Galatians 3

The third chapter, the one that brings all the controversy! Links: Bible Gateway - NIV, Blue Letter Bible - KJV, Bible Gateway - ESV. Again, I'll be quoting from David Stern's translation unless otherwise noted.

To recap: during chapter one and two, Paul recognized that there was a gospel being preached that was contrary to the true gospel. This gospel claimed that the Galatians had to undergo the ritual of circumcision and officially convert to Judaism to be saved. At the end of Galatians 2, he says that this is silly: merely following these laws is not sufficient to save someone.

Paul uses the first five verses of chapter 3 to call the Galatians stupid (hehe) and ask if they forgot how the Spirit worked. "Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit's power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power? . . . What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you - does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?"~3:3, 5

Basically: how can you honestly think doing this will save you? Who do you think you are? You think you can EARN salvation? No, no, no, it is God's grace, and nothing else. You must have forgotten who you're dealing with - the Lord of all creation, who makes us holy.

He uses Abraham to drive the point home. He trusted in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness. Voila! What's interesting is while Paul uses Abraham to drive this point of faith home, James uses Abraham to speak about deeds coupled with faith.

"Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." ~James 2:21-24 (ESV)

James says that works and faith go hand in hand. This isn't contradictory to what Paul says, is it? I don't think so. Romans 3:31 says, "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law!"

We can't just take bits and pieces of the bible to support certain beliefs - that's called prooftexting. Scripture interprets scripture.

Anyways, continuing in Galatians 3. Verses 10-14 speak of curses. This can be misinterpreted. Many people say that the law itself was a curse. I'm sorry, but that doesn't match up with everything else in the bible.

"So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good." ~Romans 7:12.

ALL of Psalm 119.

"The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple." ~Psalm 19:7 (and also 8-10)

“For this command which I am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach. It isn’t in the sky, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will go up into the sky for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ Likewise, it isn’t beyond the sea, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ On the contrary, the word is very close to you - in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, you can do it!” ~Deuteronomy 30:10-14 (from the big guy himself!)

So, what IS this curse? Well, it's the curse that comes from not keeping the law. Deuteronomy 27:26 says, "Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." No one can follow every command. That is the reason God sent his Son. Jesus DID carry out every command in the law. He was flawless, but he still took the punishment of death for those of us who couldn't be perfect. And he did this so that we might receive the Spirit! The Spirit does show up in the Old Testament a few times (Genesis 1:2, Proverbs 1:23, 1 Samuel 19:18-24), but Ephesians 1:13-14 says that the Holy Spirit is a seal guaranteeing our inheritance. Paul speaks in Romans 8 how one can live by the Spirit. We have received an awesome gift!

Galatians 3:15-18, Paul speaks of oaths and promises. "When someone swears an oath, no one else can set it aside or add to it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and his seed. It doesn't say, 'and to seeds', as if to many; on the contrary, it speaks of one - 'and to your seed' - and this 'one' is the Messiah. Here is what I am saying: the legal part of the Torah, which came into being 430 years later, does not nullify an oath sworn by God . . . For it the inheritance comes from the legal part of the Torah, it no longer comes from a promise." ~3:15-18

God's promise was not nullified by the legal part of the Torah. He promised blessings for Abraham and his seed, and the commands later given to Moses do not affect the promise. Paul is mentioning this because the Galatians are listening to a gospel that claims that the law has more power than the promise. Sorry, but no.

What is interesting about this passage is a lot of contemporary Christians ignore it. They speak of a 'New Covenant' over an 'Old' one, and say that the Old Testament has been abolished and we no longer need to follow any of the commands. And yet Paul says that one covenant cannot cancel out another! An oath cannot be added to! In Exodus 19, the Israelites made a covenant with God, saying they would follow his law, and, in return, they would be his treasured possession. I'm not sure why people think this oath just vanished with the coming of Christ. YES, the curse of this law is gone - Christ has taken all the punishment for our imperfections and sins. But the covenant is still there, and if we claim to be a part of Isreal (Romans 11), why would we not attempt to follow all of his laws?

Paul speaks of the reason for the legal part of Torah in Gal. 3:19: "It was added in order to create transgressions." He goes on to ask, "Does this mean that the legal part of the Torah stands in opposition to God's promises?" His answer: "Heaven forbid!" They are not in opposition, but instead the legal part shows how things are sinful so that the promise may be carried out.

Gal. 3:23 is interesting. Here is the verse in the King James Version: "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed." Unfortunately, many versions use words to imply that we were imprisoned to the law until Christ came. The word 'until' is not found in the original Greek, and the word 'shut up' is a tricky word. It's only used four times in all the New Testament:
1) Luke 5:6, "When they had done this, they INCLOSED a great multitude of fishes; and their nets broke."
2) Romans 11:32, "For God hate CONCLUDED them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon them all.
3) Galatians 3:22, "But the scripture hath CONCLUDED all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
4) Galatains 2:23, "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, SHUT UP unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed."

If we look at the context of each verse, it seems like this word means something like 'enclose' or 'group together.' So, all who were kept under the law (and its curses) were grouped together (as sinners) and blinded to the faith that should be revealed. Before faith came, we kept trying to achieve righteousness on our own.

"Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a custodian until the Messiah came, so that we might be declared as righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful. But now that the time for this trusting faithfulness has come, we are no longer under a custodian." ~3:24-25.

Other versions use the words tutor and teacher instead of custodian. In a way, it's like we graduated high school. The Torah was an important thing, and it kept us until Messiah came, but we are no longer under its rule. So, yes, we are no longer subject to the curses of the law. I just wonder where it says that the standard of righteousness had changed. Isn't this still God's measure of right and wrong? Where in the bible does it say differently? Where does he or his apostles say that the law no longer needs to be followed? I agree that we rely on God's grace for salvation, that he alone can save us and make us righteous, but where does it say that the Torah is no longer what God wants for us?

The last few verses of chapter 3 emphasize Paul's disagreement with some men who preach only Jews can be saved and encouraged the new Christians to undergo the formal ritual of conversion. "For in union with this Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness; because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nore female; for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one. Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise." ~3:26-29.

If Galatians is a book in which Paul tells new believers that they don't have to follow the Torah, these verses seem a little out of place. Sure, they're nice to hear, but what would they have to do with Paul discarding the entire Tanakh (Old Testament)? If, instead, this book is a response to men who are telling the Galatians the only way they can be saved is through a formal conversion, then these verses fit in perfectly. Paul says that, in Messiah, we are all one. We do not have to be Jews, male, or freemen, to becoming heirs. Anyone can belong to Messiah, not just converts to Judaism.