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Slippery Slope

Slippery Slope

Words of Faith 6-12-19

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2019

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Galatians 5

     [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.

 

       The big deal that was being pushed by the legalists was male circumcision, the religious ritual that had been practiced by Jewish people since the time of Abraham.  These Judaizers preached that Gentiles believers in Jesus needed to submit to this ritual to be really right with God.

       Paul could not have been more emphatic.  "Mark my words!" is actually the word "Behold!" or "Look!"  Paul wanted to be sure that the Galatian readers did not miss the force of his concern.  If the Galatians allowed themselves to be circumcised, the result would be that Jesus Christ would profit them absolutely nothing at all.  His grace would be nullified.

       For Paul, the choice was between Christ and no circumcision at all-- or circumcision and no Christ at all.  In other words, God would put a minus sign before Christ in the lives of the Galatians if they put a plus sign before anything else.

       For Paul circumcision, in itself, was not that important. In fact, Paul himself had had Timothy circumcised.  Paul declares that "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value." What Paul was condemning was the idea that any work is necessary for salvation.  This was contrary to the Gospel and conformity to external standards of behavior was not a mark of spirituality.

        Paul was in no sense condemning those Jewish Christians who were circumcised. The advice he gave in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20 was that if a man who had been circumcised became a Christian, he should remain circumcised and not seeking to change his status. This was apparently attempted surgically even in that time.  If a man was uncircumcised, he should remain uncircumcised.

        The point was that particular forms of legalism are not themselves the crucial issues. The issue was works versus grace.  It was a matter of the spirit versus the flesh. Paul's concern was that nothing should cloud our perception of this central Christian doctrine.

       So for a new believer to choose circumcision was to choose legalism.  This meant taking on the burden of the whole law. Indeed the legalizers had not warned the Galatians that this was the case.  They would slowly impose legalistic religion--first the feasts, then circumcision, and eventually the whole Law.

        For us today?  What we must not miss is the slippery slope of legalism.  Once we submit ourselves to a legalism, ritual or "work"-- whether it is baptism or communion in a particular manner or a specific set of behaviors-- we begin a process that places us under the entire burden of the Law.  That is not a place that we want to be.

        Later in this chapter, we will see that there is a fruit of the Spirit in us.  We will see that there are relational qualities and even good works that grow out of a right relationship with God.  But there are no works that make us righteous.  And we do not want to nullify the grace of Christ in our lives.

 

         Father God, thank You for fulfilling the Law in Jesus.  Thank You for Your grace.  Show me clearly how I can walk in that grace.  Keep me free from the lure of legalism.  In Jesus' grace.  In Jesus' Name. 

 

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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