Galatians

Even an Angel

/ David R Maas / 1 Comment

After 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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Having Begun in the Spirit

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In his letter to the Galatians, Paul addresses a growing danger. Certain “men from Jerusalem” claim that Gentiles must keep the deeds of the Mosaic Law to “complete” their faith, or at least, some of them. They are “compelling Gentiles to Judaize” by adopting circumcision, calendrical observances, and perhaps the Levitical dietary restrictions.

Paul would have none of it. Unlike his other letters, this time, his opening salutation was curt, and he immediately chastised the Galatians and launched into a diatribe against the Judaizing faction from Jerusalem.

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WEAK AND BEGGARLY RUDIMENTS

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The new Messianic Age has dawned in Jesus, therefore calendrical rituals and other Levitical regulations belong to the old and now obsolete order.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul chided Christians for their desire “to return to bondage under the weak and beggarly rudiments” of the world, including calendrical observations. Since believers now live in the era of fulfillment, resorting to outmoded rituals is inappropriate and constitutes regression to a state of slavery.

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FROM THIS EVIL AGE

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The death of Jesus signaled the commencement of the messianic age with consequent changes in the status of the Law and God’s people.

In his opening statement to the Galatians, Paul declared that his apostleship was from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, the one who gave his life to “deliver us from this evil age.” This declaration anticipated his proposition that the arrival of the Messiah fundamentally changed the status and role of the Law for the covenant community – (Galatians 1:3-5).

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SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE LAW

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To pursue a Torah-observant lifestyle is to re-erect the old social barriers – Galatians 3:26-4:7.

The final paragraph of the third chapter of Galatians is pivotal to Paul’s larger argument, for it stresses the oneness of the people of God established by Jesus. In this new order, the old social divisions are inappropriate, especially now that the promised “seed of Abraham” has arrived. To now return to the regulations of the Law would erect the old social barriers.

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