Keep the Law BECAUSE of Your Salvation, Not FOR Your Salvation - Galatians 4-6

Galatians 5:13-15 (ESV)

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.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

These three chapters of Galatians (4-6) are Paul trying to convince the readers of this letter to not get drawn into keeping the Law as both a way to be saved and as a way to live their lives.   After Paul originally taught them all to come to faith by believing in Christ’s work on the cross, some had come into the church and started teaching that you also must still be circumcised and keep the Law.   The act of circumcising someone was a visible and physical manner to say I will believe in God and do ALL His Law and therefore God will love me.   Paul is making the point in these chapters that this is no longer the case and our faith is NOT dependent upon us keeping the Law. (He argues earlier in the chapter that we would have to keep ALL the law and no one can do that).  Our faith is now based upon believing in Jesus’ keeping the Law for us, in our stead, and dying on our behalf, for our sins.  Our faith in Jesus has made us free from keeping the Law.  This all presents a new problem he must now address.  Since we are free from the Law we are not to use our freedom to just do what we want.   In the above passage Paul is addressing this new challenge.   He wants them to know that, yes, we are free from the Law.  But that freedom is not to be used to do whatever we want. In fact, this new freedom now obligates us to love God with all our hearts, soul and mind AND to love our neighbors.    We are to serve one another out of love, having been set free from the sin that once controlled us.   My freedom is not a license to do what I want but to be free from sin to serve others out of love.   We can’t be walking around serving self.  That is, in essence, biting and devouring one another.   When we are selfish we have a tendency to injure others with our selfishness.  So we are not set from sin to do what we want.  We are set free from sin to serve others out of love - this is what Jesus did for us.  If we serve others out of love we will be, in essence, fulfilling the entire Law because the summary of the Law is to love others.    Those who are tying to convince these believers to keep the Law to be save, have it backwards.  We don’t keep the Law to be saved.  We are saved by believing Christ kept the Law for us.   We then in turn love Him and others.  When we do that, we end up keeping the Law.   Keeping the Law is not the gateway to salvation.  It is the result of Salvation when we show love to others.