Faith working through love

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. - Galatians 5v6

Paul took the subject of liberty very seriously, mostly of course because he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and God clearly takes liberty seriously. The foul Judaizers in Galatia were messing with the heads of the people and trying to convince them that if they were really, truly saved they would go back and submit to the Law. Unless you keep the Law you are not saved!”

Paul says, “No! Stand fast in your liberty.” Keeping the Law and doing good works cannot save you, they don’t make you righteous. There are some even today saying that while we are free from some aspects of the Law that there are some parts of the Law that Christians must still keep. Some say, “We are free from the ceremonial law, but we are still compelled to keep the moral law.” Then they try to decide which is which for us.

I just don’t get this kind of thinking. Paul says in this section that if you try to keep one part of the Law, you are bound to keep all of it. We can’t pick and choose which parts of the Law bind us and which don’t.

Now look carefully at the verse above. Some accuse those who live in liberty of being “anything goes libertarians.” Nothing could be further from the truth! The works of the Law do nothing, the prove nothing. The proof comes in “faith working through love.” Like the title of John MacArthur’s book says, “Faith works.” Indeed it does. It works through love, not some tyranny of the Law.