There once was a man carrying a huge burden upon his back. He had just
set out on a lengthy journey. The burden was doing nothing but slowing him
down, tripping him up, and making him lose his footing. The man’s name was
Christian. So it delighted him greatly when a stranger approached him and
asked, “How now, good fellow, whither away after this burdened manner?” When
Christian explained that he would love to get some counsel, the man replied, “I
would advise thee, then, that thou with all speed get thyself rid of thy burden
; for thou wilt never be settled in thy mind till then; nor canst thou enjoy
the benefits of the blessing which God hath bestowed upon thee till then.”
Christian then explains that he had already been sent toward a solution by one
named Evangelist. The stranger cautioned him against his advice by saying, “Thou
art like to meet with in the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness,
hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word,
death, and what not.” He continues,
“Why wilt thou seek for ease this way, seeing
so many dangers attend it? Especially, since (hadst thou but patience to hear
me) I could direct thee to the obtaining of what thou desirest, without the
dangers that thou in this way wilt run into; yea, and the remedy is at hand.
Besides, I will add, that instead of those dangers, thou shalt meet with much
safety, friendship, and content.”
Christian: “Pray sir, open this secret to me.”
“Why, in yonder village (the village is named
Morality) there dwells a gentleman, whose name is Legality, a very judicious
man, and a man of a very good name, that has skill to help men off with such
burdens as thine is from their shoulders; yea to my knowledge, he hath done a
great deal of good this way; aye, and besides, he hath skill to cure those that
are somewhat crazed in their wits with their burdens. To him, as I said, thou
mayest go, and be helped presently. His house is not quite a mile from this
place; and if he should not be at home himself, he hath a pretty young man to
his son, whose name is Civility, that can do it (to speak on) as well as the
old gentleman himself: there, I say, thou mayest be eased of thy burden; and if
thou art not minded to go back to thy former habitation, (as indeed I would not
wish thee,) thou mayest send for thy wife and children to this village, where
there are houses now standing empty, one of which thou mayest have at a
reasonable rate: provision is there also cheap and good; and that which will
make thy life the more happy is, to be sure there thou shalt live by honest
neighbors, in credit and good fashion.”
So
Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality's house for help: but,
behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that
side of it that was next the wayside did hang so much over, that Christian was
afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head; wherefore
there he stood still, and wotted not what to do. Also his burden now seemed
heavier to him than while he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire, out of the hill, that
made Christian afraid that he should be burnt: here therefore he did sweat and
quake for fear.
Just
then, Evangelist returned, and rebuked Christian for listening to the stranger:
The man that met thee is one Worldly Wiseman,
and rightly is he so called; partly because he savoreth only the doctrine of
this world (1 John
4:5), (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to church;) and
partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for it saveth him best from the
cross (Gal. 6:12):
and because he is of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to pervert my
ways, though right . . .
. . . He to whom thou wast sent for ease, being by name Legality, is the
son of the bond-woman which now is, and is in bondage with her children, and
is, in a mystery, this Mount Sinai, which thou hast feared will fall on thy
head. Now if she with her children are in bondage, how canst thou expect by
them to be made free? This Legality, therefore, is not able to set thee free
from thy burden. No man was as yet ever rid of his burden by him; no, nor ever
is like to be: ye cannot be justified by the works of the law; for by the deeds
of the law no man living can be rid of his burden: Therefore Mr. Worldly
Wiseman is an alien, and Mr. Legality is a cheat; and for his son Civility,
notwithstanding his simpering looks, he is but a hypocrite, and cannot help
thee. Believe me, there is nothing in all this noise that thou hast heard of
these sottish men, but a design to beguile thee of thy salvation, by turning
thee from the way in which I had set thee.
And
thus John Bunyan describes the book of Galatians in allegorical form in the
opening chapter of his famous novel, The
Pilgrim’s Progress.[1]
I share this because it clearly describes what Paul is seeking to prove
in the eleven verses of today’s text. To leave the way of grace and promise,
and to enter into the way of works and law is to desert the way of Christ. It
accomplishes nothing, it leads to fear—not peace, and it removes a person from
the path of life.
Paul writes in Galatians 5:2-12, “Take note! I,
Paul, tell you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit
you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised
that he is obligated to keep the entire law. You who are trying to be justified
by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. For
through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes
anything; what matters is faith working through love. You were running
well. Who prevented you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not
come from the One who called you. A little yeast leavens the whole lump
of dough. I have confidence in the Lord you will not accept any other
view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. Now brothers,
if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the
offense of the cross has been abolished. I wish those who are disturbing
you might also get themselves castrated!”
Last time we saw that we have been set free because of Christ, and as
such, we should refuse to submit again to slavery. This time, Paul elaborates,
by showing what it looks like if we ignore his advice in 5:1.
Verses 2-5 discuss the futility of trying to achieve righteousness by
the law. “Take note! I, Paul, tell you that if you get yourselves circumcised,
Christ will not benefit you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets
himself circumcised that he is obligated to keep the entire law. You who
are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have
fallen from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for
the hope of righteousness.”
Before diving right into the above verses, it is necessary to explain
why “circumcision” pops up five times in these eleven verses while it has only
occurred six times to this point in the first four chapters of the book. The
earlier grouping of the circumcision discussion was when Paul was describing
his time with the Jerusalem church (2:1-14). He brought it up there because
this was the issue that spawned the book of Galatians. It is the issue
described in Acts 15:1: “Some men came down from Judea and
began to teach the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses,
you cannot be saved!’” Paul
started in chapters 1-2 explaining his story—from persecutor to passionate
preacher—and explained that the gospel that he had been given by Christ had
nothing to do with circumcision. Then, in chapters 3-4 he described the
theological proof that works of law have never contributed anything to salvation.
And now he returns to the initial discussion of circumcision, before diving
into a whole slew of application.
It boils down to the question, “What are you trusting in for your
righteousness?” While God had given circumcision to the Jews as a symbol of His
faithfulness to His covenant, “most Jews looked on it as having spiritual value
in itself.” MacArthur continues, “The symbolism of cutting off the male
foreskin was to be a constant reminder to all generations of Jews, for whom God
desired to cut away the evil from their hearts.”[2]
So circumcision in itself is not legalism, just like refraining from
alcohol, tobacco, filthy language, or dating is not legalism. However, if you
look at your life and say, “I am circumcised, so now God will accept me,” or “I
have never smoked, drank, or cussed; God has to accept me,” or “I haven’t dated
in six years so God must think I’m extra spiritual,” you are being legalistic.
And if your refraining from those things causes you to heap judgment on another
brother or sister who may be struggling in one of those areas (recovering
alcoholic, smoking quitter, or ex-sailor mouth) or who maybe doesn’t view those
things as sinful (it is not the time to get into that discussion)[3] is definitely legalistic and
wrong.
Paul here says that if you look to these things for righteousness
standing before God, then you really have no need for Christ. Paul is saying
that Christ can’t add anything to you. Paul is not saying that you don’t need
Christ in this situation, but rather that “a supplemented Christ is a
supplanted Christ. To trust in human effort is to trust in law, which is
totally incompatible with grace. . . . Whether before or after conversion,
trust in human works of any kind is a barrier between a person and Christ and
results in unacceptable legalism.”[4]
The reason why Christ is of no benefit to this kind of person is because
if you want to be a law-follower in part, Paul says in effect, “you have to be
a law-follower in all.” Martin Luther said, “If we permit Moses to rule over us
in one thing, we must obey him in all things.”[5] If you want to follow
circumcision for salvation, you must also follow all the sacrifices of
Leviticus for salvation—in addition to the rest of Genesis to Deuteronomy. The
only way to be saved is to realize that you can’t perfectly keep the Law. So if
you can’t do a part, you’ve broken all of it (cf. James 2:10) and need Christ
and Christ alone. If, after trusting Christ alone, you revert back to trusting
yourself, in effect you are saying, “Jesus, I don’t really need You; I got
this,” which then returns you to the bondage of keeping the whole Law, under
which you can do nothing but fail.
Paul says, “you are no longer associating yourselves with Jesus, if you
are relying on the Law.” To try even to be sanctified by works of the Law apart
from active, real faith in Christ, is to say, “I got this on my own, Jesus. Don’t
bother me. I don’t want to associate with You anymore.” Paul says that if
someone has this attitude—proven because they are not standing in freedom (5:1)—then
they have “fallen from grace.” This is a harsh word that sounds like Paul is
saying someone can lose their salvation. However, that is not true. But, what
could be true is that someone doesn’t have the salvation that they think they
have.
I love Bunyan’s book for this very reason. I love the metaphor of the
Christian life as a journey. Salvation is a lifelong thing. It is founded on a
past event, worked out in the present, and finally received ultimately in the
future. The fact that Christian was led off the path does not mean that he lost
his salvation; the fact that he is pointed back to the path proves that
everyone strays at times. However, it is in the times of straying that we are
forced to ask ourselves, “Is this salvation that I claim to possess real?” If
Christian would have stayed off the path and continued down Worldly Wiseman’s
road, he would have never gotten to the Celestial City, and it would have
proven that he never had salvation. For this reason, we must always ask
ourselves when we stumble on tough verses like this, “Am I on the right path,
or have I erred somewhere?”[6] Paul wants the Galatians to
know they are in a precarious place if they go ahead and listen to the
Judaizers; however, the next verse shows the alternative to justification (or
sanctification) by works.
Paul says in verse 5, “We, through the Spirit, from faith, eagerly await
the hope of justification (or sanctification).” I say “(or sanctification)” because
both justification (positional righteousness) and sanctification (practical
righteousness) must be BY CHRIST ALONE and not by works of law (the Greek word
is just “righteousness”). Paul trusted the Spirit to make him righteous. Who
are we trusting? If we aren’t trusting the Spirit, we are in a heap of trouble
according to these verses if we don’t
repent and turn back to Christ.
Take some time now to ask the Lord where your motivation for
righteousness is coming from.
Verse 6 is the ultimate application of the whole letter that is
expounded throughout the rest of the letter. “For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith
working through love.” Now, before anyone says, “I thought you said 5:1 was the
main point?” I must state that 5:1 is the main point. However, the way that
main point is carried out is described clearly in 5:6-6:15. Paul could have
written, “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit
again to a yoke of slavery. 6For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith
working through love. 13For you were called to be free, brothers;
only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one
another through love.” However, he first wanted to reiterate the foolishness of
trusting in works (5:2-5), and then the folly of false teaching (5:7-12),
before laying out clear application for the common man (5:13-6:15).
It is very interesting that 6:15 says, “For both circumcision and
uncircumcision mean nothing; ⌊what matters⌋ instead is a new
creation.” It is almost identical to 5:6. This is called an inclusio, and it
means that the main point is the same for everything inside of this section: “faith
works itself out in love.”
Paul says in effect here, “If you’re circumcised already, so what! If
you’re not circumcised already, so what!” To parse it into modern parlance, “If
you’ve kept yourself totally sexually pure, so what! If you’ve come from a
shady past sexually, so what!” Paul then explains what does matter: “faith
working itself out through love.” This means that whatever you used to find
identity in—circumcision, uncircumcision, purity of body, total promiscuousness—no
longer matters. Your identity is now Christ. You live as He lives in this world
(1 John 4:17). For the formerly promiscuous person, this means that promiscuity
is at an end: promiscuity is not love! Verses 13-15 (next week’s study) will
elaborate greatly on this love concept. If you want some heavier, theological
discussion prior, I have written extensively on the topic here.
With Paul’s argument set up to lay out a ton of application, he pauses
in verses 7-12 to speak to the Judaizers. He does this in a backhanded way by
questioning the Galatians, but his emphasis is on the Judaizers. “You were running well. Who prevented you from obeying the truth?
This persuasion did not come from the One who called you. A little
yeast leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in the Lord you
will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will
pay the penalty. Now brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I
still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!”
This section immediately brings 3:1 back to mind. Paul there asked, “Who
bewitched you?” Here he asks, “Who cut in on your race and tripped you up? You
were doing well.” The rhetorical answer is the same in both instances: the
false teachers known as the Judaizers. Paul answers this question himself by
saying, “It is not from him who called you.” He says, “You didn’t learn this
from me, the one God used to call you vocally; and you certainly didn’t learn
this from God, the One who called you spiritually behind my vocals.” Paul
points out that this hindrance the Galatians were now dealing with was
dangerous, and the metaphor he uses in verse 9 proves this. It is a favorite
metaphor for Paul to use to describe the subtlety and danger and pervasiveness
of sin (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8). It isn’t just kept in one person; it spreads
to all until it rises and becomes obvious. Paul is here trying to nip it in the
bud before it gets worse for these believers.
Paul makes an interesting statement at the end of verse 10: “The one who
is troubling you will have to bear the judgment, whoever he is.” This is a
warning to anyone who teaches the Scripture. It is a specific warning to anyone
who pushes for legalism instead of Jesus Christ. If we are not pointing people
to Christ, but rather telling them to try harder, do better, hold out longer,
we are in danger of judgment. It may not be eternal damnation in hell, but it
might be; we don’t know (see discussion on verse 4 above). So, at this point, I
would point back to my post a week ago and say, “As far as the church I was a
part of a year and a half ago, I am praying that they would repent. I am
praying that the pastor there would come to see his error and turn back to the
straight path of the simple gospel, because otherwise he should be in fear of
judgment.”
James wrote, “Not many should become teachers, my brothers,
knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment” (3:1), and Jesus said, “But whoever causes the
downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for
him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the
sea” (Mark 9:42).
I don’t call people out for fun (and I have been gracious enough not to
use names); I call people to repentance because I care for souls. Please return
to the truth of the gospel! And if you’re reading this (maybe just stumbled
across this page), and you don’t know Christ, please place your faith in Him!
He died to save your soul, and He rose again to prove that His way is freedom from
slavery!
Paul concludes the section by asking rhetorically why he’s persecuted if
his ministry is a ministry of circumcision? He explains that he is persecuted
for the very reason that he does not promote a circumcision gospel. He clings
wholeheartedly to the scandal of the cross—a scandal because it totally
undermines everything a legalistic Jew would hold dear. Again MacArthur is
helpful: “The Jews were scandalized by the cross because it nullified not only
the Mosaic law but also their highly revered rabbinic traditions.”[7] And Paul concludes his
underhanded comments to the Judaizers by showing just how opposed he is to
their “gospel” of circumcision. “They’d be quieter if the knife would slip
while they are circumcising themselves!”
Paul’s gotten pretty fired up in this letter, and verse 12 probably
marks the high point of his heat. He has said now that submission to the law is
to deny Christ’s power, so if you submit to the law in one place you have to
submit to the law in every place. However, before we all say, “Hurray! The Christian
doesn’t have to follow any law,” let’s reflect on Galatians 5:14 until my next
post comes out: “For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your
neighbor as yourself.” Paul says that our faith “works itself out in love.” How
loving will you be this week?
Til next time.
Soli Deo
Gloria. Solus Christus.
[2]
John MacArthur, Galatians, 132.
[3]
Filthy language is just about NEVER okay. Dating is NOT a sin. Alcohol and
tobacco are a tougher subject (maybe for another time), but for now, just look
at Galatians 5:21.
[4]
John MacArthur, Galatians, 134.
[5] Martin
Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
[6]
Hebrews 6 comes to mind clearly on this point. Along with several other
passages as well.
[7]
John Macarthur, Galatiaans, 142.
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