GALATIANS 5

1-15: Freedom in Christ

12: 'emasculate' --> what a tough word! :)

'Freedom' what exactly this means?

Pre Christ:
People are bound by the whole set of law, lots of entries, lots of trivial entries too. So, you have to follow every single entry of it to get your salvation.

After Christ:
People are now free from this bondage. No more following the law to get your salvation (which is actually futile, btw).. Your salvation is given, by grace. Law is still there, but you are no longer bound by it in regards to your salvation.
You are *free* from this concept.

There are lots of facets of this 'freedom', just some example:
1. freedom of fear that if you dont follow the law, you'd get punished by God
2. freedom from the judgment of the law
3. freedom from the bondage of the law to get my salvation
4. etc

"....13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself...."
we are now free from the law's bondage in regards to our salvation... so what's there to follow? Are we free to sin? No, we're not, see above.


16-26: Life by The Spirit

19: "...The ActS of the sinful nature.." <--- plural
22: "..But the fruit of the Spirit.." <--- singular

"conscience"
even non-believers have conscience! even non-believers have conflict when facing right or wrong! so what's so special of this holy spirit thing??
--> 16 "... live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature..."
--> This holy spirit will help us overcome the desires of the sinful nature. Holy spirit is an entity. It will live inside of you, helping you fighting the desires of sinful nature. This is different with conscience, without holy spirit, you're fighting your desire on your own.
--> Holy spirit works both way, it's automatically resides in you and it also works by invocation.

"under the law" sounds significant, it's repeated twice here.
18 "... you are not under law.."
22 "...against such things there is no law"
--> Now you're mentioning about the fruit of the spirit. But even there's non christian who posseses all of those! How's that? Bam!
--> Another religion, goodness is legalism. You do this this this, and see you in heaven. They're bounded by the law.
Christians, good things are byproducts of being saved, this is not the things that caused us being saved. For christians, being good is not related to legalism... There is no law, you are not under law. Wo do it ...just like that... not because we simply want to adhere to the law.