Galatians 4–6: Set Free & Standing Firm

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 23: Sunday

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Galatians 4:4–5 LSB

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Today’s Bible reading is Galatians 4–6. Pray and ask God to teach you from His Word. If you haven’t read the first three chapters of Galatians, take the time to read them first before you read the last three. Don’t worry if you have to come back to Galatians 4–6 tomorrow. It’s so important for you to understand what Paul has written. My first post on Galatians is: Galatians 1–3: Law, Grace, & the Gospel.

The Galatians had fallen into the trap of thinking they had to follow Jewish law and be circumcised to be right before God. We may not fall into that same trap, but we are so easily led astray into thinking that we do something to be accepted by God.

We get confused about several things. We need to remember our complete inability to save ourselves, that we are sinners and could never make ourselves righteous before God by our efforts. Only the righteous, sinless life, and atoning, sacrificial death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, could make us clean. (See Titus 3:3–7, 2 Corinthians 5:21). We also forget as Paul wrote earlier in the letter.

This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Galatians 3:2–3 LSB

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Read Romans 7:14–25 and Romans 8:1–30. We began by the Spirit, and we must continue our lives as Christians by the Spirit. For years my home church had Galatians 5:1 printed on the front cover of their church bulletins.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, stand firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1 LSB

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Timothy George writes:

“If Galatians is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty, then Gal 5:1 has reason to be considered one of the key verses of the epistle… This verse contains both as assertion, “For freedom . . . Christ has set us free,” and a command based upon it, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery.

“…The imperative, “Stand firm,” not only does not contradict the indicative, “Christ has set us free,” but in fact results from it. Because of who God is and what he has done for believers in Jesus Christ, Christians are commanded to “become what they are,” that is, to make visible in the earthly realm of their human existence what God has already declared and sealed in the divine verdict of justification. When this indissoluble connection is forgotten or downplayed, the temptation for the Christian to lapse into legalism on the one hand or libertinism on the other becomes a serious threat to Christian freedom.”¹

William Hendriksen comments,

“There is every reason to agree with modern versions [of the Bible] when they print Gal. 5:1 as a little paragraph all by itself, the first verse of a new chapter… Having been taught that in Christ we are free, we (here specifically the Galatians) are now encouraged to maintain that freedom (verse 1) and to interpret and apply it properly ( verse 13ff.). But this very statement also indicates the close connection between chapters 4 and 5. The truth stated and vigorously defended in the preceding chapters is applied to life in chapters 5 and 6.”²

Alan Cole has this helpful insight into the structure and language used in Galatians 5:1. The words Cole places in italics are Greek words used by Paul in the verse. While Paul is writing in Greek, he also uses a common liguistic structure used in Hebrew.

“This verse is thoroughly Hebraic, with its ‘Christ has freed us with freedom’. In translation, an emphasis of voice would be sufficient to bring out the force of the repetition, a common Semitic device. The use of the eleutheria, ‘freedom’, is certainly designed to recall the eleuthera, ‘freeborn woman’, of the allegory [Galatian 4:21–31]. But it is also intended to remind his readers, by contrast, of the possibility of slipping back into the slavery from which they have only just emerged. The zugō douleisas, yoke of bondage, contains more than meets the eye. The Jew spoke of ‘taking the yoke of the law’ upon oneself; and it is highly likely that the Judaizers, whether from inside or outside the Church, has used this sort of language in Galatia. To Paul this was a slave’s yoke, and he says so bluntly. But there may have been in his mind the memory of a saying of Christ where He contrasted such heavy burdens with the ‘easy yoke’ of following Him (see Mt. xi. 30).”³

I have a poster of Galatians 5:1. On it is a man on it who is walking away from broken shackles towards the sun breaking through dark clouds. Galatians 5:1 is an important verse because it goes to the heart of the truth of living in God’s grace. In Christ we die to the Law and through Him become a new creation to live and serve God in the newness of the Spirit.

Paul is very careful to tell the Galatians what freedom in Christ means.

For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.

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But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you do not do the things that you want.

Galatians 5:13–17 LSB

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Yesterday in my post on Luke 7–8, I mentioned a book written by Alexander Strauch, Love or Die: Christ’s Wake-Up Call to the Church Revelation 2:4. He has written another one titled, If You Bite & Devour One Another Galatians 5:15: Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict. In it he looks at the works of the flesh of Galatians 5:19–21, including Paul’s list in 2 Corinthians 12:20, in contrast with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23, and the wisdom from above in James 3:17.⁴

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

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Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit. Let us not become those with vain glory, challenging one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:22–25 LSB

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John Stott prayed daily for the Holy Spirit to ripen the fruit of the Spirit in his life. His prayer was on the back of the cover at his memorial service held in Wheaton, Illinois.⁵

John Stott’s Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that I may live this day in your presence and please you more and more.

Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life:

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.

Holy, blessed and glorious trinity, three persons in one God, have mercy upon me.

Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, I worship you.

Lord Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord of the World, I worship you.

Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the people of God, I worship you.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever, Amen.

That’s a remarkable prayer, isn’t it? It’s not only convicting, but it encourages and spurs us on to focus our lives on what lasts. I’ve often thought what a difference it might make in the life of a church if a pastor spent a month on each fruit of the Spirit, expounding it, explaining it, and by example leading his congregation to grow in bearing each one in their lives.

Look at Galatians 6:25 again.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 LSB

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In chapter 6, Paul has further instructions on walking by the Spirit (notice the reference to the law of Christ, cf. John 13:34–35, 15:12–17).

As he brings the letter to a close, his words are on fire with his intense concern for the Galatian Christians.

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand! As many as are wanting to make a good showing in the flesh, these are trying to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.

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But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk in step with this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:11–16 LSB

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Think on these words, and pray. Ask God to help you know and comprehend who you are in Christ Jesus. Thank God for His great mercy, and rejoice in His grace. In Christ you are set free.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1–4 LSB

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It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, stand firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1 LSB

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Rompita ĉeno (Broken chain): Skoll. CC BY 3.0 DEED.
¹Timothy George, Galatians (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994) 352–353.
²William Hendricksen, Galatians and Ephesians (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids MI: Galatians, 1968) 191.
³Alan Cole, The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (The Tyndale Press, Grand Rapids MI: 1965) 136.
⁴Alexander Strauch, If You Bite & Devour One Another Galatians 5:15: Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict (Lewis and Roth Publishers, Littleton CO: 2011) 12, 16.
⁵Ellen Banks Elwell, John Stott’s U.S. Memorial Service – my reflections, November 14, 2011. Retrieved 04 June 2023.
Note: John Stott’s body of work was very significant to me in my growth as a young Christian. I first read his Men Made New when I’d only been a Christian for a few months. He was a superb Bible expositor; I first heard him speak at Urbana 70. Not only I, but many other college student, were helped immensely by his Basic Christianity. However, I do not agree with his statements on Annihilationism. For further reading, please see this analysis by J. I Packer, Evangelical Annihilationism in Review.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.