Daily Devotional Sunday 1st November 2020
by William Moody
Galatians 5:1–5
Christ Has Set Us Free
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified1 by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Footnotes
[1] 5:4
Or counted righteous (ESV)
In Jesus there is freedom; freedom from the requirements of the law and from condemnation (v1). But if these Galatian believers accept the need for circumcision to be right with God, they are not trusting fully in Jesus’ death, they’re saying it is not enough (v2).
Paul is teaching there are really two paths to go; you can rely on circumcision and keeping the law, then you are obliged to keep the whole law perfectly (v3). Paul is clear you can’t rely on the law and on Christ at the same time (v4). Relying on anything else other than Christ for salvation takes us away from Christ. Relying on good deeds or religion will keep us away from Christ.
The other way to go (and the only right way to go) is to have faith in Christ through the Spirit to make us right with God (v5). Our salvation has to be based on Christ alone, not Christ plus works, not Christ plus the law, not Christ plus religion. Our song has to be, “In Christ alone my hope is found”.
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.