Forget the Law and experience the Fruit of the Spirit: (chap.5)
Paul makes a final attempt to teach the believers in Galatians about the disadvantages and losses involved in following the Law. The Law is a set of rules and regulations that put us into slavery. But Christ Jesus by His death and resurrection has freed us from the slavery. He gave us freedom. The person who circumcises himself has to obey the rules, regulations, methods and special conditions.
Law ruins the grace: (5:1-2):
Paul says that it is for the freedom that Christ Jesus has set us free, not free to do whatever we want because that would lead us back into the slavery. We must stand against those who enslave us with rules or methods. The picture of yoke is nothing but servant-hood, slavery and being controlled by others. A believer is free from these yokes because Christ’s grace has covered him. The unsaved person wears a yoke of sin (Lam. 1:14); the religious legalist wears the yoke of bondage (Gal. 5:1); but the believer who depends on God’s grace wears the liberating yoke of Christ.
Paul does not condemn circumcision in itself. Circumcision is not injurious to the person who does not ascribe any particular importance to it. Neither are works injurious provided a person does not attach any saving value to them. The Apostle does not say that works are objectionable, but to build one’s hopes for righteousness on works is disastrous, for that makes Christ good for nothing. (Luther commentary on Galatians)
Law makes the man a debtor: (5:3)
Circumcision was a just symbol in the Old Testament that they would abide by the religious rules and regulations. No amount of work, discipline or moral behaviour would save us from the sins. Obeying the law does not make easier for God to save us. If anyone is trying to save himself by the law, the death of Christ has no meaning to him and Christ will be of no value to him. He can as well be any worldly person who is one day doomed to destruction and hell. Our deeds of service can never be used to try to earn the Salvation of God. The Salvation of God to human beings is entirely by His Grace and by faith alone. Further depending upon the circumcision makes Christ unprofitable. A person who is circumcised cannot keep the entire law and in failing he is bound to become a slave of sin. So the circumcision makes the person a debtor rather than a free man.
Law makes the man fall away from grace: (5:4-6):
Paul recalls the Galatians to consider, that turning to the Law and accepting circumcision as a meritorious work would have dire implications. Anyone seeking justification by Law has been alienated from Christ. Such a person would not be living in a sphere where Christ was operative and such people would fall away from grace. Paul is not saying that Galatians have lost their Salvation because from the beginning of the letter he mentions them as brothers. Here the Galatians have fallen out of the sphere of God’s grace if they chose to go through circumcision and follow the law. For the law route is unworkable way to come to Christ. If the Galatians accepted circumcision as necessary for salvation, they would be leaving the grace system. The same error is repeated today when a believer leaves a church that emphasizes salvation by grace through faith and joins another church which teaches church membership, repentance, confession, faith and baptism.
But those who are justified by faith have the Holy Spirit as the pledge of their acceptance and await by faith the consummation (the hope of righteousness) in glory. Then the righteousness for which we hope will be fully realized (1 Pet.1:3-4,13). At the coming of Christ believers will be completely conformed to all the requirements of God’s will. The inward and forensic righteousness which began at justification will be transformed into an outward righteousness at glorification. God will then publicly acknowledge all believers’ full acceptability with Him.
Again Paul says to the believers those who have gone through the grace route, neither circumcision nor un-circumcision has any significance. What matters is faith expressing itself through love. Though salvation is by faith apart from works, faith that is genuine does work itself out through love.
Law makes the man lose his direction: (5:7-12):
Paul describes the believers life as a race running and he commends them that they were running well (1 Cor. 9:24-26; 2 Tim 4:7). They had begun their race well, but someone had led them astray, causing them to break stride and stumble. Though many false teachers were disturbing the Galatians, Paul was focussing on the Judaizers. It appears that they were not obeying the truth, but were attempting to complete the race by legalistic self-effort rather than by faith. They were now being seduced by other voices into following a false gospel. Some people may be thinking that the apostle Paul was making too much of the problem. But Paul strait forwardly puts it as that false teaching is like yeast that spreads and permeates and leavens the whole lump. Its converts may have been few but the believers must be on guard, lest the false gospel affect the entire church. Paul’s point may also have been that one apparently small deviation from the truth could destroy the entire system. If circumcision, for example, were made necessary for salvation, the whole grace system would fall. But Paul was optimistic about the outcome. He was confident that the Galatians would share his views and that the leading false teacher, whose identity was unknown to Paul, would suffer his due judgement. Persecution has proved that Paul was preaching the true gospel. If he had taught what the false teachers were teaching, no one would be offended. But because he was teaching the truth, he was persecuted by both Jews and Judaizers.
Further Paul wished that the Judaizers, who were so enthusiastic about circumcision, would go the whole way and castrate themselves, just as the pagan priests of the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor. Perhaps the resulting physical impotence would be unable to produce new converts. While circumcision had once been the sign of the covenant in Israel, it now had no more religious meaning than any other ritual of cutting and marking practiced by ancient pagans.