Galatians 5

Why would Paul equate an ordinance of God, such as circumcision, with slavery? Circumcision was a sacrament of the Old Covenant. It had a meaning that was something like this: May I be cut off from the people of God if I do not keep the law of God perfectly. Who would ever go along with such a ritual that seems destined to fail? We will not fully obey the Law. Surely we will be cut off. The only way that anyone should have received circumcision or allowed their children to be circumcised would be based on faith in God. The content of faith at its best would have been something like this: I trust that God will provide a true Keeper of the Law for me, who will be cut off from the Lord’s people for my sake. My only hope is in Him.

In any case this sacrament was for the time of shadows. Now, out of the shadows, the answer to the longings of faith has come. He has a name – Jesus. He is the Messiah who brings us true freedom in His perfect Law-keeping and in His death for our sake. If we have this freedom, why would we put on the yoke of the Law again, since the coming of Christ and His death on the cross are settled events that were necessary? Why necessary? Because no one can be justified before God by the deeds of the Law.

The church cannot have it both ways. We cannot have Christ, and a system of works whereby we hope to have peace with God. If you choose circumcision as your next step toward Christian perfection, you reject Christ and the gospel. Many in the church may be genuinely Christians and have been deceived by this false message as a matter of confusion. Paul is making the matter clear to them. Make a choice: Christian perfection through circumcision and the Law, or the progress of love by the way of grace in Christ alone.

You cannot take the sign of the Mosaic Law as your defining religious symbol without getting the whole system with it. More than this, you cannot receive circumcision as practiced in the Pharisaic tradition without taking up the whole Pharisaic system. Circumcision is an initiatory rite. Through this kind of ceremony someone is being brought into something. What were the Galatians unwillingly being made a part of? Whatever it was, it was not the church of Jesus Christ, since you are not brought into the church through circumcision. You cannot be part of Christ and part of a new Gentile-changing system of Pharisaic Judaism. You cannot even be part of the New Covenant and also a part of the good system that was designed to prepare people for a savior who had not yet come. You cannot not be justified by Christ and justified by the Law.

If you sense that there is something that you must do now that you have been saved by grace, you are absolutely correct. That something you must do is what Paul calls here, “faith working through love.” Faith working through love is the goal of any of the eternal ethical demands of God’s people for those in relationship with Him in any era. The ceremonial demands of the Law, like circumcision, were temporary. To return to them now implies that there is something lacking in Christ and the cross that we must do to earn our right standing with God. Faith working through love is different. It is the fruit of our salvation. A work like circumcision is not Christian fruit, it is a root treatment that will kill the whole plant if we are not careful.

So what is happening in Galatia? A little bad leaven is beginning to have a bad impact on the thinking of many, and it must be purged from the house of God. Paul is not talking about baking here, but using an illustration about people. False teachers from Jerusalem who are “not from Him who calls you,” Jesus, have entered into the church and are turning them in a dangerous direction. This is spiritual warfare, and Paul is fighting for the beloved of Christ.

Whenever we have some new practice that is pressed upon us, distracting our attention from the primacy of Christ, the cross, and the resurrection, however subtle the pressure may be, the danger to the church is real. The new law may be a good thing, but when we begin to consider the matters of first importance as something we need not focus on quite so much any more, know that we are in danger. Is the spiritual teaching that has made us so passionate a part of the ancient and best creeds of Christianity or is it a new move of law? Even if you are fully persuaded that the new move of law is only faith working itself out through love, you must run back to the central facts of the gospel, and especially to Christ Himself, even if that choice may mean persecution from the new law party.

Systems of new law will not bring you the fruit of the Spirit. Despite the appearance of a clean life that may come from them, they so quickly lead to people biting and devouring each other, and even to surprising deeds of grave immorality. This is because distractions from Christ are the anti-love, and they really seek the desires of the flesh. Put any such new movement in a petri dish and let it grow for a few years and you will find enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy. That we almost expect. But did you expect to find sexual immorality, idolatry, and drunkenness? This is not the kingdom of God.

Stay with Christ, and see what fruit He brings by His Spirit: His love working through you, His joy in you, peace from His perfect works, His patience, His kindness, His goodness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, and His self-control. He is the fulfillment of the Law. Let Him work through you, and through the church. Belonging to Christ Jesus is the only way to start with victory. In Him you have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Let us abide in Him, and not in any other system of law that men would press upon us. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. In Christ alone we have the true way of new life.