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The teaching that is implicit in this story is the contrast between freedom and bondage,
between the law of Moses with its slavery and the glorious freedom resulting from saving
grace. The Galatians had to decide which they wanted; they could not have both. So the
Apostle uses every legitimate means to bring home to these Christians the intense
seriousness of their choice and the results that would surely follow. His conclusion is:
"So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free" (4: 31).
But what if those who are free choose to go back to slavery? The context that follows
makes this perfectly clear, "Christ shall profit you nothing . . . . . Christ is become of
none effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace"
(5: 2-4). The freedom that comes from Christ's saving grace is the great key-note of
Paul's ministry. Yet thousand have never learnt this, some who even take the name of
Christ. They still substitute their own imperfect doing for Christ's perfect work of
redemption and hope that somehow by mixing these two things they can gain favour with
God.
The words of Gal. 5: 1 are a clarion call today for all who call themselves Christians:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (N.I.V.).
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8: 32), promised
the Lord. Let us see to it that we never spoil this freedom, provided at such terrific cost.
The Apostle Paul has used two great lines of argument. First he has argued from
history in chapters 1: and 2: from his own experience and the experience of the
Galatians. Secondly he has argued in chapters 3: and 4: from Scripture, showing that
the teaching of the Judaizers is absolutely contrary to the Word of God.
He is now going to use another powerful argument namely the moral change which
has been brought by the freedom of the gospel which all the prohibitions of the law of
Moses had utterly failed to produce. But these were obligations as fruits of the gospel.
God's freedom does not mean licence, as so many have misinterpreted the gospel as
preached by Paul. And so with all the earnestness at his command he says to the Galatian
believers (and we paraphrase here), "Look, I Paul tell you this, if you now accept
circumcision, Christ will be useless to you. I say solemnly that every man who accepts
circumcision is accepting an obligation to carry out the whole of the law. In trying to
obtain a right standing with God in this way you have broken the bond that united you to
Christ (the bond of faith in Him). You have slipped from the sphere where grace
operates . . . . . Once faith is placed in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is
any good. The only thing that counts is faith in Christ which works out in love".
We give the passage in the N.I.V.:
"Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ will
be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be