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1 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. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. (Galatians 5:1-3)
Mankind was meant to be free. Freedom is more important to God than most of what concerns us in a given day. The gospel frees us to live life the way we were intended, being defined by Him. And, this freedom results in the ability to love God, ourselves and others.
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
Galatians wasn’t written to people who weren’t free, it was written to people who had been set free. But they were in danger of losing this freedom. They had to get to the place where they valued freedom.
Paul is concerned that the Galatians are in danger of losing their freedom that the gospel has given them. The primary way we lose this freedom is by being defined by others rather than God. Freedom is lost when we are defined by other people. For the Gentiles in Galatia, circumcision was one of their struggles. The question for them was: "Do we have to be circumcised to be acceptable to God and His people?"
When these Galatians became followers of Christ, they lacked biblical teaching. They didn't know what it really meant to be Christian, and Paul is correcting the wrong teaching they had been given.
Circumcision in itself is not wrong. But, it is wrong when we do it in order to bribe God for His blessings. To the Jew, circumcision was the foremost requirement to gain God's favor.
Interestingly, God had prescribed it to Abraham so that he would never forget that God was for him. God never meant for it to be a means of gaining and/or maintaining His favor. God gave it so that as often Abraham went to the bathroom, he would be reminded of God's undying favor for him.
In v.1, Paul writes,
"Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
This means, we must resist teaching that calls us to perform in any way to gain God's acceptance or to be defined by anything less than God. Otherwise, we will be all tied up worrying if we are accepted, losing sight of the reality that life is about loving Him, ourselves, and others.
Slavery is desperately trying to prove ourselves to others, trying to make our lives look a certain way so that others will accept us. trying to belong. Well, Christ has remedied this problem for us. And, if He defines us, what does it matter what others think of us?
In v.2, Paul writes,
"... if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all."
Paul is saying, if you try to earn God's favor through any effort of your own, you will not be able to experience the blessings that Christ died to give you. When Christ died in our place, He earned all the favor of God for us, rendering us free enough to do things out of a posture of acceptance, security and purity. Our motives are different because we are no longer operating in life from the place of deficiency. No, the posture freedom in Christ renders is powerful and life-changing for us and those we influence.
In v.3, we read,
"... every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law."
When Christ died in our place, our debt, which separated us from having a personal relationship with God, was fully paid! Any effort to add to it is useless. Therefore, we must never try to relate to God as a debtor trying to pay back a debt, no matter how thankful we are.
So, when in v.3, Paul writes that the person who gets circumcised is putting himself in the place of a debtor to God, we learn that God does not want to relate to us as debtors who try to pay Him back. His will for us is that we are free and that we operate from the place of freedom.
