What is Galatianism? The Legalistic Error That Corrupts the Gospel
Orientation
Many believers struggle under the burden of thinking their Christian life must be perfected by law-keeping and self-effort.
- This error suggests justification is just an entry ticket, but sanctification requires our own work.
- It sidelines the Holy Spirit's role, replacing His power with a weary treadmill of religious performance.
- This mixture of law and grace results in bondage, not the freedom Christ promised.
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3)
— Galatians 3:3
Clarification
The Galatian error is not just about how we get saved, but also about how we live as saved people.
- The first form of the error says justification requires law-keeping alongside faith.
- The second, subtler form says justified believers are perfected (sanctified) by keeping the law.
- Both forms distort the gospel by mixing law with grace and replacing the Spirit's work with fleshly effort.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)
— Galatians 5:1
Structure
God's plan is built on a foundation of promise, not performance: justification by faith precedes and grounds life in the Spirit.
- Justification rests on the Abrahamic Covenant of promise, which predates the law given for condemnation.
- Sanctification is through the Spirit's power, not law-keeping; grace is the believer's rule of life.
- The same faith that justifies is the faith by which we live; we do not begin in the Spirit only to be perfected by the flesh.
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14)
— Galatians 3:14
Weight-Bearing Prose
Paul confronts a dual-form error. The first distorts justification by adding law-keeping to faith. The second, more prevalent error, distorts sanctification by claiming the justified believer is made perfect by the law. Both are a mixing of law with grace, producing an accursed gospel (Galatians 1:8-9). Justification is established on the Abrahamic Covenant—a covenant of promise, not performance. The law, given later, cannot annul this salvation by grace. Sanctification is through the Spirit, not the law. The law serves as a ministry of death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7-9), showing its incompatibility with the believer’s new life in Christ. To teach that the Christian life is maintained by law-keeping is to deny the Spirit’s office and revert to the fleshly pattern of Hagar and Ishmael—a yoke of bondage. The believer, having died to the law and been crucified with Christ, is called to live by the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2:19-20).
Integration
Your standing before God is not a fluctuating state based on your performance. It is settled in Christ. The same promise that justified you—the Abrahamic Covenant fulfilled in Christ—is the ground from which the Spirit works in you. You are not under a system of maintenance. You are in Christ, and He is your life. The pressure to perform is removed. The call is to live by the Spirit’s faith principle, resting in the finished work. Christ is your righteousness, your sanctification, and your reward. There is no condemnation, only the liberty of a son. Let this truth anchor you. The Christian life is not your effort for God, but Christ living in you by His Spirit.