“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.” Galatians 5:7-8
The believers in Galatia had been running well, trusting they were acceptable to God through faith alone in Jesus Christ and His cross, but false teachers, not sent by God, were hindering them and turning them away from the truth by saying that the believers needed to be circumcised and obey the worship laws of the Old Testament. We, too, need to be on guard against false teachers who would turn us back to reliance upon works of the law or man-made traditions rather than upon God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.
Grant that I hold fast to the truth and trust solely in Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice for my salvation. Amen.
“For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” Galatians 5:5-6
The Spirit of God, working through His Word, has given us the sure hope that we are counted righteous by God through faith in Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross. Being circumcised or not being circumcised doesn’t matter. What counts is having genuine faith in Christ Jesus, not a dead faith but a faith that also moves us to love God and neighbor.
Thank You, O God, for accepting me and counting me righteous through faith alone in the Son. By Your Spirit, move me to live my life to Your glory and for the good of my neighbor. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:2-4
When people think it is necessary to be circumcised and observe the worship laws of the Old Testament — resting on the Sabbath, observing feast days, abstaining from certain foods — or when they depend on their religious rites and traditions to be acceptable to God, they fall from grace and lose the blessings that Christ won for them because they seek to be acceptable to God by their works under the law. They fail to see that they must keep every demand of God’s law perfectly to be justified by it, and no one but Christ has done so.
Grant that I trust solely in Your perfect righteousness and in Your sacrifice for my sins, O Christ, and not overthrow Your grace by seeking to be counted righteous by my keeping of the law. Amen.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
When we trust in Christ as our Savior, He sets us free from bondage under the law, having fulfilled all its righteous demands in our stead and having made full atonement for all our sins. Since we have been pardoned and set free through faith in Christ Jesus, our Substitute, let us not turn back and again become entangled in the demands of the law or the observance of human traditions in an attempt to merit our salvation.
O Christ, You freed us from the law’s curse by being cursed for us. Grant that we hold fast to You and the salvation You won for us in faith and not turn back again to our own works and observances under the law. Amen.
“Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.’ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.” Galatians 4:30-31
Ishmael, Abraham’s son with Hagar, the slave woman, did not inherit along with Isaac, Abraham’s son with Sarah. Instead, he was cast out. So also those who are descendants of Abraham by the flesh but do not share his faith in God’s promises will be cast out and not inherit the promises. Only those who have faith in Jesus Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham who was offered up on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for sin, will inherit the promises of forgiveness and eternal life.
Grant that I trust in You alone, O Christ, that I might receive Your pardon and inherit the eternal joys of heaven. Amen.
