Paul's resistance work against the "Judaizers"

Two writers here share their thoughts in response to an assignment given during an online Bible Study course held by Principia College in the US and conducted by Madelon Maupin.

Q. The core of Galatians is Paul's resistance to the Judaizers or Missionaries. Please explain why Paul is so theologically opposed, taking into account any or all of the concepts of grace, the Holy Spirit, and the Resurrection.

A1.  One writer claims that this letter of Paul’s is an “impassioned defense of his apostolic authority and teaching” (The New Testament by Stephen L. Harris). Certainly Paul is vehement that the LAW is a hindrance to the Gospel message of freedom through Christ.  But his resistance to the Judaizers or Missionaries is not personal.  He does not wish to prove that he is personally right and they are wrong.  It goes much higher than that.  He is passionate in pointing out the foolishness of believing that the Spirit is received “by the works of the law” (Gal 3: 2) instead of “by the hearing of faith”.  He points out that he has “minister[ed] ..the Spirit” to them (Gal 3: 5) and “work[ed] miracles among [them]” and asks them to consider how that was possible – by “works of the law, or by the hearing of faith”?  Is attention to material laws (today we might say “health” laws which would try to assert authority over our every thought and action) usurping our yielding to the grace of God as exemplified in Christ Jesus example on the cross and his healing the sick (to which the Pharisees had taken great offence)?  Paul surely feels that their very lives and the very fabric of Christianity itself depend on the understanding of God through the acceptance of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, therefore proving that man is not subject to “law” at all, but to Spirit alone. 

The effect of the “light from heaven” that “shined round about him” (Acts 9: 3) on his journey to Damascus was profound.  He went from being a stickler for the Law and its myriad hygienic and other petty requirements, to yielding to the Christ message, of freedom from the so-called laws of the flesh.  While Jesus taught that not one jot or one tittle would pass from the law (Matt 5: 18), he moved thought forward from the “thou shalt not” concepts to the “Blessed are the” promises of God’s grace.  So the “bondwoman” concept can be cast out (Gal 4: 31) to give place to the free.   

Julie Swannell  

A2. I am gaining is a deep love for Paul, a man whose identity and mission was completely defined by the Christ. The Christ burned so brightly in his heart that he was able to passionately, "boldly", and eloquently, defend the Gospel against all opponents. But what he was essentially doing in Galatians was denouncing Animal Magnetism (Gal 3:1), rousing the people to wake up from their "bewitchment" to false influences. The rhetorical methods he employed were pointed questions and repetition of main points to press his argument. He was persuasively startling and even shaming his readers to self-examination (Gal 3:3), and guiding them into the right response. His purpose is to bring them back into right relationship with God. It is never for self-aggrandizement, but always to draw the heart to God and His Christ.

A film I watched on Saul made it very clear how oppressive and enslaving the law was for the Pharisees and Saducees in Palestine. They were obsessed by how it should be interpreted, but were completely missing the point that obedience to the law was not able to imbue their lives with either love or freedom. Paul has first hand experience of this failure of the law to bring salvation. It was beyond dispute in his personal experience that he was saved by God's grace - not because he deserved it or had won pardon through his obedience to the law. That grace, or faith, was his brilliant light that never dimmed throughout the rest of his life.

 

So Paul mounts a persuasive argument for faith being the means of salvation through citing the example of Abraham, who received the promise through faith (Gal 3:6-29). Throughout this, Paul refers to the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:2, 3) as being the informing, inspiring, living Truth that suffuses and uplifts consciousness with faith, just as it had in his personal experience. Can the law do this, he asks (Gal 3:5)? The law has none of the Spirit in it; it is rather to be seen as like a tutor or caretaker of the infant thought before it is ready to receive the Holy Spirit. And another thing about faith is that it is universal, it is not confined to one nation, but it includes all humanity (Gal 3:6-9). Therefore, to the Gentiles, this is such a precious promise for them to accept and embrace. It represents freedom from enslavement to matter and death. And upon what is this faith founded? On the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: the indisputable evidence that matter and death are not law, that they are able to be overcome!

Marie Fox