Expository Sermon on Galatians 5
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 7/5/2024
©2024 by Maylan Schurch
(To hear this entire worship service, click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrkHJFvbjhs&t=2400s)
Please open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5.
Well, I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July. As far as I can tell, we have had the best Independence Day weather I can remember in a long time.
And Shelley and I were bracing ourselves with mingled anticipation and nervousness for the neighborhood fireworks displays. Usually, down at the end of our cul-de-sac, it sounds like, and looks like, World War Two is being reenacted. But this year, no big fireworks display down there. Even our neighbors across the street from us contented themselves mostly with sparklers. We did notice that they had positioned a box about 2 feet square in the middle of the street, and at a suitable moment, someone went over and lit something on that box, and ran for cover. It turned out that the box was full of fireworks, all of which had been properly aimed skyward, and it was a glorious display.
So Shelley and I had a good Fourth. But now, here it is, July 6. The Fourth has come and gone, with its celebrations of freedom and patriotism, and with its swearing-in of new citizens. Some of you have recently taken part in that. One thing I like to suggest to newly-minted US citizens is that they need to go around to the rest of us and ask us those detailed questions about the US government which few regular citizens know!
But now we’re beyond the Fourth, and here we are at July 6. Freedom is still important. Especially, freedom of the spiritual kind. Because the Bible talks about a freedom which is even more important than that symbolized by the American flag which Shelley and I have been displaying from a bracket on our porch.
Paul probably wrote his letter to the Galatians somewhere between 48 and 52 A.D. If you get a chance sometime to read through the whole letter, you see that the “liberty” Paul was talking about had nothing to do with local or national politics, but about spiritual freedom.
Paul had preached that Jesus’ death had freed us from needing to strictly observe the Old Testament law. But there were so many Jewish Christians who didn’t believe that, and who ended up going behind Paul’s and insisting to the new believers that those old laws and ceremonies were still important, and not to throw them out.
And even though I – and maybe you – have probably never been tempted to reinstate those Old Testament laws into our lives, there are some important principles in Galatians 5 which I believe every Christian needs to understand. I think that, here on July 6 and all the days forward from now, you and I need to understand some truths about the spiritual freedom we have in Christ.
Let me show you what I mean. I can find at least four freedoms Jesus gives us in this chapter alone.
Galatians 5:1 [NKJV]: Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
What does this mean for us, here on July 6? I’ll unpack a bit more in the verses ahead, but if you’re taking down sermon points, here is what I would call Sermon Point One.
What’s the first freedom Jesus gives us?
Jesus frees us to choose liberty.
For us, liberty is a choice. But liberty from what? The next verses spell this out.
Verses 2 – 4: Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
You see, Paul’s message throughout his writings is that nobody gets saved by keeping the law. Nobody gets saved by filling in every last check-box on some master-list God keeps in heaven.
We need to remember the background of the one who’s writing this letter. This was the former Saul of Tarsus, one of the most zealously law-keeping of all Pharisees. Paul once believed that Christians who taught that Christ gave us freedom from the law were heretics who needed to be persecuted, and even executed, if they didn’t change their ideas.
But now, Paul believed that because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, Christians can relax and rejoice in glorious freedom.
But does this mean that the law’s done away with? Not at all. Paul is going to solve that later in this chapter.
Back when I was in my teens I used to put together little magic trick shows. One of the tricks I learned was the “75-foot rope escape.” What happened was that you showed the audience a long piece of clothesline rope, which needed to be at least 75 feet long. You asked a couple of people from the audience – and this could be anybody – to come up and start with one end of the rope and tie you up. Most of the time people started by tying your hands together, and then while you stood there they would wind the rope as tightly as they could around you, and tie it at the other end. So you ended up looking like a vertical mummy. It was very impressive, and apparently escape-proof.
Then you had two other people hold a large bed sheet up in front of you, to conceal you from the audience. These would be people who already knew how the trick worked. They would hold that sheet up for probably 15 to 20 seconds, and suddenly all that rope would be flung over the top of the sheet toward the audience. Your two assistants would let the sheet drop, and there you would be, totally free.
I only did this trick a few times, but it always worked. Here’s how you did it. You let the two audience members tie your hands together. And then, if they continued winding the rope around the upper part of your body, you squared your shoulders and took as deep a breath as possible, and you actually spread your elbows apart a little bit. And then when they wrapped the rope around your legs, you just spread your legs apart bit.
Then, when they were done, and the sheet was up in front of you, you just relaxed. You curved your shoulders in, you let out your breath, and pressed your legs together, and 95% of that rope would just fall to the floor. And then you just had to work on getting your hands free, and you could toss that rope over the sheet and step out from behind it.
Relaxing. That’s what Paul seems to be saying to these Galatian Christians who are being harassed by those amateur Pharisees. Relax. Jesus has done the suffering for your sins. Don’t let anyone tangle you up in legalism again. It’s like Paul was saying, “I’ve been there, done that, and I’m glad for the Savior who introduced Himself to me.”
Paul touches on this good news several times here in chapter 5. Look at verse 5.
Verses 5 – 6: For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Before we go on, let’s lay down another sermon point. What’s another freedom Jesus gives us in this chapter?
Jesus not only frees us to choose liberty, but Jesus frees us to put our faith to work through love, not hate.
As I mentioned, July 4 was Thursday. But now we’re beyond the Fourth, and have made it to July 6. Of course, we do need to remember how grateful we need to be about this country and its history.
And that’s even though political discussions can sometimes be flashpoints.
I’ve known friends and family members to part ways because of different political views. I don’t remember this happening when I was a kid or a teenager or young adult. Back then, most people took the Ronald Reagan/Tip O’Neill approach.
President Reagan was a principled, deeply conservative Republican. And Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill was an equally zealous Democrat. But the two of them didn’t call each other names and accuse each other of horrible things. Instead, the two of them could get together at a meal and exchange jokes. I once saw a video clip of them sitting shoulder to shoulder in the front row of a theater, laughing together at a comedy magic show.
But nowadays, it’s so vastly different. What has gotten into us? Why can’t we serenely put our faith to work through love and not through hate?
I think that one reason might be that there’s a lot of fear around. Today the two sides can come to genuinely fear each other. But as we’ll see in a little bit, the Holy Spirit can give us a sense of serenity.
And I think a very practical step we can take is for us to hang around people who have learned to live in that serenity. And that can happen right here at church. If we stay away from church, we are at the mercy of whatever we might hear on the news, and whatever spin the news provider chooses to use. But if we gather weekly with other people who have experienced the Lord’s serenity, this can stabilize us as we head back out into July 7, 8, 9 and beyond.
But now, let’s take another look at this whole matter of the law.
If you have the Andrews Study Bible, you might want to read the introduction to the book of Galatians. It has some very good ideas in it. However, I don’t think we need to leave Galatians 5 and hurry over to the Andrews Study Bible introduction. Right here in this chapter, I believe, is a solution to the law situation.
Back in the 1880s, Seventh-day Adventists were forced to face this discussion. What is the law in Galatians which Paul claims is no longer necessary to keep? Is it the ceremonial law only? Is it the ceremonial law plus the 10 Commandments? And if we don’t have to keep the law anymore, wouldn’t that cause chaos in the world?
Let’s get Paul’s advice on this.
Verses 7 – 15: You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
Did you catch an interesting phrase Paul uses? In verse 7 he asks, “Who hindered you from obeying the truth”? And in verse 10, he says that “he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.”
Let’s lay down Sermon Point Three. What is something else that Jesus frees us to do?
Jesus not only frees us to choose liberty, and frees us to put our faith to work through love, not hate. He also frees us to ignore the hinderers.
Who were the hinderers Paul was talking about? Here in Galatians 5, they were the ones who wanted the new Galatian Christians to return to the old law system. And since Paul has been there, done that – since for decades he had tried desperately to save himself by his law-keeping – he refuses to listen to this.
This past Monday Shelley and I were in the Vancouver, Washington area, and we stopped in at a bookstore, and then walked through a thrift shop right next to it.
And there in the thrift shop I saw a little old Remington manual portable typewriter, complete with a case. I looked at the price. It was $12.99. I typed on it a little, and it seemed like it was working fine.
Fortunately, I resisted the temptation to buy it. After all, I have two other portable manual typewriters in my attic. And it’s very clear that I don’t need a third one, because I never bring the first two down from the attic and type on them.
But what’s so funny is that when I go into a bookstore and check out the latest books on writing, on the cover of some of these books is a nostalgic picture or drawing of an old-fashioned typewriter. And there’s no doubt about it, those machines were superb mechanical devices. I wrote many articles, and my first three published books, on a manual typewriter. Those machines did what they did magnificently.
But since then they have been replaced with even more marvelous machinery, which does those same tasks breathtakingly easier. I’ll never go back to the old system. Ever.
But Paul’s “hinderers” wanted to take these new believers back to legalism.
What might be some of our hinderers today? Remember, the hinderers want us to skew us away from God’s truth, and they want us to return to old, sad, clunky ways of trying to get right with God.
Satan, the tempter, was the first hinderer. And he can work through family, through friends, coworkers, through Internet influencers, and other sources. We can be hindered by books that we admired in school, or pundits we admire in the media.
We can even be hindered by movies. A couple of times over the last few years, I’ve been talking with a couple of different people, and we were discussing the Exodus from Egypt. And they’ll talk about an event which I do not remember happening in the Bible. And it turns out that in these two instances, these folks were remembering the plot of the movie “The Ten Commandments.” And until I questioned them about those plot points, they did not realize that they were remembering Hollywood, not Bible!
So we have to keep our senses alert for any hinderers, and we have to be humble enough to recognize when something we may have long believed turns out not to be true.
I found just one more sermon point in this chapter, and I believe that it will go a long way toward answering the “law in Galatians” matter. Let’s start with verse 16.
Verses 16 – 18: I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now, if we stop reading right here, and don’t read other Bible passages which throw more light on this, it might sound as though if we are led by the Holy Spirit, we do not have to keep the law.
This is okay when it comes to trying to figure out which animal or bird sacrifice to use for a particular sin you may have committed. We don’t have to do this. Jesus became our final sin-sacrifice.
But if “not being under the law” means not having to keep the law, then we are in real trouble when it comes to the 10 Commandments. That means that suddenly, everything from idolatry to profanity to Sabbath breaking to parental disrespect, all the way down through stealing, adultery, lying, and coveting – these things are okay to do if we’re not “under the law.” And that might’ve been something that the “hinderers” Paul talked about were honestly worried about. Was Paul carelessly unleashing evil upon his hearers?
However, that is just exactly not what Paul is NOT saying. When he says that we are not under the law, he means we are not under the law as a means of salvation. In fact, in the verses we are about to read now, we will see that Paul is saying something totally different about law.
Verses 19 – 21: Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I don’t know if you picked up on it, but right there in that list of evils, Paul mentions several of the 10 Commandments. Adultery is the first one mentioned–that’s Commandment seven. Idolatry comes along a little later, and that covers commandment one and maybe even two. Envy shows up, which is another way of talking about covetousness, which is commandment 10. And finally, murder is here as well – that’s Commandments six.
And all those other evils Paul mentions are results which come from breaking the 10 Commandments. And Paul says very emphatically that “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
So whatever “you are not under the law” means, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay go around breaking the commandments. These are the “works of the flesh,” and Paul clearly says that doing them won’t get you into heaven.
But what does get you there? This is where Paul describes the breathtaking truth about the relationship between God’s law and the believer.
Verses 22 – 25: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Here comes Sermon Point Four. What is one more freedom, one more liberation, Jesus gives us?
Jesus not only frees us to choose liberty, and frees us to put our faith to work through love, not hate. Jesus not only frees us to ignore any hinderers in our lives. And Jesus also frees us to let the Holy Spirit lift us to the higher law.
What do I mean by the “higher law”? Well, as I mentioned, if you read through the list of the “works of the flesh,” you will see several allusions to the 10 Commandments. And as I also mentioned, the evils which aren’t specifically “commandment” ones are the causes or the results of breaking those commandments.
But you can study all the way through the “fruit of the spirit” list, and you will not see a single one of the ten commandment alluded to. That’s because this spiritual fruit is a higher law. It’s the law of the changed heart, and the Holy Spirit is the one who changes our hearts.
And when our hearts are changed, we don’t habitually break the 10 Commandments. Sure, we are all sinners, and all subject to temptation, but with the Spirit working in our minds and hearts, we aren’t tempted the way we were before. We ask forgiveness, and for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us against temptation.
Hebrews 10:16 makes this crystal clear. This is actually an Old Testament quote, (from Jeremiah 31;33 – 34): “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:16)
And that’s why Paul was so overjoyed with Jesus. From personal experience, Paul knew how despicably sinful he had been. He knew how jaw-droppingly forgiving was the Savior whom he had been persecuting. And he knew how powerfully the Holy Spirit had changed him, Paul, from a murderer to a missionary to eventually a martyr.
And this gives me courage, here on July 6. Knowing that Jesus loves me, and knowing all He has done for me, and knowing how deeply He longs for me to join Him in paradise, my soul can relax with that serenity which helps me face whatever the rest of 2024 might bring me.
And as these days go along, I’m going to do my best to keep my faith fixed on my Heavenly Friend. How about you? Would you like to do that as well? If so, raise your hand and vote for that with me.
And now let’s sing about this in our closing song. This is a song addressed directly to Jesus, and we can tell Him about our resolve.
Closing Song: “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”, #517