The apostle Paul’s declaration in Galatians 5:18, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law," stands as one of the most liberating yet hotly debated verses in the New Testament. For centuries, various theological traditions, particularly those seeking to maintain a strict adherence to the Decalogue alongside the gospel, have attempted to reinterpret this text. A historico-grammatical approach, paired with careful Greek exegesis, reveals that common attempts to redefine "under the law" deeply distort Paul's covenantal framework.
The Exegetical Context of "Under the Law"
To understand Galatians 5:18, we must apply historico-grammatical hermeneutics, which demands interpreting the text based on its historical setting and grammatical structure. The Galatian churches were being infiltrated by Judaizers, false teachers who insisted that Gentile converts had to be circumcised and keep the Torah (the Mosaic Law) to be truly justified.
In the Greek text, the phrase is ouk este hypo nomon (οὐκ ἐστὲ ὑπὸ νόμον). The preposition hypo (under) denotes subjection to a power, authority, or jurisdiction. Paul uses this exact phrase repeatedly in his epistles to describe a covenantal era and jurisdiction, not merely a state of condemnation.
For instance, in Galatians 4:4-5, Paul writes that God sent His Son, "born under the law [hypo nomon], to redeem those who were under the law." If "under the law" simply meant "under the condemnation of the law," as some groups assert, it would mean Jesus Christ was born under condemnation and lived as a condemned sinner. This is heretical. Rather, Jesus was born under the jurisdiction of the Sinaitic covenant (the Mosaic system) so that He could fulfill it and redeem those bound by it.
Therefore, in Galatians 5:18, when Paul says believers led by the Spirit are not hypo nomon, he means they are no longer under the administrative regime, covenantal authority, and jurisdiction of the Mosaic Law. The Old Covenant has passed away; the believer now walks in the reality of the New Covenant.
"By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear." Hebrews 8:13(NIV)
"By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear." Hebrews 8:13(NIV)
The SDA Dilemma: Official Stances and Ellen G. White
Historically, Seventh-day Adventism has struggled with Paul's epistles, often attempting to artificially divide the Mosaic Law into a "moral law" (the Ten Commandments) which remains eternally binding, and a "ceremonial law" which passed away at the cross.
The Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology (Vol. 12 of the Commentary Reference Series) typically asserts that while believers are freed from the law as a means of salvation, the Ten Commandments remain the absolute rule of life. In dealing with Galatians, earlier Adventist apologetics often argued that the "law" Paul was attacking was strictly the ceremonial system. However, this position becomes untenable when examining their own authoritative writings.
Ellen G. White explicitly corrected the idea that the law in Galatians was solely ceremonial:
"I am asked concerning the law in Galatians. What law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? I answer: Both the ceremonial and the moral code of Ten Commandments." (The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, p. 1109.)
If the "schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:24) includes the moral code of the Ten Commandments, and Paul explicitly states in the very next verse (Galatians 3:25) that "we are no longer under a schoolmaster," the inescapable exegetical conclusion is that New Covenant believers are no longer under the covenantal jurisdiction of the Ten Commandments. Attempting to harmonize Ellen White’s admission with the traditional SDA insistence that Christians are still covenantally bound to the Sabbath command creates a severe theological contradiction.
Logical Fallacies in the Distortions
When groups attempt to bypass the clear meaning of Galatians 5:18, they often rely on identifiable logical fallacies:
- The Fallacy of Equivocation: This occurs when a term's meaning is changed in the middle of an argument. Distorters often change the definition of "law" (nomos) within the same chapter claiming it means the whole law when referring to obedience, but only the "condemnation of the law" when Paul speaks of being freed from it.
- Special Pleading: This happens when an exception is introduced without valid justification. It is special pleading to assert that being freed from the law in Galatians means being freed from nine commandments and the ceremonial laws, but the fourth commandment (the Sabbath) is somehow magically excluded from Paul's sweeping declarations.
- Begging the Question (Circular Reasoning): The premise assumes the conclusion. The argument goes: "The Ten Commandments are the eternal rule for Christians. Therefore, when Paul says we are not under the law, he cannot mean the Ten Commandments." This completely ignores the New Covenant reality that the Decalogue itself was the foundational document of a temporary covenant.
Answers to Common SDA Objections:
Q: "When you don't break a law, you are not under the law. That's what Paul meant in Galatians 5:18."
A: This is a very common defense, but honestly, it relies on a false analogy and a huge misunderstanding of how the word "law" works in the Bible. Let's look at it practically.
Imagine you are a Filipino citizen living in Manila. Whether you are a law-abiding citizen or a criminal, you are still physically and legally under the jurisdiction of Philippine law. Now, if you migrate to Japan and become a Japanese citizen, you are no longer "under" Philippine law. You are under a completely new legal system.
When Adventists say, "If you don't break the law, you aren't under it," they are confusing jurisdiction with condemnation. As we saw in Galatians 4:4, Jesus was born "under the law." Did Jesus break the law? Absolutely not. He kept it perfectly. Yet, Paul still describes Him as being "under the law." This completely destroys the argument that "under the law" just means "breaking the law."
In Galatians 5:18, Paul is talking about a change in covenantal citizenship. If you are led by the Spirit, you have migrated to the New Covenant. You are no longer under the jurisdiction of the Sinai covenant (which includes the Ten Commandments). You are now under the Law of Christ.
Q: "If led by the Spirit of Christ they will keep the law perfectly. The Spirit just gives you the power to keep the Ten Commandments."
A: This sounds very pious, but it completely contradicts the reality of the Christian struggle that Paul describes just one verse prior.
Look at Galatians 5:17, right before our main verse: "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want." Paul is writing to Spirit-filled believers, acknowledging a deep, ongoing internal war. Nobody is keeping any law "perfectly" in this life.
Furthermore, this argument smuggles in a massive assumption: Which law are they keeping perfectly? The Adventist assumes "the law" always defaults back to the stone tablets of the Decalogue. But New Covenant Theology shows us that the Spirit does not lead us backwards to the shadow of the Old Covenant; the Spirit leads us forward to walk in love, which is the fulfillment of the Law of Christ.
If the Spirit merely existed to help us perfectly keep the Old Covenant law, then the Old Covenant never needed to be replaced; we just needed better batteries. But Hebrews 8 makes it clear the covenant itself was faulty and obsolete. The Spirit leads us to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), against which there is no law, rather than driving us back to the external, letter-of-the-law demands of Sinai.
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