Galatians 5:4

THE MESSAGE

I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is finished—you have left God's grace.

Revised Standard Version
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Ye are gone quyte fro Christ as many as are iustified by the lawe and are fallen from grace.

Hebrew Names Version
You are alienated from Messiah, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

New American Standard Bible
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.

New Century Version
If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is over—you have left God's grace.

Update Bible Version
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Webster's Bible Translation
Christ is become of no effect to you, whoever of you are justified by the law; ye have fallen from grace.

English Standard Version
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

World English Bible
You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Weymouth's New Testament
Christ has become nothing to any of you who are seeking acceptance with God through the Law: you have fallen away from grace.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And ye ben voidid awei fro Crist, and ye that be iustified in the lawe, ye han fallen awei fro grace.

English Revised Version
Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.

Berean Standard Bible
You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Contemporary English Version
And if you try to please God by obeying the Law, you have cut yourself off from Christ and his wonderful kindness.

Amplified Bible
You have been severed from Christ, if you seek to be justified [that is, declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty, and placed in right standing with God] through the Law; you have fallen from grace [for you have lost your grasp on God's unmerited favor and blessing].

American Standard Version
Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.

Bible in Basic English
You are cut off from Christ, you who would have righteousness by the law; you are turned away from grace.

Complete Jewish Bible
You who are trying to be declared righteous by God through legalism have severed yourselves from the Messiah! You have fallen away from God's grace!

Darby Translation
Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ as separated [from him], as many as are justified by law; ye have fallen from grace.

International Standard Version
Those of you who are trying to be justified by the law have been cut off from Christ. You have fallen away from grace.Romans 9:31-32; Galatians 2:21; Hebrews 12:15;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
You have ceased from the Meshiha who are justified by the law, and from grace you have fallen.

Murdock Translation
Ye have renounced the Messiah, ye who seek justification by the law: and ye have apostatized from grace.

King James Version (1611)
Christ is become of no effect vnto you, whosoeuer of you are iustified by the Law: ye are fallen from grace.

New Living Translation
For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.

New Life Bible
If you expect to be made right with God by obeying the Law, then you have turned away from Christ and His loving-favor.

New Revised Standard
You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye are abolished from Christ: whosoeuer are iustified by the Law, ye are fallen from grace.

George Lamsa Translation
You have ceased to adhere to Christ, who seek justification by the law; you are fallen from grace.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye have been set aside from Christ, ye who, by law, are to be declared righteous, - out of his favour, ye have fallen;

Douay-Rheims Bible
You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law: you are fallen from grace.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Christe is become but vayne to you, as many of you as are iustified by the lawe, are fallen from grace.

Good News Translation
Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace.

Christian Standard Bible®
You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.

King James Version
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Lexham English Bible
You are estranged from Christ, you who are attempting to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace.

Literal Translation
you whoever are justified by Law, you were severed from Christ; you fell from grace.

Young's Literal Translation
ye were freed from the Christ, ye who in law are declared righteous; from the grace ye fell away;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye are gone quyte from Christ, as many off you as wylbe made righteous by the lawe, and are fallen from grace.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Christ is of no use to you, whoever of you seek to be justified by the law; you have lost all interest in the gospel-dispensation.

New English Translation
You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

New King James Version
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Those of you wanting to reinstitute the old code have quit on Jesus. When you ain't got him, you ain't got God's grace anymore either.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Legacy Standard Bible
You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace!

Contextual Overview

¹ Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. ²I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. ⁴I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. ⁷You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn't come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don't toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment. ¹¹As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn't matter one way or the other. Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

is: Galatians 5:2, Galatians 2:21, Romans 9:31, Romans 9:32, Romans 10:3-5

justified: Romans 3:20, Romans 4:4, Romans 4:5

ye: Galatians 1:6-9, Romans 11:6, Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:38, Hebrews 10:39, Hebrews 12:15, 2 Peter 2:20-22, 2 Peter 3:17, 2 Peter 3:18, Revelation 2:5

Reciprocal: Acts 13:43 - the grace Acts 15:24 - that certain Romans 2:13 - justified Romans 4:14 - For if Romans 5:1 - being 2 Corinthians 3:9 - the ministration of righteousness Galatians 2:16 - that Galatians 3:3 - having Galatians 3:17 - none 1 Timothy 1:7 - to 1 Timothy 1:19 - concerning 2 Timothy 1:10 - abolished

Cross-References

Genesis 5:1
This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.

Genesis 5:3
When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was just like him, his very spirit and image, and named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Adam lived a total of 930 years. And he died.

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.

Genesis 11:12
When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

Psalms 127:3
Don't you see that children are God 's best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

Psalms 144:12
Make our sons in their prime like sturdy oak trees, Our daughters as shapely and bright as fields of wildflowers. Fill our barns with great harvest, fill our fields with huge flocks; Protect us from invasion and exile— eliminate the crime in our streets.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Christ is become of no effect unto you,.... Or "ye are abolished from Christ"; or as others by an "hypallage" read the words, "Christ is abolished unto you"; for by their seeking for justification by their own works, it was all one to them as if there was no Christ, and no righteousness in him, and no salvation by him; they had nothing to do with him, nor he with them:

whosoever of you are justified by the law; that is, who sought to be justified by their obedience to the law, or who thought they were, and trusted in themselves that they were righteous; for otherwise, by the deeds of the law, no flesh living can be justified:

ye are fallen from grace; that is, either from that grace which they professed to have; for there might be some in these churches, as in others, who were only nominal Christians, and formal professors; who had declared they saw themselves lost and undone sinners, destitute of a righteousness, and professed to believe in Christ alone for righteousness and strength, but now trusted in themselves, and in the works of the law: or from the scheme of grace in the whole of man's salvation, which will admit of no mixture of works; either it is one or the other, it cannot be both; wherefore by their taking on the side of works, they showed that they had entirely dropped the scheme of grace: or else from the Gospel of the grace of God, from whence they were removed, through the influence of false teachers; particularly the doctrine of free justification by the grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ; which was entirely set aside by their seeking to be instilled by the works of the law; and from this they might be said to be fallen, who were on such a bottom.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Christ is become of no effect unto you - 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. Tyndale renders this: “Ye are gone quite from Christ.” The word here used (καταργέω katargeō), means 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 if 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.

Whosoever of you are justified by the law - On the supposition that any of you are justified by the Law; or if, as you seem to suppose, any are justified by the Law. The apostle does not say that this had in fact ever occurred; but he merely makes a supposition. If such a thing should or could occur, it would follow that you had fallen from grace.

Ye are fallen from grace - That is, this would amount to apostasy from the religion of the Redeemer, and would be in fact a rejection of the grace of the gospel. That this had ever in fact occurred among true Christians the apostle does not affirm unless he affirmed that people 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; see, especially, Romans 3:20. But unless he held that, then this passage does not prove that anyone who has ever been a true Christian has fallen away. The fair interpretation of the passage does not demand that. Its simple and obvious meaning is, that if a man who has been a professed Christian should be justified by his own conformity to the Law, and adopt that mode of justification, then that would amount to a rejection of the mode of salvation by Christ, and would be a renouncing of the plan of justification by grace. The two systems cannot be united. The adoption of the one is, in fact, a rejection of the other. Christ will be “a whole Saviour,” or none. This passage, therefore. cannot be adduced to prove that any true Christian has in fact fallen away from grace, unless it proves also that man may be justified by the deeds of the Law, contrary to the repeated declarations of Paul himself. The word “grace” here, does not mean grace in the sense of personal religion, it means the “system” of salvation by grace, in contradistinction from that by merit or by works - the system of the gospel.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Galatians 5:4. Christ is become of no effect unto you — It is vain for you to attempt to unite the two systems. You must have the law and no Christ, or Christ and no law, for your justification.

Ye are fallen from grace. — From the Gospel. They had been brought into the grace of the Gospel; and now, by readopting the Mosaic ordinances, they had apostatized from the Gospel as a system of religion, and had lost the grace communicated to their souls, by which they were preserved in a state of salvation. The peace and love of God, received by Jesus Christ, could not remain in the hearts of those who had rejected Christ. They had, therefore, in every sense of the word, fallen from grace; and whether some of them ever rose again is more than we can tell.