Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
- KJV Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
- NKJV Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
- NASB Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
- NLT Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul solemnly warns that if they receive circumcision as a means of righteousness, Christ will be of no benefit to them. Trusting in works nullifies the sufficiency of Christ.
Overview
Speaking with apostolic authority, Paul declares that submitting to circumcision as required for salvation amounts to rejecting Christ's all-sufficient work. The issue is not the rite itself but what it represents: an attempt to be justified by law. To add anything to Christ as the ground of acceptance is to lose Christ altogether.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Gal 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.
- Acts 15:1Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
- Rom 9:31–32but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
- Gal 2:3–5Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
- Rom 10:2–3For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.
- Heb 4:2For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.
- Gal 5:3–4Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
- Gal 5:11Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
- Acts 16:3–4Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, so he took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
- Acts 15:24It has come to our attention that some went out from us without our authorization and unsettled you, troubling your minds by what they said.
- 2 Cor 10:1Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.
- 1 Th 2:18For we wanted to come to you—indeed I, Paul, tried again and again—but Satan obstructed us.
- Phlm 1:9I prefer to appeal on the basis of love. For I, Paul, am now aged, and a prisoner of Christ Jesus as well.
- 1 Cor 16:21This greeting is in my own hand—Paul.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 5:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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