ‘We are not like Moses putting a veil over his face, toward the sons of Israel not intently looking towards the completion of that which is being rendered idle. 14 But their minds were hardened. For up until the present day, the same veil remains on the basis of the reading of the old Covenant - unless uncovered, for it is rendered idle within the Messiah. 15 But up until today, when Moses is being read a veil lies over their heart. 16 But whenever, if turning back toward the Lord, the veil is completely removed’, (II Corinthians 3 v 13 – 16). 

Now we come to one of the usual opposing arguments presented by Jewish and Christian legalists. If Christians are freed away from the written codes of law, then this will penetrate into a starting point of the flesh. The desires, impulses, energies and raw passions inherent in our fleshly constitution will be unleashed and unrestrained if the law is removed. If Christians are free, away from the written codes of law, then what is being introduced is lawlessness, permissiveness, a licence to speak and behave in any way that they please. And so legalists argue that Christians need Covenant law so as to avoid falling into wayward behaviour, and they direct Christians back to being governed and ruled by the written codes of Sinai Covenant law. 

‘On the contrary’, says Paul. ‘We are serving one another by means of practical beneficial love’. There is the principle of living a godly life. This is not a rosy, ‘Barbie Doll’ sentimentalised view of love. This principle arises from out of spiritual considerations that Christians are able to comprehend by means of the set-apart Breath. It is beyond the ability of unbelievers. It is the primary fruit of the Breath that indwells the Christian’s heart or deep inner core. It is directed at Christians serving one another.   

In response to legalists, Paul says, ‘For the whole law is made full and complete within one saying, within this: ‘You will beneficially love those close by in the manner of yourself’.

There it is, the primary principle of Christians living a godly life – 

The whole law is made full and complete within this: ‘You will beneficially love those close by in the manner of yourself

This is contrasted with Christians ‘biting and eating up one another’ – criticising and picking fault with one another. The allusion is to beasts of prey falling upon and devouring one another. For wolves or dogs to worry sheep is not a strange event, but for sheep to distress one another is unnatural. Paul does not say, ‘if grievous wolves should enter in among you and not spare the flock’, but warns against Christians themselves acting the part of wolves in relation to one another, devouring one another like wild beasts. Such attacks would consist of abuse, slander, sarcasm, invective or innuendo. The result can only be mutual destruction - the ruin of both parties because in due course there is an utter end to what constitutes the Christian community, the organic life of which is mutually destroyed by its own members.

Principles of living a set apart, godly life [63] – The polarisation separating Christians and ‘outsiders’ [3]

 ‘On this account the flesh-mind [is] an enemy toward God for not arranging under the Law of God, for not having power [to do so], and those existing within flesh are absolutely not able to be pleasing God’, (Romans 8 v 7, 8).

On the basis of the fundamental polarising difference between Christians and unbelievers, which Paul has outlined in verses 4 – 6, the ‘flesh-mind’, the thoughts, purposes, aspirations and inclinations enslaved to and focussed on fleshly impulses and energies, is an enemy toward God. The Greek word is ‘echthra’, a noun meaning ‘a state of enmity or hostility’. Why? Because the mind that is enslaved to, focussed on and serving fleshly impulses, passions and inclinations, is absolutely not arranging itself under the authority of the Law of God. The ‘flesh-mind’ is not merely dismissive of divine law but hostile towards it, it hates divine law and is actively opposed to it. The ‘flesh-mind’ does not even have the ability, power or strength to arrange itself under divine law. On this account, those existing down from the flesh – unbelievers or ‘outsiders’ – are absolutely not able to please God. They are incurring self-forfeiture and loss leading to death, and divine law is working down settled anger and their condemnation.   

You see? Paul is still talking about divine approval and divine law. Now of course, legalists tend to agree that unbelievers are living down from the flesh, and are not able to save themselves from divine condemnation because they do not have the ability to arrange themselves under divine law. Point unbelievers to divine law and the law points out the extent of their self-forfeiture. If they then try to observe divine law, they discover their inability and helpless condition and begin to see their need of a deliverer. 

But when Paul was heralding the good news of Jesus to unbelieving non-Jews - to Gentile unbelievers, he did not refer them to Sinai Covenant law, because Gentiles were not placed under the Sinai Covenant. Covenant law would have seemed irrelevant to Gentiles. Instead he referred to the Gentiles’ current beliefs and practices, finding points of similarity or difference so as to use them as a starting point. He referred to history and God’s providence, leading up to a call to turn to God because God has appointed a day of Judgement by a man that He has appointed. The proof of this is that this man was roused up from out the dead. You can see his approach in Acts 17 v 22 – 33. It is worth careful examination. No mention of Covenant law in this message. (See also Acts 14 v 15 – 18).

But what do legalists say about Christians and walking around moment by moment within divine approval? Well, legalists do direct Christians to divine law, proposing that divine law can be used as a ‘spur’ to push Christians on to greater purity and godliness. 

Legalists divide Covenant law into two aspects - Ceremonial and Moral law. They propose that Jesus has fulfilled the Ceremonial aspects of divine law, which is, they say, an outline shadow pointing to the reality of the Messiah and his sacrifice. So they propose that now that the Messiah has come, the Ceremonial law is made complete. Sacrifices, ceremonies and rituals are no longer required because they have reached their end point in the Messiah. But then they propose that when it comes to the Moral aspects of law, like the Ten Commandments, well that is different. Clearly Jesus has not removed or abolished morality – he has not introduced permissive lawlessness. Jesus himself says that he has not come to abolish the law. So they propose that the Moral law still stands, and so they direct Christians to the Moral aspects of divine law in order to promote godliness – such as not stealing, keeping the Sabbath, avoiding adultery, tithing one’s earnings and so on. 

But this division of Covenant law into Ceremonial and Moral aspects is not what Jews themselves advocated. It may be useful for certain discussions, but it is not the perspective that Paul has in mind here. For Jews, Covenant law is indeed divided into two different aspects – 

Speech and behaviour in relation to God, and

Speech and behaviour in relation to fellow human beings – primarily to fellow Jews, and then to ‘strangers’ or ‘foreigners’

When Jesus was asked which is the greatest or largest commandment in the law, he replied, ‘You will esteem the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your breath and with all of your mind, understanding and intention’. 38 This is the foremost and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love those close by you as yourself’. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’,’, (Matthew 22 v 37 – 40). These two commandments also constitute the basic principles when it comes to serving the Lord moment-by-moment.

So then, here in Romans does Paul, like legalists, recommend and exhort Christians towards observing the written injunctions of Covenant law in order to maintain a godly life moment-by-moment? Not at all, for reasons he has been explaining and continues to explain in the next few verses. 

Principles of living a godly life [60] – The condemnation of self-forfeiture and completion of the law [2]

 ‘For the powerless incapable law, within which it is weak and feeble by means of the flesh, God, having sent His Son within resemblance of self-forfeiting flesh, and concerning no share and self-forfeiture, has condemned loss and self-forfeiture within the flesh, 4 in order that the judicial approval and rightwise acts of the Law are being made full and complete within us – the not walking around down from flesh, but down from breath’, [pneuma], (Romans 8 v 3, 4).

The outline that I presented in the previous post means that I dismiss the legalist’s suggestion that I am negating the Law or advocating opposition to divine Law so as to promote an excessively permissive Christian lifestyle. I am not saying that because Christians are now on the road to honour and praise that it therefore does not matter how they behave. Paul agrees. ‘Not at all’ says the Apostle, ‘just the opposite’. Rather, what divine Law approves of is beginning and continuing to be made full and complete within us. This is not something that has happened and been completed sometime in the past, rather it is a process that started in the past, when Christians were effectively brought forth and were indwelt by the set-apart Breath, and this process is continuing now and into the future. 

Some legalists step in once again. (They are a persistent and insistent bunch of people). Some of them propose that Paul is referring to something that was fully completed sometime in the past, because they then go on to emphasise a distinction between ‘Justification’ and ‘’Sanctification’. They say, ‘Yes, Christians have indeed been fully rescued and delivered in the Messiah. Their deliverance was fully accomplished and secured by the Messiah by means of his death and resurrection, and it was applied to individual Christians in the past when they were effectively brought forth or born again’. Their inference is that Christians have fully met the requirements of the Law in terms of their ultimate acquittal thanks to the work of Jesus. Christians stand as those who are declared judicially approved by means of the Messiah. They stand justified – judicially approved and rightwise in front of God by means of Jesus. Legalists say that in this sense their deliverance is sure and certain. But then they go on to say, ‘Now that a Christian has been brought forth or ‘born again’, they are called and exhorted to live a godly life in practice, day-by-day’. So far, so good, I fully agree. Like many of their fellow Christians, they refer to this ongoing godly service and process of increasing maturity in godliness as ‘sanctification’ – the process of change in which the Christian is increasingly set apart from worldliness. I refer to it as maintaining godliness and being rightwise in practice day-by-day. But then the legalist says, ‘This is where we turn to divine law! Not for justification, but for sanctification - for living a godly life day-by-day. Are you, as a Christian, stealing? What does Covenant law say? It says You will not steal’. That is the legalist’s approach.

But that is not what Paul is saying at all. Christians are not justified or judicially approved and made rightwise by entrusting Jesus only to then be sanctified or changed into the image of the Messiah day-by-day by turning to labouring and making the effort to obey the written codes of the (moral aspects of) divine law. Rather, the Apostle says that what the Messiah has done is in order that the ‘approval of the Law be made full and complete within us’. The fullness, completion or end result of divine law is now beginning to happen ‘within us’, rather than by our attempts to observe external written codes. If we are in any doubt as to what Paul means, he goes on to tell us plainly. First, this is certainly not something that is happening within the worldly arrangement, it is not arising within human nature in general. Second, it is not happening by attempts to conform to external written codes of law. Rather, it is happening only within Christians – ‘the not walking around down from flesh, but down from breath’.

So now we have this – 

Life within Jesus the Messiah down from Breath

Working in opposition to

Self-forfeiture, loss, and the death, down from flesh

Therefore, Christians who are living a godly life moment-by-moment are –

Walking around down from breath

Principles of living a godly life [40] – Christians, ‘unbelievers’ and divine law

 ‘Because when we existed within the flesh, the passions, the self-forfeiture and loss were actively and effectively working within our limbs and members through the means of the law, penetrating towards the bringing forth of fruit, the death. 6 But now we are rendered entirely idle away from the law, having died within that holding us down tight, in order that we are serving within new, fresh breath [pneuma] and absolutely not within obsolete writing’, (Romans 7 v 5, 6).

Paul is speaking to Hebrew Christians who know divine law, (verse 1), and said that the law only has authority whilst an individual is alive. When they die, the law is rendered idle. Speaking to his fellow Jewish Christians says, ‘brothers, you also were put to death, the law by means of the body of the Messiah penetrating into you becoming another, the having been aroused from out of the dead, in order that we begin and continue to bear the fruit of God’, (verse 4). I explored this in the previous two posts. 

Divine law had been given to God’s chosen ethnic group – the Jews – as part of the Sinai Covenant. They possessed it as an advantage and privilege. But now Paul is telling these Hebrew Christians that their ‘old self’ has died and that therefore divine law is rendered idle. He now begins to explain why this is the case even for Jewish Christians. In doing so, he first looks back to how these Jews existed before they became Christians.

They existed within the realm of the flesh like everyone else. They were concerned to increase their wealth, comfort and status, and they sought physical pleasures and stimulation. As Jews they were familiar with the written codes of the Sinai Covenant, but this knowledge did not increase their godliness or cleanliness. In fact, just the opposite happened. Why? What was the dynamic process that was taking place? It was this: inherent within their physical constitution, within their flesh, the energy and impetus of raw passions – deep strong emotions – penetrating towards ‘self-forfeiture and loss’, actively worked within their limbs with the result of bringing forth ‘fruit’. They carried the passions, impulses, inclinations and working energies within the fabric of their flesh across into their speech and behaviour, bringing about ‘death’ – insensitivity, unresponsiveness and the darkness of ignorance with regard to God. These disapproved-of energies and passions were defined and increased by means of divine law, resulting in divine condemnation and disapproval, and the judicial sentence of separation. That is the dynamic process that takes place when those existing within the flesh turn to the written codes and regulations of law – including divine law. Wayward passions and working energies within our physical constitution lead us to death by means of the law. ‘Law is working down settled anger’, (Romans 4 v 15a).

‘But now…’. Paul then looks at the situation of these Jews now that God has brought them forth as Christians. A radical yet subtle change has taken place as I have explained in the previous posts. This polarising change includes the death of their old human appearance, such that they ‘are rendered entirely idle away from the law’. They ‘have died within the sphere of that holding us down tight’, (verse 6a). The dynamic process that I have just described in the previous paragraph is a trap that holds its victims tight, resulting in death. But now, the ‘old self’ even of those who possess and know the written codes of Covenant law, has died. In addition, they are transferred from out of the authority of the Levitical priesthood into a new priesthood such that they are rendered entirely idle away from the written codes of Levitical law and the Sinai Covenant. 

‘Ah!’ says the Christian legalist. ‘What Paul means is that they are rendered idle from ceremonial law, but not the moral law!’ But the Apostles do not make such a distinction. When they talk of law they speak of the law as a unified whole. As Paul indicates at the end of verse 6, by ‘law’ he means ‘obsolete writing’, the written codes and injunctions set out through Moses. The Ten Commandments, written in stone. The Levitical law, the written codes of the Sinai Covenant. 

But this does not mean that Christians are therefore opposed to divine law. They are not ‘anti law’ or ‘antinomian’. It does not mean that they now have permissive licence to do what they want. Christians, including Jewish Christians, are rendered entirely idle from the law ‘in order that they are serving’. Their calling is to serve and honour God and His Messiah who has paid the price to buy them back and is now their new Lord. 

So, if Christians are called to serve and honour God day-by-day, set apart from the worldly arrangement and its values, but they are rendered idle from the obsolete written codes of divine law, then how do they do this? How do they know what to do? Paul tells us the answer in verse 6 – Christians ‘are serving within new, fresh breath’ [pneuma]. Uniquely for Christians, the Breath (Pneuma) that is different and set apart from the world (hagios) has been given to dwell within them. So Paul exhorts Christians to serve within the sphere of the fresh, new realm of the breath – to walk around within the realm of the Breath.

Principles of living a set apart, godly life [33] – Divine Law and the gospel

 So what is the position of Christians when it comes to divine approval moment-by-moment and Sinai Covenant Law? Paul declares that Jesus ‘gave himself on behalf of us in order that on receipt of a ransom he release us away from all lawlessness and cleanse for himself a people existing all around, zealous of good works’, (Titus 2 v 14). Peter says this to Gentile Christians, ‘you were released on payment of a ransom away from the empty futile way of your life handed down to you from your ancestors 19 … by precious blood of the Messiah in the manner of a lamb without blemish’. (I Peter 1 v 18b, 19). To Jews it is stated like this, ‘Therefore men it is known to you that by means of this the sending away of self-forfeiture and loss is openly proclaimed. 39 And away from all that within the law of Moses you were not able to be approved, within Him, all entrusting are approved’, (Acts 13 v 38, 39).

Speaking to both Jewish and Gentile Christians who were in danger of turning to Covenant Law in order to live a godly life, Paul says this. ‘But when the fullness of time came God sent forth His Son, having come from out of a woman, having come under law 5 in order that he completely buy out those under the law, in order that we begin and continue to receive adoption. 6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Breath [Pneuma] of his Son to reach into our deep inner core, crying out out, “Abba, Father”, (Galatians 4 v 4 – 6). Later, Paul plainly states the principle of Christians living a godly life day-by day, and he does not direct them to Covenant Law. ‘So I say, walk around within Breath [Pneuma] and absolutely do not bring to completion eager fleshly desire. 17 Because the flesh is focused on passionate desires against the Breath, [Pneuma] and the Breath [Pneuma] against the flesh. Because these resist and oppose one another in order that if you desire, you do not construct it, 18 and if you are led by the Breath [Pneuma], you are not under law’, (Galatians 5 v 16 – 18). 

Paul and the other Apostles consistently contrast the written codes of Covenant Law bringing down settled anger on one hand, over and against hearing, persuasion, and the Breath of God and His Son bringing down divine judicial approval on the other hand. Their instruction is to –

Persevere within persuasion and walk around moment by moment within the sphere of the Breath that they have received and which dwells in their deep inner core, at the foundation of their thoughts, emotions and desires

This is not an abolishing or dissolving of divine Law, but a unique way of life that is only possible for Christians because only Christians possess the indwelling and working energy of the Breath of God and His Messiah. It is a way of life within the Messiah that upholds the principles and fulfils the requirements of Divine Law within a superior priestly order. 

But Christian legalists usually raise their hands in horror at this. They suggest that such a position is anti-law – antinomian. But over the course of these posts I hope that we are seeing that this is not the case. Christian legalists propose that this is a lawless approach – that there are no moral or spiritual safeguards. But on the contrary, we have seen that Christians possess the Breath. Christian legalists propose that this approach opens the door to Christians being led by their emotions, fleshly desires and a deceitful heart, or that those who advocate such an approach are dismissing the word of God. But I am saying that Christian legalists are in danger of denying their Messiah. So let’s see what Paul has to say about the written codes of divine law.