Debtors to Do the Whole Law

Notes

"Cast out the bondwoman and her son."

Notes

"They that are in the flesh can not please God." Rom. 8:8.

Notes

"The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."

Notes

"Stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."

Notes

"Christ will profit you nothing."

Notes

"He is a debtor to do the whole law."

Notes

"Ye are severed from Christ." "Christ is become of no effect unto you." "Ye are fallen away from grace."

Notes

"Through the Spirit."

Notes

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision."

Notes

"Faith working through love."

Notes

"Ye did run well."

Notes

"That ye should not obey the truth."

Notes

1. "If ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing." "Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law." These two statements, together with a remembrance of what circumcision signified, and also the controversy that was being waged in the churches by the false brethren, make the case very clear. Why were some now turning to circumcision?—Because false brethren had taught them "except ye be circumcised, ye can not be saved." It was for justification, salvation. Circumcision was a sign of righteousness, of the keeping of the law, but only of righteousness by faith. Rom. 4:11. Those, therefore, who were trusting to circumcision for justification, were seeking righteousness by their own works of the law.

2. "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision." That is, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power. Neither condition can help any person to gain righteousness. Circumcision was never designed as a help; it was never intimated by the Lord that it had any power. It was given merely as a sign of the righteousness already possessed through Christ. What every person needs is power, but neither circumcision nor anything else, except Christ, can give that. The cross of Christ is the power of God, and in that we get the righteousness of God.

3. The original purpose of God in giving the sign of circumcision had been lost sight of, and the thing had been wholly perverted. It was given to Abraham as a sign of the righteousness which he already had, through faith, after he had made the vain attempt to fulfil the promises of God by his own flesh. It was to be a sign, a reminder, that "the flesh profiteth nothing." Therefore in a warning against those who are of the circumcision—who trust in their own works for salvation—we read, "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. 3:3.

4. Circumcision was given as a sign of righteousness, a sign of perfect commandment-keeping. It is evident, therefore, that wherever there was circumcision, we should expect to find the law fully kept, and whoever was circumcised in order to secure righteousness, thereby pledged himself to do the whole law, to make himself wholly righteous through the flesh. But this is an impossibility, for righteousness can be obtained in no other way than through faith in Christ—faith which receives and appropriates the life of Christ. Therefore the man who undertakes to make himself righteous is in debt to the law; he is debtor to do the whole law. He has assumed obligations which he can never fill, and he is everlastingly a debtor. He owes perfect righteousness, and has not the first thing wherewith to pay. It is a terrible condition in which to be. Read Rom. 8:3-7. To seek righteousness through the flesh is to seek righteousness by that which is diametrically opposed to righteousness. It is like seeking reconciliation with God by making a league with the devil. Of course every man on earth is in debt to the law, in that nobody has fulfilled the law's just demands; but when one has acknowledged the claims of the law, and has set himself to discharge the obligation, the condition is emphasized.

5. The hope of righteousness is the inheritance. "The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. 4:13. See also Gal. 3:18; 2 Peter 3:13. It is through the Spirit that we wait for this; for the Spirit is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. 1:14. Only through the Spirit of God can righteousness be obtained. "The righteousness of the law" is fulfilled only in those "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:4.

6. "Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" What is truth? "Thy Word is truth." John 17:17. Christ is the Word, and He is "the Truth." John 14:6. Therefore, only in Him is there sanctification. John 17:17, 19; 1 Cor. 1:30. In Him dwells the law in perfection. Ps. 40:8. He sets the captive soul at liberty, a liberty which is found only in seeking God's precepts. Ps. 119:45. In Him is "the perfect law of liberty." The freedom which Christ the Truth gives, is freedom from sin, from disobedience to God's holy, righteous, and good law. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."