Kevaughn Mattis

Featuring

Dr. Dan Hill

“What does the Scripture say? It says that Christians may know that they are Christians. This note of glorious certainty runs like a golden thread through the Scriptures! “These things I have written…that you may know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13)! Some were uncertain, but they should know and John writes so that they would know! Paul knew! “Christ lives in me,” he cries (Galatians 2:20). He says of us – “we have peace with God” (Romans 5:1). Some Christians doubt their salvation, but this is not normative for the New Testament Christian. The normal Christian experience is found in texts like these – Romans 8:38,39; II Corinthians 5:1,6; I John 5:13,19, and in the words of Paul, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day” (II Timothy 1:12).  Donald Macleod is correct: “In all kinds of different ways, the New Testament proclaims that full assurance of grace and salvation is normal for the people of God.  And precisely because it is Biblical it is normative.  To lack assurance is not humility. It is not spirituality.  It is a violation of the Scriptural pattern of Christian experience. ”[1]

One of the lessons that we learn from the fall of humanity in Eden is that both willful sin and sins of weakness separate the human being from God and utterly damn the soul. Secondly, we learn that it only takes a single sin to condemn an individual. This may sound overbearingly meticulous but the holiness and justice of God could demand nothing less. Now the problem is this: If God’s holiness requires that sin be punished and sin is a universal and on-going phenomenon (Romans 3:23), how then could a person ever hope to be saved from God’s just condemnation?? How could the normative Christian experience of the assurance of salvation ever become a reality in our lives?

I believe that the answer to this question is only to be found in the belief that our salvation is eternally secure and that an alternative view unavoidably leaves humanity to contend with the inevitability of judgment by the Holy and Just judge of the world. 

Regarding the meaning of “Holiness” in  reference to God, one Jewish Encyclopedia says that it means: “Unapproachableness; the state of separation from, and elevation above, things common, profane, or sensual, first in a physical and external, and later in a spiritual, sense; moral purity and perfection incapable of sin and wrong”[2] The encyclopedia goes on to state that God’s holiness is often depicted as a consuming fire (Exodus 24:16-17) that judges unrighteousness (Deuteronomy 4:23-24).  J.C. Lambert shows the relationship between “holiness” and “divinity” when he says that holiness is used in two distinct senses: “First in the more general sense of separation from all that is human and earthly. It thus denotes the absoluteness, majesty, and awfulness of the Creator in His distinction from the creature. In this use of the word, “holiness” is little more than an equivalent general term for “Godhead,” and the adjective “holy” is almost synonymous with Divine” (compare Da. 4:8,9,18; 5:11). Yahweh's “holy arm” (Isa. 52:10; Ps 98:1) is His Divine arm, and His “holy name” (Le 20:3, etc.) is His Divine name. When Hannah sings, “There is none holy as Yahweh” (1Sa. 2:2), the rest of the verse suggests that she is referring, not to His ethical holiness, but simply to His supreme Divinity.”[3]

            The somber truth about God’s holiness is that it demands that He be the divine Judge (Habakkuk 1:13, Isaiah 3:8) and no sinful creature could satisfy divine holiness. It is for this reason that the psalmist implores, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). In the psalm, the metaphor “mark” {Hebrew shamar, meaning, “store up”} has as its’ root idea “exercising great care over” something. Contextually, God is pictured as exercising great care in storing up man’s sins. He is metaphorically reckoned as a meticulous accountant storing up each sin on a ledger.[4] “Stand” is also a metaphor. The idea conveyed is that of standing before God’s judgment seat. “To be able to stand before YHWH is indicative of righteousness and justification. The idea here is that if God were to keep track of all our sins we would never be able to stand justified before Him.”[5]

  This truth becomes all the more evident when we reminisce the events of Eden and observe that a single sin brings eternal condemnation as its’ penalty. Hence, as more sins are committed, sin piles upon sin…indictment upon indictment and the more horrific is the experienced God’s wrath in the end (Rom. 2:5). This scenario poses a bit of a problem for those who believe that salvation could be lost: “If a single sin causes one to be condemned then each time one sinned, one’s salvation would be nullified”.

  It is for this reason that many make a qualitative distinction is made between minor and heinous sins. Minor sins do not nullify one’s salvation and are pardoned by God even without confessing them: e.g. If one is loving and generous to a sibling but not as generous or loving as they should be (2) Forgetting to say a prayer before going to bed. Heinous sins are serious sins that are committed willfully: e.g. Murder, adultery, fornication.

  In the case of committing a heinous sin, salvation is lost instantly and the sin must be confessed and repented of in order for salvation to be restored.[6]  Others believe that it isn’t the horrendousness of the sin itself that determines whether salvation is lost or not but the general attitude of the individual toward God. Those who lose their salvation are those who rebel against God in habitual and willful sin.

            These views of sin and the security of the believer seem to be flawed to me. For what is being proposed is that there is a divine judgment which proceeds throughout time that assesses the deeds of men’s lives and determines their ultimate destiny (Romans 2:5-10). However, this judgment is made to be less stringent than scriptures make it out to be. In reality, if God is judging men according to their performance as He did our forefathers Adam and Eve, but a single sin does not bring about instant condemnation as it did for them, God’s standard of righteousness has been reduced. This is a conundrum that is clearly a man made phenomenon resulting from inaccurate doctrine.[7]

Gal 3:10[8] and Rom 2:13[9] tell us that God’s law must be fulfilled perfectly and in total in order for salvation to be awarded to human beings. Now some people say that if we live a righteous life, repent of all our sins and receive God’s forgiveness, that we’ll stand perfect in God’s sight. For our sins being forgiven, our lives would only be full of good deeds. However, this view is unsustainable.

 The demand of God’s law is two-fold:

It requires perfect innocence (no sinful offences committed e.g.: murder, stealing, lying, lusting, envy, hatred, impartiality, pride) as well as perfect righteousness (the fulfillment of virtues where sin could have been committed e.g. patience, charity, compassion, respect). Consequently, forgiveness of sin alone cannot ensure entrance into the kingdom since that would only deal with one aspect of the law’s demands. We would still fall short of the second aspect: perfect righteousness. And logically, to break God’s law by committing sin is to fail to achieve perfect righteousness by wasting an opportunity to do good. Our guilt is always two-fold. This is the reason why God doesn’t only take away our sins but imputes righteousness to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Accordingly, if this view were true, we’d have no use for Christ’s righteousness!

 And so the dilemma is this: How does sinful man come to perfectly fulfill the law in a way that does not glorify man but God (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1:5-6; 1:11-12) and in a way that satisfies God’s need to judge humanity?  How does God condemn humanity but also save them eternally? How does He pronounce sinful creatures perfectly righteousness?  It is for this reason that our salvation is a mystery. As Jonathan Edwards said in his sermon on Ephesians 3:10: “The wisdom appearing in the way of salvation by Jesus Christ is far above the wisdom of the angels”[10] For God, in his wisdom, contrived a redemptive plan which solved the aforementioned paradoxes in making both conditions: (condemnation and eternal salvation) a reality to the sinner.

        Christ became everything that the believer needed for salvation: He became the condemned substitute (1 Peter 3:18) and the righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), the death and the resurrection (Romans 6:3-11) of all those whom he called (1 Corinthians 1:2). For graciously, God has united us with Christ in such a way that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings {pertaining to salvation} through Him (Ephesians 1:3).

        One of these redemptive blessings is the removal of a sinner from “under law” and his repositioning “under grace”. I believe that this transferal is one of many divine works which evidence the security of the believer. Rom 6:14 says that Christians are not under law but under grace (ou gar este hupo nomon alla hupo charin).  Being “under Law” (hupo nomon) and being “under grace” (hupo charin), i.e., “being subject to the dominion and mastery of” law or grace are mutually exclusive spheres of dominion. Being “under law” brings condemnation due its’ relationship to sin (compare Romans 3:19 with 5:20-21). For if “sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law,” then it follows that if “you are under law, [then] sin shall be master over you” (cf. Gal. 3:22-23; 5:18)”[11] Sin’s mastery and wage allotment of death (cf. Rom. 6:23) is empowered by the law (cf. 1 Cor. 15:56 and 2 Cor. 3:5-9). One cannot be “under law” and not be under the dominion of sin and death {condemnation}.

The positive alternative to this sphere of dominion is that of grace. In understanding the implications of being under grace, one must first understand what grace means. In a redemptive context, grace is unmerited favour. It is the sum of all the saving actions of God accomplished through Jesus Christ for the purpose of delivering from condemnation a people who were so rebellious and ungodly that they were vessels of emptiness; able only to receive the goodness of God but give nothing in return.[12]

Being “under grace” means therefore, that the redemptive blessings bestowed on us by God are so revolutionary that it constitutes being placed under a new kind of authority[13]: A divine dominion that is diametrically opposed to the condemnation of its subjects. Contrary to how things were under the dominion of law, rather than condemnation, under grace: where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21)[14]. As a matter of fact, so radical is this dominion of grace that Paul says in the beginning of v. 14 that, “sin shall not have dominion over you”: Being under God’s dominion of grace excludes one from returning under law: the dominion of sin and condemnation. This fact is explicated in Rom. 5:21 when it says that sin “reigned” (basileuo) over the entire human race unto death but by the operation of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace sovereignly conquered the reign of sin and death over the saints through righteousness unto eternal life.[15] For one to become lost again would be for the sin and death to conquer the rule of Christ over us and regain control.

Had salvation simply been a gift that was given to us in our hands, perhaps we might have been able to lose it through some careless means. However, in salvation, God establishes the kingdom of God {a divine sphere of rule}. This solves the dilemma mentioned earlier: “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). The answer is that God’s adjudication under grace is different from His adjudication under law. Under grace, He does not mark our iniquities down against us but instead imputes righteousness (Romans 4:1-8). There is no more judgment to determine our final destiny (Romans 10:4, John 5:24) and hence no possibility of condemnation (Romans 8:1).[16]

         Another reason why I believe that salvation is secure is the fact that in the Garden of Eden, there were both the forbidden tree and the tree of life (Genesis 2:16-17 & Genesis 2:22-23). The presence of both suggests that God did not intend for Adam and Eve to be perpetually tempted by the serpent but rather that in His divinely ordained time, the probation of man would have ended and if they had successfully overcome the serpent’s temptation, they would have partook of the tree of life. This is perhaps one of the most wonderful truths of the bible: everlasting life is something that is received only when probation and the possibility of judgment is over and so, in order for one to receive eternal life, it means that it cannot be lost by any sort of judgment. This truth is well elucidated in the Gospel of John and one famous passage that is used from this gospel to support this teaching is John 5:24-25. These verses are simply magical in that they are proleptic. While Judaism taught that eternal life would only be dispensed in the last day, or in the age to come, Jesus is declaring in John 5:24-25 that this day of salvation and judgment anticipated at the end of the world has already arrived through Him: The future had arrived in the present life experience of Jesus’ hearers (the future had broken into history). In other words, one does not wait until the last day to receive eternal life and forever be delivered from condemnation. Those who hear the Son and believe in the one who sent him have everlasting life now and have already been forever delivered from eternal wrath: “To give life and to judge are interrelated, for to have life is to escape condemnation (v. 24). The great events of the last day are already taking place (v. 25). The judge they were expecting has come surprisingly, before the final end of this age; the life of the age to come is already available. All of this is accomplished, Jesus says, in the one who hears my word and believes him who sent me.”[17]

Not only does this passage support the doctrine of eternal security conceptually but linguistically. Dr. Earl Radmacher in e-mail correspondence said to me, “John 5:24 states that the one who believes HAS PASSED from death unto life. -- NOT “is passing”. It is past time to the one who believes. It is the perfect indicative active. The perfect indicates a completed state. He has passed from death into eternal life”. The believer has already made that transferal from the experience of death and condemnation to that of life. Future condemnation is not a possibility “²⁴ I tell you for certain that everyone who hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has eternal life and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death to life” (Contemporary English Version).

         There are two objections that I have heard raised by those who do not believe that salvation is secure because of the present possession of eternal life. One objection is that “eternal security” isn’t inherent in the terms “eternal life” and “everlasting life”:

“Many people have also misunderstood the meaning of “eternal life” as it is used in the Scriptures because they have listened to “once saved, always saved” teachers. The Once Saved Always Saved proponents often argue that “eternal life” cannot be lost, or better yet forfeited, or else “eternal life” would not be “eternal.” This is a philosophical argument that is not based upon the Scriptural understanding of how a person partakes of eternal life. Eternal life is the life that issues from the eternal God. Since God has and always will be eternal (Psalm 90:2), he “alone possesses immortality” (1 Tim 6:16), and “life in himself” (John 5:26) and has “granted the Son to possess life in himself” (John 5:26). Eternal life is eternal whether a person does or does not trust in the eternal God. Since God is the source of eternal life it follows that one’s possession of it is only through a faith relationship with the eternal God and his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.”[18]

         I respectfully beg to disagree with this objection: For life is a function of union with God and so, to possess the life that is eternal, one must have eternal union with God. And this union that we have with God is so mystical, scripture says that in fact, we are truly dead and Christ himself is our life (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4; Romans 6:3-9). Consequentially, for us to lose our life would be for Christ Himself to die (John 14:19-20, Ephesians 5:28-30). Indeed, the one who possesses eternal life is no less than participating in the very resurrection life of the risen Messiah!! (Ephesians 2:4-7; John 11:25-26).  Eternal security is found in Christ’s resurrection because it was His eschatological justification which guarantees that He will never die again. Likewise, we who are partakers in His resurrection will never be subject to death also.[19]

Romans 8 says: “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Rom 8:9-11):

         We have been made alive by the indwelling of the Spirit who resurrected Christ and the presence of this Spirit of Christ’s resurrection is our guarantee, that even as He raised Christ from the dead, so too He will “give life to our mortal bodies” - i.e. raise us up at the last Day. The Spirit's presence is a guarantee of final salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Had our salvation {justification} been something that could have been lost, the spirit should never have been given to us for it is a spirit of promise (Galatians 3:14). Even Christ received this promise of the Spirit to guarantee His own resurrection and nothing could be more assuring than to receive the very same guarantee that God the Son received from His Father.[20]

Also, as I see it, God did not have to sacrifice his Son to save humanity. It was not necessary except as an act of love for the purpose of glorifying himself in a unique way. However, God is not only motivated by love and personal glorification when it comes to bringing his sons to glory. He also finally saves all his sons because there cannot be legitimate separation between beings that partake of the divine nature (comp. 2 Peter 1:2-4 with John 17:21). It is for this reason that while Jesus became separated from the Father in His humanity on the cross, in his divinity He remained united with Him. This is one of the reasons why Jesus’ resurrection was certain: His union with the Father is eternal.

The common protest that eternal life is sustained by faith and hence could be lost by a failure to persevere in faith cannot truly be upheld because believing is something that God has predestined us to do as the means to receiving salvation: (2 Timothy 1:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). There is disagreement among the advocates of the security of the believer as to whether a single act or a lifetime of faith guarantees salvation. However, whether eternal life is guaranteed by a moment of faith or a lifetime of it is irrelevant because man can do neither (John 6:44) and ultimately, faith finds itself among those things that are decreed in the eternal plan of God. Whichever one is necessary, God will bring it about. 

The second objection that is leveled against the view that the present possession of eternal life doesn’t secure salvation is that eternal life isn’t possessed now at all! Verses speaking of the reception of eternal life in the future are used to prove this point (cf. Titus 3:7, Titus 1:2; 1 John 2: 25; Romans 6:22; Jude 1:21). Learning of this objection was a bit distressing because it tells me that when a Christian faces a biblical proposition that contradicts what he/she already believes, they are comfortable with determining truth in a most precarious manner. The usual procedure in such a situation is to marshal together a group of passages which countermand the message of the passages used to support the view that they dislike.  If they are comfortable with the quantity of passages that oppose the view which they dislike, they retain their own point of view on the subject matter.  Such a method surely plummets the scriptures into a state of disorder: An inter-scriptural contradiction is made and then a choice of belief is made between one of the two conflicting views. At least however, this view pre-supposes that if eternal life were a present possession, it could not have been lost.

Fortunately, we have a parallel situation in the bible’s teaching concerning the kingdom of God[21]:

“John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles all taught prior to the death of Christ, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Later, Paul wrote to the Colossians that God “has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (1:13). John declares that Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6).

        In spite of this, we are informed by Paul that inheritance of the kingdom is contingent upon our resurrection from the dead and the spiritual and imperishable bodies to be received in conjunction there-with. “I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:50). Peter tells us that our call and election must be confirmed with zeal, “so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.

        The perceptive reader will immediately recognize that there is a sense in which we are now in the kingdom and sharing in its blessings, but there is another sense in which we have not inherited the kingdom, being inhibited by the flesh. The same things hold true with reference to eternal life. We know that we have eternal life for at least one of the apostolic epistles was written to establish this very fact. Yet there is a fullness of this life which we can never experience so long as we are in the body, subject to limitation of time and space, and victims of suffering, pain and physical deterioration”.[22]

        Evidence that eternal life is a present possession is found in the fact that we are presently the children of God (John 1:13; 1 John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1,4,18; James 1:18) and partakers of the divine nature (1 Peter 1:23; 2 Peter 1:4). How can one experience these things unless they are born from the life of God?

        Lastly I refer to John, whose Gospel has made the present possession of eternal life an unambiguous truth. John doesn’t see any contradiction in the possession of eternal life now and the promise of eternal life in the future for the future promise is that of the consummation of what has already been given:    

        “Those who are “begotten of God” are ipso facto “children of God” (tekna theou, John 1:12; 11:52; 1 John 3:1,2,10; 5:2). The term connotes primarily the direct communication of the Father's own nature; and secondarily the fact that the nature thus communicated has not as yet reached its full stature, but contains the promise of a future glorious development. We are now children of God, but what it fully is to be children of God is not yet made manifest (1John 3:2).”[23]

Summary

In summarizing, we have said that in the New Testament, the assurance of salvation is the norm of the Christian’s life and that this cannot only truly be realized when one believes in the eternal security of the believer. I hold to this view because the Christian has been removed from under law and placed under the dominion of grace where he isn’t subject to eternal judgment by the Law of God for the sins that he commits. This view is in contrast to the view of those who believe that we are yet subject to judgment by the law of God in relation to our salvation even after being saved.

It was said that the possibility of condemnation ends after one is saved not only because we are under grace and not law but also because at the moment of salvation, one receives eternal life. Various evidences were given to support the belief that eternal life was possessed now and could not be lost, the major evidence of which was that the one who received eternal life was partaking in the very resurrection life of Christ.

Some Problem Passages

         Due to the fact that the intention of the first edition of the journal is to affirm the doctrine of eternal security, answering problem passages has been scheduled for the second edition. However, I have taken the liberty to deal with 2 of the passages that one may use to countermand the proposition that being under grace secured one’s salvation.

Galatians 5:4

        One passage that is used to prove that salvation could be lost is Galatians 5:4. Personally, I believe that such a deduction from Galatians 5:4 is unfortunate for the message it conveys to me at least is that in the minds of many Christians, the only spiritual disaster that could befall the children of God for which there are dire consequences or intense admonitions from the Spirit is the loss of salvation. It really makes one wonder, “Can believers experience the wrath of God without losing their sonship?” “Can there be discord between God and the believer in the same way that every earthly household has its moments of conflict without being thrown out of the divine family?”

In looking closely at Galatians 5:4 in relation to the entire epistle, I have come to the conclusion that that which is described in Galatians 5:4 is in fact a serious spiritual condition into which the Galatian brethren had fallen but that it doesn’t constitute a loss of salvation.

The context in which Galatians 5:4 finds itself is this: Paul had brought about the Galatian church, establishing a people in grace by the gospel of Christ (Gal.1:3-6). However, some false teachers, coined as the “Judaizers”, opposed the doctrines of grace in which Paul had established the church. They countermanded the doctrinal principles of Paul’s gospel message (Gal. 1:6-7, 3:1, 5:1-3) and logically they also challenged his apostolic authority (cf. Gal. 1:10 - Gal. 2:9). Consequently, in the Galatian epistle, Paul defends his apostleship and his gospel message, he rebukes the Galatians for succumbing to the teachings of the Judaizers and he exhorts the Galatians to remain steadfast in the liberty extended in the authentic teachings of God.

        1.  5:1: Here he exhorts those who were enslaving themselves by obeying the doctrines of the Judaizers to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. Clearly, a distinction was made between being set free by Christ and experiencing the benefits of this liberation. Paul was exhorting them to stand fast in the liberty which was already theirs through Christ.

        2.  5:5: After saying that those who were seeking to be justified by the law had “fallen from grace” the reason given for that was: “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith”. The hope “of ” righteousness by faith is a subjective genitive and hence v. 5 should be read like such: Future salvation (glorification) is something that we await expectantly as a result of the righteousness (justification) that we already possess on account of faith. The new theology of the Galatians however, had caused them to expect the blessings of God on account of their fulfilling the law, a concept that Paul’s gospel thoroughly rejected (Gal. 2:16 – Gal. 3:1-29) and one that enslaved them to a yoke of bondage.  “Paul's approach, and the one he tried to persuade the Galatians to adopt, was simply to trust God to deliver all that we anticipate in the future because we are now righteous (justified). This hope includes our ultimate glorification (cf. Rom. 8:18-25; 1 Pet. 1:3-4, 13). We do not work for this, but we wait for it. God does not care if a Christian has a circumcised body or not. What does matter is that we trust God because we love Him. Note that in these verses (Gal. 5:5-6) Paul united the three basic Christian virtues: faith, hope, and love.”[24]                    

        3.  5:7: This verse clearly suggests that the Galatians had been hindered in their race of life after running so well as a result of believing the doctrines of the Judaizers. They were Christians who allowed false doctrine to become a hindrance to their Christian journey. Paul then affirms their salvation again by saying that these false doctrines were not from him that calleth you (God). They were using the wrong principles (Judaic legalistic principles) to run the right race (the race of progressive sanctification). This paradox caused them to fall into the condition in which they were in.

What then could, Paul be saying Galatians 5:4 if not that someone was losing their salvation??? Actually it all begins from verse 2: 

        Galatians 5:2-4 (NIV):

        ² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

        ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

        ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

What could these words possibly mean??

        I think that F.F. Bruce summed it up well when he said that: “In Paul's eyes, the acknowledgment of Jesus as Messiah logically implied the abrogation of the law . . . If Christ displaced the law as the activating centre of Paul's own life, he equally displaced the law in the economy of God, in the ordering of salvation-history. Therefore, if the law was still in force as a way of salvation and life, the messianic age had not yet dawned, and Jesus accordingly was not the Messiah.”[25] While one may not agree with his perspective on Paul and the law, the principle of his message still holds: It was not possible for the Galatians believers to value both Christ and the works of the law as means of attaining salvation; the choosing of one excluded the other (Rom.10:4; Gal. 2:21). Accordingly, by believing that they needed to be circumcised and keep the law to be finally saved, the Galatians were holding on to a paradoxical theology, which in fact discarded Christ. For if Christ as the Messiah is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness, the Galatians shouldn’t need to become circumcised and keep the law since they trusted in Christ for salvation (Gal. 5:5).[26]

Therefore Paul says: Gal. 5:2: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all”:                                                                 

“If the Galatians let themselves be circumcised in order to be justified when they had already been justified by faith alone, Christ would be of no value to them in their own minds thus ruining their life of living by the grace of God”. [27]

In verse 4 Paul comments: ⁴You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.                                                

The two problem phrases are:

          a)  You are alienated from Christ (katargeo apo christou)

          b)  You are fallen away from grace (tes charitos exepesate)

In his article, “What is Grace?” Jerry Bridges says, “Dutch theologian G.C. Berkouwer said, “The essence of Christian theology is grace, and the essence of Christian ethics is gratitude”. It is gratitude arising spontaneously from a heart filled with grace that motivates us to obey God and serve Him wholeheartedly”. Notice here that Dr. Bridges predicates Christian obedience on grace filling the heart: Cognizance of God’s goodness in bestowing blessings upon us guilty sinners on account of the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

         (Alienated from Christ) (Gal. 5:4) 94 The sentence is ‘kathrghvqhte ajpoV Criststou’.  The concept is of being released from the rule, or jurisdiction, or someone, or something, as in Romans 7:2 where the woman is released from the rule of the Law (cf. Rom. 7:6).  Here Paul is saying that whoever is seeking to acquire righteousness with the Law is released from the jurisdiction of Christ who brings righteousness.  These are people who are already justified (3:2), but are returning again to the Law through the advice of Judaizers.  This return to Law releases them from the benefits of Christ, and separates them from His effective rule of righteousness.

         (Fallen from Grace)    (Gal. 5:4) 95 "To fall" (ejxepevsate) may be descriptive of withered flowers that fall to the ground (James 1:11), or have the idea of being lead off course from one's steady position (2 Pet. 3:17; cf. BAGD, P. 243).  Here, Paul is saying that those returning to the Law have fallen, or strayed off course, from the steadfastness of grace.  They have left the rule of Christ; they have strayed from the principle of grace through a movement towards works for righteousness.  They have fallen from the sphere of grace to live in the sphere of Law.

         (Gal. 5:7-10) Paul is affirming that all possibility of growth in the spiritual life is stifled by a Christian returning to the Law because there is a separation of one's self from Christ's present rule in your life when you go back to trying to be righteous, but the one who does not go back to the Law can grow because his issue of righteousness is settled--he waits for glory--and he loves others.[31]

         Dr. Malick has gotten it right! The Galatian Christians had taken the Christian life of righteousness, a life that was to be lived through the Spirit (Gal 5:17-18) in love (Gal 5:5-6, 14) and stripped it of its’ relational element {of love for God and for people}.

         They made the life of righteousness into a life of enslaving toil in which they tried to please God to earn fatherly acceptance. In effect therefore, the Galatians separated themselves from Christ relationally by falling from His gracious sanctifying rule.

         Paul’s message in Galatians 5:4 is pastoral:

        Failing to avail to themselves the love of God through the doctrines of grace, the Galatians landed themselves into a bereaved spiritual condition which could only be remedied by affirming the principles of grace and demonstrating the serious relational implications of trying to live the Christian life apart from them.

        Why must we take pastoral admonitions that were meant to heal the bruised child of God and use them as fiery spokes of trepidation?[32]

        Now at v 12 the writer then moves from Divine Discipline (D/D) to the intended result which is spiritual recovery.  God’s love bring D/D to the believer that the believer will humble himself and present himself to the Lord.  Paul called this yielding in Romans but here the writer uses OT figures of speech for spiritual recovery.

                v 12  Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

        In the OT the lifting of the hands was done as men worshiped God, as they prayed, and as they blessed others at the Temple.  But in Ezekiel 21 the hands and knees being feeble comes as a result of God’s discipline.

      v 5  Thus all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath. It will not return to its sheath again.

      v 6  As for you, son of man, groan with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan in their sight.

               v 7  And it will come about when they say to you, Why do you groan? that you will say, Because of the news that is coming; and every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it will happen, declares the Lord GOD.

        So in Ezekiel as here in Hebrews the weakness comes as a result of D/D.  And it will be in that weakness that the Lord brings upon us that we will seek His strength.  Now I have weak right ankle due to a injury on a racket ball court.  Now when I get involved in any activity that requires lateral movement I wear a very small nylon lace up brace.  So I make my ankle strong by putting on a brace.  HERE IS THE POINT, you cannot do anything about weak hands and feeble feet.  We must turn to something outside ourselves for strength and that is God the Holy Spirit.  Even in the OT in Zechariah 4:6 Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 

               v 13  and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. 

        To make the path straight looks back to the promises of the messiah in Isaiah and that which was preached by John the Baptist where he quoted from Isaiah 40.  John 1:23  "He said,  'I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said."  The straight way is the  Lord’s way, any other way is not straight and it is only on the straight level way that limbs will be put back in joint.  So this is a call to respond to the D/D, to seek God’s strength in the midst of your weakness and then walk on His path where He will continue to put you back together. 

        ILLUSTRATION:  The lamb with the broken legs.  Shepherd breaks the legs of the lamb who wants to always run away, carries lamb on shoulders until healed.  Lamb will not leave the Shepherd after that.

                v 14a  Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

        Remember why these Jewish Christians got back into the Law.  They were trying to compromise with their former Jewish brothers and give in, just a little, to the Law.  Now if they accept these promptings of the Holy Spirit and begin to walk by grace and faith, there will be a conflict.  Let the conflict be with them, not with you.  You pursue peace with all men, even the UB, the legalist, the ones who do not want peace with you.  In Romans 12:18 Paul gives some great relational advice:  If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

                v 14b   Without which no one will see the Lord.

        The word SEE is not BLEPO blepw which would mean to look at or see in a simple sense.  This is OR-A-O oraw which means to gaze upon intently and to look at with a desire for a relationship.  In the middle voice it can mean to visit with someone.  This is experiential sanctification in time and looks to the building of a relationship of friendship with the Lord in time.  This is not a reference to our eternal sanctification or heaven.

NOW THE POWER OF THE GRACE OF GOD:

        The writer certainly showed the weakness of the OT Law in chapters 1 through 9.5, now he will show the power of Grace.  To man the law seems very powerful and grace may appear to be weak.  But the opposite is really true.  The most powerful act ever accomplished on the face of the earth was the Cross and that was Grace, not Law.

                v 15  See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

        This is a word of warning to the many regarding the few.  See to it looks at the congregation to whom the writer is writing.  With in the community of the local church we need to be careful that nothing is done that could cause another believer to come short of the grace of God.

        Through sin we can fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

        Through unbelief we can fall short of the promises of God (Hebrews 4:1)

        And now here, through the Law we can fall short of Grace (Hebrews 12:15)

        So sin, unbelief, and Law are three threats to the believer.  While each one will remove the believer from fellowship with God,  the believer who involves himself in the law will find himself in direct opposition to the grace of God.  And that is HOW the Christian fails in the grace of God.  He is still saved but he if failing grace.  Just like when you were in school you may have failed a test (I did, too many times).  But that did not mean you were out of the class or out of the school.  Imagine sitting in a window sill.  And you fall.  Where are you?  Outside the building?  Not necessarily, you can fall into the room.  And that is what we do when we fall from grace, fail in grace. 

        Failing Grace is very dangerous because everything that God provides is by grace for intimacy with Him.  To replaced this with a false system or act of Law would mean no intimacy or fellowship in time.  And usually the only way out is to stumble and fall, in brokenness, to the point of seeing that the Law or the production system one is in will not work.  And often the only way God can show you this is through some form of adversity and suffering.  And that is the critical point.  When you are at your weakest, which way will you go?  We construct comfort zones and living the Spiritual Life by the Law which is one such comfort zone but God does not want you behind a comfort zone of your own making.  He wants to provide true contentment for you by His grace.  BUT THE PROBLEM IS as the believer stumbles and falls as he or she lives by Law, instead of surrendering to grace they may become bitter (rather than better).  When we see something that we have embraced as not working or even being a false system there is a danger of becoming bitter.  That bitterness is here described as a root that will grow and effect others within a local church. 

1. Bitterness is the result of arrogance at a point of weakness 

2. The believer will not admit / confess that he has been in a works system and then move on to grace 

3. The rigidity of any works system will not allow for surrender to grace 

4. The only avenue left open is bitterness either against the Law system of towards the Grace system 

5. So the believer in the Law goes from Law that does not work to bitterness which makes matters worse 

6. Many Christians are very arrogant, mean, angry, bitter people 

7. This is an emotional reaction to the Law that did not work and a refusal to surrender to grace that does work but only will work by faith

        This bitterness is said to spring up which looks at something that is sudden and unexpected.   Bitterness can come from some of the most unlikely people but it is not something new in them, only something that has been suppressed.  Bitterness comes from the lifestyle sin of anger.  Most Christians have learned how to disguise anger because anger is unacceptable.  But if it can be hidden in righteous indignation it will be accepted . . . but then something will happen that beings them face to face with grace and then it is either set aside the sin of anger or allow it to work itself into bitterness.  And when it gets to that point it has a terrible effect on others, it causes trouble and stains or defiles others.  NOW FOR AN EXAMPLE . . . 

                v 16  that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

        Esau, the older brother of Jacob, is described here as an immoral and godless.  The adverb like is OS ws so it is not that he is exactly immoral or exactly godless, but he shares in the same reaction to grace as would an immoral person or godless person. 

                An immoral person sins and sin keeps us from the glory of God

                A godless person does not believe in God nor believe God and that keeps Him from the promises of God

                And Esau was a man of rules and laws and kept himself from the grace of God

        Genesis 27:34-36:  When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father And he said, Your brother came deceitfully, and has taken away your blessing. Then he said, Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.  And verse 41:  So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.

        In finding out what happened his appeal was not to grace but to he letter of the law.  And in that he put all the blame on Jacob even though he was the one who sold his birthright for a bowl of chili.  And he became bitter.

                v 17  For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

        He could not change what had been done even though he wanted to.  NOW CONSIDER THIS VERY CAREFULLY: 

1. Esau ended up reaping what he had sown

2. He tried to use the law and could not change it 

3. He tried to use emotions and could not change it 

4. What he did not try was grace, he did not surrender to the grace of God

5. If he had the grace of God would have provided him with that which was greater 

6. Jacob was operating out of deceit and grace will always win over deceit

        The tragedy of this is the many, many believers who try to live the Christian Life by some other system other than Grace.  And when that system fails, rather than embrace the Grace of God, rather then surrender to grace, they become bitter and spend their Christian lives moving from one system of works to another system of works. And yet all they would have to do is embrace the Grace of God by faith.

Footnotes

[31] Article: An Argument Of The Book Of Galatians by David Malick, (http://www.bible.org/docs/nt/books/gal/gal-otl.htm)