Read Galatians 3: 1-5



Paul felt very deeply about his churches. His letters act much the same
as emails you'd receive from a former pastor or youth minister who has heard
some of the things you're going through or dealing with and wants to speak some
wisdom to you. Sometimes his letters told stories, while other times they
offered specific advice. Sometimes they concerned the formation of
communities and others they offered Spirit-inspired prophetic wisdom. In
all instances, Paul's concern is that his churches are involved in the
life-changing experience of knowing Christ and Him crucified.

So leading his instruction by calling his church
"foolish" you can tell that this is an issue that is pretty important
to Paul. The message of the circumcisers is "bewitching" and
misleading the Galatians from the new life they've been given. For Paul
the new age is an age of faith and not works of the law. Some sinful realm
within us rebels against our lack of control, our inability to attain our own
righteousness. The Galatian experience, though, is one of faith.
Faith cannot be defined in old terms and cannot be cordoned off by human
ideas of status. Are you yielding your struggles up to God in faith, or trying
to buy a stairway to heaven will all your ‘good’ deeds? Try praying about this
right now. Ask God to reveal areas of your life that you are hiding from his
grace, and then give them up to him in prayer.

Paul points out that if they listen to the
circumcisers, then everything they have done for Christ, all the pain and
sacrifice, will have been for nothing. They would regress back to what they
once were. For Paul; his church CANNOT go back to what it was. Try
contemplating your own story; all that God has faithfully carried you through. It’s important not to forget or miss his hand at
work in our lives, no matter how intense or simple our story. In the hard times
when we feel like quiting, it is essential that we look back to these moments
when we struggled through and see how God has worked, and know that he is still
in control and that we can trust him. Try reflecting on such instances in your
life.

Read Galatians 3: 6-14

If you're fighting against a group that is proposing
circumcision for inclusion, where do you start? You start with Abraham,
the man with whom circumcision originated. In this section, Paul begins a
complicated argument from Scripture to show the Galatians that it was not
circumcision that marked Abraham, but it was his faith, the same faith that the
Galatians expressed when they accepted the Spirit.

Paul will use this text as a basis to make implicit Jewish
beliefs explicit and to draw out the definitions that are put forth by previous
interpretations of certain Old Testament issues and scripture. Let's look
at them.

In Genesis 17, Abraham and his descendants received
circumcision as the sign of God's everlasting covenant with them. Paul
then decides to make the argument about the definition of Abraham's
descendants--who it would be that would receive the blessing throughout the
generations. Paul quotes one of his favorite scriptures (Gen. 15.6) in
saying that Abraham's justification was from faith. Paul then brings
Genesis 15.6 and Genesis 12:3 together. Genesis 12.3 will often be called
the "proto-gospel," basically the gospel before the gospel. You
should read it now.

Paul then cites Deuteronomy and Habakkuk and makes
three clear points. First, the law carries a curse. Second,
justification is from faith not law. Third, Christ saved us and opened the Abrahamic
blessing to Gentiles. Paul makes this third point with two images, first
of a figure hanging on a tree, which according to Deuteronomy is a sign of a
curse from God, second, of Christ's death as an act of liberation from slavery.
Paul explicitly states that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the law by becoming a curse for us."

So in all of that, what has Paul accomplished? That
God promised his Spirit to Abraham by faith to his descendants. By
Christ's mysterious and ironic death the Gentiles (the Galatians, Greeks, you,
me) have been grafted into the family tree of Abraham and have the gift of the
Spirit available to us should we respond to Christ's death with faith.
Easy enough, right?

Read Galatians 3:15-25

It would be in complete error not to mention in reference to
Paul and his relationship and point of view towards Jews: He was one.
There was never a time (that I can tell or that scholars can tell) that
Paul ever felt like he was anything but a Jew. Of course now in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Greek, but Paul didn't begin to follow Christ and
forget about Jews or his own past any more than we become Christians and forget
our own race or ethnicity. Check out Philippians 3:5 for Paul's own
definition of his Jewishness. Also, he did end up regretting his
persecution of the church, but in viewing his zeal and passion for Christ, I
get the feeling that all throughout his persecution he was doing what he
thought every Jew should do. His actions against the church flowed from
his Jewish faith. However, when Jesus came, Paul didn't hop off the
Jewish bandwagon and onto Christ's. Not at all. He saw Christ as
the fulfillment and perfection of Jewishness. He ceased to be a zealot
for Torah--the Jewish scriptures--and began to be a zealot for Jesus--the
Jewish Messiah.

Why is this important? Because Paul says some things
that seem pretty incendiary about Jews and the Law. In today's
society Jewish religion and Christian religion are markedly different. In
Paul's society the Christian community was a Jewish sect just beginning to make
footholds in Gentile society. Reading Paul's opinion of the Jewish church
with 20th century lenses can lead to very destructive thinking--at it's worst
anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews. It is important then, to put on first
century lenses and view Paul's writings about his former community and his
former way of life not as someone on the outside lobbing grenades at people
different from him, but rather as someone who was at this specific table, had
this specific mindset, but now has experienced something we all long
for--personal interaction with Jesus--and has completely redefined his former
life in respect to that interaction. So when you read Paul and his
writings about Jews keep one thing in mind: If you were to ask Paul,
"Are you a Christian or a Jew?" YOU would be the crazy one.

If that's not clear enough, let me let Michael Gorman say
it. You guys should just probably check this book out. All I seem
to do is quote it anyway.

"The question is, What did Paul think was wrong
with Judaism? This is, however, the wrong question. For Paul there
is nothing wrong with Judaism. But there is something wrong with humanity--Gentiles
and Jews, males and females, slave and free--and only the Jewish God, acting in
the Jewish Messiah and through the Spirit of the Jewish God and his Messiah,
can fix the problem. In fact, Judaism is for Paul the solution--only if
it is a restored, renewed, inclusive, eschatological, messianic Judaism."

Read Galatians 3:15-25…(we are doing the same section two
days in a row to make sure we cover everything)

So what *do* we do with the Law? Now in an age of
faith, what becomes of the rules that kept the Jews from the time of Moses to
the time of Jesus? Paul will answer this question in three parts:
first, the "promise" of the Spirit came before the law, and the
law cannot change that (verses 15-18); second, the law and the promise are
*not* in opposition, but only one gives life (21-22); and third, the law was
temporary, to be of use until the fulfillment of the promise (19-20, 23-25).
Let's examine these.

Like Jesus, Paul begins to make this lesson applicable to
the listener by calling on a familiar subject: covenants or, as some
translations suggest, wills. A covenant (a ceremonial agreement with
which readers of the Old Testament would be familiar) or a will (with which our
culture would be more familiar) cannot be altered, cancelled, added to or
detracted from--even by an approved third party (a mediator). The law as
recorded by Moses (mediator) came 430 years after the promise of the Spirit to
Abraham, so nothing about the promise can be changed. It's "set in
stone," heh heh. Ahem. Anyway. Since it came through a
"mediator" it wasn't on the same level as the promise--which was to
be fulfilled through the "seed." which we read about in verse 16.
Read it, because it's important, but we'll get in detail with it
tomorrow. Patience, kids.

Next, Paul discusses how the law shows the necessity of the
promise because the law itself can't give life--we need something other than
rules--we need faith...but what kind? Translations on this differ.
Some suggest that it is our faith, while others suggest that it is the
faith(fulness) of Jesus. In verse 22, though it certainly suggests that
BOTH Christ's faith and our faith are significant. Also, remember when
Paul mentioned that the law was added "because of transgressions."
This would be the "revelatory" need for the law. That it shows
that something else very important than law is necessary.

In vs. 24 we see the greek word paidagogos used to
describe the role of the law. The NIV translates it “put in charge”. It can
also be translated as "disciplinarian", "supervisor" or
"custodian." Gorman says the word implies the image
of an "ancient household worker whose job it was to guide a family's
(male) children back and forth to school, protecting them from harm and
providing basic moral guidelines." Hold onto the firm and distinct mention
that the paidagogos guided *male* children. You’ll see why this is
relevant tomorrow.

The function of the paidagogos shows the temporary
and necessary-for-growth nature of the law. However, now that the age of
faith has come, believers no longer require the services of the paidagogos.
Followers of Christ have reached the paradoxical
"adulthood" of being "children of God". Discipline has
served its purpose, and we are now free.

That was a lot of study. Pat yourselves on the back.
This isn't all here to hurt your brain, but to show you how much was put
into these letters. The formulation of thousands of years of doctrine has
been based on these words and these pages, and only the Holy Spirit working
through the hands and fingers of a mere man like Paul could have preserved such
wisdom and beauty. Did today's study teach you anything new about the
law? Reflect.

Read Galatians 3:16, 26-29

The final day. This week has been heavy on the study.
I appreciate it if you've made it the whole way through. Let's wrap
this up with a nice neat little bow. Because after this we'll know all
there is to know about Galatians 3 and God will have nothing else to tell us
about this specific passage for the rest of our lives. Pyche.

Paul's interpretation of the Abrahamic promise passing
through a singular "seed" instead of the collective "seeds"
is so absolutely crucial. It can't be stressed enough, especially for
this church or Christians in general that the promise that God gave to Abraham
existed only for one seed of Abraham's. He reduces the seed from a
collective group (Israel)
to a singular person within that collective group (Jesus). Thus, salvation is
not merely found by one people group, but rather, all people groups that find
their identity and purpose in the one man of Christ. Paul is incorporating the
entirety of believers! Incredible. The pinnacle of addition by
subtraction.

The concept of being "in Christ" or moving
"into Christ" which is heavy in this final section is imperative.
If you are in the seed you are part of the blessing. Becoming part
of the seed means your inclusion in the promise. It means that you have
moved into the adulthood of being a child of God. You no longer need the paidagogos
pulling you around. You've come of age.

Also, you realize that your identity has been rewritten.
You'll no be longer separated by racial, socio-economic or gender
distinctions. You're above that. Your identity is that you're a
child of God. A part of the promise. You are a new creation, you
will live in faith, hope and love. No longer will there be separation by
the terms and definitions that Paul has noted. There is unity.

Now, one thing I wanted to mention. Yesterday I had
you take note that the paidagogos guided male children. Now today
you see that Paul will not allow for communities to be separated by gender.
Male and female will not be divided. What specific law were we
discussing? Circumcision. Circumcision is a decidedly *male*
action. Female circumcision is a terrible, detestable act and in no
instance in the Bible is it ever condoned or even mentioned. I'll sum this up
nice and easy....for Paul, it is quite within the realm of possibility that his
views on circumcision are related to it's neglect and exclusion of women.
The promise, by being fulfilled in Christ, has extended to *all* of those
who are in him and will not be held off by the patriarchal act of circumcision.
Men, being the only ones who could be circumcised, will have no more
right to the Kingdom
of God than any women.
Just as no slave will be held out by a master, nor a Gentile by a Jew.