The yoke of slavery is the law-yoke Christ already broke.
For freedom Christ has set us free;
stand firm therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
Paul is writing to churches being told they must add circumcision to Christ. He calls that a yoke of slavery. Jesus set them free. Stand firm. Do not submit again. Accepting circumcision as necessary for justification severs them from Christ. They have fallen away from grace, not in the sense of a bad day, but in the sense of leaving the ground. Christian liberty is this freedom. The yoke is what liberty refuses.
- Legalism is the teaching that puts the yoke back on.
- The church is not free to use freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. That is the other ditch. The yoke is the first ditch.
- Peter had called the law a yoke neither the fathers nor they could bear. Paul uses the same word for going back.
Stand firm. Do not submit again. Christ is the advantage. The yoke gives Him up.
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Christ will be of no advantage to you.
- The yoke of slavery is submitting again to law as the way of justification.
- Freedom is what Christ gave. Stand firm in it.
- Circumcision accepted as necessary severs from Christ.
- Falling from grace here is leaving grace for the yoke.
- Liberty is not a permit for the flesh.
- The yoke neither the fathers nor the apostles could bear.
- The Freedom – Christ has set us free.
- The Stand – Do not submit again.
- The Yoke – Law added to Christ.
- The Loss – Christ of no advantage.
- The Other Ditch – Freedom used for the flesh.
- The Word – A yoke the fathers could not bear.
- Galatians 5:1 – “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
- Galatians 5:2-4 – “If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you… You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
- Acts 15:10 – “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
Do not put the yoke back on. Stand firm. Christ is the advantage. The yoke gives Him up.
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