Paperback and Kindle versions of Gleanings from Galatians are available at your nearest Amazon. For USA Amazon click here: Amazon.com: Gleanings from Galatians: 9798249650124: McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Books
CUTTING REMARKS
7 You ran
well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This
persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A
little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 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.
11 And
I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer
persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I
could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
13 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. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in
one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one
another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
Introduction
Having told the Galatians and us to stand like statues in the liberty the gospel has brought us, Paul now moves on to address the one that wants to tear the statues down.
During the early 2000s
until today, there have been movements of people tearing down statues and monuments
in Western nations as a way of expressing that which they hate. The statues and
monuments were, of course, erected as reminders and memorials of those who and
those things that helped to make the West what it is, with all its freedoms.
In the following we are going to see Paul addressing in no uncertain terms those who are trying to tear down the Galatians upon whose hearts God had written His law. The Galatians had been set free from the bondage to the ceremonial law, but more importantly from condemnation of the Ten Commandments. The Judaizers are wanting to place them again in that bondage which leads to condemnation. Hence, Paul’s cutting remarks.
Cutting In
Christians chuckle when they read
where Paul says, “I could wish that those who trouble
you would even cut themselves off!” (Gal. 5:12). The NIV spells it out when it renders
it, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and
emasculate themselves!” However, the word “cut” comes from the same New Testament
Greek word that Paul has used only five verses earlier. “You ran well. Who
hindered you from obeying the truth?” (5:1). The NIV helps us here where it renders
the same verse as, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on
you to keep you from obeying the truth?” The word “hindered” in the NKJV
means “cut in”, as we see sometimes happen in the Olympics and
Commonwealth Games when a runner inadvertently or sometimes intentionally
impedes another runner.
 |
| Image from Web |
It
may not be stretching things too far to suggest that Paul has in mind that he
is writing to Celts, which term is derived from the idea that they are from a
culture that was fond of chiselling stone, as in being “stonecutters.” “Celt(n.) ‘stone chisel.’”
Though some may have been torn down, many remnants of their monuments to this
day are still standing all over Europe.
The
practice of raising memorials, including those with God’s Law written on them,
is Biblical.
Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: ‘Keep all these commands that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. Build the altar of the Lord your God with stones from the field and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.’ (Deut. 27:1-8).
Are
we to imagine that Paul was ignorant of these verses of Scripture? Are we to
image that the Galatians were unaware of the Old Testament Scriptures, yes,
even those Scriptures that speak of God’s Law, moral, judicial, and ceremonial? Are we to believe that all the Galatians had was the truncated gospel that is
popular in out own day? How would they understand the liberty that the gospel
Paul proclaimed to them, if they did not know what they had been set free from?
So, away with any notion that the Galatians were ignorant of those Scriptures,
particularly those portions, such as raising monuments, that would be
especially applicable to them and their culture.
The trouble in our own day is that there are those who have cut in and have cut off the Old Testament Scriptures from the New. They have severed the connection between the Law of God and the Gospel of God. But Paul brings us back to the law of God and the gospel of God where he says, “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.”
Cutting
Away
It
used to be the popular view that Hebrews was one of Paul’s epistles. That view
seems to have fallen out of favour nowadays. However, one gets the impression
that there was at least a bit of homework copying going on. Paul says to the
Galatians, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” The
writer to the Hebrews wrote, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1b).
 |
| Image from Web |
The
New Testament Book of Hebrews is where the reader cannot fail to miss all the
allusions its writer makes to the Old Testament Scriptures. It focusses mainly
on the fact that the Old Testament ceremonial laws, with its priesthood and sacrificial
system performed at the temple in Jerusalem by the priesthood has ended with that
which it all prefigured and pointed to, i.e., Jesus Christ the Great High
Priest, the (sacrificed and perfect) Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
By
offering up Himself as the sacrificial Lamb Christ cut away our bondage to the
ceremonial law and the condemnation of the moral law, i.e., the Ten
Commandments. All of God’s Law has been/is being fulfilled by Jesus “Do not
think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfil them. For assuredly, I say to you, till
heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from
the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17-18). The gospel is about Jesus fulfilling
Gods law on behalf of those who believe in Him and His works. Pauls is applying
to the Galatians and to us the blessings of the advent of Christ where he says,
“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” (5:13-14).
Thus,
the gospel brings liberty. First, in freeing us from our bondage of “giving
opportunity to the flesh,” i.e., indulging our sinful nature with its sinful
passions.
We
use the term “A chip off the old block” to say that someone is very similar to
their parent(s). It is the Holy Spirit who gives birth to Christians. The Holy
Spirit has used Paul proclaiming the gospel to give birth to these Galatians.
They are “chips of the old block” if they “through love serve one another.” For
then they would be fulfilling the law.
I
remember being told off for says, “In a word,” and then using more than one word
to make my statement! But here’s Paul saying that “the law is fulfilled in one
word”, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The point is that it is God’s
Word that he is referring to. He is quoting from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not
take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your
people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”
We can see that Paul is applying this verse to the Galatians and to us because
he says, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed
by one another!” (5:15).
Taking
vengeance and bearing grudges against the children of your people is very much
like biting and devouring one another. And don’t miss the fact that Paul is
including himself in this. For he has already said, “Have I therefore become
your enemy because I tell you the truth” (4:16). The Judaizers had been disparaging
Paul’s character and undermining his teaching. He is showing love to his children,
the Galatians, by telling them the truth.
He is the One who promised to and in time fulfilled the Old Testament promises. Yes, including that one about writing His law, not on whitewashed or plastered rocks as per Moses, but as per the following,
Because finding fault
with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not
continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:
I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his
neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall
know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will
remember no more.”
In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8:8-13.
The
Judaizers are cutting in on the Galatians by trying to restore that which the
LORD was cutting away! The Holy Spirit is the One who comes to write God’s laws
in the minds and the hearts of those He calls, regenerates and converts, those
He saves and whose sins He forgives. And the Promise of the Spirit was made
also to those, who like the Galatians, are “afar off”, yes, including you and
me! “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your
children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will
call” (Acts 2:38-39).
As we begin to tie it all together, Paul reminds the Galatians, “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” (5:9-10). Just as yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough, so false teaching can grieve and even quench the Spirit if it spreads. However, Paul encourages the Galatians, that now that they have been reminded of the truth, he is confident that they will dust themselves off and get back into their running lanes and run the race to the finish. But the one who cut in, has been disqualified. He has been judged by the rules, i.e., God’s law and found wanting.
Conclusion
Christ has fulfilled the law. He has
now written it in our minds and on our hearts. Let us therefore demonstrate that
we have the Spirit by showing our gratitude to God for the wonderful salvation He
has gifted us with, by keeping His law. It shouldn’t be difficult. As promised,
it is written on our hearts after all.
[1] Francis Nigel Lee, God’s Ten
Commandments – Yesterday, Today, Forever, (Nordskog Publishing Inc.,
Ventura, California, 2007), v.
No comments:
Post a Comment