The Wine of Grace and Old Wineskins

“This episode focuses on the verbs used in Galatians 5:4, “”you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.”” Building on the previous program, in which the grace spoke of in Galatians mostly centers on the grace of sanctification, not justification, Paul is concerned that believers are cutting themselves off from the primary means of perfection, Christ Himself. He previously queried about them, “”having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”” (Gal. 3:3) The issue then is subsequent sanctification, in which we mature by continuing to rely on Christ. The Galatians who embraced circumcision sought to justify themselves by the works of the law instead of continuing to follow the leading of the Spirit in sanctification. Their embrace of circumcision instead of the grace of sanctification meant that they were unnecessarily cutting themselves off from perfecting grace. “”Severed”” here is translated from “”katergeo,”” which means estranged, alienated or rendered powerless. The verb translated “”fallen,”” [“”ekpipto””] signifies losing one’s grasp on something. The Galatians have therefore lost their grasp on the grace of God and alienated themselves from the power of God to perfect them. As a result of relying on the woks of the law instead of the grace of God, they have rendered powerless the grace available to them. Paul consequently tells them that if they receive circumcision Christ will not benefit them. (Gal. 5:2) Christ alluded to the incompatibility of works of the law with grace in his metaphor on wineskins. (Mark 2:22)”