One People in Christ

Returning to the jurisdiction of the Torah means the restoration of the old social and religious barriers between Jews and Gentiles.

The third chapter of Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia is pivotal to his plea for unity among Jewish and Gentile believers. The divisions between Jews and Gentiles imposed by the Mosaic Legislation are inappropriate in the Church. With the arrival of the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, “no longer can there be Jew or Greek!” – (Galatians 3:28).

Unfortunately, there are “false brethren” in the Church today who are working to rebuild divisions between Jews and Gentiles. They are preaching a very “different gospel” and “perverting the gospel of Christ.” These deceivers have “entered clandestinely to spy out our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us again into slavery” – (Galatians 1:6-7, 2:4).

[Stone Wall - Photo by Daniel Born (Prague) on Unsplash]

The Torah kept the people of Israel separate from the surrounding nations. When the Church adopts the rites and requirements of the Mosaic Law, it rebuilds the wall that previously separated Jews and Gentiles, a barrier removed by Jesus at great personal cost:

• “Wherefore remember, that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and dismantled the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two one new man, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body for God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE AFAR OFF, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR. For through him, we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father” – (Ephesians 2:11-18. Note the allusion to Isaiah 57:19, the Septuagint version. Compare Acts 10:28-35, Colossians 2:11-23).

Adopting only certain requirements of the Law is not an option. The Torah itself insists that if we are under the Law, we are obligated to keep every requirement, and failure to keep the Law places us under the curse of God:

• “For as many as are from the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO FAILS TO CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS THAT ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, AND TO DO THEM” – (Galatians 3:10, citing Deuteronomy 27:26. Compare Galatians 5:3-4).

Under the Torah, any uncircumcised male is outside the covenant, and therefore, not a son of God, regardless of his descent from Abraham. A man can only become a member of Israel by undergoing circumcision and otherwise adopting a Torah-compliant lifestyle. However, “in Christ Jesus”:

• “But now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  You are all sons of God through the faith of Christ Jesus. For you, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew or Greek, there cannot be slave or free, there cannot be male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus: Now, if you are of Christ, by consequence, you are Abraham’s seed, according to promise, heirs” - (Galatians 3:25-29).

The Torah also distinguished between males and females. Because of their periodic uncleanness due to menstruation, women could not participate fully in the worship rites of the Temple. They were restricted to the Court of Women, located at some distance from the Sanctuary, and therefore, the presence of God. However, this distinction has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ. If Christians return to the jurisdiction of the Torah, they will restore these inequities in their congregations.

According to Paul, everyone was confined under the Law before the “seed” arrived. Since the arrival of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles are no longer under this regime. We all become sons and daughters of God through the faith of Jesus. Faith and obedience matter, not ethnicity or gender.

THE CUSTODIAN

Paul uses the analogy of the Law as the custodian of a minor child. In Greco-Roman society, a minor did not enjoy full liberty and civil rights until he came of age. Though destined to be the master of the household, until the child reached legal age, he was no freer than household slaves - (Galatians 4:1-7).

Custodians performed two different tasks. First, they took charge of the heir. Second, they managed his estate. This continued until the “time appointed by his father,” and in Paul’s analogy, this corresponds to the “fullness of time” when God sent Jesus to liberate us.

• “But at that time, not knowing God, you were enslaved to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God, why do you seek to return to the weak and beggarly elemental principles to which you desire to be enslaved again? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years” – (Galatians 4:8-10).

The term “elemental principles” translates the Greek noun ‘stoicheion’. It refers to the basic components that comprise a larger whole. The idea is “element, first principle, rudimentary.”

To adopt circumcision or the observation of the Jewish calendar now that the Messiah has come amounts to regression, the return to an earlier and incomplete stage in God’s redemptive plan, and ultimately, to come under the curse of the Law.

The result of God’s redemptive act is our adoption. We are not God’s children through physical birth. All humans are His creatures, but not all are His children. We become His sons through grace, faith, and especially the death of Jesus on the Cross, not physical descent or the deeds and rituals of the Torah - (Romans 8:15, 8:23, 9:4, Galatians 3:13-14, Ephesians 1:5).

Because we are His children, God sent the “Spirit of his Son into our hearts”. This summarizes the long argument that began at the start of Chapter 3 when Paul reminded the Galatians that they received the Spirit from a hearing of faith, and not from the “deeds of the Law” – (Galatians 3:1-4).

The Holy Spirit is now conforming us to the image of Christ, and the same Spirit prompts us to cry out, “Abba, Father!” What greater proof of the acceptance of Jews and Gentiles by God could there be than the gift of His Spirit?

• “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. For you received not the spirit of slavery again unto fear; but you received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit itself is bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ” – (Romans 8:14-17).

Jewish and Gentile believers become heirs of the Abrahamic Covenant through the sacrificial death of Jesus. To now adopt the deeds and rites of the Law means dividing the body of Christ along ethnic lines. However, since we are the “children of Abraham,” heirs of the Patriarch, and coheirs with Jesus, why attempt to seek what the Law could never deliver and submit ourselves once again to the elemental principles of the previous age? Why rebuild the wall between Jews and Gentiles?

Men and women are justified before God through the faith of Jesus Christ, and every disciple becomes a child of God and an heir of Abraham, whether Jew or Gentile. So, why do some Christians insist on rebuilding the very wall that Jesus dismantled by his sacrificial death?

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• Christ is Risen! - (Paul anchored all that God has done in the resurrection of Jesus, which also inaugurated the Messianic Age - Galatians 1:1-5)

• Christ Alone - (Paul presents the points of agreement and disagreement with his Judaizing opponents in Galatia – Galatians 2:15-21)

• Having Started in the Spirit - (The receipt of the Spirit while in an uncircumcised state is irrefutable proof that Gentiles are accepted by God as Gentiles)

• Jesus and the Spirit - (Jesus is the anointed Son of God whose life and ministry are filled with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit)