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"When a slave was appointed heir, although expressly emancipated by the will which
gave him the inheritance, his freedom commenced, not upon the making of the will, not
even immediately upon the death of the testator, but from the moment when he took
certain legal steps, which were described as `entering upon the inheritance'."
The Epistle of Liberty.
GALATIANS.
Elsewhere (in The Apostle of the Reconciliation, and in The Berean Expositor,
Volume XXI, pages 207-211), we have set forth the evidence which appears to justify the
assertion that Galatians was the first epistle written by the Apostle Paul, and while
"Justification by Faith without the works of Law" is easily the prime doctrine there
safe-guarded, the words `liberty' and `freedom' are key words of this epistle.
Eleutheria/as/oo in Galatians.
A | 2: 4. "Spy out liberty." Paul's stand.
B | 3: 28. "Bond or Free." All one in Christ Jesus.
C | 4: 23, 26, 30, 31. Sinai and Sion. An allegory.
A | 5: 1. "Liberty." "Made us free." Stand fast.
B | 5: 13. "Serve (as slaves) one another." Not flesh.
After the uncompromising defence of his independent apostleship set forth in chap. 1:,
and indicated by the thrice repeated words "Not, Neither, But" (1: 1; 11, 12; 16, 17), we
might have expected that the great doctrine that was being challenged, namely
Justification by Faith, would immediately follow in chapter 2: This however does not
appear until we read verse 15, the earlier part of this chapter being devoted to the
Apostle's stand for freedom.
Paul tells us that he adopted certain measures because:
"Of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave
place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with
you" (2: 4, 5).
Let us notice the tactics of those who oppose Christian liberty.
"Brought in unawares" pareisaktos. We can sense the insidious character of these
false brethren, for Peter also speaks of such saying:
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily (pareisago same word as above in different
grammatical form) shall bring in damnable heresies" (II Pet. 2: 1).
"Crept in unawares" (Jude 4).
This preposition para "beside, alongside" comes in the next word pareiserchomai "to
come in privily, or on the side". In purposed contrast we read that Paul "withstood" Peter
"to the face" and what he had to say he said unto Peter "before them all" (Gal. 2: 11-14).
"To spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage."