LOSING FACE. In the 1950’s post-war “Leave It To Beaver” America, considering yourself to be a Christian and participating in a local church was not simply culturally acceptable – it was culturally preferable. For a large part, Christians were seen as “having it together,” and local churches were beacons of propriety and prosperity.
If someone’s behavior or beliefs threatened those badges of propriety or prosperity in a local church, the church’s reputation and place in the community might be threatened. That’s why such individuals might be straightened up or shipped out! This is not something to be proud of.
What if there was more at stake than badges of propriety or prosperity? What if the freedom of religion could be taken away? What if members of those churches faced loss of business, arrest, and beatings?
This is something like what was going on in the 1st century churches of Galatia (in modern day Turkey). Allow me to paint the picture in Galatia.
THE JEWISH EXEMPTION. The churches were made up of people both with and without Jewish backgrounds. Those people without Jewish backgrounds, called Gentiles, didn’t adopt some of the Jewish religious customs, and this was landing the churches in hot water with the Roman authorities.
In the ancient world, worshipping idols was compulsory. Everybody joined in; idols were everywhere you looked. Whenever something went wrong, like a famine or a flood, people assumed it was the result of angry gods. Why would the gods be angry? Somebody must have failed to worship them. They were very emotionally needy gods!
It was therefore socially dangerous to neglect the worship of idols. If community hardship of any sort ensued, the assumption would be your lack of idol-worship was the culprit.
Jews, however, were the one group in the Roman Empire exempt from pagan worship. For the first 50-100 years of its history, the church was seen by the Roman governing authorities as just a new fringe sect within Judaism. This meant the early church enjoyed the same exemption from pagan worship as the synagogue.
The non-Jewish Messiah-People in the early church were not being circumcised nor following Torah (the Old Testament law), which made the entire Jesus movement look fairly un-Jewish. The churches were thus in danger of losing the Jewish exemption from pagan worship.
Do you see it? Because non-Jewish members of the churches weren’t being circumcised or following Torah, the whole church was in danger of being de-classified by the Romans as an expression of Judaism. That would mean the early church, and by association synagogues too, would no longer be exempt from Rome’s compulsory pagan worship. These uncircumcised Messiah-People were putting the early church’s “freedom of religion” at risk!
The pressure the Jewish Messiah-people were putting on the Gentile Messiah-people to get circumcised and follow the Torah, far from being a genuine concern about righteousness, was quite frankly motivated by a desire to keep the Romans off their backs!
THE JEWISH REACTION. In addition, some Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Messiah believed if all Jews kept Torah for a day, that would trigger the coming of the Messiah. The Gentile-Messiah people weren’t keeping the Torah and thus preventing the “true messiah” from arriving.
As you can imagine these issues created massive riffs between the Jewish and the non-Jewish Messiah-People. This was the context into which Paul wrote to the Galatians.
PAUL’S ANSWER. Paul does not setup a dichotomy between two religions – Christianity and Judaism. Jesus’ arrival did not mark the end of Judaism and the beginning of Christianity. Rather, Paul is arguing that the Messiah and the Messiah-people are the fulfillment of Judaism. This is why Paul goes to great pains to demonstrate he is not a traitor to Israel’s traditions; he is announcing a new chapter in Israel’s traditions.
Paul writes about at least four characteristics of this new chapter in Israel’s history. First, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has done what he always promised he would do: he launched his new creation. But he has done this through a radically surprising messiah – Jesus of Nazareth. God has acted shockingly, surprisingly and unexpectedly, as he always said he would!
Second, Jesus the Messiah has fulfilled the divine purpose for Israel in his death and resurrection, and has thereby accomplished the new Exodus, the great rescue-operation from the ultimate triumvirate of slave-masters: sin, death and Satan. Israel’s Messiah sums up Israel’s calling in himself so that those who are in Messiah are true Israelites, children of Abraham.
Third, Torah (the Old Testament law) was God’s good gift to Israel given for a specific purpose at a specific time, which because of Messiah, could now be set aside. Torah was for the present age, but in Messiah, the age to come has been inaugurated.
Fourth, God has given his own Spirit to be the transformative power for this new people, and therefore the advance gift from that promised inheritance. The Messiah’s people are marked by those who believe the gospel, and those who believe the gospel are those in whom the Spirit is at work.
IT’S ALL ABOUT UNITY. Galatians is a letter aimed primarily at unifying the church under the one true gospel (see 1:6-10). Divisions had developed, not least through the false teaching of some “missionaries” who were proclaiming a false gospel motivated primarily by the desire to preserve some civil privileges. The problem was that maintaining these privileges meant abandoning the gospel and irreparably tearing apart the Church.
This is why Paul writes so passionately! We’re not talking about whether a simple medical procedure (circumcision) is necessary or not; we’re talking about the heart of the gospel, for “if justification comes through keeping the law [which includes circumcision], then Christ died for nothing!” (2:21)
But we know that the Lord Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1:4-5). Far from nothing, this truth is EVERYTHING!
Your gospel-partner,
Pastor Peter
Year in the Bible 