Galatians 5: Freedom That Fulfills the Law
Galatians 5: Freedom That Fulfills the Law
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
1. The Essence of Faith: Faith Working Through Love
The theological argument of Galatians reaches its climax in the declaration of verse 6: "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." With this single sentence, Paul dismantles every boundary the legalists had erected. The circumcision they championed as the mark of true faith now carries no meaning or power whatsoever. Before the cross, every religious act and achievement we might put forward becomes powerless. What remains, then? Only faith in Christ, and the fruit that inevitably flows from that faith—love. Here, faith is not merely intellectual assent. It is a living force that manifests itself in the concrete action of love throughout our lives. While circumcision served as a dividing marker that separated and discriminated, love becomes the evidence of unity that serves and binds us together. What is your faith doing? Is it building up legal requirements to prove itself, or is it working through love that gives itself away for the sake of others?
2. The Purpose of Freedom: To Become Servants of Love
Paul proclaims how glorious the freedom Christians have received is, while simultaneously warning how dangerous that freedom can be. "Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh." The fleshly desire Paul speaks of here is twofold. First, there is the worldly desire that slides into licentiousness—the fatal misunderstanding that being freed from all law means we can now live however we please. Second, there is the religious desire to return to the law—the subtle work of the flesh that finds the freedom of grace unsettling and seeks to confirm its salvation through visible acts like circumcision. Paul rejects both of these dangerous paths and presents a third way: the way of serving one another in love. The freedom Christians have received is neither freedom for licentiousness nor freedom to keep the law. It is freedom for love alone. We have been liberated from our former state as slaves to sin to now be called as servants of love, with joy and voluntariness. This is the true purpose of freedom and its most glorious use.
3. The Paradox of Grace: An Ethic of Gratitude
"For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Paul does not abolish the law. Rather, he shows how the true spirit of the law is fulfilled in Christ. The law can never be completed through efforts to keep its provisions one by one. However, when we experience the overwhelming love of Christ who gave Himself for us (the cross), we respond with gratitude for that grace. This ethic of gratitude becomes the new power that enables us to voluntarily love our neighbors, surpassing all the demands of the law.
The more we strive to practice this love, the more deeply we realize our own inadequacy and selfishness. This is the amazing paradox of grace. The brighter God's grace shines, the more we sense our own wretchedness, like Paul who confessed himself the chief of sinners. Yet this realization leads not to despair but to greater gratitude. We come to confess that this love is possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, not through our own strength. This is the final confession of mature faith. In the end, the freedom of Galatians is not a license that makes us arrogant, but an invitation to grace that leads us to a place of deeper gratitude and lower service. This is precisely what Paul is appealing to the Galatian community to understand.