Galatians 5:2, today, most of us are not tempted by circumcision, we look at the Galatians and think their problem was silly, but we have our own modern versions of this trap. People fall for the Jesus plus lie all the time, they think it is Jesus plus their financial success, they think it is Jesus plus their perfect church attendance, they think it is Jesus plus their social justice work. People tell themselves, “I am a Christian, but I am a good Christian, because I volunteer, I tithe and I never miss a Sunday,” the moment you rely on those activities to make you feel righteous, you have stepped into the same trap as the Galatians, you have made Jesus Christ of no value to you, because you are looking at your own performance for value instead of him.
Galatians 5:3, this is the fine print that religious legalism never tells you, the false teachers surely did not tell the Galatians this part, they probably said, just get circumcised, it is a small thing, but Paul exposes the trap. The law is a complete system, it is a package deal, you cannot pick and choose which parts you want to follow. If you want to be justified by the law, you have to keep all of it, not just the parts you like, not just the easy ones, you have to keep the entire moral and ceremonial code perfectly from the moment you are born until the moment you die. You cannot have a single bad thought, you cannot have a single moment of selfishness, you cannot make one mistake, if you fail in one point, you fail in all, that is the standard of the law, it demands absolute perfection.
Leviticus 17:11, blood in scripture is not primarily a symbol of death, blood is the carrier of life, it is what keeps every cell in your body alive, it is the most life-filled substance in creation. When God says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, Hebrews 9:22, God is not saying he needs violence to be satisfied, he is saying that sin costs life and the only currency that can pay for life is life itself. God was not demanding death, he was offering life, he gave the blood on the altar, Leviticus 17:11 says it plainly, the sacrifice was not humanity’s idea to calm an angry God, it was God’s gift to humanity to cover what they could not fix themselves.
Grace, on the other hand, demands faith in the one who was perfect, Paul is forcing the Galatians to make a choice, do you want to be judged by a system where one mistake destroys you or do you want to be saved by a system where all your mistakes are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, you cannot have both. Galatians 5:4, when most people hear fallen from grace, they think of a moral failure, a news story about a pastor who had an affair or a leader caught stealing money and people say, he fell from grace. But falling from grace has nothing to do with committing sins like adultery or theft, ironically, falling from grace happens when you try to be too good, it happens when you try to earn your standing with God through your own behavior.
Galatians 5:3, this is the fine print that religious legalism never tells you, the false teachers surely did not tell the Galatians this part, they probably said, just get circumcised, it is a small thing, but Paul exposes the trap. The law is a complete system, it is a package deal, you cannot pick and choose which parts you want to follow. If you want to be justified by the law, you have to keep all of it, not just the parts you like, not just the easy ones, you have to keep the entire moral and ceremonial code perfectly from the moment you are born until the moment you die. You cannot have a single bad thought, you cannot have a single moment of selfishness, you cannot make one mistake, if you fail in one point, you fail in all, that is the standard of the law, it demands absolute perfection.
Leviticus 17:11, blood in scripture is not primarily a symbol of death, blood is the carrier of life, it is what keeps every cell in your body alive, it is the most life-filled substance in creation. When God says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, Hebrews 9:22, God is not saying he needs violence to be satisfied, he is saying that sin costs life and the only currency that can pay for life is life itself. God was not demanding death, he was offering life, he gave the blood on the altar, Leviticus 17:11 says it plainly, the sacrifice was not humanity’s idea to calm an angry God, it was God’s gift to humanity to cover what they could not fix themselves.
Grace, on the other hand, demands faith in the one who was perfect, Paul is forcing the Galatians to make a choice, do you want to be judged by a system where one mistake destroys you or do you want to be saved by a system where all your mistakes are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, you cannot have both. Galatians 5:4, when most people hear fallen from grace, they think of a moral failure, a news story about a pastor who had an affair or a leader caught stealing money and people say, he fell from grace. But falling from grace has nothing to do with committing sins like adultery or theft, ironically, falling from grace happens when you try to be too good, it happens when you try to earn your standing with God through your own behavior.