5:1b Therefore, stand and do not become entangled again with the yoke of slavery.
Paul now begins a new section of the letter in which he will draw the practical implications of the theology he has been arguing thus far in the letter. He begins to walk the ethical tightrope so typical of him. On the one hand, he will argue freedom from Law. But he primarily means freedom from those parts of the Law that most separated Jew from Gentile. At the same time he argues freedom from Law, he will urge success against the temptations of the flesh.
So he begins the "exhortation" section of the letter (5:1b-6:10) with the admonition for the audience to revel in the freedom from the Law that is afforded by the grace of God. They should not become entangled again with the yoke of slavery again. The context points to the Law as the slave master, but of course the audience is Gentile and so was not previously enslaved to the Law. The implication seems that the enslavement the audience had to sin before they came to Christ is similar to the enslavement that Jews might experience to the Law in its particulars.
5:2 Look, I myself, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.
If we are to accept Acts, Paul circumcised Timothy in South Galatia. He was of course partially Jewish. But Titus he did not circumcise in Galatians 2. In the case of Gentiles, Paul refused circumcision because it symbolized for him a rejection of the grace of God provided in Jesus Christ. But for the Galatians to become circumcised was for them to try to get right with God on the basis of "works of Law" rather than relying on Christ.
What Paul says here is thus similar to what he already said in 2:21--"I do not reject the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through Law, then Christ died for no reason." To become circumcised as a Gentile seeking justification was to slap Christ in the face and to trivialize the importance of his death.
5:3 And I witness again to everyone who becomes circumcised that each one becomes indebted to keep the whole Law.
Paul pictures two attempted paths to justification. The one is the route of Jewish Law, with a special emphasis on those features of the Jewish Law that marked out the Jews from the Gentiles. It is not simply an attempt to be justified by effort or by works alone, since the Law included means of atonement and allowed for repentance. Paul considers the entire path of "works of [Jewish] Law" misguided, even for Jews to take. The path that God sanctioned was through trust in the faithful death of Jesus and confession of his Lordship.
Of course the Galatians would have known that following the Jewish Law involved more than simply circumcision. Paul simply reminds them that they are changing their entire path if they take the conversion to Judaism route. It seems doubtful that Paul here is emphasizing a need for moral perfection in every aspect of the Jewish Law, since no Jew advocated such a necessity. Many Christian traditions have seen in verses such as this one and 3:10 an emphasis on "all" or "the whole" in an absolute sense that would not have made any sense to any Jew at the time of Christ. Paul is thus not likely telling the Gentiles they will need to be morally perfect if they choose to follow the Law but that they are turning to a completely different path to righteousness--one that does not actually work.
5:4 You have been cut off from Christ, you who are being justified on the basis of Law. You have fallen away from grace.
This verse confirms that Paul has two distinct paths to righteousness in view, two paths that are mutually exclusive. For a Gentile or Jew to try to be justified on the basis of Law is to reject God's gracious offer of acquittal. It is as if a judge were to offer a guilty person acquittal for a crime they had committed and the defendant were to insist on being judged on how well they dressed for rest of the trial.
There is perhaps lying beneath the surface here some anticipation of Hebrews' theology of atonement here. The Law may have means of atonement built into it, but for whatever reason, God has not considered them adequate for reconciliation to him or acquittal in his law court. God has chosen to reconcile the world through the faithful death of Jesus. Trying to pay for the debt with any other currency is the heighth of foolishness, for God is only taking payment in terms of Christ's blood. Trust in it, trust in the fact that God has raised him and installed him as Lord, Messiah. That is the currency God is taking, not conformity to the right understanding of the more "in house" particulars of the Jewish Law.
Those who try to be found "not guilty" in God's court on the basis of the ethnic particulars of the Jewish Law are foolish, for they reject God's gracious offer. They cut off the very power cord that makes the system work. They cut off the only line of air by which they can breathe.
5:5 For we, by means of the Spirit, are awaiting the hope of righteousness on the basis of faith.
The "hope of righteousness" here is the hope of justification on the Day of Judgment. The English look of the words hides from our view the fact that the word righteousness (dikaiosyne) is a noun related to the verb to justify (dikaioo). To justify is thus to declare righteous or innocent. The key passages in Paul's writings where he especially speaks of this final event are Romans 2:5-11; 14:10-12; and 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. In each of these passages Paul indicates that at least in some way, believers will also be judged on the Day of Judgment for what they have done on earth.
Mention of the "hope" of righteousness implies a reference to final justification in the future on the Day of the Lord. We hope to be found acceptable in God's eyes, first, on the basis of faith. This shorthand certainly refers to our trust in God and what He has done through Christ. It may also refer to the faithful, atoning death of Jesus himself. What it does not refer to clearly is our keeping of the ethnic particulars of the Jewish Law or our own innocence.
But we also await that hope by means of the Spirit. Later in this section Paul will speak of how the Spirit actually enables us to live righteous lives consequent to our (initial) justification by faith. We can thus be judged in part because of our works on the Day of Judgment because the Spirit empowers us to walk with God to the standard He expects of us.
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2 comments:
Ken,
you say that Timothy "was of course partially Jewish". Since he was uncircumcised, how can he have been partly Jewish? What evidence do you have that anyone in those days designated anyone as partially Jewish? The early church fathers do not explain Timothy's circumcision by referring to his partially Jewish status and this suggests that there was no such category. Only later, after the introduction of matrilineal descent within Judaism do commentators refer to Timothy's supposed Jewishness to explain his circumcision.
It was not Timothy's Jew/Gentile status that made him different from the Galatian addressees. It was the fact that the was Paul's missionary partner. Timothy needed to be circumcised so that the could preach to Jews. He needed to be a Jew to win Jews, right? This is the explanation that goes back to Tertullian. It is problematic only if we assume that Paul expected is Galatian addressees to evangelize Jews or if we suppose that the PE are correct to present Timothy as a very junior assistant of Paul.
Timothy was probably well educated in the Jewish faith and this gave him the qualifications to be Paul's missionary partner and this, in turn, made it expedient for Paul to circumcise him. But I don't think it is correct to say that Timothy was circumcised because he was "partially Jewish".
"It is not simply an attempt to be justified by effort or by works alone, since the Law included means of atonement and allowed for repentance ... It seems doubtful that Paul here is emphasizing a need for moral perfection in every aspect of the Jewish Law, since no Jew advocated such a necessity ... Paul is thus not likely telling the Gentiles they will need to be morally perfect if they choose to follow the Law but that they are turning to a completely different path to righteousness--one that does not actually work"
I sense you are pulled two ways in your thinking about these things, as also Tom Wright, trying to make
aspects of the New Perspective work. I rather feel Paul meant here that salvation was never by Law, the Jewish 'means of atonement' never atoned, and moral perfection was required by Law but unattainable. I find writings in the New Perspective never solidly address the situation of Jews in the Old Testament.
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