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In Galatians 5 Christ is presented as the Emancipator.
In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not be entangled with a yoke of slavery again.” The word freedom in this verse denotes freedom from the slavery of the law. Christ has set us free through His redeeming death and life-imparting resurrection that we may enjoy this freedom in grace. Thus, we should stand fast in the freedom from the slavery of the law, not deviating from Christ, not falling from grace.
The Greek word rendered entangled in verse 1 may also be translated as being held in a snare. To deviate from Christ to the law is to be entangled or held in a snare. The yoke of slavery is the bondage of the law, which makes the law keepers slaves under a binding yoke. Here Paul is telling the Galatians that they must set aside the yoke of slavery and return to their freedom in Christ.
As the Emancipator who delivers us from the slavery of the law, Christ brings us into grace by the Spirit and by faith operating through love.
In 5:4 Paul goes on to say, “You have been brought to nought, separated from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Here to be brought to nought is to be reduced to nothing, separated from Christ; deprived of all profit from Christ and so separated from Him (Darby’s New Translation), making Him of no effect. To go back to the law is to be severed from Christ, to be brought to nought, separated from Christ. To be brought to nought, separated from Christ, is to fall from grace. This implies that the grace in which we believers are is just Christ Himself. Therefore, to fall away from the grace of God is to fall away from Christ. We should not fall away from grace. Rather, we should have grace (Heb. 12:28), be confirmed by grace (13:9), and stand in grace (Rom. 5:2).
Grace is Christ Himself, the embodiment of the Triune God, as the life-giving Spirit for our enjoyment. To go back to the law is to reject this grace, to fall from grace. In Galatians 5:4 Paul indicates that although by believing into Christ and being baptized into Christ the Galatians were grafted into Him as the rich tree and were enjoying His unsearchable riches, by going back to the law and to circumcision they were brought to nought, annihilated, from the unsearchably rich Christ. If we go to anything other than Christ — such as the law or character improvement — and if we do not cleave to Christ that we may enjoy Him continually, then our enjoyment of Christ will be confiscated. Conversely, when we are in intimate fellowship with the dear Lord, we have the deep sense that we are in grace, having grace for our strength and enjoyment and for our every need. If we need life, grace is life. If we need strength and comfort, grace is our strength and comfort. Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord, have mercy on us and grant us grace that we would not be brought to nothing from You. We want to abide in You as the all-inclusive One to enjoy Your riches.”
In verse 5 Paul says, “For we by the Spirit out of faith eagerly await the hope of righteousness.” The expression by the Spirit is in contrast to by the flesh (3:3). Furthermore, out of faith is in contrast to out of the works of law (v. 2). The hope of righteousness is not out of the works of law in the flesh but out of faith in the Spirit. By the Spirit and by faith we expect Christ as the hope of righteousness.
In 5:5 Paul puts the Spirit together with faith. In order to have the proper enjoyment of Christ, we need to have the Spirit as the all-inclusive land and faith as the means to enjoy the land. Just as the law and the flesh go together, so faith and the Spirit go together. Whenever we try to keep the law, we are immediately in the flesh, but when we take the way of faith to hear the word of Christ, appreciate Him, and call upon His name, we spontaneously experience the Spirit. This can be confirmed by our experience. Whenever we strive to keep the law, we are in the flesh, in the fallen man, but whenever we take the way of faith, we are in our spirit enjoying the Spirit. Here, in the way of faith, we enjoy the Spirit as the processed Triune God. Furthermore, the way of faith causes the organic union between the processed God and regenerated man to be developed and cultivated. God intends that this organic union be developed to the uttermost.
In 5:6 Paul goes on to say, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith avails, operating through love.” Apart from the Spirit and faith, nothing else avails. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What avails is the Spirit on God’s side and faith on our side. The Spirit is the all-inclusive land for our enjoyment, and faith is the organ by which we participate in this rich land and enjoy it. Because the Spirit and faith avail, we should treasure them.
In 5:6 Paul also says that faith operates through love. Living faith is active. It operates through love to work out the fulfillment of the law (v. 14). Circumcision is simply an outward ordinance, having no power of life; hence, it avails nothing. Faith receives the Spirit of life (3:2); thus, it is full of power. It operates through love to fulfill not only the law but also God’s purpose, that is, to complete the sonship of God for His corporate expression — the Body of Christ.
Love is related to our appreciation of Christ. Without such an appreciation, faith cannot operate. The hearing of faith awakens our loving appreciation, and the more we love the Lord, the more faith operates to bring us into the riches, the profit, of the all-inclusive Spirit.
In 5:11 Paul says, “If I still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been annulled.” Circumcision foreshadowed the dealing with man’s flesh; the cross is the reality of that dealing (Col. 2:11-12). The Judaizers endeavored to bring the Galatians back to the shadow; the apostle Paul struggled to keep them in the reality. Circumcision is a type of the cross of Christ; it typifies the cutting off of the flesh that is accomplished by the cross. Therefore, the cross is the fulfillment and the reality of the type of circumcision.
In Galatians 5:13 Paul says, “For you were called for freedom, brothers; only do not turn this freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” This verse indicates that although Christ has freed us from the slavery of the law, we should leave no occasion for the flesh; rather, we should serve one another through love. On the one hand, Paul tells us that we were called to freedom; on the other hand, he warns us not to use this freedom for an occasion for the flesh. While Paul encourages the believers to enjoy their freedom in Christ, he is also concerned that they may misuse or abuse this freedom. Since we may overindulge ourselves in our freedom, we still need to be limited in the exercise of our freedom. Freedom without limitation always results in the indulgence of the flesh. Therefore, we need to be balanced — free yet restricted. If we are limited in the use of our freedom, we will love others and through love serve them as slaves.
Freedom with limitation leads us to love others and, through love, to serve them as slaves (v. 13). Instead of turning freedom into an occasion for the flesh, we should be limited in the use of freedom and be willing to serve one another as slaves. As Paul says in 5:14, “The whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” In 5:13-14 Paul admonishes us to have a proper walk in the church life. We need to care not only for ourselves but also for others. We may enjoy the freedom we have yet still be restricted in love for the sake of others that the church life may go on in a good way.
Christ has set us free from the slavery of the law that we might walk by the Spirit, not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. In 5:16 Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The Greek word rendered walk means “to tread all around, to walk at large”; hence, to deport oneself, move, and act in ordinary daily life, implying a common, habitual daily walk (cf. Rom. 6:4; 8:4; Phil. 3:17-18).
According to the context of the chapter, the Spirit in Galatians 5:16 must be the Holy Spirit, who dwells in and mingles with our regenerated spirit. To walk by the Spirit is to have our walk regulated by the Holy Spirit from within our spirit. This is in contrast to having our walk regulated by the law in the realm of our flesh.
We should not go back to the law. If we try to keep the law, attempting to do good in order to please God, we will be in the flesh, for the law is related to the flesh. Whenever we try to fulfill the requirements of the law, we exercise our flesh. This means that the flesh is active not only when we do evil but even when we try to fulfill the law. Whenever we in ourselves try to do good works, the flesh is active.
The flesh is the uttermost expression of the fallen tripartite man (Gen. 6:3), and the Spirit is the ultimate realization of the processed Triune God (John 7:39). Because of Christ’s redemption and the Spirit’s work of regeneration, we who have received God’s dispensing can walk by the Spirit, by the processed Triune God, instead of by the flesh, by our fallen being. Paul wrote Galatians not only to rescue the distracted Galatian believers from the law, on the negative side, but also, on the positive side, to bring them into the realization that the believers have the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in their spirit that they may live, walk, and have their being in this Spirit.
Paul goes on to say in 5:18, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” The law is related to our flesh (Rom. 7:5), and our flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). Hence, the Spirit is in contrast to the law. When we walk by the Spirit, who is in our regenerated spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh (v. 16); when we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law. The Spirit of life, not the law of letters, is our guiding principle, regulating our Christian walk in our regenerated spirit. If we walk by the Spirit, automatically we will no longer be under the law, for the Spirit will lead us away from the law of letters.
In 5:25 Paul continues, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” To live by the Spirit is to have our life dependent on and regulated by the Spirit, not by the law. To walk by the Spirit is to have our daily life guided and ruled by the Spirit, not by the law. Since our life is not by the law of letters but by the Spirit of life, our walk also should be not by the law of ordinances but by the Spirit of Christ.
Both the walk in verse 16 and the walk in verse 25 are by the Spirit and are regulated by the Spirit. The former refers to a general, daily walk; the latter, to a walk that takes God’s unique goal as the direction and purpose of life, and a walk that follows the Spirit as the elementary rule, the basic principle. For the former, the Spirit is our essence; for the latter, the Spirit is our way.
In Galatians, Paul indicates that the law had become not only the essence of the life of the Galatians but also the path for their way; hence, they had to return to the Spirit and leave the law on the cross. Like the Galatians, we may live not according to Christ but according to the law. Instead of having Christ as the unique constituent of our daily walk, we may have the laws of social ethics, the laws of biblical ethical principles, or self-made laws as our constituent. As a result, much of the time we may live according to these laws instead of Christ. Therefore, we need to take the Spirit as the essence of our daily life in place of the law. If we live by the Spirit as our essence, we should also take the Spirit as our pathway to reach God’s goal. Taking the Spirit as our essence and pathway excludes law, doctrine, religion, tradition, and regulations. The processed Triune God who lives in us as the life-giving Spirit should be the essence of our new being and the path for our way. We should walk by the Spirit and live a life which is Christ Himself. Walking by the Spirit as our way, we will be able to reach the goal and gain the prize, which is Christ Himself (Phil. 3:12).
In Galatians 5:24 Paul says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” Here the expression they who are of Christ Jesus refers to those who have believed into Christ and have been baptized into Him. Therefore, they belong to Christ and are of Christ. As believers in Christ, we are now of Christ.
The crucifixion of the old man in Romans 6:6 and the crucifixion of the “I” in Galatians 2:20 were not accomplished by us, but 5:24 says that we have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts. The old man and the “I” are our being; the flesh is the expression of our being in our practical living. The crucifixion of our old man and the “I” is a fact accomplished by Christ on the cross, whereas the crucifying of our flesh with its passions and its lusts is our practical experience of the fact. This practical experience must be carried out through the Spirit by our executing of the crucifixion that Christ accomplished. This is to put to death by the Spirit the practices of our lustful body with its evil members (Rom. 8:13b; Col. 3:5).
There are three aspects of the experience of the cross: (1) the fact accomplished by Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20); (2) our application of the accomplished fact (5:24); and (3) our experience of what we have applied, by bearing the cross daily (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23).
Based upon the fact that Christ has crucified our old man and the “I,” we who are of Christ Jesus “have crucified” the flesh. In our experience we need to apply Christ’s crucifixion to our flesh. Paul’s use of the perfect tense to describe this in Galatians 5:24 indicates that such should be the normal experience of the believers. All believers should be those who have applied Christ’s crucifixion to their flesh. Here Paul is speaking according to principle. If we have never crucified our flesh, our experience is abnormal. If our experience is normal, we who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
The cross of Christ gives us the standing, the basis, to deal with the flesh. Our whole being — the entire fallen tripartite man — was crucified with Christ on the cross. Now we have not only this base objectively but also the divine life and the Spirit subjectively to execute the cross of Christ upon our flesh. If we apply the cross to our flesh by the indwelling Spirit, our flesh will be nailed to the cross. Now that the flesh is on the cross, only the Spirit remains. We need to exercise the spirit by the divine life to apply the cross to our flesh. In so doing, we apply what Christ has accomplished by crucifying our old man with Him on the cross.
In the eyes of God, all those who believe in Christ have already crucified their flesh, but when in our actual experience we execute the crucifixion of Christ by applying the cross to our flesh, we are immediately uplifted to the heavenlies and experience the Spirit as everything to us. Experiencing the Spirit in this way, we walk by the Spirit and are led by the Spirit.
Galatians unveils that the law misused is in opposition to Christ (2:16) and that the flesh lusts against the Spirit (5:17). The cross has nullified the “I,” which inclines to keep the law (2:20), and the flesh, which lusts against the Spirit, that Christ may replace the law and the Spirit may replace the flesh. God does not want us to keep the law by the flesh; He wants us to live Christ by the Spirit.
In summary, as the Emancipator, Christ has set us free from the slavery of the law, bringing us into grace by the Spirit and out of faith operating through love. Although we were called to this freedom in grace, we should not misuse this freedom. Rather, we should serve one another as slaves through love. Moreover, we must walk by the Spirit, not fulfilling the lust of the flesh but living a life of one who is of Christ by executing the cross of Christ on our flesh.
