Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.  Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.  As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! Galatians 5:1-12

Jesus has set us free by His perfect redemption. There is no reason to enslave ourselves again to the law. The circumcision Paul wrote about here is the circumcision required by the Mosaic law of all Jewish male children and all Gentile males  who opted to join themselves to the Jewish religious system. That was Old Testament practice, before the coming of the Messiah and His perfect atonement for our sins.

Most of us in western civilization have seen to the circumcision of our infant boys for health and hygienic reasons, and there is good evidence that that is a legitimate health practice. We’ve heard about those boys and men who had to have it done later in life, because of painful problems that developed in the uncircumcised organ. We’ve also seen stats regarding the low instance of cervical cancer in women with circumcised partners. Paul, however, is warning about doing it for religious reasons, as a requirement for salvation or spirituality. That is not legitimate. It is works-based and has nothing to do with Biblical Christianity.

Paul says don’t let yourselves be bullied by the legalists to do this unnecessary thing to your bodies. If you are being circumcised to prove spiritual justification, you are submitting to a needless burden. You are not believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ. You are out of fellowship with Him. You have left behind the grace that saved you. So, you submit to circumcision for justification; well there are hundreds of other laws to observe. Picking and choosing which ones to keep is not permitted. Circumcision, or the keeping of any of the laws adds nothing to our salvation. Being uncircumcised, or not observing the Old Testament law takes nothing away. Bodily marks and certain behaviors are not the issue in salvation. Jesus Christ’s atonement is the only issue. The proof of our justification is how love demonstrates our faith.

You were off to a good start, Galatians. Now someone has interfered with your progress by distracting you from the truth. You didn’t learn this false doctrine from Paul, or from Jesus Christ.

Yeast, or leven, grows and multiplies itself throughout the whole lump of dough, eventually affecting the entire batch. That’s how false doctrine works. And sin, and all evil. The insidious infiltrators will eventually reap the consequences of this evil, but Paul is concerned about the consequences the foolishly duped Galatians will have to face, as well. Paul, the circumcised one, isn’t teaching circumcision. Proof of that is his being persecuted by the Jews for preaching grace. “If I were encouraging you to be circumcised, why are the Jews still persecuting me?” Your salvation is based on the atonement of Jesus’ crucifixion! Any other doctrine conflicts with that truth. Faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross is offensive to the pride of religious humans. They’d rather cut themselves and do “good works” to have something to show.

Here is Paul’s level of contempt for the legalism of the Judaizers: if they insist that circumcision is spiritually productive, why not just go ahead and castrate themselves?! If a little is good, let’s take the whole organ. That ought to really score points.