Galatians 5:3 - Homiletics

The obligations involved in circumcision.

The Judaizing teachers did not, perhaps, allow their converts to realize the full extent of the obligation involved in circumcision.

I. THE APOSTLE REITERATES THE EXTENT OF THIS OBLIGATION IN THE CASE OF THE CIRCUMCISED . They are "debtors to do the whole Law." Circumcision was not a mere badge of Judaism, as baptism is of Christianity, but it involved a profession of obedience to the whole Jewish Law. It was not competent to select a few precepts for obedience; for the circumcised was a debtor to do "the whole Law." The false teachers did not observe it themselves ( Galatians 6:13 ), yet it was their duty, on their own principles, to observe it unremittingly, completely, and without external help, in every department of it.

II. THE DANGER OF THIS OBLIGATION . Circumcision could only profit on one supposition. "It verily profiteth if thou keep the Law" ( Romans 2:25 ). But, in case of failure, it had no power to save from the curse. Circumcision in that case becomes uncircumcision—that is, it will not save you from being treated as a transgressor or treated as if you had never been circumcised.