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Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:16, 29; 5:16-17, 22, 25
In the order and the arrangement of the books of the New Testament, there is the sovereignty of the Lord. It is appropriate to have 1 and 2 Corinthians follow Romans. The two Epistles to the Corinthians show us that the Christian walk and the church life are a matter not of gifts or knowledge but of Christ being wrought into us by the working of the cross. They deal with gifts and knowledge on the negative side and with the living Christ working within us through His cross on the positive side. This is the central thought of these two books. Then following 1 and 2 Corinthians, we have Galatians. This is the right order.
In the realm of religion the law is a prevailing problem. For thousands of years of human civilization there has never been anything as prevailing and prominent as the law given to man. Among the human race many philosophies and ethical systems have been invented. According to the human thought, not only philosophy and ethics but also certain religions formed among people are helpful to some extent. The most outstanding item in this realm is the law given to man by God. This is a significant matter. Among all the races in human civilization, the law given by God is the greatest item. It is greater than all the other human elements. It is greater, better, and higher than all philosophies and teachings of ethics and all forms of religion on the earth.
Based upon the law given by God, the Jewish religion was formed. Judaism is the highest and the most genuine religion. However, Christ has now come, and the church has come into existence. Now in the universe, particularly on this earth, there is the universal man. How can the law given by God with the Jewish religion based on this law coexist with Christ and the church? How can we have the law with its religion together with this universal man? Are these two contradictory to one another, or can these two be reconciled? This was the first and greatest problem that the church faced. Immediately after the birth of the church, the church faced its biggest problem, the law and its religion. Judaism and the law were the biggest deterring factors to the building up of the church. Therefore, after Paul’s two Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians deals with this matter of the law. We need to be very impressed with the matter of the law. We must understand where the law stands in relation to God’s economy. We must know what kind of position God has given the law and what the function and purpose of the law are.
The Jewish people believe that besides God nothing is as great as the law. Only God Himself is higher and greater than the law. In their understanding they give all the ground to the law; it is second only to God Himself. Now we ourselves must deal with the problem of the law. In our understanding and according to God’s revelation, what is the position assigned by God to the law?
The law is no longer the most important item. Galatians 3:24 says that the law is our child-conductor unto Christ. The King James Version mistakenly translates this word as “schoolmaster.” Strictly speaking, the law is not a schoolmaster but a child-conductor. Conybeare tells us that in the ancient times there was not the system of schooling that we have today. At that time there were schoolmasters, to whose houses parents would send their young children. The more wealthy people at that time had slaves, so when parents sent their children to the schoolmaster’s home to study, a slave would accompany them. Since the children were young, they could get lost traveling from their parent’s home to the schoolmaster, so they needed the slave to care for them.
Certain versions of the Bible mistakenly cause people to understand that the law is the schoolmaster. The law is not the schoolmaster; the schoolmaster is Christ, and the law is the child-conductor. God’s intention is to bring us to Christ. However, just as parents used slaves to bring young, immature children to a schoolmaster, God used the law as a child-conductor to bring His people to Christ, the schoolmaster. Because children are young, foolish, and childish, they need a child-conductor. However, when they grow up, there is no need of a child-conductor. Hence, according to the context of Galatians 3, the position of the law is the position of a slave.
Galatians 4:21-31 shows us something more concerning the position of the law. Abraham had two wives. Sarah is a type of God’s grace, whereas Abraham’s maidservant, Hagar, typifies the law. The position of the law is the position of a maidservant, or concubine. Therefore, the position of the law is not positive. None of us would want to be the child of a concubine.
For this reason we know that the law is not something according to God’s final goal. The law helped toward the goal, but it does not belong to God’s ultimate purpose. Galatians 3:19 tells us that the law “was added because of the transgressions,” but it was not something originally intended by God. The law was not part of God’s original purpose, and it is not a part of His ultimate purpose, His ultimate consummation. Rather, it was added on the way. During the process of fulfilling God’s eternal purpose, something happened, so the law was added to correct and adjust the situation. We must be very clear about this.
The book of Galatians reveals that the original purpose and ultimate intention of God is to give us Christ. God’s plan and God’s purpose are to give us Christ as everything. At the time of Abraham, God came in to promise him not the law and not seeds but a seed. That promise to Abraham is called the gospel in Galatians 3:8. Verse 8 says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles out of faith, announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham: ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” We may have thought that gospel preaching started after the Lord ascended to the heavens. However, according to Galatians 3 God began to preach the gospel to mankind at least in Genesis 12 when He promised Abraham a seed. The message of the gospel is, “In you shall all the nations be blessed,” and the content of this message is, “your seed, who is Christ.” Galatians 3:16 says, “But to Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, And to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one: ‘And to your seed,’ who is Christ.” God preached the gospel to Abraham, and its message was that all the nations would be blessed in him. The content of the message is that Christ is the unique seed because God’s intention and purpose are to give us Christ as everything.
At a certain point in time, before the fullness of the time came (4:4), God came in to promise that He would give a seed, Christ. We must realize who this Christ is. Christ is all-inclusive. He is the very embodiment of God; all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him (Col. 2:9). He is the very reality of God; all that God is, all God’s fullness, is embodied in Him. Christ is such a One, yet He became the seed of Abraham. Therefore, He is a man. On the one hand, Christ as the seed is a blessing, and on the other hand, this seed is the One who inherits the blessing (Gal. 3:8-9, 14, 16). Moreover, He is the One who blesses. He is the very God who blesses, He is the promised blessing, and He is the seed who inherits the blessing. This is altogether wonderful! If we want to have a share in this blessing, we must be in Christ. In principle, God does not bless you or me; He blesses only one person, who is the seed. If we desire to receive the blessing, we must be a part of this one seed. We must be in Christ, be a part of Christ, and belong to Christ.
Galatians 3:29 says, “If you are of Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” The word seed is singular; the descendants of Abraham are many, but they are in Christ. You and I must be in Christ. Christ is everything. He is the One who blesses, the promised blessing, and the One who inherits the blessing.
What then is the function of the law? Before the children arrive at the home of the schoolmaster, they need the care of a child-conductor. In the same way, before we came to Christ, there was the need of the law to conduct us, to protect us, to keep us from going astray, and to bring us to Christ. This is the position and the function of the law. God has no intention to ask us to keep the law. He knows already that we cannot keep the law. On the contrary, God’s intention in giving us the law is that we will break the law in order to prove that we are sinful and that we need Christ.
However, even such a good thing as the law was utilized by the enemy, Satan, to frustrate God’s people from contacting Christ. This was the subtlety of the enemy. God used the law to lead the children to the schoolmaster, but the enemy used the law to keep the children away from the schoolmaster. This was exactly what Satan did in the early days of the church. The Judaizers, those Jews who were so much for Judaism, stressed the law to such an extent that it substituted for Christ. Through the Judaizers Satan utilized the law to distract God’s people from Christ.
This is the reason that the book of Galatians was written. It was written with the purpose to make us clear that the law is not God’s ultimate intention, and it is not something of God’s original plan. The law was something added on the way for a certain purpose. Since the Christ of God has come, we are now in the schoolmaster’s house, and we are even one with the schoolmaster. Therefore, we no longer need the law. The law is over; we must drop the law, forget about the law, give up the law, and put the law aside. Paul wrote this book to the Galatians in order to tell them that they no longer needed the law, the child-conductor, because the schoolmaster is here, and we are one with the schoolmaster. Just as Hagar, the concubine, and her son had to be cast away, so the law has to be cast away (4:30). What we need is to stay with Christ as the schoolmaster, enjoy what is in Him, and be one with Him. If we understand this short word, we can understand the book of Galatians.
After I was saved, I paid much attention to the books of Romans and Galatians. I spent nearly all that I had to buy some books to help explain them. I was told that the best exposition on Galatians was the one written by Martin Luther. I obtained a copy, and I looked into it. However, Luther’s exposition on Galatians speaks mainly of justification by faith. It says little about Christ as everything to us. I read the six chapters of Galatians again and again, but I could not understand them. I could recite nearly every verse in this book, but I could not understand what Paul was talking about.
In recent years the Lord opened my eyes and showed me that Galatians can be summed up in five items: the law and Christ, the cross, and the flesh and the Spirit. The law is versus Christ, substituting for Christ, and the flesh, the self, is versus the Spirit. God’s intention is that we enjoy Christ, have Christ, experience Christ, and live out Christ by and in the Spirit. However, our foolishness according to our concept causes us to try to keep the law by ourselves, that is, by the flesh. Therefore, the law is contradictory to Christ. In the same way, the flesh, the self, opposes the Spirit. If we are in the Spirit, then Christ is everything to us, but if we are in our self, our flesh, we will try to keep the law.
The flesh is related to the law, whereas the Spirit is the very element of Christ. Now the cross of Christ has come in to put the flesh and self to death and to free us from the law (2:19-20; 5:24). Negatively speaking, we are dead and have nothing to do with the law, and on the positive side, the cross brings us into the Spirit. When we are in the Spirit, we have Christ as our life, we enjoy Christ as everything, we experience Christ, and we live out Christ. This causes the growth in life. We must keep in mind the five key terms of this book: the law, Christ, the flesh, the Spirit, and the cross. Everything that this book speaks about is contained within these five terms.
The central thought of the first chapter of Galatians is the contrast between religion and Christ. If we keep this in mind, we will know the proper meaning of this chapter. The apostle Paul presents himself as an example to illustrate this. Formerly, he was very involved with the Jewish religion. He was trained in Judaism and learned it thoroughly. Not only so, he was zealous for it and gave himself entirely to it. This is man’s way. However, one day God came in and revealed not a religion, a system, a set of forms, teachings, or practices but a person in him (v. 16). Although Paul was zealous for his forefathers’ religion and was one hundred percent for it, God revealed Christ in him. Then Christ became everything to him. Christ became life, revelation, and vision within him, and He became the preaching, the work, and the activity outside of him. Moreover, the gospel of the living person of Christ realized and experienced by Paul was not taught to him by man but was a revelation by Jesus Christ (vv. 11-12).
In the second chapter, Paul, an experienced believer, tells us that he is crucified with Christ; therefore, he has been set free from the law and is dead to the law (vv. 19-21). He has nothing to do with the law, since it is no more he who lives but Christ who lives in him. He is no longer obligated to the law or tied to the law. Now he needs only to cooperate with this living person.
In order to understand Galatians 3, we must get into the key thought. The Judaizers thought that the law was the primary item that God gave to them. However, Paul, the writer of this book, proved to them that the primary item given by God is not the law but His promise. The promise that God gave to Abraham is a seed, which is the very God incarnated to be a man (v. 16). In Him, that is, in this very seed, God will be the blessing and the portion to all the nations. Moreover, the seed as the blessing can be possessed, realized, and experienced only by the Spirit (v. 14). We must have the Spirit and be in the Spirit in order to receive the blessing. God is in Christ, Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the witness, the reality. If we receive the Spirit, we have Christ, and we have God in Christ.
The key thought in this chapter is that God’s intention is to make Himself our portion, our blessing, in Christ by the Spirit. God’s intention is not the law; the law was added on the way. We must be in Christ, and we must be in the Spirit. We must receive the Spirit to enjoy Christ as everything, to be in Christ, to be one with Him, and to be of Christ. Now we are of the one seed, and this one seed is everything to us (vv. 16, 29). Chapter 3 reveals that it is not a matter of keeping the law by ourselves but a matter of being in Christ by the Spirit. By the Spirit we enjoy, experience, realize, and possess Christ as everything to us.
Galatians 4 tells us that now we are no more little children (vv. 1-3). Rather, as those who have been brought to the schoolmaster, we are in Him, and He is in us. Now we are not merely children but sons and heirs (vv. 5-7). We have not only the life of the children but the sonship. The sonship mentioned in this chapter is extraordinary. According to the custom of the ancient Roman Empire, a son obtained the right of inheritance. This is the meaning of sonship. Before maturity, however, the son was a son only; he did not yet have the sonship. Before a person is twenty-one years old, he is the son of his father with the life of a son, but he does not have the right of the son, that is, the sonship. He does not have the right to inherit all that his father has until he is fully grown. One day the father will declare that he is not only a son but also that he has the sonship with the full right to inherit everything of the father.
The apostle’s thought in this chapter is that from the time that Christ came and accomplished His work, we are no more underage. This is not according to anything we have done but according to what Christ accomplished. Because we are no longer underage minors but grown children, God gives us the sonship. Now we can inherit whatever God is. This inheritance is the fullness of the Godhead, which is Christ Himself. Because we are full-grown ones, sons who are of age, we are entitled to the sonship to inherit whatever Christ is. Formerly, we were children under the hand of a slave, a child-conductor. As such, we could not enjoy all that the schoolmaster had. Now, however, we have been transferred out of the child-conductor’s hand unto the schoolmaster. We have come of age and have received the sonship, the right of inheritance. This inheritance is nothing less than Christ Himself with all the fullness of the Godhead. Therefore, we must be filled; that is, the fullness of the Godhead in Christ has to be formed in us (v. 19). Whatever Christ is and whatever Christ has must be formed in us. That we are filled in this way proves that we are the sons of God.
Galatians 5 tells us that since Christ has set us free from the law and has made us one with Him, we should not go back to the law (v. 1). If we return to the law, then Christ will profit us nothing, and we will be brought to nought, separated from Christ (vv. 2, 4). Rather, we must now live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit (vv. 16, 25). When we live and walk by the Spirit, the flesh and the self are put away. Although the self and the flesh have been dealt with already on the cross of Christ, this has to be applied and experienced by us. When we live and walk by the Spirit, our self and flesh are put away in our practical experience.
In this chapter the phrase by the Spirit is a problem to the readers because there is no definite article in the Greek (vv. 5, 16, 18, 25). It is difficult for translators to decide whether these portions refer to the Holy Spirit or to our human spirit. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit,” but the Greek text may be simply rendered, “Walk by spirit.” Verse 17 says, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit,” and verse 22 speaks of “the fruit of the Spirit,” both using the definite article. Although these verses contain the same grammatical construction, some versions render “spirit” in the former and “Spirit” in the latter. Moreover, verse 25 does not have the definite article, yet many versions render the word as “Spirit.” With or without the definite article, the same word may be rendered as “spirit” or “Spirit.”
In addition, the term Holy Spirit is not used in this chapter; in each case it is only a form of the word pneuma. This simply shows us that the Spirit of God is one with our human spirit, and to live in our spirit is to live in the Spirit. We are one spirit with the Lord; the Spirit and our spirit mingle as one spirit. To walk in the Spirit or to walk in spirit means the same thing; it means that we live and walk in our human spirit mingled with the Spirit, or we may say, in the Spirit who mingles Himself with our spirit.
Now we can realize that the Christian walk is a matter of living and walking by the Spirit. Therefore, we must learn how to exercise our spirit; this is the key and the secret. As we have seen, God’s intention is that Christ be everything to us, and Christ is in us, that is, in our spirit. What we must do now is live and walk by the Spirit. Hence, we must know how to exercise our spirit. Then we will have the practical experience of Christ in our daily walk.
Chapter 6 is simple. It reveals mainly that the world has been crucified to us and we to the world (v. 14). We have been crucified, and we are on the cross. Therefore, the cross of Christ is our ground. Moreover, because of the cross the whole world, including the law and Judaism, has been crucified. The world in verse 14 includes everything on the earth involving the human race, but in the thought of the writer, the world especially includes Judaism with the law. We know this because 1:4 contains the same thought, saying, “Who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age.” The Greek word here is not kosmos, meaning “world,” but aionos, meaning “age.” The world as a whole is composed of many ages, and each age is the part of the world that we contact at the present. The present evil age at the apostle’s time was mainly Judaism. Therefore, to be delivered from the present age at the apostle’s time meant to be delivered from Judaism, although in principle the age includes everything of the world.
As far as we are concerned, because of the cross the whole world, including Judaism and the law, is crucified. On the other hand, as far as the world is concerned, we are crucified. Therefore, we and the world have nothing to do with one another because between us two there is the cross. Our position is the cross. Therefore, in our life, living, and daily walk, we know nothing of circumcision or uncircumcision; we only know one thing — to be a new creation (6:15). Circumcision and uncircumcision are matters belonging to the old creation, but now we are a new creation. Paul knew nothing of these matters. He did not want to bear the signs of the law upon him. Instead, he bore in his body the brands of Jesus (v. 17).
The last verse in chapter 6 says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen” (v. 18). The closing word, the conclusion, of Galatians is that we must know two things — grace and our spirit. How regrettable today that Christians know nearly nothing about grace and our spirit. In today’s Christianity it is difficult to hear any messages on these two matters. Grace in our spirit is nothing less than God in Christ as the Spirit. Any other definition of grace is meaningless. The grace in verse 18 is a grace that is in us, even in our spirit. What else can be in our spirit? We may say that grace is something of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit strengthens, tempers, enlightens, guides, leads, and teaches us in our spirit, but this is too shallow. Eventually, we have to say that this guiding, leading, enlightening, strengthening, helping, and speaking Spirit is the grace Himself. Grace in our spirit is nothing less than the Triune God — God Himself in Christ as the Spirit — enjoyed by us daily, hourly, and moment by moment. It is the gracious God in His Son by the Spirit to be enjoyed by us as our comfort, our strength, our peace, our might, and as everything to us. There is no better definition for grace than this.
We must know this grace, and we must know how to exercise our spirit because this wonderful grace is in our spirit. Therefore, we must learn how to discern our soul from our spirit (Heb. 4:12). If we do not know how to discern our spirit, we are like the children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness. The book of Hebrews speaks of the temple with its three parts — the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Our body corresponds to the outer court, our soul to the Holy Place, and our spirit to the Holy of Holies. Similarly, Egypt, the wilderness, and the good land of Canaan correspond to our body, soul, and spirit respectively. To enjoy Christ as the Passover in Egypt was similar to enjoying the sin offerings on the altar in the outer court. Those who left Egypt and came into the wilderness typify people in the soul. Those who wandered in the wilderness enjoyed the manna and the living water from the cleft rock; that is, they enjoyed a certain amount of God’s presence, as the priests did in the Holy Place. This corresponds to the Christians today who are in the soul, the soulish Christians. Hebrews encourages us to press on to enter the good land. This is to enter into the Holy of Holies. We can enter into the Holy of Holies in a practical way by discerning our soul from our spirit. When we enter into our spirit, we enjoy the good land.
