15 May 2023
Review: Galatians was most likely the earliest writing of Paul that we have today. In it, Paul warns the first batch of churches that he planted in Asia Minor against the initial wave of Judaizers. In their purest and earliest forms, the Judaizers were zealots of Hebrew nationalism. At first, it appears they really did grasp the concept of rejecting the Talmud as man-made nonsense. It seems they understood the part of Jesus' teaching that carried forward the actual intent of Moses.
What they did not understand was how Jesus prophesied that His death was the end of the Jewish national identity. They rejected that part of Jesus' teaching, pretending it never happened. This was the crux of the problem Paul saw with their organized efforts to compel Gentile Christians to come under the Old Covenant. Only later did the Judaizer effort expand to include pulling churches back under the Talmud, as well. That second wave saw a great many Jewish impostors pretending to follow Christ. That was a much uglier movement.
So what we have in Paul's letter to the Galatian Churches is aimed at the Jewish nationalism disguised by the claims that Jesus promoted Moses specifically.
He establishes the clear image of the law code as the mere outer skin of faith in the Chapters 1-4. Moses was the means of providing the context for faith to claim the full heritage of God's promises. Moses was not that heritage; it was designed for those still enslaved to their fleshly natures, not walking by faith. This national context would allow the few who walked in faith to claim the full measure of divine blessings on behalf of the rest. What a graceful thing this was, that God would willingly bless so very many who did not have faith. He gave them every opportunity to rise in faith, and blessed them along with the faithful few.
In the last two chapters, Paul continues this tack by pointing out the contrast between the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ. In Christ, the emphasis is not on a national identity, but a spiritual identity. The same restrictions in Moses, that kept those lacking faith from sinning to excess and defiling everything, were also restrictions that sometimes kept the faithful from reaching their full potential. It was slavery. Indeed, Jesus went to great pains to explain how Moses was filled with statements of priority so that people of faith were not so tightly bound by rules that should not have to apply to faith. Thus, He didn't nullify the Sabbath Code, but pointed out that it was not meant to serve as a restriction on those who were engaged in a mission of faith. That was the point behind Jesus' comments about picking grain on the Sabbath.
So, Paul begins Chapter 4 by hammering home the issue of freedom in Christ versus the bondage of the law code in Moses. Pick one, because you can't have it both ways. Either cater to the flesh by employing all those restrictions, or cater to the Spirit by following the stated intent of those restrictions. On the one hand, the path that Jesus opened for Gentiles to come under His New Covenant does not lead through the Old. Rather, we come to Him, and then once we have a good grip, we then look back at the Old to understand what it means to us.
On the other hand, don't misread that freedom in Christ. We do need very much to look at how the Law of Moses worked against sin and defilement. Walking in the Spirit sometimes looks like Moses, because Moses was designed to look like walking in the Spirit. Paul goes on to delineate some of the fleshly motives constrained by the Law. He counters those with a list of spiritual motivations that fulfill the Law.
The zealous competition among rabbis to offer the most clever babble about the Talmudic path is not how Christians get things done. We do not compete for personal glory like that. In Chapter 6 Paul lays out the proper familial concern for how weak we all are. This is not a competition for bragging rights, but an incubator for all of us to be more spiritual, not more fleshly.
Thus, we do not hesitate to share the things God has granted each of us. Those better at understanding these things will teach, and those better at gathering resources will share those. The idea is that the body grows together, not like the hyper-competition between Jewish Talmudic students. We promote each other for the sake of divine glory; we pursue otherworldly goals. They cooperate only to benefit the flesh, because the whole point of Judaism is bound up in the False Messianic Expectations of worldly wealth, miracles that entertain and answer human curiosity, and political power. None of that matters in Christ.
Don't sow to the flesh, but to the Spirit.
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