Gálatas 5
John Piper · Citado em PreceptAustin
Gálatas 5
Piper says when a Christian soldier's "evenings and days off (begin to be) filled up with harmless, enjoyable diversions… the whole feel changes. The radical urgency fades. The wartime mentality shifts to a peacetime mentality. The lifestyle starts to get cushy. The all-consuming singleness of vision evaporates."
Gálatas 5
Piper - "If you want God's favor, there are two ways to relate to him. You can relate to him as an heir, or you can relate to him as a slave. The difference is that a slave tries to become acceptable to his master by presenting him valuable service; but the heir trusts that the inheritance of his father is his by virtue of a will that was drawn up without his earning it at all. A slave is never quite sure he has done enough to please his master and win an honorable standing in the house. A son rests in the standing he has by virtue of his birth and the covenant his father made in his will to bless his children." Swindoll - The yoke of legalism restricts us by convincing us that an inflexible list of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" is the safest way to remain pure and acceptable to God. Believers caught in the yoke of legalism always search for partners to share the burden with them, recruiting more converts to the cause of slavery. The more legalists attached to the chain gang, the better—that's their mentality. Yet Paul's exhortation breaks the yoke before it catches us by the neck: Don't surrender your freedom; defend it with your life. (Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary – Galatians) Martin Luther - “Be steadfast, not careless. Lie not down and sleep, but stand up. Be watchful. Hold fast the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.” Those who loll cannot keep this liberty. Satan hates the light of the Gospel. When it begins to shine a little he fights against it with might and main. J
Gálatas 5
Piper says "through the Spirit means that what we do as we wait for our final transformation is depend on the Holy Spirit to help us do what we are supposed to do. "Through the Spirit," means that we do not live in our own strength but in the strength that God supplies by the Spirit (ED: THIS IS NOT "LET GO, LET GOD" BUT "LET GOD, LET'S GO!"). Paul talks about this in three different ways in Gal 5:16, Gal 5:18, and Gal 5:22. Gal 5:16: "But I say, walk by the Spirit." So we walk - we act, we educate, and we exult - but it is "by the Spirit." Gal 5:18: "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law." Here the stress falls on the work and initiative of the Spirit in our lives: we are led by the Spirit. That is how we educate and how we exult. The Holy Spirit takes the initiative and leads us. Gal 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." Here again the work of the Spirit is emphasized. The love and joy and peace that we experience are something the Spirit produces. They are His fruit. So in all four of these ways (Galatians 5:5, 16, 18, 22) of saying it, the point is that the Spirit is the Source of our behavior that sustains and shapes what we do. We wait for the hope of righteousness through the Spirit (verse 5), we walk by the Spirit (verse 16), we are led by the Spirit (verse 18), and we bear the fruit of the Spirit (verse 22). (Fulfilling the Law of Love) By faith - What does Paul mean with "by faith?" In simple terms, we believe what God has told us He will do to us and for us in the future. As Duncan points out even this faith is a gift of the Spirit. We trust God's promise to do good to us in the future and we live accordingly. We live enabled by His Spirit as aliens and strangers who believe that God has prepared a better place for us. Boice on by faith - This is the key word and stands in contrast to flesh, as all should be aware from the arguments of chapters 3 and 4. Circumcision is of the flesh. Faith denotes an entirely different approach. (Expositor's Bible Commentary - 1976) Spurgeon on by faith - If I wanted to describe saving faith in one word, I would say that it is trust. It is so believing God and so believing in Christ that we trust ourselves and our eternal destinies in the hands of a reconciled God. As creatures, we look up to the great Father of spirits; as sinners, we trust for the pardon of our sins to the atonement of Jesus Christ; as being weak and feeble, we trust to the power of the Holy Spirit to make us holy and to keep us so. We venture our eternal interests in the vessel of free grace, content to sink or swim with it. We rely upon God in Christ. Faith (4102)(pistis from peitho = persuade, be persuaded) properly is persuasion, God giving His persuasion about what pleases Him. Pistis is synonymous with trust or belief and is the conviction of the truth of something, in Scripture speaking of belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervor born of faith and joined with it. Faith is not just mental assent but firm conviction, surrender to that truth and conduct emanating from that surrender. For believers faith is "the Lord's inworked persuasion." (Gleason Archer) In its biblical sense, faith is always received by believers (never self-generated). Faith is always the gift (work) of God, from the moment of conversion, to the end of sanctification (so Wm. Tyndale, M. Luther, J. Calvin, etc.). Duncan adds on through the Spirit by faith - Glorification is something we receive as a gift, just as justification is a gift. In fact, glorification is the natural outcome and result of justification. And the gift of it is indicated by the fact that our faith is, Paul says, through the Holy Spirit. It is through His life giving power. We don't generate our own faith. We don't generate our own faithfulness. It is supernaturally given. The Law can't do that. It works death. The Spirit gives life (cf Jn 6:63). He gives faith, and in giving faith, joins us to Christ and keeps us alive and waiting for the glorious promise of the future. That's what happens through the Spirit. That preposition "through" signifies the grace of God. Ryken has an interesting interpretation of this verse writing that "When Paul speaks of waiting for righteousness, he is looking forward to the day of judgment, when God finally will render his verdict on every person who has ever lived." (Ibid) Are waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith - Notice that we wait for it. We don't work for it! We wait by faith, not by law! It's not a matter of human effort, of striving to earn God's favor by our good deeds. Living under the Law brings a sense of condemnation. Only living by faith brings a sense of hope. Donald Campbell on hope of righteousness - At the coming of Christ believers will be completely conformed to all the requirements of God's will (ED: THIS IS OUR HOPE - IT IS A SURE HOPE, NOT A HOPE SO!). The inward and forensic righteousness which began at justification will be transformed into an outward righteousness at glorification. God will then publicly acknowledge all believers' full acceptability with Him. (BKC) Hope is absolute assurance of future good. In this case the hope is righteousness. What does Paul mean? It would seem that the most straightforward interpretation is that "we Christians" are waiting for righteousness in the future. In other words, "we Christians" are waiting by faith (we are trusting in God's promises) for the future glory when full righteousness will be realized (at Glorification) and each of us will be perfect, not only positionally perfectly righteous before God (as we are now because we are in Christ, positionally in His perfect imputed righteousness - 1 Cor 1:30, 2 Cor 5:21), but experientially perfectly righteous and this will be our experience forever and ever. Amen! Piper on through the Spirit by faith explains that our life now "is lived in the power of Another, not in our own power. There is a reason for this. The reason is that the giver gets the glory. And God designs all things so He gets the glory. Here is the way Peter makes this crystal clear (1 Peter 4:11): "Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ." The Christian life is meant to be a life lived by the power of Another, namely, God the Spirit, so that God Alone will get the glory. Which leaves us the question: How do you live so that it no longer you who lives but the Spirit who lives through you (Galatians 5:5) - or Christ who lives in you (Galatians 2:20)? The answer is given in at least three different places in Galatians. One is right here in our text, Galatians 5:5, "For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness." The answer is that we tap into the power of the Spirit when we trust Christ. Why do I say, "Trust Christ"? Because that is what Galatians 2:20 says, ""I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me [there's the sustaining shaping power of the Another - ED: THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST LIVES IN ME]; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God." So Christ lives in me, that is, I live by the Spirit - How? "I live by faith in the Son of God." So the way we live "through the Spirit" or "walk by the Spirit" or are "led by the Spirit" or bear "the fruit of the Spirit" is to live "by faith in the Son of God." But we can be more specific. The third place in Galatians where we are told how to live by the Spirit is Galatians 3:5, "Does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" The Spirit is supplied and works in and among us "by hearing with faith." This means that the way to wait by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit is to trust the Word - the promises of Christ. "Hearing with faith" implies that Christ says something to us and we believe it. And in that very faith in what we hear, the Spirit is being supplied to us so that the effect will be the fruit of the Spirit - especially love (Gal 5:22; Gal 5:13). (Fulfilling the Law of Love)