severed from Christ (Galatians 5:4)

[JTB.SDG]

Guys,

Writing to get others' input on Galatians 5:4: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

We know it doesn't mean they've lost their salvation. Most commentators it seems, tend to take Paul's words as speaking to a select few within the Galatian church who never had salvation in the first place, who had already given themselves over to accept the doctrine of the false teachers. Is this how you all would take it? This would be in line with verse 2, though verse 2 is more conditional ("if you receive circumcision").

Question: Can we take it in a more "experiential" sense? A son who tries to start earning his father's love doesn't lose his status as a son, but there's now a good bit of relational hurt. Could this be what Paul is speaking of? Not an "objective" falling from grace but more a relational/experiential fall from grace; IE, falling from the ENJOYMENT of the grace of the gospel? In some ways, this would make more sense of "fallen from grace." It seems a stretch to say that unbelievers in the church who never truly knew Christ have "fallen from grace" if they never had it to begin with. But believers who had started living like legalists could be said to have fallen from grace in that sense.

Is this talking about being severed from Christ and His salvation itself; or is it talking about being severed from the experiential blessings that we can experience or not experience depending on how we are appropriating or not appropriating the gospel in our lives? Does "seeking to be justified by Law" mean as a Mormon or JW would, or does it mean the ways that we all start to do this subtly when we start thinking our times with Jesus, etc, earn us blessing? Or is it primarily the first, but the application can extend to the second? (Or visa versa?) . Thanks.

 

[Timotheos]

From a literary-rhetorical standpoint, don't miss the play on words/ideas being circumcised leading to being severed from Christ.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Seems to me, Paul is talking to the church he meets when he walks in the door. He's writing the Galatian church.

This church is a church-in-peril. It's a church facing the prospect of having its lampstand removed. It contains a sizeable company of people whose faith is "on the line," and some who are over the line into apostasy. For the dangers of apostatizing, see Heb.6:4ff.

Instead of divvying up the congregation into "this verse for you," and "that verse for you others;" unless Paul specifies some person or persons to whom he is "looking right at" (so to speak) we should take his expression as expressive of his concern for the church as a whole.

We don't say that our doctrine of personal salvation undergoes any sort of transformation. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. They go out from us who were never of us in the first place, that it might be manifest they were not of us.

But Paul is speaking to the church. He's putting a proper fear into the hearts of those who hear him. His words are a whip used of the Holy Spirit to drive some portion of the flock away from the precipice. As if he said, "Look to the edge, look over the edge if you dare! If you are already over the edge, you are gone! Fallen."

Is there a sheep caught by its wool in a thicket on a three-inch ledge ten feet down from the cliff top? Rescues are great. But there's a pile of dead carcasses a thousand feet below.

 

[timfost]

I believe Paul is taking them at their word- that they have been saved by grace but are now seeking to be made "perfect by the flesh." If this is the case, they have fallen from the grace they profess. This says nothing concerning their state before the tribunal of God, but relates to the relationship in the visible church.

 

[Dachaser]

Guys,

Writing to get others' input on Galatians 5:4: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

We know it doesn't mean they've lost their salvation. Most commentators it seems, tend to take Paul's words as speaking to a select few within the Galatian church who never had salvation in the first place, who had already given themselves over to accept the doctrine of the false teachers. Is this how you all would take it? This would be in line with verse 2, though verse 2 is more conditional ("if you receive circumcision").

Question: Can we take it in a more "experiential" sense? A son who tries to start earning his father's love doesn't lose his status as a son, but there's now a good bit of relational hurt. Could this be what Paul is speaking of? Not an "objective" falling from grace but more a relational/experiential fall from grace; IE, falling from the ENJOYMENT of the grace of the gospel? In some ways, this would make more sense of "fallen from grace." It seems a stretch to say that unbelievers in the church who never truly knew Christ have "fallen from grace" if they never had it to begin with. But believers who had started living like legalists could be said to have fallen from grace in that sense.

Is this talking about being severed from Christ and His salvation itself; or is it talking about being severed from the experiential blessings that we can experience or not experience depending on how we are appropriating or not appropriating the gospel in our lives? Does "seeking to be justified by Law" mean as a Mormon or JW would, or does it mean the ways that we all start to do this subtly when we start thinking our times with Jesus, etc, earn us blessing? Or is it primarily the first, but the application can extend to the second? (Or visa versa?) . Thanks.

Would it not be that those who are saved by the Grace of God, but desiring to fall back under the bondage yoke of the Law are now severed from Christ, in the sense not emploring and trusting in the spiritual measures now available to us under the New Covenant blessings?