Galatians 5:4 - Homiletics

The logical results of the Judaistic position.

Christ profits only those united to him, and a soul departed from him is undone for ever. This would be the exact risk of such Galatians as, following Judaistic guidance, sought to be "justified by the Law." Consider—

I. THEIR DOCTRINE INVOLVED SEPARATION FROM CHRIST . "Christ is become of no effect unto you;" rather, "you are done away from Christ." Representing circumcision as the bond of connection with the Law, the apostle declares circumcision to be a de jure separation from Christ, in whom all legal engagements were fully met. Justification by grace and justification by Law are mutually exclusive. If we can be saved in any other way than by Christ, we do not need him, and the adoption of that other way is a renunciation of him. To be "without Christ" is the most miserable as well as the most fatal position in life.

II. THEIR DOCTRINE INVOLVED A DEPARTURE FROM THE SYSTEM OF SALVATION BY GRACE . "Ye are fallen from grace." The clause has no bearing upon the doctrine of the perseverance of saints, for the grace here spoken of is not personal religion, but the system of salvation by grace. Law and grace are opposites; that is, the dispensation of Law and the dispensation of grace. The justified person in the one case works out salvation by his own obedience; in the other he simply receives it. The apostle declares the mode of justification by personal obedience as involving the rejection of the mode of justification by Christ.