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.