Galatians 5:1 Commentary

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Galatians 5:1

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As the Jerusalem above is free, so all her children are free, and her children include believing Jews such as Paul as well as believing Gentiles such as the Galatians. Conversion has brought each one into a state of liberty: liberty from an obligation to keep the law perfectly in order to have life, liberty from its condemnation for past sin, liberty from the power of sin and from the tyranny of Satan’s service, liberty from death and hell and eternal punishment. However, Paul’s focus here is particularly on the believer’s release from the authority of the law of Moses and from circumcision, which represents a reliance on the law to justify and an obligation to go on to keep the whole law. The Galatians have to stand fast in this liberty because the Judaizers are trying to take it away from them. They must highly prize the liberty they have been given in Christ, and not let anyone trick them or confuse them with deceitful words so that they exchange what is of great value for what is of no value. Christ has made us free by allowing us to share in his own freedom. He was born under the law but he died to it for our sakes and rose again to a new life no longer under its authority but restored to his position above the law. Because we are ‘in Christ’ we also are freed from the law, a benefit of incalculable worth. We enter into a new relationship with God in which we no longer obey out of obligation and fear of punishment and with a sense of continually coming short, but voluntarily and joyfully and with the knowledge that we genuinely please him. ‘Be not entangled again’, Paul says, the Galatians are in danger of being subject to the law all over again and under its control. It is like a master who wants to regain control over a runaway slave. Relying on the law for righteousness will lead to it placing a yoke of bondage over us all over again. Once weakened in this way, we will no longer be able to find peace which comes from knowing that we are justified in Christ; we are strong in Christ while we depend on him alone.

Application

The believer must be careful to avoid relying on rituals or ceremonies invented by men. No amount of ritual prayers or washings or fastings are of any value in earning God’s favour. These things become obstacles that prevent us coming to Christ if we rely on them. The only way to be accepted by God is through faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning death.

Satan is angered by the liberty which believers have found, for it puts us beyond the reach of the despondency and hopelessness which he wants to sow in our hearts. If any become religious he is content as long as their religion is composed of works, for he knows that these will never reconcile anyone to God. But it is deeply irksome to him that we should find liberty through faith in Christ.

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Galatians 5:1 Commentary and Bible Study