Run in Gospel Grace (Galatians 5:7-15)

Galatians 5:7–15 (ESV) — 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.

One of the Apostle Paul's favorite teaching analogies was the foot race. In this passage, he used it to illustrate how the Galatians were in danger of getting off the course God had assigned them. He told them, "You were running well" (7). However, someone came along and disrupted their progress by telling them they had to add Jewish laws to their faith in Christ if they wanted to be truly accepted by God. So Paul unleashed this paragraph on the Galatians. Paul was genuinely concerned—were they really going to abandon the grace of Christ for the works of the law? The stakes were so high, which is why he said, "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves; they will bear the penalty" (10, 12). Paul didn't talk like this over every minor disagreement, but adding to the gospel is a major offense. Paul wished the legalists would completely cut off their ability to reproduce their doctrines in others. It might sound like Paul is harsh or intemperate, but his ferocity came from a bedrock of love for the people of this earth. If legalists had their way, the life-saving message of the gospel would've been buried. This section of Paul’s letter is an emotional plea for them to get back on the grace track. How could they, and how can we, get back to running in grace?

Identify Hindering Voices (7-11)

First, we must identify voices that hinder us from running in grace. Paul came right out and asked them, "Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (7). Someone had tripped up these Galatians, and Paul wanted them to examine and inspect who it might’ve been. Stop and think, who hindered you? On Thanksgiving Day 2013, the Pittsburgh Steelers played a football game against their rival, the Baltimore Ravens. During one play, a Ravens player was bolting down the sideline on his way to a long touchdown when the Steelers coach edged his way onto the playing surface just a bit. It forced the Ravens player to adjust his course, which led to his tackle and stopped him from scoring. It happened so fast that no one thought much about it at first, but then they started showing replays, and it looked like the coach had intentionally tried to trip the player. Even though he denies it was intentional to this day, he admits his actions changed that play's outcome. [1] Paul wanted them to run their own replay review of their long run in grace and identify the hindering voices they had listened to so that they would stop listening to them. He knew it wasn't God who had called them into the legalism they were about to adopt but a person or group of false teachers (9). He said, "This persuasion is not from him who calls you" (9). God hadn't authored the persuasive things they had believed—and that should always be alarming to God's people. Why? Because, Paul said, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump" (9). This was a well-known proverb from their time, meaning even a small amount of evil teaching could spread through the entire congregation, just like a small amount of leaven impacts the whole loaf of bread. Like yeast, their anti-gospels would spread and permeate everything in the Galatian church, so Paul wanted them to take the task of identifying the hindering voices seriously. What about you? What voices have shaped you the most? Are they pushing you toward the gospel more, or do they cause you to dilute or devalue it? Do they champion it as the hope for mankind, or is it relegated to the corner of the room? Questions like these can help us identify the voices from outside and inside us that hinder us from running in grace.

Embrace the Offense of the Cross

According to this passage, one way to remain alert to voices that hinder us from the gospel is to embrace the offense of the cross. Paul said, "If I still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed" (11). Apparently, the false teachers had accused Paul of preaching circumcision whenever it suited him. They might have claimed that Paul didn't preach circumcision—or law-keeping for God's approval—to Gentiles but that he did preach it to Jews. The confusion might've stemmed from Paul's practice of being sensitive to the cultures he preached in. For instance, there was a time he asked a young man named Timothy to be circumcised before they went to preach to Jewish people. Everyone knew Timothy had Jewish blood in his veins, so Paul thought it would be respectful to remove that obstacle for them before sharing the gospel with them. Some misunderstood this as a two-faced way to conduct ministry. Paul was not flip-flopping but applying the same truth in nuanced ways. Timothy was saved by grace through faith, not law-keeping, but law-keeping would help the message find traction, so he asked Timothy to go along with it. But the interesting thing is that Paul knew that if he preached works-based righteousness—if he told people that being a good person who kept God's law was the way to be saved—then the offense of the cross would be removed (11). Clearly, the offense had not been removed because Paul was still persecuted for the message he preached (11). The cross of Christ is offensive because it tells us that we are sinners who can't do anything to save ourselves. Some say all religions are the same, messages that encourage us to be good people. But that is not what Christianity says. It tells us that sin has sunk itself so deeply within our species that, even though we are made in God's image and reflect him often, our brokenness and sin are too big an obstacle to be overcome by human effort. Instead, God himself had to become one of us, live perfectly for us, and die in our place. All this is the offense of the cross. The Greek word for offense here is skandalon—a scandal to many who hear it. Paul also called it "a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (1 Cor. 1:23). And this stumbling block is an important one to hold onto if we are going to run in grace. Once we think of some as better than others, we will slip from relating to God or others by and with grace. But as long as we see how the cross has leveled all of humanity, demanding that we repent and believe, we will be well on our way in grace. The last thing we should do is domesticate the gospel. We should not allow it to become a soft, nice message. We must allow it to retain its teeth and hunt down all of humanity to show us our deep need for God. When it retains its skandalon, we are more likely to remain on the path of grace. Next week, we will look at a second way to run in Gospel grace.

[1] Schottey, Michael. 2013. “NFL Must Come Down Hard on Mike Tomlin for Sideline Interference.” Bleacher Report. November 29, 2013. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1869638-nfl-must-come-down-hard-on-mike-tomlin-for-sideline-interference.