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You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Galatians 5:2 http://www.dailybiblestudy.org
2 Behold [ide], I [ego] Paul [Paulos] say [lego] unto you [humin], that [hoti] if [ean] ye be circumcised [peritemno], Christ [Christos] shall profit [opheleo] you [humas] nothing [oudeis]. KJV-Interlinear
2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. NASB
In these next several verses, Paul is going to explain that being circumcised, does not equate to salvation. Salvation is not something that you can do, not something that you can do to yourself, not something that someone else can do to you. All of these things are products of human works, and human works are not a part of the salvation process. Paul has been working toward this conclusion for the last couple of chapters, even from the beginning of this book, wherein the Galatians have received the true gospel from Paul, but in his absence had heard false teachings from others, and had changed their minds or become confused with the discrepancies. In either case, He has gone through a long dissertation using various symbolisms to teach the difference between the Law of Moses, and faith as established by the promise God made to Abraham, which promise God made long before Moses was ever born. And so, circumcision, being the original subject that began this topic, was the view of false teachers, who demanded circumcision as the mechanism of being saved. This of course would only apply to the adult men and to no one else, which of course is unfair to women and children and totally absurd as a teaching principle. Faith if the means of salvation, not works. And here Paul begins his explanation, that if you are looking to circumcision and to nothing else, as a means of your salvation, then you are in effect looking to works, or that which you can do yourself, and you are wrong in that regard. And he states that clearly. You profit nothing with this approach or idea. Clearly when a new-born male child is circumcised, the infant is too young to know anything of the action. He does not do this to himself, nor does he have any voice in the matter. It is the parents or physician or priest, who are all adults, that are performing the ritual in conformity with the Mosaic Law or accepted public practice. And the ritual is nothing more than a recognition of the symbolism of separating the concept of the heathen from the non-heathen. The heathen is a term that designates those who lack knowledge of God and truth and live their lives accordingly apart from God. The non-heathen or Jew or Christian, typically portray those who have knowledge of God and the principles of Christianity as they should be correctly known. Heathenism has nothing to do with ones intellect or knowledge or culture, although typically it is portrayed for backward and ignorant peoples. But as a matter of principle, then anyone who lacks knowledge of God, Christ, doctrine, are in effect ignorant, regardless of the type of life that they live. If you are ignorant then you are a heathen of sorts, in the truest sense of the word. Nevertheless, the topic at hand is circumcision which is related to works, which is the subject of the Mosaic Law, which teaches that no person can live the perfect life, and therefore cannot be saved or save themselves by means of living a perfect life, which they cannot do. Therefore, pursuing a life of works, which means ignoring Gods mandates, then if works gains you nothing, then why pursue it? Why not pursue the things that God requires and gain everything? And as we will see in the next study, if you do one aspect of works, then you must pursue the whole principle of works, in order to be effective in that pursuit. However, we have already seen that no effort in works, will ever be successful. No human has ever or will ever live the perfect life, but with one exception, who is Jesus Christ. Then, since none of us is God, then we are left with believing in that which God does and has done for us. Therefore, faith is our avenue to God, not works, not anything of our own effort.
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
