Dedicated to Truth

Dedication · Senior Member

Lesson 5 Old Testament Faith (Gal. 3:1-14)

Dedication · Senior Member

Paul is voicing his astonishment at the course the Galatian Christians have taken in the first three verses.

Paraphrase:
Are you not thinking clearly that you have left the truth? Who mesmerized you? You once fully understood how Christ suffered and died for your salvation.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit because you earned it or because you had faith in Christ?

Why are you now seeking to earn your salvation?

So what is going on here?
As J. Louis Martyn notes, the reading of this letter is like coming in on a play as the curtain is rising on the third or fourth act.
What are these Galatians doing?

Conjectures have many explanations --
1) The extreme -- Paul wants them to stop keeping the ten commandments

2) Paul doesn't want them to be caught up in Jewish ceremonial and ritual laws, especially those imposed on Gentiles desiring to become a partaker of God's covenant. (with circumcision being a #1 requirement)

3) The Galatians have fallen back into heathen practices that they are mixing with Christianity.

What, in actuality is Paul addressing?

The first option is impossible -- Paul has ever admonished his converts to order their lives in agreement with God's moral law.

The second option is more likely --

We look at his first example of "the problem" in Galatians chapter two:

He recounts a previous experience when he and Barnabas, along with Titus, a Gentile, go to Jerusalem. Titus was a Gentile convert to Christianity and dear to Paul who called him "my own son after the common faith" (Titus 1:2)

Most will agree that this is referring to the same event recorded in Acts 15, as it deals with the same issue, which was then brought before the council at Jerusalem.

[While in Antioch] Certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, saying, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses YOU CAN NOT BE SAVED. And when Paul and Barnabas had fierce debate and controversy with them, it was appointed that Paul and Barnabas and some others go to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question…..when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses’.” Acts 15:1-5

Now Paul and Titus are in Jerusalem and some from the party of the Pharisees used devious means to spy out whether Titus, who was a Gentile, was circumcised. The “church council” itself apparently voted that Titus should not be compelled to be circumcised.

Here we find ourselves in the heat of the Jewish mindset. A person was "a heathen" unless he was a Jew. The only way one could be a Jew was to undergo circumcision and purification rituals and take studies in the Torah. So again we see the "Jewish party" insisting that a person FIRST had to become a "Jew" before they could be offered any salvation privileges from God.

Paul says, "No! to their insistence that Titus (and all Gentiles) who convert must be initiated into the Jewish economy by circumcision. He told them that all are made one at the cross -- all are unclean sinners without Christ. Grace is available for all peoples, there's no distinction between Jews and the rest.

In our day a popular teaching has come in suggesting Paul, in Galatians is freeing the Gentiles from their obligation to obey God's law (particularly the Ten Commandments). But remember that Titus was the "test case" to resist the circumcision party. Yet in the book of Titus chapter one we read what Paul wrote this young man. Paul admonishes Titus to live a moral life (See Titus 1:5-9; 2:1-19) He even tells Titus that Christ's redemption includes cleansing us from every lawless deed and purifying a people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11)

Paul explains a bit more to Titus about those "false brethren" of the circumcision, who infiltrated the church.
Notice what type of characters they have –

insubordinate
idle talkers
doing this for monetary gain
they follow the commandments of men
They (these Judizing men) profess to know God but in works they deny Him living in abominable disobedience and disqualified for every good work. Titus 1:16

In spite of their insistence on Jewish initiation rituals, and other ceremonies, their lives and actions show they have never been circumcised of the heart. insubordinate idle talkers doing this for monetary gain they follow the commandments of men They (these Judizing men) profess to know God but in works they deny Him living in abominable disobedience and disqualified for every good work. Titus 1:16 In spite of their insistance on Jewish initiation rituals, their lives show they have never been circumcised of the heart.

Dedication · Senior Member

Paul's second example was his experence with Peter:

Jewish people considered Gentiles "defiled" and to associate with them, they themselves would be "defiled". Thus they had rules about not going into a Gentiles house or sitting with them at the same table to eat.

Peter realized these rules were wrong, but when a deligation from jerusalem came to visit, he segregated himself from the Gentiles.

Peter’s lapse was especially serious, considering his role of leadership in the situation presented above.

His lapse from the gospel reinforced the idea that the Gentile Christians were an unclean people. Peter, just before he was invited to go to the home of the Gentile, Cornelius, had received a vision from God in Acts 10, telling him to call no one common or unclean. On returning to Jerusalem, he was accused of “going into the home of the uncircumcised and eating with them” “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” Acts 10:34 (The truth of gospel is that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but all are one in Christ. Gal. 3:28) It was this experience upon which he based his powerful argument for Paul's mission in Acts 15. Now for Peter, after his divine revelation and “breakthrough” to revert to segregation in front of the Gentile Christians was a grave problem!! The Gentile converts would feel they were second-class Christians, inferior and not worthy to be associated with by the Jewish Christians.

What shocked Paul, was that even Barnabas, his companion in the ministry to the Gentiles, followed Peter’s lead! Everything gained in the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) was being denied.

Peter, being a leading apostle, led them in this departure from the gospel. Discrimination sent a message, and it was the same message as the false teachers were sending, “Unless you are circumcised you are not saved, you are not clean, you are not justified, and we will not associate with the unclean.”

Paul makes it clear that God's moral law condemns ALL as sinners, all need cleansing, all are one at the foot of the Cross. A Gentiles does NOT have to become a proslyte Jew in order to partake of God's covenant promises. They only have to come to Christ.

Dedication · Senior Member

TUESDAYS: SECTION (Oct. 25)

Abraham was a central figure in Judaism. Not only was he the father of the Jewish race, but Jews in Paul’s time also looked to him as the prototype of what a true Jew should be like. Many not only believed that his defining characteristic was his obedience but that God had declared Abraham righteous because of that obedience. After all, Abraham forsook his homeland and family, he accepted circumcision, and he was even willing to sacrifice his son at God’s command. That’s obedience! With their insistence on circumcision, Paul’s opponents certainly argued along these same lines.

Paul, however, turns the tables by appealing to Abraham—nine times in Galatians—as an example of faith instead of law-keeping.

Consider Paul’s quotation of Genesis 15:6. What does it mean when it says that Abraham’s faith was “counted . . . to him for righteousness”? (See also Rom. 4:3–6, 8–11, 22–24.)

___________

__________

Whereas justification was a metaphor taken from the legal world, the word counted or reckoned is a metaphor drawn from the domain of business. It can mean “to credit” or “to place something to one’s account.” Not only is it used of Abraham in Galatians 3:6, but it occurs another 11 times in connection with the patriarch. Some Bible versions translate it as counted, reckoned, or imputed.

According to Paul’s metaphor, what is placed to our accounts is righteousness. The question is, however, On what basis does God count us as righteous? It surely cannot be on the basis of obedience—despite what Paul’s opponents claimed. No matter what they said about Abraham’s obedience, Scripture says that it was because of Abraham’s faith that God counted him as righteous.

The Bible is clear: Abraham’s obedience was not the ground of his justification; it was, instead, the result. He didn’t do the things he did in order to be justified; he did them because he, already, was justified. Justification leads to obedience, not vice versa.

Dwell on what this means—that you are justified not by anything you do but only by what Christ has done for you. Why is that such good news? How can you learn to make that truth your own; that is, to believe it applies to you, personally, no matter your struggles, past and even present?

Dedication · Senior Member

Quote from lesson:
"Paul, however, turns the tables by appealing to Abraham—nine times in Galatians—as an example of faith instead of law-keeping."

Was it really Paul's intention to call obedience to God's moral law "foolishness"?

He said the Galatains were foolish.
Modern commentaries imply that foolishness concerned their obedience to God's moral law.

But as we just looked at Paul's introductory remarks he was addressing a specific issue.

And as we look now to Paul's reference to Abraham, we realize that Abraham was an uncircumcized man living in the ungodly city of Ur when God called him. Abraham did not belong to any special race with special priviledges. Indeed, by the Jewish way of looking at people outside of their nation, Abraham would have been judged an unclean Gentile!!

But God accepted Abraham! He accepted him before circumcision, before there was a nation considered as "God's chosen".

In the same way, Paul was showing them, God was calling Gentiles.

Just like Abraham was called and accepted by God so the Gentiles.

The apostle urged the Galatians to leave the false guides by whom they had been misled, and to return to the faith that had been accompanied by unmistakable evidences of divine approval. The men who had attempted to lead them from their belief in the gospel were hypocrites, unholy in heart and corrupt in life. Their religion was made up of a round of ceremonies, through the performance of which they expected to gain the favor of God.

To substitute external forms of religion for holiness of heart and life is still as pleasing to the unrenewed nature as it was in the days of these Jewish teachers. Today, as then, there are false spiritual guides, to whose doctrines many listen eagerly. It is Satan's studied effort to divert minds from the hope of salvation through faith in Christ and obedience to the law of God. In every age the archenemy adapts his temptations to the prejudices or inclinations of those whom he is seeking to deceive. In apostolic times he led the Jews to exalt the ceremonial law and reject Christ; at the present time he induces many professing Christians, under pretense of honoring Christ, to cast contempt on the moral law.

The gospel rightly understood does not lead to laxness concerning God's moral law. The gospel is power to transform people from within.

Eriel · Veteran Member

"Was it really Paul's intention to call obedience to God's moral law "foolishness"?

The confusion is obvious if we endeavor to equate the moral law to Paul’s exhortations in Galatians. Notice….
““For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Galatians 3:18, ESV).”

What is the promise?

This is the promise of a Savior, the person of Christ. And Christ is personified by the ceremonial law as a type of salvation. So, it should be obvious, Paul is contrasting Christ with the ceremonial law, not the moral law.

Only if and when we make a clear distinction between the ceremonial law and what it typifies, vs. the moral and its ongoing application to humanity, can we make any sense of what Paul is saying in Galatians.

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made;

Now it is obvious to me, and some others as well, that whatever “law” Paul is speaking about, is one that is “added” and then can later be subtracted.

The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man's creation, and will endure as long as God's throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of His law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of His government. It is unchangeable, unalterable, infinite, and eternal.

What the ceremonial law typifies is the meritorious work of Christ in which we have no part. And this is “by faith alone”. But obedience to the moral law and justification by the moral law is never by “faith alone”. True, Christ says to us, "Without Me you can do nothing." But the true child of God is to cooperate with the divine. I must know what conditions are imposed on me, that I may cooperate with God in the saving of my own soul. I cannot satisfy the claims of God upon me as his human agent, by meeting the ideas and opinions of even teachers of doctrines, unless they harmonize with the voice of God. "What saith the law? How readest thou?" is the question from the greatest of all teachers.

If we continue to advocate that Paul in the historical context, is refering to the moral law, like modern Protestantism, we are negating the moral law.

This may not be the intent. But it is the only viable logical conclusion when you say the law has been “added” and is now subtracted.

-- Edited by Eriel on Friday 4th of November 2011 07:21:48 PM

Eriel · Veteran Member

Why Abraham?

Paul could have used Adam in his illustration. When Adam sinned and broke the moral law, the ceremonial law was “added because of transgression.” It typifies Christ and His ministry. He could have use the Cain and Abel situation to make the same point. He could have used Noah. Why did Paul use Abraham?

Because the Jews held Abraham in high esteem and considered themselves “saved” simply because they were “Abraham’s seed.”

But Paul shows “Abraham’s seed” is Christ. And concludes, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Paul does not contrast Christ with the moral law. This application came later when the Reformers opposed Rome who claimed “merit” for human works. Then it was necessary to show that even works in obedience to Christ by way of the moral law could never merit heaven. Christ alone merited our salvation.

But Paul also makes it very plain that law breakers do not inherit the kingdom of God.

Christ is our title, but He is not our fitness. And our fitness for heaven is what is judged in the final judgment. And if we have no fitness, the title is forfeited.

Why? Because it shows we have not cooperated with Christ or the Holy Spirit. God will not impute the righteousness of Christ to anyone who refuses the moral obligation to keep the commandments and claim they are saved without obedience to the law.