YOU WERE CALLED TO FREEDOM by Adriel Sanchez for Core Christianity
Have you ever failed to read the fine print closely, and it cost you? An NPR article called “When Not Reading the Fine Print Can Cost Your Soul” describes several “mischievous” clauses companies have included in online contracts. In one, people signing up for free Wi-Fi access could check a box “agreeing to ‘assign their first-born child to us for the duration of eternity.’” Several people checked the box, most likely not having read the clause. The article also says that “on April Fool’s Day in 2010, British retailer Game Station inserted a new clause into its license agreement, with a check box already ticked. If users didn’t uncheck the box, they agreed to grant Game Station ‘a non-transferable option to claim for now and forevermore your immortal soul.’”[1]
Joking aside, how crazy would it be if you didn’t read the fine print closely enough and you gave up your soul? You think you’re getting a good deal, but it ends up costing you everything. That’s exactly what Paul is worried about in Galatians: “I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law” (Gal. 5:2–3). The false teachers are saying, “Just get circumcised and follow these food laws. It’s going to be great.” But Paul tells them if they sign on the dotted line, they’re obligating themselves to an entire religious system. That’s the fine print. They’re about to obligate themselves to obey all of the law—perfectly.
“You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4). Are there more terrifying words in the New Testament? Paul is very concerned. There are two ways to be justified before God. We either, through our own efforts, perfectly obey the law, or we trust in a mediator who, standing between us and God, fulfills the law in our place. If the Galatians choose to submit to the law, obligating themselves to moral perfection, they’re by definition rejecting Christ as their mediator. They’re rejecting the grace God offers.
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