Bible Groups - Digests of Bible Commentaries

Paul's Letter to the Galatians - Chapter 3

Theological centre of letter. Paul maintains that justification comes through faith, just as it did to Abraham. If have faith, the Law is not needed. Galatians' own experience is of receiving the Spirit through their faith when they accepted the full true gospel from Paul. Can confidently rely on their experience of the Spirit as proof of new status as heirs. Regressing to the flesh would be absurd, as well as implying that the Law was still needed. (Greeks saw their spirit as superior to the flesh). Noone is justified by the Law (Hb 2:4). [1stC threefold understanding of the whole person: heart thinks about data through eyes; mouth speaks ears hear; hands & feet for doing (Cf 1 Jn 1:1-3; Matt 6:19-7:27)].
1 Focus on heart-eyes = emotion. "Foolish" perhaps stingingly implies/recalls their barbaric origin. "Before whose eyes" a reminder of how vividly Paul originally described Jesus' death to them.
2 Rhetorical - Paul doesn't really need an answer! He is forcing them to remember & confront their most undeniable faith experiences. To hear the word of God is to respond and heed it - not just passive hearing. But we cannot turn hearing off - hearing also often happens to us, engaging and catching us up - as does faith: we cannot will to have faith, only to actively respond, being captivated involving all our faculties. IE "receiving" the Spirit.
3 "Ending" can have the sense of finishing = perfecting, referring to the judaizers' claim that the Law is needed to be fully members of God's end-people. "Flesh" also reminds of the rite of circumcision, the sign of God's covenant "in your flesh" (Gen 17:13).
4 "Experience" or "suffer".
5 God is giver of the Spirit and source of miraculous deeds - by faith-hearing.
6 Vv 6-14: midrashic homily 1 = stringing bible refs. Gen 15:6. Abraham made righteous by faith, not by legal observances.
7 In the same way faith-people are Abraham's true sons, ie as opposed to those who obey the Law. This correspondence is based on (i) hearing-faith as Abraham trusted in God; in both cases this is fitting response to a word from God (Gen 15:5; Gal 3:1); for both faith was the personal response essential for the divine blessing each then received, ie righteousness = receiving the Spirit. Paul sees these as equivalent. He cannot refer to Abraham receiving the Spirit, but for Paul receiving the Spirit indicated a right relationship with God. The miraculous deeds by God can be seen publicly, as righteousness cannot. Thus "the ones of faith" = "those who believe" (3:22) = "those who by faith are justified/reckoned righteous and receive the Spirit", as against "the ones of circumcision" (2:12).
8 Gen 18:18; 12:3. Scripture as surrogate for God "foresaw" what God would do in the last days and "proclaimed the gospel to Abraham", ie that "all the nations (= Gentiles) will be blessed in you" - ie included in the people of God. Scripture proclaimed this because it foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Abraham believed/trusted God and was justified by his faith (Cf Gen 15:6).
9 Faith-people are blessed along with the trusting/believing Abraham, by being reckoned righteous.
10 Deut 27:26. The same cannot be said for those of the Law. Indeed for those who choose the Law, all rules must be obeyed. Anything short results in being under a curse. "Under a curse" = risk curse since noone can obey fully. They are subject to God's punishment if they disobey the Law. Therefore the Law does benefit by supplementing the work of the Spirit, but rather it brings the threat of punishments for anyone who fails to live up to its requirements.
11 Hab 2:4. The Law does not make one righteous, but faith does. Paul's version differs from the Hebrew: "the righteous one by his faith shall live" and the LXX: "the righteous one by my faith shall live", but is open to either. (But "the righteous one" is not to be seen as Christ - Paul has been discussing "those who believe").
12 Those who do the Law/commandments will thereby find life (Lev 18:5). But Christian Jews would say the righteous person can live by faith and in the Law. So Paul must argue that living in the Law is incompatible with faith. For Paul, in the last days persons "live" not because they do the commandments, but because of their response to what God has done through Christ to fulfill the promise to Abraham. But Christian Jews could then argue that the righteous shall live by faith only if they also obey the commandments. So ....
13 Deut 21:23. Christ became just such a curse by dying a death accursed by the Law. Yet God raised Jesus, indicating God no longer approves of the Law. We should not push Paul's metaphor too far (paid price to whom), but he says that the source of changing from being subject to the Law's curse to being justified by faith is not what we feel or do, but because something happened: Christ in his death "became a curse for us". "For us" is not in Deut, it is added by Christians gaining understanding of the resurrection. By Paul's re-working of Deut 21:23 we are invited to see that Christ's came to be under the Law's curse because he did "abide by all things written in the book of the Law".
14 We must be like Abraham. Christ bought us from the Law's curse in order both "that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles" and "that we might receive the Spirit through faith". Note that for Paul being justified and receiving the Spirit are inseparable. And what was promised to Abraham was (the outpouring of) the Spirit. This completes Paul's intricate logical proof.
15 Vv 15-18 Midrashic homily 2. Since justification by faith was promised to Abraham, the Law given to Moses 430 years later cannot nullify this promise of justification by faith. The promise which preceded the Law was fulfilled in Jesus, the offspring of Abraham (Matt 1:1). "430 years" is not in Hebrew Scripture (Exod 12:40; Gen 15:13), but in a Targum = explanation of Scriptures heard in 1stC synagogues.
16 Paul insists on "descendant" singular. It is said to be singular in the Hebrew written Scripture (Gen 12:7; 13:15; 17:7-8; 22:18; 24:7), but plural in the Targum, which is what Jews would have heard. Also plural in the Greek, and clearly the context better fits plural. Here Paul seeks the support of the Targum, but the opposite earlier. Support from tradition singular in 2 Sam 7:12: "his kingdom".
17 Exod 12:40.
18 Promise = kecharistai, ie by God's grace = charis. The Law plays no role in this inheritance.
19 So why was the Law given? Paul gives 2 answers: (i) transgressions - presumably to restrain transgressions and to clarify the rules; EG Selling out-of-date food was wrong before, but introducing a law clarifies it and makes rules same for everyone. Added - by God - until Christ came. Almost implies not part of God's original plan but added as a temporary expedient. Moses appears to be the mediator.
20 Paul masks God's action by saying God issued the Law through the angels and then through Moses. Hence the Law is of lesser status than the promise given directly to Abraham. Paul emphasises each time that God gave the promise directly, but God is never stated by Paul as the giver of the Law.
21 Both the Law and the promise have common goal: life, so they are not at odds. But the Law is not able to give life. Because the Law is demand, not power: it cannot enable God's people to do what is required. It is not opposed, it is merely ineffectual. Only the Spirit can give life.
22 Sin takes orders from scripture. Scripture does not create sin, but it does use sin, for God's own purpose. Paul does not explain. But we just accept Paul's image of sin as a power that is confined - so that what was promised - ie the Spirit - might be given by Jesus-Christ-faith (not just any faith) to those who believe. Thus Scripture confined everything under sin to ensure that faith would be the only means by which people might receive the Spirit - ie life.
23 Before "this faith" came - ie faith in Jesus Christ. This faith revealed in Jesus Christ, comes with Jesus Christ: it is present in the world first as the faith of Christ himself, and then as the faith of those who are "in" him. Until then we were held under the Law's custody. Confined by what? In v22 it was by Scripture: perhaps both the Law and sin are under Scripture, on behalf of God? The Law both protects from harm - but at a cost: it restricts freedom.
24 The metaphor explained: (ii) It was needed as a pedagogue (slave who guards and disciplines Greek boys aged 6 to 16) until they reach maturity. Christ has made us God's children, freed from control by others, so we can now be guided by the single law of love (which was there in the OT but often neglected). Loved or hated, the pedagogue's authority was limited by its nature in both extent & duration, ending when his charge reached maturity. Without the Law, transgressions (v 19) would have destroyed the people.
25 With the coming of Abraham's seed we have reached maturity and the Law is no longer required, its epoch is over. The Law has ensured the well-being of the community in its charge, and necessarily limiting its freedom.
26 2 phrases describe how we are "Sons of God": through faith = the means; in Christ = life into which we are incorporated.
27 Confirms meaning of "in Christ" in v 26: being baptised into Christ = relocation into a new order of existence created through death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; to confess decision to be identified with - and by - Christ. Although "putting on Christ" might refer to dressing after immersion baptism, more likely common idiom from Scripture: God clothes himself with righteousness, majesty, power, praise (Ps 93:1; 104:1; 132:9; Isa 59:17; 61:10; Wis 5:18; etc). Most of a person's appearance is clothing - it tells much about a person. "Putting on Christ" means that previous differences between members of the Jesus community have disappeared - everyone looks alike in Christ. Christ now provides the only identity that now counts.
28 Differences are not important (Cf 1 Cor 7:17-28). "No longer male and female" alludes to Gen 1:27. A new creation, never seen before, superseding even God's original creation. A totally new world. Distinctions that differentiate and induce superior or inferior relationships cease.
29 Vv 3:29-4:7 Midrashic homily 3: heirs like slaves until inherit. The only way people can become Abraham's many seed = "heirs according to the promise" is by being incorporated into Christ = the single seed of Abraham. Indicates "Who are the true descendants of Abraham?" as a likely arguments by the Judaizers. "Promise" recalls the "promise of the Spirit" (3:14), while "heirs" introduces next theme.