To sow for the fulfilling of the purpose of the flesh issues in corruption; to sow for the accomplishing of the aim of the Spirit issues in life, even eternal life. Corruption is of the flesh, indicating that the flesh is corrupted; eternal life is of the Spirit and is the Spirit Himself.
This refers mainly to the ministering of material things to the needy (2 Cor. 9:6-9).
The household of the faith refers to the children of promise (Gal. 4:28), all who are sons of God through faith in Christ (Gal. 3:26). All the believers in Christ together constitute a universal household, the great family of God. This is through faith in Christ, not through the works of law. This household, as the new man (Col. 3:10-11), is composed of all the members of Christ, with Christ as their constituent. Hence, we should do good, especially toward those of this household, regardless of their race and social rank (Gal. 3:28).
See note Gal. 1:232b.
Perhaps this was because of the disease in Paul's eyes (Gal. 4:13-15 and note Gal. 4:152).
See note Gal. 3:32a, and note Gal. 5:191 and note Gal. 5:221a.
With a view to, or, for. To sow unto one's own flesh is to sow for one's own flesh, with the desire and purpose of the flesh in view, to fulfill what the flesh covets. To sow unto the Spirit is to sow for the Spirit, with the desire and aim of the Spirit in view, to accomplish what the Spirit desires. Everything we do is a sowing either unto our own flesh or unto the Spirit, and all our sowing issues in a reaping either of corruption out of the flesh or of eternal life out of the Spirit.
This refers again to the Judaizers' false teachings, which caused the Galatians to deviate from the Spirit in their spirit to the keeping of the law by their flesh.
Things that are good for this life, the necessities of daily living.
Those who think of themselves as something will not bear the burdens of others. Only those who do not regard themselves as anything will bear others' burdens as a spontaneous result of walking in and by the Spirit.
The higher and better law of life, which works through love (Rom. 8:2; John 13:34). Love is the issue and expression of the divine life (cf. 1 Cor. 13) and is an item of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). The law of Christ, which is the law of love, must be substantiated by the law of the Spirit of life that we may be able to bear one another's burdens.
I.e., living and walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).
Lit., are not relaxed.
To sow for the fulfilling of the purpose of the flesh issues in corruption; to sow for the accomplishing of the aim of the Spirit issues in life, even eternal life. Corruption is of the flesh, indicating that the flesh is corrupted; eternal life is of the Spirit and is the Spirit Himself.
See note Gal. 3:32, and note Gal. 5:191 and note Gal. 5:221a.
Lit., good countenance; hence, good appearance for making a good show, a fair display. It is used here in a negative sense.
Circumcision, like the cross, is not a good show but an abasement. However, the Judaizers made it a good show as a boast in the flesh (v. 13).
I.e., outwardly in the sphere of the flesh, which is condemned and repudiated by God. To be in the flesh is to be in our natural and external being without the inward reality and spiritual value that are in our regenerated spirit.
cf. Phil. 3:3
cf. 2 Cor. 10:17; Phil. 3:3
The cross was truly an abasement, but the apostle made it his boast.
The world has been crucified to us and we to the world. This has taken place not directly but through Christ, who was crucified.
The next verse, being an explanation of this verse, proves that the world here is mainly the religious world. In this book Paul dealt with religious people who were concerned for the things of God but who were misguided and were in error and whose religion had become a world. By the cross we are separated from the religious world and are thus qualified to live in the new creation.
The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without God's life and the divine nature. The new creation is the new man in Christ (Eph. 4:24), our being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God's life and the divine nature wrought into it (John 3:36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and having become a new constitution. This refers to the nature, the inward and intrinsic organic constituent, of the church. Thus, the new creation is composed of sons; it is a corporate, divine sonship (Gal. 3:26; 4:5, 7) brought forth through Christ's redemption, the Spirit's regeneration, and God's dispensing of Himself into us, and through our entering collectively as this new man into an organic union with the Triune God.
The old creation was old because it did not have God's element; the new creation is new because it has God as its element. Although we are still the old creation, we experience the reality of the new creation when we walk according to the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). The main issue in this book is that we are the new creation and that we should live by the new creation through an organic union with the Triune God. This new creation fulfills God's eternal purpose, which is to express Himself in His sonship.
Circumcision is an ordinance of the law; the new creation is the masterpiece of life with the divine nature. The former is of dead letters; the latter is of the living Spirit. Hence, the new creation is what matters. This book exposes the impotence of both the law and circumcision. The law cannot impart life (3:21) to regenerate us, and circumcision cannot energize us (Gal. 5:6) to live a new creation. But the Son of God, who has been revealed in us (Gal. 1:16), can enliven us and make us a new creation, and Christ, who lives in us (Gal. 2:20), can afford us the riches of His life that we may live the new creation. The law has been replaced by Christ (Gal. 2:19-20), and circumcision has been fulfilled by Christ's crucifixion (v. 14). Hence, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation with Christ as its life is what matters. To be the new creation is the reason for and result of sowing unto the Spirit (v. 8). The keeping of the law and the practicing of circumcision are a sowing unto the flesh; they do not change the old creation. But sowing unto the Spirit makes us a new creation, which is re-created by the Spirit, transformed by the divine life, and constituted with the rich element of the processed Triune God by His mingling of Himself with us.
cf. 2 Cor. 4:10; 11:23-27
The marks branded on slaves to indicate their owners. With Paul, a slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1), the brands were physically the scars of his wounds received in his faithful service to his Master (2 Cor. 11:23-27). Spiritually, they signify the characteristics of the life that he lived, a life like the one the Lord Jesus lived on this earth. Such a life is continually crucified (John 12:24), does the will of God (John 6:38), does not seek its own glory but the glory of God (John 7:18), and is submissive and obedient to God, even unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). The apostle followed the pattern of the Lord Jesus, bearing the brands, the characteristics of His life. In this he was absolutely different from the Judaizers.
The grace of Jesus Christ is the bountiful supply of the Triune God (who is embodied in the Son and realized as the life-giving Spirit) enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit.
Our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit, who is the focus of God's promised blessing stressed so much throughout this book. It is in this spirit of ours that we experience and enjoy the Spirit as the central blessing of the New Testament. Hence, we need the grace of the Lord, which is the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit (Phil. 1:19), to be with our spirit.
Christ, the Spirit, the new creation, and our spirit are the four basic items revealed in this book as the underlying thought of God's economy. Christ is the center of God's economy, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. When Christ is realized through the Spirit in our spirit, we become the new creation. Hence, our spirit is vital for us to live the life of the new creation for the fulfilling of God's purpose.
This book places strong emphasis on the cross and the experience of crucifixion, in order to deal with the negative items, such as the law, the flesh, the "I," the religious world, slavery, and the curse, thereby bringing in the positive items that are revealed in this book: Christ, the Spirit, the sons of God, the heirs of promise, the household of the faith, the new creation, and the Israel of God. The summarizing thought in this book is that through the cross of Christ the law, the flesh, and religion are terminated that we may obtain the Spirit, the new creation, and our spirit, that through the Spirit, who is the realization of Christ, we may be the new creation in our spirit, bearing the brands of Jesus, and that we may enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in our spirit.
The rebuked foolish Galatians (Gal. 3:1) had already been addressed with this intimate term a number of times (Gal. 1:11; 3:15; 4:12, 28, 31; 5:11, 13; 6:1). At the close of such a severe, rebuking, and warning Epistle, the apostle used this loving term again, placing it particularly at the end of the sentence, to express his unchanging love toward them, assuring them that they were still his brothers in the household of the faith (v. 10).
See note Gal. 5:252a.
The rule of being a new creation, of living by the Spirit through faith, having the Triune God as our life and living, in contrast to keeping the law by observing ordinances. To walk by this rule is to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).
I.e., the real Israel (Rom. 9:6b; Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3), including all the Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ, who are the true sons of Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29), who are the household of the faith (v. 10), and who are those in the new creation. They walk by "this rule," express God's image, and execute God's authority, and are typified by Jacob, who was transformed into Israel, a prince of God and a victor (Gen. 32:27-28).
