[00:00:00] Thani: Welcome to the third episode of The Bold Grace Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about Galatians. We’re following up—this is the third part of an overview series we’re doing of a number of New Testament books. If you care about following the order of things: we started with Acts on episode one, and we just finished talking through Romans last week, and now we’re onto Galatians. So, stay tuned!
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[00:00:40] Thani: Well, like I said, welcome to this episode. We’re going to be talking about Galatians. I’m Thani (…)
[00:00:45] Grant: (…) and I’m Grant. (…)
[00:00:46] Thani: (…) And, we’re going to delve into an overview of Galatians like we have been doing and explore somewhat of a new audience. So, this is the first epistle we’re looking at where Paul’s talking to an entirely homogenous group of people in that they’re Gentiles and not a mixed group like we looked at last week when we were talking about a church with both Jews and Gentiles. Now, this is a Gentile church and there’s some crossover, but then there are some new aspects to the message of the gospel of Christ as it pertains to this particular issue that the Galatians were dealing with. But, I’ll let Grant lead us through all that. So where are we going to start?
[00:01:34] Grant: Well, I figure we start at the beginning! That’s a good place to start. But, it’s really important for us to consider some of these things related to hermeneutics that we talked about in the past. And the main thing that I feel like is often missed when it comes to how we interpret scripture is the idea that every book in the New Testament is given for some kind of practical purpose. And I think when you get the practical purpose, then you see all the final details start to fall into place. It’s really interesting—there’s a paradox with the idea of hermeneutics and that’s that you can’t understand the little details about little passages and things until you understand the whole book and then you can’t understand the whole book until you understand the details. So, it presents a little bit of a problem, but I love what Dr. Elliot Johnson said in his book, Expository Hermeneutics, where he’s making the point that there’s a process that involves looking at the big picture and then coming down to the details—and then back to the big picture and then back to the details! It involves doing a lot of reading through the whole thing, but then coming back and studying the individual portions. It’s really interesting when you do that; you end up with this “big, small, big, small, big, small” kind of process and it makes all the things start to fall together.
[00:03:19] Grant: And Galatians is one of these books where I think this is really important and you know, it’s not just Galatians, but, uh, it’s really all of the epistles especially, but all the books of the Bible are this way. But what was happening in Galatians, um, is that you’ve got this group of Gentiles. Who, um, Paul led to faith in Christ and he started this church and he’d been, uh, serving there and, and discipling them.
[00:03:45] Grant: And then after a short period of time, they’re falling away. And the reason they’re falling away is because there was this group of people and we call them Judaizers. Who came into the church and we’re telling them, look, you got to become circumcised and you got to keep the law of Moses if you want to be saved, um, and if you want to be included in part of as part of the community.
[00:04:08] Grant: And this was the big, the big problem that he was dealing with because you got folks who were, were basically abandoning. the gospel in order to adopt kind of a works relationship. And the reason they’re doing this is because, uh, they were afraid they weren’t going to be included. And so, you know, Galatians really has, Galatians really has two, um, main audiences, um, that Paul is kind of dealing with.
[00:04:36] Grant: And one is the primary audience to those he’s, he’s writing to, which is, You know, these, these Gentile Christians who are excluded and who are being excluded, and then you’ve got kind of a side message for people who might do the excluding. And so there’s this message to the exclusion, the excluders, and the, this message to the excluded.
[00:04:56] Grant: And, um, the, the message is, is similar, but there’s a different application. And, uh, for the exclusion. excluded, we’re going to see that he’s trying to encourage them that they are, they’re part of, of the body of Christ and they’re fully accepted as they are and they don’t need to change. And, um, and in fact, the more they accept their freedom in Christ specifically from the, from the law, the more they’re free to walk in the spirit.
[00:05:23] Grant: And, uh, live a life that’s going to be pleasing to God, but for the excluders, um, it’s a big rebuke. And we, we’re going to see this mostly in this interaction that, that, uh, Paul talks about that he had with Peter. And we’ll get there in a little bit. Um, but let me start here, um, Galatians one chapter or verse six.
[00:05:46] Grant: And he says here, I marvel that you’re turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there’s, there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. And he goes on and he basically gives them this, um, this, uh, instruction to anathematize.
[00:06:08] Grant: people who would preach any other gospel. And, uh, the anathema there, I think a lot of times people start to think, well, this must have to do with salvation and things. And the idea of maybe that people could lose their salvation, but that’s not what he’s talking about there. What he’s saying is basically they shouldn’t be given a platform. They shouldn’t be welcome into the community if they’re coming and preaching a different gospel—
[00:06:31] Thani: —What does the word anathema mean? That’s a Greek term, right?
[00:06:35] Grant: Yeah, it basically means to be cursed. But it’s very general and in this context it has to do with not welcoming them into the community. This is appropriate exclusion. And it’s one of those things where we have to be careful because this really applies to people who are teaching a different gospel. It doesn’t mean that someone can’t come to your church and sit, listen, and learn if they don’t understand the gospel properly or anything like that.
[00:07:11] Grant: It really has to do with those who would come and try to teach that people need to do works. Um, to keep the law to become circumcised, these sort of things in order to be justified. And, um, in verse, or chapter 4, verse 17, there’s this really interesting verse that gets to the motive of these false teachers that were coming in.
[00:07:33] Grant: He says, uh, they zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them. And this kind of gets to human nature because, you know, when, when someone comes in and or a group of people come in and they exclude everybody else, then there’s kind of a desire to want to be part of that group.
[00:07:52] Grant: Right? When you’re on the outside looking in, you, you start to sort of idolize the people on the inside and. And that was their motive, really. They were trying to, uh, big time it, right? They were, they were trying to come in and point to their, um, Jewishness as a reason for, for being part of this elite group.
[00:08:14] Grant: And this is actually a problem you see kind of often in scripture where, um, where people do the same kind of thing. And you see it, um, prevalent in second Corinthians, uh, where, you know, these folks are. Uh, are coming in and, you know, just trying to point to their, uh, worldly attainment in, in the Jewish world.
[00:08:37] Grant: And, uh, basically trying to, to, uh, exclude Paul and his ministry. Uh, you see it in. Philippians chapter three, where Paul talks about these people doing the same thing. And then at that place, you, you learn a lot about the apostle Paul. And we, there are things that you might have expected and understood, uh, just if you’ve, if you’re familiar with the rest of, uh, what Paul has to say, but you know, he, he, he goes in there and he lists his credentials, right?
[00:09:05] Grant: Um, he was. You know, a Hebrew of Hebrews circumcised, the circumcised, the eighth day of the, uh, tribe of Israel, uh, of, of, uh, actually the tribe of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. And, um, concerning the law, he says he was a Pharisee, right? Um, and, you know, he was a zealous. He was zealous to the point of persecuting the church and all these sort of things and Uh, you know paul was he was big time, right?
[00:09:33] Grant: He was he was very well um established in his jewish walk and they from um Extra biblical sources. We learned that it’s likely that paul was actually a member of the sanhedrin which is this, you know elite group of 70 people Who were in charge of leading israel Um, spiritually. And, uh, he, but then he goes on, he’s like, he goes on to, to say that these things weren’t, aren’t only, um, not a positive for him.
[00:10:06] Grant: They’re actually a negative. He says what things were gained to me. I’ve counted loss for the sake of Christ. And if you imagine this, this person, and we saw this some in acts, but, um, this person who was just, yeah, Um, Jewish to like every atom in his body was, was Jewish and every thought that he had was, was about, you know, the law and all of these sort of things.
[00:10:30] Grant: And, and there’s, there’s no way that he would ever in his, in his flesh. Um, devote his life to helping Gentiles and yet that’s exactly what what he ends up doing. And so he ends up with this, um, deep love for the Gentiles, um, where he’s, he goes through intense suffering that we read about in second Corinthians chapter 11, intense suffering.
[00:10:55] Grant: Um, I, sometimes I’ll, when I’m preaching at different churches, I’ll. I try to read through that and I always get choked up reading all the suffering that Paul went through, um, because, you know, the more time you spend with them, the more you love them. And it’s, it’s one of those things where, um, it’s just incredible, um, the amount of, Uh, difficulty and, and, um, just intense suffering that he went through and, but his experiences with all this were, um, a big part of developing this, um, this just intense love for the, for the Gentiles.
[00:11:32] Grant: And in Galatians, he actually compares himself to a mother in labor. And, uh, but he’s comparing himself to a mother going through labor a second time for the same kid, and he’s, he’s just intensely torn up about this. And when you, when you read through there’s, there’s a lot of, you know, some people call Galatians Paul’s angry letter.
[00:11:55] Grant: But, and it is, but it’s, it’s like the love of a parent, um, coming through when, when the kid is in serious danger. And that’s what’s happening. These folks came in and they, they wanted to exclude them. And because of that, that aspect of human nature, they’re thinking, Well, I, I want to be part of it. I want to be included.
[00:12:15] Grant: And so they were willing to essentially walk away from the gospel in order to, to, to To be included, and it’s really just, um, an awful situation. If you can imagine Paul and his love for them and, um, this, you know, essentially a betrayal, um, not of him, but of Christ. And of course, you know, Paul loved Christ very much too.
[00:12:37] Grant: And in chapter 2, there’s this, um. Interaction that Paul talks about, um, where he, um, is an Antioch and it has to do with, um, this, you know, terrible hypocrisy that was coming from, from Paul or excuse me from Peter. And it says in verse 11, it says now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles.
[00:13:07] Grant: But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. And, uh, Barnabas, we, we met in Acts. And, uh, his name is actually a nickname, and it means, uh, son of encouragement.
[00:13:29] Grant: And so it’s, it’s kind of, um, shocking to Paul that this person whose character was so encouraging, uh, That he received this nickname son of encouragement would also, you know, um, do something so discouraging to the Gentiles and he goes on. He says in verse 14, but when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you being a Jew live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?
[00:13:59] Grant: We who are Jews by nature and not centers of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Oh. But by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.
[00:14:17] Grant: And when he says here, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, he doesn’t mean that Jewish people aren’t sinners. Um, he’s using kind of a special Um, a special application of that word sinners to refer to people who aren’t under the law. And he’s saying, uh, look, Peter, you’re not living as, as a Jew, you’re not living under the law.
[00:14:39] Grant: You haven’t been. And now by your actions, you’re compelling Gentiles to live as Jews. And if you put yourselves in the, in the, in the place of these Gentile Christians, um, you know, they had something really special where, you know, the gospel came in and said, look. You know, Jesus Christ is for everybody, isn’t he?
[00:14:58] Grant: He’s not just for the Jews. He’s for everybody. He’s for you and they believe in him and they are, uh, then included. And then you have, uh, Peter and Barnabas and and some other, you know, really important figures, you know, Peter being the leader from among the disciples or from among the apostles. And he, um, they would eat with them.
[00:15:20] Grant: And there was this Uh, fellowship they had and it would have been beautiful, right? And it would have been something that, um, uh, really would have meant a lot to these people. And then because of essentially peer pressure, Peter withdrew, Barnabas withdrew, the rest of the Jews withdrew. And by doing that, they were, they were telling these Gentiles that, um, essentially that, that, um, you know, they’re not, They’re not part of the group and, um, it would have just been devastating to these gentile people.
[00:15:55] Grant: And you can imagine yourself in that, in their shoes and, and, uh, how that might affect you. And this, this is one of those situations where, um, where the, um, there, there wasn’t any teaching going on that was contrary to the gospel, but the actions themselves were Were contrary to the gospel and so the, these Gentiles just would have been crushed in this moment.
[00:16:23] Grant: And so this is why, uh, you know, Paul actually calls out Peter in front of everybody and it’s not because, you know, Paul was trying to embarrass Peter or anything like that. It’s just that, um, you know, this was, this was such a public thing that Peter did and it had an effect on everybody. And because of this effect that it had on everybody, everybody needed to hear the correction, right?
[00:16:47] Grant: And so, um, this would have been just an incredibly tense moment. You’ve got, you know, Paul and Peter who are probably the two biggest figures in the church, right? Um, maybe James would be the only other one. Um, but, you know, Paul and Peter are, um, are at odds with each other. And there’s this very big public calling out that Paul does, um, but you can also imagine how, after this correction, how you, um, these Gentiles might have been really encouraged.
[00:17:19] Grant: And we talked about this when we were in Acts, but in Acts chapter 15, this was, this was after this moment. And you see Peter just absolutely bold about the inclusion of the Gentiles, and he’s, he’s in there saying, um, you know, all of these, basically all of these same things that Paul is saying to him, and he’s saying it in front of James and all the elders and the apostles who are gathered there together.
[00:17:46] Grant: And he’s, he says it with, with very bold language, um, he says, you know, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the Gentiles, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? And it’s like, um, okay, Peter, all right, you know, so, um, you know, this would have been, this would have been a, um, uh, an important moment for Peter, uh, because he knew, he knew theologically that he was free from the law.
[00:18:12] Grant: And that because he’s free from the law, he was free to go to the Gentiles. And then when he went to Cornelius and all of them believed in the Holy Spirit came upon them, um, visibly, just like it did at Pentecost. And there was this, um, there was this understanding that he had at that moment that, um, that God has included the Gentiles and made no distinction.
[00:18:35] Grant: And yet still the peer pressure. Caused him to, to fall away, essentially. And so, in this moment, he’s, he’s, you know, uh, Paul is calling out, uh, Peter, and again he says, uh, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by faith in Christ.
[00:19:06] Grant: the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. He says, but if we, uh, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. And this is a little bit interesting, uh, because Paul is using the term justified just a little differently than he normally does, like he does in, in Romans, for example, um, because the tenses are unusual.
[00:19:35] Grant: He says, while, um, if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? And would we not understand that they were already justified, right? Um, so they were already justified. We learned in Romans five, right? He’s right at the very beginning of Romans five, he says, um, therefore having been justified by faith, right?
[00:20:02] Grant: We have peace with God or let us have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ, depending on, you know, which text grouping you go with there. And, um, it’s, but the, the justification there is treated as something that happened in the past at the first moment of faith. And so, but this is something that’s, uh, still an ongoing thing.
[00:20:24] Grant: And it’s a little bit interesting because we have a question about, well, what does, what does this mean? Why are, um, why are these tenses different? And I think James chapter two is pretty helpful here, um, because we can understand from this that there’s not only justification before God, but there’s also justification before men and in, let’s see, James, uh, two, and we’re talking about verse 21 and following, he says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
[00:20:57] Grant: Do you see that faith was working together with his works? And by faith, Works. Faith was made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. And this is something where sometimes we don’t read this with the right emphasis, and so we can kind of miss what, what James is saying, um, because this Abraham being called a friend of God, was also in scripture.
[00:21:22] Grant: Right. And he was called a friend of God by other men. And so, um, this is a paraphrase, but, uh, he has a quote from Genesis 15, six, and then a paraphrase of a few different places in the old Testament, where it says the first, the quote is Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and that was fulfilled.
[00:21:41] Grant: But then also it was fulfilled that he was called the friend of God, right? And so we have right there a picture of two different justifications There’s the justification in that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness that justification before God and then he has Justification before men when it says and he was called the friend of God and then verse 24 It says you see then that a man is justified by works and not By faith only, but that’s just a butchered translation.
[00:22:11] Grant: Um, the word translated only here is the greek word monon And it’s not an adjective. It’s an adverb and the way this is translated is is is translated as an adjective Modifying faith. Okay, so some some verses just say not by faith alone, right? And um in both of these cases, they’re they’re missing what this word is doing and it’s it’s not modifying faith It’s modifying justified Right.
[00:22:38] Grant: It’s an adverb. It doesn’t modify nouns And so it should be, uh, translated something like you see then that a man is justified by works and not only justified by faith. Right. And so, um, James here is accounting for both of those justifications. One, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, but also two, he was called the friend of God.
[00:23:02] Grant: Right. And so there’s two justifications. And this is what what James is saying here. And in Galatians, what Paul is doing is not trying to say justification before men by works, but he’s talking about justification before men also. But he’s talking about justification before men based on Justification before God, and you might, you might translate this as vindicated, and I think that that’s, um, that’s a, that’s can be really helpful sometimes in, in certain contexts, um, I don’t, I don’t know about doing that in James 2 because James is talking about both kinds of justification, right?
[00:23:42] Grant: It’s sort of a wordplay. He’s using the word both ways. But, um, here in verse 17 when he says, But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, he means, like, that we are seeking to be included in the family of God. Right? Not by God, but by other men. And so, um, so Paul and Peter both are to understand that because of their justification before God, which is in Christ by faith, they should be included already.
[00:24:12] Grant: In the people of God and in the community, and so, um, so that’s really what’s happening there with, with justification in Galatians, he’s, he’s talking about both justification before God and justification before men, but that justification before men is based on our justification before God. And so you can see how this applies to the situation that Paul.
[00:24:34] Grant: is dealing with here in Galatians, um, or excuse me, in Antioch, because in Antioch, um, you have this group that was included because of their faith in Christ, and now all of a sudden they’re being, they’re being excluded, right? And so, um, so Paul then is turning this back around on Peter and saying, look, Um, you understand you’re justified by faith in Christ, uh, before God and you are seeking to live your life in such a way where you are vindicated by Christ, okay?
[00:25:10] Grant: Because if, if he’s, he’s out there living like a Gentile, right? What’s his vindication? His vindication is, well, Christ has justified me, right? And so he’s included. Even though he’s living like a gentile and in the same way these gentiles should be included because they are gentiles, right? Um, and they they are included by faith and not by the works of the law the same way that that peter was and paul was So he goes on he says for if I build again those things which I destroyed I make myself a transgressor For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God and that is such an interesting verse.
[00:25:47] Grant: Um, I through the law died to the law that I might live to God and this gets to one of the purposes of the law. Um, the purpose of the law we saw in, um, or at least one main purpose in Romans chapter three was that, um, every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. But, uh, in.
[00:26:09] Grant: 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. Um, he calls the, um, the law ministry of death, right? And, um, why does he call it that? Well, because if you commit a transgression under the law, um, death occurs, either the death of an animal or the death of the person, if it was a bad enough sin. And, um, and the idea then is that, um, when Christ died, He fulfilled the law, and we understand this not in the sense of him fulfilling the law just by keeping it in his life because he did that, but he fulfilled the law in a fuller sense in that when Christ died, all the world died with him, and so therefore, the final punishment that the law could do is fulfilled, right?
[00:26:58] Grant: Because if one day for all, then all died. Um, second Corinthians chapter five. And so that’s what Paul is referring to when he says for I through the law died to the law that I might live to God And so what he means is that when the law was fulfilled in christ And he was crucified together with christ then he died Okay, the the punishment for all of his transgressions was fulfilled In that death and he goes on he says i’ve been crucified with christ It is no longer I who live but christ lives in me in the life, which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me.
[00:27:36] Grant: And, um, throughout this, you can see he uses Christ, Christ. And then he goes over and he says, the son of God. Yeah. And, um, what he’s doing there is bringing God into it, the father. Okay. Because he’s trying to express that not only not only as this messiah, did he come and die, but he also was sent by God as God’s son.
[00:28:06] Grant: And so this love that’s being poured out in Christ is not just love from Christ himself, but it’s also love from God because God gave his son. And so this is drawing, um, kind of a personal attention to, um, to this crucifixion, but not just, excuse me, not just, um, And his death, but his being sent. Okay. Um, so we, we really should stop and meditate a little bit on, on the love of God when we come across this verse and read that, but it says, um, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
[00:28:44] Grant: And so, um, Christ died for everybody, but, um, we can also say Christ died for me, uh, just like Paul does, um, because it is personal. He loved the world, but he also loved me. He loved Paul. He loved you. And so, But he goes on he says I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died in vain and That’s a strong statement.
[00:29:10] Grant: Yeah Right? It’s a strong statement. And so what he’s doing here, Paul is, he’s referring to himself, right? But he’s really talking about Peter. And I think the reason Paul is doing this, remember all this is still right in the front, in front of all of the, the church in Antioch, right? And so Paul, I think is referring to himself to kind of make it a little more gentle and also to express a camaraderie.
[00:29:40] Grant: Between between him and Peter and so, um, well, he says for if I build again, those things which I destroyed, um, I make myself a transgressor and he could be saying for a few Peter builds again, those things which you destroyed, you make yourself a transgressor, right? For you through the law died to the law that you might live to God, right?
[00:30:00] Grant: Etcetera. And, um, When he says this, for if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. What he’s, what’s, what he’s referring to is the fact that they’re not living like Jews, right? And so then if even just by this simple act of withdrawing fellowship, right? Just withdrawing fellowship saying, okay, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna eat with the Gentiles anymore.
[00:30:23] Grant: Even in just that simple thing, he’s rebuilding the law, okay? Because what’s the implication? The implication is that, that those who are not keeping the law. are not loved. Okay? Not loved by God, not loved by um, these certain men from James, and not loved by Peter or Barnabas or any of them. And, but in doing that, they’re implying that you have to keep the law, and implying you have to keep the law, you’re building those things which you destroyed.
[00:30:53] Grant: Okay? And you’re condemning all of these actions that you did When you were living like a Gentile, right? and so It really comes down to that that real Important statement where he said where he said I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes to the law then Christ died in vain and to to adopt legalism sets aside the grace of God and We’re gonna hop all the way down to chapter 4 and we’ll come back to chapter 3 But in chapter four, um, in verse eight, he says, but then indeed, when you did not know God and he’s talking to the, the, the Gentile believers in, uh, Galatia, then indeed, when you did not know God, you serve those which by nature are not gods.
[00:31:40] Grant: He’s talking about pagan idols, right? And he says, but now after you have known God or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire? Again, to be in bondage. So, in that, in that verse, those two verses, he is comparing living under the law with pagan idolatry.
[00:32:02] Grant: And that’s a strong thing to do because obviously God gave the law, right? God gave the law. But it’s also God who fulfilled the law and abolished the law. in Christ, right? And so it’s just as much disobedience to, to put yourself under the law is just as much disobedience as, um, pagan idolatry. And this is, this is why, um, there’s such strong statements in the book of Hebrews and a bunch of other places about placing yourselves under the law, because just doing so Is a denial of what Christ did for us, right?
[00:32:40] Grant: And so back in chapter three Um, he turns his attention from peter from this the story about him and peter back to talking directly to The galatians and he says oh foolish galatians who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Before whose eyes jesus christ was clearly portrayed among you was crucified meaning they understood it.
[00:33:02] Grant: They understood Christ’s death for them and what it meant he says this only I want to learn from you Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Well, they know that they receive the spirit by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the law So he says are you so foolish having begun in the spirit?
[00:33:19] Grant: Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? and Man, what a thought because, um, what he’s doing is he’s, he’s, he’s trying to express that when we’re under the law, we’re depending on the flesh and circumcision is such a great example of this, right? It’s such a great illustration because circumcision is, is entirely about your body, right?
[00:33:45] Grant: It’s entirely about your body. It’s you’re cutting off a piece of your body. And doing that to, if you’re, if you’re becoming circumcised in order to try to place yourselves under the law so that you’ll be justified, okay, by the, by the community, but also by God, then in doing so, you are trying to perfect yourself in the flesh.
[00:34:08] Grant: And so there’s, there’s no way to do that. You can’t, you just can’t do it. Because, um, because there’s no there there, right? There’s no the flesh by the by the works of law. No flesh will be justified in his sight. And so they should know better because they started off right, right? That’s what Paul is talking about.
[00:34:27] Grant: And if you hop down to verse 16, it says, uh, still Galatians chapter 3 says now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. And he does not say and to seeds as of many, but as of one and to your seed, who is Christ. And so there was promises that God made to Abraham, and, uh, those promises then are, um, to him and to his singular seed, Christ, right?
[00:34:55] Grant: And he’s, he’s got this whole thing going on here where he’s, he’s basically expressing the idea that Abraham was justified by faith, right? And the law came in quite a bit later. Right? There was no law when, when Abraham was justified and there wasn’t even a law when he became circumcised, right? It was just a symbol at that time for, um, for, um, you know, his obedience to God.
[00:35:21] Grant: And, um, but because Abraham received all this by promise and by faith, then to be children of Abraham, we’ve got to be, um, we’ve got to be Blessed by in the same way, right? Um, and again in verse, um, going on from verse 16, um, down through 17 to 19. It says in this, I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant, which was confirmed before by God in Christ.
[00:35:52] Grant: That it should make the promise of no effect. And for if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose then does the law serve? That’s a good question. Um, and you might think, well, then, then why did God give the law, right? If all of this is by promise and not by works of the law.
[00:36:12] Grant: So he asked the question, what purpose then does the law serve? And it says it was added because of transgressions. And that’s not quite translated, right? Um, that word because of, um, can mean, and it does in this context with a view toward, okay. And if we’re going to just Smooth out the translation to make it, to bring out the idea, it would be something like it was added to bring about transgressions.
[00:36:37] Grant: The law, what’s the purpose? To bring about transgressions. And the reason for that is because transgressions is breaking a law, right? And so it’s not like people were breaking laws, and so God gave the law. They didn’t have the law. They had sins. But they didn’t have transgressions. And so the law came in to turn those sins into transgressions.
[00:36:58] Grant: So that there would be an accounting. And so that, um, as Paul said in Romans chapter 3, Every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. And so that’s why, that’s why the law was given. In order to turn sins into transgressions. And make people, um, more guilty and more aware of their guilt.
[00:37:17] Grant: Um, but there’s a, there’s an end date. It was never intended to be eternal. He says, um, it was added, um, with a view toward transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Well, Christ has come. So the law has fulfilled its time, right? It’s all done. And if we go down to verse 26, he says, um, starting there, he says, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
[00:37:45] Grant: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There’s neither slave nor free. There’s neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And this says, and if you are Christ, but, um, I don’t really think this is possessive because the idea here is he’s not.
[00:38:07] Grant: He’s not trying to express that they belong to Christ. He’s trying to express that they have unity with Christ, right? That’s what he means when he says you have put on Christ, right? We are all one in Christ Jesus. And so I would translate this as something like and if you are of the Christ Okay, if you are of the Christ if you are one with Christ if you are in Christ if you are a part of his body Then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
[00:38:35] Grant: And so You How then do we become heirs of God? Well, we become heirs of God through his promise to Abraham, which was given to him and his seed. And we become one with his seed when we believe in Christ and become part of Christ. So, there’s a unity, again, that’s expressed between The believer in Christ, and it’s actually in that unity that we are blessed with all of these things, right?
[00:39:03] Grant: We receive eternal life because Christ has risen from the dead, and he therefore can’t ever die again. Right. And so we then come into his everlasting life because we’re included in him and he rose from the dead. We are, we receive an inheritance because God promised it to Abraham and to his seed. And because we are in that seed, then we also are heirs, right?
[00:39:29] Grant: And this is how it all works. It’s all in unity with Christ and skipping all the way through chapter four and going to chapter five. He says, stand fast, therefore. And the liberty by, uh, by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And this is one of those things where, um, you know, some of us just like, uh, clear commands and things to do.
[00:39:55] Grant: And, uh, we have one here, right? But it’s, it’s stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. This is a command. We have, um, right here in scripture, don’t do it. Do not do it. Down in verse 13. He says for you brethren have been called to liberty only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh But through love serve one another and this gets to where there’s really two different ways to to walk in the flesh, right?
[00:40:25] Grant: Um, one way is that we try to keep the law and then the other way is that we just try to please the flesh Right. And, uh, both of those have to do with, um, with walking in the flesh. And he’s addressing first, um, the, the idea of their liberty in Christ and that they, they don’t live in the flesh that way.
[00:40:48] Grant: He says for you, brethren have been called to liberty, but then he addresses the other. And he says only do not use, use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. And this gets down to all this stuff we talked about in Romans where the, the Um, the fulfillment of the righteous requirement of the law is that we would love our neighbor as ourselves, right?
[00:41:09] Grant: That’s what the whole law comes down to. And so, um, that’s what he says here again. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In verse 19. And following, he looks at the works of the flesh and, and this is what you get from the flesh always, and these things don’t necessarily only come to the person who’s trying to please the flesh, but this can also, these also come to the person who’s trying to walk, um, and walk spiritually by the flesh, right?
[00:41:42] Grant: Um, trying to keep the law. He says, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, uh, sorcery, and those things really have to do more with this, you know, the licentious, right? Um, and then we get to, uh, A list of things that really have to do with how we live in communities as hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, and this, these heresies, um, the word heresy actually means, um, like division.
[00:42:19] Grant: Okay. It means division. And the, the way heresy Uh, took on its meaning that it has today is that, you know, these, these early church councils, when they would come together and someone would express a doctrine that was wildly different from, uh, the established belief of, of all the people, they would shout heresy.
[00:42:42] Grant: Because he’s they’re saying you would you’re dividing the church and so all of this really has to do with how people treat each other and and Legalism causes heresy. Okay, legalism itself is heresy and that’s exactly what you saw in Antioch where Legalism came in and just split the church right in half Okay, just tore it right, right asunder.
[00:43:09] Grant: And so, so this legalism always does that. And even when both groups are legalists, because every legalistic group has all kinds of different ideas about what they’re supposed to do. Because it’s always, you know, going to be based on a culture and often a very small section of a subculture. And so by nature.
[00:43:30] Grant: Um, by nature, legalism is heresy, and, um, it is then also the, the deeds of the flesh. But he goes on, he says, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, and so these sort of things are, um, are just, you know, constant, um, problems for any, any church that’s walking in the flesh. And he goes on, he turns his attention to the fruit of the spirit, and he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love.
[00:43:59] Grant: And I think that there, there should be a colon right here after the word love, because all of these things are then descriptors of love and, um, the fruit of the spirit. He’s already expressed that, you know, all the laws fulfilled in this one word. Even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Just a few verses earlier.
[00:44:17] Grant: And so, um, so here he’s saying the fruit of the spirit is love. And then this is what it looks like. Joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. And then he says, against such, there’s no law against such, there’s no law. And so the, the idea then is just like what he was saying in Romans, you understand your freedom in Christ and you walk by the spirit and out of that walking by the spirit, you’d love, you’d love your brother.
[00:44:44] Grant: Okay. And in doing that, you fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. And so, um, nobody condemned. Nobody can condemn. Me. The, the life that’s lived in the spirit and when we go down a little bit further, he’s, he’s basically talked about, um, you know, in this context that if we walk in the spirit, we won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh and these sort of things.
[00:45:12] Grant: But then in, um, verse 25 he says, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. And this word translated walk is mistranslated. Okay. Um, the word is stoicheo and the normal word for walk is peripeteo. It’s a different word. Okay. And sometimes people will, um, say it means to like march in step.
[00:45:36] Grant: Okay. And there is, there is some usage of this word. Being used in that way, but it’s because it’s the the basic idea of it that connects with marching and step with people is Not the walking part of it. It’s the it’s the being in harmony part of it and The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, I think, does a really good job of this and shows that the word stoicheo, even though people have translated it “walk” for a long time, that really that’s not the meaning of the word.
[00:46:10] Grant: The meaning of the word is “to be in harmony.” And so, if we live in the Spirit, let us also be in harmony in the Spirit. And this gets down to this idea of justification before men based on our justification before God by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.
[00:46:31] Grant: And so, he’s talking to all these people and trying to tell them, look, you don’t need legalism. You don’t need to try to establish your own righteousness, um, through the law. Because you can’t ever do that anyway. It’s always going to lead to failure because it’s never the purpose. The purpose was to bring about transgressions.
[00:46:47] Grant: It wasn’t. To bring about righteousness and so if all that’s true, and if the fruit of the spirit is love, right, and that love looks like joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, then why? How could we not be in unity? How could we not be in harmony? If all that is the case, and so that’s what he’s saying.
[00:47:11] Grant: If we live in the spirit and we do okay, our life comes from the spirit. We believed in Christ. We received eternal life. We live in the spirit. Let us also be in harmony by the spirit. So he goes on. And this is how he’s expressing this. And these are all one another kind of statements. Right? And so that’s another reason why we should understand this isn’t just about our personal walk.
[00:47:33] Grant: It’s about how we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ. He says, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.
[00:47:52] Grant: And he goes on, he says, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And, what is the law of Christ? Well, the law of Christ is that, uh, we would love, love one another as he says, as I’ve loved you. Um, and so, that’s our whole responsibility as Christians. And, uh, 1 John 3, 23, I think puts it really well, uh, 1 John 3, 23, he says, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another.
[00:48:20] Grant: As he gave us commandments. It’s easy, right? There’s just the one thing. And I say easy, but really, I should probably say simple, right? Um, it’s simple, but it is easy when we’re walking in the spirit because the fruit of the spirit is that love. And what does love do? Well, it bears each other’s burdens.
[00:48:40] Grant: It’s, um, it’s long suffering and patient and kind towards other people. And it doesn’t exclude anybody. It doesn’t exclude any believer in Christ from the fellowship. Because we understand, because we’re justified by grace through faith, therefore we should accept one another who are justified by grace through faith.
[00:49:00] Grant: Um, and in doing that, That’s how we fulfill the law of Christ. And so that’s really what Galatians is about. It’s about helping these, these people to understand, um, the, the, those who have been excluded to understand your responsibility is only one thing and that’s to love one another. Okay. Um, Romans chapter 13, there’s a verse in there that’s normally translated, um, Oh, no one, anything except to love one another.
[00:49:28] Grant: And that first word, Oh, um, is. It’s the, the form in the Greek, it could either be, uh, an indicative or an imperative. And they’ve translated it as a, as an imperative, but I don’t think they should have there because the point he’s saying is, uh, you don’t owe anyone anything except to love one another. And in that context of what’s happening in Romans, that makes perfect sense because he’s trying to help them to understand, look, you don’t, you don’t have to, um, conform to someone else’s culture, except as far as it takes, as far as.
[00:50:02] Grant: It’s, it’s necessary to love a person and Romans 14 expresses all that so well that, you know, we all have this liberty. We need to accept each other, but also. We need to be walking in love and don’t, you know, don’t destroy your brother because of food, right? And all these sort of things. You don’t know anybody, anything, except to love one another.
[00:50:21] Grant: And it’s the same point that he’s making when he lists the fruit of the spirit and then he says, against such, there’s no law. You don’t know anybody except to love one another. Um, anything except for to love one another. And if we bear each other’s burdens, we are fulfilling the law of Christ. So in this excluded group, um, Having this understanding that our only responsibility is to walk by faith and to love each other is going to give them the confidence that they need to persevere through this peer pressure that they’re going through and To the excluders, right?
[00:50:58] Grant: That’s not really the audience, but there’s application, right? That you don’t have it. You don’t have the right to do it You don’t have the right to exclude anybody. Um, everybody, every single person who believed in Christ is equally included. And it doesn’t matter what kind of differences there are on the flesh.
[00:51:16] Grant: There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So anyway, that’s Galatians.
[00:51:25] Thani: Oh my gosh. I know that we generally have a premise that we’re kind of like co-hosts, but I feel like I am getting so much. It feels very one sided here. There’s so much to pull from everything that you’ve just communicated. I’ve been silent because I’ve just been absorbing. You see me a little bit with “deer in the headlights” or like “sheep eyes”? I’m encouraged—I feel like you’re illuminating for me a collectivist kind of lens on a lot of the scripture and that makes a lot of sense in terms of the practical context that you illustrated when we were talking about Acts last week, this contention in Acts 15, how Paul is rehashing this event in Galatians, and how it applies to what the Galatian church was undergoing.
[00:52:33] Thani: I have a lot of questions. I’m impressed with Peter’s character. Like you suggested: I try to put myself in the shoes of that moment—that very tense moment. And, I could only imagine… Paul was implying that Peter was essentially nullifying the death of Christ. What a damning statement! And I could imagine this would be such an easy point in history in which those two could have completely fractured. Peter thinking, “Okay, you met Christ in a moment—I lived with him for three years!” I’m impressed that it wasn’t a moment of fracture. Like you suggested, later we see that he came back and he was boldly of a complete about-face.
[00:53:37] Grant: Yeah. Because Paul was right and he knew it. And he, Peter, was a man of character. And, you know, he puts his foot in his mouth sometimes and he, um, sometimes acts rashly, but, um, but he loved Christ and he knew, he knew these things, right?
[00:53:59] Grant: Paul wasn’t saying anything to him. He didn’t already know. He just maybe hadn’t thought through all the implications of what he was doing. And so, but yeah, it’s, it really does speak well of his character that he responded so well to this. And, uh, he became, I think, you know, you see him very strongly. In Acts chapter 10 and 11.
[00:54:18] Grant: Um, when it comes to the inclusion of the gentiles, but even there, he’s like, he’s like, well, you know, this is God did it. I, you know, I don’t have anything to do with it, right? But then the next 15, he’s like, he’s just so bold and he just, he stands up in front of everybody and there’s no, there’s no, You know, hemming and hawing or anything like that.
[00:54:43] Grant: He just absolutely just comes up and nails it. The Gentiles are absolutely included and you guys are wrong to try to suggest otherwise. And, um, man, yeah, it is great. Um, yeah, Peter’s great. We named our son Rock, and he’s named after Peter. Wow. And, uh, the more I get to know Peter, the gladder I am that we chose that name.
[00:55:08] Grant: So.
[00:55:10] Thani: I have one other, and this is a big question, so maybe we’ll find a, another time on the podcast to go in more, more detail about it. You’ve, you’ve outlined an incredible concept. In Galatians about, um, this historical aspect of the Judaizers being excluders, that there’s a sense of spiritual elitism that they were enforcing and were causing a major, um, crisis.
[00:55:40] Thani: for all of the gentile believers in in the Galatian church. And you’ve spent a lot of time doing ministry here in the states, and you’ve also been doing missionary work in lots of different communities around the world. And I was curious if you see, uh, if there’s a particular parallel that comes to mind in our modern day context, uh, for, for, for that kind of issue, do you see, um, Any, any element of that kind of elitism that’s causing people to feel discouraged like they’re not included.
[00:56:09] Grant: Yeah
[00:56:12] Thani: Okay, great Yeah
[00:56:15] Grant: Yeah, that’s gonna take a while. So let’s let’s do talk about that another time, but Let’s definitely put a pin in it so we can come back to that.
[00:56:25] Thani: Well, then that is a good cliffhanger Um, for, for whoever’s listening, uh, to this episode, stay tuned for, for, we’ll find a, we’ll find a space to, to have a conversation about that.
[00:56:37] Thani: Cause I think that’s, um, it probably an incredibly important conversation to have in light of, right? I mean, when we’re, you and I, we both are of, of a similar, uh, Kindred spirit when it comes to studying scripture. I think we’re we are both very interested in understanding scripture on an intellectual basis to really discover and explore the meaning but but all for the purpose of How it applies to change the way that we function, the way that we think.
[00:57:08] Thani: And um, so I am very curious to hear, hear your answer on that. Um, but let’s, let’s close out in the sake of time for, for today’s episode. Um, thank you so much for tuning in, you listener. If you have any questions or comments or thoughts at all about this bulk of material that we’ve covered today, um, Please, uh, send us those, uh, those thoughts.
[00:57:33] Thani: Um, you can email Grant directly at his email, grantatboldgrace. org. And, um, I’d also like to, um, bring up again that, um, Grant being the amazing teacher that he is, is doing a lot of, uh, good work all over the world and has a lot of opportunities continually opening up for him to, uh, travel. And to, to teach and to start Bible institutes and work with disciples in many different communities around the world.
[00:58:04] Thani: But to do that, he needs our help to empower him. So if you’re interested at all in, um, supporting him, um, you can email that same email. And, um, Thank you, Danny. Yeah, always, man. Um, not quite sure what we’re going to cover next week. Do you have any ideas? I’ve got a few, but I’ve got to narrow it down.
[00:58:25] Thani: Alright, so we’ll narrow it down and that’s another cliffhanger, uh, we’ll leave you with to, to figure out where we’re gonna go next. But, um, yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s what I have to say. You have any closing, closing statement?
[00:58:39] Grant: Uh, yeah, just, you know, if we can, um, really do, um, you know, more, if we pay more attention to trying to figure out what’s the practical thing happening, that every book address we’re gonna See all these things open up and, um, it’s going to change our lives and, um, we need it.
[00:58:59] Grant: We need it. The church here really anywhere is just, um, struggling because we either, we don’t learn scripture or when we do, we’re just, you know, uh, kind of spinning our wheels and we’re not, uh, really understanding what it means and how it applies to our lives. And so let’s, you know, do more of this together.
[00:59:20] Grant: And as we do this together, let’s also, uh, do it on our own and, uh, come together and encourage each other in it. Amen. All right, guys, we’ll see you next
[00:59:32] Thani: week.