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§20 Paul’s Direct Warning: To Become Circumcised Is to Be Divorced from Christ (Gal. 5:2–6)

5:2 / Now Paul turns up the heat with a direct address—Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you. No longer using Scripture, Paul states forthrightly: if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. The options are clearly laid out: either circumcision without Christ or Christ without circumcision. While Paul has referred to the “circumcision group” (2:12) as those who are opposed to the “truth of the gospel” and has particularly through the references to Abraham alluded to circumcision as a divisive concern in the Galatian congregation, this is the first time he has named the issue and tackled it.

Paul’s warning not to be circumcised reads in the Greek as something that the Galatians are tempted to do but have not yet done. The sign of circumcision was equated with being a Jew (cf. 2:7–8). Therefore Paul considers that in the context of belief in Christ, circumcision bears a different meaning depending on whether or not one came into the faith already circumcised. If one was already a Jew, then circumcision counted for nothing (cf. 5:6). It should be the same for Gentiles. Paul clearly accepted that circumcised Jews were part of the faith (2:7–8), but he would not accept that a Gentile believer could receive circumcision and remain in Christ. To become circumcised after faith in Christ is to accord significance to circumcision and so to deny Christ.

5:3 / Paul testifies again … to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. To be circumcised after conversion to Christ was to add the law and deny the sufficiency of Christ (cf. 2:21). Paul is confident that if Gentile believers enter Judaism through circumcision they will discover that they have lost the unfurled life that is now theirs in Christ. They will find themselves operating within a different and less satisfactory worldview.

It is noteworthy that Paul does not say to his readers that he left law observance because he found it ineffective. He asserts that already he and they have through Christ all that could ever be hoped for. To add law is to change the focus of their life and so lose.

5:4 / Paul reduces the situation to its essentials. Charging that the intention of those contemplating circumcision is that they are trying to be justified by law, Paul says that this means they no longer have Christ. By turning to law, they are attempting to receive from the law what they already have in Christ—righteousness—and so they effectively cut themselves off from Christ (cf. 4:19). The choice is the Galatians’ to make. They are in Christ and in God’s grace as they are. They will not lose the benefit of Christ through remaining as Gentiles, as the agitators are asserting. But if they choose to adopt law they will fall from grace, for they will have chosen to refuse God’s gift of Christ’s self-offering (cf. 2:21, “if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing”). In the face of the Galatians’ fascination with the law Paul has repeatedly argued that justification comes through Christ and faith, not law (2:16, 21; 3:6, 8, 11, 21, 24).

The parallelism in which Paul places Christ and grace resonates with the opening of the letter, where Paul spoke of his gospel as “the grace of Christ” (1:6). Grace is a central way to explain God’s response to and relationship with humanity. God gives freely and Paul’s gospel is a witness to the grace (gift) of God in Christ’s death (Gal. 2:21).

5:5 / Paul distinguishes the path the Galatians are considering from the one they are on. As believers they live in hope of righteousness, a hope that is theirs by faith … through the Spirit. Paul brings together several strands of his argument: the Spirit, which is the evidence that the promise made to Abraham is given to Gentiles (3:14), is the means by which righteousness is given; righteousness is given to those of faith (2:16; 3:6–9), who are those who have received the Spirit (3:2). But, perhaps in recognition of the Galatians’ legitimate and realistic recognition that they do not yet display the traits of righteous people, Paul also nuances his case. He speaks of the righteousness for which we hope, in contrast to his earlier statement that believers are justified through the faith of Christ (2:16). In this he possibly demonstrates respect for the Galatians’ concern that their faith in Christ has not yet made them righteous. After all, the Galatian Christians would not have been attracted to law observance unless they had felt some deficiency in their Christian lives. In response Paul declares that his converts can expect righteousness only through his gospel, which is why they and he may now wait eagerly. The outcome is assured for those “in Christ.”

The phrase “the righteousness for which we hope” can be taken to mean either hope that has righteousness as its object or hope that righteousness produces. Commentators are divided over this matter, depending on whether or not they want to harmonize this phrase with statements in the letter that present righteousness as a present state for believers. For those who think Paul is consistent on this issue the second option is chosen (so Matera, Galatians, p. 182). The first option is the choice of those who think that since righteousness refers both to behavior and standing before God, there is an “already—not yet” aspect to Paul’s view of righteousness for believers (e.g., Burton, Galatians, p. 278). It is also possible that even in those places where Paul is usually interpreted as saying that righteousness is a present reality (2:16 and 3:21), he may be speaking of righteousness as a dynamic state that has begun and will continue to grow. Paul’s subsequent advice about the character of living by the Spirit (5:16) would suggest that he understands righteousness as the new reality into which believers have been transferred and by which they now are being shaped.

5:6 / In Christ … neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The shape of the believer’s life is defined by being in Christ, which is what Paul affirmed earlier in 3:28. The power the believer has is the power of faith, which is effective through love. Paul sets in semantic parallelism being “in Christ” and “faith working through love.” This is another way of saying that it is the faith of Christ that justifies (2:16; see Introduction). As believers share in Christ’s faith, so they share in his love (cf. 2:20). Believers put on Christ (3:27) and so become as Christ, the one who is the epitome of faith working through love.

The phrase “faith expressing itself through love” can also be translated “faith made effective through love,” depending on whether the Greek verb “expressing” (energoumenē) is read as a middle or a passive; “made effective” is the middle form. Since Paul has used this word with the middle sense in Galatians 2:8 and 3:5, it is likely that here it also has that meaning. The verse would then mean that faith comes to expression by means of love. This points to what Paul has said elsewhere: Christ is the one who loves (2:20), and believers in Christ become as Christ (3:27) through participating in the faith of Christ (2:16). For Galatian believers concerned about righteousness and willing to turn to the law as a guarantee this statement hits the mark. Paul states that faith is not abstract but a way of life that is made effective, visibly and daily, through love. Paul has in view the love of Christ in which believers participate through being “in Christ.” This love will be manifest in love of neighbor (5:13).