The most subtle of heresies is the concept that we are saved by a combination of what God has done for us in Jesus, and what we must do for God. It is a "Jesus plus obedience" plan of salvation, and Paul aggressively attacks it as a perversion of the gospel. The fearful fact is that this heresy, which flourished in Galatia, has never really left us. We struggle to settle, once and for all, that our obedience makes no contribution to our personal justification before God.
The role of law
If our obedience does not set us right with God, what is the function of the law? In Galatians 3:19 Paul makes three points about the law's purpose.
"It was added [to the Abrahamic covenant] because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come" (3:19, NIV). In this context, "because of" is a statement of purpose rather than of outcome. That is, the law was added for the purpose of confirming sin as sin. The law was given to make a clear, judicial statement about sin. It states the problem; it does not provide the solution to the problem.
Thus, "if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law" (3:21). But there is no law that brings obedience or life. The law Paul speaks of, as it is, is absolutely holy and right but it cannot and it does not convey righteousness. The reason for this limitation is not in the law, but a disabled humanity, who are "the . . . prisoner of sin" (3:22). Instead, it is by the law that we have been or are held in prison, "locked up until faith should be revealed" (3:23).
What then is (or was) the role of law? It "was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith" (3:24). The law is like a strict supervisor who, stick in hand, escorts a mischievous and irresponsible child to school and there sits behind him to discipline him and keep him focused.
In all three points, the law serves a negative function: it points out our sins, it holds us prisoner, and it waves the rod over us. In both a historical and a personal, experiential sense, the law maintains this negative role until the promised Seed comes. "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law" (3:25). With the arrival of Christ in history, and our coming to Him personally, our relationship to the law changes from negative to positive. Under this new covenant, into which we enter through Christ, the law is written into our new hearts.
Slave or son?
The change in status for those who are in Christ rather than merely obedient to the law, is from slave to blood child (son). This is a highly significant distinction. Two people are part of the same household and acknowledge the same head of the house. One is a slave, the other a son. What each is in relation to the head of the house determines the fundamental nature of their relationship to the master.
There is a key contrast between the state of a slave and the state of a son; the state of a person under law and one who is in Christ.
The heart of the contrast lies in the difference between bondage and freedom. The Christians in Galatia placed themselves in a slave-master relationship with God by imposing rules and restrictions on themselves, "observing special days and months and sea sons and years!" (4:10). Paul ascribes this to spiritual immaturity. A young child, he says, "is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate" (4:1). A child is under strict rules and directives. He or she has very little freedom to operate by personal initiative. Likewise, an immature Christian has a preference for clear guidelines and rules, with no gray areas, by which he or she regulates his or her behavior and life. In this way one may be like a slave in God's house.
In contrast, a son has rights and relationships in the household that a slave does not have. "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir" (4:6, 7). A person who lives under bondage can never experience the fullness of sonship. Every favor has to be earned, every task dutifully performed—not in joy but as an obligation. The relationship with the master is always tentative, never certain.
The Galatian believers had fallen into this unhappy condition of bondage to "weak and miserable principles," relating to God by way of mere obedience to rules and regulations. "What has happened to all your joy?" Paul asks them (4:15). A son is not without rules, but his relationship with his father is not based on them. The right to be called sons of God is due to the redeeming work of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit received by faith (4:5, 6).
Choose your mother
The story of Hagar and Sarah provides Paul with an illustration of the distinction between the true gospel and a perverted gospel, the state and standing of a slave versus a son.
Hagar represents human solutions calculated and initiated to attain divine ideals. Instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise, Abraham and Sarah eventually embarked on a "God-helps-those-who-help-themselves" course of action.
Given the obvious natural barriers, Abraham could not see how God could fulfill His promise to give him a son. So he took his slave Hagar into his tent and Ishmael was born. Thus Hagar and Ishmael have come to stand forever as symbolic of the futile consequences that occur in the lives of those who, not being able to see how God can possibly fulfill His promises, try to combine human effort with faith in order to bring God's promises into reality.
Paul goes on to make telling contrasts between Abraham's two boys.
First, "his son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise" (4:23). The one birth was by mere human process, the other a miracle.
Second, "the women represent two covenants" (4:24), the one associated with Mount Sinai and the city of Jerusalem, whose children were in fact in bondage to the Romans; the other linked to the New Jerusalem, the mother of the free.
Third, "the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit" (4:29). There remained a parallel trend of persecution by the Judaizers against Paul and his gospel.
He quotes Sarah's words from Genesis: "'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son'" (Gal. 4:30). Hagar's son was born of bondage. She was not intended to be the mother of Abraham's children. Just so, the law was never intended to give birth; because of our sinfulness, it can only engender bondage. Only when we are born again by a miraculous act of God through His Spirit, do we become heirs of salvation; true sons and daughters, acting with gen uine freedom and responsibility as full members of God's nuclear family.
Paul views circumcision as the sign of bondage among the Galatian Christians. He points out that it was introduced to Abraham and his descendants, not as an option, but as a divine command. It was to be the sign of the covenant which made Israel God's chosen people. It stood as a sign and "seal of the righteousness that he [Abraham] had by faith," even prior to being circumcised (Rom. 4:11).
Yet Paul says that now circumcision is a non-issue: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value" (Gal. 5:6). More than that, it actually has a negative value. "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all" (5:2).
The way of law or the way of Christ?
The choice is between the way of legal obedience or the way of Christ; you cannot have them both! The negative value of circumcision is in what it signifies: "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace" (5:4).
Again, in contrast to the way of law, Christ has set us free, even though this freedom has boundaries. So "do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love" (5:13).
Paul should never be understood to be discarding the law when he debunks the misuse of law as a saving mechanism. The release we have in Christ includes liberation from the futility of the subtle optimism onto which we hold when we bring up our contributions as a reason for acceptance and standing with God. Christ, through the Holy Spirit frees us from the tyranny of our sinful natures by dealing effectively with both our guilt and our moral weakness. He frees us, not to become libertines, but to be joyous and obedient children of God, constructive and contributing members of His inmost family.
The alternative to liberty developing into license is to embrace the way of love. The demands of love go far deeper than the letter of the law, but they do not replace its specific commands. Love carries out the law and goes even further than expected. Law keeping meets a minimum requirement and emphasizes avoidance of wrong. Love goes to any length in serving, giving, doing, and obeying. It does not merely avoid wrong; it does good. "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself" (5:14). The life and behavior of the mature Christian is as superior to the immature way of legal obedience as Christ Himself is superior to the written code.
The behavior of one who is free in Christ is moderated by the Spirit. Having listed the fruit of the Spirit, in contrast to the deeds of the sinful nature, Paul states: "Against such things there is no law" (5:23). The deeds of the sinful nature are condemned by the law; the life of the Spirit-filled believer is approved by the law. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful nature with its passions and desires" (5:24).
Furthermore, "A man reaps what he sows" (6:7). Paul links this principle of life to ultimate outcomes. If we sow to please the sinful nature, we will reap destruction because the sinful nature is destined to destruction. If we sow to please the Spirit, we will reap eternal life because He is the Source of life.
The cross our boast
In his final word to the Galatian Christians and to us, Paul draws the line between himself and the law-oriented circumcision band. The latter miss the point of true Christian faith on a number of counts.
Theirs is a religion of externals. "Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised" (6:12). They wish to boast of measurable attainments in matters which they elevate into the arena of essential Christianity. They are adept at quoting Scripture to bear out their concern for the old way, but their focus is wrong. "They want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh" (6:13). The truth is that "not even those who are circumcised obey the law" (6:13). With all their talk of perfect law keeping, they cannot point to a single example among themselves of someone actually doing what they claim.
Paul will boast of one thing only: the cross of Christ. If we are going to boast at all, let it be of His accomplishments for our salvation. We do not boast about what we are doing for Him, but about what He has done for us. "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation" (6:15).
There is much we can do for our selves, but we cannot change our hearts. What counts with God is that which He alone has and can do for us. It is in this that we put our faith and make our boast.
