Galatians 5:4 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

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

NASB: You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.

CSB: You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.

NLT: For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

KJV: Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

NKJV: You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Paul has said repeatedly that choosing between following the law, as opposed to trusting in Christ, as a means to be accepted by God is a choice between slavery and freedom. He has urged the Galatian Christians not to be talked into following the law and thus make themselves slaves to the law (Galatians 4:1–7).

Some might be tempted to think they could do both: "Who knows if faith alone, or faith-plus works is right? Do I trust Paul, or the Judaizers? I'll just do it all to make sure I'm covered. I don't want to risk not being accepted by God, after all."

However, Paul is showing his readers that acceptance by God is exactly what they risk by trying to do both. Someone who adds works to faith in Christ "just in case" is not truly trusting in Christ, at all. Now Paul puts it in even harsher terms: That person is "severed" or alienated from Christ. Someone who is trying to be justified—"made right with God"—by following the law has missed out on the grace of God.

It's important to understand that the description given here—"fallen away from grace" in some translations—does not mean this person has lost their salvation. Rather, Paul's suggestion is that such a person had not been trusting in Christ, at all. Grace comes through faith in Christ and by no other means. To seek salvation apart from Christ is to fall away from the opportunity for grace.

Galatians 5:1–15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. Paul also warns us not to waste our freedom in Christ to selfishly serve ourselves instead of serving each other in love. The entire law is fulfilled in that one word: love. Those who serve themselves, though, will always end up in conflict with each other.

Those who trust in Christ have been set free. Paul's readers were in danger of wasting that freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers were pressuring them into circumcision in order to be sure of being right with God. On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God's Spirit gives us the power to do that when we let Him lead us. Life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian's life.

Galatians 3—4 focused on theology. Galatians 5—6 focus on how Christians should live in response to those truths. In short, we must resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ to follow the law. We must also resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires instead of serving others in love. We can do this by the power of God's Spirit with us. When we give Him the lead, powerful, positive characteristics show up in us. Galatians 6 will show how to use those characteristics to serve each other.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.