Galatians 5.1-15

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

An age-old bedtime prayer that took on very real and imminent meaning for me this week and probably for many of you as well.

With talks of the fast enriching of Uranium in a non-sanctioned country desiring death to the West, night time missile exchanges in the Middle East, a two week decision making time table given by the President of the United States, and finally the destruction of nuclear weapon sites in Iran, certainty of God’s love, God’s concern, God’s sovereignty and God’s protection came to the forefront of our thinking.

In the midst of war and rumors of war, most normal functioning human beings wanted one thing this week—to be certain of personal safety.

And, some of us could sleep with the certainty of safety while others of us were overcome with worry and anxiety.

Interestingly, in the opening lines of 2022 article from INews reads: “Those of us without traditional religion are left to make our peace with uncertainty. … There’s nothing comforting about being agnostic.” 

For those of us unfamiliar with the term, agnostic means to be indifferent about the existence of God.  Agnostics believe we can’t know if God exists or if God does not exist.  They are different from atheists.  Atheists come down hard on the belief that there is no God. Agnostics instead say that there is just no way of knowing.

In the article, Eleanor Margolis laments her agnosticism and muses about the benefits of faith.

Speaking of the Russia/Ukraine war in 2022, Margolis says, 

It was in February, and while Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, that I started to wonder if it was time to find God. Definite God, that is. Not the half-hearted agnostic one built on a Jenga tower of uncertainty. The addition of a heightened nuclear threat from Putin made me desperate for a vengeful Old Testament God. Someone (to) smite the warmongers and oligarchs, the evil ones “know not what they do.” When nothing is left of civilization but the cockroaches.

The last time I felt so envious of religious people was when my mum was dying of cancer. Certainty about an afterlife sure would’ve come in handy then. And prayer might have created the illusion that I had some power over the situation. Instead, I was treated to the spiritual equivalent of the shrug emoji. I became a devout follower of one true religion of the 21st century: uncertainty. Those of us without traditional religion are left to make our peace with uncertainty.

In this morning’s Biblical text, as we return to the New Testament book of Galatians, a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the churches gathered in the region of Galatia during the first Century A.D., the Apostle Paul speaks about what brings certainty of personal safety in God’s arms and what takes that certainty of personal safety in God’s arms away from us.

Let’s hear from Galatias 5.1-15 together now.

Galatians 5.1-15 says:

[1] For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

[2] Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3] I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4] You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [5] For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

[7] You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? [8] This persuasion is not from him who calls you. [9] A little leaven leavens the whole lump. [10] I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. [11] But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. [12] I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

[13] For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (ESV)

In verse 1, Paul makes clear what brings us certainty of God’s love for us and certainty that we are safe forever in God’s arms.

Paul tells us that we can be certain of God’s love for us and certain that God will safely bring us home into His Kingdom of Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  

Maybe this sounds familiar:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17, ESV)

Paul then moves on to tell us what steals our ability to be certain that God loves us and will keep us safe in His arms.

Paul does this by pointing to the false teaching that some of the Galatian Christians are following and which is putting them in a place where they can never be sure of God’s love for them.

Paul points out that when they return to the Law and try to earn God’s love, they will never find comfort that they have done enough to please God.  They will never find the comfort they are looking for or be certain of God’s love because in Sin it is impossible to please God.

One of the specific things that was stealing the Galatians certainty of God’s love for them was returning to the Law based act of circumcision.

As a reminder, circumcision is a surgical procedure in which the foreskin is removed from the male, usually during infancy.

In Genesis 17, God introduces the act of circumcision to His people, the Hebrew people at that time. God required that on the 8th day after birth, every Hebrew male was to be circumcised as a sign that they were included in God’s covenant family.  Circumcision was the physical mark that reminded them that they were different than the peoples of the world around them that did not circumcise their males and whom were not part of God’s eternal family.

At that time, for those people, a male and his family could not be included in God’s family without being circumcised. 

However, as the Apostle Paul mentions over and over again, with Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, God began a new covenant that allowed inclusion into His eternal family through faith in Jesus, the Savior, alone.

But, as we have been seeing since the very beginning of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, false teachers were troubling and confusing the Christians by telling them that their faith in Jesus Christ was not enough for them to find comfort and hope in God’s love for them.  These false teachers were telling them that they needed to add the physical works of the old covenant to their faith in Jesus in order to be forgiven of Sin and saved for Heaven.

Some of the Christians were buying the lies of the false teachers and were walking away from their faith in Christ to go back into slavery to Sin in an attempt to earn God’s love by being good people in their own strength.

This is a serious mistake and their denial of Christ’s work in His life, death, and resurrection, has major consequences as the Apostle Paul points out.

First, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds causes you to be severed from Jesus.

That means, if you want to rely on good works and religious deeds to get you to God in Heaven, you will be cut off from receiving Jesus’ gifts and blessings.

Second, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds will lead you to a place where you then have to keep all of God’s Laws perfectly to be accepted by Him in the end.

Third, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds means you have forsaken God’s love for you and grace toward you.

Fourth, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds means you have no hope of being called righteous and ready for God’s Kingdom of Heaven.

In all of this returning to Sin and self-reliance, you will not be able to truly experience love or give out love because in your separation from the new covenant of God’s grace living in you and working through you, you willing make yourself a slave once again to Sin.  This means that once again, godless selfishness and self-centeredness will be your way of life.

Paul makes it clear that circumcision and Christ are incompatible with one another.  If there is any saving value in religious ordinances (e.g. circumcision) apart from the cross, then Christ’s death has been in vain.

As we heard Paul say earlier in Galatians, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2.21, ESV).

Let me put this into contemporary language: 

If you go to church, sing songs, and study the Word, thinking this is how you’re going to work to earn God’s favor, then you are no different from the over one billion Hindus in the world today who are bowing down to their gods. 

If your Christianity is a check-off box in order to make you feel good about yourself before God, in order to save your skin on the day of judgment, then your Christianity is no different from every other religion in the world, and ultimately it will condemn you. 

Paul is uncovering a scheme of the Devil in the first century that continues in the twenty-first century. It is subtly and dangerously deceiving. What if Satan’s strategy to condemn your soul involves not tempting you to do all the wrong things, but instead leading you to do all the right things with the wrong spirit? What if Satan actually wants you to come to church, lead a small group, teach, and lead your home in an upright way? What if he’s in favor of you doing all those things, just so long as you think that by doing those things you’re working your way to God? 

You say, “Well, I pray.” Big deal, Muslims pray. 

You say, “Well, I go to worship.” Big deal, Hindus go to worship. They worship all day long. 

You say, “Well, I study the Bible.” So do Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they can quote it better than most Christians. 

You say, “Well, I go on mission trips.” So do Mormons—scores of them give years of their lives to do so. 

If your Christianity consists of slavery to religion in order to make yourself right before God, then it’s just as if you’re giving yourself to the pagan religions of the world. 

But Christianity is radically different from those worldly religions. 

Rather than slaves of religion, we are sons in a relationship with God . As we heard a few weeks ago, Paul says that the Galatians know God, and then he pauses and says, “or rather have become known by God” (v. 9). To use the language of 4:1-7, we are sons of God. Why would we live like a slave to religion when we are sons in a relationship with God? God knows us intimately, and the idea here is of deep, personal knowledge. We know God, and He knows us!

Paul doesn’t ever mince words.  He knows the severity of the penalty for not trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation as well as the severity of the penalty for those that lead others astray by offering more or less than Jesus Christ Himself offers.

That is why Paul says that he wishes those who don’t want to trust in all that Jesus says and teaches, and also tell other people to follow their feelings and the ways of the culture over what the Scripture explicitly says, would emasculate themselves.  

Jesus doesn’t offer you the freedom to Sin. Jesus always says to those that come to faith in Him for the forgiveness of Sin and eternal life, “Go, and sin no more!”

And, Jesus doesn’t offer you the burden of the Law.  Jesus doesn’t say, “I’m not enough, so do religious-like things to ensure your salvation.

Jesus offers you the freedom to live and love as you have first been loved and given abundant life through repenting of Sin and placing your faith and trust in Him alone to take you back to God, your Father in Heaven.

This morning, may the truth of God’s Word fill your heart and mind today, the truth that because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for you, you are free from having to work your way out a sinful and ungodly life, and may you experience the freedom that comes from knowing and following him.

This morning, repent of your Sin and believe in Jesus your Savior.

Then, and only then, can you be absolutely certain of God’s love for you and certain that God will safely bring you home into His Kingdom.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 22, 2025.