Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
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Galatians 5:2-4 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little yeast grows through the whole lump. I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
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Beholde I Paul saye vnto you that yf ye be circumcised Christ shall proffit you nothinge at all.
I testifie agayne to every man which is circumcised that he is bounde to kepe the whole lawe.
Ye are gone quyte from Christ as many as are iustified by the lawe and are fallen from grace.
Show all 3 translations
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Beholde, I Paul say vnto you, that if yee be circumcised, Christ shall profite you nothing.
For I testifie againe to euery man, which is circumcised, that he is bound to keepe the whole Lawe.
Ye are abolished from Christ: whosoeuer are iustified by the Law, ye are fallen from grace.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (42)
- Romans 9:31-32 (vv2, 4) but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith,…
- 2 Peter 2:20-22 (v4) For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again…
- Romans 11:6 (v4) And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise…
- Galatians 2:21 (v4) I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
- Hebrews 12:15 (v4) looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many…
Show all 41 cross-references
- Romans 2:25 (v3) For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become…
- Galatians 3:10 (v3) For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things…
- Romans 3:20 (v4) Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- Romans 4:4-5 (v4) Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who…
- Galatians 5:2 (v4) Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
- Revelation 2:5 (v4) Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your…
- Hebrews 6:4-6 (v4) For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the…
- James 2:10-11 (v3) For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”…
- Galatians 5:6 (v2) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
- Galatians 1:6-9 (v4) I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”, but there isn’t another…
- Acts 15:1 (v2) Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
- Romans 10:3-5 (v4) For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the…
- Deuteronomy 27:26 (v3) ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ”
- Hebrews 10:38-39 (v4) But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to…
- Deuteronomy 8:19 (v3) It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today…
- Deuteronomy 31:21 (v3) It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be…
- Galatians 2:3-5 (v2) But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. This was because of the false brothers secretly…
- Ephesians 4:17 (v3) This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
- Nehemiah 9:29-30 (v3) and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments,…
- Matthew 23:18 (v3) ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’
- Acts 16:3-4 (v2) Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew…
- Romans 10:2-3 (v2) For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and…
- Galatians 5:3-4 (v2) Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who…
- Galatians 5:11 (v2) But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.
- Hebrews 4:2 (v2) For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed…
- Matthew 23:16 (v3) “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is…
- Luke 16:28 (v3) for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’
- Acts 2:40 (v3) With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
- Acts 15:24 (v2) Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised…
- Acts 20:21 (v3) testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
- 2 Corinthians 10:1 (v2) Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am…
- 1 Thessalonians 4:6 (v3) that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as…
- 2 Peter 3:17-18 (v4) You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your…
- 1 John 4:14 (v3) We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
- Nehemiah 9:34 (v3) Also our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (v2) because we wanted to come to you—indeed, I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us.
41 distinct cross-references across this passage (42 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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Martin Luther 1535 · Public Domain On vv2–4 VERSE 2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that…
VERSE 2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Paul is incensed at the thought of the tyranny of the Law. His antagonism to the Law is a personal matter with him. "Behold, I, Paul," he says, "I who have received the Gospel not from men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ: I who have been commissioned from above to preach the Gospel to you: I Paul say to you, If you submit to circumcision Christ will profit you nothing." Paul emphatically declares that for the Galatians to be circumcised would mean for them to lose the benefits of Christ’s suffering and death. This passage may well serve as a criterion for all the religions. To teach that besides faith in Christ other devices like works, or the observance of rules, traditions, or ceremonies are necessary for the attainment of righteousness and everlasting life, is to make Christ and His salvation of no benefit to anybody.
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This passage is an indictment of the whole papacy. All priests, monks, and nuns--and I am now speaking of the best of them--who repose their hope for salvation in their own works, and not in Christ, whom they imagine to he an angry judge, hear this sentence pronounced against them that Christ shall profit them nothing. If one can earn the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life through one’s own efforts to what purpose was Christ born? What was the purpose of His suffering and death, His resurrection, His victory over sin, death, and the devil, if men may overcome these evils by their own endeavor? Tongue cannot express, nor heart conceive what a terrible thing it is to make Christ worthless.
The person who is not moved by these considerations to leave the Law and the confidence in his own righteousness for the liberty in Christ, has a heart that is harder than stone and iron.
Paul does not condemn circumcision in itself. Circumcision is not injurious to the person who does not ascribe any particular importance to it. Neither are works injurious provided a person does not attach any saving value to them. The Apostle does not say that works are objectionable, but to build one’s hopes for righteousness on works is disastrous, for that makes Christ good for nothing.
Let us bear this in mind when the devil accuses our conscience. When that dragon accuses us of having done no good at all, but only evil, say to him: "You trouble me with the remembrance of my past sins; you remind me that I have done no good. But this does not bother me, because if I were to trust in my own good deeds, or despair because I have done no good deeds, Christ would profit me neither way. I am not going to make him unprofitable to me. This I would do, if I should presume to purchase for myself the favor of God and everlasting life by my good deeds, or if I should despair of my salvation because of my sins."
Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. Behold, I Paul. He could not have pronounced…
2. Behold, I Paul. He could not have pronounced a severer threatening than that it would exclude them entirely from the grace of Christ. But what is the meaning of this, that Christ will profit nothing to all who are circumcised? Did Christ profit nothing to Abraham? Nay, it was in order that Christ might profit him that he received circumcision. If we say that it was in force till the coming of Christ, what reply shall we make to the case of Timothy? We must observe, that Paul’s reasoning is directed not so properly against the outward rite or ceremony, as against the wicked doctrine of the false apostles, who pretended that it was a necessary part of the worship of God, and at the same time made it a ground of confidence as a meritorious work. These diabolical contrivances made Christ to profit nothing; not that the false apostles denied Christ, or wished him to be entirely set aside, but that they made such a division between his grace and the works of the law as to leave not more than the half of salvation due to Christ. The apostle contends that Christ cannot be divided in this way, and that he “profiteth nothing,” unless he is wholly embraced.
And what else do our modern Papists but thrust upon us, in place of circumcision, trifles of their own invention? The tendency of their whole doctrine is to blend the grace of Christ with the merit of works, which is impossible. Whoever wishes to have the half of Christ, loses the whole. And yet the Papists think themselves exceedingly acute when they tell us that they ascribe nothing to works, except through the influence of the grace of Christ, as if this were a different error from what was charged on the Galatians. They did not believe that they had departed from Christ, or relinquished his grace; and yet they lost Christ entirely, when that important part of evangelical doctrine was corrupted.
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The expression Behold, I Paul, is very emphatic; for he places himself before them, and gives his name, to remove all appearance of hesitation. And though his authority had begun to be less regarded among the Galatians, he asserts that it is sufficient to put down every adversary.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 Circumcision is in other places called the seal of…
Circumcision is in other places called the seal of righteousness, but here we must have consideration of the circumstance of the Baptism come in place of circumcision. And moreover Paul reasoneth according to the opinion that his enemies had of it, which made circumcision a piece of their salvation.
Another obtestation wherein he plainly witnesseth that justification of works, and justification of faith cannot stand together, because no man can be justified by the Law, but he that doth fully and perfectly fulfill it. And he taketh the example of circumcision, because it was the ground of all the service of the Law, and was chiefly urged of the false Apostles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if…
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Ver. 2. Behold I Paul] q.d. As true as I am Paul, and do write these things.
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Christ shall profit you nothing] For he profits none but those that are found in him, not having their "own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God through faith," Php 3:9. As Pharaoh said of the Israelites, "they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in," Exo 14:3; so may it be said of Pharisaical and Popish justiciaries, they are entangled in the fond conceits of their own righteousness, they cannot come to Christ. A man will never truly desire Christ till soundly shaken, Hag 2:7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–4 It is manifest that the apostle is speaking here…
It is manifest that the apostle is speaking here concerning circumcision, looked upon as necessary to justification, now under the gospel state. For under the Old Testament undoubtedly Christ profited the fathers, though circumcised; yea, Christ undoubtedly profiled Timothy, even under the gospel, though he was circumcised, Act 16:3, that being done to prevent a scandal, and during a time whilst, for the gaining of the Jews to the Christian faith, the Jewish ceremonies, though dead, were (as it were) kept above ground, unburied for a time. But for men, after a sufficient time indulged them for their satisfaction concerning the abolition of the ceremonial law, still to adhere to it, and religiously to observe the rites of it, as in obedience to a Divine precept, and as necessary, over and above faith in Christ for justification, was indeed to deny Christ, and disclaim his sufficiency to save, who
is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him, Heb 7:25; and besides whom there is no name given under heaven, by which men can be saved, neither is there salvation in any other, Act 4:10,12; and who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, Rom 10:4. So that to join any thing with Christ, and faith in him, for the justification of the soul before God, is plainly to deny and disclaim him, and to make him insignificant to us. This Paul affirms with an apostolical authority and gravity:
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I Paul say unto you.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv2–4 That is, "Behold, I Paul, your apostle, do positively…
That is, "Behold, I Paul, your apostle, do positively declare, and expressly tell you, the Galatians, and all other Christians converted by me to Christianity, that if ye be circumcised, that is, join circumcision with the gospel as a thing necessary to justification and salvation, Christ’s undertaking will profit you nothing; for embracing circumcision after Christ’s coming, is virtually to deny and disown that he is come, and in effect to renounce and disclaim him; because at his coming the promise was fulfilled, and circumcision of its own nature ceased."
Learn hence, That for persons religiously to observe any of the rites of the ceremonial law, in obedience to any divine precept, or to join any thing with Christ, and faith in him, for the justification of a sinner before God, is a plain denial of Christ, and a disdaining of his ability and sufficiency to justify and save us: If ye be circumcised, verily, Christ shall profit you nothing.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Behold, I Paul say unto you,.... The apostle proceeds…
Behold, I Paul say unto you,.... The apostle proceeds to give some reasons and arguments to enforce the above exhortation and dissuasion: the first of which is introduced with a note of attention, "behold"; what he was about to say being matter of great moment and importance; and also mentions himself by name, as the assertor of it; and that, either because his name was well known to them, and the rather because of his apostolical authority; and to show his full assurance of this matter, and his intrepidity, and that he was no ways ashamed of it, they might, if they pleased, say it to whomsoever they would, that Paul the apostle affirmed,
that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing: he speaks of circumcision, not as when it was an ordinance of God, but as it was now abolished by Christ; and that got as singly performed on some certain accounts for he himself circumcised Timothy for the sake of the Jews; but as done in order to salvation, or as necessary unto it; which was the doctrine the false apostles taught and these Galatians were ready to give into: now circumcision submitted to on this consideration, and with this view rendered Christ unprofitable, made his death to be in vain, his sacrifice of no effect, and his righteousness useless: besides, Christ is a whole Saviour, or none at all; to join anything with him and his righteousness, in the business of justification and salvation, is interpreted by him as a contempt and neglect of him, as laying him aside, and to such persons he is of no profit; and if he is not, what they have, and whatsoever they do, will be of no advantage; wealth and riches, yea, the whole world could it be gained, their works and righteousness, whatever show they make before men, God has declared shall not profit them; and trusting to these renders Christ unprofitable to them. This is directly contrary to the notions of the Jews, who think they shall be saved for their circumcision, and that that will secure them from hell; they say (m) no circumcised person goes down to hell, and that whoever is circumcised shall inherit the land; but there is none shall inherit the land, save a righteous person; but everyone that is circumcised is called a righteous man (n); so that circumcision is their righteousness, on account of which they expect heaven and happiness.
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(m) Shemot Rabba, sect. 19. fol. 104. 4. (n) Zohar in Exod. fol. 10. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–4 If ye be circumcised - And seek to be…
If ye be circumcised - And seek to be justified thereby. Christ - The Christian institution. Will profit you nothing - For you hereby disclaim Christ, and all the blessings which are through faith in him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Verse 2. If ye be circumcised] By circumcision you…
Verse 2. If ye be circumcised] By circumcision you take on you the whole obligation of the Jewish law, and consequently profess to seek salvation by means of its observances; and therefore Christ can profit you nothing; for, by seeking justification by the works of the law, you renounce justification by faith in Christ.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v2 Gal 5:2-4. Behold, I Paul — A divinely-commissioned apostle…
Gal 5:2-4. Behold, I Paul — A divinely-commissioned apostle of Christ; say, that if ye be circumcised — And seek to be justified by that rite, or if you depend on any part of the ceremonial law, as your righteousness, and necessary to salvation; Christ — The Christian institution; will profit you nothing — For you thereby disclaim Christ, and all the blessings which are received by faith in him. I testify again — As I have done heretofore; to every man — Every Gentile; that suffers himself to be circumcised now, being a heathen before, that he is a debtor — That he obliges himself; to do the whole law — Perfectly; and if he fail, he subjects himself to the curse of it. It is necessary that the apostle’s general expression, If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, should be thus limited, because we cannot suppose that the circumcision of the Jewish believers incapacitated them for being profited by Christ. Besides, “as the preservation of Abraham’s posterity, as a distinct people from the rest of mankind, answered many important purposes in the divine government, their observance of the rite of circumcision, declared by God himself to be the seal of his covenant with Abraham, was necessary to mark them as his descendants, as long as it was determined that they should be continued a distinct people. This shows that the apostle’s declaration is not to be considered as a prohibition of circumcision to the Jews as a national rite, but as a rite necessary to salvation. And therefore, while the Jews practised this rite, according to its original intention, for the purpose of distinguishing themselves as Abraham’s descendants, and not for obtaining salvation, they did what was right. But the Gentiles, not being of Abraham’s race, were under no political obligation to circumcise themselves; consequently, if they received that rite, it must have been because they thought it necessary to their salvation; for which reason the apostle absolutely prohibited it to all the Gentiles.” — Macknight. Christ is become of no effect unto you — See on Gal 2:21. Or, as the original expression, κατηργηθητε απο του Χριστου, may be properly rendered, Ye are loosed, or separated from Christ, and deprived of the benefit you might have received from him. The Vulgate hath, Vacui estis a Christo, Ye are devoid of Christ; whosoever of you are justified — That is, who seek to be justified; by the law, ye are fallen from grace — Ye renounce the covenant of grace in this last and most perfect manifestation of it: you disclaim the benefit of Christ’s gracious dispensation. the apostle’s meaning is, that whosoever sought to be justified meritoriously by the law of Moses, and for that purpose received circumcision, dissolved his connection with Christ, and renounced all relation to, and dependance on him as a Saviour.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Behold, I Paul say unto you - I, who…
Behold, I Paul say unto you - I, who at first preached the gospel to you; I, too, who have been circumcised, and who was formerly a strenuous assertor of the necessity of observing the laws of Moses; and I, too, who am charged (see Gal 5:11) with still preaching the necessity of circumcision, now solemnly say to you, that if you are circumcised with a view to being justified by that in whole or in part, it amounts to a rejection of the doctrine of justification by Christ, and an entire apostacy from him. He is to be “a whole Saviour.” No one is to share with him in the honor of saving people; and no rite, no custom, no observance of law, is to divide the honor with his death. The design of Paul is to give them the most solemn assurance on this point; and by his own authority and experience to guard them from the danger, and to put the matter to rest.
That if ye be circumcised - This must be understood with reference to the subject under consideration. If you are circumcised with such a view as is maintained by the false teachers that have come among you; that is, with an idea that it is necessary in order to your justification. He evidently did not mean that if any of them had been circumcised before their conversion to Christianity; nor could he mean to say, that circumcision in all cases amounted to a rejection of Christianity, for he had himself procured the circumcision of Timothy, Act 16:3. If it was done, as it was then, for prudential considerations, and with a wish not necessarily to irritate the Jews, and to give one a more ready access to them, it was not to be regarded as wrong. But if, as the false teachers in Galatia claimed, as a thing essential to salvation, as indispensable to justification and acceptance with God, then the matter assumed a different aspect; and then it became in fact a renouncing of Christ as himself sufficient to save us. So with anything else. Rites and ceremonies in religion may be in themselves well enough, if they are held to be matters not essential; but the moment they are regarded as vital and essential, that moment they begin to infringe on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and that moment they are to be rejected; and it is because of the danger that this will be the case, that they are to be used sparingly in the Christian church. Who does not know the danger of depending upon prayers, and alms, and the sacraments, and extreme unction, and penance, and empty forms for salvation? And who does not know how much in the papal communion the great doctrine of justification has been obscured by numberless such rites and forms?
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Christ shall profit you nothing - Will be of no advantage to you. Your dependence on circumcision, in these circumstances, will in fact amount to a rejection of the Saviour, and of the doctrine of justification by him.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2–4 If you converted from heathenism be circumcised, it must…
If you converted from heathenism be circumcised, it must be by believing and professing it necessary, which is false doctrine, and the Christ will profit you nothing: not that the practice of those ceremonies was at the time sinful, especially for those that had been Jews, but it was an error to judge them necessary for converted Gentiles. Besides, he that judges circumcision necessary, must also judge himself bound to keep all the other ceremonies and precepts of the law. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Behold--that is, Mark what I say.
Behold--that is, Mark what I say.
I Paul--Though you now think less of my authority, I nevertheless give my name and personal authority as enough by itself to refute all opposition of adversaries.
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if ye be circumcised--not as ALFORD, "If you will go on being circumcised." Rather, "If ye suffer yourselves to be circumcised," namely, under the notion of its being necessary to justification (Gal 5:4; Act 15:1). Circumcision here is not regarded simply by itself (for, viewed as a mere national rite, it was practiced for conciliation's sake by Paul himself, Act 16:3), but as the symbol of Judaism and legalism in general. If this be necessary, then the Gospel of grace is at an end. If the latter be the way of justification, then Judaism is in no way so.
Christ . . . profit . . . nothing-- (Gal 2:21). For righteousness of works and justification by faith cannot co-exist. "He who is circumcised [for justification] is so as fearing the law, and he who fears, disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves can profit nothing by that grace which he disbelieves [CHRYSOSTOM].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–4 EXHORTATION TO STEADFASTNESS IN CHRISTIAN DUTY, Gal_5:2 to Gal_6:18.
PART THIRD.
EXHORTATION TO STEADFASTNESS IN CHRISTIAN DUTY, Gal_5:2 to Gal_6:18.
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1. Admonitory warnings to maintain their freedom from circumcision and legalism, Gal_5:2-12.
2. Behold, I Paul—The apostle throws all his emphasis and all his authority into this warning. If this fail, his Galatians are lost. They would relapse into Ebionism, and in all probability become an apostate people.
If ye be circumcised—Become circumcised; that is, as was now required as necessary to justification.
Shall—Will.
Profit you nothing—Seeing ye seek justification not from Him, but from the Law. Ye are Jews rejecting the Messiah. As Chrysostom (quoted in Greek, by Alford) says: “He that becomes circumcised, does it for fear that he cannot be justified without the law, and so disbelieves the power of grace; but the disbeliever in grace receives no salvation from grace.” So in Act_15:1 : “Certain men said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” This was a very different sort of circumcision from that of Timothy by Paul, Act_16:3; a mere physical act performed in order to remove obstacles to his success in the ministry.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. St Paul here speaks with the Apostolic authority…
2. St Paul here speaks with the Apostolic authority which he had vindicated at the opening of the Epistle, but which he has hitherto kept in abeyance while using argument, and remonstrance, and entreaty.
if ye be circumcised] St Paul and the other Apostles, and indeed every convert from Judaism, were circumcised. It is clear therefore that this expression (repeated in Gal_5:3) must mean not the fact of being circumcised, but the deliberate submission of Gentiles to the rite by which proselytes were admitted to the Jewish Church, as if it were necessary to salvation. A better rendering would be, if ye submit to be circumcised. The act of such submission implied that a man sought salvation in and by the law, of which circumcision is the seal. But to such a man Christ and His righteousness bring no advantage. ‘He who submits to circumcision does so because he stands in fear of the law, and he who so stands in fear distrusts the power of grace, and he who distrusts gains no advantage from that which is so distrusted’. Chrys.
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St Paul, though as ‘touching the righteousness which is in the law,’ he was found blameless before his conversion, yet turned his back on it all that he might win Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of his own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Php_3:6-9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–4 (2) Behold, I Paul.—The strong personality of the Apostle…
(2) Behold, I Paul.—The strong personality of the Apostle asserts itself; instead of going into an elaborate proof, he speaks with dogmatic authority, as though his bare word were enough.
Shall profit you nothing.—”Profit,” i.e., in the way of justification, as producing that state of righteousness in the sight of God by virtue of which the believer is released from wrath and received into the divine favour. The Apostle says that if this state of justification is sought through circumcision, it cannot be sought through Christ at the same time.
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(2-6) There can be no compromise between Christianity and Judaism. If you accept the one you must give up the other. Circumcision is a pledge or engagement to live by the rule of the Law. That rule must be taken as a whole. You are committed to the practice of the whole Law, and in that way alone you must seek for justification. Our position is something quite different. We hope to be admitted into a state of righteousness through the action of the Spirit on God’s side, and through faith on our own. The Christian owes the righteousness attributed to him, not to circumcision, but to a life of which faith is the motive and love the law.
The whole tenor of the Epistle shows that the Apostle viewed the attempts of the Judaising party with indignation; and at this point his language takes a more than usually stern and imperative tone. He speaks with the full weight of his apostolic authority, and warns the Galatians that no half-measures will avail, but that they must decide, once for all, either to give up Judaism or Christ.
This is one of the passages which have been insisted on as proving a direct antagonism between St. Paul and the other Apostles; but any one who enters into the thought of the Apostle, and follows the course of his impassioned reasoning, will see how unnecessary any such assumption is. Nothing is more in accordance with human nature than that the same man should at one time agree to the amicable compromise of Acts 15, and at another, some years later, with the field all to himself, and only his own converts to deal with, should allow freer scope to his own convictions. He is speaking with feelings highly roused, and with less regard to considerations of policy. Besides, the march of events had been rapid, and the principles of policy themselves would naturally change.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Behold, I Paul say unto you (ide, ejgwgw uJmin);…
Behold, I Paul say unto you (ide, ejgwgw uJmin); lo, I Paul say unto you. The adverbial exclamation ide, found in St. Paul"s writings only here (in Rom_2:17 it should be eij de), seems to be more abrupt than ijdou, pointing to the immense importance and yet possibly unexpected character of what follows. The Galatians might be surprised to hear it; but that which they seemed disposed to take in hand was fraught with utter ruin. "I, Paul:" he thus puts forward his personality, as solemnly gaging his whole credit and responsibility upon the truth of that which he is about to affirm. The turn of thought is somewhat different; 2Co_10:1 and Eph_3:1. There is no reason to suppose that he is glancing at the use which might have already been made or might be made of the fact of his having himself circumcised Timothy. That if ye be circumcised (oti ejamnhsqe) that if ye set about having yourselves circumcised. The present tense is used also in the next verse and in Gal_6:12, Gal_6:13; 1Co_7:18. Compare the present tense, dikaiousqe, in ver. 4. In Act_15:1 the mnhaqe pweite of the Textus Receptus is replaced by recent editors by peritmhqhte, which is better suited to the posture of mind of those Pharisee Christians who had in view the abhorrent uncleanness attaching, as they considered, to those described as ajkrobustian econtev; (Act_11:3) upon whom themselves the Jews fastened the epithet of ajkrobustia, not as a mere colourless anti-theton to peritomh, but as a selected term of reproach as objects of offence and disgust. The apostle, on the other hand, is here not thinking of outward corporeal condition; for he presently (ver. 6) affirms that in Christ Jesus it mattered nothing whether a man were in peritomh or in ajkrobustia, as indeed he proved to be his feeling by circumcising Timothy. (Act_16:3) It is the posture of mind that the apostle-is thinking of exclusively. What was this? The very warning of this verse shows, that, in wishing for circumcision, these Galatians did not intend to withdraw from Christ; and it appears from the next verse that they did not, either, contemplate the doing of the whole Law. But then, too, the fourth verse, in which apparently the apostle means to explain and justify the assertion of this second verse, indicates that they sought circumcision with the view of being justified by the Law; not, as has just been remarked, by obeying the whole Law, but by submitting themselves to the Law so far as undergoing this one rite prescribed by it. The conclusion to be drawn from these premisses is that what the apostle means is this: If ye have yourselves circumcised with the view of thereby obtaining righteousness before God, ye forfeit all hope of receiving benefit from Christ. (see note on Gal_4:10) In comparing the present passage with Gal_6:12, Gal_6:13, we observe that, while here he is dealing with those who sought circumcision with the view of assuring their righteousness before God, he is there referring to persons actuated by an altogether different set of motives. Christ shall profit you nothing (Cristov uJmav oujdesei) "The future tense marks the certain result of their being circumcised: "Christ (as you will find) will never profit you anything (Bishop Ellicott). The future time is not, in particular, for example, the time of Christ"s second coming; but that which follows upon their receiving circumcision the hour in which their distrust in Christ eventuated in the overt act of having themselves circumcised for the purpose of gaining righteousness thereby, would decisively cut them off from Christ. Their circumcision would be for them the sacrament of excision from Christ. We may compare with this the awful passage referring to the consequences accruing to Jewish Christians from their relapsing to Judaism, in Heb_10:26-30. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this passage, in determining the relation between trust in Christ"s atonement and participation in the benefits of that atonement. It is at his extreme peril that a Christian allows himself in misgivings as to whether Christ"s mediation is all-sufficient for the securing of his peace with God and his part in God"s kingdom. It is by reliance upon Christ"s work that his salvation through Christ is secured; by distrust in it his salvation is brought into peril; by definite unbelief his salvation is forfeited. This is in perfect accordance with the apostolic doctrine in general; but rarely is it so strongly and incisively asserted as it is here.
A solemn and emphatic warning.
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The apostle assumes a severer and a more authoritative tone Paul and shows that there is something worse than folly in turning aside to the Law, for it is to take an absolutely destructive course. It is absolutely impossible to reconcile circumcision with Christ. "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
I THIS DOES NOT WARRANT THE CONDEMNATION OF CIRCUMCISION IN ITSELF. For it was a Divine appointment, not only a national rite to distinguish Jews from Gentiles, but "a seal of the righteousness of faith". (Rom_4:11) Nor does it condemn circumcision as a past act on the part of a Jew born under the ancient economy, nor as a mere prudential act as giving a more ready access to the Jews, for the apostle himself circumcised Timothy. (Act_16:3)
II HE CONDEMNS CIRCUMCISION REGARDED AS A RITE NECESSARY TO SALVATION.
1. This position involves the rejection of Christ, as if he had not wrought out a complete salvation. Those who support it imply that they have entered upon another mode of justification.
2. As circumcision was one of the types or shadows that was to pass awaywith the death of Christ, its continuance seemed a constructive denial that he had come at all.
3. Circumcision was utterly meaningless to Gentiles, who were not of Abraham"s race. If, therefore, they were circumcised, it meant that they found the rite necessary to their salvation.
4. The declaration of the apostle, "Christ shall profit you nothing," emphatically applies to the rites and ceremonies of the Romish Church, which are not even of Divine appointment like circumcision. Trapp says, "Pharisaical and popish justiciaries are entangled in the fond conceits of their own righteousness." But Christ will profit none but those who, "not having their own righteousness," desire to be found in Christ, having the righteousness of God by faith.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Vers. 2-12.
Falling from grace.
Paul in the present section exposes the legal and ceremonial spirit as a tall from the moral magnificence of grace. It has been well said that "it is harder to abolish forms than to change opinions. Ceremonies stand long after the thought which they express has fled, as a dead king may sit on his throne stiff and stark in his golden mantle, and no one come near enough to see that the light is gone out of his eyes and the will departed from the hand that still clutches the sceptre." Circumcision was such a form, and against its improper use Paul has all through this Epistle to protest. The thought of the present section is elevating and sublime. Let us follow the outline.
I PAUL HERE IMPLIES THE MORAL MAGNIFICENCE OF SALVATION BY GRACE, (Vers. 4, 5.) For when we consider how this plan of salvation turns our minds away from self to God in Christ, giving all the glory to the Saviour and taking all the blame to self, we see that it is morally magnificent. Self-confidence is destroyed, and confidence in Christ becomes all in all. The whole sphere of activity is illumined by devotedness to him who has lived and died for our redemption. Gratitude thus is the foundation of morality, and all idea of merit is put out of sight. The more the gospel is studied as a moral system, the more marvellous and magnificent will it appear. This will further exhibit itself if we consider what the working principle of the gospel is. It is, as Paul here shows, "faith working through love" (ver. 6, Revised Version). And faith is the mightiest factor in the world"s progress. Suppose that faith were supplanted by suspicion, and men, instead of trusting one another, lived lives of mutual suspicion, the world"s progress would come speedily to an end. The gospel, then, takes this mighty principle of faith and, turning it towards Christ, it secures love as its practical outcome. Love to God and consequent love to men becomes the law of our lives. All that is lovely is thus evoked, and the system proves its moral magnificence and practical power.
II IT IS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF LEGALISM TO DEPRECIATE THE CROSS. (Ver. 11.) In a scheme of free grace the cross of Jesus Christ is central and all-important. How could selfish hearts be emancipated from their selfishness, had not the Holy Spirit the cross of Christ to move them? The cross is the self-sacrifice of incarnate love, and the grandest appeal of all history for self-sacrifice in return. It is, moreover, a fact and not a ceremony; a fact which bears no repetition, and which stands in its moral grandeur alone. But legalism conies in to depreciate if possible its moral value, The insinuation is thrown out that circumcision is essential to the efficacy of the cross. The cross is made out to be a mere adjunct to the Jewish ceremonial. Its offence ceases. It is no such instrument of self-sacrifice as it was intended to be. The brave apostle who preaches "Christ crucified" as the only hope of salvation is persecuted for doing so, and the whole legal band arrays itself against him. It is thus that the legal spirit depreciates and dishonours the Crucified One.
III ALL THIS IMPLIES IN THE LEGAL SPIRIT A FALL FROM GRACE. (Ver. 4.) This is the key of the present passage. The soul, which so depreciates the cross as to go away and to try to save itself by ceremonies, has fallen from a moral grandeur into deepest selfishness. Christ profits in nothing the soul who is bent on saving himself. The righteousness of Christ, which is unto all and upon all them that believe, cannot consist with the self-seeking and self-confidence which self-righteousness implies. We must choose our saviour and adhere to him. If our saviour is to be ceremony, which is only another way of saying that our saviour is ourselves, then we may as well renounce all hope of salvation by Christ. We sever ourselves from Christ when we seek to be justified by the Law (Revised Version). We have descended in the scale of motive; we have taken up the selfish plan; we have "fallen away from grace.
IV PAUL ANTICIPATES THAT HIS EXPOSURE OF LEGALISM WILL CURE THE GALATIANS OF IT. (Ver. 10.) He believes that legalism will be destroyed and rooted up by laying bare its real meaning. The leaven will not be allowed to spread. It is most important in the same way to be meditating constantly upon the magnificence of the gospel system as a moral system. Thus shall we prize it more and more, and never think of surrendering it for any rival and selfish system. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 2-12.
Circumcision.
I PAUL SOLEMNLY PUTS BEFORE THE GALATIANS THE TRUE STATE OF THE CASE. "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing." Commencing with an arresting word, he introduces his own name with all the solemnity of oath-taking, witness-bearing. "Behold, I Paul say unto you." What the weight of his testimony is directed against, is their submitting to circumcision. This was what the Judaizing teachers were aiming at, and, seeing that they were making false representations, he declares to the Galatians, as if their destinies were at stake, the real state of the case. For them, Gentiles, and at the instigation of the Judaizers, to submit to circumcision would be excluding themselves from all advantage by Christ. It was either circumcision or Christ with them. There was no middle ground for them to take up. There was no submitting to circumcision and clinging to Christ at the same time. If they submitted to circumcision, they must make up their minds to forego all that they had hoped for from Christ.
1. How he makes it out that circumcision excluded them from Christ.
(1) Circumcision implies an obligation to do the whole Law. "Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law." Again does he clear his conscience by emitting his solemn testimony. This testimony was more particularly directed to every man among them that, under the influence of the Judaizers, had any thought of submitting to circumcision. The apostle, as it were, takes him aside, and earnestly and affectionately warns him. Let him consider what he is doing. He is bringing himself under obligation to do the whole Law, and that personally, with this risk attached, that, if he fails to do the whole Law, he comes under its curse.
(2) Doing the whole Law excludes from Christ and grace. "Ye are severed flora Christ, ye who would be justified by the Law; ye are fallen away from grace." The apostle takes the doing of the whole Law to be equivalent to the working out of the whole of their justification. That was necessarily to the entire exclusion of Christ. There was nothing left for him to do. His work was made of none effect. They were severed from Christ and all the benefit of his work. They were thus fallen away from grace. Formerly they stood upon the merits of Christ, they had their Surety to answer for them; now they had themselves, immediately and fully, to answer to God for their Law-keeping.
2. The case of Christians stated.
(1) The expectancy of faith. "For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness." The thought in its simplicity is that we hope for righteousness. This can only be the righteousness on the ground of which we are justified. There is a difficulty in this being presented as future, when it can be immediately and fully enjoyed. Some attempt to get over the difficulty by supposing the meaning to be the hope that belongs to righteousness, i.e. the hope of eternal life. But that is attaching a not very obvious meaning to the language. If we think of justifying righteousness as future, the reference can only be to the vindication of its sufficiency on the day of judgment, and further to the establishing of our personal interest in it on that day. The latter reference especially seems borne oat by the associated language. We are represented as in the attitude of expectancy. We wait for the hope, i.e. now the realization of the hope of righteousness. This expectancy being based, so far as God is concerned, in the work of the Spirit on our hearts, and so far as we are concerned, in the exercise of faith, is based in reality. But being based at the same time in that which is not completed, it partakes of imperfection. We are not so sure as those Judaists were who rested on the fact of their being circumcised. We are not so absolutely sure as we shall be when judgment has been pronounced in our favour. We are confident that the righteousness of Christ will be shown to be all-sufficient as the ground of justification. And we hope, more or less confidently, according to the operation of the Spirit in our hearts and the working of faith, that it will be shown that we are possessors of that righteousness.
(2) The energy of faith. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love." The apostle here does not take so high ground with regard to circumcision. He had forbidden the Galatians to submit to circumcision, on the ground that it would exclude them from Christ. Here he puts circumcision on a level with uncircumcision, as availing nothing within the Christian sphere. Neither is what avails baptism, which has taken the place of circumcision. The outward form is a matter of indifference, unless as it is connected with the inward reality. What must ever be demanded is, as the representation is here-faith, and not a dead faith, but, according to the conception of Paul as well as according to the conception of James, a faith that is operative. And the energy of faith goes out in love. There is, as we are taught here, a blessed harmony between these two graces. If we believe that not only God is, but that he is inexhaustible Goodness, we must be drawn out in love towards him. And if we believe that the Son of God condescended to become man and devoted himself for us, we must be impelled out beyond ourselves towards the good of others.
II CERTAIN BEARINGS OF THE CASE ON THE GALATIANS.
1. They were hindered in a good career. "Ye were running well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
(1) Points in a good career.
(a) That it be directed to a right end. This is brought out in connection with their obeying the truth. Their career in heathenism was vitiated by their being involved in error. The true idea of life had not been revealed to them. But when they obeyed the truth they took Christ to be their end and undertook to shape their career according to the rules of Christ. And that is necessary to the commencement of a good career.
(b) That it be commenced early. If the Galatians did not commence in early life, yet they commenced as sore as an opportunity in providence was presented to them, and so far they can be cited as an example of commencing early. It would have been a great advantage to them to have been taught and moulded as Christians in youth. There would not have been their heathen education to unlearn and undo. The laws of association and habit would have been working all along in their favour. And there would have been more time in which to advance to excellence and usefulness.
(c) That it be pursued with enthusiasm. In the Galatians the warm Celtic temperament was warmed under the influences of the cross. It was this especially that called forth the admiration of the apostle. They did run well; among his converts none had displayed greater enthusiasm in the Christian race.
(d) That it be pursued with steadiness. It was with regard to this that there was danger to the Galatians. Would they continue in their ardent attachment to the gospel? Would time cool their ardour, or would it be transferred to some other doctrine? Especially would they continue steadfast in the face of hindrances that made trial of them? It was that which was now being tested.
(2) Hindrances. There are rocks and weeds which are put as hindrances in the way of the farmer cultivating the soil. There are difficulties to be overcome in connection with every worldly calling. We need not wonder, therefore, at there being difficulties in connection with the Christian calling. It is only by conquering difficulty after difficulty that we gain the heights of excellence. The greatest difficulties are those which arise from ourselves, from our own weak and treacherous hearts. But we are referred more here to hindrances which arise from others. "Ye were running well; who did hinder you?" In the word which is used there is an allusion to breaking up roads, by destroying bridges, raising barriers. There is suggested, by opposition, a representation of what our duty is to our fellow-men. We arc to act as pioneers, clearing the way before others by levelling high places, filling up hollows, throwing bridges across rivers. We are to act towards them so that they shall have not only no temptation to fall, but every help to well-doing. And when there are those who throw obstacles across our path we are not to feel annoyed, as though we had only to deal with them. But we are to feel that God is making trial of us through them. And therefore we are not to succumb, but to persevere in the face of obstacles. Thus out cf the eater shall come forth meat; out of our hindrances shall come forth the manly virtues.
2. It was not God who was seeking to persuade them to be circumcised.
persuasion came not of him that calleth you." Persuasion may mean either the state of being persuaded or the act of persuading. The latter seems more in keeping with the context. The course to which the Judaizers would have persuaded the Galatians would have been, in its consequences, disobedience to the truth. They would not attempt, we may suppose, to get them to set aside the cross. Their policy was rather to get them to add circumcision to the cross. This persuasion came not of him that called them. It was not in accordance, either with the idea that was in the Divine mind in calling them, or with the idea that was in their own minds in choosing the calling, which was in both cases making Christ everything in the road to everlasting happiness. It did not come from above, from the God who saved them and called them to everlasting glory, but it came from beneath from the enemy of mankind.
1. He was afraid of the spread of error among them. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." On the one hand, the Judaists, in order to gain their point, would be inclined to minimize its importance. On the other hand, the Galatians might think the Judaistic teaching had made very little way among them. The apostle puts them on their guard by telling them that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. This saying also occurs in 1Co_5:6. The reference there is to a case of gross immorality in the Corinthian Church. By tolerating such immorality, there would be danger of the whole Corinthian Church being lowered in its moral tone and practice. So by the introduction of a little Judaistic leaven, such as the toleration of the circumcision of a single Gentile convert, there would be danger of the Christian communities of Galatia becoming Judaistic, i.e. communities upon which the blessing of God would not rest, from which the Spirit of God would depart. And so a little leaven of carelessness in the household, in companionship, leavens the whole lump.
2. He had confidence in them that they would remain unchanged. "I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded." He had confidence that they would not change from a Christian to a Judaistic way of thinking. His confidence was not founded on reports received regarding them. For these, as we have seen, threw him into a state of perplexity. But he had confidence to them-ward in the Lord. He had confidence in the use of appointed means. He had confidence in the rower of prayer. He had prayed to God on their behalf, that they might be none otherwise minded. He had confidence in bringing proper representations before their minds, as he had endeavoured to do. He had confidence especially in the great Head of the Church making use of the means in the interests of the Galatian Churches and of the whole Church.
3. The troubler would bear his judgment. "But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." One is separated here, not as ringleader, but for the sake of individualization. He is represented as a troubler. He acts over the part of Satan who, seeing the happiness of Eden, envied our first parents its possession. So he, spying the peace and prosperity of the Galatian communities, cannot let them alone; he must introduce his Judaistic leaven. But this troubler, whosoever he be (thus searched out and held up before them), shall bear his judgment. God, indeed, makes use of him in making trial of them. And they shall be judged for the manner in which they have dealt with his representations testing them or not testing them. But let him know that he shall have the sentence, and the burdensome sentence, of a troubler passed and carried out upon him.
4. It was evident that he was no preacher of circumcision. "But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? then hath the stumbling-block of the cross been done away." We are not under any danger of attaching a materialistic meaning to the cross. Whilst the wood to which were nailed Christ"s hands and feet has now long ago mouldered away, and has no existence unless in the imagination of the superstitious, the spiritual associations of it remain. It is the greatest tact that was ever accomplished on earth or ever brought to the knowledge of earth"s inhabitants, and which will not decay in time or in eternity that the adorable Son of God, coming down to our human condition, once became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It is this which is set forth in Scripture as the Divine and only instrument of salvation. It was this which Paul made the great burden of his preaching. Whatever remedies or methods were proposed or advocated by others, "We," says he, who was himself a wonderful trophy of the cross preach Christ crucified." But it was said in Galatia for a purpose that he preached circumcision, i.e. in addition to the cross. He could easily have given an explanation of the circumstance on which this charge was founded, viz. his having circumcised Timothy; but taking the representation as it was that he was actually a preacher of circumcision he puts a question and draws a conclusion.
(1) He puts a question. The very pertinent question he puts is Why was he persecuted? Was it not the fact that it was the Judaizers who led to his being a prisoner for the gospel in Rome? Did that not show that they knew very well that there was a real and deep antagonism between their preaching and his?
(2) He draws a conclusion. If this course, falsely attributed to him, were followed, to add circumcision to the cross to please the Judaists, and some ether point to please some other party; if all parties were thus to be suited, then it strikes the apostle that this result would follow, the offence of the cross would cease, and that seems to him a meat undesirable result, entirely to be deprecated. If the cross gives such satisfaction all round, and does not offend, as well, he thinks, stamp it a failure and proclaim abroad its utter inefficiency as a means of conversion. Wherein lies the offence, the scandalizing property, of the cross? It does not lie in its offending any true feeling or principle of our nature. In Christianity there is nothing that is wantonly harsh or rude. Its language is, "Giving none offence." "Woe unto him by whom the offence cometh!" But the offence of the cross lies in its running counter to the inclinations of the unrenewed heart. It can be seen, then, how it could not be true, but must be a proved lie, if it did not offend; it would be giving in to the natural heart, which it is the purpose of God not to flatter, but to subdue.
(a) The cross is an offence because it does not merely please the imagination. Men are fond of ritualism in religion. Now, the cross is singularly simple and unadorned. In this respect it stands markedly in contrast with what preceded it. This is not pleasing to many. They would put ornaments upon the cross to take away its offensive simplicity. But that is a wrong tendency. The most beautiful rites and gorgeous shows, instead of drawing to the cross, as the meaning sometimes is, are more likely to usurp its place. The worshipper, instead of having his heart reached, is likely to have only his imagination pleased. Let the cross be left to its own simple power, though the imagination should be offended. It can do without ornaments on it in our day as well as it did in Paul"s day.
(b) The cross is an offence because it is humbling to pride of reason. It was to the Greeks foolishness, and so it is apt to be to intellectual people still to the Greeks of the present day, to literary men, to the reading portion of the community. That is at least what all such have to surmount. The cross seems foolishness to them. They would like a difficult problem on which to exercise their intellects. Now, in one sense, the cross is above reason, inasmuch as reason could never have found it out. But in another sense it is below human reason; it is a revelation, a doctrine all found out for man, and a doctrine which is level to the meanest understanding. The result of the philosophic craving was, at a very early period of the Church, the rise of Gnosticism. It was very much a blending of the Greek philosophy with Christianity. It was the religion of mind, those embracing it professing to have a deeper insight into Christian facts than the common people, who took them in their obvious sense. And since the disappearance of Gnosticism, there has been, again and again, and is at present in some quarters, an effort to consider the literary and reading class so as to give the cross a philosophic cast, with the view of attracting them. Now, there are some ways of speaking to intellectual people better than others, and nothing is to be hoped for from irrational or dry discourse, yet, if the cross is turned into a philosophy, it may attract some, but it is not likely to benefit them. Let the cross be presented as level to the lowest intellect; let it be presented as a simple, divinely revealed fact, speaking to the heart more than to the intellect; let there be no fear to offend pride of intellect, which must be humbled before the soul can be saved.
(c) The cross is an offence because it is humbling to self-righteousness. It is a strange infatuation of the natural heart that, with no righteousness to lay claim to, it is yet so natural to it to flatter itself with having a righteousness. The cross, going upon the supposition that we have no righteousness of our own, and that all the praise of our salvation is due to God, is an offence. In the Roman Catholic system there is a place given to works alongside of the merits of Christ, which is very pleasing to the feeling of self-righteousness. We are all apt to construct a theory of salvation in which there is a place left for self. Now, the cross must never be presented to please self-righteous people; that would be a fatal compromise. Let the cross be proclaimed as the impossibility of our own righteousness, as the grace of God in a righteousness freely provided for us. That is a doctrine which must offend, but it is the only doctrine that can satisfy the conscience.
(d) The cross is an offence because of its large demands. It demands that we forsake cherished sins. And that cuts into natural liking, that is painful like a crucifying, and therefore an offence. But the cross must be presented as giving no quarter to sin, as the most tremendous proof that sin is not to be permitted, as showing how sin is utterly abhorred and condemned of God. And to be acknowledging the cross, while tolerating sin in ourselves, is crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame. It demands self-sacrifice. The cross-life is characteristically a life of self-sacrifice. Christ was sacrificing all along, and when he came to the cross he sacrificed his all sacrificed his life in the most awful circumstances. And those who would take up the cross must be prepared to follow Christ in his course of self-denial. And there, again, is where the offence of the cross arises. Its requirements are too high. But as the cross of Christ can never be blotted out, so its requirements can never be lowered. It is the standard up to which our life must be brought if we are to attain to our perfection. There is one blessed way in which the offence of the cross ceases, and that is, when we have been humbled by it as sinners, and have been led to own its power. Then we admire it for the light it throws on the Divine perfections, and for the power there is in it over human hearts. And we say, "Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
5 He wishes the Galatians deliverance from the unsettling teachers. "I would that they which unsettle you would even cut themselves off." In the case of the offender against morality in the Corinthian Church, the apostle issued a decree that he should be cut off by the Church. That could not be done in this case, because these teachers were not under the jurisdiction of the Galatian Churches. They came to teach them as they were free to do; and all that the Galatians could do was to refuse them a hearing. That this was the apostle"s mind may be gathered from the wish he expresses that they would cut themselves off. As they could not be cut off by the Church, let them cut themselves off. As they were only unsettling the Galatian order, let them leave Galatian soil. But he does no more than wish. It was certainly by itself desirable; but it might be the purpose of God that these unsettling teachers should be left there to make trial of the Galatians, and, it might be, thereby to purify and to strengthen them. R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2–4 If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Gal_5:2
If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
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The law and grace
I. God will deal with us either altogether by works or altogether by Christ; these things cannot be mixed.
II. To piece up therefore the righteousness of Christ by our own works, and to add anything to the passion as a meritorious cause of our justification, is to make Christ unprofitable.
III. We ought to content ourselves with Christ and His merits alone (Col_2:10). (T. Manton, D. D.)
Circumcision
I. The nature of sacraments in general.
1. Signs
(1) to represent and instruct;
(2) of absolute grace and favour.
2. Seals, to ratify and confirm
(1) seals of the conditional promises;
(2) mutual seals.
II. The nature of circumcision in particular.
1. A sign prefiguring baptism which has now taken its place
2. A seal of the covenant of grace, particularly of justification by faith. (Matthew Henry.)
The superfluousness of circumcision
Circumcision was the shadow of the substance which the Christian man already enjoyed. The law which prescribed it had already done its true work and was abolished in Christ. Where was the sense then of leaving the great liberator for one of the most grievous shackles of their old tyranny? (H. W. Beecher.)
Christianity not uniformity
It is not uniformity that we see in the works of God; but unity in variety or diversity. The tree has branches large and small, but the tree is one. Every plant, flower, or tree in the landscape has full freedom to unfold itself according to its nature; and yet the landscape is one. The many members in the human frame form one body. The many nations of the earth form one race. The twelve tribes of Israel constituted one peculiar people. The same law is true in relation to the Church. Christians are many, and differ in natural powers, gifts, education, and opinions; but they have all faith in Jesus Christ, worship the true God, and love their fellow men, and therefore form one spiritual brotherhood and Church. (Thomas Jones.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v2 Chapter 20
Chapter 20
SHALL THE GALATIANS BE CIRCUMCISED?
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Gal_5:2-6
SHALL the Galatians be circumcised, or shall they not? This is the decisive question. The denunciation with which Paul begins his letter, the narrative which follows, the profound argumentation, the tender entreaty of the last two chapters, all converge toward this crucial point. So far the Galatian Churches had been only dallying with Judaism. They have been tempted to the verge of apostasy; but they are not yet over the edge. Till they consent to be circumcised, they have not finally committed themselves; their freedom is not absolutely lost. The Apostle still hopes, despite his fears, that they will stand fast. The fatal step is eagerly pressed on them by the Judaisers, {Gal_6:12-13} whose persuasion the Galatians had so far entertained that they had begun to keep the Hebrew Sabbath and feast.- {Gal_4:10} If they yield to this further demand, the battle is lost; and this powerful Epistle, with all the Apostles previous labour spent upon them, has been in vain. To sever this section from the polemical in order to attach it to the practical part of the Epistle, as many commentators do, is to cut the nerve of the Apostles argument and reduce it to an abstract theological discussion.
This momentous question is brought forward with the greater emphasis and effect, because it has hitherto been kept out of sight. The allusion to Tit_2:1-5 has already indicated the supreme importance of the matter of circumcision. But the Apostle has delayed dealing with it formally and directly, until he is able to do so with the weight of the foregoing chapters to support his interdict. He has shattered the enemies position with his artillery of logic, he has assailed the hearts of his readers with all the force of his burning indignation and subduing pathos. Now he gathers up his strength for the final charge home, which must decide the battle.
1. Lo, I Paul tell you! When he begins thus, we feel that the decisive moment is at hand. Everything depends on the next few words. Paul stands like an archer with his bow drawn at full stretch and the arrow pointed to the mark. "Let others say what they may; this is what I tell you. If my word has any weight with you, give heed to this:-if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing."
Now his bolt is shot; we see what the Apostle has had in his mind all this time. Language cannot be more explicit. Some of his readers will have failed to catch the subtler points of his argument, or the finer tones of his voice of entreaty; but every one will understand this. The most "senseless" and volatile amongst the Galatians will surely be sobered by the terms of this warning. There is no escaping the dilemma. Legalism and Paulinism, the true and the false gospel, stand front to front, reduced to their barest form, and weighed each in the balance of its practical result. Christ-or Circumcision: which shall it be?
This declaration is no less authoritative and judicially threatening than the anathema of chap. 1. That former denouncement declared the false teachers severed from Christ. Those who yield to their persuasion, will be also "severed from Christ." They will fall into the same ditch as their blind leaders. The Judaisers have forfeited their part in Christ; they are false brethren, tares among the wheat, troublers and hinderers to the Church of God. And Gentile Christians who choose to be led astray by them must take the consequences. If they obey the "other gospel," Christs gospel is theirs no longer. If they rest their faith on circumcision, they have withdrawn it from His cross. Adopting the Mosaic regimen, they forego the benefits of Christs redemption. "Christ will profit you nothing." The sentence is negative, but no less fearful on that account. It is as though Christ should say, "Thou hast no part with Me."
Circumcision will cost the Galatian Christians all they possess in Jesus Christ. But is not this, some one will ask, an over-strained assertion? Is it consistent with Pauls professions and his policy in other instances? In Gal_5:6, and again in the last chapter, he declares that "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision nothing"; and yet here he makes it everything! The Apostles position is this. In itself the rite is valueless. It was the sacrament of the Old Covenant, which was brought to an end by the death of Christ. For the new Church of the Spirit, it is a matter of perfect indifference whether a man is circumcised or not. Paul had therefore circumcised Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess, {Act_16:1-3} though neither he nor his young disciple supposed that it was a religious necessity. It was done as a social convenience; "un-circumcision was nothing," and could in such a case be surrendered without prejudice. On the other hand, he refused to submit Titus to the same rite; for he was a pure Greek, and on him it could only have been imposed on religious grounds and as a passport to salvation. For this, and for no other reason, it was demanded by the Judaistic party. In this instance it was needful to show that "circumcision is nothing." The Galatians stood in the same position as Titus. Circumcision, if performed on them, must have denoted, not as in Timothys case, the fact of Jewish birth, but subjection to the Mosaic law. Regarded in this light, the question was one of life or death for the Pauline Churches. To yield to the Judaisers would be to surrender the principle of salvation by faith. The attempt of the legalist party was in effect to force Christianity into the grooves of Mosaism, to reduce the world-wide Church of the Spirit to a sect of moribund Judaism.
With what views, with what aim were the Galatians entertaining this Judaic "persuasion"? Was it to make them sons of God and heirs of His kingdom? This was the object with which "God sent forth His Son"; and the Spirit of sonship assured them that it was realised. {Gal_4:4-7} To adopt the former means to this end was to renounce the latter. In turning their eyes to this new bewitchment, they must be conscious that their attention was diverted from the Redeemers cross and their confidence in it weakened. {Gal_3:1} To be circumcised would be to rest their salvation formally and definitely on works of law, in place of the grace of God. The consequences of this Paul has shown in relating his discussion with Peter, in Gal_2:15-21. They would "make" themselves "transgressors"; they would "make Christs death of none effect." In the souls salvation Christ will be all, or nothing. If we trust Him, we must trust Him altogether. The Galatians had already admitted a suspicion of the power of His grace, which if cherished and acted on in the way proposed, must sever all communion between their souls and Him. Their circumcision would be "the sacrament of their excision from Christ" (Huxtable).
The tense of the verb is present. Pauls readers may be in the act of making this disastrous compliance. He bids them look for a moment at the depth of the gulf on whose brink they stand. "Stop!" he cries, "another step in that direction, and you have lost Christ."
And what will they get in exchange? They will saddle themselves with all the obligations of the Mosaic law (Gal_5:3). This probably was more than they bargained for. They wished to find a via media, some compromise between the new faith and the old, which would secure to them the benefits of Christ without His reproach, and the privileges of Judaism without its burdens. This at least was the policy of the Judaic teachers. {Gal_6:12-13} But it was a false and untenable position. "Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou art a doer of the law."; {Rom_2:25} otherwise it brings only condemnation. He who receives the sacrament of Mosaism, by doing so pledges himself to "keep and do" every one or its "ordinances, statutes, and judgments"-a yoke which, honest Peter said, "Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear". {Act_15:10} Let the Galatians read the law, and consider what they are going to undertake. He who goes with the Judaists a mile, will be compelled to go twain. They will not find themselves at liberty to pick and choose amongst the legal requirements. Their legalist teachers will not raise a finger to lighten the yoke, {Luk_11:46} when it is once fastened on their necks; nor will their own consciences acquit them of its responsibilities. This obligation Paul, himself a master in Jewish law, solemnly affirms: "I protest (I declare before God) to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to perform the whole law."
Now this is a proved impossibility. Whoever "sets up the law," he had avouched to Cephas, "makes himself a transgressor". {Gal_2:18} Nay, it was established of set purpose to "multiply transgressions," to deepen and sharpen the consciousness of sin. {Gal_3:19; Rom_3:20; Rom_4:15; Rom_5:20} Jewish believers in Christ, placed under its power by their birth, had thankfully found in the faith of Christ a refuge from its accusations. {Gal_2:16; Rom_7:24-25 - Rom_8:1-4} Surely the Galatians, knowing all this, will not be so foolish as to put themselves gratuitously under its power. To do this would be an insult to Christ, and an act of moral suicide. This further warning reinforces the first, and is uttered with equal solemnity. "I tell you, Christ will profit you nothing; and again I testify, the law will lay its full weight upon you." They will be left, without the help of Christ, to bear this tremendous burden.
This double threatening is blended into one in Gal_5:4. The pregnant force of Pauls Greek is untranslatable. Literally his words run, "You were nullified from Christ - κατηργηθητε απο ριστου - brought to nought (being severed) from Him, you that in law are seeking justification." He puts his assertion in the past (aorist) tense, stating that which ensues so soon as the principle of legal justification is endorsed. From that moment the Galatians cease to be Christians. In this sense they "are abolished," just as "the cross is" virtually "abolished" if the Apostle "preaches circumcision" (Gal_5:11), and "death is being abolished" under the reign of Christ. {1Co_15:26} He has said in Gal_5:2 that Christ will be made of none effect to them; now he adds that they "are made of none effect" in relation to Christ.
Their Christian standing is destroyed. The joyous experiences of their conversion, their share in Abrahams blessing, their Divine sonship witnessed to by the Holy Spirit mall this is nullified, cancelled at a stroke, if they are circumcised. The detachment of their faith "from Christ" is involved in the process of attaching it to Jewish ordinances, and brings spiritual destruction upon them. The root of the Christian life is faith in Him. Let that root be severed, let the branch no longer "abide in the vine" - it is dead already.
Cut off from Christ, they "have fallen from grace." Paul has already twice identified Christ and grace, in Gal_1:6 and Gal_2:21. The Divine mercies centre in Jesus Christ; and he who separates himself from Him, shuts these out of his soul. The verb here used by the Apostle (εξεπεσατε) is commonly applied {four times, e.g., in Acts 27} to a ship driven out of her course. Some such image seems to be in the writers mind in this passage. These racers made an excellent start, but they have stumbled; {ver. Gal_3:3} the vessel set out from harbour in gallant style, but she is drifting fast upon the rocks. This sentence is the exact opposite of stands in the grace, Rom_5:2 (Beet).
That he who "seeks justification in law has fallen from grace, " needs no proof after the powerful demonstration of Gal_2:14-21. The moralist claims quittance on the ground of his deservings. He pleads the quality of his "works," his punctual discharge of every stipulated duty, from circumcision onwards. "I fast twice a week," he tells his Divine Judge; "I tithe all my gains. I have kept all the commandments from my youth up." What can God expect more than this? But with these performances Grace has nothing to do. The man is not in its order. If he invokes its aid, it is as a make-weight, a supplement to the possible shortcomings in a virtue for the most part competent for itself. Now the grace of God is not to be set aside in this way; it refuses to be treated as a mere succedaneum of human virtue. Grace, like Christ, insists on being "all in all." "If salvation is by grace, it is no longer of works"; and "if of works, it is no more grace". {Rom_11:6} These two methods of justification imply different moral tempers, an opposite set and direction of the current of life. This question of circumcision brings the Galatians to the parting of the ways. Grace or Law-which of the two roads will they follow? Both they cannot. They may become Jewish proselytes; but they will cease to be Christians. Leaving behind them the light and joy of the heavenly Zion, they will find themselves wandering in the gloomy desolations of Sinai.
2. From this prospect the Apostle bids his readers turn to that which he himself beholds, and which they erewhile shared with him. Again he seems to say, "Be ye as I am, brethren"; {Gal_4:12} not in outward condition alone, but still more in inward experience and aspiration. "For we by the Spirit, on the ground of faith are awaiting the hope of righteousness" (Gal_5:5).
Look on this picture, and on that. Yonder are the Galatians, all in tumult about the legalistic proposals, debating which of the Hebrew feasts they shall celebrate and with what rites, absorbed in the details of Mosaic ceremony, all but persuaded to be circumcised and to settle their scruples out of hand by a blind submission to the Law. And here, on the other side, is Paul with the Church of the Spirit, walking in the righteousness of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, joyfully awaiting the Saviours final coming and the hope that is laid up in heaven. How vexed, how burdened, how narrow and puerile is the one condition of life; how large and lofty and secure the other. "We," says the Apostle, "are looking forwards, not backwards, to Christ and not to Moses."
Every word in this sentence is full of meaning. Faith carries an emphasis similar to that it has in Gal_2:16; Gal_3:22; and in Rom_4:16. Paul supports by contrast what he has just said: "Your share in the kingdom of grace is lost who seek a legal righteousness (Gal_5:4); it is by faith that we look for our heritage." Hope is clearly matter of hope, the future glory of the redeemed, described in Rom_8:18-25, Php_3:20-21, in both of which places there appears the remarkably compounded verb (απ εκ δεχομεθα) that concludes this verse. It implies an intent expectancy, sure of its object and satisfied with it. The hope is "righteousness hope"-the hope of the righteous-for it has in righteousness its warrant. The saying of Psa. 16, verified in Christs rising from the dead, contains its principle: "Thou wilt not leave my soul to death; nor suffer Thine holy one to see the pit." This was the secret "hope of Israel," {Act_23:6; Act_24:15; Act_26:6-8; comp. Joh_6:39-40; Joh_6:44} that grew up in the hearts of the men of faith, whose accomplishment is the crowning glory of the redemption of Christ. It is the goal of faith. Righteousness is the path that leads to it. The Galatians had been persuaded of this hope and embraced it; if they accept the "other gospel," with its phantom of a legal righteousness, their hope will perish.
The Apostle is always true to the order of thought here indicated. Faith saves from first to last. The present righteousness and future glory of the sons of God alike have their source in faith. The act of reliance by which the initial justification of the sinner was attained, now becomes the habit of the soul, the channel by which its life is fed, rooting itself ever more deeply into Christ and absorbing more completely the virtue of His death and heavenly life. Faith has its great ventures; it has also its seasons of endurance, its moods of quiet expectancy, its unweariable patience. It can wait as well as work. It rests upon the past, seeing in Christ crucified its "author"; then it looks on to the future, and claims Christ glorified for its "finisher." So faith prompts her sister Hope and points her to "the glory that shall be revealed." If faith fails, hope quickly dies. Unbelief is. the mother of despair. "Of faith," the Apostle says, "we look out!"
A second condition, inseparable from the first, marks the hope proper to the Christian righteousness. It is sustained "by the Spirit." The connection of faith and hope respectively with the gift of the Holy Spirit is marked very clearly by Paul in Eph_1:13-14 : "Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the earnest of our inheritance." The Holy Spirit seals the sons of God-"sons, then heirs". {Gal_4:6; Rom_8:15-17} This stamps on Christian hope a spiritual character. The conception which we form of it, the means by which it is pursued, the temper and attitude in which it is expected, are determined by the Holy Spirit who inspires it. This pure and celestial hope is therefore utterly removed from the selfish ambitions and the sensuous methods that distinguished the Judaistic movement. {Gal_4:3; Gal_4:9; Gal_6:12-14} "Men of worldly low design" like Pauls opponents in Galatia, had no right to entertain "the hope of righteousness." These matters are spiritually discerned; they are "the things of the Spirit, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him". {1Co_2:9-14}
If faith and hope are in sight, love cannot be far off. In the next verse it comes to claim its place beside the other two: "faith working through love." And so the blessed trio is complete, Fides, amor, spes: summa Christianismi (Bengel). Faith waits, but it also works; and love is its working energy. Love gives faith hands and feet; hope lends it wings. Love is the fire at its heart, the life-blood coursing in its veins; hope the light that gleams and dances in its eyes. Looking back to the Christ that hath been manifested, faith kindles into a boundless love; looking onward to the Christ that shall be revealed, it rises into an exultant hope.
These closing words are of no little theological importance. "They bridge over the gulf which seems to separate the language of Paul and James. Both assert a principle of practical energy, as opposed to a barren, inactive theory" (Lightfoot). Had the faith of Pauls readers been more practical, had they been of a diligent, enterprising spirit, "ready for every good word and work," they would not have felt, to the same degree, the spell of the Judaistic fascination. Idle hands, vain and restless minds, court temptation.
A manly, energetic faith will never play at ritualism or turn religion into a round of ceremonial, anesthetic exhibition. Loving and self-devoting faith in Christ is the one thing Paul covets to see in the Galatians. This is the working power of the gospel, the force that will lift and regenerate mankind. In comparison with this, questions of Church-order and forms of worship are "nothing." "The body is more than the raiment." Church organisation is a means to a certain end; and that end consists in the life of faith and love in Christian souls. Each man is worth to Christ and to His Church just so much as he possesses of this energy of the Spirit, just so much as he has of love to Christ and to men in Him. Other gifts and qualities, offices and orders of ministry, are but instruments for love to employ, machinery for love to energise.
The Apostle wishes it to be understood that he does not condemn circumcision on its own account, as though the opposite condition were in itself superior. If "circumcision does not avail anything, neither does uncircumcision." The Jew is no better or worse a Christian because he is circumcised; the Gentile no worse or better, because he is not. This difference in no way affects the mans spiritual standing or efficiency. Let the Galatians dismiss the whole question from their minds. "One thing is needful," to be filled with the Spirit of love. "Gods kingdom is not meat and drink"; it is not "days and seasons and years"; it is not circumcision, nor rubrics and vestments and priestly functions; it is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." These are the true notes of the Church; "by love," said Christ, "all men will know that you are My disciples."
In these two sentences (Gal_5:5-6) the religion of Christ is summed up. Gal_5:5 gives us its statics; Gal_5:6 its dynamics. It is a condition, and an occupation; a grand outlook, and an intent pursuit; a Divine hope for the future, and a sovereign power for the present, with an infinite spring of energy in the love of Christ. The active and passive elements of the Christian life need to be justly balanced. Many of the errors of the Church have arisen from one-sidedness in this respect. Some do nothing but sit with folded hands till the Lord comes; others are too busy to think of His coining at all. So waiting degenerates into indolence; and serving into feverish hurry and anxiety, or mechanical routine. Let hope give calmness and dignity, buoyancy and brightness to our work; let work make our hope sober, reasonable, practical.
"These three abide-faith, hope, and love." They cannot change while God is God and mart is man. Forms of dogma and of worship have changed and must change. There is a perpetual "removing of the things that are shaken, as of things that are made"; but through all revolutions there "remain the things which are not shaken." To these let us rally. On these let us build. New questions thrust themselves to the front, touching matters as little essential to the Churchs life as that of circumcision in the Apostolic age. The evil is that we make so much of them. In the din of controversy we grow bewildered; our eyes are blinded with its dust; our souls chafed with its fretting. We lose the sense of proportion; we fail to see who are our true friends, and who our foes. We need to return to the simplicity that is in Christ. Let us "consider Him" - Christ incarnate, dying, risen, reigning, - till we are changed into the same image, till his life has wrought itself into ours. Then these questions of dispute will fall into their proper place. They will resolve themselves; or wait patiently for their solution. Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the only solvent of our controversies.
Will the Galatians be true to Christ? Or will they renounce their righteousness in Him for a legal status, morally worthless, and which will end in taking from them the hope of eternal life? They have nothing to gain, they have everything to lose in submitting to circumcision.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2–6. Behold, I Paul. He makes emphatic what he…
2–6. Behold, I Paul. He makes emphatic what he is about to say, by repeating his name, so familiar to his own converts. If ye be circumcised. Their circumcision, under the circumstances, would be the sign of their submission to the law of Moses. They, Gentile Christians, could not thus become Jews and remain Christians. It would be proof of trust in Moses rather than Christ, in the law rather than in the gospel.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v2 Gal_5:2. If ye be circumcised.—Not simply as a national…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Gal_5:2. If ye be circumcised.—Not simply as a national rite, but as a symbol of Judaism and legalism in general; as necessary to justification. Christ shall profit you nothing.—The gospel of grace is at an end. He who is circumcised is so fearing the law, and he who fears disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves can profit nothing by that grace which he disbelieves (Chrysostom).
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Gal_5:5. Wait for the hope of righteousness.—Righteousness, in the sense of justification, is already attained, but the consummation of it in future perfection is the object of hope to be waited for.
Gal_5:6. Faith which worketh by love.—Effectually worketh, exhibits its energy by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gal_5:2-6
Christianity Superior to External Rites.
I. External rites demand universal obedience.—“Every man that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law” (Gal_5:3). The Galatians were in a state of dangerous suspense. They were on the brink of a great peril. Another step and they would be down the precipice. That step was circumcision. Seeing the imminence of the danger the apostle becomes more earnest and emphatic in his remonstrance. He warns them that circumcision, though a matter of indifference as an external rite, would in their case involve an obligation to keep the whole law. This he has shown is an impossibility. They would submit themselves to a yoke they were unable to bear, and from whose galling tyranny they would be unable to extricate themselves. Knowing this, surely they would not be so foolish as, deliberately and with open eyes, to commit such an act of moral suicide. There must be a strange infatuation in ritualistic observances that tempts man to undertake obligations he is powerless to perform, utterly heedless of the most explicit and faithful warnings.
II. Dependence on external rites is an open rejection of Christ.—“Christ shall profit you nothing; … is become of no effect unto you; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal_5:2; Gal_5:4). Here the result of a defection from the gospel is placed in the most alarming aspect, and should give pause to the wildest fanatic. It is the forfeiture of all Christian privileges, it is a complete rejection of Christ, it is a loss of all the blessings won by faith, it is a fall into the gulf of despair and ruin. It cannot be too plainly understood, nor too frequently iterated, that excessive devotion to external rights means the decline and extinction of true religion. Ritualism supplants Jesus Christ. “It is evident that the disciples of the Church of Rome wish to lead us from confession and absolution to the doctrine of transubstantiation, thence to the worship of images, and thence to all the abuses which at the end of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth excited the anger and scorn of Luther, Calvin, Zwinglius, and others. The primary faith of the Reformers is in the words of Christ. The primary faith of the ritualists is in Aristotle. If the British nation is wise, it will not allow the Roman Church with its infallible head, or the ritualists with their mimic ornaments, or those who are deaf to the teachings of Socrates and Cicero, of Bacon and Newton, to deprive them of the inestimable blessings of the gospel.”
III. Christianity as a spiritual force is superior to external rites.—
1. It bases the hope of righteousness on faith. “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (Gal_5:5). Look on this picture and on that. Yonder are the Galatians, all in tumult about the legalistic proposals, debating which of the Hebrew feasts they shall celebrate and with what rites, absorbed in the details of Mosaic ceremony, all but persuaded to be circumcised and to settle their scruples out of hand by a blind submission to the law. And here on the other side is Paul with the Church of the Spirit, walking in the righteousness of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, joyfully awaiting the Saviour’s final coming and the hope that is laid up in heaven. How vexed, how burdened, how narrow and puerile is the one condition; how large, lofty, and secure the other! Faith has its great ventures; it has also its seasons of endurance, its moods of quiet expectancy, its unweariable patience. It can wait as well as work (Findlay).
2. Faith is a spiritual exercise revealing itself in active love.—“Faith worketh by love” (Gal_5:6). In Gal_5:5 we have the statics of the religion of Christ; in Gal_5:6 its dynamics. Love is the working energy of faith. “Love gives faith hands and feet; hope lends it wings. Love is the fire at its heart, the life-blood coursing in its veins; hope the light that gleams and dances in its eyes.” In the presence of an active spiritual Christianity, animated by love to Christ and to men, ritualism diminishes into insignificance. “In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision” (Gal_5:6). The Jew is no better or worse a Christian because he is circumcised; the Gentile no worse or better because he is not. Love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is the essence of Christianity, and gives it the superiority over all external rites.
Lessons.—
1. Externalism in religion imposes intolerable burdens.
2. To prefer external rites is an insult to Christ.
3. The superiority of Christianity is its spiritual character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Gal_5:2-4. Christianity nullified by Legalism.
I. To accept legalism is to reject Christ (Gal_5:2; Gal_5:4).
II. Legalism demands universal obedience to its enactments (Gal_5:3).
III. Legalism is a disastrous abandonment of Christianity.—“Ye are fallen from grace” (Gal_5:4).
Gal_5:5-6. Righteousness attained by Active Faith.—
1. No personal righteousness entitles us to the blessed hope of the heavenly inheritance, but only the righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith. It is only the efficacious teaching of God’s Spirit which can sufficiently instruct us in the knowledge of this righteousness and make us with security and confidence venture our hope of heaven upon it.
2. To impose the tie of a command on anything as a necessary part of divine worship wherein the word has left us free, or to subject ourselves to such command, is a receding from and betrayal of Christian liberty.
3. The sum of a Christian’s task is faith; but it is always accompanied with the grace of love. Though faith and love are conjoined, faith, in the order of nature, has the precedency.—Fergusson.
Gal_5:6. Religion is Faith working by Love.
I. External and bodily privileges are of no use and moment in the kingdom of Christ.—
1. We are not to esteem men’s religion by their riches and external dignities.
2. We are to moderate our affections in respect of all outward things, neither sorrowing too much for them nor joying too much in them.
II. Faith is of great use and acceptance in the kingdom of Christ.—
1. We must labour to conceive faith aright in our hearts, by the use of the right means—the word, prayer, and sacraments, and in and by the exercises of spiritual invocation and repentance.
2. Faith in Christ must reign and bear sway in our hearts and have command over reason, will, affection, lust.
3. It is to be bewailed that the common faith of our day is but a ceremonial faith.
III. True faith works by love.—Faith is the cause of love, and love is the fruit of faith.—Perkins.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye…
Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. [By the use of an exclamation followed by his name, Paul calls attention to the sentence, or decree, which, as an apostle, he pronounces in the case. Though circumcision of itself might be nothing ( Gal_5:6 ; Act_16:3 ), yet if the Galatians looked to it, and through it to the covenant which it represented, for justification, or even their perfection in Christian grace, they forfeited all their rights in Christ. Though both covenants were of God, they could not be confused without disastrous results. Though a man's mortal and spiritual bodies may both be from God, the soul which has advanced to the spiritual body would forfeit its salvation by returning to the corrupt mortal body.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 no effect
no effect
grace
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no effect i.e. of no experimental effect: the sense of liberty is lost. Gal 2:21; Col 1:23.
grace Grace (in salvation). Eph 1:6; Eph 1:7; Rom 3:24. (See Scofield "Gal 1:6"), See Scofield "Joh 1:17".
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 I testify
I testify
"I declare" or "I serve as a witness"
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to every man who lets himself be circumcised
Paul is using circumcision as a metonym for being Jewish. AT: "to every person who has become a Jew" (See: Metonymy)
he is obligated to obey
"he must obey"
You are cut off from Christ
Here "cut off" is a metaphor for separation from Christ. AT: "You have ended your relationship with Christ" or "You are no longer united with Christ" (See: Metaphor)
you who would be justified by the law
Paul is speaking ironically here. He actually teaches that no one can be justified by trying to do the deeds required by the law. AT: "all you who think you can be justified by doing the deeds required by the law" or "you who want to be justified by the law" (See: Irony)
you no longer experience grace
Who that grace comes from can be stated clearly. AT: "God will not be gracious to you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
circumcise
law
Christ
just
grace
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2–4 5:2-6 The Judaizers taught that keeping the law would…
5:2-6 The Judaizers taught that keeping the law would earn God’s favor (cp. Acts 15:1), but that path actually leads to alienation from God. Real righteousness comes to those who live in Christ by the power of the Spirit.
5:2 Paul reminded the Galatians of who was talking to them: the apostle of Christ who represented the Lord to the Gentiles and who had first proclaimed the Good News to them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.