Can You Imagine the Insanity?

Can you imagine the insanity of this hypothetical situation?

As a young adult, after living a comfortable life, you have been kidnapped and held in a 6’ x 6’ cage for 5 years. You have no comforts of any kind, and are given only enough food and water to barely keep you alive. Freedom is within reach, but only if you can remove the lock from the chain holding you inside and somehow get the door open. After 5 years someone hearing your cries for help manages to open the door of the cage and remove the lock from your chain. You walk out of the cage into the most beautiful place imaginable. The mountains are majestic, the river is roaring, the grass is a lush green, and the sun warms your face. You want for nothing; you are free at last!

Then after a short time someone convinces you the cage was better; you must go back to the cage. It is your choice, and you consider it for a moment and decide, “yes, I will go back to the cage.” You walk for a while, finally arrive to find the cage door open and the chain lying where you left it. You enter the cage, pull the door shut behind you, place the shackles on your wrists and manage to secure the lock that held you captive for 5 years.

This is the kind of madness Paul is talking about in the first eleven verses of Galatians 5.

Consider the reality that Paul is not addressing any random person. Paul is writing this letter to those that have been “running well”. In other words, they heard the Truth of the Gospel, they received the Gospel, and they were walking it out, they were “running well”.

But, while they were running well, someone “hindered” them. Some translations use the words, “prevented”, “obstructed”, “stopped”, “interfered”, and “persuaded”.

We might conclude, “there’s no way I would be foolish enough to be persuaded to return to the cage that held me captive for 5 years” – but I would contend that those that were “running well” in their faith in Christ may have said the same thing.

The recipients of the Letter to the Galatians have fallen away from Grace. Falling away from something results in falling into something else; and that “something else” they have fallen into is legalism. The very Law that they have been set free from they have returned to. Although they once understood salvation by Grace through Faith, they have now added “works” to gain salvation.

They were once set free from the bondage of the Law but have now returned to it. Paul points out that now that they have opted to be justified by a works of the Law, they are now obligated to keep the whole Law. In addition, this decision has severed them from Christ, Christ is no longer of any advantage to them.

Freedom from the Law is what Paul is talking about in verse 1 when he says, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” If you have been set free in Christ, set free from the Law of sin and death, you are free of all acts, works, or rituals that would have you attempting to add to your means of salvation. In Christ alone, by Grace alone, through Faith alone – that is how we are saved from the Wrath to come. To ADD ANYTHING to Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross is to attempt to share in His Glory and He shares His Glory with NO ONE.

Why would anyone consider adding to the work of the Cross? Answer: Because the Way of salvation is narrow and offensive to men. If men can place themselves in a position to play a part in their redemptive story, they remove the offense of the Cross. If man’s theology makes “in Christ alone, by Grace alone, through Faith alone” an option, not the ONLY option, the offense of the Cross is removed. That is why the True message of the Cross causes division, that is why it sparks hatred all over the world. That is why Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

If your theology, church, or religion has you doing anything to add to your salvation you must repent of it immediately.

To further illustrate this point, consider the two men being crucified with Jesus. One was promised paradise – why? He trusted in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He didn’t get circumcised, he didn’t say a sinner’s prayer, he didn’t go to confession, he didn’t offer indulgences, he didn’t pray facing Mecca, he didn’t get baptized, and he didn’t (fill in the blank). Yes, if he would have been allowed to come down from there and live out the rest of his life, true faith would have been evident by his obedience and service to God, but this would have only been evidence of salvation, not a means of salvation in part or whole.

Galatians 5:1-11

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 5 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.