1. Cut Off and Cut In Galatians 5:1-12
“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” – Galatians 1:10

2. The Galatian Christians found themselves relying on tools that are no longer effective in completing their task.

3. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.”

4. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.”

5. “Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”
– Galatians 5:1-12

6. Circumcision is the rite whereby the foreskin of the Jewish male is removed to physically mark that individual as a member of the people of Israel.
The Galatian situation really began when members of the church in Jerusalem entered Galatia with the message that compelled Gentile believers to be circumcised before they could be considered “true” Christians.
Circumcision becomes such a critical issue because it was understood as the starting place of Jewish identity.
Circumcision was foundational to Jewish identity; in fact, one was considered cut off from the people of God without it.

7. In a very real way, circumcision was a visible reminder that one has pledged to follow through on obedience to the Law.
But now, Paul locates the marker not in the flesh, but in the presence of the Spirit in one’s life.
The beginning point for a follower of Jesus, then, is not in some merely physical act, but in an act of faith.

8. Paul argues in this passage that if we allow ourselves to be circumcised as an act of initiation into God’s family, we might as well do away with Christ in totality.
This is Paul’s point – compromise on this one seemingly small issue opens the entire gospel to error, compromising the integrity of the gospel.
If you require this one point of the Law for admission into the church, soon, other legalistic practices will seep into the church, compromising the effectiveness of the church.

9. Compromise here on this one point would allow compromise to spread through the church, as leaven does within a batch of dough.
Paul’s encouragement is to stand firm; to realize that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything.
No longer could one gauge righteousness by acts of the law, but a new rubric emerged; what does my faith relationship with God look like? Does it evidence love?
In Christ, we are freed for relationship, but here we have the Galatian agitators pushing legalistic obedience over and above relationship with Jesus Christ.

10. The agitators had cut in on a clean race, tripping up the Galatian Christians and according to Paul, putting them in danger of disqualification from the prize for which they ran.

11. A final argument of the agitators becomes clear: they had been intimating that Paul taught circumcision as a practice, probably pointing to his circumcision of Timothy as an example.
In not so subtle terms, Paul encourages the agitators, who seem so preoccupied with circumcision, to just follow through by cutting the whole thing off. The result would be an impotent and powerless position for the agitators; his desire is to see their argument abolished completely.

12. The Parable of the Winter Roads

13. The Galatians have an endpoint of salvation, but the two groups have decided upon different paths to this endpoint – the agitators insisting that the Law is the path, while Paul is suggesting that Christ is the way.
Just as the winter roads are effective in leading people safely to Winnipeg only for a limited time, so too was the Law helpful in pointing people to God for a limited time.
Paul’s point is that spring has come; the Law must give way to faith in Christ.
Am I relying on a relationship with Jesus for salvation or am I hoping that I can do enough “right” things to be declared righteous?

14. Circumcision was a very obvious external way of determining who was included in the family of God and who wasn’t, but in isolation, it totally betrays the message of scripture, right from the very beginning.
The more weighty matter is whether our external performance is indicative of an internal change. Even the issue of circumcision is meant to be an external evidence of an internal reality - an internal, foundational identification with God is always of more substance than a simple act of the flesh.

15. Baptism has traditionally been understood as an external exhibition of an internal reality.
The real question is not whether we’ve been baptised or not, it’s not whether we’ve been circumcised or not, but it is whether God has gotten a hold of our heart and transformed us from the inside out, as we discussed last week.
Does God have a hold of your heart or is it set on other things?

16. Who or what has cut in on our race?
This world is filled with many things that can distract us as we run our race; the issue of the Law is but one.
These things cut in and supplant Christ as the focus of our existence, leading us astray and in the end perhaps disqualifying us from a clean finish.
Paul’s direct statement to us is this: Christ and his righteousness are the only things we need – the Law and all other tools fall painfully short.