Christ Rendered Powerless: The Peril of Adding to Grace

"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." — Galatians 5:4

The sum of this text amounts simply to this: any attempt to add anything to Christ's perfect work in the salvation of a ruined sinner is an entire rejection of Christ, and makes the man an infidel.

First, consider the effect of the gospel truly preached. Where Christ is embraced by faith, three effects are wrought: pardon sealed upon the conscience, reconciliation to all God's method of saving sinners, and most prime among these—a vital oneness of soul with Jesus.

Second, mark the awful extent of apostasy contained in one short sentence. All those cherishing vain hopes of justification before God, whether in whole or in part, from anything the creature does or anything proposed to the creature, have "no effect" from Christ. They are rejecting Christ entirely.

The term "circumcision" and ceremonial law set forth the folly and rebellion of attempting to place anything of the creature alongside Christ's perfect work. One single condition—if it be but an act of obedience, a word, or even a thought—left with man, seals his damnation forever. If the preaching of God's Word does not give man salvation without contingency, it gives him none at all.

Fear there are many such professors in these days who receive the doctrines of grace in theory, yet abandon them for what pleases their fleshly natures. "Fallen from grace" marks rejection of the doctrine once embraced.