Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 5

We pause the ongoing story of Sha’ul to examine his Letter to the Galatians.

Note: To examine the graphics in this series, click on them for a pop-up version.

In our last post, we left off in Chapter 2:14 with Sha’ul describing his travels to Yerushalayim. In this post, he begins to explain his Doctrine of Justification.

The Law & Yeshua

¹⁵ We are  Jews by birth, not so-called ‘Goyishe (Gentile) sinners’; ¹⁶ even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous by God on the ground of his legalistic observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua’s trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we, too, have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to Him so that we might be declared righteous on the grounds of the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness and not on the grounds of our legalistic observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous.

These two verses are the key to how Sha’ul regarded the Law of Moshe; thus, they are the key to the letter to the Galatians and the Romans. He who seizes their true meaning can help repair the grave damage done to the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the Body of the Messiah by those who have misunderstood Sha’ul’s view of the Torah. In these verses, Sha’ul pivots from defending the authority behind his version of the Gospel (which he began in the very first verse of the letter and has made his central topic since 1:10) to explaining why, under the Brit Hadashah, it is wrong to Judaize Gentile Believers. From here to the end of the book of Galatians, he will be attacking the Judaizers and defending the true Gospel, according to which Gentiles need not become Jews to follow Yeshua, the Messiah.

¹⁷ But if, in seeking to be declared righteous by God through our union with the Messiah, we ourselves are indeed found to be sinners, then is the Messiah an aider and abettor of sin? Heaven forbid! ¹⁸ Indeed, if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed, I really do make myself a transgressor.

In typically rabbinic teaching fashion, Sha’ul anticipates an objection the Judaizers might make. The objection is two-pronged. First, and easily disposed of: Is the Messiah an aider and abettor of sin? The idea of a Messiah who promotes or serves sin is Jewishly unthinkable, a contradiction. Even if all who claim to trust in the Messiah were worse sinners than everyone else, it would be their own fault, not the Messiah’s (compare Romans 3:3–4).

The second part of the objection might be stated by the Judaizers this way: “You have been seeking to be righteous before God by uniting yourself with Yeshua; but instead of attaining righteousness, your condition is that of sinners (just like the Goyim, whom we call ‘Goyishe sinners’, because you don’t observe the Torah.” But Sha’ul answers by asserting that what the Judaizers regard as sin is not sin at all, not transgression of the Torah. For the Judaizers apply the label, “sinner,” not to those who disobey what is genuinely the Torah, but to those who do not submit to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism.

¹⁹ For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that  I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation so that I might live in a direct relationship with God. (emphasis added)

Instead of being shut off from God by legalistic misinterpretation of the Torah. Literally, “so that to God I might live.” There is a Torah to be observed (see 6:2 below), but it isn’t the legalistic system made of it by much of the non-Messianic Jewish world.¹

²⁰ When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too, so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

As a part of my daily devotional time this year, I read Kingdom Living: The Essentials for Spiritual Growth by Dr. Tony Evans. He shares that his life verse is Galatians 2:20. “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.” (ESV) I have that copied on a 4×6 photo stock on my nightstand and read it when I awake and when I lay down. BTW, I highly recommend this book for your own personal studies.

²¹ I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless.²

 

If the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, through any form of self-generated effort, and specifically, through legalistic following of Torah commands, then the Messiah’s death was pointless, and so is His ongoing resurrected life. We will explore this concept more in our next post.

In our next post, we will continue to explore Sha’ul’s Doctrine of Justification, starting in chapter 3:1.

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¹ Bear one another’s burdens – in this way, you will be fulfilling the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds.
² Galatians 2:15–21.