Galatians

I just love Romans. Paul lays out the perfect and complete version of Theology 101. He started with God and ended with some interpersonal interactions between believers. In between are layers of theology that cover everything from original sin, to redemption and forgiveness, to the end times. (PS the whole nation of Israel will turn back to God. End of story.)

But the little gem of Galatians kind of hides out farther back in the New Testament. The Gospel that he so carefully delineated in Romans was subject to disruption. Listen to verse 6 of ch 1:
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

He continues to declare that it is not really a different gospel, but a fake and that they should not even believe him if he presents an alternative. Pretty strong language there. And, just for the record, he also squelched the idea that even an angel could change or add to what he had delivered. Take that, cults.

Then to again spike any cannons, he outlines his credentials, including the acceptance of his Gospel by Peter and the Jerusalem church elders. (Read other apostles there.) What he preached was indeed from God and they all knew it. My intention is not to walk through the epistle but to hit the high points.

In chapter 3 he declares:
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

And the focus of his concern is revealed. A “works” component has been added to some of the teaching there. It essentially said that we are saved by grace, yes, but that we have to keep ourselves saved by our actions. It even implies that this “finished” salvation provided by Jesus is a little deficient. We can lose it, or take ourselves out of it, or fail to maintain it. Paul’s response was... “Bull hockey!”

Well, he was a little more discrete, “Are you so foolish?” And chapter 3 looks back to Abraham to confirm that it is by faith alone. (V. 6-9) Paul continues to point out that keeping the law is a futile enterprise. No one ever could, and no one ever can. We had to have a substitute, (there’s that word again) to remove the curse from us for failing to complete the transaction of keeping the law.

Verse 15 to the end of chapter 3 is a masterpiece of logic. If no one can alter a human contract unilaterally, then it is preposterous to believe and claim that God’s covenant can be amended. Since no one is able to keep the law, the whole world is “shut up” or bounded by the law so that the promise delivered by Christ can be afforded to everyone. (V. 22) Review quickly. God gave a promise to Abraham, His covenant: righteousness based on faith, and the extension of that promise to the entire world. So if Abraham got the promise by faith, it is ludicrous, literally nonsense to assert that there would be a different formula or recipe for others.

Was the law an enemy antagonist to faith? V. 21 b. Paul’s and my favorite negation: “May it never be!” Me genoito in Greek. That is repeated in Romans 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2.; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11. (I told you Paul liked that. But I digress.) Paul, in his most strenuous language rejected that idea. The law was a tool, a school master to show us what our deficiencies were. A good teacher does not teach the class what they already know. He counters ignorance by teaching what they do not know. (I did that for years. Maybe I still do.)

Then in chapter 4 he extends the argument. An heir, the son of the land owner, is like a slave when he is a child. Both are under guardians and masters until the date that the father has designated for the son’s identification as such, or to use a Biblical term, adoption. Then the son has full privileges and responsibilities of ownership and leadership in the family.

We have received the adoption as sons (4:5) and now are full participants in His family. Verse 9 presents Paul’s anguish:
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, (been adopted into the family as the heir-ed) how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 

Why do you want to return to the tutorship of the slave who “raised” you? The term, “foolish” comes to mind here, once again. Paul’s literal anguish is explained in 4:12-20. Then in chapter 5 Paul gets very stern and pointed.
Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?

Pay attention to what you are asking. Paul then appeals to Jewish history to compare Isaac with Ishmael. One was the son of a slave and the other was the son of Abraham’s wife, and the heir of the Promise that God had given. And for the final comparison, we turn back to Genesis,
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
(That was in Genesis 21.) Do you want to be a slave again?

So Paul points out that people who put themselves back under the law are following an inferior relationship and inheritance. Ishmael got to wander in the wilderness, alone with no father. Isaac lived with his father and inherited the promised blessing. Sounds like an easy choice.

Paul turns to specifics in chapter 5.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (V. 1)
Slavery is the practice of keeping the law in order to please God. The specific item of dispute was being circumcised. Ironically, some today urge people to keep Jewish traditions and feasts as a means of “walking more closely with the Lord.” There is nothing wrong with observing them, but there is no inherent spiritual value or merit in them either. God doesn’t love us for keeping the feast of whatever any more than He loves those who do not keep it. This is even true for Jews. Ask Michael Rydelnyk, a Messianic Jew. (I suspect that he has read Galatians a time or two.)

Paul concludes the treatise in 5:7:
You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.

The “caller” to observe the law and all of its customs was not “Him who calls you.” Don’t go there. But then just in case someone decides that good relations between “brothers” is superfluous to the Christian life, Paul spends the next two chapters outlining our responsibilities to each other. His paragraph headings speak for themselves.
5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit

Then chapter 6 finalizes the mandate to care for others and don’t behave like spoiled brats. And 6:17 is Paul’s final admonishment.
From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

Shape up and don’t cause me so much trouble. What a fantastic lesson in applied theology. Paul wants us to all live like sons and treat others as if we like them. We do. I just love Galatians. I hope you do too.