1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

2 Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Axel Abdala

This passage makes me think about how Paul would have felt, as someone who had spent his life completely devoted to obeying the Old Testament law – to then be so willing to consider all his efforts as meaningless! But Paul now knows that his freedom from the law is found in Jesus Christ. Because of Christ’s death and his work in Paul’s life, he now places his value in Jesus.

It’s not that God’s law was bad. It’s that no one can be justified by obeying the law (v4). Paul says you can’t even take just one part of the law (like circumcision) and make that necessary to be saved, because that means you are “obligated to obey the whole law” (v3). That’s an obligation we cannot meet.

The Old Testament law is good, but as Paul says in Romans 8:3, the law was powerless to justify people because it was “weakened by the flesh.” It couldn’t free us from the punishment for our sin. That means if you try to earn salvation by good works, you end up burdened by a “yoke of slavery” and your effort is meaningless.

But the good news is that Christ sets us free from that burden. As Paul continues in Romans 8:3, “what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” That means we can become God’s children through faith in Jesus. Trying to earn salvation would be like a child trying to earn the favour of a good and loving parent by never putting a foot wrong – they can’t do it, and they don’t need to anyway! They are loved already.

This reminds me that none of what I do brings me any closer to being right with God. If I try to earn salvation by my works, I am not depending on what Jesus has done for me. Instead, faith in Jesus is what has set me free from the burden of the law. Pray that God might help us to value the only thing that counts: “faith expressing itself through love” (v6).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Axel is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.