NL 345: One In Christ - Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29

image: “We Are One in Jesus Christ” by Soichi Watanabe (Overseas Ministries Study Center)

May 16, 2021

Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29

Initial Thoughts

  • Second of three weeks in Galatians (next week Pentecost is Acts 2 plus Galatians 4)

    • NL345 - Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29

    • NL346 - Galatians 4:1-7 (5:16-26)

Galatians 3:1-9

Tone is important

  • Can be read as yelling at the Galatians or as a friendly jabbing to point out where Paul feels they have been distracted in their faith

  • He is calling them back to their experience of the Spirit which prompted their faith in Jesus Christ

    • Faith came from the spirit and the good news of Jesus Christ, not from circumcision or from knowledge of the law

    • Paul is asking if they remember what called them to their belief in the first place

    • The Galaltians have been so caught up in the question of circumcision they have forgotten or overlooked their experience of the spirit

      • Experience is paramount for Paul, because it is his experience on the Road to Damascus which legitimates his apostolic ministry

  • Abraham

    • Paul is calling back to Abraham by claiming it is faith, not circumcision which united believers with Abraham. 

    • Quoting Genesis 15:6 - it is faith, not only circumcision which unites Jews and Gentiles into the family and covenant of Abraham

    • “he makes the point that God counted Abraham righteous in light of faith, and so Abraham’s true descendants must be those who relate to God through faith.” Cousar, C. B. (1982). Galatians (p. 71). Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press.

    • Paul quotes “All the Gentiles will be blessed in you.: (Gen. 12:3)

      • Modern translations of Gen 12:3

        • NRSV: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

        • CEB: “ I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you."

      • “The Hebrew is ambiguous. Paul understands in you to mean “through you”: through Abraham the nations attain God’s blessing. Jewish exegetes understand in you as “by you.” Rashi on Gen 12:3 explains that even Gentiles will say, ‘may God bless you as he blessed Abraham’ (by you=by invoking you). Gen. Rab. on Gen 12:3 explains that God tells Abraham that the blessings of nature will reach all humanity ‘by you’, i.e. ‘on your account’.” (Shaye Cohen, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 380)

Galatians 3:23-29

Bible Study

  • Literary Context

    • According to Borg, Galatians is one of the oldest writings from the New Testament, second only to 1 Thesalonians

    • Much of the letter deals with debate over circumcision and includes objections aimed directly at Peter.

    • Paul is upset with those he calls false teachers who are compelling new believers to submit themselves to the Law, particularly circumcision.

    • If you rely on trying to follow the Law, you will always come up short. Instead, follow Christ.

    • Recalls the promise of Abraham to be sons and daughters of righteousness.

      • Builds case around righteousness being passed down through Abraham.

      • Jesus is the source of righteousness. His life, crucifixion, and resurrection is our source of salvation, not the Law.

      • Grace through faith

  • The Law and righteousness

    • The Law is God’s will and good. The problem with the Law was that it is only able to convict.

    • The Law makes humanity aware of its own sinfulness, but to be inheritors of Abraham’s promise we must also be aware of our righteousness.

    • Jesus came to free us from the prison of the Law, which is only able to reveal our sin.

    • From the Wesley Study Bible notes: “The purpose of the law was to deal with transgressions by making them explicitly known as violations against God… Moreover the law could not make it adherents righteous; instead it confined them to sin. This all changed when Christ came and righteousness by faith was established. Now that Christ and the new era have arrived, there is no reason to remain under the law and its method of dealing with sin.”

  • Children of God

    • This is different than the way progressives often throw around this term. Many use “Children of God” to imply that all humans are “children of God,” but I don’t think Paul would agree with this.

    • God wants all people to be God’s children, but becoming a “child of God” comes through faith, not simply birth.

    • Yet at the same time Paul is opening this idea of “Children of God” to an unprecedented level.

    • “John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed imagine this conversation with the Apostle Paul:

      • Do you think, Paul, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights? I am not speaking about all men but about all Christians. But do you think, Paul, that all people should be Christians? Yes, of course. Then do you think, Paul, that it is God’s will for all people to be equal with one another? Well, let me think about that one for a while and, in the meantime, you think about equality in Christ.30“ (Alicia Vargas, Working Preacher)

    • Allen Brehm, The Waking Dreamer: “think in our day and time, we should follow Paul’s lead and extend his thinking to include the whole human race as God’s chosen people. If we’re honest with ourselves and each other, we would have to admit that we have taken Paul’s scandalous overturning of the system of privilege and discrimination and turned it into a whole new means of looking down on others. We have turned our Christian faith into an exclusive mark of superiority over all “non-believers.” But it would seem to me that the God who created all things and all people, the God who called Abraham and Sarah and their descendants for the benefit of all people, and the God who in Jesus Christ came into this world to redeem all people, is the God who has chosen to love the whole human family. Truly, in and because of Christ Jesus, we are all beloved “children of God”; we are all chosen to be “one in Christ Jesus.””

  • No longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male and female.

    • It is impossible to overstate the impact of this statement.

    • Racial, religious, ethnic, class, and gender roles are deemed invalid. In a culture based on these divisions, with a careful order to everything, this is beyond radical.

    • According to Andrew Prior (One Man’s Web) “Based on the vocabulary,  scholars think the words "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus…" are an early Christian liturgy which Paul is reminding Galatia about, and reinterpreting. (Galatians, Martyn pp374) They are probably part of a baptismal liturgy.

The implications of these words, combined with Paul's interpretation of them, are simply stunning. Paul is undercutting the foundation of the whole world.”

  • Another great quote from this article: “He reminds us Paul is quoting liturgy; probably a baptismal formula. In baptism, the old opposites on which the foundations of our self understanding are laid, and the very foundations of our society are laid, are undermined. 

Not only is Paul disagreeing with the Jerusalem believers, he is handing out the ultimate insult. You are not only wrong. Your whole conception of the foundations of life with God is irrelevant. You trying to stand on a foundation which does not even exist!”

Thoughts and Questions

  • Charles Cousar summarizes this passage: “The redefinition of the people of God is now complete. Before the coming of Christ that people’s pride was the law; it was the gift of God which set her apart as a special people, unlike other nations and religions. By attention to the law she sought to maintain her privileged position as the chosen of God. Then the Messiah came, and the question of who really belongs to God’s people was transformed. Christ fulfilled a promise to Abraham which had to do with the expansion of his family as a component in their heritage. The people of God no longer is determined by the law but by Christ, belonging to him, being joined to him in baptism. But to redefine God’s people in this way is to imply revolutionary consequences for the nature of the new fellowship.

  • The distinctions do not evaporate, they are simply left powerless. Paul continues to address the distinctions in other letters. Sometimes in similarly radical ways, and at other times in more culturally-appropriate ways. The heart of this passage though is revealing a trajectory toward unity that is made possible in Christ. The distinctions are cultural constructions, not the will of God. In God through Christ, there is only oneness. As the people of Christ, we are to continue this trajectory.

Year 3Eric FistlerGalatiansComment