CHRISTIAN LIBERTY 1. christian liberty: its imperilment by legalism 1-12 2. freedom and libertinism 13-15 3.the proper use of liberty 16-26 1. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY: ITS IMPERILMENT BY LEGALISM [1- 12] One’s decision about circumcision has broad implications. To accept circumcision, in principle, is to ploneself under the jurisdiction of the whole law in its literal dress. Christian liberty is an outgrowth of salvation by grace and is realized by the believer in and through our Lord Jesus Christ [4:3-5]. Through grace we attained freedom from the yoke of the Mosaic Law in its literal dress; but it does not mean freedom to break the Law or to commit sins. Christ is not sheriff, but He is the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sins (John 1:29). Through grace, the believer becomes “inlawed to Christ” and is initiated and delighted into “the law of Christ” [6:2]. As a Spirit-indwelt and Spirit-empowered son [4:1-7] has the inner desire and power to live out the moral law of God. Under the New Covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit works in the new nature of the believer, making him willing to obey God’s will and to comply with his moral law (Heb 10:16). The believer realizes, too, that he will be judged for his works as a prelude to heaven. He must constantly keep in mind that his very freedom has brought him into total subjection to Christ, whose bond servant he is and whom he must always obey (Rom. 12:1). This is a paradox. But the Christian discovers that he enjoys his greatest liberty when he is most completely enslaved to our Lord Jesus Christ1. “Standfast therefore in the liberty by which Christ made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” [1]. Observe in how many ways he leads them away from the error of Judaism; by showing , first, that it was the extreme of folly of those, who had became free instead of slaves, to desire to become slaves instead of free; secondly, that they would be convicted of neglect and ingratitude to their Benefactor, in despising Him who had delivered them, and loving him who had enslaved them...; thirdly by the word, “stand fast,” he indicates their vacillation. St. John Chrysostom “that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing” [2] “Behold, I Paul say unto you” which is the expression of one who has confidence in what he asserts... He that is circumcised is circumcised for fear of the law, and he who fears the law, distrusts the power of grace, and he who distrusts can receive no benefit from that which is distrusted... If one may say what seems a paradox, such an one believes neither Christ nor the law, but stands between them, desiring to benefit both by one and the other, whereas he 1 Unger’s Survey of the Bible, p. 290. 2 will reap fruit from neither...1 St. John Chrysostom The parts of the law are linked one to the other... In the case of the Law, if you take upon you a small portion of it, and submit to the yoke, you draw down upon yourself its whole domination... For example; Circumcision has sacrifice connected with it, and the observance of days; sacrifice again has the observance both of day and of place and involves the details of endless purifications including a perfect swarm of manifold observances... If then you are circumcised, but not on the eighth day, or on the eighth day, but no sacrifice is offered, or a sacrifice is offered, but not in the prescribed place, or in the prescribed place, but not the accustomed objects, or if the accustomed objects, but not you be unclean, or if clean yet not purified by proper rules, every thing is frustrated. Wherefore he says, “that he is a debater to the whole Law2.” If the law is needed, it is so as a whole, not in a part, not in one commandment only; and if as a whole, the righteousness which is by faith is little by little shut out. If you keep the Sabbath, why not also be circumcised? and if circumcised, why not also offer sacrifices? If the law is to be observed, it must be observed as a whole, or not at all3. St. John Chrysostom He at length declares the danger of the severest punishment [4]. When a man recurs to the Law, which cannot save him, and falls from grace, what remains but an inexorretribution, the Law being powerless, and grace rejecting him?4 St. John Chrysostom DO WE BREAK THE LAW IN FAITH? We do not beak the law, even its rituals. For example the sacrifices are fulfilled in the unique self-sacrifice of Christ, which is offered on behalf of all believers. The circumcision has been realized spiritually in a perfect way in baptism. The Sabbath is observed spiritually as all our days are a Sabbath (rest) in Christ. We understand all the more that we ought to observe a Sabbath from all “servile work” always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time5. Tertullian “For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness” [5]. We need none of those legal observances, he says; faith suffices to obtain for us the Spirit, and by Him righteousness, and many and great benefits6. St. John Chrysostom What is the meaning of “fallen from grace” [4]? 1. It means abandoning the true gospel of grace, when a believer depends on his self-righteousness or observes the Mosaic law in its literal dress as a source of salvation 1 Chapter 5. 2 Chapter 5. 3 Chapter 5. 4 Chapter 5. 5 An answer to the Jews, 4. 6 Chapter 5 3 and righteousness. 2. When a believer despises grace by sowing in the flesh his carnal desires, he reaps moral weakness instead of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We have to honor the divine grace. FAITH WORKING THROUGH LOVE Faith in Christ, the Liberator, is that which is “working through love” [6]. It is possible that here St. Paul has in mind the mutual love between God and man. Man is made active by God’s love, to which he responds and gives expression to it by obeying the commandment of love1. Observe the great boldness with which he now encounters them ; Let him that has put on Christ, he says, no longer be careful about such matter [6]... What is the meaning of “working through love?” Here he gives them a hard blow, by showing that this error had crept in because the love of Christ had not been rooted within them. For to believe is not all that is required, but also to abide in love. It is as if he had said, Had you loved Christ as you ought, you would not have deserted to bond age, nor abandoned Him who redeemed you, nor treated with contumely Him who gave you freedom. He wishes too by these words to correct their course of life2. St. John Chrysostom That faith distinguishes us from the faith of devils (Jas 2:19),and from the infamous and abandoned conduct of men... Take away faith, and all you believe perishes, take away charity, and all you do perishes. For it is the province of faith to believe, of charity to do. Not the hearers of the law are just before God (Rom. 2:13). But because “the doers of the law shall be justified,” and, “faith working through love,” it says, “Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing is an offense to them.” I do not exhort you to have faith, but love. For you cannot have love without faith; the love I mean of God and your neighbor; whence can it come without faith? How does he love God, who does not believe on God? How does the fool love God, “who says in his heart, there is no God”? (Ps. 53:10). It is possible that you may believe that Christ has come and not love Christ. But it is not possible that you should love Christ, and yet say that Christ has not come3. St. Augustine OBEDIENCE IN LOVE Obedience [7-12] in love is also de scribed as obedience to the “truth” of the gospel, from which the apostle fears his readers are being distracted4. He who called you [8], called you not to such fluctuations, he did not lay down a L, that you should judaize5. 1 Furnish, p. 297 2 In Galat., Chapter 5 3 Sermons on N.T. Lessons 3:11; 31:1; 40:8. 4 Furnish, p. 297 5 Chapter 5 4 St. John Chrysostom “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” [7]. And thus this slight error, he says, if not corrected, will have power (as the leaven has with the lump) to lead you into complete Judaism1. St. John Chrysostom Every where he connects complaint with his praises; here [10] is as he had said, I know my disciples, I know your readiness to be set right. I have good hopes, partly be cause of the Lord who suffers nothing, however trivial, to perish, partly because of you who are quickly to recover yourself. At the same time he exhorts them to use diligence on their own parts, it not being possible to obtain aid from God, if our own efforts are not contributed... Not only by words of encouragement, but by uttering a curse or a prophecy against their teachers, he applies to them an incentive. And observe that he never mentions the name of these plotters, that they might not become more shameless2.St. John Chrysostom “But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?” [11]... “If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? for this is the only charge which they of the Jewish descent have to bring against me. Had I permitted them to receive the faith, still retaining the customs of their fathers, neither believers nor nonbelievers would have laid snares for me, seeing that non of their own usages were disturbed. What then! did he not preach circumcision? did he not circumcise Timothy? Truly he did. How then can he say, “I preach it not?” Here observe his accuracy; he says not, “I do not perform circumcision,” but, “I preach it not,” that is, I do not bid men so to believe. Do not therefore consider it any confirmation of your doctrine, for though I circumcised, I did not preach circumcision... When they brought Stephen before the council, they said not that this man adores the Crucified, but that he speaks “against this holy place and the Law” (Acts 6:13). And it was of this they accused Jesus, that he broke the Law. Wherefore Paul says, If Circumcision be conceded, the strife you are involved in is appeased; here after there is no enmity to the Cross and our preaching remains... He calls it the offense of the Cross, because it was enjoined by the doctrine of the Cross; and it was this which principally offended the Jews, and hindered their reception of the Cross, namely, the command to abandon the usages of their fathers3. St. John Chrysostom 2. Observe how bitterly he speaks here [12] against their deceivers. At the outset he directed his charge against those who were deceived, and called them foolish, once and again. Now, having sufficiently corrected and instructed them, he turns to their deceivers...4 And he says well “that unsettle you.” For they had compelled them to abandon 1 Chapter 5 2 Chapter 5 3 Chapter 5 4 Furnish, p. 298 5 their own fatherland, their liberty, and their heavenly kindred, and to seek an alien and foreign one; they had cast them out of Jerusalem which is above and free, and compelled them to wander forth as captives and emigrants. St. John Chrysostom 2. FREEDOM AND LIBERTINISM [13-15] The danger that freedom from legal observances may lead believers into excesses of other kinds can only be guarded against by the practice of Christian charity. The gospel of grace guards against recklessness [13-15]. Freedom is not to be confused with libertinism. Freedom from the legalism of life under the law does not mean release from responsibility. Instead it constitutes a summons to the greater responsibilities of life under grace. The gospel asks more, not less; for though it prescribes only one requirement - love-that one is unqualified and its implications cannot be specified in advance1. “For you, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh” [12]... For the bonds of the Law are broken, and I say this not that our standard may be lowered, but that it may be exalted... Thus Paul says that Christ has removed the yoke from you, not that you may prance and kick, but that though without the yoke you may proceed at a well-measured pace and next he shows the mode whereby this may be reflected; and what is this mode? he says, “But through love be servants one to another” [13]2. St. John Chrysostom 3. THE PROPER USE OF LIBERTY [16-26] We abuse our liberty: 1. By lack of love [13-15]: Where freedom is not exercised in love, it leads to mutual destruction, the tragedy and violence of which are graphically portrayed in verse 153. The whole Law can be summed up in this one command: “Love others as you love your self.” 2. By obeying the flesh (5:15): Just as love is the proper content of freedom, so the Spirit is its proper context, that which gives power and guidance4. We think that grace leads us to live as we please and do as we like. Grace leads us to live joyfully as God pleases and like what He likes. The apostle confirms that the purpose of the Mosaic Law was to drive men to Christ for both salvation and practical holiness of life. He also presents the human responsibility in experiential sanctification, saying: “Walk by the Spirit” [16]. We have the choice to walk by the power of the Spirit or to accomplish “the works of the flesh” [5:9-21]. In the competition for a person’s life the desires of the Spirit are opposed by the desires of the flesh (Rom. 8:4). He that loves his neighbor as he ought, declines to be servant to him more humbly than any servant... When the yoke of the Law was taken off them that they might not caper off and 1 Chapter 5 2 Furnish, p. 298 3 Furnish, p. 298 4 Furnish, p. 298 6 away, another was laid on, that of love, stronger then the former, yet far lighter and more pleasant; and, to point out the way to obey it, he adds; “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself” [14]... He says, “If you wish to fulfill it, do not be circumcised, for it is fulfilled not in circumcision but in love.” Observe how he cannot forget his grief, but constantly touches upon what troubled him, even when launched into his moral discourse1. St. John Chrysostom 3. By unclean living [16-26]: Christ has given the Holy Spirit to make us free from evil works, especially carnal lusts [19-21]. Through freedom, let the Holy Spirit rule your life, whose fruit is placed over against the works of the flesh. This fruit (in singular) is the full harvest of righteousness in Christ, revealed in our life and our relation - * Towards God: love, joy, peace. * Towards others: patience, kindness, goodness. * Towards oneself: faith, gentleness, self-control. If we live in Christ (John 15) we will be free to bear fruit from God. Are we showing the cluster of fruit in our lives? “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” [15]. This is the language of apprehension and warning, not of condemnation... To bite is to satisfy the feeding of anger, but to devour is a proof of the most savage ferocity... For strife and dissensions are the ruin and destruction of those who introduce them as well, and eats out every thing worse then a moth does. “But I say, Walk by the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of flesh” [16]... Having spoken of the cause of the disease, he likewise mentions the remedy which confers health... He says, “Walk by the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”. Here some make the charge that the Apostle has divided man into two parts... But this is not so, most certainly; for by” the flesh,” he does not mean the body; if he did, what woube the sense of the clause immediately following, “for it lusts,” he says, “against the spirit?”... He is wont to call the flesh, not the natural but the depraved will, as when he says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit,” (Rom. 8:8,9.) and again, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God”... What then is his meaning? it is the earthly mind, slothful and careless, that he here calls the flesh, and this is not an accusation against the body, but a charge against the slothful soul. The flesh is an instrument, and no one feels aversion and hatred to an instrument, but to him who abuses it... In his expression, “the flesh lusts against the spirit,” he means two mental states. For these are opposed to each other, namely virtue and vice, not the soul and the body... He refers to the contest of bad and good principles. To will and not to will belongs to the soul; wherefore he says, “these are contrary the one to the other,” that you may not suffer the soul to proceed in its evil desires... He who has attained an exalted excellence from an inner impulse, has no occasion to need a schoolmaster, nor does any one, if he is a philosopher, require a grammarian. 1 Chapter 5 7 Why then do you so degrade yourselves, as now to listen to the Law, having previously given yourselves to the Spirit?... Answer me now, You that accuse your own flesh, and suppose that this is said of it as of an enemy and adversary. Let it be allowed that adultery and fornication proceed, as you assert, from the flesh; yet hatred, variance, emulations, strife, heresies, and witchcraft, these arise merely from a depraved moral choice. And so it is with the others also, for how can they belong to the flesh? you observe that he is not here speaking of the flesh, but of earthly thoughts, which trail upon the ground... “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace...” [22]... You observe throughout that his discourse does not relate to the substance of the flesh, but to the moral choice, which is or is not vicious... The soul, which by the Spirit has attained to excellence, does not need the admonitions of the Law. Here too he completely and firmly casts out the Law, not as bad, but as inferior to the philosophy given by the Spirit... He does not mean that they had destroyed their flesh, otherwise how were they going to live?... “If we live by the Spirit, by the spirit let us also walk,”... “Let us walk, “that is, let us content with the power of the spirit, and seek no help from the Law1. St. John Chrysostom He has set forth this struggle before us. In this battle we are occupied, if we are in flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh2. St. Augustine When this war shall be over, and all concupiscence shall have been changed into charity, nothing shall remain in the body to oppose the Spirit, nothing to be tamed, nothing to be bridled, nothing to be trodden down, but the whole shall go on through concord unto righteousness, and the will of God will be done in heaven and earth3. St. Augustine THE WORD “FLESH” We find that the word flesh is used in the holy Scripture with many different meanings, * for sometimes it stands for the whole man (John 1:14)... * Sometimes it stands for sinful and carnal men (Gen. 6:3)... * Sometimes it is used for sins themselves (Rom. 8:9)... * Sometimes it stands for consanguinity and relationship (1 Cor 15:50)... The word here stands simply for a sinful man4. Abbot Daniel The body that is mingled with sin finds rest in the works of the flesh; but the Spirit of God finds repose in His own fruit5. 1 Chapter 5 2 Sermons on New Testament Lessons 78:6 3 Sermons 0n N.T. Lessons 6:8 4 Sermons 0n N.T. Lessons 6:8 5 Hom. 48 8 St. Isaac the Syrian In the wicked, sin reigns over the soul, being settled as on its own throne in this mortal body so that the soul obeys the lusts thereof (Rom. 6:12)...1 Origen FLESH AND THE WORKS OF THE FLESH So long as we are held down by this frail body, so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7); so long as the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, there can be no sure victory2. St. Jerome “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit thekingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50)... Since in the word flesh we are enjoined to put off, not the substance, but the works of the flesh, therefore in the use of the same word the kingdom of God is denied to the works of the flesh, not the substance thereof. For it is not that which is condemned in which evil is done, but only the evil which is done in it. To administer poison is a crime, but the cup in which it is given is not guilty. So the body is the vessel of the works of the flesh, whilst the soul which is within it mixes the poison of a wicked act3. Tertullian It is worthy to notice the difference between the body and the flesh, for the body is a good creation and a divine gift. It is not just a vessel or a dwelling place of the soul, for human being is a unity, and has no dualism: body and soul. What he thinks, says, acts or even feels is his work as a human being. The body and the soul work together and have the same responsibility and recompense. The Alexandrian Fathers -perhaps except Origen-had a sanctified view of the body4. The harmonious mechanism of the body contributes to under standing, which leads to goodness of nature... He who in the body has devoted himself to a good life, is being sent on the state of immortality5. St. Clement of Alexandria (The Holy Spirit) constantly urges them (the believers) to give exertion to body and soul in order that both alike, being equally sanctified, should equally become worthy heirs of eternal life. He kindles in it (the soul) zeal for complete purification both of itself and of the body, that the two may be one in purity. For this is the aim of the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit -to purify them completely and bring them back to their original state, in which they were before the fall, by destroying in them all adulterations introduced by the devil’s envy, so that nothing of the enemy should remain therein. 1 Comm. On Matt. Book 14:3 2 Ep. 22: 4 3 Against Marcion, 5:10 4 Our book "The Divine Providence", Alexandria 1990, p. 35. 5 Stromata 4:4 9 In this way the whole of the body becomes accustomed to every good and, submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit, gradually changes. In the end it begins to participate, in a certain measure, in the qualities of the spiritual body, which it is to receive at the resurrection of the just1. St. Anthony the Great THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT He has no fruit who has not Christ... Do not wonder at what follows, when charity leads the way2. St. Augustine It is not His will that the grace we have received should be unprofitable; but He requires us to take pains to render Him His own fruits, as the blessed Paul says [22]3. St. Athanasius of Alexandria 1 Epistle 1, Philokalia 16, 17, 20 2 Sermons on N. T. Lessons 39:1. 3 Festival letters 6:5.
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