Galatians 5:7-15 - Love Fulfills the Law

In Galatians 5 verse 7 Paul says to the recipients of his letter: "You were running well." He uses an athletic metaphor. You were running your race well. This is not the only place where Paul compares the Christian life to a race in which we are runners. He also does so in Philippians 3. There's also the passage in Hebrews 12 which is parallel.

So, if our Christian life is a race, how do we run? There are two things that stand out in each of these passages. We are to run:

(1) Focused on Christ (faith)

(2) Pressing toward our glorious future (hope)

The Christian life is not about the law. Its focus is not the law. Its focus is Christ. It is about faith in Christ, both in what he did and what he has promised to do. We do not live the Moses life, we live the Messianic life. And that life is manifested in love.

'but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”'--Galatians 5:13b-14

What made the law a bondage to us, at least in part, was that it ran contrary to our nature. What Christ has done for us, or what the Spirit of God has done in us through Christ is to change our heart, give us a new nature. Whereas once our hearts were at enmity against God, now we love God, and of course that love is manifested in love for our neighbor. So rather than serve the law, we serve each other.

We discuss this in more detail, along with a few other things, in our bible study from this passage. The audio from that study is below. Just click the link and it will open up a page in SoundCloud where you can stream that audio in MP3 format. Keep in mind that these are not sermons, but informal bible studies where questions are sometimes asked and discussion sometimes takes place. God bless.

Click here: Galatians 5:7-15 - Love Fulfills the Law



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