Paul’s Letter to the Galatians – Summary – Freedom in Christ: Galatians, Grace, and the New Creation

Restore… don’t throw him out, but let us restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness. When someone has to be dealt with for trespasses, go to him gently. Go in a spirit of gentleness, and don’t go until you can’t. Go for restoration, but most of all, as you go, you look for yourself. And saints, I can only speak from personal experience. When it comes to correcting a brother, I look at myself, and there will be brothers here today who can witness to this, but I believe it’s more or less true, and it always has been. I have always said, quite spontaneously, that there’s no difference between you and me; you have not out-sinned me. We need that sense. There is no place for self-righteousness or boasting in the house of God, but you bear one another’s burdens. You fulfill the only law that you need to ever worry about. And that’s twice that Paul has said, “The only law you ever need to worry about is taking care of other people.” Those who have fallen, pick them up. Those who are burdened, shoulder the burden with them, and serve the saints in love. And then you fulfill the law. I don’t know why, but that seems to cover all the sins. Here you are in the two verses; we’re back and forth, and you’re what’s getting stomped on them, and neither seems very compassionate. Have you ever thought about that, that your spirit isn’t very compassionate? Have you noticed that your flesh…you knew this…is not compassionate? Your spirit is also not compassionate. They’re fighting a battle that has to do with eternity.

Now, each of you has a problem with the flesh. Do you not? And sometimes you feed the flesh, is that not true? You also have a spirit, and you sometimes feed your spirit; is this not true? And out of it the spirit comes. Okay, brothers, I am telling you that this whole thing of being a Christian, in some large measure, comes down to which you feed the most. If you nourish your spirit enough, the spirit will come up in your soul. If you nourish your flesh enough, your flesh will grow up in the soul. One of the two is going to whittle away. Little by little, the battlefield will be gained by one force or the other. It depends on which one you sow to. And you take that home with you, would you? There’s no law; there’s only sowing. They are not preaching circumcision because they think it’s taught by the Bible, or that God wants it. They are preaching circumcision so that they will not have to deal with the cross and the old law. Now, why he says that and what that fully means, I honestly do not know. All I can tell you is that the law is always substituted for suffering. You always take out suffering and replace it with the law. These men were afraid of the cross of Jesus Christ. They were afraid of what it would do to their lives, and they were afraid of what it would do to their religion. They were afraid of what it would do to the other people. They were afraid. They were afraid of the cross. They did not want the persecution that would come from declaring the cross. I said to you the other night that to preach the cross will eventually get you persecuted.