 |  |
These words introduce a passage which deals with the Apostle's individual position,
his official character and authority and the subject is continued to the end of the epistle.
It is therefore fittingly introduced in this very personal way.
Passing Gal. 5: 2 which is the passage under review, we come to Eph. 3: 1, where
the distinctive ministry and dispensation of the Mystery is introduced. Again, we have
the personal formula:
"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles" (Eph. 3: 1).
This passage finds an echo in Col. 1: 23 where, dealing with the same claim he said
"Whereof I Paul am made a minister". So to assure the Thessalonians of the intensity of
his desire to see them and of the equal intensity of Satanic opposition, he wrote:
"Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan
hindered us" (I Thess. 2: 18).
In the epistle to Philemon which is so full of the practical outworking of grace, we
find the Apostle undertaking to be surety for Onesimus, saying:
"I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it" (Philemon 19).
So, we are prepared by this introduction to Gal. 5: 2 to discover that some solemn
words are about to be uttered. Solemn indeed must be that defection of the Galatians
from truth that makes Christ to profit them nothing.
"If ye be circumcised." The verb is a present subjunctive. It does not refer to
anything done in the past. It does not say "If ye are or have been circumcised" for that
would have excluded Paul himself. It is the contemplated act that is in mind, imposed
upon them with great authority (Acts 15: 1), and having the added inducement of
greater security ("Ye cannot be saved"), accompanied by immunity from persecution
(Gal. 6: 12). The rite itself is not in question, it is the reason why the Gentile Christian
was submitting to it that was the Apostle's concern, for it more than suggested that
Christ's redemptive work was not alone sufficient for justification and life.
To all such Paul gave the solemn warning "Christ shall profit you nothing", the R.V.
alters this to "Christ will profit you nothing". There is perhaps a glimpse at `the hope of
the righteousness by faith' (verse 5) when all who are thus addressed will find that they
have no deliverer, no justifier, no Saviour. Closely associated in the Apostle's mind was
this rite of circumcision and `profit'. As a consequence of the teaching of Rom. 2: he
puts into the mouth of the imaginary objector the words:
"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?" (Rom. 3: 1).
In this case, speaking of a Jew who was rightly under the law, the Apostle's answer is
`much every way'.
He had however in Rom. 2: 25 said: