Have you ever had one of those dreams where you are trying to escape from a scary place where you are trapped. You get through to the other side, only to realise your efforts were in vain, you are still captive. It’s a common theme, it invades our worst nightmares and is often picked up in books and films, especially of the horror genre. Is our fallen situation like one of those nightmares you cannot escape from?
A look at the text (Read Galatians 5:1-6)
Paul begins this section with a fascinating phrase, which translates literally along the lines of “therefore it’s to/freedom that Christ has set you free.” Freedom therefore becomes the act of rescue and the destination to which the liberator takes us. This is well captured by the NLT’s phrase “Christ has truly set us free.” He hasn’t set us free from one slave only to subject us to a new slavery, it’s not a case of “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” The believer therefore is to “stand firm” and not to allow anyone to subject them to slavery again. They are to keep living in and enjoying this new found freedom(v1).
“Indicatively, we are children of the free woman (4:31) and therefore free in Christ. But imperatively we must stand firm to maintain that freedom, in Paul’s theology, a past conversion remains effective only as long as the person does not deconvert.”[1]
This means that in their specific context, if the Galatian believers accept circumcision, they will be going back into slavery. They receive no benefit from what Christ has done for them. Their situation is as bad as it was before (v2). To emphasise his point, Paul restates that you cannot pick and choose between commands and rituals, if you are going to be judged by your law keeping, then you need to keep the whole thing (v3). You are either justified by keeping the Law or by Christ, you cannot mix and match. To choose the Law, is to cut yourself off from Christ. So, someone who chooses to make their law observance the standard has fallen from grace, they are no longer basing their relationship with God on what Christ has done for them and freely gives to them. In fact, they have no relationship to Christ (v4).
If we want to enter into the hope of the Gospel, then it will not be through ritual and Torah observance but through the work of the Holy Spirit. Notice that, consistent with Paul’s theme, this is expected and received by faith, not by our efforts. Hope, in the New Testament refers to something that is future but certain, in other words, it is about receiving everything that God has promised in his covenant. “the hope of righteousness” could mean either “the hope received by righteousness or being justified” or “the hope which is righteousness.” If the latter, then there is a future dimension to our justification and our right relationship with God. I am happy to leave the interpretation option open and it is possible that Paul himself allowed for both meanings. We may be attempting an over distinction due to modern grammatical rules which may not be there in the original text. Certainly, we can see that our future hope of resurrection life in God’s presence is wrapped up closely with our being right with God. Further, we can talk in terms of a “now and not yet” in terms of our experience of our relationship with him.[2]
Digging Deeper
Paul’s point is this, that the Law operates as a whole system. You cannot separate out one part of it , in this case circumcision, and isolate it from the rest. It’s not that there aren’t things within the Law that we shouldn’t be doing. We are not to steal, murder, commit adultery etc. That was not the problem in Galatia. The problem was about relating to God through the Law, being assessed and judged on it. Galatians were being assessed as in or out of God’s family based on one specific question, were they circumcised. Paul insists that once you go down that route, you cannot just ask “have they kept the law of circumcision” to determine their standing before God, you have to aks whether they are keeping all the Law.
This was particularly true with the requirement for circumcision. Circumcision was not just one law among many but was the gate-keeper law. It was the ritual that marked your entry into the Mosaic covenant. So, by insisting on circumcision, the agitators were requiring Gentiles to sign up to Torah observance as a way of life.
There are therefore only two ways in which we can relate to God, either through Christ or through the Law. If we attempt to relate to God through the Law, then we will always fail because we cannot keep it all. The choice then is between law and grace. To opt for the law is to fall away from grace because you are no longer depending on its benefits.
A look at ourselves
Circumcision is no longer the hot potato that it was in Paul’s time. It’s unlikely that we will be judging people on whether or not they are circumcised. However, we can find other ways to judge people, colour of skin, gender, class, political leanings etc. We can judge them on doctrinal purity. Of course, doctrinal correctness matters, just as the Ten Commandments mattered to the Galatians. The issue is not whether or not we should strive for this but whether we incorrectly judge others based on whether they measure up to our standard of doctrinal purity. Whether its about doctrine of practice, if we judge others on this basis, we become hypocrites forgetting that we are not perfect ourselves.
If the point is that we subject ourselves to the whole system by which we judge ourselves, then it is possible to see a broader application. The focus on law observance in Galatians may tempt us to focus specifically on legalism as the danger because that seems to have been the immediate and pressing danger for that church. However, licence and superstition can be just as dangerous. If I look to how people judge me in terms of looks, popularity etc in the context of going clubbing on a Saturday night, then I am subjecting myself to this World’s entire values system. Similarly, if I find self-worth in winning something on the lottery then I am buying into a whole system that is about chance.[3]
It is important for individuals to consider whose judgement they are submitting themselves to but we also need to think about how a church culture can set in place certain standards of judgement that lead away from grace and in effect sever the church member’s relationship with Christ.
[1] Keener, Galatians, 439.
[2] See Keener, Galatians, 456-457. Keener is also happy to leave the options open here. Moo leans towards the second option noting that the first is rarely taken, Moo, Galatians., 328.
[3] This is not an argument about whether or not it is a good idea to go to a night club, play bingo or whatever but rather a question of whose judgement we are submitting ourselves to.
Faithroots 