Galatians 3

Chapter 3. Burden BearingBrothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)We have been studying the epistle of Paul to the Galatians, and have found the keynote to be the free grace of God as opposed to the law and the works of the flesh. We have seen the grace of God in our salvation and sanctification—the gift of God equally for our justification and our deeper life. We shall now look at the work of free grace in our own spirit toward others, the outworking of grace in a gracious life, a life marked by the fullness and large-heartedness of that grace from which our own salvation came. For according to the measure of our salvation will be our influence over others and the tone and temper of our own Christian life. If you have a small salvation, you will be a small Christian; but if you have a large salvation, it will be an overflowing life and a luxury to do good, also a luxury for people to meet and know you. You will not only be blessed, but a blessing. It all depends on how much grace you have. You cannot pay more interest than your investment calls for, and if you are a small soul, God does not expect you to be big; but if you want to be big, God will fulfill this desire. You have heard of the captive of Toulon who bought from a vendor a little bird at a high price and then set it free. The man asked, “How could you be so foolish as to set it free? You must be a rich man.” He answered, “No, I am not rich. I gave you all I had for the bird; but I have been a prisoner and have just gained my liberty, and I know what freedom means, and my business is to give to others what is so sweet to me.” So, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will be a gracious Christian; not a reflection on the Lord, but a reflection of the beauty and grace of the Lord Jesus. We have four manifestations of the grace of God in the Christian’s life pointed out here in these verses. Restoration The first is the restoring of those who have been overtaken by temptation and have fallen. “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin [fault], you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). Now, if you have received the free grace of God, you will be very tender to those who have sinned and fallen. It is the immature Christian who is harsh and fond of judging. A ripe, mellow, and mature Christian is like his Master, ready to forgive, able to help and lift up the fallen. How beautifully every word used here speaks of gentleness and tenderness!

1. The mildest term is used. It is a “fault”; not a crime, but a fault; something less than he ought to have been or done. And who is without a fault?
2. He was overtaken by it. He was overtaken by a ruthless pursuer, stronger and swifter than he. He has fallen; lift him up. Burns has said: They know a little of what is done, But not of what’s resisted. His failure led him to you that you may lift him up and establish his goings. Look at it as God looks at it. He may have to let you get caught to make you merciful.
3. You are to restore him. You are not to punish him and make him feel how mean he is. God’s purposes are remedial, restorative and gracious. He wants you to be workers together with Him. Even if you have to resort to discipline, let the end always be restoration. Let everything tend to the uplifting of that within him which alone can save him, the spirit of confidence and hope, that which will see the bright side rather than the dark, not the accuser, but the Restorer.
4. You who are spiritual are to do this. You cannot do this unless you have the Holy Spirit, unless you have been sanctified from your self-confidence and received the broken spirit which is the surest mark of a deeply spiritual life. I remember a woman coming to me one day and saying she was going to give someone a piece of her mind. “But,” I said, “my dear friend, you are too angry for it now.” I believe it would have been a positive luxury for her to have met the person she spoke of just then. “Wait,” I said, “till it breaks your heart, and you can speak with tenderness, tears and the compassion of Jesus to restore him.” This is how Christ wants the spiritual to restore the one who has fallen.
5. But it is to be done in a “spirit of meekness,” not in harshness and superiority, “or you also may be tempted.” John Newton used to say when he saw a reeling drunkard, “There goes John Newton, but for the grace of God.” If you remember that, it will make you humble and helpful; you might have fallen too, but for the grace of God. You never know what you owe to restraining grace. The difference between the fallen and the victor is that the Lord in His mercy knew “how to rescue godly men from trials [temptations]” (2 Peter 2:9). The most terrible punishment of one who has rejected light is that he is allowed to be tempted, and handed over to Satan and his fierce assaults. The reason you have not been blasted by him is because God has held him back. “You also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:2). You may have to be humbled and broken like Peter to make you of more use to the lost. God’s free grace is given to you now. Give a little away to others. Yet, do not let us forget that all weakness, softness and sentimentalism is wrong. We must be firm and true to them. God’s love makes no compromise with wrong, neither must ours. God has no indulgence for people who have erred and who fight against the right. If anyone reading these lines has erred and stumbled, God expects you to meet that spirit of love just as it meets you, to take the lowest place, not fighting for recognition, but letting God lift you up. So shall the Valley of Achor become “a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15) and “instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion” (Isaiah 61:7) in God’s time, but not by your contention. Lifted Burdens The second manifestation of the grace of God at work in our lives is our ministering to the burdened lives around us. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). If you receive the spirit of the Master and have been the beneficiary of His free grace, you will learn that the law of Christ is the law of burden bearing, the law of sacrifice and the law of loving helpfulness. You will recognize the fact that God has adjusted your life so as to bring into it the opportunities and occasions for the ministry of unselfishness, love and helpfulness to others. And so it comes to pass that when the poor, the destitute, the helpless and the suffering are brought into contact with your life and meet you with their need, it is not an accident or a misfortune. It is the providence of God, the school of love and the law of Christ. He puts them there for your training and for an opportunity for you to dispense the grace that He has given to you. Freely you have received, as freely you must give. Thus the rich and the poor meet together for the sake of the rich as much as for the sake of the poor, because the rich need the opportunity of learning unselfishness and bearing the burdens of the less fortunate. The happy and the wretched are brought into contact that the happy may bear the other’s sorrow and distress. The weak Christian is linked with the strong. God links with you the people who need you to manifest to them the same gentleness, consideration and helpfulness that the Master has shown to you. Thus these ministries grow up around us and become part of the law of our Christian life. God therefore overrules even the evil and makes it ultimately an occasion for good and for the uplifting of our spiritual nature. God has called every one of us to some of these ministries, and He expects us to be practical. It is not a matter of sentiment or feeling, but of real giving and doing. There is not a day but someone comes to you who needs sympathy and relief of some kind, and it takes the wisdom and help of Christ to know how to do this without encouraging dependence and indolence. John Wesley used to spend a large amount of money in helping those less fortunate than himself. On one occasion a poor minister received a very loving letter from him containing the words, “Trust in the Lord, and do good;… and verily thou shalt be fed” (Psalms 37:3). The good founder of Methodism said, “I felt impressed to write and call your attention to this great promise,” etc. He enclosed a five-pound note, but said nothing of this in his letter. The answer from this minister has happily been preserved. “My dear Mr. Wesley, how can I sufficiently thank you for your letter and gift. I have often read that verse and many expositions of it, but this is the best expository note I have ever seen.” Do not forget the practical side of it. Many a time He may call you to sacrifice. Do not shrink from it. These sacrifices are little tests of your love for Christ. How much little things count, as the gift of a flower in a sick room. How often our missionaries have been cheered on the field by an unexpected letter or a little remembrance, simply an indication that they were remembered. I saw a letter yesterday from India, from a dear toiling missionary who has gone through the famine, and he told how above everything else a little remembrance sent to him in the shape of a book of little intrinsic value, carried by one of the outgoing missionaries, had cheered his heart and made him feel he was not forgotten. Somebody sent her love to a poor little cripple in a hospital, and the messenger brought it, saying, “Mrs. So-and-So sends her love to you.” The little fellow said, “Thank you, but dear me, I think I would like to see a little of her love.” The messenger went back unknown to him, and the next day there came in the shape of a box of chocolate caramels, “a little of her love.” It would do many of us good to write three letters a year to some missionary who is not likely to get many letters, say at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It would cheer them in their service. Will you not try it? Then again in the home life God puts us in these family ties just to train us to exercise His beneficence, His graciousness, and learn His love. Every affection is but a letter in the alphabet that teaches us about God. Our fatherhood teaches us His Fatherhood; our filial relations make us understand the Father’s heart. And so in the home there is much need for practical consecration. Someone asked a woman if her husband were not a beautiful Christian. She answered, “When I see him in the prayer meeting, I think he is, but at home I have my doubts sometimes.” Somebody asked Wendell Phillips one night after giving a lecture, to stay all night and go back in the morning, as it was very stormy and he had to drive 12 miles. He answered, “Ann Phillips is at the other end, and therefore nothing can keep me here.” He thought of the lonely companion at the other end, and that outweighed his personal convenience and comfort. I am so glad that the 12th chapter of Romans, telling about the living sacrifice and the highest Christian life, is just filled with simple home touches and social qualities: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,… Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality…. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:10-11, Romans 12:13, Romans 12:15). That is what Christ expects of us. If we have the free grace of God in our hearts, it will flow out in all our lives and touch all with whom we come in contact. We can at least be courteous and smile and give the pressure of the hand and show “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us” (1 John 3:1). Meeting a wretched, hideous beggar, a devoted Christian tells us that every natural instinct recoiled from his touch and presence. His face was covered with ulcers and his body and dress were unclean. Everything about him froze his natural sympathy, but the poor man stretched out his helpless hands for aid. Instinctively the Christian put his hand in his pocket to give him help, but he had nothing. He looked at him, reached out his hand, and pressed the hand of the poor diseased mass of humanity, saying, “My dear brother, I am sorry I have left my purse at home, and I have nothing to give you but my love.” The poor man burst out weeping and replied, “My friend, that is the richest gift you could bestow. I have had money from many, but love from none but you.” Nothing but the touch of grace that had started from the throne and found its fountain at the cross could have done this. That is the richest gift. How it lifts our burdens! How the testimony comes back in later years of some forgotten service, and how sweet it is to have them tell you of the help and sympathy you have given them. In the great revival in London many noble men and women were doing special Christian work. One of these high-born men was standing in front of the great evangelistic hall and spoke to a cabman, saying, “Can you not go to the meetings?” “No,” he replied, “I have to sit on the box and can’t go.” “Will you go if I sit on the box till you come back?” “Why, yes, I would be a thousand times obliged, but I would not ask you to.” But the man took the horses and the reins, and sending the cabman in, he remained until the man came out with a shining face bedewed with tears. He had found the Lord. The nobleman had been bearing another’s burden and so fulfilled the law of Christ. Then, if you are willing, He will give you the burden of prayer, the best way of helping. I was retiring one night when there came over my heart the consciousness of some poor toiling fellow working all night, who had told me about the lonely office. It came to me to pray for a long time for that desolate heart, that it might be strengthened and blessed. These are but little ministries, but there is no ministry so delightful and none so fruitful as carrying the burdens of God’s children. That is what the Lord is doing now. His business in heaven is to carry them. His priesthood is just sympathy and love. On His heart and shoulders, in the place of love and strength, are engraved their names. It is there He is bearing you and me, and we can help by bearing others. Our help in this direction does accomplish results mightier than our words or even our gifts. So may we learn the second lesson of free grace, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). It was the law of His life, and so it should be of ours—the law of sacrificial love, cooperation and mutual fellowship. For no man is independent of his brother, and our blessing and burdens must be shared. Outflowings of Grace The third manifestation is exercising the spirit of liberality. This is one of the outflowings of the free grace of God in our lives. Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:6-9) There is no doubt that this refers to liberality. If you have the free grace of God in your heart, it will even affect your pocketbook and you will give money for God’s work. If you do not love to do this, you will be but a poor and small-hearted Christian; you have not known “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9). God does not especially want your money, but He will let you use it for Him. You can have just what you desire. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). Money has a large place in the great world we are living in, and there is a great place for it in God’s work. If you want to sow your money in earthly gain and selfishness, God will let you do it. He will give you the chance of a lifetime to be petty, selfish and mean. Or you can sow it to “life everlasting” in unselfish blessing. It will all depend on how rich the grace of God has been to you. It is so solemn to know that God lets us have our way, and the spirit of Christian ethics is not compulsion but free grace. There is no law to make you do it, but there is a mighty responsibility. Daniel Webster said that the most awful thing he knew was “accountability to God.” Yes, Pilate, you can crucify Him, smite Him, let them spit in His face and do Him hideous wrong, and no one will stop you. Go on, high priest, Scribes and Pharisees, you have your day. But oh, there is another day coming. The mills of God grind slowly, But they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all. It has all come back, and Christ is on the judgment seat now, and what would not Pilate give for a chance to make his choice anew? So you can have your choice. The money, the strength, the youth, the manhood, home, friends and love are all your own, but only for a little while are you on trial. The reaping day will come. You are free now, but it is an awful liberty. God help us to use it as Jesus did His. He did not need to come to earth. He did not need to die, that is, it was not compulsion. But He came, “a sacrifice for our fallen world”; and if we know His grace, we will be like Him now and we shall be like Him by and by. Life of Service The fourth manifestation is leading a life of service, usefulness and beneficence in every way. “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). It will reach out to your whole life, and if you are large-hearted in your relation to God, you will be just as magnanimous in your service for men. You will watch for opportunities, and they will come. God brings them to the hearts that watch, and He hides them from those who are not willing. It is not necessary that you should go and make some field. “If you want a field of service, you can find it anywhere.” A dozen times a day the opportunities will come in your business, in your home, among your friends, upon the street, and you will be always in uniform, a light will be in your face, a touch in your hand, a message in your eye—not much, but oh, so gracious. Free grace has filled you with Christ’s love, and it is a joy to pour it out in blessing. Your life, like your Master’s, will be made up of little incidents. It was not much to meet a woman drawing water out of a well; not much to forget His lunch for a poor, forsaken soul. But these are the things that make our crowns. So the best work of Christ was just incidental, all along the way; and even as He hung on Calvary, God brought Him His audience there, the poor dying malefactor. Yes, you will find work to the very close. You cannot live to yourself or die to yourself. “As [you] have opportunity” (Galatians 6:10), your whole life will speak for God. It was Mrs. Bartle Frere who said of her husband a simple thing that will stand repeating. She had hired a new coachman and sent him to the station to meet her husband who had been away. The coachman said, “Madam, how shall I know your husband? I have never seen him.” “Oh,” she replied, “you will have no difficulty in finding him. Just look for a great big man helping someone.” The train came in and he saw a massive form half carrying a poor, crippled lady out of the car and taking her to the carriage—a big manly fellow helping somebody. So let us live and give the grace that has saved and sanctified us.