Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Behold, I, Paul, say to you, that if ye are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Paul has just told the Galatians to stand firm and refuse the yoke of slavery. Now he names the one thing that would put it back on them. Can a believer keep Christ and add a requirement to Him? Paul's answer is that the addition cancels the benefit.
Paul signs the warning with his own name. That name carried special weight with these readers.
With great plainness of speech the Apostle warns these Gentile believers. He was the Apostle chosen to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and God had used him to bring them blessing. For these reasons his word should have had greater weight with them than that of others. He seems to remind them of this by saying, "I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you." To be circumcised meant that they put themselves under law. And being under law meant they had to keep it to get the blessing.
Circumcision was not just a physical mark. It showed which system a man was trusting, and Paul answers a slogan that was already going around.
Paul does not say that the Galatians had received circumcision, but he knew well that the Jewish teachers were trying to compel them to receive it. In Acts 15:1 we read: "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." These teachers were now saying these same words to the Galatians. Paul replies by the Holy Spirit, "If you should be circumcised, Christ will do you no good whatever." We must be clear that "circumcision" was the mark which separated those who trusted in the law from everyone else. It was the outward sign that a man was trusting to law… No man can trust to Christ and to circumcision, or the law, at the same time.
The verse is not a verdict on those already circumcised. It turns on what a person now seeks, and why.
If you should be circumcised after this, Christ will be of no advantage to you. It was not a question of those who had already been circumcised, but of Christians who now sought it. He does not mean that someone who had made the gross mistake of being circumcised could not be forgiven. He means that if they now went through that rite as necessary to their complete justification, His power was made void for them. So Christ is not only a complete Saviour; He is an exclusive one.
Nobody in Galatia was proposing to drop Christ. The push was to add something to Him.
The effort of the adversary, at the beginning of the Church, was not to substitute the law and circumcision in the flesh in place of Christ, but to add them. But the apostle saw clearly, by the Spirit, that if they allowed this, all was lost. Make anything else essential, and Christ will be of no advantage to you. The Christian is one with the Head — one with Christ; let the least thing come in between them, and the body is a corpse. If anything must be added, then the work of Christ is not enough.
The same danger shows up in a phrase we often hear today.
Christ will not take the place of a helper, to the detriment of His place as a Saviour. Any dependence on legal righteousness, moral or ceremonial, renders Christ "profitless" to us. Nothing but salvation meets our need. How often do we hear the phrase, "I know I can do nothing by myself." But this only puts Christ in the place of a helper. And He is indeed a helper to thousands who are never saved… If you look partly to yourself and partly to Christ, "Christ will be of no advantage to you."
Commentators differ on how far this loss goes. One reads it as a loss in daily life, not of salvation.
So Paul did not say that they would lose their salvation. But in practice, being circumcised would have had very serious consequences… Suppose people say, "I am saved, and now I keep the law of Moses to please God." What are they doing? They are placing themselves under a curse… It is not that Christ does not want to help them. But because of the decision they have made, He cannot help them.
Another takes the words at their bluntest reach.
Be clear then, dear reader: the Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, plainly teaches that there is no salvation for anyone who insists on receiving circumcision. Such a man shows plainly that he is trusting to the law to be justified.
- The mark. Circumcision was the outward sign that a man was trusting the law. Accepting it announced which side he was on.
- The addition. The enemy's move was not to replace Christ but to add to Him. Make anything else essential, and the whole benefit is gone.
- The timing. Paul does not condemn those already circumcised. He warns those who now seek it to be justified.
- The exclusivity. Christ is a complete Saviour and an exclusive one. He will not take second place as a helper beside your own effort.
- The loss. Writers differ on how far it goes — losing all that Christ is to you day by day, or losing salvation itself. All agree the loss is real.
And I witness again to every man [who is] circumcised, that he is debtor to do the whole law.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ as separated [from him], as many as are justified by law; ye have fallen from grace.
Paul writes to people who never meant to leave Christ; they only wanted to add the law to Him. This verse tells them what that addition costs, and why "fallen from grace" does not mean what many readers fear.
Much turns on Paul's exact wording. One writer notes that Paul never says the Galatians were justified by the law, because that could never happen:
Notice how precise his language is. He does not say, "you are justified by the law." That would be false and impossible. He says, "you are being justified," or seeking righteousness, "in law." The believer is already justified in Christ. The legalist must regard his justification as still ahead of him.
One writer sets the two side by side — what the law required from man, and what the gospel reveals from God:
The Galatians would add law to grace for justification. The apostle tells them the two cannot be united. If they look to the law for justification, they cannot have Christ for it. The law rightly set out and required man's righteousness for God. It was a perfect rule for a child of Adam, with a curse if he did not keep it. No one ever kept it (Christ of course excepted). But in the gospel is the revelation of God's righteousness for men, because they had none for God.
Many read the phrase as a warning about moral collapse:
Many think that falling from grace means a good Christian falling into sinful ways. … "Fallen from grace" really describes a believer who fails to grasp the grace of God as set out in the gospel. He falls from that grace by descending to law-keeping in a mistaken effort to perfect himself in the flesh. Thank God, however, he does not fall out of the grasp of God's grace.
If no one drops out of God's hand, what is lost? One writer places the damage in the believer's mind, not in his standing before God. (He uses an older translation, which opens the verse "Christ is become of no effect to you.")
The phrase refers to what happened in their consciousness, not to what is true before God. The verse begins, "Christ is become of no effect to you." Is Christ of no effect REALLY — that is, IN THE SIGHT OF GOD? Far be the thought; an impossible supposition! But to them, in their experience and consciousness? Yes. If they considered themselves justified on the principle of law, Christ was clearly ruled out in their minds. They had come down from the divine and lofty principle of grace to the far lower level of law. And the drop between the two is so steep that it can only be described as a fall!
The Galatians argued about the law and justification. One writer shows that the same answer covers daily living:
He shows that the very smallest insisting on the law, in any form, makes you a debtor to do the whole of it. And if so, where are you before God? … The question of the law generally comes up now in connection with sanctification. In the case of the Galatians it came out strongly in the matter of justification. But the Christian has no more to do with it in one form than in the other. … If I look at my salvation, it is all His grace; and if I think what is to give strength to my walk and service, it is just the same. Grace is the spring all through.
The Galatians never set out to give up Christ. That is what makes the warning so searching — and Paul still does not write them off:
We see in them how souls may be tricked by Satan into consequences they never imagined at the start. They had no intention of giving up Christ, or of abandoning grace — but that was the tendency of what they were doing. Even so, thank God, all was not lost in their case. At heart they were true men, and he said, "I have confidence as to you in the Lord."
- Grace refused. Paul does not describe people who kept the law. He describes people seeking righteousness by it. The believer is already justified in Christ; the legalist still treats his justification as future.
- Grace divided. You cannot stand on two grounds of acceptance. Look to the law for justification, and you cannot have Christ for it.
- Grace misread. Falling from grace is not falling into sin. It is a believer dropping down to law-keeping in a mistaken effort to perfect himself.
- Grace obscured. Christ loses His effect in their thinking, not in God's sight. The drop from a high principle to a low one is so steep that it can only be called a fall.
- Grace throughout. Law is no safer for daily living than for justification. Salvation and strength for the walk both flow from grace. And drifting believers are not written off.
For we, by [the] Spirit, on the principle of faith, await the hope of righteousness.
Paul has just warned the Galatians about trying to be justified by keeping the law. In one sentence he now describes the Christian instead — and the surprise is what a Christian is not waiting for.
The word "we" is deliberate. It stands over against the people described just before, who had been trying to be justified by law.
Taking up with the law, they had fallen from grace. By imagining that they could be justified by law, they were making Christ "of no advantage" to them. But over against the "you" of whom all this was sadly true, the Apostle says: "through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness."
It is easy to read this verse as though righteousness were still ahead of us.
Notice the words with care. We wait, not for righteousness, nor for the Spirit, but for the hope. Righteousness is ours now. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and this can never be unsettled. The Spirit is God's gift to us now, for by Him we have been sealed for the day of redemption.
That is exactly where the law left a man stranded — always reaching, never arriving.
We wait, but not for righteousness. That was the case with the Jew. Under the law he was always seeking to establish his own righteousness, and yet never arriving at it. We have righteousness as an established fact in the Gospel, and are only waiting for the hope that goes with it. Now we are waiting for glory — by the Spirit given to us, and on the principle of faith, not the principle of the works of the law.
So what is "the hope of righteousness"? Commentators answer with one voice: glory.
We have the righteousness, but not yet the hope of it. We have Christ Himself, but the hope of righteousness is the hope that righteousness in Christ entitles me to… It is the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5 puts the righteousness in the first verse and the hope at the end of the second: we rejoice "in hope of the glory of God." And what is that hope? That I shall be with Christ in the very same glory that He has.
What arrives at the end of the waiting is a Person.
It is the Lord's coming to receive His own to Himself, and to bring us into the glory He has entered. Divine righteousness entitles us to this. Such a hope was never attached to legal righteousness. Suppose a man had kept the law completely. Would that have given him a claim to heavenly glory? All that God ever set before souls under law was to live long in the land which He had given them. But God is perfectly righteous in placing us in glory with His beloved Son. It is due to Him who suffered all for us and rose again.
The soul's standing is settled. What still lies ahead touches the body.
We are not waiting for life, or for the salvation of our souls. We do not wait for righteousness, since we are already justified. By the Spirit, on the principle of faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness — when eternal life will swallow up our bodies also, and this in heavenly glory.
The Spirit is not just a helper for the wait. He came from the very glory we are waiting to share.
Christ has entered the glory, and the Spirit of God has come from that glory to show us where Christ now stands in righteousness before God… So Christ is the believer's righteousness. The Spirit, who is the seal of faith in Christ, is the pledge of that glory which is the hope of righteousness. We are to be with Christ and like Him. So by the Spirit, on the principle of faith — for we are not there yet — the believer waits in hope to be conformed to Christ in glory.
The verse describes people whose faith is at work.
Notice that his description is not only doctrinal. It is also a matter of real experience. It is true only of those who are led by the Spirit, and whose faith is really at work. A Christian who is asleep, or careless, or wandering, is not truly waiting. Yet if he really is what he claims to be, the hope he is neglecting is the true end of his calling.
- Ground. Righteousness is not the goal ahead of us. It is the settled fact beneath us: we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and that can never be unsettled.
- Gift. The Spirit is likewise already given, not awaited; He is the seal of faith and the pledge of the glory to come.
- Hope. What is still outstanding is glory — to be with Christ in the very glory He has. Law-keeping never carried a hope like that.
- Reach. That hope stretches to the body: eternal life will swallow up our bodies also, in heavenly glory.
- Test. The verse describes faith at work. A careless Christian is not truly waiting, though the hope he neglects is still the end of his calling.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any force, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.
Circumcision was the mark in the flesh that set Israel apart, and the question in Galatia was whether believers had to keep it. Paul sets both that mark and the lack of it against one living thing: faith working through love.
The rite once carried real weight. What changed that was the coming of Christ.
In earlier days this solemn rite carried great value. Back then it mattered a great deal whether a man was circumcised or not. But now that Christ has come, the reality behind it all has come in for those who believe. The shadow fades away here, as it does everywhere else. Faith finds the true circumcision — death to the flesh and separation to God — in the cross of Christ, and nowhere else (Col. 2:11-12). Having religious rites, or submitting to them, makes no one acceptable to God.
The verse cancels both sides at once. One writer explains why: a new creation has no room for what once told people apart.
The things that make people differ from each other, whether to their advantage or not, have no place and no memory in the new creation... uncircumcision has no more strength or place in the new man than circumcision has. Boasting about either one is shut out of the company of the righteous (Rom. 3:27).
Paul is not leaving the believer with nothing to do. He names a different power at work — the very same faith that justifies. (The writers quoted below use an older wording of the verse: "faith which works by love.")
The very same faith that makes him know he is justified, and that sets him looking ahead to the glory he is destined for, works meanwhile by love, not by law. This is what the apostle is bringing us to: the question of practical sanctification. He shows that the believer has no need to go under the law. If his faith works by love, it achieves what the law aimed at but never produced or obtained.
The law told people to love God and their neighbour. It could issue the order, but it could not supply the thing ordered.
What is needed is a new living principle. That is what faith is: the Spirit of God works it in the heart. And such faith is an active principle; it "works by love." The law could give neither life nor righteousness. It could command love to God and to other people, but it had no power to enforce its own command. Faith, though, works by love to God and to other people.
The love that drives this faith is not produced by the believer. Its source is God's love to us, before it is ever ours to Him.
Faith begins and rests in God's love; it knows a salvation that springs from that love. The love of God shown in Christ fills the believer's heart... And I take that love of God in its widest possible sense: first of all as God's love to us, and next as our love to Him. It is the full sense of God's love inside us, and the effect is that it enables us to love God and everyone else.
Another writer traces that love to the gift of the Son, and shows what faith does while it waits for glory.
This is the reality of divine life, which enjoys peace with God and rises by faith to divine glory and heavenly things, where it finds its portion. While it waits for that, it works by love — love that flows into the heart from its source, God Himself, who gave everything, even His own Son.
Because faith works, it shows. One writer uses this to settle the supposed clash between Paul and James.
Faith is dead, or does not exist at all, unless works flow out of it. (James 2:17-20.) James asks, "Was not Abraham justified by works?" He certainly was — "but," says Paul, "not before God."... The soul's justification "before God" can only be by faith. Yet that faith is completed in works, James argues, and that is how other people see from the outside that a man has faith... The law worked by fear. Faith works by love — this is the great motive. A telegraph works by electricity. An engine works by steam. A compass works by magnetism. In the same way, faith flashes messages between earth and heaven, carried by love.
- Position — everything rests on being "in Christ Jesus." There the marks that once told Jew from Gentile apart have no place and no memory.
- Nothing added — no ceremony or outward badge makes anyone acceptable to God. Faith finds the reality it pictured in the cross of Christ alone.
- Source — the love that drives faith starts with God, who gave His own Son. Our love is a response, not a resource.
- Power — the law worked by fear. It could command love without producing it. Faith works by love, and reaches what the law never did.
- Evidence — idle faith is dead. Faith at work through love is how others see the real thing.
Ye ran well; who has stopped you that ye should not obey the truth?
These believers had started the Christian race with energy. Then something cut across their track, and Paul stops to ask who did it.
Before the rebuke comes a compliment. This is what their early running looked like.
While their faith was young and full of life, their love was strong. The grace of Christ was still fresh in their souls. They spoke to one another of the blessedness they shared in Him. They cheered each other on as they ran together, with steady eagerness and a godly rivalry, in their hard but welcome race of faith and patience. Their thoughts were then of heaven, and of Him who won it for them by His cross, not of earth and the good will of men.
The word Paul uses is not vague discouragement. It pictures a road broken up on purpose.
The Galatian believers were running in this race. They had been running nobly, but someone has come in and interfered with them. The word means "cut into." It usually carries the idea of interfering with someone's road. The aim is to hinder them by breaking down the bridges and spoiling the road. We often see this in war. So someone had been hindering the Galatian runners, someone had been interfering with them. They had grown weary of the race, and were not running at all well now.
Notice what the runners stopped doing. They did not stop discussing the truth; they stopped obeying it.
Once the Galatians had been like earnest runners in the race. Now something hindered them, and they no longer obeyed the truth. Take note: "the truth" is not just something to discuss, analyse and understand. It is something to obey. Are we sons of God? Then as sons we are to behave ourselves. Are we crucified with Christ? Then we do not aim at living to ourselves but that Christ may live in us. Every bit of truth that we learn is to have a practical expression in us.
There is more in the word "obey" than simply doing as you are told.
The literal meaning is "to be persuaded." A man does not obey until the truth put before him has convinced him. So we may translate: "Who has interfered with you, for you not to be persuaded by the truth?" Paul is not asking for the sake of information. He probably knew well who the enemy was that was "cutting in" and interfering with those he loved so dearly. It is an exclamation, meant to make the Galatian believers see for themselves how they have failed. The enemy has persuaded them to give up the truth they learned from Paul. So Paul adds, "This persuasion is not from the One calling you." It was not the Lord and not the Holy Spirit who had persuaded them to give up.
Paul's question has an edge to it. Someone did this, and God keeps account of it.
It is a serious thing to put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in the way of the Lord's little ones (Matt. 18:6). He is very jealous over His own that are in the world. He will richly reward every service given to them for their progress and joy of faith, however small, in the coming day. On the other hand, He will surely settle accounts with those who have checked them in their onward course. The bloom had gone from these souls in Galatia. Their love had grown cold and their faith had grown weak.
What tripped them was not scandal but religion — and that is judged more sharply than it looks.
Is it not solemn to find that the very word "leaven" which is used in 1 Corinthians to describe frightful moral corruption, in Galatians describes the introduction of the legal system among the children of God? God treats it as a deeply offensive thing. Indeed, the tone of the Holy Spirit in writing to the Galatians is even more severe than in addressing the Corinthians. Because, although the Corinthians were guilty of what was far more blameworthy in the sight of men, the Galatians had fallen into an error that struck more deeply at the foundations of God's grace.
What stopped the Galatians still stops people now.
The Galatians made a good start. The Apostle says, "You were running well." But he has to ask, "Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" Legality hindered them, because they came under false teachers. Today many seem to start well and promise to be devoted Christians. Sadly, in later life they make little progress of soul. They fall before the attractions of the world and become worldly, or come under the influence of false teachers and become legal.
- Run — the Christian life is a race. These believers once ran it with fresh love and their eyes on heaven.
- Cut — "hindered" means to cut into someone's road and break the bridges. Someone interfered on purpose; this was no accident.
- Persuade — the word for obeying means being convinced. The new persuasion that gripped them did not come from the God who called them.
- Account — God is jealous over His own. He rewards those who help them forward and settles accounts with those who check them.
- Finish — truth is for obeying, not just knowing. A good start is no guarantee, because the world and false teachers still stop runners today.