Ben Zornes

INTRODUCTION

Let me set before you a ridiculous image. Think of the most dignified and respected person you know personally. Now, picture them behaving with all the maturity of a Mountain Dew fueled 12 year old boy at a game night with his buddies. This incongruity is how we should see Law-keeping in relation to Christ coming and receiving His promised inheritance.

THE TEXT

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. […]

Galatians 4:1ff

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul’s rebuke has been severe. But it shouldn’t be mistaken as uncontrolled wrath. His “tone” is imminently deliberate. Bear that in mind in studying this section. The metaphor of an heir in infancy continues (v1). In the Greek world, a servant would be tasked with keeping the young heir from danger, and was responsible for tutoring the heir in the family business (v2). Mankind’s situation prior to Christ’s coming, was like a child with strict boundaries (v3). This immaturity was also a bondage to the elements of the world, more on that momentarily. The Law’s tutelage was always temporary until the fulness of time was complete, when God sent forth the Seed of the Woman to redeem mankind out from under the Law, in order to receive adoption through faith in Christ (vv4-5). This is all very similar to what Paul taught in the previous section, but with one more addition to drive his whole argument home. The works of the flesh could never justify you, which is why now, by faith in Christ, you receive the Spirit. This Spirit cries out within you that you are born anew with God as Your Father; you’re not a servant but a son and heir of all that Your Father possesses (vv6-7).

So then, the Galatians’ attempt to relive history by going back to where the Jews started is to go back into bondage. They once served demons, and for them to desert this Gospel which Paul had proclaimed to them is to go back into prison. This is why Paul is so concerned for them, they are squandering the gift of the Gospel which Paul had bestowed upon them (vv8-11). Paul is not offended because of a personal slight (v12); after all, he recalls to them how he first ministered unto them in “infirmity of flesh” (Cf. Acts 14:19-20), and they had received him as an angel, as Jesus Himself (vv13-14). They were so blessed by Paul, that they would have even given him their eyes (v15). So why, he asks, have they begun to treat him as an enemy for telling them the truth (v16)? The Judaizers are happy to convince the Galatians that they are “out” until they meet all the requirements necessary to become Jews; this is the epitome of a spiritual power trip (v17).

Instead of trying to please these Judaizers, Paul wishes that the Galatians would be zealous for the truth, regardless whether he’s present or not (v18). But now, he must labor like a woman in childbirth for them again, because, by all appearances, they had not yet been born anew (v19). In all this, Paul is aware of his tone, though he wishes it were unnecessary, he doesn’t apologize for it (v20). Not only that, but he derides their comprehension of the Law itself (v21). To understand the law, you must understand the story of two women, their sons, and two mountains (vv22-25). Hagar is Sinai which is actually earthly Jerusalem, while Sarah is the prophesied heavenly Jerusalem. As Isaiah foretold (Is. 54:1), heavenly Jerusalem would be our mother (vv26-27). Christians are like Isaac, heirs of the promise, while these Judaizers are persecuting Ishmaels. This underscores that the old order is over and Gentiles and Jews, by faith in Christ are free-born sons (vv28-31).

TWO WOMEN

A prominent framework in evangelicalism is to draw a dividing line through Scripture, separating the Law and Grace. Certainly, we can identify, especially here in Galatians, that there is some sort of division taking place. There is a war. We’ll see in the next chapter that the flesh and the Spirit are in a war. But the division is not internal to the Scriptures, or within God’s purposes. It isn’t as if God concluded that this Law thing really wasn’t working out and it was time to try something new. Rather, the division has always been between believers and unbelievers. Those of faith and those of the flesh.

This is why Paul uses the allegory of Hagar and Sarah and their sons. There is a story that God is telling, and you must understand the characters if you are to understand where you are in the story. Fastidious exegetes might squirm at Paul’s use of Genesis and Isaiah here, but we shouldn’t. Can’t you see? Two women. One barren yet beloved. One a slave-woman, with an ill-begotten child of the flesh. It’s clear, right? Sinai against Heavenly Jerusalem. Works of the flesh or simple faith in Christ the Seed promised in Eden and to Abraham and to David.

The question of who is your mother is quite important. The slave’s sons are marked by unbelief. The children of Sarah believe in Christ. Heavenly Jerusalem was once barren, but by God’s steadfast love she is now bearing children in all the ends of the earth. So, Paul confronts the Galatians with their immaturity. They are letting Ishmael bully them into being ashamed of being heirs in Christ/Isaac. Again, the Galatians were misreading the story of history, and thus were missing their own place in the story. They wanted to live by sight and not by faith.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

This passage also gives us an important understanding of what true spiritual warfare is. Before Christ, the nations worshipped idols, and behind these idols were demon beings. For the Galatians to return to the observance of days, months, times, and years is to go back to the idols, and thus back to serving demons. This means that all efforts to live outside of the framework of Christ’s ascension to the Father’s right hand are at their root a return to bondage to the elements of this world (i.e. the demons).

GROWING UP

In Christ, mankind is coming into maturity. We are inheriting the world. This requires us to walk by faith in Christ every step of the way. The whole Bible is ours. The Law is the Law of Love; love for God our Father, and love to our neighbor. The Proverbs are given to us to understand the workings of this world. The Psalms are given to govern all our emotions, so we may exhort and admonish one another with sanctified affections. The Prophets are given to us to prick our conscience, and to teach us to look at our own time with eagle-eye discernment. The Gospels are ours, for they display all the perfection of Christ our redeemer. The Epistles are ours for we are taught all things necessary for life and godliness in this New Creation of Christ our Head. And John’s Apocalypse is given to us to assure us that the dragons and demons are bound, and the King is ruling upon this earth which He inherited through us, His body.

Would you grow into that maturity? The only way is by His Word and His Spirit. The Word which begets you, and the Spirit which gives you Christ’s life. Receive it by faith.

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INTRODUCTION

I hope you’ve never had the misfortune to have one of those dreams where you feel completely paralyzed. It may not even be that the dream is particularly horrifying. But enduring a dream where your feet won’t move, where your voice can’t shout, where you can’t wake up even thought you want to is rather miserable. Waking up from such an oppressive dream is nothing if not relieving. The coming of Christ, according to Paul, was the transition from a dream to waking, from the school year to the summer holiday, from prison to freedom.

THE TEXT

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. […]

Gal 3:15ff

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Having scolded the Galatians for trying to accomplish by the flesh what the Spirit had begun by the hearing of faith, Paul turns to more thoroughly explain Abraham’s example of faith. Making use of the illustration of a human will or testament, Paul points out the impropriety of annulling or amending such a covenant once it is established (v15). So, God’s heavenly covenant was promised to Abraham and his seed––singular not plural (v16, Cf. Gen.17:7). This covenant with Abraham and with Christ (the Seed) preceded the Law by 430 years, and therefore the latter cannot void or amend the earlier covenant (v17). Rather, the inheritance promised to Abraham was contingent on faith and not the Law (v18). And it is important to note Paul’s emphasis on the imagery of an heir receiving an inheritance.

Paul is not “anti-law”. This is evidenced in him volunteering a crucial question that was likely nagging the Galatians: what was the law for? It was put in place for much the same reason that a farmer puts up chicken wire, to keep the flock from wandering off. God did this by means of angels (Cf. 1:8) which committed the Law into the hands of a mediator; presumably this refers to Moses (v19). Verse 20 poses a challenge to expositors; I take it to mean that while the Law was established by God with His people through Moses, the promise to Abraham was directly from God to Abraham and His seed without the need for a mediator.

So then, the Law was not meant to keep us away from the promise, but to dam up the floodwaters of sin. For, God could have made a law that, if kept, would have resulted in righteousness (v21). Yet, even if such a law had been given, we still would have found out a way to screw it up; thus, God arranged this order events in order that we might receive by faith all the blessings of the promise which Christ received by His perfect faith (v22). Paul then speaks of faith in what we might call eschatological terms. Before faith came, the Law was in place like a baby gate for keeping a naughty toddler out of trouble (v23a). But this was temporary until the faith should be revealed (v23b).

The Law was the tutorial, faith in Christ was the diploma (v24). Faith has now come in Christ, and therefore, school is over (v25). Trusting Christ, including all He did on our behalf, brings us into the family of God; your baptism is a sign which signifies that new birth (vv26-27). This means that the old distinctions between Jew (clean) and Gentile (unclean), male (able to receive the sign of circumcision) and female (unable to receive that sign) have past their expiration date, for there is now a new distinction: in Christ and not in Christ (v28). It must be remarked in our gender confused day and age that this isn’t a prooftext for queerness. It is simply an insistence that the covenant sign is no longer received merely by males, but is open to male and female from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

Those in Christ, are also included in that which was promised to Abraham’s seed, namely inheriting as lawful heirs the new heaven and new earth (v29).

WHAT WAS THE LAW FOR?

When looking at Christian history, it can appear that the Church reels like someone afflicted with vertigo between the poles of legalism and licentiousness. Self-righteous scrupulousness is a real temptation that has ensnared many individual Christians and entire institutions. As I mentioned before, we love to have a righteousness we can point at. But the church has also suffered at times from an impoverished understanding of all that Paul is insisting upon when he is underscoring that we are not under the Law but under grace. Too often this is taken as an Apostolic hall pass to act like a drunken baboon let loose in a grocery store. Both misunderstandings are dangers to the spiritual health of individuals and institutions.

Paul teaches here something which the Reformers later articulated as the three uses of the Law. What we find here in our text is the Scriptural foundation for understand the first use of the Law. It’s first function is divine border patrol. This is, in part, what Paul has in view here. The Law was intended to keep mankind in general, but Israel in particular from the self-destruction of unbridled sin. Think of this threefold purpose of the Law as a nut; the hard outer shell restrains evil, the bitter inner pith brings the realization of our sinfulness, and the savory fruit in the center is Christ’s righteous fulfillment of the Law.

On this last point it is worth stating that Christ’s fulfillment of the Law enables us, by trust in Him, to norm society to the general equity contained in the Law, but not as a means of justifying us before God. This is important to emphasize because Paul is certainly not inviting us to throw off rules, authority, or the rule of law as such. Rather, he wants us to grow up. He wants us to be like Christ, by receiving from Christ all that His resurrection ushered in; namely, the new life of His Spirit. The Law has been subsumed in the glory of Christ’s New Life which has invaded the world.

HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE

Abraham had faith, trusting in God’s promise to bless all nations through the seed promised to him. Paul says that though Abraham believed this promise, and was justified by his faith, faith had not yet been revealed. There was faith all throughout the OT, but not the faith. Paul says we, the Jews, were “locked up” by the law until…until what? Until the faith would be revealed. The faith was revealed by Christ’s perfect faith.

Follow Paul’s argument closely, “We, the Jews, were locked up, for a time, that you, the Gentiles, might become true children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.” This is why the sign of circumcision (which governed who were the heirs of Abraham) is no longer needed. This glory is run-on sentence worthy. The promised Seed had come and by His faith He received the promise, and because He received the promise, He can share His inherited promise with all who come to Him by faith.

And what does this mean? It means that you, you Gentiles, regardless of your circumcision status, are, in fact, Abraham’s seed. Again, singular not plural. Why singular? Because you are baptized into Jesus, and thus we all are one in Him. He alone is the Savior. He alone brought salvation to the whole world. He alone is how you might stand before God. He alone is how salvation is brought to you, personally. By Him alone is this truth made certain to you, that if you believe in Christ then God is your Father.

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INTRODUCTION

In this chapter we have two splendors. On one hand we have a hero of the faith, contending, almost entirely alone against error and as a result keeping the early church from sliding into a grievous error. The reason he does so is because of the greater splendor, that of the Gospel of justification by faith alone.

THE TEXT

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. […] Galatians 2:1ff

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Remember that Paul swore before God as to the veracity of his record (1:20). So we must either believe him, or accuse him of falsehood. Now, he has related one trip to Jerusalem in Galatians 1:18-20 which corresponds to Acts 9:26-30, here in our text (Galatians 2:1-10) he relates another trip to Jerusalem, which I believe must be the famine relief trip recorded in Acts 11:27-30, 12:25. This famine was foretold by prophetic vision (Acts 11:28), which is what Paul seems to be referring to in Gal. 2:2 when he says they went up “by revelation”. It is important for the arguments which Paul will make later that we note here that if this was written after the Jerusalem council to the Northern Galatians, then Paul’s sworn record is false for failing to cite the visit to Jerusalem for that vitally important council.

So then, the visit to Jerusalem for famine relief was without fanfare, lest Paul’s mission get gummed up with unnecessary disputes (v2). Titus, a Greek, was with Paul on this trip, but was not compelled to be circumcised (v3). But there was clear pressure, from false brethren, to subject Titus (and therefore all Gentile believers) to this rite (vv4-5). But after conferring with Peter, James, and John, those apostles gave the right hand of fellowship confirming that the ministry to the uncircumcised really had been given with heavenly might unto Paul and as the ministry to the circumcision was proper to Peter (vv6-9). The only stipulation was that Paul remember the poor, which Paul was only too happy to oblige (v10).

The dangerous error which was troubling the Galatians was spreading, and Paul relates an intriguing episode between him and Peter. Peter came up to Antioch, and was happy to dine with Gentiles (Cf. Mk. 7), that is until some of James’ colleagues from Jerusalem arrived. Peter, because he was afraid, withdrew from table fellowship with Gentiles. This act was so pregnant with meaning that even Barnabas was led astray (vv11-13, Cf. Acts 15:39). Paul publicly rebuked Peter’s hypocrisy, and is, of course, committing his public rebuke to the public record (v14). Paul’s rebuke was this, “How dare you freely act as a Gentile one moment, and then browbeat the Gentiles to adopt Jewish manners the very next!”

Paul then transitions from timeline to theology. The Jews of all people, unlike the sinful heathens, ought to know that from top to bottom we are justified not by our works of righteousness but by the faith of Christ (vv15-16, Hab. 2:4). Christ’s coming had really changed the cosmos. Jews who would be justified by Christ must first recognize that they are categorically kin with Gentiles: sinners (Rom. 3:9, 2:15). But this arrangement doesn’t make Christ a minister of sin (v17). Paul didn’t preach a Gospel of gluing the shattered tablets of stone back together, only to break them again (v18); rather, the Gospel is that by faith in Christ we die to the law, and live to God (v19). Nevertheless, this union with Christ is only made possible by His crucifixion, which we are joined to by faith alone; for righteousness is only found in Christ’s death (vv20-21).

PILLARS OF A NEW TEMPLE

The old Jerusalem was being replaced by a new Jerusalem. A new temple, with a chief cornerstone had been established, and the pillars of Herod’s temple had been supplanted by living apostolic pillars. Therefore, it would be like trying to time travel backward through time to go back to law-keeping as if nothing had been altered. This new temple had apostolic pillars, carved from Jewish marble, but it also had living stones cut from a Gentile quarry. Paul relates that the Gospel he had been preaching from his conversion was completely in line with the Gospel which the other apostles preached. It was not at all at odds. It was as Isaiah had foretold, the mountain of the Lord (the temple) would be exalted over all the earth, with Gentiles streaming into it, being incorporated into the service of it, and it being made a house of prayer for all nations (Is. 2:2, 56:6-7).

From Paul’s conversion (near Jerusalem), his visit with Peter in Jerusalem after three years in Arabia, and then his private conference with Peter and James 14 years later he had been preaching this Gospel of the coming of Israel’s Messiah, the Resurrection, and therefore the blessing of deliverance from sin for all nations. Paul insists that the other apostles “added nothing” to Paul’s Gospel (2:6). In other words, those who wanted Gentiles to submit to the law-keeping (as represented in the sign of circumcision) were missing the central glory of the Gospel.

The Judaizers, not unlike many modern apparently well-meaning charlatans, likely presented themselves as discipleship gurus. They came with an ethos of “we’re here to help.” But though they appeared to be putting training wheels on the discipleship of Gentiles, they were in fact removing the bike chain, popping the tires, and cutting the brake cords. It was the Judaizers, and those who were swayed by their arguments––Peter in particular––who were not “walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel”. They moved, not Paul; and most certainly not the Gospel.

THE FAITH OF CHRIST

This portion of Scripture is a priceless cask of the finest wine. You do not find right standing before God by keeping the law. Rather, your faith must be in the faith of Christ. This is a curious phrase that is used twice here (2:15, 20), and once in the next chapter (3:22). Paul will flesh this out more as he goes on, but the sword-point of His argument is that it is by Christ’s perfect righteousness, including His faith in all of God’s promises, by which you are justified. Of old, God had made great promises to His people; Jesus Christ believed all these with a perfect faith and received the inheritance that came along with that faith.

So the Gospel, as always, is the glory of glories. Sin is the transgression of the law. Yet God assures you that all of it, the very worst of it, the sin that you committed willfully, with eyes wide open and heart hardened, is entirely forgiven if you come by faith to Christ. We often want to rush in and add stipulations about living righteously and obediently. Paul will soon explain what the Christian’s life looks like, and it is certainly not marked by continuing in sin. But the scandalous glory of the Gospel is in this: you are crucified with Christ. That means if you look in faith to Christ, your sins, every damn one, is forgiven.

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