Lesson 49 September 29, 2002

5:4 Result of legalism - Christ becomes inoperative in life

You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Severed katarge,w [aor.pass.ind.] "to render useless, powerless, ineffective, to nullify, inoperative," hence, idea "to be unemployed" or "to be severed from some beneficial thing": in today's vernacular "to be out of business.”

By their choice to pursue legalism, the Galatians are in the process of putting themselves under the law for acceptance before God. And it has a negative result.

you who are seeking to be justified by law

Summary 5:4

1. The believer who adopts a system of law performance, that is merit works, (legalism) either for salvation, or for living the Christian life is rejecting the very basis of both, grace/faith.

2. What Paul says here in no way implies that anyone can loose their salvation, their position in Christ.

3. What Paul is emphasizing is that as believers we can drift off of the course of grace in our life.

4. What Paul is describing with the phrase "seeking to be justified by law" is a desire to be righteous before God to be just before God but not on the basis of His provision in Christ but through our own self efforts, works.

5. By doing this we have moved away experientially from our anchor for life.

6. Grace sets a straight course for us in life, and when we choose to wrap our life in law performance merit works, we have chosen to drift off the course of grace and go our own direction. Titus 2:12

7. Believe Paul has concluded that the Galatians had really not understood or realized the implications of moving to law performance living.

- its total devastation of the spiritual life.

8. How is it possible for the believer to drift off the course of grace? What motivates this kind of action?

9. I believe that the main ingredient for most believers is indifference or apathy towards the Word of God, that is negative volition towards the word of truth.

10. It begins with either no intake of truth or failure to concentrate while assembled with the result that we are ignorant of Word of truth, God's grace provision for life.

11. It can also occur when we choose to not apply the truth we know, no application or as is often referred to as disobedience.

12. Negative volition is often tied to failing to deal with the pressures and tests of life and seeking to solve them with our own solutions.

13. Paul's objective is to make perfectly clear to them the total incompatibility between the grace/faith way of life and the law/works merit way of life of the legalist.

5:5 Our hope and the means of realizing it

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

What's the focus of the faith here? are waiting for the hope of righteousness.