AMAZING GRACE

      "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace," Ga 5:4. NKJV.

      "You who are trying to be justified by Law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace," Ga 5:4. NIV.

      "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace," Ga 5:4. RSV.

      "You who want to be justified by the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace," Ga 5:4. NRS.

      "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace," Ga 5:4.NAS.

      Again, these verses are NOT concerned with salvation from hell.

      Here are five translations of the same verse, and all say the same thing. Tradition says a saved person cannot fall from grace. This is just one of the many verses which teach a saved person can fall away from grace. That does NOT mean one is lost, unsaved, or going to hell again after being saved.
      Furthermore, this is just one of the many places where the traditions of the elders, as of old, have departed from the faith once for all delivered to the saints, Ju 3; Mt 15:1-20; 23:23 (1-39).
      We must emphasize that there are and always will be two groups of saved people: 1) the faithful saved people, and 2) those who are unfaithful saved people in this life.
      The unfaithful saved will surely be punished, but not in hell or the lake of fire. They will have all their work (generic for works) burned, but they will be saved so as by fire, I Cor 3:15; et al.
      FIRST let us emphasize that the letter to the Galatians was written to "the CHURCHES of Galatia," Gal 1:2. This means this letter was written to SAVED, and SCRIPTURALLY BAPTIZED CHURCH MEMBERS.
      SECONDLY, the entire book of Galatians, is concerned directly and explicitly with a major problem of the Galatian CHURCHES being deceived into trying to keep both the Law Covenant and the New Covenant at the same time. This mixed the Law Covenant with the New Covenant, which necessarily mixed flesh works with grace works. This mixing of man's works with God's works further mixed man's righteousness with God's righteousness. This was a major mistake. THIS WAS THE GALATIAN HERESY. It created a condition that was fatal to any covenant relationship with God unless that condition was corrected.
      THIRDLY, the problem in the Galatian churches was being instigated by emissaries out of the Law-keeping Jerusalem church, Acts 10; 11:1-18; 15:1-34; Gal 1 & 2; 6:12-13; (all of Galatians); Acts 21:17-26.
      Study these and related passages such as II Cor 3 and Rom 2 through 11 very thoroughly and honestly in the light of the stubborn Law-keeping bent of the Jerusalem church and the explicit warnings given especially in Paul's writings.
      A thorough and conscientious study will require a major restructure of certain areas of our theology to bring it back more precisely on the solid foundation of the Word of God. We have little to lose and much to gain by a diligent and constant but always cautious reexamination of our blood-bought Baptist heritage.
The two covenants DO NOT MIX: the Law Covenant was and is a FLESH WORKS (human works) covenant (not of faith, in its first application, Gal 3:12), while the New Covenant is a GRACE covenant. God made the covenants this way to teach us that we cannot mix flesh works with God's grace works.
      There were TWO very important, very distinct, and very explicit applications of the Law Covenant, both of which apply to the saved person's DAILY LIFE. There was:

      God required every individual under the Law Covenant to keep the Law Covenant in the energies of the FLESH, apart from grace through faith. This is what is meant when the Scriptures say, "by the works of the Law shall no FLESH be justified," Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16. Those under the Law covenant were required to try to keep the Law by the power of the flesh apart from grace through faith.
      Here is also what the Scriptures mean when They say, "Yet the Law is NOT OF FAITH, but 'The man who does them shall live by them," Gal 3:12; Rom 10:4-8. Those under the Law covenant were required to try to keep the Law by the power of the flesh apart from grace through faith. This is why the "flesh" is constantly associated with the Law Covenant in Galatians and Romans.
      The first application of the Law Covenant therefore excluded faith by requiring those under the Law to be perfect in and by the power of the flesh apart from grace through faith.

      "And be found in Him, not having my OWN righteousness, which is of the Law" (Covenant, resulting from mere flesh obedience which God required to show us that sinful man could not and cannot keep the Law), "but that which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (which God required and still requires as the only way to obtain God's righteousness, which is in addition to salvation from hell), Phil 3:9; Mt 5:6; 6:33; Gal 5:5; I Tim 6:11; II Tim 2:22; 4:8; Heb 5:13; 11:7,33; 12:11; Jms 3:18; I Pet 2:24.

      "What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not constantly pursuing righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness OF FAITH; But Israel, constantly pursuing the Law of righteousness, has not attained to the Law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it BY FAITH, but as it were, by the works (flesh works) of the Law (Covenant). For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever is constantly believing on Him will not be put to shame," Rom 9:30-33.

      Observe in these verses how Gentiles in the church keep the Law Covenant "by grace through FAITH" while the Jews failed because they pursued the Law of righteousness by flesh works. See also in Rom 10:1-11 and 2:13-29 that the Jews could have done the same if they had pursued the Law of righteousness by FAITH.
      God purposely designed the Law Covenant to prove to Israel, to us, and to the world that flesh works (man's works, our works) are altogether unacceptable to God. Flesh works include any and all of man's efforts to save himself and find acceptance with God or make himself acceptable to God in order to obtain the promises God made in the covenants.
      The warning in Gal 5:4 of falling from grace is easy to understand when we recognize that the entire book of Galatians concerns a COVENANT or CONTRACT relationship between God and His covenant people.
      The book of Galatians is not concerned with salvation from hell, but rather with a COVENANT relationship between God and His covenant people. See the covenant emphasis in the context specifically from Gal 4:21--5:4.
      The allegory in Gal 4:21-31 is the heart, not only of the book of Galatians, but of the whole Bible. The first verses of Galatians 5 CANNOT be interpreted apart from the allegory at the end of chapter 4. The words "therefore," "liberty," and "free" of 5:1 are directly complementary to the allegory of chapter 4.
      Christ, as the High Priest of the New Covenant, made us free from the bondage represented of the Law Covenant -- not merely the bondage OF the Law Covenant, but the immeasurably greater bondage represented in the allegory BY     the Law Covenant.
      The Galatian churches were being deceived by emissaries out of the Jerusalem church, Acts 10; 11:1-18; 15; 21; Gal 1 and 2. This deception was leading the Galatian churches into obedience to the Law Covenant along with their obedience to the New Covenant, which constituted a mixing of GRACE works and FLESH works with disastrous results.
      Any persisting effort to keep the Law Covenant by those under the New Covenant initiates an inescapable domino effect -- an inevitable chain of disastrous events of immeasurable proportions.
      Observe a few examples of this domino effect and of how disastrous the results are when New Covenant people undertake to mix the Law Covenant with the New Covenant.