In this portion of Scriptures, Paul contrasted two religions for us.
The one he shared that would bring freedom, contrast with the one that the
false teachers were teaching that would put people under bondage. Paul drew two
perspectives clearly for us. He dealt first from that of the angle of
practitioners and then that of the propagators.
In verses 1-6, Paul began by asserting the freedom
that every believer has in Christ and therefore one should not submit again to
the yoke of bondage. What is the yoke and what is the freedom that he mentioned
here? It appears that Paul was referring to the freedom from the struggle that
said keeping the Law is the way to gain God’s approval. He had earlier shown
that acceptance and access to God had always been through faith in Christ. And
if Christ is the only way, it makes no sense to submit again to the burden of
having to work for our acceptance through strenuously keeping the Law. Bear in
mind that Paul had to contend with the false teachings that it was Christ plus
circumcision that ensured God’s approval. Paul’s point is this: Salvation is in
Christ alone, by grace alone, and through faith alone. That’s why he said that
it is by faith that true believers wait for the hope of righteousness (v.5).
Paul also showed in verse 6 that in Christ, faith alone matters. Here’s a word
of caution. Living by faith doesn’t free us to live in any way we please. Note
that Paul carefully included the element of the Holy Spirit in his discussion.
Christian life is not just a life of faith but also a life following the
dictate of the Spirit.
Here we see
Paul contrasting himself, the teacher of the truth and those who were troubling
the Galatians by their false teachings. Here he likened the Christian journey
to a race, and the Galatians had started the race well by obeying the truth. So
now he wanted them to deal decisively with the false teachings that had thrown them
into disarray. These false teachings were strewn into their path by the false
teachers to hinder their progress in Christ. So here Paul throws some light on
the source of these false teachings, the effect and also the consequence.
The source of
false teachings, Paul reminded them in verse 8, is definitely not God, Who had
called them into His grace (Galatians 1:6). He quickly jumped into verse 9 to
illustrate the effect of the false teachings. Like yeast, a little would be more
than sufficient to affect the whole dough. Paul wanted them to see the
corrupting nature of the misguided teachings. He said that it would spread and
affect the whole body. In the remaining verses, Paul went on to talk about the
consequence, that they would finally be judged.
Since we
have made Christ our Lord and Savior, sin no longer has any dominion over us.
Let’s exercise our liberty in Christ today! We are freed so that we will say
yes to God and no to sin. We are to be righteous
instrument of His. Therefore we can live righteously for our Lord and Master.
So let’s just do it!
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