Galatians 5:1-15
Christian Liberty
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Love Fulfills the Law
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!
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
There is liberty in our freedom from the Law of works through the grace of Christ’s work bit the danger is always to slide back to our old ways of thinking we earn our favor or even salvation by making the good works prepared for us to do into requirements for our standing in Christ. We have been set eternally free from the Law of sin and death! How and why would we want to get enslaved again to those legalistic laws and rituals such as circumcision which only was a shadow of the true circumcision of a heart (Romans 2:29) cleansed by the Lord in making us new? This example of the Law demonstrates that we are looking backwards to keeping the rest of the Law as required and then realizing we are utterly unable to do so. This is foolish. It only distances us from Christ and His grace as we attempt to substitute our fallible and feeble attempts at working righteousness while disregarding His righteousness worked for us on the cross that we are only able to bear with Him. We cannot ever be justified by the Law of our works to earn or keep our salvation. Rather, we find our faith in His work in the love of God for us enables us to be in the position of the on justified by the Justifier (Romans 3:26) and we love Him in return by doing the good prepared for us to work out of faith and not to earn anything as we love to please the one who suffered and died for us. If we want to continue to run this race well, we must heed the truth and follow Him in it and not our own way with sinful sprinklings of our own faithless efforts. This is why we need to carefully sift the teaching we hear and compare it with scripture (Acts 17:11) to see what is true and what is being added to justify our actions and goodness apart from Christ and His work in us (Philippians 1:6) to the end of the race (Philippians 3:12-14, Hebrews 12:1) that we not be misled from the path of life leading by grace to the Celestial City. Those who troubled the Galatians would bear the judgment of the Lord for their false teaching just as they do to this day. Paul wished they would cut themselves off from them as a play on words of the cutting off of the foreskin of circumcision for demanding that work of the flesh for acceptance by God when it was really God’s work of the heart circumcision that cleansed their souls. The call to freedom in Christ rings loud and clear down through time to us today that we may serve each other without demanding legalistic adherence to rituals to earn God favor already given us! We do all as the heart of the Law demands by loving God and our neighbors as ourselves. The justice of God paid our price, but justice also holds us accountable if we mislead others and consume them instead of serving and helping them. This warning should remind us to reorient our ways to follow His way in loving God and man and resting in His acceptance by grace instead of expending useless and even sinful energy in working for our salvation instead of working it out (Philippians 2:12-13) as sanctification in humble response. This is true liberty and justice for us all.
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