Reading: Galatians 5-6, Psalm 7
In the closing chapters of his letter to the Galatians, Paul brings together his argument for the gospel against the law, and the purpose of the law as guardian and teacher. He finely balances the grace of God with the judgment of God in a way that has all too often been pulled out of balance one way or another, as it was by the Corinthians one way and then the Galatians the other. Paul’s closing point is this: do good and not evil, but don’t go around bragging about it or trying to look good. Be motivated out of a new heart, not outward appearances. The divisions of the world and even of the law will collapse in a world where humans live this way.
The Galatians had been deceived by teachers who came to town after Paul left, letting the Galatians know they needed now to keep the law of Moses in addition to belief in Jesus. Repentance unto life was insufficient, they also needed to make a distinction between the common and the holy. Paul sees this as worse than useless. He says it will actually destroy the gospel. Why? Because the whole point of the gospel is that one throws themselves on the mercy of Jesus as both judge and redeemer. Approaching the judge while keeping the law ignores the redeemer, just as approaching the redeemer while living a life rife with wickedness ignores the judge. To ignore either is to repudiate the gospel message. Paul is very concerned that the Galatians not do this.
Why would anyone do this? What is the point of running around telling people that have believed in the name of Jesus that they must follow the law of Moses? Paul answers with two reasons. First, to make a show. It is a well worn tradition that one can gain status and authority over others by making them believe they must do something of which you are the arbiter. As gentiles, the Galatians did not have thorough knowledge of the law of Moses. It is presumed that those who told them they must follow it did. Therefore they gained power and status by being the ones who could instruct in the law. Second, to avoid persecution. There are two reasons this might have been happening. The first is one Paul references in his confrontation with Peter- not following the law of Moses and encouraging others to do the same was to lose status and perhaps even be attacked by very militant Jews. The second is that due to an oddity in Roman law. It was permissible for some religious groups to be excused from the ritual of emperor worship that everyone in the Roman world was bound to. Jews were one of these groups. For quite a while, certainly during the life of Paul, the Romans treated Christians as a sect of Judaism. But very early on some Christians realized that if they were to be put in a separate category, they would lose the protection of the law against the blasphemous behavior of emperor worship. For these, teaching that Christians must obey the law of Moses was a means of self preservation. If Christians were just “Jews plus Jesus,” Roman law would not bother them.
This last is a very practical position, but Paul sees it as fundamentally flawed. To accommodate the Roman law meant believing something different than was the gospel proclaimed. Paul would rather be at odds with the Empire than with God. As we will see in many other epistles, and as became paramount in Church history, this theme will grow in importance as the Church thrives and it becomes clear that persecution from the state is not only possible but real and active. Here, though, the emphasis is on the first issue- false authority from bad teachers and self aggrandizers. Paul answers them with an appeal to the cross. Jesus exemplified his ascension to the highest authority in the universe by dying on a Roman cross. Far be it from any of his followers to brag about anything but their far inferior suffering and weakness. If one is going to lead, teach, or have authority in the Kingdom of God, they must take the position of their King and be the servant of all.