O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Gal 3:1 KJV
Whenever we are distracted from obedience to the truth of God as revealed in Christ to other ways of pleasing God, we become like the Galatians and this same sharp rebuke is apt.
The truth that saves is absolute– “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Again, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Jn 14:6. It is the truth about this Jesus that was portrayed before the Galatians, which when they believed, were saved. Jesus Christ was preached as crucified for the sin of mankind; buried and raised from the dead by the power of God. This risen Christ was presented as now seated at the right hand of God and will return to judge the world and take His own elects to Himself to reign with Him forever. This is the Goodnews that the Galatians received, believed, were reconciled to God and became followers of Christ. They were convinced that by believing in the person and saving work of Christ, they also became heirs of the blessing of Abraham Gal 3:7, 29. They did not need to do anything to add to what Jesus did to be saved. They did not need to depend on the mutilation of the flesh to gain justification and righteousness. All that was sufficient was to believe in Jesus and obey Him through the confession of faith Rm 10:10 and baptism Mk 16:16.
To continue in the assurance of salvation is to uphold the first principle and to continue as disciples who by faith and obedience look forward to the hope of glory. Any deviation from this – depending on one’s own merit through self-denial of some sacrificial efforts, nullifies the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ and automatically disqualifies us from the grace of God. Thus we become enemies of the cross of Christ. Phil 3:18.
Before the ‘new gospel’ arrived in Galatia, the church believed and held to the person and work of Christ as the sole ground for justification for righteousness. Christ was the center and anchor of their faith. They lived in obedience to His Word- to love God, love one another and all men, abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood Acts 15:20. They were in the Spirit and were pleasing God. But the ‘new gospel’ came, demanding that they are circumcised to ‘perfect’ their salvation. Those ‘gospel’ preachers thought that Gentiles must become like the Jews to be accepted by God and one with them Gen 34:15-16. The new nation in Christ is not of the flesh but of the Spirit and in it there is no male or female, Jews or Gentiles, slave or free Gal 3:28. All are one in Christ.
But what the enemy was trying to introduce into the early Church was a limitation of Christ’s work by human effort. It was to magnify man’s contribution and minimize Christ’s sacrificial work. It was to give the impression that salvation can be merited by man’s works. In short it was to make nothing of Christ’s work. For if circumcision was the necessary requirement for man to be saved, why did Christ have to die? If our efforts are necessary for acceptance by God or for righteousness, what was the need for Christ’s suffering? Here, a distinction is to be made between obedience to the truth of God that indicates walking in the Spirit and depending on our own efforts for salvation. Someone would say, are you saying, once we believe we are to do nothing? Yes, nothing is needed to make salvation complete but walking in the Spirit requires that we live in obedience to the truth of Christ. We must depend on the power of the Spirit to help us obey His commands for continuous sanctification. There is a thin line here. If we turn to our own selves, relying on what we are able to offer to gain righteousness, we miss the road and become lost and foolish like the Galatians.