The Gift of the Spirit demonstrates beyond question who belongs to the Holy Covenant Community of Jesus, and who does not.
In the assemblies of Galatia, “false brethren” were preaching “another gospel,” pressuring Gentile believers to adopt circumcision and conform to other regulations of the Mosaic Law. Paul repudiated the very idea and sent the Galatians a series of arguments demonstrating why Gentiles need not be circumcised.
Continue readingJesus came to fulfill what was promised and foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law, and the Prophets.
Fulfillment is a key theme in the Gospel of Matthew. With the arrival of Israel’s Messiah, the time of fulfillment commenced. But what does this imply regarding the Law of Moses? In his ‘Sermon on the Mount’, Jesus provides clear answers. He did not come to settle the interpretive disputes between competing Jewish sects over the details of the Law, but instead, to fulfill the “Law and the Prophets.”
Continue readingThe jurisdiction of the Mosaic regulations over the covenant community reached its limit with the arrival of Jesus, the Seed of Abraham.
In responding to claims that Gentiles must be circumcised, Paul appealed to the common experience of the Spirit received by the Galatians. Did they receive the Gift through a “hearing of faith” or “from the works of the Law?” Having begun in the Spirit, why did they seek the “completion” of their faith based on “flesh” by submitting to circumcision?
Continue readingIn Galatians, the Apostle Paul compares the Mosaic Law to a “pedagogue” in its supervision of Israel “until the seed came.” That “seed” was Jesus. In Greco-Roman society, the “pedagogue” was usually a slave with custodial and disciplinary authority over an underage child until he reached maturity. The minority status of the child and the authority of the custodian over him were both temporary.
Continue readingAfter a curt introduction, Paul begins his letter to the Galatians with a stern warning. What some members are contemplating amounts to replacing Jesus with a false messiah and a counterfeit gospel. To turn from the “faith of Jesus Christ” to circumcision and other “works of the law” as the basis of the faith is apostasy. Thus, the sternness of his language.
The Apostle to the Gentiles launched into a rebuke with words expressing his astonishment that the Galatians had departed so quickly from the gospel, one that included an ominous curse formula.
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