In the old city of Geneva, Switzerland, there is a large park on the grounds of the University of Geneva that commemorates the Reformation. That park is adorned with a huge wall, called the International Monument to the Reformation or simply the Reformation Wall. In statues and bas-reliefs, the wall depicts figures from the Reformation including John Calvin, John Knox, William Farel, and Theodore Beza. Surrounding these and other statues, the motto of the Reformation is inscribed on each side: post tenebras lux—after darkness, light.

This phrase refers not only to the unveiling and liberation of the Scriptures—which were made available to the common people during the Reformation—but also to the loss and recovery of the most important biblical doctrine there is: the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This was the primary and central issue of the Protestant Reformation. During the dispute between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, both sides saw that justification was so important that no compromise was possible. Both sides were convinced that what was at stake in the doctrine of justification was the very essence of the biblical gospel. When the gospel is at stake, everything is at stake, because the gospel tells us how we can be right with God.

Christ Has Set Us Free

Galatians 5:1–5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery .Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness.

This begins with a clear and refreshing statement of Christ’s will for our lives. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

Christ’s will for us is that we enjoy freedom. A good test of our priorities in life would be whether we are just as concerned about the command to enjoy our freedom in Christ as we are about other pressing decisions in our life.

This is the will of God for us: our freedom. For this Christ died and rose again, for this he sent his Spirit. There is nothing he wills with more intensity under the glory of his own name than our freedom.

We Need to be Careful Not to Try to Bribe God for Blessing

Galatians 5:2-3 “Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you (or: Christ will profit you nothing). I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law (literally: that he is a debtor to do the whole law).”

The point is not that circumcision in itself is wrong, but that any act is wrong that we do to bribe God for blessings. Circumcision happened to be the foremost requirement of the Judaizers who were teaching the Galatians to work their way into God’s favor. That is, do not let the Judaizers bewitch you into thinking that circumcision or any other outward act of obedience can be offered to God as a benefit to him, which he must then reward with some payment.

“If you follow this ceremonial or symbolic thing and depend on it, Christ will profit you nothing.” Paul says that if you try to earn dividends from Christ from your own investment of circumcision or dietary rules or feast days, Christ will profit you nothing.

Why? Because all the spiritual and physical benefits Christ gives are dividends paid from his own investment at Calvary. When the Son of God died for our sins, the moral assets which he invested in the bank of God’s glory were so great that the dividends are infinite, endless, and available to all who by faith would trust Chris.

Christ’s profits are not yours if you try to earn them with your own investments.

Why? Because that dishonors Christ, nullifies grace (2:21), and removes the stumbling block of the cross (5:11).

We exalt the cross and grace and Christ when we admit we have no assets to invest, and that Christ’s investment at Calvary was totally sufficient to win free dividends of righteousness and life for all who trust him. So verse 2 teaches that slavery is when you reject Christ as the merciful benefactor who gives us freely a share in his endless profit. Slavery is when you choose to deal with him as a banker who needs your investment to produce dividends for his customers.

This verse teaches that the mindset of slavery is the mindset of a debtor—one who is under pressure to pay back what he has borrowed or needs to borrow.

There are always negative consequences of adding such a supplement to faith in Christ.

• Christ will be of no value to you at all (v. 2).

If you start to trust in circumcision to gain God’s blessing, then you have stopped trusting in Christ. If you do not trust in Christ, then Christ is of no value to you. When you put your trust in your own position or performance for God’s blessing, you are indicating that who you are and what you have done has more value that who Christ is and what he has done. You have turned your back on Christ.

• The consequence of getting circumcision is the obligation to obey the whole law (v. 3).

You have embarked on an impossible mission. Once you have decided to base your relationship with God on your performance, you will not be graded on a curve. You must live 100 percent of the law all the time.

• You have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

The Gratitude Ethic

There is a common view of Christian behavior called the “Gratitude Ethic.” It says that God has done so much for me that I will devote my life to paying back my debt, even though I know I will never be able to completely. And even though most Christians who work out of this gratitude ethic would say that they are not trying to earn their salvation, nevertheless, when they start working for God because he has given them so much, it is very easy to begin to think of God’s free gift as a loan to be repaid or as advance wages to be earned.

The gratitude ethic diminishes the cross of Christ. When Christ died for our sins to repair the injury we had done to God’s honor, our debt was totally covered! Any effort to increase, from our account, the deposit made for us by Christ at Calvary is an insult to its infinite value.

Our Freedom Depends on Grace

Galatians 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you are fallen away from grace.

If you take upon yourself the yoke of the law and aim to use it to achieve your own righteousness before God, your relation to Christ is nullified and you no longer benefit from grace. The key to freedom is to keep depending on grace.

Grace is the powerful work of God which he exerts freely for you in your present life.

Grace is also God’s action, 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul says, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Grace is God’s exertion in our lives to help us.

One aspect of grace, is the key to freedom is God’s rescuing and caring exertion in our lives here and now. We are free when God freely comes to help us and we joyfully trust his help instead of turning to the yoke of law.

How Free People Wait for the Last Day

Galatians 5:5 For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.

Even though there is a sense in which we are already justified by faith in Christ and clothed with his righteousness. The final judgment lies before us at which the final verdict will be spoken and we will be made fully and ethically righteous. This is the hope we wait for and long for. How are we waiting: as free or as slaves?

Our new spiritual live in Jesus begins by a work of the Spirit, and our lives go on by the work of the Spirit. Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” We are free because God has sent the Spirit of his Son to come help us. He does not stand at a distance a just demand that we keep laws, He offers his fellowship and help, and even makes the life of
obedience a life of joy. The Christian life is a life of freedom because it is lived in the power of the Spirit.

Free people wait for the hope of righteousness “by faith.” “Through the Spirit by faith we wait for the hope of righteousness.” Galatians 3:5 reminds us how it connects with God’s side: “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” If we really rely on our Father to help us, he helps us.