The Unkeepable Law

Reading:  Galatians 3:7-14
    
    Paul addresses the Galatians’ fixation on the Law of Moses by discussing Abraham.  This is not a coincidence; Abraham is venerated by both Jew and Gentile.  Yet Paul uncovers a startling truth about Abraham:  God blessed him not because he kept a law, but because of his faith (Gal 3:6).  “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham”(Gen 3:7).  Paul even reframes God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham as “foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith” and “(preaching) the gospel beforehand”(Gal 3:8).  Abraham is blessed, while uncircumcised, when he believes; so we can be blessed, whether circumcised or not, when we believe.

    The Law meanwhile, promises something different.  “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’”(Gal 3:10).  Notice that the curse comes when we do not keep “all things written;” the demand is for perfection.  It is possible to gain eternal life by Moses’ Law, provided that we always keep it in all points (Gal 3:12).  The problem is not the Law, but that we are not capable of sinless perfection.  So attempting to be righteous by our own goodness only leaves us cursed.  The good news is that Jesus redeems us from the curse by taking the curse on himself (Gal 3:13) so that even Gentiles “might receive the promised Spirit through faith”(Gal 3:14).  Praise God, we can be righteous without living a perfect life!

    Paul, an old veteran at law-keeping, informs the Galatians of an unpleasant reality:  we can’t do it.  We try to do right, but we make mistakes.  We redouble our efforts and try harder to try harder, but we can’t remove our sin.  As time goes by, we just add to our list of imperfections and weaknesses.  Jesus offers a new path.  He gives us a salvation that we do not earn and frees us to live by joyful, obedient faith in him.  When we make mistakes, we repent and he forgives.  Praise God, we can be righteous without living a perfect life!

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One Thing to Think About:  How have I experienced the despair of trying to be saved by my own goodness?

One Thing to Pray For:   Gratitude to God for giving me a path to eternal life
 

Changing Horses Midstream

Reading:  Galatians 3:1-6
    
    Paul now speaks directly to the Galatians and expresses his dismay that they are considering keeping the Law of Moses instead of simply following Jesus.  “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?  It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”(Gal 3:1).  Paul has preached the gospel to them, vividly portraying Jesus’ crucifixion, yet now they are leaving that behind.  His words here focus on the shift they are making from their initial conversion.  “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”(Gal 3:2-3).  They began well—with zeal and passion for Jesus.  Their commitment was to believing in him, not keeping Moses’ law.  They received the Holy Spirit when they began to follow Jesus.  So why change now?  

    It is more intriguing because Paul has made the opposite change.  He has given up his observance of the Law as an effort to save himself by his own righteousness (see Phil 3:9, Rom 10:3, Titus 3:5); the Galatians are now starting what he has ended.  Why?  “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”(Gal 3:3).  Why would they choose their own flesh over God’s Spirit?  The persecutions they have endured are not the result of Moses’ Law (Gal 3:4).  The miracles and spiritual gifts they have observed are not the product of law-keeping (Gal 3:5).  Paul shakes his head in wonder at why they would abandon a better system for an inferior one.

    Application is challenging here for modern Christians.  Certainly Paul’s words forbid us from creating a hybrid system of “Moses + Jesus.”  Yet the greater danger seems to be of changing horses midstream:  beginning our walk in faith but trying to finish it by our own power.   We come to Christ broken and in need, begging for grace.  Yet when we find it, we gradually begin to convince ourselves that we are better than we are.  Our old life gets farther in the background.  We begin to think we can save ourselves or are worthy of salvation—after all, I’m a pretty good guy!  Though we certainly have works to do, we never graduate past walking by faith.  Don’t change horses midstream.

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One Thing to Think About:  Do I have the same humility and desperation I did when I became a Christian?

One Thing to Pray For:   Glory to God for saving me and continuing to work in me
 

Rebuilding What I Tore Down

Reading:  Galatians 2:15-21

    Paul is rebuking Peter here for abandoning his Gentile brothers out of fear of his Jewish brothers (Gal 2:11-14).  He argues from his and Peter’s common understanding:  “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ”(Gal 2:15-16).  Peter’s mistake is more than a change in eating plans; it reflects that he is still attempting to be saved by keeping Moses’ law.  Christians are saved by faith in Christ (Gal 2:16), not perfect law-keeping.

    Peter’s actions have further implications.  “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor”(Gal 2:18).  Peter is reverting to his life pre-Jesus—a life that he has repented of and abandoned as insufficient.  Paul insists that this “rebuilding” is antithetical to the gospel.  “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”(Gal 2:20).  When we choose to follow Jesus, we serve a new master and do not retreat to old ways.  Our lives are determined by the will of the one who loved us.  If we can be saved outside of Jesus, “then Christ died for no purpose”(Gal 2:21).

      Each of us has a past before we began to follow Jesus.  When we come to him, we repent of our sinful ways, confess him as Lord, and begin to walk in a new direction (see Acts 2:36-42). We do not look back. Surprisingly, Peter shows us that our past sometimes includes past efforts as religion.  We abandon that old life of being saved by our perfection and goodness because perfection is impossible and salvation is by faith.  Whatever the details of our past—the siren song of old temptations, the residue of old ways of thinking, the patterns of speech and behavior—we are new creatures now and Christ lives in us.  We do not rebuild what we tore down.  We do not look back.

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One Thing to Think About:  How might I be tempted to retreat to my old ways?

One Thing to Pray For:  Discernment to see the spiritual implications of small decisions    

The Impact of Hypocrisy

Reading:  Galatians 2:11-14
    
     After Paul’s successful meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem, it is a little surprising to read that “when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned”(Gal 2:11).  The church in Antioch was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, both of whom would have looked up to Peter (Cephas) as a vital link to Jesus.  Peter was also the first one to preach the gospel to Gentiles (see Acts 10-11) and championed their inclusion in the church.  Yet now he and Paul are no longer at peace.  “For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.  And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy”(Gal 2:12-13).  Peter would happily eat with the Gentile Christians (perhaps even sharing their non-kosher food), but when some intimidating Jewish Christians arrived, he stopped and only ate with other Jews.  This change sparks Paul’s rebuke.
    
    Part of the problem is that Jews refusing to eat with Gentiles was a part of their old life, when they believed that such associations would make them ritually unclean.  Paul publicly scolds Peter:  “I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’”(Gal 2:14).  The gospel has freed Peter to live in a new way—“like a Gentile”—yet his actions are requiring Gentiles to live like Jews by maintaining the racial distinctions of the Mosaic Law.  

    Paul does not mince words here.  Peter, though one of Jesus’ right-hand men, is a hypocrite.  His hypocrisy stems from his fear of people (Gal 2:12), leads the rest of the Jewish believers astray (Gal 2:12), and undoubtedly devastates his Gentile brothers.  Hypocrisy can drive people away from the faith and encourage others toward similar behavior.  The issue is not that we must be perfect, but that we must admit when we are “not in step with the truth of the gospel” and change.  The stakes are high.

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One Thing to Think About:  How have I seen hypocrisy affect others?  How has it affected me?

One Thing to Pray For:   The courage to change when I see inconsistency in my life
 

Social Pressure

Reading:  Galatians 2:1-10
    
    Paul is wrapping up his extensive argument that the message he preaches originated with Jesus, not any man.  He only returns to Jerusalem fourteen years after his conversion (probably the visit detailed in Acts 11:29-30) to “set before them…the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain”(Gal 2:2).  This was a moment of truth for Paul.  Would the apostles accept him?  Would their messages line up?   There were two notable outcomes of the meeting.  First, “Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek”(Gal 2:3).  This is notable because of the presence of those who argued that Gentiles need to be circumcised and keep Moses’ Law to be saved (Gal 2:4).  The apostles and the church at Jerusalem accepted Titus as a brother, despite his lack of circumcision.

     The second outcome is that James, Peter, and John acknowledged Paul’s ministry and message as authentically Christian by giving him “the right hand of fellowship”(Gal 2:9).   They “added nothing to me”(Gal 2:6), meaning that they accepted Paul’s gospel as-is.  They viewed Peter as having a ministry primarily among Jews while Paul had another primarily among Gentiles (Gal 2:8) and only asked that they remember the needy Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (Gal 2:10).  The results of this meeting must have been a huge encouragement to Paul—and they are proof that the message the Galatians are considering is not from the apostles.

     There is a thread running through this text that belies Paul’s anxiety and concern over the meeting:  social pressure.  Some eager-seeming Jewish Christians were actually “false brothers” who wanted to “bring us into slavery”(Gal 2:4).  The apostles, meanwhile, “seemed to be influential”(Gal 2:6) and “seemed to be pillars”(Gal 2:9).  Paul is speaking about the intimidation he felt at their presence.  Yet he insists that “what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality”(Gal 2:6).  Social pressure often makes us feel intimidated, afraid, ashamed, insecure, and overwhelmed.  Sometimes it can lead us to do the wrong thing to keep the peace.  Paul is our example in insisting on what is right (Gal 2:5) regardless of the social consequences.  What is right is not determined by how others feel about us.

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One Thing to Think About:  In what situations do I feel the most social pressure?  How do I react?

One Thing to Pray For:  A willingness to show no partiality—like God