Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 5:2

"Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing." — Galatians 5:2 (ASV)

Behold, I Paul say to you. I, who at first preached the gospel to you; I, too, who have been circumcised, and who was formerly a strong advocate of the necessity of observing the laws of Moses; and I, too, who am charged (Galatians 5:11) with still preaching the necessity of circumcision, now solemnly say to you, that if you are circumcised with the aim of being justified by that, in whole or in part, it amounts to a rejection of the doctrine of justification by Christ, and an entire apostasy from him.

He is to be "a whole Saviour." No one is to share with him in the honour of saving people; and no rite, no custom, no observance of law, is to divide the honour with his death.

The design of Paul is to give them the most solemn assurance on this point, and by his own authority and experience to guard them from the danger, and to put the matter to rest.

That if you are circumcised. This must be understood with reference to the subject under consideration. If you are circumcised with such a view as is maintained by the false teachers who have come among you—that is, with an idea that it is necessary for your justification.

He evidently did not mean that if any of them had been circumcised before their conversion to Christianity; nor could he mean to say that circumcision, in all cases, amounted to a rejection of Christianity, for he himself had procured the circumcision of Timothy (Acts 16:3). If it was done, as it was then, for prudential considerations, and with a wish not to unnecessarily irritate the Jews, and to give someone more ready access to them, it was not to be regarded as wrong.

But if it is done in the way the false teachers in Galatia claimed—as a thing essential to salvation, as indispensable to justification and acceptance with God—then the matter assumed a different aspect. Then it became, in fact, a renouncing of Christ as himself sufficient to save us. So with anything else.

Rites and ceremonies in religion may be acceptable in themselves, if they are held to be matters not essential. But the moment they are regarded as vital and essential, that moment they begin to infringe on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and that moment they are to be rejected. It is because of the danger that this will be the case that they are to be used sparingly in the Christian church.

Who does not know the danger of depending on prayers, and alms, and the sacraments, and extreme unction, and penance, and empty forms, for salvation? And who does not know how much in the Papal communion the great doctrine of justification has been obscured by countless such rites and forms?

Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ will be of no advantage to you. Your dependence on circumcision, in these circumstances, will in fact amount to a rejection of the Saviour, and of the doctrine of justification by him.