Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:2-15 ESV

It was not Luther’s plan to separate from the Catholic Church; he only wanted to see it freed of the many unbiblical doctrines and practices that had grown over the past millennium or so. But rather than listen to his critiques, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull that threatened Luther with excommunication. Of course, whenever Luther publicly burned a copy of the bull on December 10, 1520, Leo X came through with his threat on January 3 of the following year.

Even so, Luther answered a summons to a diet in Worms in April, hoping for a chance to defend his writings from the past three years. Emperor Charles promised him safe passage, both to and from the trial, but Jan Hus was promised the same protection back 1415 and still ended up being burned at the stake. Knowing the danger and already being under church discipline, Luther appeared at the Diet, praying that the emperor would at least listen to his reasoning, but rather than giving Luther a chance to argue his case, they simply demanded that Luther recant his writings. After taking twenty-four hours to pray, Luther returned with this answer:

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.

At the heart of Luther’s writings was the matter of sola fide, that salvation is received through faith alone, which the Catholicism had abandoned for a view of justification that included works. Although there are a multitude of topics upon which Christians can disagree with one another in good faith, Luther rightly understood that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is not an issue upon which we can simply agree to disagree; it is the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Throughout his letter to the churches of Galatia, the Apostle Paul has been defending that doctrine from the particular threat of the Judaizers, who were teaching the Gentile Christians that they needed to first submit themselves to the Jewish rites such as circumcision in order to become a Christian. Paul saw this teaching, not as a petty theological squabble, but as a damnable heresy that posed an eternal threat to the Galatians. An understanding of these eternal stakes is essential for properly viewing the severe language that Paul uses in the passage before us, which is the climax of the letter.

IF YOU ACCEPT CIRCUMCISION // VERSES 2-6

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. Paul’s language at the start of this verse is catching, authoritative, and personal. Sproul writes:

Paul is speaking as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, with nothing less than the authority of Jesus Christ and on nothing less than the authority of God. He speaks not as one of the people who were troubling the Galatians with false teaching but as the one who started the church in Galatia and therefore has authority over it.

Recall that Paul began by emphasizing that this letter was sent with the full support of all the brothers who were with him. Now, however, the apostle is leveraging all of his personal and authoritative status with the Galatians to give them a warning of the utmost importance: if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

We should take care to note that Paul does not mean circumcision itself, for he will say in verse 6 that being circumcised or uncircumcised makes no difference toward our salvation. He means circumcision as the Judaizers were teaching, that is, saying that it was necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised before they could be saved. Such a teaching makes circumcision the instrumental means of salvation rather than faith in Christ. Therefore, to trust in circumcision negates any trust that one might claim to place in Christ.

The author of Hebrews spoke to this same issue in 10:26, saying, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” The deliberate sinning that the author has in mind is those who would reject Christ by returning back to Judaism. For those who reject Christ and His once for all sacrifice, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. If Christ alone is able to save us from the wrath of God, then what remains for those who reject Christ and His salvation? Only “fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).

Indeed, Paul goes on to say, I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. To submit the law on the point of circumcision obliges a person to keep the entirety of the law. A person cannot pick and choose which elements of the law they would like to obey any more than a slave could choose when to obey his lord. Every Sabbath command, every pilgrimage, every dietary law, would be applied to the Galatians if they accepted circumcision. Indeed, if a person rejects the grace of Christ in order to live under the regulations of the law, Paul adds, you are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. In verse 3, the Greek literally says that that man becomes a debtor to the whole law. The great and eternal debt of our sin that Christ died to pay is taken up again by the legalist. He rejects Christ’s payment and resolves to pay it himself. As Ryken notes:

We cannot have it both ways. Justification is either by law or by grace, either by works or by faith. Either we can rely on observing the law, or we can trust Christ alone to bear its curse on our behalf. But we cannot do both. With Christ, it is all or nothing. To receive him by faith is to admit that we cannot save ourselves at all. As the Puritan William Perkins said, “He must be a perfect Savior, or no Savior.” If we will not let Christ do everything for us, he can do nothing for us, at least as for as our justification is concerned. If we try to help ourselves, Christ will be no help at all. (199)

Although circumcision may not be the great issue of our day, we can apply Paul’s words to anything that we may use legalistically. Baptism is one such battleground. Although many evangelicals tend to treat baptism too lightly, there are streams of Christianity which proudly proclaim that baptism is necessary for salvation. While we would affirm that baptism is necessary for the Christian life, we delve into legalism the moment that we call baptism salvific. Both circumcision and baptism are signs that God gave to His people to remind them of His covenant with them. To place such blessed signs of God’s grace on equal footing to grace itself is like boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk, for it turns an instrument of life into an agent of death.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. By necessity legalism can only bring condemnation. To be under the obligation of the entire law is to be damned. We only need to consider the greatest commandments to realize as much. You and I have never gone an entire hour, let alone a full day, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Even a quick glance at the law reveals what Paul says in Romans 3:10: “None is righteous, no, not one.” But we have a sure and steadfast hope of righteousness, through the Spirit, by faith. We have no hope in our own righteousness, but by faith we cling to the righteousness of Christ that He has imputed onto us. That is the twofold work of our salvation. Christ took upon Himself the penalty of our sins, but He has also dressed us in His own righteousness. That is the basis of our confidence and hope before God, and we receive it, not through circumcision or any other act of obedience, but through faith, which is itself a gift of God through the Spirit. Therefore, Paul can rightly say: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

WHO HINDERED YOU? // VERSES 7-12

Having addressed the damned end of legalism, Paul now sets his sights upon the Judaizers, the false teachers who were imposing circumcision upon the Galatians:

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

Here Paul uses running as a metaphor for the life of faith. The word hindered (ἐνέκοψεν) could literally be translated as cut in, and it was often used to describe a runner who cheats by deliberately tripping his opponent during the race. This was an accurate picture of what the Judaizers were doing. While the Galatians admired the false teachers for teaching them to obey all of God’s law, they were actually trying to keep them from truly doing so in Christ.

R. C. Sproul makes a great point regarding verse 7:

Does he ask who hindered them from obeying the law? No, he says they were hindered from obeying the truth. Some Christians say, “Doctrine doesn’t matter; truth doesn’t matter.” The Apostle Paul is calling his people not simply to learn the truth but to understand the truth and to know the truth. Truth is not an abstract conceptual matter biblically; it is life and death. Truth is Christ.

That is the danger of false teachers. Jesus said as He prayed in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Knowing God, who is the Author and Giver of life, is the life everlasting. To be ignorant of God is to be severed from life in Him. Biblically, ignorance is never bliss, only death. By leading others onto the path of death, false teachers are spiritual murderers. That is why Peter says that “for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved” (2 Peter 2:17). That is the penalty that they will bear.

This is also why the primary role of a pastor/elder is, as Titus 1:9 says, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Unfortunately, even churches that understand and affirm the importance of sound doctrine can allow their vigilance to dwindle away as what was once diligently kept becomes simply assumed. But to say that a church has no need to emphasize doctrine because there are not presently looming heresies is like saying that my wife and I don’t need a date night because we had a really great one two years ago. Only a little leaven is necessary to leaven the whole dough, and so it is with false teaching.

In verse 11, Paul makes certain to distance himself away from that teaching, saying, But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. Almost all of Paul’s suffering came through the Jewish religious leaders, who often instigated the Roman government against him. Under Roman law, Jews were exempt from the ordinary sacrifices that citizens were commanded to make to Caesar. By distancing themselves from Paul and his fellow Christians, the Jews hoped that Rome would stamp out the ever-growing movement. Therefore, if Paul had not fully broken away from Judaism, we would not have been persecuted as he was. Indeed, just like the readers of Hebrews, Paul could have escaped the offence of the cross at any moment by returning back to the law.

Therefore, as one who knew the offence of the cross intimately, Paul says of the Judaizers: I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! Since Paul literally says that he wishes that they would be cut off, there are some alternative interpretations to consider. Frank Thielman considers two:

Paul’s language at first seems crude and abusive, but the cultural and literary context should ameliorate this impression. Two considerations are especially important.

First, the most basic meaning of the verb is simply “cut off” (2 Sam. 10:14 LXX; Plutarch, Nicias 26:3), and Paul is playing on his use of the similar word “cut in” (Gk. enkotpo, ESV “hindered”) in Galatians 5:7. The primary meaning of the sentence, then, may well be that he wishes those who have “cut in” on the Galatian Christians and hindered their progress in the faith would “cut themselves off” from contact with the Galatians. The race metaphor rather the circumcision-mutilation reference may be primarily in Paul’s mind.

Second, in light of the predominant use of the term in the Septuagint to refer to amputation, and especially in light of its use in Deuteronomy 23:1, it is difficult to think that Paul does not have in mind circumcision, now conceived as mutilation (cf. Phil. 3:2). Paul is writing, however, into a cultural context in which especially zealous male devotees of the goddess Cybele would cut off their genitals in a widely publicized annual display of devotion that the Roman emperor Claudius himself sponsored. In such a cultural context, Paul’s reference to genital mutilation was not as offensive as it would be to in modern cultural contexts, where such rituals are widely (and correctly) perceived as horrific.

Viewed from this angle, Paul’s meaning is that the false teachers’ insistence on circumcision is equivalent to the senseless mutilation of pagan religious practices (cf. Gal. 4:9-10). Like them, it is fruitless human effort to control divine power.

While those may certainly factor into what Paul is saying, the ESV seems to still have the correct interpretation: yes, the Apostle is wishing that the false teachers would be castrated. This malediction is certainly harsh, but it is justified. These were teachers who were leading others away from Christ and into eternal condemnation. Is this really a stronger word than Paul’s pronouncement of anathema in chapter 1?

FOR FREEDOM // VERSES 13-15

While the false teachers were under slavery of the law in this life and marked for judgment in the world to come, Paul again pleads for the Galatians to consider the far greater riches that they have in Christ. For you were called to freedom, brothers. In Christ, they were free from the bondage to both sin and the law in this life, and they were free from the judgment of God on the Day of the Yahweh. Martin Luther writes wonderfully on this freedom that we have in Christ:

Christ has made us free, not civilly nor carnally, but divinely; we are made free in such a sort that our conscience is free and quiet, not fearing the wrath of God to come. This is the true and inestimable liberty to the excellency and majesty of which, if we compare the others, they are but as one drop of water in respect of the whole sea. For who is able to express what a thing it is when a man is assured in his heart that God neither is, nor will be, angry with him, but will be for ever a merciful and a loving Father unto him for Christ’s sake? This, indeed, is a marvellous and incomprehensible liberty, to have the most high and sovereign Majesty so favourable to us that he doth not only defend, maintain, and succour us in this life, but also as touching our bodies will so deliver us as that, though sown in corruption, dishonour, and infirmity, they shall rise again in incorruption, and glory, and power. This is the inestimable liberty that we are made free from the wrath of God for ever, and is greater than heaven and earth and all other creatures. (Cited in Brown, 252-253)

Of course, whenever anyone starts talking about this freedom that we have in Christ, both from sin and from the law, the legalist will immediately cry out that we are promoting licentiousness. But that is not the effect of the gospel upon the heart of the Christian. Although we are free from the burden and yoke of the law, the Spirit within us now causes for us to desire and to delight in obeying our Father. Indeed, this is why Paul concludes our passage (which also serves to begin the final section of the letter) by warning the Galatians against antinomianism or licentiousness, which is the exact opposite of legalism but just as damning:

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Licentiousness is not liberty. Many infernal schemes have made that statement quite difficult to believe, but it is true, nonetheless. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever pleases you because a life dictated by pleasure is just as much a life of slavery as legalism. A life dominated by momentary desires is nothing more than being a perpetual toddler, for as any parent knows toddlers’ actions are almost entirely based upon impulse. Children must be taught how to control their desires of the moment in order to have a more desirable outcome in the future. We call that behavior discipline (which is not the same as legalism), and it is taught through discipline. A disciplined life, lived in the right direction, leads to maturity, leaving childishness behind.

The reason it feels like we live in a society of grown-up toddlers is because we do. Western culture has largely adopted the belief that licentiousness is freedom; childishness, then, was bound to follow sooner rather later. The result is that our society now does its best imitation of the fool from Proverbs while still claiming to be wise. It now makes self-fulfillment and happiness into the only virtues that matter and fails ask why so many antidepressants are needed. They claim to be free while liturgically taking their paycheck to the casino or the dispensary. It’s all quite like a man compulsively banging his head against a brick wall who is then genuinely confused about why he has a headache.

Reject both licentiousness and legalism by standing firm upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. Serve Him with all your heart and seek to do good to everyone around you, but never forget that that obedience comes after you have been justified in Christ and never justifies you before Him.

Christ has freed us from being debtors to the law, from being under the burden and condemnation of the law, but He has not abolished the law entirely. In Christ, the law no longer hangs over our heads but is written upon our hearts. Because of the Spirit dwelling within us, obedience is no longer a burden but a delight. We should desire to love God and to love those around us, which also happens to be the fulfillment of the law. We cited John 13:34-35 last week, but it is fitting to do so again here:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

No law is needed whenever we live by this commandment. And although we will never be able to love another exactly how Jesus has loved us, the Spirit within us gives us that desire as He works to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). To quote Luther one last time:

From all this comes the conclusion that a Christian lives not in himself but in Christ, and in his neighbor, in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. Through faith he rises above himself in God, from he descends under himself through love, and remains always in God and in divine love… Behold, that is the proper, spiritual Christian freedom, which liberates the hearts from all sins, laws, and commands. This freedom exceeds all other freedoms, as high as heaven is over the earth. May God grant us that we truly understand that and retain it. Amen.