Running the Right Race

Gal 5:7-12 Running the Right Race

Last week we ventured into Galatians 5. There we saw that Paul drew from everything he had said prior in order to come to what I believe is the summary statement of Galatians. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1).

Paul showed very extensively that the Law or Old Covenant was a form of slavery or bondage, while the NC in Christ is freedom. Drawing heavily from the Exodus motif, Paul showed that the Exodus of old was a pattern – it was a type of the spiritual Exodus that was occurring in his day. Christ, the antitype of Moses, led a spiritual exodus out of spiritual slavery in spiritual Egypt. This was manifest in the transition from OC to NC.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” Paul said. He continued by saying that if they let themselves be circumcised Christ would be of no value to them. Christ + something = nothing.

Paul continued by saying that anyone who circumcised himself would be obligated to follow the whole law because you cannot divide the Law and follow part of. The Law is all or nothing; it is a unit.

He concluded that section by answering the question that is inevitably raised by a discussion about the Law. If Christians aren’t bound by the Law, how then do we live? What is going to keep us from being bad? How do we live as Christians? His answer: faith expressing itself through Love. That, my friends is the essence of the Christian life. The Christian life is very simple - in a nutshell: faith expressing itself through love.

So let’s continue in our text, picking up in verse 7 and continuing through v15. Gal 5:7-15

⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? ⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

In verse 7 Paul says ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 

You were running a good race. This is a metaphor used elsewhere in the NT. If you would like some references, we see that also in Phil 2:16, Heb 12:1, and 1 Cor 9:24-26. I believe this metaphor is best understood in its historical context. It seems that there is a finish line in sight and Paul is encouraging his contemporaries to finish the race strong. I believe the finish line is none other than the end of the evil age that was still present when Paul wrote – the OC age. I believe that finish line was crossed when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. This was the focal point of NT prophecy.

Consider the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They had much to say to Israel – namely Judah, yet the focal point of their prophecies was the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. In the same way, JTB, Jesus and his apostles had a lot to say to Israel, but the focal point of their prophecies was the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. In my opinion, this event is one of the most overlooked and underappreciated events in history. I was watching a secular documentary by A&E on the Jewish war with Rome and these scholars with PhD’s are all convinced that it was such a pivotal moment in history that if Rome did not destroy Jerusalem and her temple, Christianity would have died due to Jewish persecution. However, since that event did happen, Christianity blossomed and spread like wildfire. That sheds light on the situation.

Our text uses the metaphor of a race. Consider a race. You’re trying to see who will be the victor. Will it be this participant or that participant? In this case, who will emerge triumphant as God’s true people? When the true sons of God are manifest who will it be? Will it be those who claim that ethnicity and circumcision of the flesh and Torah keeping define God’s people or will it be those who claim that Christ defines God’s people?

That was the race they were running in the first century. Apparently, the Galatians were running a good one, because they were running in the right direction – towards Christ. They were direct disciples of Paul. But something happened – something that necessitated a letter from Paul to correct their course. ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 

So in this metaphorical race, they were running a good race, running toward Christ, but someone cut in on them. Paul asks this in the form of a question: who cut in on you? He knows the answer in a general sense and so do we: the Judaizers. The Judaizers came in and steered them off course.

And look what Paul says about this. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

Now, if these Judaizers were doing anything, they weren’t keeping the Galatians from obeying, right? If anything, they were trying to make sure they were obeying the truth. There’s this command of circumcision…are you obeying that? What about the Sabbath and the feasts, are you obeying them? The Judaizers were all about ensuring obedience. They weren’t trying to keep anyone from obeying, right?

Wrong! The text says who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth. In other words, Paul says that for a believer to observe the commands of the Law is to disobey the truth. Remember in last week’s passage, we saw that it’s not both/and, but either/or. It’s not Christ and Law, but Christ or Law. Faith in Christ alone is obeying the truth. Faith in Christ plus the Law is not obeying the truth. The truth is not circumcision sanctifies. The truth is Christ sanctifies. The truth is not Sabbath sets apart. The truth is Christ sets apart.

Once again, Paul delivers a devastating blow to the notion that the observance of the Law can add to the work of Christ.

Christ plus something equals nothing. To obey the Law of Moses is to disobey the truth. Jesus is the truth.

⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. In other words, that idea is not from God. God called you to Himself. This is not of God. This doctrine is of man.

⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  Paul is showing how destructive it is to be persuaded by error. He uses another metaphor: yeast. Consider the way yeast works; you don’t need much. Just a little bit will work through a whole batch of dough.

Jesus had already used this metaphor:

Matt 16:5-12 ⁵ When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. ⁶ “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

 ⁷ They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

 ⁸ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? ⁹ Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹¹ How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So Jesus is using the metaphor of yeast to speak of the erroneous teachings of the religious leaders of OC Israel.

Paul picks up on this metaphor and uses it in the same way. Be on your guard against incorrect teachings. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. It only takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch. It only takes one Judaizer to steer the church in the wrong direction. He certainly has dispensed with any ideas, well, it’s just this one guy, not that big of a deal. Paul seems to think it’s a big deal and had a lot to say in his letters about the error of the Judaizers.

Just one Judaizer teaching people that works of the Law are binding on believers is enough to spread through the whole church and get the whole church off course.

¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 

He says here the one who is throwing you into confusion will have to pay the penalty.

I don’t know what that means. If you would have asked me 6 years ago, I’d have popped off, “that sucka is gonna burn in hell!” Since then I’ve studied a little bit more and I don’t know that’s what Paul has in mind. But, I’m not going to let what I don’t know rob me of what I do know. And I do know that Paul sees this as a gross error that deserves some form of punishment.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 

Paul was clearly not preaching circumcision. If he was, the Jews may have been cool with him. But he was preaching something that was offensive to them. What Paul preached was a stumbling block to the Jews.

The Jews were expecting a Messiah or King that would take the throne in Israel and deliver them from the tyranny of Rome and establish the Kingdom of God on earth where Israel would be the dominant race and be seen as God’s special people with all other nations bowing at her feet. That’s what they expected. But God didn’t send Israel a King who would sit on a physical throne and ride a physical horse into a physical battle to defeat the physical enemies of the Jews and establish a physical kingdom. God sent them Jesus:

• a man who suffered
• a man accused of blasphemy
• a man hated by the religious leaders
• a man who died
• a man who was hung on a cross.

First of all, how would God’s Messiah deliver Israel from her enemies if he died? A dead Messiah just doesn’t fit the bill.

Furthermore, look at just how he died. ON A CROSS. The Jews would have seen Jesus to be under God’s curse, for it is written Deut 21:23 cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. The Jews saw Jesus as cursed by God. Paul, you’re saying that this man who was hung on a cross is the king of the Jews? May it never be! That’s crazy talk. The King of Israel is God’s anointed, not God’s cursed. This man was hung on a tree, thus cursed by God. No way can he be our Messiah.

This was a stumbling block to the Jews. It was offensive to the Jews. But, it was foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted (under God’s curse). But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by his wounds we are healed.

So, yes, Jews, you did consider him cursed by God, BUT he was on that cross to bear our curse, becoming a curse for us, on our behalf.

So the preaching of the cross was an offense to the Jews. A messiah who doesn’t deliver us from Rome, but gets rejected by the people, beat up by them, accused of blasphemy and then dies? Dies on a cross, under God’s curse? That’s offensive to the Jews.

It’s a message that further offends them by saying everything you put stock in is going bankrupt:

• The Law
• your ethnicity
• circumcising the flesh
• the temple
• the land…all of it…

It means nothing. Everything you put pride in is pointless. That is highly offensive to a Jew.

So now Paul just gets roguish.

¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

As for those agitators, once again. This is why it’s important to know the story behind the Scriptures. The agitators are the Judaizers. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. That’s a big word.

Dictionary.com defines emasculate as to castrate or remove the testicles.

In other words, Paul says, those guys who are -so interested in the cutting of the flesh of the male reproductive organ, may they get happy with the scissors. May they not only cut the foreskin of the penis, but cut off the scrotum too! May they just castrate themselves.

Jesse put it nicely. You guys want to be on the team. Forget JV, go varsity.

The logic…Think about it. Cutting off a little bit of flesh makes you more righteous before God, well, why not cut off a lot and get that next level Mansion in heaven.

There is some irony in this because Paul is pointing out the logical conclusion of that kind of thinking, which they wouldn’t really do. But he was implying that they should do like the pagans do in their religious practices, castrate themselves. Which, again, is ironic because

Deut 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.

In other words, our discussion here is about who is part of the assembly of God’s people? Is it those who just believe in Jesus or the people who cut skin off of the penis? Paul says the people cutting skin off the penis should just go the whole way and emasculate themselves. Which would actually disqualify them from entering the assembly.

So this portion of our letter is very specific to Paul’s original audience. The Galatians in the first century. THEY were running a good race. Judaizers had cut in on THEM and kept THEM from obeying the truth. THEY were being thrown into confusion by agitators.

However, there are a few golden nuggets in which we can find application for today.

Christians should obey the truth and not allow anyone to persuade us away from the Truth.

We have truth laid out for us clearly in Scripture. We often take our Bibles for granted. We have the entire canon of the NT. The Galatians probably only had this letter. They may have come across a copy of a gospel or another letter. Peter wrote to the elect in the region of Galatia so they may have read his letter. But they didn’t have the entire NT as we do. The problems and issues in the churches provided occasions for letters from Paul that explain the theological truths that often take for granted. We have truth laid out for us clearly in Scripture. Let’s not depart from that. Let’s believe and behave according to the truth of the text.

While the Judaizers and their influence had a first century context, the exhortation to remain in the truth remains today. There are many influences today that would seek to do the very work of the Judaizers and cut in on us to cause us to change course and depart from the truth of the text.

Let’s be on our guard against the door to door deceivers of our day. I don’t think the mormons or JW’s are intentionally trying to deceive anyone, but are sincerely convinced of what they believe. I don’t think the Judaizers were intentionally trying to deceive anyone but were sincerely convinced of what they believed. Sincere as they may be, they are wrong.

Let’s remain in the truth and be on guard against those who would undermine our journey on the right course.

This means that we need to know our Bibles so that we can distinguish truth from error.

Furthermore, Paul used the phrase – “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” That is a timeless truth that we should take to heart. Erroneous theology, just a little bit, has the power to do damage. This is why it’s so important to get our theology from the Scriptures. In our studies we may look to other sources: Commentaries can be great tools to help us understand, listening to a John Piper sermon can help, reading articles on line can help, sitting right here and listening to m can help. BUT…they may also be in error. Commentaries can get things wrong. Piper can get things wrong. I can get things wrong.

So if you’re reading the Scriptures, it is important to use proper hermeneutics – that is the proper means of interpretation. If you’re venturing outside of the Scriptures to other resources, be careful and test everything against Scripture for consistency. Be a Berean. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. It is important that we guard the truth of Scripture.

A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. So let’s try to nip falsehood in the bud before it blossoms and cross pollinates.

Now, I just want to say on that note that some Scripture is hard to understand. We may never understand certain Scripture. Some doctrines are difficult. Thus, while we want to guard our doctrine carefully, we also must remember to do that within the realm of grace. We need to be humble and teachable with a heart that wants to know the truth even if the truth means something different than our favorite author or evangelist or childhood pastor said. We need to be lovers of the truth. But we also need to be lovers of our brothers. Lovingly lead people into truth and lovingly challenge beliefs that seem contrary to truth.

As always our lives should be marked by faith expressing itself through love.