{"id":26342,"date":"2023-05-15T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/galatians-4_21-31-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-05-02T13:44:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T20:44:35","slug":"galatians-5_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/galatians-5_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Really Valuable and What\u2019s Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Galatians\u00a0 5:1-12 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Galatians 5:1-12.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:1-2 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It 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.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been making this point to the Galatian Christians: you used to be slaves to the idea that you need to work for your righteousness, but now Jesus has set you free from that slavery, giving you a righteousness that is not earned by your works but received by faith in God\u2019s promise.\u00a0 Here in verse 1 Paul reminds the Christians in Galatia why Christ set them free in the first place: so that they could stay free (v1).\u00a0 What is the point of Christ setting us free if we choose to go back to being enslaved again?\u00a0 Yet by trying to add circumcision as a pre-condition to being fully accepted by God, the believers in Galatia were going back to a \u201cworks by righteousness\u201d slavery and in so doing, treating Christ as if he is \u201cof no value to you at all\u201d (v2).<\/p>\n

When we think we can earn our righteousness on our own, we make Christ\u2019s death on the cross out to be meaningless and worthless.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Galatians 5:3 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 3: \u00a0Paul is telling the Christians in Galatia: “If you get circumcised and think that in so doing you will be justified by God, think again.\u00a0 For ‘every man who lets himself be circumcised…is obligated to obey the entire law.’ (v3)” \u00a0In other words, if you’re trying to be justified by God on the basis of how well you obey God’s law, then circumcision is not enough; you need to obey all of the Jewish law — all 613 rules found in the Old Testament.\u00a0 This of course is impossible for anybody.\u00a0 All of us have sinned against God.\u00a0 As James 2:10 says, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”<\/p>\n

But praise God!\u00a0 While all of us have broken God’s laws, Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all of God’s laws perfectly.\u00a0 Then Jesus died on the cross in place of lawbreakers like us.\u00a0 He paid the penalty for our sins.\u00a0 Then He rose again from the grave to conquer sin and death.\u00a0 So while trying to be justified by our own good works is a dead end, in Jesus Christ there is justification, righteousness and eternal life.<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:4-5 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 4-5: \u00a0Those who think they can be justified by their own good works separate themselves from God’s grace and Christ’s saving power (v4).\u00a0 It’s like hopping off Jesus’ back and saying, “Jesus, I don’t need you to carry me.\u00a0 I can reach God by myself.” \u00a0But you can’t.\u00a0 As Jesus Himself says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).\u00a0 It\u2019s this righteousness by faith that is our hope (v5).<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:6 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 6:\u00a0 By thinking that they needed to be circumcised to be saved, the Galatian Christians were treating Christ\u2019s sacrifice as if it had no value (v2), no power to save.\u00a0 But here Paul says that actually it\u2019s circumcision that has no value and no power to save.\u00a0 As Paul writes, when your faith is \u201cin Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value\u201d (v6).\u00a0\u00a0What matters is not whether or not a person is outwardly circumcised.\u00a0 What matters is whether that person inwardly has faith in Christ, which expresses itself through love.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Galatians 5:7-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-12: \u00a0Paul passionately warns the churches in Galatia against being influenced by the wrong crowd.\u00a0 He says that God, the one who calls them, is not the one trying to persuade them that circumcision is necessary (v8).\u00a0 He says that those who are leading them astray will pay the penalty (v10).\u00a0 And in case anyone thought that Paul was among those teaching that circumcision is necessary, Paul reminds his readers that the very reason he is still being persecuted, the very reason why his message about the cross is so offensive to some, is because Paul\u2019s message of the cross is that circumcision is not necessary, only faith in Christ is (v11).\u00a0 Passionately and even humourously, Paul suggests that those who preach that circumcision is necessary, or who say that Paul preaches this as well, should \u201cgo the whole and emasculate themselves\u201d (v12); that is, they should remove that entire part of their bodies completely.\u00a0 Why stop at the foreskin!\u00a0 That is how heated Paul is about this problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s because\u00a0nothing is more important than preaching the gospel and nothing is more destructive than leading people away from it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Similarly,\u00a0be careful who you let influence your life.\u00a0 Have a discerning heart, for even a little yeast can work its way through a whole batch of dough.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, I pray that we would all be careful about who we let influence our thinking and our decision-making.\u00a0 Since it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, may we not slip back into being slaves again.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Galatians 5:1-12.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0It 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.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-2:\u00a0 Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been making this point to the Galatian Christians: you used to be slaves to the idea that you need to work for your righteousness, but now Jesus has set you free from that slavery, giving you a righteousness that is not earned by your works but received by faith in God\u2019s promise.\u00a0 Here in verse 1 Paul reminds the Christians in Galatia why Christ set them free in the first place: so that they could stay free (v1).\u00a0 What is the point of Christ setting us free if we choose to go back to being enslaved again?\u00a0 Yet by trying to add circumcision as a pre-condition to being fully accepted by God, the believers in Galatia were going back to a \u201cworks by righteousness\u201d slavery and in so doing, treating Christ as if he is \u201cof no value to you at all\u201d (v2).\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26345,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26342\/revisions\/26345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}