Paul fears that the Galatians are binding themselves to the Jewish law because of the divisive teaching of some Jews of how to be right with God. Paul lives in freedom from the regulations of the Jewish religion as a way to know God. He now discovers the Galatians are moving towards the Jewish law to be right with God. I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. He is telling them through this writing that there is no efficacy in binding yourself to the law. Righteousness does not come through a lifestyle but through the grace of God that is freely given to all people through faith in Christ’s work on the cross. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. (Romans 3:21-22) He desires them to understand that right standing with God is accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ. Eternal life and access to the kingdom of Heaven is possible only through Jesus Christ, for He is the Gate. His resurrection from the grave gave evidence that eternal life does exist for all men and women who trust in him. Jesus came back from death in the flesh, identifying this reality by eating fish. This life from the grave is the hope of all men who put their lives in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Grace of God. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5) But now wolves from Jerusalem have invaded the Christian community of Galatia, leading them away from total reliance on Jesus’ work on the cross. These wolves are teaching the necessity of being circumcised as an indication of belonging to God. Paul is gravely concerned about this contamination of the gospel. He knows if the believers lay down any other way to be right before God, they will lose their means to salvation. Hear ye him is God’s way to being right with him. This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5) Now Paul knows the Galatians are listening to Jews who were instructing them about the Mosaic law and its path to God. These Jews were supplanting the new covenant with the regulations and lifestyle of the Old Covenant. However, the law and its regulations could only expose man’s unfitness to be with God--his unrighteousness was a heart issue. God would not allow sinful men and women to enter into his eternal domain, a new heart had to be created in them. Physical circumcision could never alter the hearts of men and women, only a divine work through Christ could accomplish that deed. People must be born again.
The spirit of antichrist invaded the Galatian's community through this Jewish teaching of circumcision. The Galatians were once strong adherents of Paul’s teaching of grace through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. But now some law-bound Jews were attempting to separate the Galatians from the Good News that Paul taught. The Jews mixing grace with the law was an anathema to the grace of God and a life IN CHRIST. Jesus ALONE IS THE TRUTH, THE WAY AND THE LIFE, the only gate to eternal life. Paul reminds the Galatians of their great love for him when he entered their province of Galatia. As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. The Galatians had taken care of Paul during this time of infirmity and showed him great love. They thought him so valuable that they treated him as if he were an angel from God or even Jesus Christ himself. Some say that his illness was his eyes, and maybe that is so, for he reminds them that their love was so intense that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. This love is evidence that they received his teaching of the Good News wholeheartedly and with great joy; yet they were greatly concerned over Paul’s illness. Now, however, this past, wonderful relationship they had with Paul was being despoiled by Jews who were zealous for the law and its way of knowing God. They were challenging the efficacious work of Jesus as the way to God. Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. These people might have believed in some of what Paul taught, but they were contaminating the Good News with law. Paul had made this excursion into the Gentile world. He taught freedom from the law; he taught trusting in the work of Jesus alone. However, these at best, quasi-Jewish believers followed him into Galatia, teaching a confusing mix of law and Christ. They were teaching this hodgepodge message for selfish reasons, to elevate themselves in the eyes of the Galatians, having zeal for them and not Paul. To Paul, they were hypocrites, not true disciples of Jesus Christ. Their teaching was Pharisaical, self-aggrandizing. As Jesus said concerning the Pharisees, They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. (Matthew 23:4) Paul does not mind zeal if it is for good purposes. He himself was a man of strong zeal for teaching the word, but if the zeal is for selfish reasons, it is wrong. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. These Jewish wolves were being good when it suited their purposes, but were not consistently good to the Galatians. Their goal was to disrupt Paul’s teaching of grace alone as a way to God.
Paul’s advocation of grace alone and in trusting the mercy of God through the works of Jesus Christ was his sole message to the Gentiles. For him, the true message of Jesus on the cross would save all mankind from the consequences of sin: death. Jesus finished the task of suffering and dying on the cross, the penalty God required for the sins of mankind. The final work of redemption was completed on the cross. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30) Jesus drank the full cup of suffering for mankind. He alone experienced the full wrath of God on sin. No one else paid that price. Not one disciple died with him on that day, only Jesus died on the cross, no other could pay the ransom for the freedom of man from the consequence of sin and death. To say there must be another card to play for the freedom of men from the captivity of sin belittles the cross and the price God paid for man’s freedom. Paul is hugely concerned that the Galatians are moving in that direction, negating the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Perplexed because they were not given the Holy Spirit inside of them through any act that they performed. The Holy Spirit who was now present in them was a gift from God, not abiding with them because of some work of their own. Their atonement was God’s work not their own work. The atonement through Christ reveals God’s love for those He made in his image from the very beginning. He had this plan of redemption for mankind before the world was formed. His love as the Old Testament said so often is an everlasting, enduring love. His implementation of this rescue plan for all people from their waywardness came through his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is his enduring love toward all He made from the beginning. Even nature will be released from the bondage of violence and sin. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10). The Galatians were now being led into confusion about God’s love. They were being taught by these wolves that God demands something else from people to be right with him: the act of circumcision. This teaching of works is an affront to God and his holiness, mercy, and grace. God’s eternal plan of redemption preexisted Adam and Eve. He desired children in the likeness of his Son, those who would be present with him forever. These children need not the sign of circumcision on their flesh, but they did need the circumcision of the heart. They needed a place of abode for the Spirit of God, a place of cutting away the flesh. All of this came through the holy work of Jesus on the cross. He made a righteous place for the Holy Spirit to abide in the lives of men and women, a place of communion with God. Paul states to the Galatians this place of holiness where God abides is not the work of human beings. It is God’s work; therefore, He has set you free from your efforts to please Him. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. (Galatians 5:1-2). Breakfast companions, as God is, we are: free indeed! Walk in your freedom today.
No comments:
Post a Comment