Part CXII on Galatians Study

Galatians 5:11a
"And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?..."
Well who were his chief persecutors? The Judaizers. A verse comes to mind in the Book of Acts chapter 15. Most of you know this but we may have someone who has have never seen this before. But here in this chapter is exactly what Paul was up against. And here Luke, the historian, is writing.


Acts 15:1
"And certain men which came down from Judaea (to Antioch where Paul and Barnabas had been ministering primarily to Gentiles) taught the brethren, (those believing Gentiles at Antioch) and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved."
Do you see how clear that is? That's what Paul was up against. See those people came down from Jerusalem with authority. We mean after all they were emissaries of the Twelve. A lot of people probably don't like the idea that we put Peter, James and John, along with a lot of these Judaizers, but Galatians 2:7-9 indicates that. Now we're going to skip the next 3 verses and now come up to verse 5. As the counsel takes place in Jerusalem with the Twelve and Paul and Barnabas.

Acts 15:5
"But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, (in other words they, like the Twelve, had believed for salvation in His name only that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah) saying. That it was needful to circumcise them, (these Gentile converts at Antioch) and to command them to keep the law of Moses."
Now these believers at Galatia were falling for that, and this is what Paul had to constantly remind them that they had not been taught that way. For they weren't even of the Hebrews heritage. Even now in our day and time there are many who believe that we're all to become Jewish in order to comply to their way of understanding the scriptures. What people need to know is that a Gentile is a Gentile and a Hebrews is still a Jew or an unbelieving Hebrew. Now back to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 11.

Galatians 5:11
"And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? (Paul says, `If I preached what the Judaizers in Jerusalem preached then I'd have clear sailing. I wouldn't have any opposition, I wouldn't be under this persecution. Because that's their main reason for hating me and fighting me. I will not give in to circumcising these Gentile believers, or any other form of my prior way of life in the Jewish faith, no not for one minute. If I preached circumcision) then is the offence or the cross ceased (or brought to an end)."

Isn't that amazing? All Paul would have had to do to have an easy road was to succumb to the pressure. All he would have had to do was give in and say, "Okay, Okay I'll teach circumcision, I'll preach Law-keeping, just get off my back." Now God wouldn't have been satisfied but the world would have. And the Church would have just died a natural death and Satan would have gloated all the way into eternity, but Paul didn't. He dug his heals in and said, NO! Paul never backed off or gave in to those Judaizers. But what do we have today all those old dead do's and don'ts, the holidays and the rituals of the sacrifices even among professing believers. Paul says by the Holy Spirit that we're to have NO fellowship with the ways of darkness, look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 11:


Ephesians 5:11
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Here he also says that we're to reprove them, those who are in err, we when we find fault in them we're to openly correct in love. We're to be a judge of the fruits of their life and speech. As many can a test to this is not the practice of the many.

Before we continue lets review a little, Galatians is a Book determining the fact that we're not under Law but rather Grace. We know there are lots of people that don't know what we're talking about, and they'll look at us quizzically and say, "Well, what do you mean?" Well hopefully what the Book of Galatians is showing is that we're not under the old dead system of Law, we are not under any kind of legalistic demands for our salvation. But rather salvation is all of Grace by faith only + nothing, or else any works we would add to salvation takes away from the finished work of the Cross. Anything we add to this Gospel of Grace or the revelation of Christ nullifies Grace and provokes God's wrath. See this is the whole concept of God dealing within us, this predominately Gentile Body of Christ in Grace, is that we have to believe that He did everything that needs to be done.

And as soon as we try to add to that for salvation then in actuality we're saying, "Well Christ didn't really finish it!" But he did and God has let us know in His Word and especially through the writings of this Apostle Paul that it was finished and we stand in His presence justified, forgiven, sanctified, glorified, holy and godly and all those good words simply because we can believe that it is a finished transaction. So this has been the whole concept of this little letter to the Galatians who were being tempted to go under legalism, which at that time was prompted by the Hebrews, and that was circumcision, and if circumcision the it just follows with the rest of the customs and rituals. For they had not the mind of Christ nor the Spirit of Christ in them because they we pressuring for action out side the Mind of God and God's Will. So Paul has been dealing with that in particular. But for us today circumcision is not so much the criteria, as it's all those other things that people try to tell us that we have to do beside believing this Gospel, as found in I Corinthians 15:1-4. But don't believe what they say, because the Word says that it is by faith, and faith alone. And back in Romans Paul uses the old man Abraham as the prime example of someone who was saved by faith and faith alone. Now as we begin our study in verse 13 we find -


Galatians 5:13a
"For, brethren, (believers) ye have been called unto liberty; (freedom) only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,..."
Now we need to stop there and go back to Romans chapter 3 because Scripture has to be used to constantly explain Scripture. Then we will also look at a verse in chapter 6, and we think this just says it all.