S136P1 – Pervasive sin: inevitable spread
Gal. 5:7-12
You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
As we discussed previously, Paul is instructing the Galatian church on circumcision here. Someone he does not know has attempted to push on these believers circumcision as a way of justification. Paul already had indicated that the practice of circumcision for this purpose for believers is not merely frowned upon but would nullify the work of Christ, which is sin. This is because that person would be placing himself in subjugation to the Law, which does not save. Paul now uses the metaphor of leavening in dough to drive home a crucial point. One chooses Christ or the Law, but one cannot choose both, and this paints a picture of how sin spreads in us.
Anyone who has baked anything requiring leavening knows that it cannot be confined to only a certain part of the dough. This is like placing a drop of food coloring in a gallon of water. Perhaps the coloring will dissipate and be almost unnoticeable, and any portion of that water will have only a relatively small portion of coloring in it, but that coloring will spread to the entire gallon. It cannot be confined to the bottom half of the water or the left side of the container. Likewise, only a little sin is required to make us sinful. Only a little dependence on something other than Christ is just like not depending on him at all. Someone who says ninety-nine prayers to the Lord and one prayer to a false god is still living in idolatry.
We will be tempted to sin as the Galatians were tempted, to place our trust and faith in anything other than the Lord for salvation. You cannot claim to live on the bread of the word yet check your horoscope every morning for life insight. You cannot claim to rely on salvation through faith by grace yet try to earn your way into God’s kingdom. Once you substitute works for faith, faith is gone, and those works will not bring life. Individually and corporately, we must remove the leavening that appears to corrupt a little but in actuality simply corrupts. Father, expose our sinful and unfaithful ways, that we would be rid of this leavening in ourselves and in our corporate body.