For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Anyone who accepts circumcision as a requirement for salvation or right standing with God places himself under obligation to keep the whole law. In Galatia the demand to observe the ceremonial law as essential to salvation diminished faith in Christ and obedience to the Ten Commandments, and reliance on such observance was a departure from the faith. Relying on obsolete Jewish ceremonies in place of Christ virtually renounces Christ and the gospel. The warning therefore calls for decisive correction.
The verse also shows that Christ became responsible for fulfilling the whole law on behalf of those He represented, obeying every requirement. If He had failed in even the least part He would have been a lawbreaker and His offering would have been ineffective. By obeying in human nature He condemned sin in the flesh and removed fallen humanity's excuse for disobeying God's law. Those who held the opposing reading taught that the passage means the law itself is a yoke of bondage and keeping it is falling from grace, so that there is no Sabbath at all to be kept and there is no law.
Anyone who accepts circumcision as a requirement for salvation or right standing with God places himself under obligation to keep the whole law. In Galatia the demand to observe the ceremonial law as essential to salvation diminished faith in Christ and obedience to the Ten Commandments, and reliance on such observance was a departure from the faith. Relying on obsolete Jewish ceremonies in place of Christ virtually renounces Christ and the gospel. The warning therefore calls for decisive correction.
The verse also shows that Christ became responsible for fulfilling the whole law on behalf of those He represented, obeying every requirement. If He had failed in even the least part He would have been a lawbreaker and His offering would have been ineffective. By obeying in human nature He condemned sin in the flesh and removed fallen humanity's excuse for disobeying God's law. Those who held the opposing reading taught that the passage means the law itself is a yoke of bondage and keeping it is falling from grace, so that there is no Sabbath at all to be kept and there is no law.