Chapter 5 (NASB)

Chapter five begins with a declaration: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.”

"2 Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law.4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love."

In verses 2-6 Paul has his Moses—Deuteronomy 30—moment with the Galatians:
“But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.” (17,18 NLT)

“…if you have yourself circumcised…” “…if you refuse to listen…” 

“You have been severed from Christ…” “…you will certainly be destroyed…” 

Paul remembers something that the neither the Galatians nor many of us Christians—and people in general—seem to have: There is a cost to every decision, every action, and every desire. If the men of Galatia choose to have themselves circumcised in honor to fulfill legal requirements, if they ignore Paul’s teaching that doing so will not make them righteous in God’s eyes, there will be a price to pay.

This is because the man does so “is obligated to keep the whole Law,” which cannot be accomplished! If they do submit to circumcision, they “have been severed from Christ,” because they “are seeking to be justified by the Law”. Verse 14 is intended to be a wake-up call for the erring Galatians: This is the cost of a wrong choice—because it was Adam’s choice. 

Paul is not being hyperbolic in these verses because he equates this different gospel, this gospel of the agitators, to the sin of Adam that said to God, “I no longer need You. I can make my own way, because I get to say what is right and wrong, good and evil.” If that isn’t still the common sentiment lurking in the human heart and head, I don’t know what it could be. Adam’s sin is at the core of social and cultural relativism, which is encapsulated in the commonly used phrases my truth and your truth. And our participation in this practice—this belief—tells God that we do not want Jesus Christ’s life as our own. 

Paul has already covered this ground with the Galatians, but here in chapter five he’s just getting down to the brass tacks. “If you make this choice, here is what it will cost you.” Moses tells Israel in Deuteronomy 30 that if they serve other gods, and turn from the LORD, they “will certainly be destroyed.” Paul tells the Galatians that if they submit to the Law, they are worshipping other gods: themselves. 

The act of willful circumcision is the refusal to listen to the truth of the Spirit—which was given to the Jews and the Gentiles only through Jesus’ death on the cross—and has only one result: a fall from grace. 
But please note, this fall does not result from God’s choice but from the Galatians’—and our—attempts to justify ourselves and earn—or make—our own salvation, which contradicts the very core of our Christian faith, that, “we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.” Now what in the world does this mean?

Adhering to the Law does not require faith in God; it only requires a person’s striving. And who needs God for that? The NLT translates verse five as:

“But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.”
We see merit and self-righteousness at the heart of the Galatians’ false gospel but hope and faith in Paul’s gospel. We live according to our will and by our own power in the former, but we must trust God to bring about His will in our lives in the latter. Proverbs 16:9 states: “The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.” (NABRE)

Paul states in verse five that it is the presence of the Spirit that brings a person to righteousness, and this is only accomplished through faith in the power and work of God and not by our own efforts or merit. 
If to be righteous means to order one’s life according to the will of God, then Proverbs 16:9 is spot on the money. Only the Spirit can accomplish this in us; only the Spirt can keep us living in the Way—living like Jesus—and only living like Jesus will bring us to life. 

On the other hand, if we try to accomplish this by our own works and wits, if it is our heart that plans the way, we might as well all change our names to Sisyphus. Because no matter how close we get, we will never overcome that last obstacle. And then it’s back down to bottom of the hill to do ALL OVER AGAIN. 

In the final verse of this section, Paul reminds the Galatians of one simple fact: The only thing that matters to Jesus is “faith working through love.”  This is something that we have already heard in James’ letter in chapter 2:14ff, with his discussion of the faiths of Abraham and Rehab. Whether you are a Gentile or a Jew, Paul says here in verse 6, it doesn’t matter because through faith you can demonstrate love—agape specifically. 

"7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is."

Paul returns to asking the Galatians why they had started falling away, and we learn that he is confused about this. He begins by complimenting them, by telling them how well they had been doing, but now…
His question in verse seven, “who hindered you from obeying the truth”, is rhetorical; Paul knows who has done this: these agitators—who, although they have been rather persuasive, Paul states, are only human. Paul believes that the church will return to the Lord in the end; he has “confidence” in them. 

More interesting to me is something that Paul is implying here. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” What affects one person in the church affects everyone in the church. The Galatians ARE NOT a gathering of free agents, each one trying to make his or her own way into heaven—each his or her on journey to Christ—but they ARE all one big lump of dough! How different a view this is than the one we modern Christians maintain today. 

The failure of one, the error of one, affects the whole church! And may in fact keep the church from being what it was created to be: the Body of Christ for the world. “…Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and gave it to His disciples and said, ‘This is my body which is broken for you. Do this for the remembrance of Me.’”

Not only will the Galatians make their way back in faith, Paul says that he is sure that God will correct that little bit of yeast that has leavened the dough. Nevertheless, Paul knows that there will be cost involved in the church’s return to the true gospel. This is why he gets rather emotional and graphic in the last two verses of this section. 

"11 But as for me, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves."

It appears that the yeast, the agitators, may in fact have lied to the Galatians and had told the church that Paul was still preaching circumci...