In Gal. 5:4 we find the expression “fallen from grace.” Some claim this teaching a person can lose their salvation. Is that a possibility? What does “fallen from grace” mean? We propose to look closely at this verse and then to “compare Scripture with Scripture” to arrive at a Biblical answer.
Obviously, a key word in this passage is the word “fallen.” According to Strong, it means “to drop away; specially be driven out of one’s course; figurative to lose, become inefficient.” Vine shows that it is used “of the believer who is warned lest he ‘fall’ away from the course in which he has been confirmed by the Word of God, 2 Pet. 3:17.” Vincent declares, “Having put yourselves under the economy of salvation by law, you have fallen out of the economy of salvation by the grace of Christ. Paul’s declarations are aimed at the Judaisers, who taught that the Christian economy was to be joined with the legal. His point is that the two are mutually exclusive.”
Consider the comments of Kenneth S. Wuest, which, though lengthy, are well worth our consideration. Writing in his Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, he states,
The words ‘Christ is become of no effect unto you,’ must be understood in their context to refer, not to their justification but to their spiritual lives as Christians. The apostle is not here speaking of their standing but of their experience. The words ‘become of no effect,’ are from katergeo which means ‘to make ineffectual,’ and which used with the word apo (from) as it is here, means ‘to be without effect from, to be unaffected by, to be without effective relation to.’ The word is applied to any destruction of growth or life, physical or spiritual. Joined with apo (from), it speaks of the loss of some essential element of life by the severance of previous intimate relations. The subject of the verb here is the Galatian Christians. One could translate ‘You have become unaffected by Christ,’ or, ‘You have become without effective relation to Christ.’ The idea is that the Galatian Christians, by putting themselves under law, have put themselves in a place where they have ceased to be in that relation to Christ where they could derive the spiritual benefits from Him which would enable them to live a life pleasing to Him, namely, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Christ has no more effect upon them in the living of their Christian lives.
In depriving themselves of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the living of a Christian life, they have fallen from grace. The words ‘fallen from’ are from ekpipto which means ‘to fail of, to lose one’s hold of.’ The Galatian Christians had lost their hold upon the grace for daily living which heretofore had been ministered to them by the Holy Spirit. God’s grace manifests itself in three ways, in justification, sanctification, and glorification. The context rules. All through chapter five, Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the believer. Therefore grace here must be interpreted as the daily grace for living of which the Galatian Christians were depriving themselves.
But because they had lost their hold upon sanctifying grace, does not mean that God’s grace had lost its hold upon them in the sphere of justification. Because they had refused to accept God’s grace in sanctification is no reason why God should withdraw His grace for justification. They had received the latter when they accepted the Lord Jesus. That transaction was closed and permanent at the moment they believed. Justification is a judicial act of God done once for all. Sanctification is a process which goes on all through the Christian’s life. Just because the process of sanctification is temporarily retarded in a believer’s life, does not say that his justification is taken away. If that were the case, then the retention of salvation would depend upon the believer’s works, and then salvation would not depend upon grace anymore. And we find ourselves in the camp of the Judaizers, ancient and modern.
Wiersbe adds, “It is bad enough that legalism robs the believer of his liberty, but it also robs him of his spiritual wealth in Christ. The believer living under Law becomes a bankrupt slave.”
Returning to the text (Gal. 5), we want to remind you of one of the key principles of hermeneutics – context. In verse 1 we are told to “stand fast … in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,” then warned not to become “entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” In verse 2, Paul reminds us that if we return to the law, “Christ shall profit you nothing.” Very strong words indeed. Verse 3 points out that we cannot pick and choose – if we are going to observe the law, we become a “debtor to do the whole law.” And then, in verse 4, just before we see the expression “fallen from grace,” we are told that if we are “justified by the law,” “Christ is become of no effect unto you.” This is a powerful and clear warning. Contextually, if we believe in “works righteousness” we are both a “debtor to do the whole law” and Christ is become of no effect” to us. This is in addition to the fact that we become “entangled … with the yoke of bondage.”
Commenting on Paul’s expression “Christ is become of no effect unto you” Barnes says,
You will derive no advantage from Christ. His work in regard to you is needless and vain. If you can be justified in any other way than by him, then of course you do not need him, and your adoption of the other mode is, in fact, a renunciation of him. Tindal renders this, “Ye are gone quite from Christ.” The word here usedκαταργεωmeans, properly, to render inactive, idle, useless; to do away, to put an end to; and here it means that they had withdrawn from Christ, if they attempted to be justified by the law. They would not need him if they could be thus justified; and they could derive no benefit from him. A man who can be justified by his own obedience, does not need the aid or the merit of another; and ff it was true, as they seemed to suppose, that they could be justified by the law, it followed that the work of Christ was in vain so far as they were concerned.
Barnes then questions whether anyone has ever “fallen from grace.” He reasons,
That this had ever in fact occurred among true Christians the apostle does not affirm, unless he affirmed that men can in fact be justified by the law, since he makes the falling from grace a consequence of that. But did Paul mean to teach that? Did he mean to affirm that any man in fact had been, or could be, justified by his own obedience to the law? Let his own writings answer.
He then quotes Rom. 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In a courtroom setting, we would expect the next words we would hear, would be an attorney saying, “We have no further witnesses, your honor.”
The question of “falling from grace” or the possibility of “losing one’s salvation” is best answered, not by taking an isolated “proof text” from here or there, but by understanding the very nature and essence of salvation. Are we justified by what we do … or by what Christ has done? Consider a few verses of Scripture that bear on the subject. Acts 13:38-39 “… through this man (Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Rom. 3:28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Gal. 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Gal. 3:11 “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Gal. 3:24 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Interestingly, the last three verses preceded the phrase “fallen from grace.” If we are smug enough to think our works are sufficient, that mindset begs the question, “Pray tell, then, why did Christ come and die?”
REFERENCES
Barnes, Albert, Notes on the New Testament Explanatory and Practical, ed. Robert Frew WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
Strong, James, Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary, (Austin, TX: WORDsearch Corp., 2007), WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
Vincent, Marvin, Word Studies in the New Testament, (New York: Scribners, 1887), WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
Vine, William, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1940), WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
Wiersbe, Warren, The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 1, (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2001), WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
Wuest, Kenneth Wuest’s Word Studies – Volume 1: Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1973), WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
