Galatians 5:2-4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Behold, I Paul A divinely-commissioned apostle of Christ; say, that if ye be circumcised And seek to be justified by that rite, or if you depend on any part of the ceremonial law, as your righteousness, and necessary to salvation; Christ The Christian institution; will profit you nothing For you thereby disclaim Christ, and all the blessings which are received by faith in him. I testify again As I have done heretofore; to every man Every Gentile; that suffers himself to be circumcised now, being a heathen before, that he is a debtor That he obliges himself; to do the whole law Perfectly; and if he fail, he subjects himself to the curse of it. It is necessary that the apostle's general expression, If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, should be thus limited, because we cannot suppose that the circumcision of the Jewish believers incapacitated them for being profited by Christ. Besides, “as the preservation of Abraham's posterity, as a distinct people from the rest of mankind, answered many important purposes in the divine government, their observance of the rite of circumcision, declared by God himself to be the seal of his covenant with Abraham, was necessary to mark them as his descendants, as long as it was determined that they should be continued a distinct people. This shows that the apostle's declaration is not to be considered as a prohibition of circumcision to the Jews as a national rite, but as a rite necessary to salvation. And therefore, while the Jews practised this rite, according to its original intention, for the purpose of distinguishing themselves as Abraham's descendants, and not for obtaining salvation, they did what was right. But the Gentiles, not being of Abraham's race, were under no political obligation to circumcise themselves; consequently, if they received that rite, it must have been because they thought it necessary to their salvation; for which reason the apostle absolutely prohibited it to all the Gentiles.” Macknight. Christ is become of no effect unto you See on Galatians 2:21. Or, as the original expression, κατηργηθητε απο του Χριστου, may be properly rendered, Ye are loosed, or separated from Christ, and deprived of the benefit you might have received from him. The Vulgate hath, Vacui estis a Christo, Ye are devoid of Christ; whosoever of you are justified That is, who seek to be justified; by the law, ye are fallen from grace Ye renounce the covenant of grace in this last and most perfect manifestation of it: you disclaim the benefit of Christ's gracious dispensation. the apostle's meaning is, that whosoever sought to be justified meritoriously by the law of Moses, and for that purpose received circumcision, dissolved his connection with Christ, and renounced all relation to, and dependance on him as a Saviour.