April 20, 2025 - Galatians 5:4 - "Fallen From Grace"

Galatians 5:4

"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law;

ye are fallen from grace."

What does it mean to fall from grace? It is indeed a terrifying thought to be excluded from the grace of God, which is found only in Christ Jesus. 

Does the warning about falling from grace imply that sinners, saved by God’s grace in Christ, might eventually lose their salvation? Some interpret it that way, but the comforting truth is that anyone for whom Christ has already paid the debt can never do anything to lose what the LORD has procured with His shed blood, poured out in death. The LORD Jesus declared: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one" (John 10:27-30).

So, what is meant by grace? Those who are the objects of God’s sovereign, saving grace and favor in Christ can never be removed from His hand. The promise to sinners whom God has chosen—those for whom He sent His Son to pay their horrific sin debt—is that, having been redeemed and justified by Him, they can never lose what He has purchased for them. Can it ever be said of any sinner whom the Lord Jesus bought with His shed blood unto death, for whom He endured indescribable agony at the hands of wicked men according to His Father’s will, that He died in vain? Can it ever be said that the work that the Holy Spirit has done in them could ultimately be fruitless?

Here, Paul is warning against those who would mix works of the law with the freeness of the Gospel to attain justification before God, "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing" (Galatians 5:2). A sinner redeemed and justified by the LORD Jesus can never fall from that grace. Still, some may be tempted to turn back to the law and personal obedience as evidence of being the LORD’s. However, to do so is to "fall from grace," or to turn away from the unique message of Christ crucified as their sole hope. Paul’s urgency arose because some in the churches of Galatia had quickly turned away from the singular Gospel of Christ, as he wrote in Galatians 1:6-7: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another…” 

These Galatians professed the great and glorious doctrine of salvation by God’s grace but had fallen into erroneous views of justification—views that were not based solely on the righteousness that the LORD Jesus earned and established in His life, and the Father imputed to the elect in His death. There are times when a person walking along can become distracted by something off to the side and suddenly trip and fall. Though the fall may not be fatal, it serves as a reminder to pay closer attention to one’s path and refocus. So it was with the Galatians. Paul had every hope that they were indeed the LORD’s, but they had temporarily fallen for the temptation to rely on their own works. 

They had fallen from the Object of grace (Christ) that they had initially professed. They had fallen from the understanding that Christ alone was their righteousness, and instead, they had begun to rely on their own will and supposed personal obedience to justify themselves, either in part or in whole, before God. Yes, such thoughts are dangerous, even damning, if the LORD were to leave them in their delusion. But, thank God, He cannot. The LORD Jesus will not lose one for whom He paid the debt. Sheep are prone to wander, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6), but the great Shepherd will keep each one, drawing them back to Himself to prevent them from ultimately falling away into destruction, "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:39). He must draw them again by the same grace by which He first called them. Those who fall cannot completely forsake the truth or deny the imputed righteousness that Christ earned and established for the perfection of everyone He came to save.