Galatians 5:4-6 Podcast
To invest in BYM, click here
4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:4-6)
In today's text the Apostle continues to drive home the idea that if we use the law to achieve our own righteousness before God, we will lack the ability to appreciate and experience His grace. Even for believers, slavery is what happens when we lose connection with God's grace. The key to freedom is to keep depending on grace. We are free when our dependence is upon God and we experience His acceptance through the sacrifice of His Son.
The Greek word the Apostle uses in v.4 for "alienated" means "to be severed from." This is a play on words, given the subject of circumcision mentioned in the context of this book. Paul is not teaching that we lose our salvation when we are alienated. He is just saying that we will not be under the powerful influence of God's grace.
Grace causes us to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, whereby we receive more grace, not because of how awesome we are, or because of the power of our own thinking. It is the faith of God given by the Holy Spirit through grace that has been given to us to even believe.
The Apostle in v.5 describes the way freedom shows up in our lives. The righteousness that Paul is speaking of is the realization of life that is right. Whether it is in this world or in the world to come. We all know that sense when we get when we get it right, it is satisfying. Our new lives began by the work of the Spirit. And our lives go on by the work of the Spirit.
We are free because God has sent the Spirit of his Son to give us the right orientation to this life and the life to come. He offers His fellowship and help, and even makes the life of obedience a life of joy. The Christian life is a life of freedom because it is lived in the power of the Spirit.
In v.5 Paul writes, "For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope." The human side of freedom is seen in this verse. The human side is faith which is an ongoing way of waiting for the hope of righteousness.
But, this is a two-sided coin. One side is the sovereign work of God that is at work for us and in us. It is His inertia which makes it possible for us to believe. The other side of the coin is our faith, a life of reliance on what God does for us, not what we can do for God.
For the believer, faith is what gives juice to the operative grace of God in our lives. The more we by faith are defined by God, the more of His grace we understand and comprehend. When this happens, His grace takes over and produces the kind of life Jesus died to give us.
