Download Slide 1 - Hillside Church Mount Albert

Cut Off and Cut In
Galatians 5:1-12
“For
in Christ
circumcision
nor
“Am
I now
tryingJesus
to winneither
the approval
of men,
oruncircumcision
of God? Or am has
I any
value.
only thing
is faith
itself Ithrough
love.”
trying The
to please
men?that
If I counts
were still
tryingexpressing
to please men,
would not
– Galatians 5:6
be a servant of Christ.” – Galatians 1:10
The Galatian
Christians
found
themselves
relying on
tools that are
no longer
effective in
completing
their task.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand
firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell
you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ
will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every
man who lets himself be circumcised that he is
obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to
be justified by the law have been alienated from
Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through
the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness
for which we hope.”
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that
counts is faith expressing itself through love. You were
running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you
from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does
not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast
works through the whole batch of dough.” I am
confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.
The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever
that may be, will have to pay the penalty.”
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
“Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching
circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that
case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As
for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole
way and emasculate themselves!”
– Galatians 5:1-12
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Circumcision is the rite whereby the foreskin of the
Jewish male is removed to physically mark that
individual as a member of the people of Israel.
• The Galatian situation really began when members of
the church in Jerusalem entered Galatia with the
message that compelled Gentile believers to be
circumcised before they could be considered “true”
Christians.
• Circumcision becomes such a critical issue because it
was understood as the starting place of Jewish identity.
• Circumcision was foundational to Jewish identity; in
fact, one was considered cut off from the people of
God without it.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• In a very real way, circumcision
was a visible reminder that one
has pledged to follow through on
obedience to the Law.
• But now, Paul locates the marker
not in the flesh, but in the
presence of the Spirit in one’s life.
• The beginning point for a follower
of Jesus, then, is not in some
merely physical act, but in an act
of faith.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Paul argues in this passage that if we allow ourselves to
be circumcised as an act of initiation into God’s family,
we might as well do away with Christ in totality.
• This is Paul’s point – compromise on this one seemingly
small issue opens the entire gospel to error,
compromising the integrity of the gospel.
• If you require this one point of the Law for admission
into the church, soon, other legalistic practices will
seep into the church, compromising the effectiveness
of the church.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Compromise here on this one point would allow
compromise to spread through the church, as leaven
does within a batch of dough.
• Paul’s encouragement is to stand firm; to realize that
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything.
• No longer could one gauge righteousness by acts of the
law, but a new rubric emerged; what does my faith
relationship with God look like? Does it evidence love?
• In Christ, we are freed for relationship, but here we
have the Galatian agitators pushing legalistic obedience
over and above relationship with Jesus Christ.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
The agitators had cut in on a clean race, tripping up the
Galatian Christians and according to Paul, putting them in
danger of disqualification from the prize for which they
ran.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• A final argument of the agitators becomes
clear: they had been intimating that Paul
taught circumcision as a practice, probably
pointing to his circumcision of Timothy as
an example.
• In not so subtle terms, Paul encourages the
agitators, who seem so preoccupied with
circumcision, to just follow through by
cutting the whole thing off. The result
would be an impotent and powerless
position for the agitators; his desire is to
see their argument abolished completely.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
The Parable of the Winter Roads
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• The Galatians have an endpoint of salvation, but the two
groups have decided upon different paths to this endpoint
– the agitators insisting that the Law is the path, while
Paul is suggesting that Christ is the way.
• Just as the winter roads are effective in leading people
safely to Winnipeg only for a limited time, so too was the
Law helpful in pointing people to God for a limited time.
• Paul’s point is that spring has come; the Law must give
way to faith in Christ.
• Am I relying on a relationship with Jesus for salvation or
am I hoping that I can do enough “right” things to be
declared righteous?
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Circumcision was a very obvious external way of
determining who was included in the family of God
and who wasn’t, but in isolation, it totally betrays the
message of scripture, right from the very beginning.
• The more weighty matter is whether our external
performance is indicative of an internal change. Even
the issue of circumcision is meant to be an external
evidence of an internal reality - an internal,
foundational identification with God is always of more
substance than a simple act of the flesh.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Baptism has traditionally
been understood as an
external exhibition of an
internal reality.
• The real question is not
whether we’ve been baptised or not, it’s not whether
we’ve been circumcised or not, but it is whether God
has gotten a hold of our heart and transformed us
from the inside out, as we discussed last week.
• Does God have a hold of your heart or is it set on
other things?
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6
• Who or what has cut in on our race?
• This world is filled with many things that can distract
us as we run our race; the issue
of the Law is but one.
• These things cut in and supplant
Christ as the focus of our
existence, leading us astray and
in the end perhaps disqualifying
us from a clean finish.
• Paul’s direct statement to us is this: Christ and his
righteousness are the only things we need – the Law
and all other tools fall painfully short.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any
value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
– Galatians 5:6