"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Good Morning Beloved,
Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."
Paul wants us to pay attention as he makes his argument, that listening to false teaching put us in grave danger. What he is not saying is that physical circumcision will make Christ useless to a person. Beware of anyone, who uses a single verse or statement in the Bible as justification for something if they do not put the verse in context.
There are several principles for interpreting scripture that are always valid, and any interpretation must be able to stand up under these principles in order to be valid. The first principle is the continuity of scripture. Scripture interprets scripture. The Bible does not contradict itself, so any interpretation of a scripture passage must agree with the rest of scripture.
Another principle is that the interpretation must take into account the context of the passage. Does it make sense in relation to the surrounding passages and in the overall context of the chapter or book. Are there any clues in the surrounding text to prove or disprove the interpretation.
We see in verse 6 very clearly that "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love." The act of circumcision in itself is totally meaningless.
And in context we see that in verses 2-4, Paul is addressing himself to the same group of people. In verse 2 and 3, he calls them people who let themselves be circumcised. In verse 4, still speaking to the same people, he says "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace."
Circumcision is merely the symptom being displayed by the particular people Paul is addressing in his letter. The disease is relying on something other than faith in Christ for justification, relying on anything other than the work of Christ to save your eternal soul. If you do that, he says in verse 2, Christ is of no value to you, you have discarded Him.
In verse 3, he is saying, that if
you rely on the law for justification, you get the
whole enchilada, you want it, you get it, you are under obligation to
the entire law, you cannot just pick and choose. That's why he says in verse 4, "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace." You have fallen from grace, you have been disqualified.
This is yet another controversial statement made by the apostle Paul. There are some who read this passage and say "See! There it is, the undeniable proof that a believer can lose their salvation." But is that really what is being taught here?
Let’s apply our principles we discussed earlier; context and continuity of scripture, if we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, it always agrees with itself!
In context, what has Paul been talking about up to this point? He has been contrasting two different understandings, and by two different means of salvation, these means of salvation could be labeled Law and Grace.
Salvation by means of the Law means relying on your own power to be righteous, it’s about what you can do to save yourself.
Salvation by means of God’s grace means relying on the righteousness of Christ and placing your Faith completely in Him and what He has done and what He can do.
Only one of those means of salvation will truly work. That is what most of Galatians has been about. Salvation is only through Faith alone, in Christ alone, by the Grace of God alone.
Taking that into account, in our passage Grace is not equivalent to salvation, God’s grace is the means by which we receive salvation. To fall away from grace is not to lose your salvation, it is to drive a wedge between yourself and the unmerited favor of God, to separate yourself from His grace.
Now lets think about to whom Paul is talking to in this letter.
He is addressing the visible church in Galatia, which as our church probably does includes both believers and lost people who are in the church, they participate in the goings on of the church, as well as the false brothers, false teachers who are misleading the Galatians.
Now as a lost person, to separate yourself from the grace of God is to abandon the only means of salvation that exists, leaving you hopeless until such a time as you might return to it.
As a true believer in Christ, to separate yourself from the grace of God is to drive that wedge between you and God, to resist the work of the Holy Spirit by trying to substitute something else for the power of God working in your life, whether it be your own works, the church itself, or anything else.
Either way you are alienating yourself from Christ, pushing Him away, either turning your back on Him altogether, or simply falling away, separating yourself from God’s grace, hindering the work of His Holy Spirit in your heart and in your life.
If you are a believer, you cannot completely sever your bond to Christ. Those who cite this passage as support of the opinion that you can, are ignoring the authority and continuity of Scripture.
Remember what we discussed earlier, that Scripture always agrees with itself. Well, if we
have any question about this passage as far as what it means to fall
away from grace, we only need to investigate what the rest of scripture
has to say about the security of our salvation. If we can find scripture
that clearly teaches that security, we can put our mind to rest about
this passage.
Ephesians 1:13-14 teaches us "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
Romans 8:38-39 says "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It is quite clear in these passages, that we are discussing salvation "the gospel of your salvation." "Having believed, you were marked...sealed." "Sealed by the Holy Spirit, a first installment of our inheritance."
It is also clear, that our inheritance is eternal life, eternal life in resurrected and glorified bodies, eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever. We are sealed until the redemption of those who are God’s possession
If you are a believer, you belong to God, you are His possession, Jesus Christ has paid a price for you. We linger here as aliens in a strange land for a little while,
However, He is coming back to claim those who are His, He is coming back for us and there will be judgment.
And
if you are under the blood of Christ, you have His righteousness
applied to your sin debt and there is no condemnation for you, you have
crossed over from death to life, and on that day of redemption the
transaction will be finalized, time will cease and we will be with Him
in Heaven for eternity, finally perfected, finally Christ-like, finally
free from sin. This is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you now, He is alive in you! What more guarantee could anyone possibly need?
So what about backsliding Christians, as a believer, can I do something so bad that Jesus will strip His robe of righteousness from me, will He end the relationship, will He let go of His grip on my heart?
We find the answer to that question in John chapter 6:37-40. "Everything that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I certainly will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of everything that He has given Me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus' message makes it very clear. You will not slip through His fingers, He will never drive you away. He submits to the will of God the Father, and God’s will is that Jesus will lose NONE of all that the Father has given Him. Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.
There is no additional qualifier here. This is an absolute, complete statement. It does not say those who believe in the Son will have eternal life unless they mess up, then they’re out. It says "everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." That is a marvelous affirmation of the truth. Oh what a glorious day that will be indeed!
For those God foreknew he also predestined. God’s foreknowledge means that before you were born, before the beginning of time, God knew you. He knew your name, He knew everything that would ever take place in your life, He sees your entire life laid out before Him like a tapestry on the wall, from beginning to end. And, He knew how you would respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And it goes even further. Those He predestined, He called. Those He called He justified, that’s your acquittal from the punishment you deserve for your sins. And those He justified He also glorified.
Glorified, past tense as if it has already happened. For us it is still in the future, our glorification. That is when Jesus returns and He finishes the work of sanctification, of making us like Him, making us CHRIST-LIKE.
But for God, it is as though it has already happened. God exists outside of the boundaries of time. He can see all of history laid out before Him from beginning to end. He sees your life completely unfolded.
If your are a true believer, if you are a Christian, it is as if it has already happened. It is a foregone conclusion. You can bank on it.
This passage of Scripture is worded as to leave absolutely no wiggle room. There is no question what is being said here. I do not see any way to misinterpret this one, there is no way around what it is saying. If you belong to God, your future is settled. Paul goes on in the following verses to unpack this for us even more. Romans 8:31-39.
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It is God who justifies, You cannot save yourself! And, since you cannot save yourself, you must choose Him, you must receive Him, accept Him, for even your faith is a gift from God. It is God who saves! It is His power that saves you, reconciles you to God and removes your debt of sin and with it your eternal condemnation.
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Therefore, is it time to live it up? Have a party, doing whatever you please, laugh drink and be merry? Get loose, let those morals slide, roll around in the filth of sin, after all, my ticket to heaven has already been punched, my future secure, my future is set, right?
Of course not. However, some claim that this is the result of the doctrine of security of salvation. Some claim that a believer is free to take their security as a license to sin. Nothing could be further from the truth!
I'm going to speak rather boldly, however, I want you to hear my heart on this, I want you to hear my conviction.
If you have that attitude, that you are assured a place in heaven so you can sin all you want, and you feel no conflict within, then I say to you that the Holy Spirit is not in you! For if He were, you would be under conviction for your sin, and you would be under constant torment from Him.
I am not saying that a Christian will not backslide, what I am saying is that if you resist the efforts of the Holy Spirit to make you more Christ like and you try to go off in some other direction, the Holy Spirit will convict you and you will know it.
However, if you persist in your resistance, you can lead a very sinful life, even as a believer, but it has grave consequences. Very grave consequences! Though you have been acquitted of your sin guilt, and you are assured a place in heaven, sin always has consequences. Some can be physical, like disease, while others can be emotional, relational and spiritual. However, I want you to understand, there is always a consequence to sin.
Your sin will damage your relationships with your loved ones, and your sin will damage your relationship with God.
If you don't believe that, just look at King David in the Old Testament, his sin had far reaching and very negative effects that touched his entire family.
An attitude of licentiousness should not be typical for a believer.
Instead, Paul tells us in verses 5 and 6 what our response to God’s grace should be. "For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."
In Closing...
By Faith! If you possess that Faith in Christ that is a gift from God, then you eagerly await through the Spirit – That's God’s Holy Spirit, and if you have that genuine Faith in Christ then the Holy Spirit lives within your heart, and you eagerly await the righteousness for which we hope. If you have that Faith, you want the righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
You are eager for it. You can’t wait for the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and change you from the inside out. You are eager for that to happen because you want what God wants. And God wants you to become more like Jesus. That’s why He sent Jesus, that’s why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. To live inside you and change you. To conform you to the image of Jesus Christ!
All this other stuff that distracts us from Jesus, they drag our focus away from Him and toward something else, that stuff is meaningless! Focusing on that stuff will take you nowhere!
Verse 6, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That kind of faith is obvious, that kind of faith can do nothing but impact others. The only thing that matters, the only thing counts is faith! By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
May it be so...
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2020 All Rights Reserved