Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 68 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; spirituality is productive; Gal 5.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 68 - 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].

 

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

 

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

 

GAL 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

 

"severed from" - katarge,w avpo. [katargeo apo] = to reduce to inactivity from, to be without effect from, to be without effective relation to. Therefore, unaffected by Christ in life.

 

The picture is a saved, born-again believer who walks through life unaffected by Christ, who is his husband, master, friend, lover, high priest, brother, and fellow heir. Truly Paul was correct when he stated, "you foolish Galatians."

 

The idea is that the Galatian Christians, by putting themselves under law, have put themselves in a place where they have ceased to be in that relation to Christ where they could derive the spiritual benefits from Him which would enable them to live a life pleasing to Him, namely, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Christ has no more effect upon them in the living of their Christian lives.

 

Hence, they have fallen from grace as saved people. Ekpipto (fallen) means to fall out of. We could say that they lost their grip on grace by turning to the works of the law.

 

The opposite of this, in which the yielded believer knows that he must hold tightly on to grace no matter what:

 

1TH 5:21

hold fast [katecho = hold down or firmly] to that which is good

 

No matter what may come: people, circumstances, false doctrines, we never relax our grip on the grace of God, which is all that is good.

 

Just because they had lost their grip on grace does not mean that God has lost hold of them. They are justified by means of the grace of God forever.

 

If that were not true then retention of salvation would depend on the works and behavior of the believer rather than the finished work of Christ and the faithfulness of the Trinity. If this was even remotely true then salvation is not based upon God.

 

GAL 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

 

We have studied this verse recently. It does not refer to positional righteousness. All believers are made righteous at salvation. This refers to experiential righteousness. It is true that we also wait for our ultimate glorification in heaven, but the context of this passage is the Christian life in time.

 

It is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that we hope for a more righteous walk in the future. He who began the good work will complete it. The believer understands that God is going to grow him up and that God is going to increase his faith.

 

1CO 3:6

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

 

MAT 5:6

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 

God says to us, "Just hunger and I will serve and fill you." These promises are to relax the believer, give him peace, and to enwrap him in the tranquility of the faithfulness of God.

 

GAL 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

 

Compare the effect of circumcision and faith. It is faith that changes lives and it is faith that effects a transformation of the life of the believer. By faith he loses his blindness and begins to see what God has done to him and what God has in store for him. Faith opens the possible and God fills that hope with things that are exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could have ever asked or thought.

 

GAL 5:7 You were running well; who hindered you [Greek: who cut in?] from obeying the truth?

 

When considering that there are many who never start running well, this is a tragedy. The question is rhetorical since Paul knows exactly who it is who hindered them with false teaching, the Judaizers.

 

When running an actual race, another runner could knock you out of the race, and so they have rules against it, but in the spiritual race, no one can knock you out unless you allow them to by believing their falsehood or reacting to their attack.

 

HEB 12:1-2

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for [in the place of] the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

When God commands you to run the race there is no option for an excuse as to why it was impossible for you to do so. The Galatians allowed the Judaizers to knock them out of the race into something that they actually thought was the race but wasn’t. Hence in the next sentence:

 

GAL 5:8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.

 

Persuasion, peismone, means an influence that has won you over.

 

It is amazing what people can be persuaded or won over to believe. When it is false, the persuasion works because of fear or lust in some area within the hearer. When God persuades it is always based upon grace in which the believer benefits and God is glorified. God’s persuasion is always based on pure truth and that fact alone persuades the humble believer.

 

GAL 5:9 A little leaven [evil] leavens the whole lump of dough.

 

A small amount of leaven works its way through the whole lump of dough. This fermentation, when heated, releases gas which puffs up the dough, which is an apt picture of the way in which evil can slowly permeate an organization with eventually making the whole group of people glory in their very evil. Paul is attempting a surgical procedure in this epistle to remove the leaven before it is too late.

 

GAL 5:10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

 

Despite a gloomy outlook, the spiritual leader maintains optimism and he encourages his people, even the backslidden.

 

1CO 13:7

[love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

It is so easy to despair in a situation that looks hopeless, to cry, “Game over, man!” But the great spiritual leader maintains hope until the end. If he doesn’t then all will despair with him. Moses didn’t quit on his hope when faced with a helpless situation at the Red Sea. David didn’t either when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds on the field before Goliath. Paul didn’t either when floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the cold Mediterranean Sea for a night and a day. Jesus didn’t cave in to temptation after forty days without food.