Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 67 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; spirituality is productive; Gal 5.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 67 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; spirituality is productive; Gal 5.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

Principle: Spirituality is productive. Spirituality is not the avoidance of sin so much as it is the outworking of the life that is Christ.

 

GAL 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject [entangled as in a net] again to a yoke of slavery [under the law].

 

Love is good and the goodness of love can now be known by the church age believer through the Spirit of God, rather than just determining that love is good only because God says so.

 

We have left behind rituals and types for life and reality.

 

GAL 4:1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,

 

GAL 4:2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

 

GAL 4:3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

 

The OT saint is the spiritual minor while the CA believer is the spiritual son.

 

GAL 4:4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

 

GAL 4:5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

 

GAL 4:6 And because you are sons [huios - adult son], God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

 

The believer is adopted and elected as an adult son. This does not mean a mature adult, that will come, but a son no longer under a guardian.

 

Instead of looking upon God as a judge, they could now look upon Him as their Father with whom they have the privilege of living as His sons. The Spirit baptizes the believer into union with Christ at the moment of salvation and indwells him continually as a privileged son of God.

 

GAL 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

 

GAL 4:8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods [they were demonic].

 

Paul does not deny their existence, but their deity.

 

GAL 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God [idiom for becoming a son], how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

 

"known by God," refers to the fact that all of us who know God, owe that knowledge to Him. They did not come to know God through any law that they had as pagan Gentiles nor did they come to know Him through the Mosaic Law. God came to them. God called them through the common grace ministry of the Holy Spirit, and since this is true, why abandon the true source of knowledge of God for a legal system that couldn't reveal Him. Above all other laws, the Mosaic Law could lead a person towards the knowledge of God, but only faith would bring any knowledge. I can be led by someone to watch a bloody, animal sacrifice, but it would only be faith in what that even represented that could afford any true knowledge of God.

 

The Mosaic dispensation was a foreshadowing, a germ of the gospel: and thus, when Christ came, its spiritual element was of necessity extinguished or rather absorbed by its successor. When the reality of Christ came and He offered Himself as the one true sacrifice, the Law became a mere mass of lifeless ordinances, having no more significance to spirituality than any other ritualistic system.

 

Both in pagan religions and in the Law there were spiritual and ritualistic aspects. In the Law the spiritual was much higher than the ritual. The Law was holy since it came from God. No pagan religion could claim that, yet the Law didn't make a man righteous, justify a man, or save a man, so in that respect there is a similarity to the pagan ritualistic religions. The spiritual aspects of the pagan religions were evil and demonic and their ritualistic ways were not much higher. The spiritual aspect of the Mosaic Law pointed to the coming Messiah. However, both had rituals, and while the Jewish were superior to the pagan rituals, still in this way they could be compared as now being totally weak and beggarly. Both legalistic systems in their rituals are called "elementary principles of the world."

 

They had at least this in common, that as ritual systems they were made up of precepts and ordinances, and thus were representatives of 'law' as opposed to grace and promise, that is, as opposed to the gospel. Doubtless in this respect the highest form of heathen religion was much lower and less efficient than the Mosaic ritual. But still in an imperfect way they might do the same work: they might act as a restraint which, multiplying transgressions, and thus begetting and cherishing a conviction of sin [we even sin against weak moral codes like which existed in pagan religions], prepared the way for the liberty of manhood in Christ.

 

GAL 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.

 

GAL 4:11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

 

Martin Luther says of this verse, "These words of Paul breathe tears."

 

2CO 11:28

Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.

 

This is one of the qualities of a great leader. He truly does care for those whom he leads. We don't see a, "Not my problem," attitude in the apostle.

 

GAL 5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

 

From Paul's words we can infer that they had not yet submitted themselves to this ritual.

 

They are saved people, so the reference to Christ not being a benefit refers to their walk in the spiritual life. If they submit to circumcision they are putting themselves under the Law, by which they will deny their privilege of fellowship with Christ.

 

The NT believer has the indwelling of the Spirit for the purpose of experiential sanctification. He is to submit to His ministry and He will reveal all that belongs to Christ.

 

In the Old Testament dispensation, the Spirit came upon believers in order that they might perform a certain service for God, and then left them when that service was accomplished. Now, He indwells the believer for the purpose of lifelong sanctification.

 

GAL 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

 

You can't have it both ways. You can't serve two masters. If you're going to receive circumcision then you have put yourself under the obligation of the entire legal system. This might imply that the Judaizers had not told them this. Naturally, when you're trying to sell something that is not good for your customer, you hold back something of importance.

 

DEU 28:58

"If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God

 

Circumcision is a token of the Abrahamic Covenant, which is for Israel and not the church. We have a new covenant in His blood. What covenant promises are to you under this new covenant? How do they compare with the promises to Abraham?