Thoughts on Galatians 5:18

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

God’s people are in a covenant relationship with Him. “A covenant is a binding contract between two parties, both of whom have obligations specified in the covenant. In Old Testament times, covenants were often given by an all-powerful suzerain (overlord) to a weaker, dependent vassal (servant). They guaranteed the vassal benefits and protection. But in turn, the vassal was obligated to be loyal solely to the suzerain, with the warning that disloyalty would bring punishments as specified in the covenant. As long as the vassal kept the stipulations, the suzerain knew that the vassal was loyal. But when the stipulations were violated, the suzerain was required by the covenant to take action to punish the vassal” (Fee and Stuart). Throughout the Bible we see examples of God entering into covenant with His people. Covenant is the word God uses to explain His relationship and promises to such men as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. These men acted as the “head” of the covenant, being responsible for the oversight and execution of that particular covenant. In the New Testament the head of the New Covenant is Jesus. “Throughout the covenants between God and the elect the recurring theme is that He will be their God and they will be His people because He will send Jesus to forgive their sins which is the essence of the New Covenant” (Driscoll).

Up until the time of Jesus God’s people were under or obligated to God by the Mosaic Covenant which consisted of 613 various laws that God’s people were to follow. The laws were given to Moses, who acted as the mediator of the covenant, by God and written in the first five books of the Bible, called the Law or Pentateuch. God then sent His son Jesus as mediator or head of a New Covenant. This New Covenant was prophesied about by Jeremiah:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

At the last supper Jesus spoke about the New Covenant he came to establish: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So we have the Old Covenant and now that Jesus has come, we have the New Covenant. The question then, for many Christians, becomes “As a Christian, am I bound by or obligated to keep the terms of the Old Covenant?” The question is addressed numerous places throughout Scripture including the text I am reading today.

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” When we talk about the “law” as we have been in Galatians we are talking about the laws of the Old Covenant. “If you are led by the Spirit…” If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Jesus said the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” and He will “guide you into all the truth.” Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit “dwells with you and will be in you.” This is what Jeremiah meant when he prophesied “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” As Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, we are not bound by the restraints of the Old Covenant, we are not, as Paul puts it “under the law.”This question is addressed many more places in Scripture including Hebrews 8:13: “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Romans 6:14: “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 7:6: “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”

“The Old Testament is not our Testament. Testament is another word for covenant. The Old Testament represents God’s previous covenant with Israel made on Mount Sinai, which is one we are no longer obligated to keep. Therefore we can hardly begin by assuming that the old covenant should automatically be binding on us. We should assume, in fact, that none of its stipulations (laws) are binding on us unless they are renewed in the new covenant. That is, unless an Old Testament law is somehow restated or reinforced in the New Testament, it is no longer directly binding on God’s people” (Fee and Stuart).

The most common objection to this stance is taken by those citing Luke 16:17: “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void” or Matthew 5:18: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Many will ask “Didn’t Jesus say that we are still under the Law since not an iota will pass from the Law?” The answer is no, he did not say that. Jesus says that he is confirming the full authority of the OT as Scripture for all time (2 Tim. 3:15–16), even down to the smallest components of the written text. He tells us that those laws will never become void since they reflect the very person and character of God, who will never pass away. “Jesus came to establish a new covenant (see Luke 22:20; cf. Heb 8-10), and in so doing “fulfilled” the purpose of the old, thus bringing its time to an end” (Fee and Stuart). Jesus himself tells us this in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

As Christians we are not automatically bound by the restrictions of the old covenant. We are however still in covenant with God as His people. Paul sums up the covenant perfectly in his letter to the Galatians: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”