tication of the Gospel by faith. Three and four, teaching on the doctrine of justification by faith. Five and six, there is the doctrine of our spiritual ity by faith. In each of these points, however, there is one common de nominator: “by faith.” There are always two basic “pulls” in a believer’s life. On the one hand there is the temptation to legalism which is the fleshly attitude of con forming to a code for the purpose of exalting self. Our pride tempts us to follow such a pathway. This is not the plan of God. Legalism was one dangerous extreme which the Apostle was combating. The second dangerous extreme is that of license. Having trusted the Lord Jesus as personal Saviour we are free to serve Him not out of fear but from pure motives of love. This does not mean, however, that he can do anything he pleases. That is not the definition of freedom, whether spiritual or national. The Galatian believers were warned not to use their liberty as a cloak for license. They, with us, must walk by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in the light of His Word. The proper pathway is between license and legalism. Liberty is de fined as “the opportunity for self- discipline.” It is the opportunity to reach our highest potential through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We have the assurance of God’s love since Christ has died for our sins. Because of this I am free to serve the Saviour because I love Him and Him alone. Today, there is a danger of mak ing Christianity simply a list of “do’s” and “don’ts”. This is legalism. These Judaizers would admit that it is necessary for Christ to die for our sins, but something else has to be added. The plus sign is made a part of faith. Paul shows how wrong this is by saying that as a result Christ would have died in vain. As far as salvation is concerned, to faith we Page 8
Dr. Robert Thomas (above) Registrar and Professor at Talbot Seminary. cannot add church membership, rit uals, baptism, and all the rest. By so doing we would be committing Galatianism. This deprecates the fin ished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Paul is very explicit as he expresses it, ‘This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Authority of Scripture In writing to the Church at Gala tia, Paul had to face some very real problems. There were those who wanted to add the law to faith. Paul was accused of not being truly an apostle. They falsely stated that he had gotten his message second-hand, perverting and oversimplying it. The refutation comes in the first two chapters (1 :13 ). Basically, there are two real religions in the world:
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