You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.
Parallel translations
- WEB You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
- KJV Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
- BSB You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
- NKJV You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
- NLT For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
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
Those seeking to be justified by the law are severed from Christ and have fallen from grace. Relying on works for salvation forfeits the benefits of Christ's grace.
Overview
Paul issues a stark warning: to seek justification by law-keeping is to cut oneself off from Christ and abandon the realm of grace. This describes the spiritual disaster of trusting works rather than Christ; it does not teach that a truly saved person loses salvation, but warns against the deadly error of legalism. The two ways, law and grace, are mutually exclusive as grounds of acceptance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Rom 9:31–32but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.
- 2 Pet 2:20–22For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
- Gal 2:21I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
- Rom 11:6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
- Heb 12:15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;
- Rom 3:20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- Rom 4:4–5Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
- Rev 2:5Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.
- Gal 5:2Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
- Heb 6:4–6For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
- Gal 1:6–9I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
- Rom 10:3–5For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
- Heb 10:38–39But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
- 2 Pet 3:17–18You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 5:4 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.