What is the Galatian error?
Orientation
The Galatian error is the attempt to mix law and grace, placing confidence in your own performance rather than trusting solely in Christ's righteousness.
- It shifts focus from Christ's sufficiency to your own ability to maintain God's favor.
- This mixture leads to spiritual anxiety and striving, replacing the peace and blessedness found in Christ.
- It is a fundamental denial of justification by faith alone, with serious consequences.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
— Galatians 5:4
Clarification
This error is not about trying harder, but about changing the ground of your standing before God from Christ's work to your own.
- Examples include treating tithing as a transaction to secure blessing or viewing discipleship as a system of self-effort and renunciation.
- It misunderstands pre-resurrection calls to discipleship, which were meant to expose inability, not provide a path for human effort.
- This distortion turns God's free provision into a wage, contradicting the nature of grace.
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. (Galatians 2:16)
— Galatians 2:16
Structure
Paul's logic is stark: justification is by faith in Christ alone; any addition of law-keeping places you under the law's curse and severs you from grace.
- Justification by faith brings peace with God, the Holy Spirit, and freedom from legalism.
- Attempting justification by law brings estrangement from Christ and subjects you to the curse declared in the law.
- These are two mutually exclusive principles; you cannot have both.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10)
— Galatians 3:10
Weight-Bearing Prose
The Galatian error is the theological collapse of grafting law-keeping onto the gospel of grace. Paul’s categories are absolute: righteousness is either by the law or by faith in Christ (Gal 2:16). To attempt justification by law is to be ’of the works of the law’ and thus under its comprehensive curse (Gal 3:10). This is not a minor misstep but a salvific issue, resulting in being ‘estranged from Christ’ and having ‘fallen from grace’ (Gal 5:4). The error manifests when any human obedience—whether tithing, moral effort, or discipleship as self-renunciation—is presented as necessary to maintain standing or secure blessing. This creates a merit-based system, distorting grace into a wage. The true, Pauline gospel declares that peace with God, the indwelling Spirit, and blessedness are received solely through faith in Christ’s finished work, freeing the believer from the tyranny and curse of self-justification.
Integration
Your standing before God is not, and never will be, in your own performance. It is anchored completely in Christ’s righteousness, received by faith. This is a fixed, settled reality. The call is not to manage a mixture of law and grace, but to rest in the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice. Any pressure to secure blessing or maintain favor through your works is a echo of the Galatian error, from which Christ has set you free. Re-anchor here: you are accepted in the Beloved. God’s provision and peace are gifts of grace, not wages for work. Christ is your peace, your righteousness, your life. There is no condemnation, only certainty in Him.