The Two-Hundred-Thirty-First (Galatians Part 4)

We’re finishing up chapter two of Galatians and moving into chapter three this week.  As stated last week, and something that’s not unique to Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia, the end of chapter two flows right into the beginning of chapter three and is best combined when studying this portion of the letter.  It all focuses on how we are justified as sinners and how that justification relates to the Law and to our faith.  

We left off last week at verse fourteen of chapter two where Paul was chastising Peter for not walking according to the truth of the gospel, due to his fear of how some of the believing Jews would view him.  Remember, these Jews were the ones that used to be Pharisees and were trying to say that Gentiles that were coming into the faith had to follow the Law or they wouldn’t receive salvation.  Paul continues by pointing out that believing Jews like Peter and him know that following the Law they are so familiar with, because they grew up living in accordance with it, is not what justifies a man.  It’s faith in Yeshua that does that (Galatians 2:15-16).

One of the things Paul does when pointing this out is emphasize that they used to define Gentiles by the fact that they are sinners, meaning they do not, and never did, follow YHWH’s Law.  This is key because based on what Peter himself saw and the message he was given directly from YHWH, he knew that YHWH wanted these people to hear the gospel and was giving them the same salvation the Jews, who always followed His law, were receiving (Acts 10:9-46).  In other words, to YHWH, following the Law was not a prerequisite to receiving the gift of eternal life.  

This Greek word for justification Paul uses, dikaioo, is one we’ve looked at before but deserves a revisit for this study.  Its definition is “to be just or righteous,” but the cultural use at the time was that it was a legal term.  In courtrooms and judicial proceedings, it was when the judge declared a defendant to be in the right, therefore acquitting him or her of the charges brought against them.  Paul using this term shows the recognition that YHWH’s Law was considered a “legal” requirement for the Jews to follow, one that was given by YHWH Himself.  The view was that not following that requirement put the individual in a state of having a charge against them that could only be cleared by a “judge” designated by YHWH.

In the case of the sacrificial system, since YHWH was not there physically to act as judge, He provided predetermined courses of action in response to someone getting charged as a result of their sin.  For some charges, the transgression was significant enough to require the person’s life, but other charges only required providing sacrifices of certain animals.  We know however, that these sacrifices never did, and were never intended to, fully justify a person from the charges against them (Hebrews 7:11-25).  They were only symbolic of the eventual sacrifice of Yeshua.

It is through Yeshua’s sacrifice that we are all afforded the opportunity to be justified of the charges we receive as a result of our sin, and subsequently are able to receive eternal life.  Our faith in Him is what allows us to take that opportunity, not adhering to YHWH’s Law.  That’s Paul’s point.  YHWH already decided following His Law wasn’t a prerequisite.  We can see that through Peter and Paul’s experience with their Gentile ministry.  We certainly don’t have the authority to add requirements to what YHWH has already decided!      

Paul’s next statement is quite interesting.  Paul asks if we, seeking our justification in Yeshua’s sacrifice, are found to be sinners, would that make Yeshua a minister of sin (Galatians 2:17)?  What is he talking about here?  How would us being sinners make Yeshua a minister of sin?

The Greek word translated to minister is translated in many other verses as servant.  So, what Paul is really saying is that if the Law really is what decides someone’s righteousness, and Yeshua then said that a person is righteous even though he or she sinned, Yeshua would be “serving” sin.  He would be justifying it.  To look at it from another perspective, if following the Law determined whether or not someone is righteous, and even though someone went against the Law, Yeshua interceded to YHWH for that person to state that he or she is righteous, He would be then approving the sin despite the fact that YHWH had declared it wrong.  If that’s still confusing, we’ll revisit it in a moment.

When we read on, we see that Paul explains what it means to live according to the Law versus living according to Yeshua (Galatians 2:19-20).  By following the Law, he “died” to the Law, meaning his will, his desires, were no longer in control of what he did in life, the actions dictated by YHWH’s Law were.  In the same manner, by “dying” with Yeshua, our lives should be controlled by His will rather than our own.  Living like that, we would be living lives of righteousness, since Yeshua is righteous, and if we decided then that transgressing the Law affected our righteousness we would have a conflicting condition in our lives.    

On the one hand, YHWH’s grace, which is given as a result of our lives in Yeshua, is justifying us and imputing righteousness upon us.  On the other hand, the requirements of the Law are stating that we are unrighteous if we end up transgressing the commandments.  Both of these things cannot be true.  The key though, is the fact that YHWH’s grace only exists as a result of a certain event: Yeshua’s crucifixion despite His lack of sin.  He experienced the consequence of sin without having sinned.

The Law certainly is the definition of righteousness, but it is not the method by which man attains that righteousness.  We know that Yeshua is YHWH from previous studies, and if Yeshua had contradicted that Law during His ministry it would make YHWH a hypocrite.  The fact that Yeshua followed the Law perfectly, which kept Him sinless, and then was killed, not only enabled YHWH legally (by the definition of the consequences of sin) to raise Yeshua from the dead, it allowed Yeshua to be the sacrifice required by our lives as a result of our sin.  And it therefore enabled Yeshua to be our Priest (our intermediary to YHWH) to legally authorize us to live eternally despite our sin.  

We see this in the last verse of this chapter of Galatians.  Paul states that if following the Law is what gives someone righteousness, then Yeshua’s sacrifice was pointless (Galatians 2:21).  YHWH didn’t just change His mind about what is sin and what isn’t, He didn’t all of a sudden decide doing wrong was ok.  If that were the case, He never would have given those commandments to begin with.  There would have been no point.  The commandments are rules built into His creation when He created it.  They define right and wrong, as well as the consequences of doing wrong.  Yeshua’s sacrifice gives us the ability to be absolved of the wrongs that we do.

Sorry if it seems like I’m being redundant, but this is a key point that needs to be well understood by us as believers.  Many times, scripture, YHWH’s word, gets distilled down and as a result of that distillation the truth either evaporates or gets obscured.  People, believers, start to think that being lawless is something YHWH approves of as a result of Yeshua’s sacrifice.  That’s how we get to the point where churches not only accept homosexuality and abortion as ok, they promote them.  

Moving on to chapter three, Paul continues with trying to get this false teaching out of the churches of Galatia.  He points out that they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit by following the Law, so they shouldn’t think they are required to follow it after they already have the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:1-2).  The Galatians received the Holy Spirit just as we do, by hearing and believing the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua.

Paul goes on to say the beginning of their walk was in spirit, and now they’re trying to walk in the flesh (Galatians 3:3).  By saying this, Paul is connecting the fact that looking to works of the Law is going back to the basis of the Law and how it tells someone how to act righteously, which is by doing something in the flesh.  In opposition to that is how the Galatians attained righteousness, and how we attain righteousness, which is by doing something in the spirit.  While our actions in the flesh will follow, we start by believing in our spirit.

The next thing we see is an acknowledgement by Paul that their lives as believers were not easy (Galatians 3:4).  Because of their faith, they suffered, and Paul is pointing out that they were suffering even before they started believing that following the Law was required for righteousness.  So, he was asking if all that suffering was pointless then, if really they should have been following the Law the whole time.  

Again, using the Galatian’s own experiences to prove his point, Paul goes on to show that YHWH does a lot of things for them and it’s not because they follow the Law (Galatians 3:5).  The miracles He worked among them and the Holy Spirit He gave to them did not come from their following the Law because He did those things even before they were following the Law.  He did those things for them because they had faith, and only because they had faith.  

In the last few verses we’re going to look at this week, we find a theme common to Paul’s writings (Galatians 3:6-9).  Every chance he got, he was trying to back up in time the origin of, and basis for, what YHWH was doing and why He was doing it.  The only group of people the Gentiles could learn from and talk to about the newfound faith they were in were the Jews.  And they grew up being taught and believing that essentially everything came from and started with the Law given to Moses.

It's natural for this to be the Jews’ focus, because it was the basis of their whole society up to that point.  They lived and breathed it, and created a whole societal structure around it.  Their religious leaders made it a focus and even created additional requirements from it to try and better define how to follow it.

It’s understandable then, that the Jews would start there, despite the fact that they put so much emphasis on their patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as we saw in one of our previous studies.  Paul, at every opportunity, brought things back to Abraham and the fact that YHWH counted him as righteous because of His faith.  This was before the Law was given by YHWH, showing that righteousness through faith pre-dated the Law given to Moses.    

Paul also connects that faith to YHWH’s promise that everyone would be blessed through Abraham.  Because that promise was given as a result of Abraham’s faith and not as a result of Abraham following the Law, we know that our justification comes as a result of faith and not as a result of following the Law.  It’s important to note however, that as a result of Abraham’s faith, he did follow YHWH’s commandments.

Abraham was told to do some big things by YHWH.  He was told to travel to a new land, leaving his home country and family (Genesis 12:1-3).  He was told to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (Genesis 22).  He did these things (being stopped by YHWH prior to the sacrifice, of course), despite how life altering and even traumatizing they were.  His faith led him to obedience, which is what our faith should do if it is true faith.  This obedience was an outward show of Abraham’s faith.  It wasn’t the definition of his faith or a requirement of his faith, but it was a fruit of his true faith in YHWH.

Next week, we’ll continue with chapter three of Galatians where Paul continues talking about the Law and contrasting it with faith.  We hope you have a wonderful week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene