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I. JUSTIFICATION BY THE LAW.

1. What this means.

(1) Circumcision which commits a man to the law.

(2) Obedience to all the requirements of the law to which the circumcised are committed.

2. Its utter impossibility.

(1) The legal covenant is abolished. To seek justification is to follow a course which God condemns.

(2) Supposing it still in force, no man can fulfil all its requirements.

II. SALVATION BY GRACE.

1. This is now the only appointed way.

2. This is a perfectly possible way: what man cannot do God does for him.

3. This is a very simple way: accept by faith what God has provided.

III. TO REJECT THE LATTER IN FAVOUR OF THE FORMER, THEREFORE, IS TO FALL FROM GRACE. Christ is thus —

(1)  repudiated;

(2)  rendered unnecessary; consequently

(3)  becomes of no effect, and so

(4)  the legalist puts himself beyond the pale of salvation.

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KJV: For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

WEB: Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.