Living by Faith - Galatians

Liberty in Christ or Death

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 15-19

Genre: Talk

Track: 15

Dictation Name: Tape 08A

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts, in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, we come into Thy presence with joy and thanksgiving, knowing that because Thou art on the throne, all the evil, the raging’s, the plotting’s of men, will come to nothing; that Thy will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Bless us oh Lord in this faith, prosper us in Thy service, and make us ever zealous for Thy kingdom. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Our scripture is from Galatians 5:1-15, our subject: Liberty in Christ or Death. Galatians 5:1-15.

“5 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

These verses are often used by antinomians to vindicate their position, but they are in fact condemned by it. Because Paul in verse 4 makes clear that the issue is justification; is it by the law or is it by the grace of God through Christ? He is not, therefore, against the law, except as it is used for justification; and it is this which he condemns.

The Pharisees advocated justification by law, but the Pharisees as Paul makes clear before he is through with this letter, had a very limited view of the law. They equated the law with circumcision, and circumcision with salvation. As a matter of fact, in the thirteenth verse of the next chapter, Paul makes it clear that these Pharisees in the church do not keep the law, “for neither they themselves who were circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.”

So he says, these people who believe in justification by the law are reducing it to circumcision. They don’t keep the law of God. Moreover, they have an ulterior motive in part, for circumcision. In the 12th verse of 6th chapter: “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.”

In other words, this letter being written before the Jewish Roman war of 66-70 A.D., the immunity of Jews before the Roman law prevailed. And so these Pharisees were telling these Gentiles in Galatia: “It is very easy for you to escape persecution. Just be circumcised and you will have immunity in terms of the Roman law.”

As a result, what they were advocating was a pragmatic thing, and externalism; as though to be circumcised was enough to make you a member of the covenant and assure you of salvation. Paul lets us know, incidentally, that persecution did exist before 66 A.D., and this was the reason why circumcision was advocated by these Pharisees in the church.

Now there is a seeming paradox here; circumcision would give immunity as a Jew, and freedom from persecution. But Paul calls it slavery. On the other hand, to be a Christian meant persecution, but this he calls ‘true freedom.’ Because, as he makes clear in the first verse, Christ is freedom.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Their slavery came from accepting circumcision in the Pharisaic sense. Then there was no profit for the Galatian church members, from Christ; ‘no salvation’ he says in verse 2. If you put your trust in justification, in circumcision, then you cannot be Christ’s; you belong to the Pharisees. The Pharisees in the church saw circumcision as redemptive and regenerative, ‘and if you believe this,’ Paul says, ‘you have a duty to keep all of the law; not just circumcision. But if you do not keep it, neither do those who promote this doctrine. By resorting to the Pharisees law, because they had their own version of the law, for salvation, as though Christ were not sufficient, you are no longer Christ’s people,’ Paul tells them. ‘Christ is become of no effect unto you.’

Paul’s thesis is very clear, it is all or nothing. You cannot compromise. You cannot be half a Christian. You cannot play games with the faith. You either put all your trust in Christ for salvation, or you do not.

Incidentally, the Pharisees had a similar all-or-nothing view. But their ‘all’ was to accept circumcision, to be a part of the redeemed people, as they saw it; to be Abraham’s seed. That was the issue. But Paul has already made clear that Abraham’s seed refers to Christ, and to us insofar as we are in Christ. It does not refer to physical decent, but to the faith.

“For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” He says in verse 5.

Now this is an interesting sentence, and there are many such sentences in Paul. Paul speaks of justification as an accomplished fact for us, and as the beginning of the Christian life. He also speaks at times of salvation as a future event for those who have been justified. He speaks of it as a prize for the athlete, for example, in 1 Corinthians 9:24 following. In Romans 13:11 he says: “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” What does Paul mean when he says we are fully justified by Christ’s atoning death, and yet our salvation is in some sense in the future?

In Philippians 3:9-14 the meaning is clear. Our salvation is full realized in the New Creation with the resurrection of the dead, so that Paul both at times speaks of us as being saved in Christ, but also says our salvation is really accomplished in all its implications, in all its meaning, in the world to come in our physical resurrection.

Paul then goes on in verse 7 to say that the Galatians began very ably, but now they have fallen by the wayside. ‘who is it that is hindering you?’ They now follow, he implies, Christ’s enemy, and in verse 9 the evil influence, however small at the start he says, can work a vast amount of harm.

Then in verse 10 he expresses confidence that the Galatians will return, and those troubling them will be judged. Now it is interesting that the Pharisees were saying that Paul was preaching circumcision; this comes out in verse 11.

“And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.”

They were both attacking Paul, and were saying: ‘But he really believes with us, if he only knew how to straighten out his thinking, because he also preaches circumcision.’ Well, the book of Acts as well as Paul’s letters make it clear that Paul was not against the law, not against circumcision for the Jews and for those who were half Jewish. But he was against anyone telling the Gentiles they had to be circumcised to be saved. Paul at no point opposes any of the practices of the Old Testament law, he opposes the Pharisaic use of them.

Verse 12 is a very important verse, very often given a false meaning and a false translation by many: “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.”

Paul says: ‘Let them castrate themselves.’ Now that is what he is literally saying. As Conybeare and Howson rendered that verse: “I could wish that these agitators who disturb your quiet would execute upon themselves not only circumcision but excision also.” Now most people are embarrassed by such a statement from saint Paul, such a statement in the Bible; it sounds very nasty. But this is what Paul said, and its meaning is very important, in fact central, to the whole of these verses. Remember, when Paul was writing there were pagan priests all around the Galatians and throughout the Roman Empire, who routinely, especially in the one pagan goddesses cult, castrated themselves as a way of showing their dedication and super-holiness.

They rendered themselves impotent to show they were holy, and Paul’s point is ‘a dead faith deserves dead men. To be logical, you Pharisees in the church should castrate yourselves, because your faith is an impotent one when you depart from Christ and His atonement as our justification. Do the logical thing. You are impotent spiritually, be impotent physically like these pagan priests.’

He then declares: ‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, kept in one word, put into force as far as its relationship to men is concerned: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye go on fighting,’ he says in verse 15, ‘one with another, tooth and nail, all you can expect is mutual destruction.’

There was serious conflict in the Galatian churches. There was a struggle for power, not a struggle in terms of the faith. As Paul says in eh 16th verse: “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” They were seeking to fulfill their own power goals, rather than to serve Christ. Phariseeism was elitism. It was concerned with form, with outward observance.

Paul, in Romans 2:29, as against the Pharisees, against all externalism, declared: “He is a Jew,” that is, ‘he is a covenant man,’ “who is one inwardly.” Now Mohammed answered Paul in famous statement, and it is significant that Mohammed was greatly influenced by Pharisees, the Pharisees of his day; and Mohammed said: “He is a Muslim who is one outwardly.” He reduced religion to externalism. The five pillars of Islam which make a man a Muslim are 1st, a regular repetition of the Creed; 2nd, the repetition of prescribed prayers, five times daily at three prescribed places. 3rd, the duty of alms-giving; 4th, to observe the feast of Ramadan; and 5th the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Now it is interesting, that all the way through University, and as I pick up all kinds of books on religion by humanistic scholars, there is a universal respect for Islam, together with a viciousness with regard to Christianity. Now this should not surprise us. What does humanism represent? It is the gospel of externalism. What is our foreign policy today, but the gospel of externalism? ‘Let’s save the world with foreign aid, with dollars. Let us resort to this or that remedy, external remedies, and we will deal with poverty, with crime, with everything else.’

We were told in recent years that the whole of the crime-explosion was due to the fact that there was a baby boom after WW2, and the baby boomers were youth exuberantly expressing themselves, and hence crime; and as the 80’s began, books assured us that the crime rate would drop because these baby boomers would be getting older, and they would be shucking off their criminal activities. And so there was no end of jubilation when a couple of years the crime rate showed a slight drop; it was the vindication of their thesis, and books were triumphantly written to prove that they had been right all along in their predictions. But the recently reported data for 1984, they have just gotten around to that, indicates that the crime rate is again rising. So their externalist perspective has been confounded.

They will not look to the heart of man, they will not look to the fact of moral consideration. One book by the way has done that, James Hugh Wilson, who has insisted that this has been a neglected area; but by and large such perspectives are usually disregarded. Of course today the gospel according to externalism, Marxism, is sweeping the world. It again is the developed form of Phariseeism, as is our foreign aid policy, as is our legislative policy in the States and in Washington, and in countries around the world. ‘Let us deal with the externals and we will make man a new creation.’

This is why Paul says what he does. He says: ‘when you follow Phariseeism, when you follow the gospel according to externalism, you reduce man to a eunuch. You make him unproductive as far as the faith is concerned. If you feel that being nice to people is going to make them nice people, you are a eunuch in your philosophy, in your faith, in your religion, and you might as well be one.’

Paul in terms of modern thinking is not a nice person. He is very blunt, but he tells the truth. Man is created in God’s image, in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, dominion, and with the law written in all his being. The fact of God’s image in man is the key to history, but externalism has another way. Instead of developing the implication of the image of God in the redeemed man, externalism says: ‘leave man alone, just change the externals and all will be well.’ But Paul tells us man is dead outside of Christ. He cannot create a new order or a new world, any more than a castrated man can beget children. To deny Christ in our liberty in Christ is equal to death, to slavery, to self-castration.

World event have demonstrated again and again, and are demonstrating all over the world today, the truth of what Paul says. The experts however go their merry way, failing to see that Paul is right, that their thinking is productive of slavery. But Paul makes it clear: either liberty in Christ, or death. This is the issue. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thy word is truth. Thou hast called us to be free men in Christ, or to be slaves, impotent and dead of all productivity apart from Him. Grant, oh Lord, that in this world of dead men, that Thy Spirit may work, and as in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, these dead may become living in Thee, and that Thy kingdom may come and Thy will be done, and that we may be effectual to that end. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Otto Scott] Well, what you are saying is that public relations won’t do.

[Rushdoony] Yes; it is interesting that we have developed such a concept in our time, and we have become Pharisees par-excellence. The fact of public relations is Phariseeism carried to the ‘nth degree. I had never thought of that, but that is very telling. In fact, one can say that public relations has really taken over in one area after another as the be-all and end-all of things, that it’s the solution.

[Audience Member] (?)

[Rushdoony] Mhmm, to look good, and to smooth ruffled feathers, as though this will solve the world’s problems.

You ought to write on that sometime Otto, the significance of public relations… it is Phariseeism. I can hardly write to call a PR man a Pharisee! Any other questions or comments?

If not let us bow our heads in prayer. Oh Lord our God, great and marvelous are Thy ways, and Thy word is truth, and Thy word shall prevail. Bless us oh Lord in the study of Thy word, that we may grow in grace, grow in strength in Christ, and become more than conquerors in Him.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect… [tape ends]