Freedom (Galatians 5:1-6)

SCRIPTURE

Galatians 5:1-6
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

COMMENT

Christ came to set us free. Free from the burden of slavery to the law. That's right, slavery. Because the law is oppressive, it demands everything from us. To fail at one point of law is to be a law breaker and therefore a failure. Why would anyone who has been set free return to such a burden?

Paul clarifies. If we accept circumcision, then we accept the law, all of it. If we accept the law, we reject the freedom that Christ gives, so having Christ is of no value. I think the hardest part of this teaching is that if we accept the law, if we choose that path to righteousness, we have fallen from grace. So that good, moral person who thinks that will be enough to save him, is outside of grace because he is not living by faith in Christ, but by law. Therefore, he is as guilty as the murderer or thief, etc. who does not turn to Christ.

The freedom found in Christ and the burden of living by the law are incompatible. This does not mean that we are not under obligation however. But that obligation is to live by the Spirit, to walk by faith in the fact that Jesus suffered and died to free us from our sin. That He set us free from the burden of the law to live a life that freely responds to the mercy and grace of God. Therefore, we still do good, but the good that we do is a response to what God has done (in view of God's mercy. Rom 12:1,2) rather than an attempt to earn salvation ourselves.