STAY WITH GRACE
Galatians 5:1-6 ESV
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Paul must have been frustrated. He was responsible for reaching the Galatians and seeing the young church thrive. Only to have Jewish teachers follow him and convince these Gentile believers that they needed to keep Jewish laws. Read Galatians 5:12, and you’ll see Paul’s frustrations boil over.
Paul was not mad at the Galatians, just upset that they had been called to freedom and were voluntarily putting themselves under slavery, bondage. These believers were accepting circumcision. And when they accepted circumcision, they were putting themselves under the obligation to keep the entire law. I don’t know anything about these false Jewish teachers, but evidently, they were persuasive. Circumcision is a hard sell.
Paul tells these believers that, before they buy into the disadvantage of being circumcised, they have lost the advantage that Jesus is to them. That’s quite a statement, “Christ will be of no advantage to you”. No longer will these believers be made right with God through the work of Jesus Christ; they have chosen another method of being right. Paul stated they were severed from Christ and fallen from grace. This does not mean these Galatians were no longer saved, just that they were no longer dependent on righteousness through faith but through their own efforts and works.
There seems to be something in mankind that wants to do it ourselves. Maybe it’s the pride of the flesh. If I do it myself, then I can boast about what I have done. If it’s a gift given to me, then I am on equal footing with all who received the gift of salvation by grace. Grace, what God has done for us that we did not earn, evens the playing field. No longer can we look down on someone else because it was only by God’s grace that we were saved. An understanding of grace should eliminate any feelings of superiority on our part. Grace means none of us can boast. And grace is received by faith.
This is why Paul states that circumcision or uncircumcision is not what is important. The only thing that matters is faith, that works by love. This position that Paul adopted was a revelation that the Lord gave him. It is also the reason that the Jews so violently opposed Paul. The idea that Gentiles could be on equal footing with the Jews, God’s chosen people, was too hard for them to swallow. Grace is amazing and a constant reminder that we did not save ourselves, so we are humbly grateful.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for Your grace. I could not save myself, so thank You, for what Jesus did for me. I am staying with Jesus and staying with grace for my salvation and my entire life.