Christ and

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

Galatians 5:1-6 ESV

As much as we speak against legalism, Christians, today, tend to be very legalistic. Although we confess that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, this is not how we teach the Christian faith. And this is not where our confidence lies.

Our faith tends to be in Jesus and. I realize that’s an incomplete sentence, but hear me out. We tend to add to Christ other factors on which we believe our salvation to be dependent.

We tend to believe that, in addition to Jesus, our salvation is dependent upon works. It may even be one specific aspect of the law. It may be the way in which we keep the Sabbath. It may be a certain worship practice. It may be the amount of time we spend in prayer and Bible reading. It could even be the types of recreation we enjoy.

This, you see, is exactly what the Galatians were doing. By accepting circumcision as a condition of salvation, they were placing it alongside Christ. And, in this way, they were perverting the gospel.

Paul told them that, if they accepted circumcision, Christ would be of no advantage to them. He told them that, by relying on the law in addition to Christ, they had fallen from grace. He told them that, in this way, they were severed from Christ.

He’s telling them that, if they rely on anything other than Christ, they are not saved. He’s telling them that, if they rely on anything in addition to Christ, they are not saved. Requiring circumcision, in addition to faith in Christ, is not the gospel.

The same is true for us as well. If we rely on anything other than Christ, we are not saved. And if we rely on anything in addition to Christ, we are not saved.

If we rely on a certain worship style or practice, we are severed from Christ. If we rely on our practice of reading Scripture and prayer,  Christ is of no advantage to us. If we rely on our method of observing the Sabbath,  we have fallen from grace.

Our salvation is not dependent upon Christ and. It’s dependent upon Christ alone. Anything else places all or a part of the burden of our salvation upon ourselves rather than Christ.