Again, we ask, how do we have this glorious freedom in Christ? Is it by keeping the law? Or is it by faith? It is by faith, ALONE. How do we keep or live in this freedom? Again, same answer: by faith! We have only two options, as v1 says: Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free OR be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
From this passage, let us discover seven
things that happen if I try to grow in Christ by the method of law-keeping.
1. 5:2:
Christ will profit you nothing.
Paul uses circumcision as the indication one is committed to self-effort
as a means of pleasing God. Circumcision
stands for the whole system of Judaism.
He was not saying that circumcision in itself is a problem; it is
circumcision as a means of satisfying the Mosaic Law.
a. Now,
imagine a ledger with two columns containing assets necessary for my salvation:
column one is entitled “my contribution” and column two “the contribution of
Christ.” If the first is empty, and the
second lists the blood of Christ shed on the cross, I am a saved person. If the second lists the blood of Christ and
the first has anything at all in it, then I am not a saved person. I have no goodness at all to contribute to my
salvation. If the second lists the blood
of Christ and the first lists “circumcision” I am not a saved person. In other words, CHRIST PROFITS ME NOTHING!
b. This
is a very real issue. The official
doctrine of the Roman and Orthodox Churches says salvation is by Christ alone,
but then add that we must “fill up” something that is lacking. Mormonism is the same. Essentially, any religion but true Biblical
Christianity has something in the first column.
Thus, Christ profits that person nothing. And if you don’t have Christ, you are lost!
2. 5:3:
You are a debtor to keep the whole law.
To build on the previous illustration of the ledger, if Christ profits
you nothing, then circumcision will not be enough either. Your debt will be that you must keep the
entire law. You will never come to a
point in your life when you have paid your debt. There will be no excuse for a day off or an “honest
mistake.” Remember Paul’s quotes in Gal.
3:10,12: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are
written in the book of the law, to do them. … The man who does them shall live
by them. And, of course, this simply
cannot be done. What we see in these
first two thoughts is that Christ is “either/or,” and never “both/and.”
a. We
do not have space to go into detail, but the Christian does have obligations:
obligations of love. At a later time we
will speak of these. But the point is:
they are never the product of his best efforts.
They are a response to Christ’s love, and are met in His strength. It is Christ living in us!
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