Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 9

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 3:22 with Sha’ul describing the Law & Faith. In this post, he continues to explain his Doctrine of Justification.

Heirs Through Faith

²³ Now, before the time for this trusting faithfulness came, we were imprisoned in subjection to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism, kept under guard until this yet-to-come trusting faithfulness would be revealed.

Before the time for this trusting faithfulness (of Yeshua’s coming), we were imprisoned. The Greek word translated “this” in vv. 23–26 means “the.” In Greek, the definite article is sometimes unimportant and need not be translated; however, Sterns believes it refers not to pistis generally but specifically to the Messiah’s own pistis, spoken of in the preceding verse (see verse 22 in my last post). Before the time for it came, before God had presented humanity with this unsurpassable example of what trusting faithfulness is, the Jews were imprisoned by a specific kind of sin, legalism, that arose from misconstruing the Torah. Gentiles were imprisoned for their sins as well. (see v. 22, Romans 1:16–2:16 and Romans 11:30–32), which develops this topic, the universality of sin and the reason for it, in other contexts.

²⁴ Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a custodian until the Messiah came so that we might be declared righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful.

The word translated “custodian” is “paidagôgos,” literally, “boy-leader.” In ancient Greece, a paidagôgos was a slave who took a boy to and from school.

²⁵ But now that the time for this trusting faithfulness has come, we are no longer under a custodian.

Therefore, now that the time for this peerless example of trusting faithfulness that Yeshua displayed has come, which same trusting faithfulness we now have too, because we are united with Him (v. 26), the Jews and Gentiles are no longer under legalism of any sort, no longer under a custodian.

²⁶ For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness;

This trusting faithfulness that Yeshua demonstrated belongs not only to Jews but to all Jewish and Gentile Believers in Him. If Jews and Gentiles exercise this trusting faithfulness, which belongs to both of us by our union with the Messiah(see Galatians 2:17–18), then both Jews and Gentiles are … children of God, adopted as God’s sons and daughters on the ground of our union with the Messiah Yeshua, who Himself is already God’s Son.

²⁷ because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah, in whom…

Union with the Messiah comes about through being immersed in the Messiah. The Greek word for “immersed” is a form of “baptizô,” usually rendered “baptized.” The word “baptizô” implies immersion to absorb the qualities of the immersing substance and thus be transformed. If you are an immersed Believer, you have absorbed some of the qualities of the Messiah. You are continually “being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This immersion into the Messiah comes about not merely through getting wet but through prayer to God which one repents of one’s sinful way of life and accepts Yeshua the Messiah’s atonement and Lordship. Sha’ul says this is equivalent to having clothed yourself with the Messiah.

[On a personal note, if you have read my About page, you know I was raised as an Episcopalian. I was baptized as an infant and later learned the Nicene Creed, which stated in part that I believed in one baptism with repentance for the remission and forgiveness of sins. As I began to mature in my faith, I understood that sprinkling was not immersion. So later in life, when I had become a Messianic Pastor, I did get baptized by immersion.]

²⁸ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one.

Gentiles who, by trusting in Yeshua and staying faithful to Him, have become children of God, who have immersed themselves into the Messiah, who have clothed themselves with the Messiah, are equal partners with Jews in the Body of the Messiah, declared righteous by God without their having to adopt any further Jewish distinctives. This is a point Sha’ul repeatedly makes in his writings; see Romans 3:22–23, 29–30; 4:9–12; 10:12; 11:32; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 2:11–22; 3:6; Colossians 3:11 – and these references do not exhaust the list; many other verses, especially in Romans, express the same idea. Therefore, Jewish and Gentile Believers must treat each other as equals before God, of equal worth as human beings. So must believing slaves and freemen, and likewise believing men and women.

²⁹ Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are the seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise. ^[1]

In our next post, we will continue to explore Sha’ul’s Doctrine of Justification, starting in chapter 4:1.

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^[1] Galatians 3:23–29.