#33 Top 40 New Testament Passages: Faith Working through Love (Galatians 5:6)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.  (Galatians 5:6)

Everybody who turns to the scriptures for inspiration and guidance has favorite go-to verses. My Top 40 list of New Testament passages is no different. I've got a few of my go-to verses in the list. My theological heritage comes from John Wesley and his brother Charles, the prolific hymn composer. I like to think of Galatians 5:6 as a go-to verse for Wesley. This single verse is a beacon of his vocational call. 

The Wesley's were not Calvinists. They did not believe that God would create people for damnation as a warning to God's elect. They believed God loves everyone. God could not possibly do something so insidious as to condemn some people to eternal damnation with no recourse for changing that accursed destiny. 

Wesley drew his theological emphasis on salvation freely offered for all from Jacob Arminius. Arminius was a Dutch theologian in the 17th century. His teachings about salvation for all through faith in Christ came under fire by church leaders. Conflict over his teachings led them to issue the Calvinistic doctrine known as TULIP.  Rather than run down that rabbit hole, let me just say that when the Church issues doctrinal statements, it's usually when our influence is threatened by perceived heresy. Fear of losing control is not the best motivation. 

The persecution the Church experienced in its infancy came from Jewish religious leadership. The Christ sect within Judaism was considered heresy. Christians were excommunicated from synagogues for proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised messiah. Christians were stoned, whipped or imprisoned. Persecution also came from the Roman government which required citizens in the empire to acknowledge Caesar as divine. Many Christians were imprisoned or executed for refusing to worship a statue of Caesar. Even within the Church there were those who made trouble. The New Testament is filled with warnings about false teachers, as apostles tried to keep solid doctrine alive in the face of heresy.

One such divisive teaching was the custom of circumcision, When the Church began to spread to Gentiles, former pagans placed their hope in Jesus Christ. Some Jewish Christians held that Gentiles must be circumcised as a sign of belonging to the living God. In order to understand where the circumcision group were coning from you need to understand circumcision. The practice of cutting off the foreskin of Israel's men came through Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

It is because of Abraham's faith that Israel became a nation. It is because of Abraham that Christ appeared through Israel. It is because of Abraham that Arabs, descendants of his firstborn son Ishmael, received the angelic message through their revered prophet. Abraham trusted God and God made a covenant with him and his descendants after him.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him... (Genesis 12:1-4a)

The years passed, but Abraham and his wife Sarah remained childless. God's promise was not yet fulfilled. More than once Abraham prayed to God for a son. (Genesis 15:2-3; 16:17-18) When Abraham was 99 years old, God confirmed the promise to bless him and make his descendants into a great nation. Abraham had only one child through an Egyptian slave girl, Hagar. Abraham laughed at the notion that God would give him a son through his aged and barren wife, Sarah. But God chose to bring glory to the name of the Lord through a miracle. After confirming God's promise to give Abraham a son through Sarah, God established the sign of their covenant.

"I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:7-11, 13b-14)

Notice that the Lord said that the sign of the covenant, circumcision, is an everlasting covenant. That means the practice will continue throughout the generations. Jews obediently circumcise their sons to this day. Many Christians choose circumcision from religious motives, instead of health reasons. Muslims also practice circumcision as children of Abraham. The sign in the flesh represents belonging to the God of Abraham, heirs of the covenant promises through him. Circumcision is a reminder of belonging, but also of the call to obedience to the covenant. Without repentance a disobedient sinner, like the circumcised foreskin, is "cut off" from the the people of the covenant. 

So it is understandable that Jewish Christians would continue to honor the practice of circumcision and expect Gentile Christians to do the same. Circumcision is an everlasting sign in the flesh of God's everlasting covenant with Israel. They did not think of the Church as separate from Israel, but a continuance of God's saving works through Israel. 

So it is absolutely remarkable that Paul, a former Pharisee, would say that circumcision means nothing! Consider Paul's background from his own accounting.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4b-6)

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. (Galatians 1:13-14)

But when Paul came to faith in Christ, everything in which he once took pride, everything to which he had dedicated his life out of zeal for God, was rubbish to him! Compared to knowing Christ and sharing in His glorious resurrection, Paul considers everything else to be meaningless. (Philippians 3:7-11) Jesus was a game-changing presence in his life. The new thing God was doing in Jesus meant a new covenant relationship with God, one built not on law observance, but on faith in Christ.

Faith in Christ leads to transformation through the Holy Spirit. Paul writes extensively about the impact of Jesus and how righteousness comes through faith, not through law observance. John Wesley was wary of a lax posture toward faithful obedience to God. Some in the Church took God's forgiveness through the cross of Christ as license to do whatever they pleased. Forgiveness would always be there for whatever sins they may commit. 

God is not a fool, Paul would argue. God knows what is in a person's heart, whether they truly love God and are committed to a life of holiness. 

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:7-9)

Jesus taught you will know a tree by its fruit. The transformation that takes place in believers will bear the fruit of good deeds and godliness. For it is the Spirit of Christ that empowers us to be the people God intended. But those who have the Spirit are given the grace to love just as Jesus loved us and laid down his life for us. 

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:5b)

Look how Paul speaks of life empowered by the Spirit in contrast to law observance. To pursue righteousness through the law is to put confidence in the flesh, and not in Jesus Christ.  

You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:4-5, 17-18, 25)

Life lived in the Spirit leads to the fruit of love and its many expressions such as generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, peace, joy, kindness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) 

The argument against circumcision is about the transformation that takes place through the Spirit. Law observance cannot produce new creation. But God who is love can create us anew through the Spirit. We die to life once lived by our own limited resources, and rise into a new life empowered by the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit pours God's love into our hearts and we live out our faith in God's love through the Spirit's power. (Romans 5:5)

So outward signs like circumcision don't change a person. We could argue that the water of baptism doesn't possess any power to rescue one from this present evil age. Only the baptism of the Spirit can. (Galatians 1:4; Luke 3:16) If you would love as Jesus loved, the Spirit of Christ must dwell within you, and you must learn to follow the Spirit's leading. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:9) All that matters in Christ is faith working through love! For if I don't have the love of Christ empowering your faith walk, I'm just a noisy gong, a clashing cymbal. I gain nothing without divine love. (1st Corinthians 13:1-3)

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! (Galatians 6:14-15)