When a person puts their faith in Jesus Christ, there is no change in that person. That moment of “accepting Christ,” is really just a moment, and it isn’t expected to have any effect on someone. “I believe in you, Jesus,” and then go on with their lives. But a distinction between who they were and who they are now – that’s not really supposed to happen. A distinction between the world around? No. A distinction between who they were five years ago and now? None to be expected.
You don’t seem to be agreeing? When a person truly puts their faith in Jesus they become a new creation, they are born again, the old passes away and something new comes forth. That new creation lives in a new way – not the old way anymore. Someone asked me last week, “Were you a different person before?” I said yes and no. No, in that I am still “me” in a lot of ways. But, Yes, in a lot of ways I am no longer who I used to be. Galatians has taught us who we are: we are children of God, children of Abraham, children of the free woman, redeemed and free, heirs of the Promise, possessing the Holy Spirit within us, having Christ living in us, baptized into Christ, clothed with Christ, and as we’ll learn along the way through the last chapters, we are the truly circumcised.
Our sermon is titled “Faith Loves.” We saw the last two weeks that Faith Waits. Now we’re going to see that Faith Loves. We’ll go under 3 headings as we focus on 5:6 – 1) In Christ, 2) Circumcision’s Vanity, and 3) Faith Loves. To summarize the whole point we would say that focusing on the Law via circumcision means nothing and what truly counts in the Christian life is our faith showing itself through our love.
IN CHRIST
Paul says in verse 6, “For in Christ….” Notice how it parallels verse 5, “For through the Holy Spirit…” Paul is talking about Christians, and he is talking about Christians living the Christian life. Through the Holy Spirit is “how” Christians live, the power behind our Christian living. “In Christ” reminds us of our standing, our identity, our place with God. We are “in Christ.” There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are in Christ and those who are not. Those in Christ are saved, those who are not, are not. No one who is in Christ will go to Hell, no one who is not in Christ will go to heaven.
Being “in Christ,” you have to see it as expressing a totality of your unity with Christ. Being “in” Him means all that is His is yours, and all that is yours is His. You belong to Him, He belongs to you. If you are “in Him,” His righteousness is yours, His inheritance is yours, His authority is yours. His acceptance by the Father is your acceptance.
This unity is seen in a two-way description: He is in us (2:20; Col 1:27), and we are in Him. It’s like His unity with the Father, “Father, may they be one,” Jesus said in His prayer in John 17:21, “just as you are in me and I am in you.” Jesus said “I am in you, Father, and you are in me.” A perfect unity. Now think of these words, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ LIVES IN ME…” (2:20). Or Colossians 1:27 when it declares “the hope of glory, which is Christ IN YOU.” Christ is in us, but then we are IN Him: “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1). Or 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is IN Christ, they are a new creation…” Or, “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value, but what counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
There are two important points to emphasize here. First, the contrast between prioritizing circumcision versus prioritizing love highlights the contrast between the two covenants: the Mosaic and the New. Circumcision belongs to the Mosaic covenant. The Spirit and faith and love belong to the New. You enter the Mosaic through circumcision, you enter the New through faith. The Mosaic is the Old and has given way to the New. Therefore, to uphold circumcision was to uphold the Mosaic system. But that system is done, it is unplugged, its time is over and done. It is a tacit denial that the New Covenant has been established by trying to perpetuate circumcision and following the Law of Moses. It is a tacit denial of the coming of Jesus and His finished work on the cross, and His shed blood and His resurrection by trying to force the issue of circumcision because of an allegiance to the Law of Moses. Therefore, show you are “in Christ,” and show your faith in Christ by leaving behind the Law of Moses.
The second important point to emphasize is that the effect of being “in Christ” is love. Love is your entrance into Christ and it is the effect on you. Receiving Christ’s love and forgiveness brings you in, and the effect of receiving His love is loving like Him. Love for God, love for others. Turn to 1 John 4:7-5:1 with me. The only reason the rivers flow is because rain comes down from above. The only reason our love can flow is because love came down to us first. It is our source, our fount – the God who is love from above. Being in Christ produces Christ’s love in us.
CIRCUMCISION’S VANITY
Next we see the vanity of circumcision. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value….” Prioritizing and obsessing over circumcision shows someone is off track – if they were ever even on track. Once you are in Christ, once you are a Christian, it has no value.
The word in Greek translated as “no value” means that something has no effect, it has no force, there’s no power in it, it is unable. Salt loses its saltiness Jesus said in Matthew and is therefore no longer good for anything – same Greek word meaning salt no longer has the effect it used to. A will is not in force while a person is alive, it has no ability to do anything while the person who made it is still alive (Heb 9:17). The prayers of a righteous man are effectual, or availeth much. His prayers are effective, they have power, there is power for change in a righteous man’s prayers. Galatians 5:6, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any effect, there is no power or force from it, its like unsalty salt, it is good for nothing because it is simply unable to do.
The question is, what is circumcision “unable” to do? In relation to what does it have no effect, no force, no power, no ability? The answer is love. The contrast with circumcision Paul makes in verse 6 is love. Circumcision versus love. Circumcision versus love as an expression of faith. But that’s not all. Circumcision has no power to produce the Spirit-filled life, which Paul is going to get into later in the chapter. The Christian life is about walking in the Spirit and producing His qualities, not getting circumcised and following the Law. Circumcision and the Law CANNOT produce the Spirit-filled life. The purpose and the output of our Christian living is to love and bear the fruit of the Spirit – and circumcision has not power to do any of that. It has no value.
Notice this contrast in verse 6: faith is on one side while love, and circumcision is on the other side. Faith is not on the side of circumcision. Faith does not lead someone to get circumcised. But remember this is not circumcision in general, it is circumcision as an act to submit to the Law of Moses. It is being convinced by Judaizers that Christians have to follow the Law and submit to the Mosaic system and that starts with circumcision. So circumcision and the Law of Moses is on one side, and faith in Christ and love are on the other side.
Do not miss this. This verse is a categorical rejection of the Mosaic system as having any value, as having any force, any power, any ability in the Christian life. The Mosaic system has no ability to produce the Christian life – no ability to bear the fruit of the Spirit, or to increase your righteousness, no ability to form Christ in you, no ability to mature you and make you spiritual.
Now, after telling you not to get circumcised, I want to urge you in fact TO get circumcised. Not physically, but spiritually. The New Testament teaches us that as Christians we are spiritually circumcised. Circumcision is an act of “cutting away.” Spiritually the Holy Spirit cuts away our sin and our guilt when we accept Christ. And this is the only circumcision that counts. “It is we who are the circumcision,” Paul said in Philippians 3:3. Colossians 2:11 says with a mouthful of theology, “In Christ you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ.” Or Romans 2:29 saying, true “circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the Law.” In other words, real circumcision is not something done to your physical body – it is something done to your heart. It is not something done by man, but by the Spirit.
This is all about salvation – are you truly saved! Those trying to be justified by the Law get circumcised in the flesh, but those who are truly saved have put their faith in Jesus and the Spirit as a result has circumcised their heart. All true Christian religion begins in the heart and is lived out from the heart. You can get cut in the flesh but if you haven’t been cut in your heart you are under judgment.
APPLICATION: Don’t let outward religion be a cover up for not having real inward religion. The tendency religious people have is to check some boxes and then sit back satisfied, with the mistaken belief that they are pleasing God, and then being able to point to the boxes they’ve checked they utterly miss the real substance of religion and spirituality. Isaiah 1 records God’s disgust with all the outward religious commitment Israel had – festivals, sacrifices, Sabbaths, etc – because they didn’t live righteously. If real righteousness isn’t backing up your religious rituals and symbols it is all a stench to God. Jesus said the Pharisees were whitewashed tombs – looking good outwardly, but dead inside. They were cups washed only on the outside, but inside full of all kinds of gross unrighteous filth. They tithed with precision but had no mercy, no justice, and no faithfulness. Outward religion, but no real inward righteousness.
Do we do Christian religion but the Christian reality is missing in our life? Its all akin to circumcision – which was the “issue” in Paul’s day. As long as someone was circumcised outwardly, as a SIGN they upheld Moses, it didn’t matter to them that IN PRACTICE they fail to truly uphold Moses. The sign was most important! To them, that’s what counts. How many husbands would be content their wives always wore their wedding rign as a sign they were married, but they were never home, they never helped with the home life, they weren’t a partner building a life with you, they were always with friends, you were neglected, your homelife was neglected, she ran you down all the time, every relational issue was about her, its all give, no receive – but she wore the wedding ring, and came to church and smiled a lot. Is the SYMBOL of marriage with that ring enough? Or would you want the substance of marriage so that the symbol had real meaning instead of being a hypocritical mocking statement?
That’s what circumcisers were – all circumcision, no substance. All for cutting skin, but not for cutting sin. Circumcision was an act of the flesh – both physically and spiritually speaking.
FAITH LOVES
Finally, the last point is the sermon title: faith loves. Paul says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF THROUGH LOVE.” Faith expressing itself through love. Love is the expression of faith. Up til now Paul has not mentioned “love.” He has however touched on it twice: taking care of the poor we would say was love (2:10) and Peter’s sin was unloving (2:11-14). But he doesn’t expound on love – not until now. He mentions love here in verse 6 as the expression of faith, then he’s going to mention love 3 more times: “serve one another humbly in love” (13); “Love your neighbor as yourself” (14); “and the fruit of the Spirit is love…” (22).
Faith expressed through love is the only thing that counts. First Corinthians 13:13 says, “Now these three remain: Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.” And indeed it is.
- The greatest command is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The Second greatest command is to love your neighbor as yourself.
- The entire law is fulfilled with this one command: love your neighbor as yourself, Paul says in verse 14
- Jesus told the disciples in the upper room, “As I have loved you, love each other.”
- Colossians 3 lists exalted Christian virtues, then says, “Over all these put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Its the only thing that has power and efficacy. Power for what? For producing the righteous, Spirit-filled life God wants. Its the only way that we are truly in line with Paul in 2:20, and us also being crucified with Christ and us no longer living, and the life we live in the body we live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself up for us.
Christ gave Himself up for us because He loved us. He loved us first. Now we love Him, the way He loved us: by giving ourselves up for Him. We have been crucified, and daily we die to ourselves, all so that Christ may be increasingly formed in us. Let your participation in Communion today be a statement that 1) you know Christ loved you and died for you, and 2) that you love Him and serve Him, and 3) that you love those who belong to Him.