Galatians 5:7-12
7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
Paul reiterates how well those in the Galatian churches had begun in Christ, then asks how they could let someone stand in the way of the truth they had heard and known. This false teaching is not God’s, and tolerating or even accepting a little of it is like yeast spreading inflated (but false) ideas through the whole church. Yet Paul still had hope for them to go back to the unity of the faith and to let the false teacher face God’s judgment. He focused not on the works and signs of the Law, but on the offensive cross of Christ. It is both an offense to the world and our offensive answer to salvation by works. Those who preached circumcision as essential nullified the cross and did not see God cutting sin back from our hearts, but instead saw only a literal foreskin cut off as an outward attempt of a work to demonstrate righteousness. True righteousness is in Christ alone, imputed (reckoned to our account) but never imparted (handed over) to us because we earned it.
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