Galatians 5:2
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.
