Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson LIII)

Peter then goes on and tells James that in order to address any matter where a similar thing is happening to those who were considered part of the seventy-two disciples Jesus ordained to preach the Gospel,[1] that he is free to share with them any copies of his sermons as a form of initiating them into the ministry of indoctrinating those who wish to take part in teaching. Peter warns, if this is not done, the word of truth will fracture into different interpretations. And this he knew, not as being a prophet, but as already seeing the beginning of this very evil.

Now here comes a telling piece of information, says Clementine. Peter says he experienced this coming from the Gentile believers who rejected his legal preaching, attaching themselves to certain lawless and trivial preaching of a man who is my opponent.[2] And these things have happened while I am still alive, to transform my words by various interpretations in order to do away with the Law; as though I also myself were of such a mind, but did not freely proclaim it, which God forbid! For such a thing were to act in opposition to the Law of God which was given to Moses and confirmed by our Lord with respect to its timelessness. That’s why he said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”[3] And He said this so that all things spoken about might come to pass. But these men, professing, to somehow know my mind, undertook to explain my words which they heard me say, in a more intelligent manner than I spoke them, telling their students that this is what I meant, which indeed I never thought of. But if, while I am still alive, they dare to misrepresent my words, how much more will those who will come after me dare to do the same![4]

Paul seems to be answering such a charge that he misinterpreted what Peter said by noting that anyone who thinks that disregarding the grace of God is necessary just to remain in compliance with the Law of Moses is promoting a ridiculous thought. This is what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing with the written Law in order to enforce their oral laws.[5] They preferred their man-made righteousness to God’s righteousness. This is the same point Paul made when he wrote the Roman believers.[6] But it was all in vain because if they do end up being justified before God and the death sentence for sinners is removed, it does not include anything they did, it is the consequence of God’s free love, grace, and mercy.[7]

That’s why it was necessary for God to send a new high priest with the authority of the new Law of Grace so that a proper sacrifice could be made that would eternally satisfy God’s demand for justice.[8] This was the message that Paul carried abroad, and reminded the Corinthians of its importance: “Now let me remind you, brothers, of what the Gospel really is, for it has not changed—it is the same Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is squarely built upon this wonderful message, and it is this Good News that saves you if you still firmly believe it, unless of course you never really believed it in the first place.”[9] And Paul repeats the same refrain here he used in his letter to the Corinthians when he said, “If the Anointed One was not raised from the dead, then what we preach to you is worth nothing. Your faith in the Anointed One is worth nothing.”[10] If that turned out to be the case, then Paul said, “If the Anointed One was not raised from the dead, your faith is worth nothing and you are still living in your sins.”[11]

This sense of futility that Paul projects on the Anointed One, and which he himself said would be the case if those he delivered the Gospel to did not stay with their conversion but went back to their old Jewish or Gentile ways, was expressed by Isaiah. In spite of God’s call designating him as His servant and messenger to Israel and the promise that God’s glory would be seen through him, Isaiah confessed: “My work has been for nothing. I spent My strength for nothing. Yet for sure what should come to Me is with the Lord, and My reward is with My God.”[12]

The Prophet Jeremiah felt the same sense of letdown. After all, he did try and get the Israelites to listen to the message from the Lord, claiming that they already knew all that was needed, Jeremiah told them this: “How can you say, ‘We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,’ when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies? These wise teachers will fall into the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord.  Are they that wise after all?”[13]

The only way we live by faith in union with the Anointed One, says Paul, is when we are dead to the old system, just as the only way a baby lives and grows older is outside the womb.  The grace of God cannot be considered just one of many options for getting saved.  It is the only option, the only way, the only truth, the only life. If you insist on requiring observance of the old rituals, ceremonies, and customs practiced under Mosaic Law for it to work, then you are implying that the Anointed One’s death on the cross was not much more than a suicidal act of a misguided Zealot.

In other words, if we could gain salvation for us by strict adherence to the rules and regulations of the religious law that regulates admission and acceptance by our congregation, then why did God go to all the trouble of sending His Son to suffer and die to accomplish the same thing?  It wouldn’t be necessary.  But that won’t work, says Paul! There is no one who satisfies each and every dot and title of the law – which must be done to gain complete righteousness through the law – nor continue in such perfection the rest of their lives.  Therefore, salvation through rites, rituals, and religiosity is impossible.

No wonder Paul felt exasperated by those who insisted on adding the burden of the law’s requirements to the gift of salvation by grace through Jesus the Anointed One. Some might suggest getting rid of the ordinances and teachings of the church because the people of God don’t need such directives. This question is redundant because all true teachings and ordinances of the church must be based on the Word of God, and this is how the Word gives direction to the believer. Then some may question the rules and regulations of discipleship and discipline put forth in the church’s doctrine as a burden. Once again, such discipleship and discipline must also conform with the teachings of Jesus the Anointed One. There is a big difference between being a servant of God through love, and a being a slave of God through law.

Church historian Philip Schaff agrees that there existed much earnest controversy in these young congregations, not necessarily about the great facts on which their faith was based, and which were fully admitted to by both Messianic Jews and synagogue Jews in the Galatian congregations. It was about doctrinal and ritual inferences from these facts, especially the question of the continued obligation of circumcision and the Mosaic law, and the personal question of the apostolic authority of Paul. The Judaizers maintained the superior claims of the older apostles and charged Paul with a radical departure from the venerable religion of their forefathers; while Paul used against them the argument that the sacrificial death of the Anointed One and His resurrection was needless and useless if justification came from the good deed done in order to obey the law.[14]

In 529 AD the Bishops of the churches met in the city of Orange, located in southeast France, about 13 miles north of the city of Avignon. This was one of the most important councils of the early church and was often pointed to by Reformers as evidence that 900 years later the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the theology of its own Council Fathers and church Theologians. All persons of faith should take the time to get to know it.

The content of the Council itself naturally grew out of the public dispute between Augustine and Pelagius. This critical dispute involved the extent to which the natural man is responsible for his or her own regeneration, namely, whether the work of God in regeneration was “monergistic” – (by God alone) or was it “synergistic” – (cooperation of man with God)? The Council of Orange condemned the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that fallen creatures, although sinful, were given an island of righteousness which made them morally competent enough to contribute toward their salvation by taking hold of the offer of the grace of God through an act of their unregenerate natural will.

As a result of the Synod in Orange, a number of Canons (doctrines) were written to be sent to all the churches throughout the known world. One of those Canon’s reads as follows: “No person will be justified by what they’ve done on their own as though it were not a gift, or suppose that it will be given to them because a message was delivered to them either by word of mouth or in writing. For the Apostle Paul speaks said this: ‘For if justification were through the Law, then the Anointed One died for no purpose.[15] Paul also quoted the Psalmist[16] when he wrote to the Ephesians that when the Anointed One ascended on high He took those who were with Him, thereby making gifts available to humankind’.”[17] It is from this source that each believer is guaranteed what they possess. And whoever denies that they received it from this either does not truly possess it or else “even what they have will be taken away.”[18] [19] So the question remains today, is the Roman Catholic Church following the doctrines of the Synod of Orange or have the composed doctrines of their own?

[1] Luke 10:1-24

[2] Many believe that this is a clear reference to the Apostle Paul

[3] Matthew 24:35

[4] The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles: Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Age, Phillip Schaff, ed. Intro. by the Rev. Thomas Smith, Chapters. I & II, pp. 365-366

[5] Mark 7:9

[6] Romans 10:3

[7] Ibid. 11:6

[8] Hebrews 7:11-12

[9] 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

[10] Ibid. 15:14

[11] Ibid. 15:17

[12] Isaiah 49:3-4

[13] Jeremiah 8:8-9

[14] Philip Schaff: History of the Christian congregation, Vol. 1, The Middle Ages, Apostolic Christianity, AD 1-100 para. 22, p. 188

[15] Galatians 2:21

[16] Psalm 68:18

[17] Ephesians 4:8

[18] Matthew 25:29

[19] The Canons of the Council of Orange, (529 AD) Canon 16, p. 18. (Redacted for better understanding in modern English – RRS). See also Canon 21.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson LII)

British Sunday school teacher J. L. Nye (1881-1965) was looking for a story or illustration to put a frame around what Paul says in verse twenty about his being crucified with the Anointed One yet he is still alive. Only, it was the Anointed One alive in him and gave him the faith to live for the God who loved him and gave Himself for him. Here’s the story he selected:

Also, when Charles Spurgeon read verse twenty, as part of his evening devotions, the thought of how the Lord Jesus the Anointed One was conducting Himself before the world as a representative of all mankind by dying on the cross as though they were dying there. But for the Apostle Paul, there was more to understand in the death of the Anointed One which he believed and trusted in for his salvation. As far as Spurgeon is concerned, Paul actually felt its power in himself in causing the crucifixion of his old corrupt nature. When he saw the pleasures of sin, he said, “I cannot enjoy these: I am dead to them.” Such should be the experience of every true Christian. Having received the Anointed One, they are to this world as one who is dead and buried. Yet, while conscious of death to the world, they will be able at the same time, exclaim with the Apostle, “Nevertheless I live.” They are fully alive to God in the Anointed One. The Christian’s life is an unmatched riddle. No worldly person comprehends it; even the believers themselves cannot understand it. Dead, yet alive! Crucified with the Anointed One, and yet at the same time risen with the Anointed One in newness of life! In union with the suffering, bleeding Savior, and dead to the world and sin, are soul-cheering things.[3]

Bible scholar Walter Adeney gives us a similar shocking concept of the death of self we go through by being born again. For him, the crucifixion with the Anointed One is no figure of speech, meaning only that, inasmuch as the Anointed One died for us, we may be said to be crucified representatively in Him. The passionate earnestness of the Apostle Paul in describing his own spiritual renewal goes far beyond any such shallow conception. He is plainly describing what he really endured. This is death and dying! The old-self is put to death. The passions, lusts, habits, and immoral associations of life in sin, self, and worldliness are truly crucified.

We must remember, says Adeney, Christianity is not simply an educational process. It is first and foremost a militant, purging, scourging, and killing the enemy of sin religion. This is crucifixion – a painful, violent, merciless death. For it is no small thing to destroy one’s old sin life, so full of pleasant attractions, and so deeply rooted in our inmost nature. We are undertaking a judicial execution, brought on ourselves by the unforgiving powers of our own treacherous passions once we turn from them to faith in the Anointed One. Our union with the Anointed One necessitates this death of the old life and causes it to happen. If the new wine of the indwelling Spirit were poured into our old wineskins of selfish desires it would cause them to burst wide open. But we were given new wineskins for the wine of the Holy Spirit. As long as those old wineskins are not destroyed, we will be tempted from time to time to drink their putrid wine. Conscience and Law failed to destroy the old life, though they revealed its hideous deformity. But when we came to Calvary and reach out to the dying Anointed One, we joined Him in His experience by faith and hope. The old self received its mortal wounds. We no longer live in the abode of our former sinful self.[4]

Earlier, we commented on what Alfred E. Bouter wrote concerning making the Anointed One our role model.[5] So here in verse twenty, he repeats the same concept through the words of Paul. He hears Paul saying: But I am still in the flesh. So how do I live this new life? The answer is: by faith, with the Anointed One as the Object, He is my life. The life I have is characterized by the Anointed One, and further, it is by faith not by works of the law. He is the focus of my life.  In other words, when Paul says the life I live, the responsible “I” is the overcomer in us, the one who gives over the reins of their will to the Anointed One. Peter in this incident did not live by faith, but the one who lives like Paul did here live by faith, the faith of the Son of God. Paul was totally focus on Him because He lives in him, He controls him through His Spirit.[6]

So why do so many in their sinner’s prayer say, “Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and Savior,” but do not visualize Him moving in and living in their hearts? They still think of Him standing at the right hand of the Father to whom they go when they need help or guidance, instead of looking inside their heart for His instructions. Finally, and so beautifully at the end of verse twenty, who is this person? Who is this Son of God? He is the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. Should we not then live for Him who lives in us? Should we not do everything to please Him so that He is pleased with us? He gave Himself for us, can we not do the same for Him?

Hans Dieter Betz has a good summation of these verses by pointing out the Abraham was justified by faith, not works. But by the time Yeshua came into the world, they turned that completely around and now justification came by way of works, not faith. Then when Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles, the converted Jews objected because Paul also put faith before works while they wanted to keep it in line with their theological ceremonial tradition. However, Paul refused to back down. Not only to protect the Gentiles but for the education of the Jews. Yet, by the early fourth century of the Christian Church, they fell back into this misleading concept of works before faith which was instituted despite what the Apostle Paul preached. It took the Reformation to turn it back around again.[7] So the question for us is where is the church today?

2:21 So don’t ask me to treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping all the religious rituals and regulations could make us right with God, there would have been no need for the Anointed One to die.

Paul was clear from the beginning of his letter that by turning so quickly away from the Gospel he taught them, the Galatians apparently considered these Judaizers as being so important that they could not bring themselves to categorically dismiss their teaching as harmful to their faith as believers in Yeshua the Messiah. Instead, they responded to them as trusted guides by internalizing their message but perhaps not actualizing what they were being told as being beneficial to them as new believers in the Anointed One. No doubt Paul knew that once they went down that path, there would be no way of turning them back. So, he wanted to catch them now before it was too late.[8]

Paul was driven to do this because their actions meant they failed to realize that vowing allegiance to this other message was an act of turning their backs on the Grace of God. Did they forget that His grace was given to them while they were yet heathens? If He was so merciful to them as uninformed Gentiles who knew nothing of the Mosaic Law and never participated in the rites, rituals, and ceremonies of the Jews, especially circumcision, how could they now be made to feel that they were unworthy of such grace? Furthermore, they were nullifying the whole purpose for the Anointed One’s death on the cross on their behalf while they were yet sinners.[9] It could only be seen as their admitting that when Paul came and preached the Good News to them, he misled them. How could they implicitly deny the reality of their decision to believe in the Anointed One, as well as their experience of the Holy Spirit and seeing miracles performed in their midst?[10] How could they be so blind and ignorant? And would God ever forgive them?[11]

We might all wonder how Peter was taking all this assertion by Paul that the senior Apostle failed miserably in keeping his commitment to the truth that both Jews and Gentiles were to receive the Gospel and be treated equally in the body of the Anointed One. But an out-of-the-way source exists that might give us some idea. It is contained in a letter from Peter to the Apostle James contained in the Clementine Homilies. There we read where Peter tells James he would prefer that James not share anything Peter sent to him with any Gentile believers unless they are found worthy of his trust. He seems to be referencing an incident in the past and indicates that it involves opposition to his way of interpreting the Gospel. As a sort of back-handed slap to his critics, Peter mentions a long-held Jewish tradition that no one should be considered worthy to teach if they don’t understand what the Prophets were saying and learned how to interpret Scripture. And that among these Scriptures it tells us that there is one God, one Law, and one Hope.

[1] Dr. Deems’ Sermons: Published by Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1885, The Great Truth, Ch. XII, p. 75

[2] J. L. Nye: op. cit., p. 112

[3] Charles Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Daily Readings, December 14, p. 701

[4] Walter Adeney: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[5] See commentary on 2:6-7 above

[6] Alfred E. Bouter: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[7] Hans Dieter Betz: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 115-127

[8] Mark A. Nanos: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 30

[9] Galatians 5:2-4

[10] Ibid. 3:2-5

[11] Mark A. Nanos: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 52-53

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson LI)

I like the Contextual Bible’s paraphrase of these verses: “For it was through the Law of God that I came to realize my impotence, that I could never keep God’s Law in my human strength, and thus be guiltless and righteous before God. It condemned me to my death and when my death penalty was paid by the Anointed One, dying in my place, the Law released me from its condemnation and authority. Released from its power, I am now under God’s power, infused with his life-giving spirit, and therefore alive and enabled to live up to his will for me.  I’ve been nailed to the torture stake with the Anointed One, my “self” has been put to death: now it is not me that is living, but the Anointed One is living in me, taking care of all of God’s requirements for me. Indeed, the life that I now live, with its power to live up to God’s will for me, is a result of my complete and absolute surrender to the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me, and not a result of my own conscientious efforts to live by God’s Law.”[1]

That’s the point Paul was trying to get across to the Galatians. He said when I gave up following those religious rituals and regulations, they became invalid for me; I cannot, therefore, return to following those legalistic forms of religious servitude, they are of no benefit to me. Remember, the baby did not leave the womb voluntarily; it was ejected from the womb.  It was the womb itself that expelled the baby and, therefore, put an end to its relationship with the child.

That fit Paul’s explanation. These religious rituals and regulations were like the womb, but it was impossible to attain spiritual life until they left the womb through faith in the Anointed One. Jesus made it possible to live outside the womb of Mosaic Law by providing the spiritual environment of salvation through grace. So, by being in union with the Anointed One, a person receives the kind of spiritual life that all these religious rituals and regulations combined could not provide. No wonder Jesus said He came that we might not only be given life but full and abundant life.

Why did the Judaizers claim that Paul became a sinner by giving up these religious rituals and regulations? Fact is, he left because as long as he tried to gain salvation by obeying them, he actually remained a sinner. How then could these Judaizers ever think that just because Jesus led us away from these religious rituals and regulations, He ended up at the head of a long line of sinners headed for hell? Fact is, if Jesus left us where He found us, we would all still be sinners, trying to get saved by obeying religious rituals and regulations that could not save us and we’d still end up in hell.

But to make matters worse, these Judaizers wanted to put everybody back into the womb where it would be impossible to live because they thought everyone only keeps themselves spiritually alive by being tied to the legalistic umbilical cord of the Law. Everyone knows what happens to the umbilical cord after the birth of the child. When the baby is born, most hospitals will immediately clamp and cut the cord. Other options include a “lotus birth” in which the cord is never cut, but the placenta is placed in a bag and carried with the baby until the cord dries up and falls off.  Regardless, after several hours the cord begins to gel internally, cutting off the blood supply to and from the placenta because the baby doesn’t need it anymore.

What the Judaizers were doing to the Galatian believers broke Paul’s heart; how could they completely dishonor the work of the Anointed One; what were they thinking in attempting to label all Jesus did on the cross as a futile, irrational act of love?  Did they really believe that the feeble works of their own hands and their futile attempt at trying to comply with all the religious rituals and regulations were so much better? No wonder it almost drove Paul to tears.

I hear Paul yelling, “Don’t you get it you misled Galatian believers? The outcome of staying with the old system is certain death; no matter how hard I tried to keep it, I fell short. But the Anointed One said, let me pay the price so you may die with Me and I can bring you back to life as a new creation. Then you will live for Me and My Father without trying to fulfill all the religious rituals and regulations that don’t apply to you anymore. I’m not talking about the laws of right and wrong, good and bad, proper and improper, but those religious rituals and regulations that supposedly brought you salvation if you kept them without ever making a mistake. Those are gone!”

At this point, Augustine of Hippo felt obligated to establish some guidelines for believers in his day, so that they were not confused between what must be held onto under the law, and what to let go of. As he saw it, from this point on the Apostle Paul begins to show how the Grace of Faith is sufficient for justification apart from works of the law, just in case anyone was saying that while they do not attribute a person’s entire justification to works of the law alone, neither do they attribute it to the Grace of Faith alone, but rather claims that salvation is accomplished by both.[2]

Here we clearly see the beginning of the Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation by way of good works by faith, allowed by, if not demanded by, God’s grace. But in order to treat this question carefully and avoid being misled by ambiguity, Augustine says that we must first realize that the works of the law are in two divisions. Some come under sacraments, others under morals. Under sacraments is circumcision of the flesh, the weekly Sabbath, new moons, sacrifices, and all the countless observances of this kind. Under morals are: You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not bear false witness and the like. Augustine is sure that it is impossible that the Apostle Paul did not care whether a Christian was a murderer and an adulterer, or celibate and innocent, in the same way, that he didn’t care whether a man was circumcised or uncircumcised in the flesh. At present, therefore, he is dealing mainly with these sacramental works. When we examine the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, we find the following: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Marriage, and Holy Orders (ordained bishops, priests, and deacons).

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) says that Paul wants the Galatians and the Judaizers to know that he was dead to the Law. He knew that the Moral Law branded all those who did not faithfully follow everything written there. So instead of the Moral Law pronouncing the death sentence on him, he decided to just go ahead and die to the Moral Law so that it couldn’t touch him as a dead man. After all, the Moral Law offered no hope of justification or salvation, even when obeyed. And as for the Ceremonial Law, he also knew that it was now antiquated and superseded by the coming of the Anointed One, and, therefore, the essence of what the Ceremonial Law represented came in human form to the world, he no longer needed to pay attention to the Anointed One’s shadow in the Ceremonial Law now that the Anointed One came to fulfill the Law. And when considering the Torah itself, he saw that justification was never possible by the works it demanded, since no one was able to perform them in perfect obedience. That he also understood there was now no further need of the sacrifices and purifications it prescribed since they were done away in the Anointed One’s sacrifice and resurrection. To make it sweet and short, following the Law’s demands in order to obtain forgiveness and justification was all a mirage, like an illusionary lake in the desert.

But that was only half the story. Though Paul was dead to the Law he was alive to God through the Anointed One – Jesus. As he says in verse twenty, I’m not the one living now – it is the Anointed One living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God. He’s the One who loved me and gave Himself to save me. My old man is gone, a new man has moved in. Whereas I depended on the Law to be my source of strength and hope, now I depend solely upon God’s grace and promises. Before says Paul, I was independently trying to survive spiritually because of the harness that kept me attached to the Law yet gave me no assistance, but now I’m co-dependent with the Anointed One because we are united together as one in the Spirit.[3] I may still be living in the flesh, remarks Paul, but I no longer live by what I see and try to imitate, now I live by faith by that which I cannot see but find it’s real when I truly believe.[4] So, says Henry, those who have true faith live by that faith and the great thing which faith fastens upon is the Anointed One’s loving us. The great evidence of the Anointed One’s loving us is His giving Himself for us and this is what we join with faith with in order to live for Him to God’s glory and honor, not ourselves.[5]

George W. Clark (1831-1911) sees a different side of the Law in that the Law prepared the way to reach the Anointed One by cutting off all hope of right standing with God and salvation through the works of the Law. Therefore, despairing of all help from the Law in holy living and a new spiritual life, desperate sinners were driven to seek a Savior who could lift them to a higher plane of spirituality as explained in the Gospel in order to gain timeless life through a right standing with God only available through faith in Jesus the Anointed One.[6]

But some contended that this made the Anointed One a promoter of sin because we must all be sinners in order to become saints. They also accused Paul that by advocating justification through faith apart from works that it led to, or at least encouraged the sin of laziness rather than holiness and consecration to God as His servants. But Paul assured them that because the Gospel provides a righteousness in justification and a life of holiness in sanctification through the Holy Spirit, that no such attitude existed because of the internal changes that took place making those who believe into a new creation with the indwelling Spirit of the Anointed One there to guide and motivate them to live and work with an attitude of giving all glory, honor, and praise to God through the Anointed One.[7]

[1]Aiyer, Ramsey, The Contextual Bible Galatians, loc. cit.

[2] Augustine of Hippo: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[3] See Matthew 11:29

[4] 2 Corinthians 5:7

[5] Matthew Henry: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[6] Romans 6:11; Philippians 3:9

[7] George W. Clark: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 76

One of my first eye-opening moments as a boy came as I sat in a room in the late afternoon while a ray of light streamed through the window.  All at once I noticed that the whole atmosphere in the room seemed filled with tiny specks of dust floating in the air.  They were everywhere!  I couldn’t believe it; I thought my Mom kept a clean house! This phenomenon has reoccurred many times in different places over the years, and each time those millions of dust spores are still floating there. It told me there is a visible and invisible world around me.

By the same token, sometimes it takes a stream of light from above to help us see with the spiritual eye what we cannot detect with the natural eye.  This was the case in Israel between the priests and prophets.  The priests saw the visible glory of God in the Tabernacle.  But by the light of the Holy Spirit, the prophets were able to see things yet to come as well as those around them.  Such was the case with Elisha and his servant Gehazi who did not see the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around them until the prophet asked God to open his eyes (2Kings 6:17).  We must always remember that there are things going on around us we do not see, but God sees them all.  So, let’s not judge what He does base on our sight alone, but thank Him for seeing what we can’t see to provide protection and grace to us each and every day. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

FOUND AND LOST

Poetry has always been one of my first loves since my high school English teacher, Mrs. Nina Driggers (some names you just never forget), at Lee Academy in Cleveland, TN, read from Lord Byron’s, “She walks in beauty, like the night.”  That’s why I was so taken by what Francesco Petrarca, known to English readers as Petrarch, an Italian scholar, and poet during the Renaissance in Italy wrote after he first laid eyes on Laura in the Sunday morning service, the sixth of April in 1327, in the Church of Saint Clare at Avignon.  She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  But alas, he found out later she was already taken.  So, in his despair, he wrote a poem bemoaning his misfortune.  I thought you romantics out there might enjoy the first two stanzas.

‘Voi ch’ascoltate in rime sparse il suono’

You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes,

of those sighs on which I fed my heart,

in my first vagrant youthfulness,

when I was not being what I am,

 I hope to find pity and forgiveness,

for all the modes in which I talk and weep,

between vain hope and vain sadness,

in those who understand love through its trials.

 Yet I see clearly now I have become

an old fairytale amongst these people, so that

it often makes me ashamed of myself;

 And shame is the fruit of my vanities,

and remorse, and the clearest knowledge

of how the world’s delight is a brief dream.

‘Per fare una leggiadra sua vendetta’

 To make a graceful act of revenge,

and punish a thousand wrongs in a single day,

Love secretly took up his bow again,

like a man who waits the time and place to strike.

 My power was constricted in my heart,

making defense there and in my eyes,

when the mortal blow descended there,

where all other arrows had been blunted.

 So, confused by the first assault,

it had no opportunity or strength

to take up arms when they were needed,

 or withdraw me shrewdly to the high,

steep hill, out of the torment,

from which it wishes to save me now but cannot.

                                                                        Francesco Petrarca

Do you feel his grief and pain?  Losing any chance of having the woman he thought most beautiful; so near and yet so far away.  If not, you need to have your heart checked for love density.  But as I read it, I wondered if this lament might not one day apply to those souls who were first touched by the love of God through Jesus Christ, yet never felt prepared to accept His offer and become one with Him in an everlasting relationship.  It’s like looking at the blood-stained cross of the Lamb of God and saying, not right now, I’ve given my heart to someone else.  Such an eternal goodbye to God will be a heartbreak impossible to describe, even in the most poetic form. But no matter how far you’ve wandered away, He’s still waiting for you. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson L)

Wayne C. Aman (1918-1995), Christian writer and researcher, in writing about the Apostle Paul’s commitment to always proclaiming that his old sinful nature hung crucified with the Anointed One, so that any sinful tendencies in him might be destroyed, now says he showed no interest in serving the interests and desires of those tendencies that made him a sinner. Just like when someone dies they are no longer bound to any oaths or contracts they made, so it is that his being dead to sin meant he no longer was obligated under sin’s reign.[1] Furthermore, what the Law was unable to do because it was weak when it came to controlling mankind’s carnal desires, God sent His only Son to live in a human body so He could conquer those sinful tendencies so that all who believed He now possessed all power over such tendencies could be made right with God based solely on the work of the Anointed One.[2] Then they really understand what Paul says here in verse twenty about being made alive again in the Anointed One. However, it wasn’t by virtue of any life in them, but because the Spirit of the Anointed One made them alive. So even though they still lived in the same old natural body, by the power of the Anointed One they were in charge, not their body. Now they did what the Anointed One wanted them to do, not what their carnal desires might tell them to do.

Now, all if this was only made possible by the Son of God, who loved them and gave Himself for them that they could receive a new life. Not a new body, that would come later. Therefore, the sanctified life they now lived, they lived by their faith in what the Son of God did for them. And since Jesus willingly suffered and died to be a sacrifice for them so that His blood would cover their sins from God’s eyes, they must now willingly live for him, and if necessary, die for Him and His cause. How glorious is the provision, says Aman! This gives more meaning to what Jesus said about His body – the Church. So, when we are asked to take and eat the communion wafer, we are confirming that the life we live is because of Him – He is part of us.

O yes, death is coming, but by faith, we face it knowing there will be a glorious resurrection. That’s why we say with the Apostle “I died in the Anointed One but the life I now live is a glorious, resurrected life. I live by the faith of my Savior and Sanctifier Jesus the Anointed One.”[3] The wonderful fact that the sin principle is destroyed in all that die to sin and self, belief in the accomplished provision of Jesus, is clear in the teaching of the Word.[4] The water that is used in baptism not only means that a person died and is buried as far as sin is concerned but that it also represents the blood of the Lamb of God that cleanses sin’s stains and serves as an antidote to the poison of sin. So, we imply that when we come up out of the water it represents our being born again but also our being sanctified by His blood. But that is not all, now that person’s life must show that all of this took place. All that remains is for the infilling of the Holy Spirit for service.

And Duncan Hester feels that Paul is using the same language of baptism here in verse nineteen that he would later use with the Romans.[5] So baptism became his burial after he died to the Law. Just like someone is put in a grave, so also Paul was put into a watery grave. But just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so Paul was raised to new life by the power of the Anointed One. So, his relationship with the Law is over, just like when one spouse dies and is buried, their relationship with the other spouse is over. If they want to, they may remarry. And that’s what Paul did, he was married to the Anointed One in spirit. Then in verse twenty, Paul makes another reference to his baptism. But this time it is post-baptism, and it involves the fact that a co-crucifixion occurred – the Anointed One and Paul. Hester says that the word, co-crucifixion, is used about the thieves being crucified with Jesus.[6] The unrepentant thief represents those who refuse to accept the Anointed One as their Savior. But the repentant thief is a type of us all. And the promise to the repentant thief that he would be with Jesus in paradise following his death, is also the same promise to us.[7]

In their exposition of Galatians, David Platt and Tony Merida share a quote from Puritan William Perkins (1558-1602), who died nine years before the King James Version Bible was published, on his thoughts of what is being said in verse nineteen. The quote goes: “We are to consider in our mind and meditation that the Anointed One was crucified. First, we are to believe that He was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and spread our arms on the cross of the Anointed One, believing and see ourselves being crucified with Him.” In the original book published for Perkins, he then adds, “You might say, this is a difficult matter, I cannot do it. But I say again, that this is the right practice of faith: strive, therefore, to be settled in this, that the body of sin is crucified with the Anointed One.”[8] So what does this imply once we die to sin when we are co-crucified with the Anointed One? It means that the penalty, power, and preeminence of sin was broken unable to condemn our souls to timeless separation from God. Its effect in the past was covered by the blood of the Lamb, its influence in the present is erasable by God’s grace, and its potential outcome in the future is already paid for by the Anointed One. If we sin, God doesn’t say, “You are not justified anymore.” No, your justification is sealed; you died to sin. God’s declaration is final.[9]

Ralph Martin and William Lane conclude that Paul is laying down a new basis for the divine-human relationship. The old-self is condemned and put on the cross as a criminal. However, there is no canceling of one’s personality, no call to self-denial and self-punishment. The dying of self is an invitation to glorious new possibilities of a life in a union by faith with a Living Lord who now controls the believer and who lives the Anointed One’s resurrection life.[10] Only from the vantage point of this “dead to self – alive to God” experience does the cross we carry shine in its true light. Only as sinners throw themselves on the mercy of God shown on the cross as the sole ground of their hope does the cross assume its real importance, for if there is any merit in human achievement – if there is any second way to God by some side-door entrance into God’s awesome presence – then the Anointed One died for no purpose. In other words, He died for nothing.[11] [12]

Current Bible commentator Robert Gundry sees it this way: “Being in the Anointed One provides a location for the sought-after justification because from God’s point of view, believing in the Anointed One puts believers in union with the Anointed One, the object of their belief.”  He goes on to say: “Believing in the Anointed One brings the gift of His Spirit so that through the Spirit that indwells him believers too indwell Him.”[13]  Therefore, there is no justification for God to forgive us of sin outside the Anointed One, because the Law did not pay the price for redemption, nor did we pay through good works, only the Anointed One did. That’s why any Judaizers in Galatian who claimed that by forsaking the Law in favor of the Anointed One meant they were being led into sin against the Law were wrong. Paul’s response was to point out that since the Anointed One tore down all the works of the Law (see this in light of the veil in the Temple being torn in two) so that His work on the cross could take its place, by re-instituting the Law they were rebuilding what the Anointed One tore down, and sowing the veil back together again, would not only be foolish, but a rejection of what the Anointed One did on the cross.[14]

Don Garlington explains it in a very colorful way. “Because of the death-blow administered by the Law” after its laws were broken, Paul became convinced that the Torah could not bring him back to life once he paid the death penalty for his sins with his own life. He knew this was his destiny even while trying to be a faithful Pharisee because there was no way he could be the righteous person he needed to be in order to qualify for life in the world-to-come. Garlington is convinced that the words of David came crashing in upon him: “Don’t bring your servant to trial since in Your sight no one alive would be considered righteous.”[15] At this point in time, Paul became profoundly aware that his righteousness must come from none other than the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. This was something the Law could not do.[16]

I agree with Paul, to make the Torah any part of what it means to be a born again Christian and live for the Anointed One, is rebuilding the old wall of separation that the Anointed One tore down so that all who believe in Him are one with Him. Listen to what Paul told the believers in Ephesus: But now you are in union with the Anointed One, Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you are near to Him through the blood of the Anointed One. For the Anointed One Himself brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one fellowship when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated them. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new community from the two groups. Together as one body, the Anointed One reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and their hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what the Anointed One did for us.[17]

Since the new birth is so much a part of salvation in the Anointed One, it allows the use of an illustration to help us understand Paul’s somewhat complex thinking. From the moment of conception, the fetus depends on the umbilical cord and the mother’s intake of nutrition to stay alive.  But the day comes when the baby leaves the womb, and the umbilical cord is cut in order to live in the outside world. So, the child then says, “By leaving the womb, I’m rejecting the womb as my permanent home in order for me to exist in the environment outside.”   Yes, the womb gave the baby an environment in which to be conceived and grow, but its destiny was not to remain there into adulthood. And what child would ever wish to go back into the womb and live in a bag of water again, especially after their first Christmas? That’s not possible anymore. Now that the child breaths air, they would be unable to survive by returning to the womb. No wonder Nicodemus was somewhat taken aback when Jesus told him that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven he needed to be born again, and he thought that meant he needed to return to the womb.

[1] See Romans 6:6-7

[2] Ibid. 8:3-4

[3] This is Wayne C. Aman’s paraphrase of Galatians 2:20

[4] Wayne C. Aman: The Cross and Crown of Holiness, Books for the Ages, 1997, p. 15

[5] See Romans 6

[6] Luke 23:42

[7] Heaster, Duncan: European New Testament Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Locations 544-596

[8] The Works of That Famous and Worthy Minister of the Anointed One in the University of Cambridge, Mr. William Perkins, Printed by John Legatt, London, 1631, Vol. II, p. 215

[9] Platt, David; Merida, Tony.  Galatians, op. cit., p. 49

[10] See Galatians 2:20

[11] Ibid. 6:21

[12] Martin, Ralph P.; Lane, William L.; Morris, Leon. The Shorter Letters of Paul: Galatians to Philemon (Open Your Bible Commentary, New Testament Book 8) (Kindle Locations 562-566). Creative 4 International. Kindle Edition.

[13] See Galatians 3:2; 4:6; Romans 8:1-17

[14] Robert Gundry: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Locations 465-492

[15] Psalm 143:2 – Complete Jewish Bible

[16] Don Garlington: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 85

[17] Ephesians 2:13-18 – Complete Jewish Bible

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLIX)

Lancaster goes on to explain why this interpretation does not work for Messianic Jews. He quotes what Paul says in Acts 25:8[1] and 28:17,[2] as evidence that Paul did not reject the Torah or Judaism. Speaking again of logic, these are two conditional statements that are only applicable to Paul remaining a Jew if the premise is in harmony with his conclusion. In both cases, Lancaster would be considered in error according to the rules of logic. In his mind, Paul remained obedient to the Torah – observant all his life; a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Jew, under the full obligation of the Law, despite the fact that he considered himself an Apostle to the Gentiles. If what Lancaster says here is supposedly true, then why did Paul not continue to persecute the congregation that dispensed with the Torah and leaned totally on the work of the Anointed One for their salvation. And why did Paul say to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the Good News since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in His sight; and from beginning to end it is through trust — as the Jewish Tanakh (Jewish Bible) puts it, “The person who is righteous will live his life by trust – that is faith.”[3]

For Messianic Jewish believer David Stern, when Paul said in verse nineteen that through the Law he died to the law it should be understood this way: “Through the Torah, I died to legalism.” One Jewish translation renders it thus: “Through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation.”[4] Stern goes on to say that this then allowed Paul to say that instead of being shut off from God by legalistic misinterpretation of the Torah, he got closer to God through faith and grace. Before, Paul wasn’t spiritually alive because the Law held no such power, but now he is alive in the Anointed One who is the full embodiment of the Law. So why should he try to meet the Law’s demands when the Anointed One already did so?

Stern also adds some additional color to Paul statement about being crucified with the Anointed One. He says that when the Anointed One was crucified as a criminal, he too was crucified with him as a criminal, a law-breaker. So it is no longer his proud Pharisaic ego that is the driving force in his life to be right with God, it is the driving force of the Anointed One’s Spirit that enables him to serve God out of love not an obligation; by faith, not works. By doing so, he lived in harmony with the trusting faithfulness of the Son of God, the Messiah, because He loved Paul and gave Himself up to be sacrificed for Paul so that Paul might receive everlasting life.[5]

Another Jewish writer, Adriaan Liebenberg, also takes issue with those who say that the Torah died to Paul.  As Liebenberg sees it, it does NOT say the Law is dead to us! There is a huge difference. If we are dead to the Law then we fulfilled the requirement that the law demands: our death. The Law demands that we die because at some point in our life we broke that Law. When we received Yeshua as Savior, WE become “dead to the Law” because we were crucified with Messiah who was dying because we broke the Law, not Him. That allowed God to raise us back up from our deadness to the Torah so that we could live for Elohiym.

Liebenberg then points out that when Paul goes on to say that he now lives with the Anointed One dwelling in him, he is actually saying that we walk as the Anointed One walked. He kept the Torah to absolute perfection! Because He kept the Torah as the only righteous One, then through Him we also keep the Torah and because God declared us as righteous in Him. This is the basis for our justification. Oh yes, from time to time we still let our sinful tendencies get the best of us. But now the Anointed One does through grace what the Torah could not do and forgives us and wipes away those stains of unrighteousness that sin left on our souls. Do not let anyone declare that they are righteous, but rather, that the Anointed One is their righteousness.[6]

Jewish writer Avi Ben Mordechai says that for the most part, what Paul said about dying to the law is being misinterpreted. They take what Paul says back in verse eighteen to mean that Paul used to keep the Torah before coming to “the Anointed One,” but because the Law points to “the Anointed One,” it, therefore, means that Paul should never attempt to rebuild a path back to the Torah to keep from denying the Anointed One and falling from grace and become a transgressor of the freedom from the Law of Moses that God gives through the Anointed One because Paul realized that the Torah was completely fulfilled in the Anointed One. So what Paul is really saying is that because the Anointed One took care of the demands of the Torah, and with the Anointed One being in him, he was now able to go on to really live for God and not become bogged down in a Law that was already fulfilled.[7]

Another Messianic writer says that at first blush verse nineteen seems to spell the end of any Torah relevance for the Apostle Paul. But there is more than what is comprehended in the first reading. Paul indicates that prior to his salvation experience, he was blinded of his true condition: dead in trespasses and sin. However, now that the Holy Spirit took up residence within him, via the sacrificial death of Yeshua, he looks back to how the Torah played a big part in bringing him to this newfound revelation about himself. The Torah, working in concert with the Spirit of God, revealed sin for what it was: a violation of God’s high standards for living right. That’s why, through the Torah, – that is, through its proper function of revealing and condemning sin, the individual is brought to the goal of the Torah, namely the revelation of the Messiah Himself. Once faced with the choice to remain in sin or be set free by the power of the blood of the Lamb of God, Paul confesses that he “died” to his old self and was consequently made alive in the newness of life that is gifted to those who choose life over death![8]

Christian Rabbi Avi ben Mordechai helps us see that when we see the word “Christ” in the Scripture, we forget that this is the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah” or the “Anointed One.” So, Paul is saying here in verse twenty that he was crucified with the Messiah. This is important because the Messiah came to provide something that no other human could provide. That was the sacrifice in payment for all the sins committed against Yahweh by the House of Israel,[9] as “atonement” or “ransom,”[10] along with all the sins committed by the rest of humanity. That’s why Yahweh sent Yeshua[11] to take upon Himself the death sentence that was adjudicated by Heaven’s High Court.[12] All of this was outlined as a curse upon humanity,[13] and spelled out in the Torah.[14] So it is clear that if Paul ripped out any reference to Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross and reinserted the required animal sacrifices of Leviticus, he would certainly be frustrating the grace of God.[15]

The Jewish New Testament renders verses 19-20 in such a way that appears as though Paul was saying that it was the Law that put him to death, and it did so that he might be able to live for God. And this was done because the Anointed One included Paul when He was crucified on the cross.[16] So the old Saul is dead and, in his place, a new Paul is living through the life-giving power of the Anointed One’s Spirit. And the only reason Paul is still alive is because of his faith in the Son of God keeps him alive.[17] The Son of God who came to earth and gave himself for him because He loved him.[18]

In Andrew Roth’s translation of the text from the original Aramaic version, it sure does seem that Paul gave credit to the Torah for his transformation from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive: “For by the Torah I am dead, that I might live for Elohiym.” In the footnotes, we read that Roth shares that Rabbi Simon Altaf in his Nazarene Hebraic Study Scriptures translates this verse nineteen as “For I through the human law am dead to the human law, that I might live to Elohiym.” Then in his own footnote, Rabbi Altaf notes Paul was referring to sure death by living in the Pharisaical system of commandments and that he now realized the life in Yahweh through His Torah, which was personified in the living Messiah Yeshua. This then allowed Paul to go on and say in verse that although he was crucified with the Messiah, the old Saul no longer lives, but the Messiah lives in him. So, he gives all credit for his new life to the Son of Elohiym, Yeshua, who love him and give His life for him so that he could receive a new life.[19]

The Contextual Bible paraphrases these two verses this way that adds even more depth: “For it was through the Law of God that I came to realize my impotence, that I could never keep God’s Law in my human strength, and thus be guiltless and righteous before God. It condemned me to my death and when my death penalty was paid by the Anointed One, dying in my place, the Law released me from its condemnation and authority. Released from its power, I am now under God’s power, infused with His life-giving spirit, and, therefore, alive and enabled to live up to His will for me. I have been nailed to the torture stake with the Anointed One, my “self” has been put to death: now it is not me that is living, but the Anointed One is living in me, taking care of all of God’s requirements for me. Indeed, the life that I now live, with its power to live up to God’s will for me, is a result of my complete and absolute surrender to the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me, and not a result of my own conscientious efforts to live by God’s Law.”[20]

[1] “I’ve done nothing wrong against the Jewish law, against the Temple, or against Caesar.”

[2] “My brothers, I’ve done nothing against our people or against the customs of our fathers.

[3] Romans 1:16-17 – Complete Jewish Bible

[4] Complete Jewish Bible, op. cit., loc., cit.

[5] Stern, David H: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Location 15444-15464

[6] W. Adriaan Liebenberg: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., pp. 44-46

[7] Avi ben Mordechai: Commentary on Galatians, Millennium 7000 Communications

[8] Messianic Commentary: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit.

[9] Jeremiah 3:8

[10] Isaiah 59:16; Exodus 32:30-34

[11] John 7:16

[12] See Galatians 3:13-14

[13] Jeremiah 11:1-8

[14] Deuteronomy, chapters 27-28

[15] Avi ben Mordechai: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 26

[16] See Galatians 5:24; 6:14; cf. Romans 6:5-11; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

[17] See Romans 8:9-11; 2 Corinthians 13:5; cf. Colossians 1:27

[18] Jewish Annotated New Testament: Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit

[19] Andrew G. Roth: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit.

[20] Aiyer, Ramsey: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Locations 210-218

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVIII)

Joseph Beet asks us to notice that here in verse twenty Paul says that it is the crucified Savior who lives in those who share in His crucifixion. By that, we assume that only those whose former lives came to an end on the cross with the Anointed One living in them. That’s because union with Him implies not only union with His life but also with His death.[1] Now, this life that we live in the Anointed One is not something we earned, merited, competed for, or bought. It was a gift from God through His Son Jesus the Anointed One. Certainly, we should appreciate so valuable a gift as not lose it or let it sit in a closet untouched. As part of this gift of salvation, there is another gift called “timeless life”. Who would throw that away? But very few are going to believe that we possess such a gift unless they see the Anointed One living in us. To love and serve Him in such a way that His grandeur is revealed in all its beauty through the Gifts of the Spirit. This should be enough to cause those who are just like we used to be to notice and want to find the same joy and peace we enjoy in the Anointed One we enjoy now.[2]

James Denny shares some enlightening thoughts about Paul’s statement here in verse nineteen about how letting go of the Torah and dying to its empty promises of salvation and timeless life allowed him to reach out to the Anointed One so he maintained a direct relationship with God. But the source that gave him the power to make this change came with the Anointed One’s death on the cross in which He dealt with sin by putting it to death in Him. More specifically, that His death involved His body in which a person’s sinful nature resides. So, by having faith in His death as being done on our behalf, that faith then gives us the power to say “No” to sin. That’s, says Denney, the death involving faith that Paul experienced is repeatedly defined by Paul was his death to the Law. Why the Law? Because the Law was designed to identify sin but could do nothing about forgiveness, it was already lifeless. So why not treat it as a dead thing?[3]

Just like in the Book of Psalms, wisdom and knowledge are expressed in poetry with much more passion than in prose. John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918), an American Presbyterian evangelist who evangelized across America with noted gospel singer Charles Alexander, expresses his passion on what Paul says here in verse twenty about the joy of being one with the Anointed One this way:

Benjamin Bacon paints a picture to convey that Paul is saying in verse twenty about how the Anointed One loved him and gave Himself up for him. This is the case where a simple story of Jesus, the Friend of Sinners, the traveling prophet who spent His whole life in the small area of Galilee and Judea in Israel, because of His undaunted championship fighting for the right of the outcast class called Gentiles to gain full “sonship” in God’s kingdom. However, it took His crucifixion outside Jerusalem’s walls to lift His efforts to its highest plane. His tragic death is no longer viewed as a local folk story, it is now being played out on the world stage so that “every sinner” may come to know the love of God through the Anointed One. It involves more than Jesus setting His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem,[5] assuming a much larger dimension. The Redeemer descended from the highest heaven to the lowest hell in order to conquer all powers and put them under His control. The powers of sin, sickness, hell, death, and the grave are not subject to Him.[6]

Arno Gaebelein reminds us that the principle which governs this new life in the Anointed One is not the Law-principle, but it is a Life-principle lived by faith in the Son of God and what He did on the cross. God gave a purpose to every one of His creations. There would be no reason to exist without one. Therefore, if the Lord Jesus is our life, He is also, personally, our purpose for living, and we live by faith in Him. Our heart sees Him, looks to Him, feeds upon Him, is assured of His love, for He gave Himself for us. What a happy certainty! Blessed assurance! It is a new life, the old self is crucified, dead, and gone. Now the Anointed One, whose perfect love we know, is the sole object of our faith and of our heart.[7]

Cyril Emmet tells us that the idea of a spirit living in a person and taking control of their emotions and actions was not new in Paul’s day. It was already believed in Egypt, Greece, Africa, Asia, and other far-flung places. Especially among those who practiced what is called “mystery” religions.[8] For instance, in 1775 a traveler to Greece named Richard Chandler observed what he described as a “frenzy of rapture” and called it Nympholepsy. It was the rapture supposedly that took hold of a man upon gazing on a nymph. The word “nymph” originates from the Greek word nymphe, meaning “bride.” It was often applied to beautiful young women, then to a “semi-divine being in the form of a beautiful maiden.” It featured seizures such as those seen in epilepsy. According to Socrates, as presented in the writings of Plato, a person could experience nympholepsy without any “tearing of clothes, the biting of lips, or convulsions, or frenzies.” Plato implies in his writings that nympholepsy showed itself in others by “heightened awareness and eloquence.” Something similar, but holy, is seen in Pentecostal congregations when the Holy Spirit falls on a believer and they dance, shout, and speak in tongues, even falling under the power of the Spirit.

Arthur W. Pink gives us thought for a great illustration of what Paul is trying to communicate by saying that the Law exercised no more power over him. Pink calls the Gospel, “the Believer’s Emancipation from the Law” signed by God. When American President Abraham Lincoln wanted to free the slaves in the south from any further humiliation as unpaid farm laborers, he signed such an Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But it wasn’t accepted everywhere. In fact, it resulted in a civil war between the North and the South. Many died trying to defend it and even more died trying to annul it. But in the end, it was made Law. And the good news, when it was all over the slaves were now free to be what God made them be. So it was when Jesus the Anointed One the Son of God came to earth to proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation freeing sinners from the bondage of sin. Yes, there was a war and Jesus gave His life defending it. But in the end, it became God’s Law.[9]

Messianic writer Daniel Lancaster finds trouble with what Paul says here about dispensing with the Torah. From his perspective, most of Christendom the meaning of what Paul says here is self-evident. He distinguishes between his former life as a Jewish Pharisee and his new life as a Jewish Christian. Formerly, he tried to live according to the Torah, for the Torah and keeping the Torah in order to earn salvation. But ultimately, he realized that he could not earn salvation because his sinful tendencies prevented him from meeting the Torah’s impossible standards. So, his choice was to either keep up his futile attempt at salvation by works, or die to the Torah, much like a husband dies to his wife, and become a Christian through new birth. He made the choice to quit trying to keep the Torah and learned to simply live for God by grace through faith without practicing Judaism any longer – that religion of dead and lifeless works. Lancaster hears Paul saying, “I was a Jew, but now I’m a Christian.  I once was under the law, but now I’m under grace.” Lancaster says that from his experience this explanation works for most Christians because for two thousand years the Book of Galatians was read and revered by Christians. However, it does not work for the Messianic Jewish movement.”[10]

[1] See Romans 6:3

[2] Joseph Beet: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., 55-56

[3] James Denny, The Death of the Anointed One, Ch 3, pp. 125-126

[4] J. Wilbur Chapman, Present Day Parables, Oneness with the Anointed One, p. 129

[5] Luke 9:51

[6] Benjamin W. Bacon: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 70–71

[7]|Arno Gaebelein: On Galatians: op. cit., loc. cit.

[8] Cyril W. Emmet: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 25

[9] Arthur W. Pink: The Law and the Saint, op. cit., p. 19

[10] D. Thomas Lancaster: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 97-98

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVII)

Some fifty years after Adam Clarke wrote his commentary, another brilliant British scholar, Andrew Mclaren, preached his non-conformist view of what Paul was saying here. Mclaren sees a bundle of paradoxes in verse twenty. The first paradox is that the Christian life is a dying life. If we are in any real sense in union with the Anointed One, the power of His death makes us dead to self and sin and the world. In the spiritual, as in the physical, death is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in the Anointed One is itself only death to bring life. We then live because we died. But we fully live in proportion to how we fully died.

The next paradox is that the Christian life is a life in which the indwelling Spirit of the Anointed One overcomes our old-self so that it may bring to life our new-self. We gain ourselves when we lose ourselves. His abiding in us does not destroy but heightens our individuality. We then most truly live when we say, “It is not I, but the Anointed One lives in me;” and became the soul of my soul and the self of my self.

And the last paradox is that the true Christian life moves in two spheres at once. What we see and what we cannot see. We are still alive in the flesh, but that life is really lived in faith. It belongs not to the material nor is dependent upon the physical body in which we are housed. We are now pilgrims below looking forward to our new life above, and the true region and atmosphere of the Christian life is that invisible sphere of faith.

Mclaren concludes that what we read here in verse twenty is a Christian man’s frank affirmation of the secret of his own life. It is like a geological cutting, it goes down from the surface, where the grass and the flowers are, through the various strata, but it goes deeper than these, to the fiery heart, the flaming nucleus and center of all things. Therefore, it may do us all good to get a sample of our own hearts and see whether the strata there are conformable to those that are here.[1]

J. B. Lightfoot declares that the Law wore on its face the marks of its temporary character. Its prophecies foretold the Anointed One. Its sacrifices and other typical rites foreshadowed the Anointed One. It was, therefore, quite appropriate when the Anointed One met Paul on the road to Damascus and took the Law’s place as his Master.[2] However, the Law was the slave master who kept Saul in bondage whereas the Anointed One was the Master who set Paul free. So now why should Paul live his life any longer in the same mode he lived it under the Law? There is no reason, so he is living his life for the Anointed One’s sake and to His honor out of gratitude for setting him free. This was the example Paul was trying to get the Galatians to follow because they owed the Anointed One the same thanks as Paul did.

Charles Spurgeon commented that Paul here in verse twenty looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested by grace. If any person deserved the right to say, “The Son of God, whom I loved, and to whom I gave myself,” it is the Apostle Paul. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, “Whose I am, and whom I serve;”[3] but here he thinks not of himself, or of what he was led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord did for him. He dug down to the foundation of salvation; he traced the stream of grace back to the fountainhead; and, therefore, he spoke of “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Then Spurgeon recalls a poem that he read but does not remember its source. Nevertheless, it should be very inspiring to all who love their Savior as much as He loves them:

And finally, Spurgeon also comments on verse twenty in one of his meditations. The subject is how often Jesus referred to “love.” We are to love one another even as He loved us.[5]  Paul talks here about how the Son of God loved him so much that He willingly gave up life in His body so that He could live in Paul’s body. That’s why Paul says it wasn’t he who was living now in his flesh, but the Anointed One living in him. So, says Spurgeon, it’s hard to talk of love in order to give it meaning. Love is an act of the will and must be demonstrated in order to prove its existence.

Spurgeon then notes how often our eyes filled with tears when we realized the thought that Jesus loves us! How it affected our spirit with His assurance that He thinks of us and bears us in His heart! But try as we may, we cannot duplicate the same emotion for others, nor give by word of mouth so much as a faint idea of the bliss which lies within the exclamation, “Oh, how He loves me!” Today we sing a similar refrain in the chorus: “Oh, how He loves you and me, Oh, how He loves you and me. He gave his life, what more could He give? Oh, how He loves you; Oh, how He loves me; Oh, how He loves you and me.”

Trying to define love, says Spurgeon, is like describing a vast ocean without being able to see down into its depths. Doesn’t it make you gasp for air knowing that the Son of God should love you so much that He would die so that you could live? It should make us unfold the wings of our spirit in a flame of admiring and adoring gratitude! Spurgeon then breaks out in another song to make his point.

O you angels, cries out Spurgeon, such love as this you never knew! Jesus does not bear your names upon His hands or call you His bride. No! this highest fellowship He reserves for worms whose only return is tearful, hearty thanksgiving and love.[7]

G. W. Gonder of Home Missionary Institute in England (1840-1842) wants us to imagine a person who is living for themselves without any thought of God or any earnest effort to serve or please Him. Living to gratify only their own tastes, passions, desires, and no one else’s. Interested only in their rules, their aspirations, their self-satisfaction, their goals, as their own god. This is not just a caricature, but a true picture of such a person who claims they are living for God. Take a long look at a person such as this. Observe them closely. Here is a person whose whole principle, guideline, motive, aim, and end, is “self.”

But now, let’s look at them again. Only this time as they, emerge, as it were, from the Anointed One’s tomb with the Anointed One, their hand in the Savior’s hand, surrendering to the loving request of the Lord to go with Him to God the Father; to confess their sin, and be forgiven. How completely different is the look on their face! How humbly they follow the Lord instead of the stiff resistance they put up before. How softened is their demeanor compared to their prior look of pride? Certainly, that unyielding spirit of self-absorption must have been cast out of them and left behind him in the empty grave of the Anointed One. It is not the same person. Now it’s God! God’s law! God’s favor! His pardon, His help, and guidance that used to mean nothing to them is now everything to them. If they could, they might be so entranced with their relationship with the Anointed One, they would never dream of departing from Him. Instead, if they could they might stay there forever gazing into their Savior’s eyes, never to look at anything else as long as they live.[8]

[1] Alexander. McLaren’s Commentary (Expositions of Holy Scripture) 32 Books In 1 Volume.: An Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Kindle Location 137468-137482), Kindle Edition.

[2] J. B. Lightfoot: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 245

[3] Acts of the Apostles 27:23

[4] Charles Spurgeon: Sermon # 2370 titled, “the Anointed One First, Me Last: Nothing Between but Love,” Text: Galatians 2:20, Delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England, Thursday evening, May 10, 1888

[5] John 13:34; 15:12

[6] There Is Singing Up in Heaven, by Johnson Oatman (1897). Song was also published in some hymnals as “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing.”

[7] Charles Spurgeon: Till He Comes, Communion Meditations and Addresses, Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh, p. 52

[8] G. W. Gonder: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., The Biblical Illustrator – Vol. 48 – Kindle Locations 5432-5441

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVI)

Charles Simeon, in one of his discourses, says that the knowledge of the Law is indispensably necessary to the knowledge of the Gospel. Even persons who espouse some views of the Anointed One as a Savior, in general, do not possess an adequate idea of the extent to which they need a Savior. This becomes known only by considering the requirements of the law, and the measure of guilt which we contracted by our violation of the Law. In unfolding to us this subject, the Epistle to the Galatians stands, perhaps, preeminent above all others, not excepting even that to the Romans.

Simeon then points out the use of the Law in relation to the hope a person gets from it; governed by the extent of its commandments; by the relentlessness of its threatenings, and by its incapacity to afford any remedy whatsoever. However, on the other side of the coin, a person may also view the Law from a sense of gratitude; from a sense of duty, and from a sense of interest. This should then motivate a person to understand its nature; to fulfill its purposes, and to honor its requirement. But in the end, none of this will qualify a person to be justified before God as worthy for sins to be forgiven and the sentence of death removed. In that respect, a believer is dead to the Law. All their expectation that the Law might save them through self-righteousness is now abandoned. In its place, a person finds themselves in a better place, standing on the solid ground of hope with blessed assurance by faith in the Anointed One’s obedience to the cross. There was no hope in the Law. As the old hymn goes, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus the Anointed One and righteousness.”[1] [2]

Wesleyan theologian Adam Clarke offers his thoughts on this teaching by Paul about depending on religious rites and rituals for justification. He hears Paul saying that if he was to act like a Jew and force the observance of the Law on the Gentiles, which he repeatedly asserted and proved to be abolished by the death of the Anointed One, then he would rebuild what the Lord destroyed by His sacrifice. This would then make him a transgressor by observing the Law in such a way that it would appear to order the observance of it upon others. Paul made it clear that when it comes to properly consider the nature and requisitions of the law, He would find himself dead to all hope and expectation of help or salvation from the Law, thereby being obliged to take refuge in the Gospel of the Anointed One. Paul’s message was that the Law condemns to death, and he embraced the Gospel that he might be saved from death, and live for God.[3]

James Haldane finds that is a mystery why so many Christians are unaware that a person is not only justified in the Anointed One but sanctified as well. Not by anything they did, it is all the work of God through the Anointed One and the Holy Spirit. That’s why some feel that at any time they could fall back into sin, and the Law would take dominion over them once more. It comes from not being sure how to live a holy life. They were told that they are no longer under the Law when it comes to their justification for being called a child of God, they are now living under grace. That’s why they must now understand that if they do sin, it’s not against the Law but the Grace of God. The Law contained no provisions to forgive such a trespass, but Grace contains not only forgiveness but cleansing from any stain of sin that may still be on their character.[4] As Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, neither do I condemn you.[5] The Anointed One came to save, not to condemn.[6] [7]

Catholic theologian John Haydock from the 19th century gives his view of what Paul says here and it applies to believers in his day.  Paul expresses here the change that was wrought in him. The law to which he was attached passed away. Now he was so united in the Anointed One and His cross, that he says: Not I, but the Anointed One lives in me. The strong expressions made use of by St. Paul with regard to the Jewish law in this chapter, may appear strange, and very capable of a wrong interpretation. But we must always bear in mind that St. Paul speaks exclusively of the ceremonial part of the law, and not of the moral part contained in the Ten Commandments. Of this latter law, Haydock says that in Paul’s epistle to the Romans that the doers of the Law will be justified.[8] But this can only happen when the grace which Jesus the Anointed One merited and obtained for us all, the grace which God poured out on us all, is first applied.[9]  So it is obvious that in this Catholic scholar’s mind, salvation by grace and faith alone is still insufficient unless joined with the moral ethics as outlined in the Ten Commandments.

Justin Edwards sees this as Paul’s message to Peter and the Galatians: Instead of my going back to the Law for justification, says Paul, I learned through the Law itself to renounce the Law as the means for my salvation. True knowledge of God’s holy and spiritual law taught me, that to a sinner, like me, it works death.[10] And because the Anointed One now lives in me by His Spirit, He is the cause of everything right and good in me. The author and sustainer of divine life in the soul are the Anointed One, and what the thing that makes so robust, is the faith in him that formed between my soul and His Spirit. Because of this I received His fullness which is helping me grow in conformity to His image and thereby shines with His glory. So why should I go back to the Law? I’m dead to the Law so there’s no reason for it to visit my grave.[11]

German theologian Heinrich Meyer chooses an interesting way of encapsulating what he feels Paul is saying here about the life he is living is not his, but the Anointed One. The first thing Meyer asks is this, “What did the Anointed One achieve on the cross that affects all of us?” He begins with this: The Anointed One broke down and removed the partition between Jews and Gentile so that out of two He could make one people. Then, by His shed blood, the Anointed One blotted out the Law of Moses so that it neither applies to the Jews or the Gentiles. This then means that if Gentiles are incorporated with the Anointed One, they become eligible for all the blessings previously promised only to the Jews, even though they do not live according to the Law of Moses. They were accepted by God into the family of God for the Anointed One’s sake.

Meyer then goes on to talk about what he calls the “handwriting that was against all of us.”[12] First, it was nailed to the cross and the blood of the Anointed One washed the parchment clean. This handwriting included our legal indebtedness to the Law. It was the basis for our becoming aware of sin and was etched into our hearts where it sparked our sinful tendencies that brought us under condemnation. But, once we are in union with the Anointed One and become one with Him, then this handwriting no longer applies to us because it’s been erased. I like the way Meyer expresses it: It no longer exerts any authority or strength because its seals were removed by the Anointed One’s work on the cross, and its letters erased by the Anointed One’s blood. This then verifies that we all been crucified with the Anointed One.[13]

Johann Peter Lange puts it succinctly this way: I came into fellowship with the Anointed One’s death on the cross, through faith, so that what happened to the Anointed One also happened to me.[14] Isn’t it wonderful that we say the same about the resurrection! That what happened to the Anointed One will also happen to me! John Eadie then adds his feelings of joy by saying, “I’ve been crucified with the Anointed One,” those are Wondrous Words! By being so closely identified with the Anointed One, His death is our death. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him. We became so much a part of Him under the Law’s curse of suffering and death, that when He died to the Law, we died to the Law with Him. By being in union with the Anointed One we satisfied the Law by yielding to it in obedience which it claimed, suffered its curse, died to it, and because of this, I am now released from it – from its accusations and its penalty and from its claim on us to obey it as the means of receiving timeless life.[15]

William O’Conor says that the law indirectly made us sinners, and then condemned us to death before we broke the first law. But when we heard that the Anointed One took that punishment of death upon Himself for our sake, so when we accepted what the Anointed One did for us by faith, that same faith now makes it possible for us to hate the sin that imposed death upon us.[16] When we consider that we were all sinners and liable to both death of the body and the soul as a punishment, then the Anointed One who was without sin underwent the punishment of sin so that those who believe in Him do not suffer death as a punishment. Being born again down here is just a prelude to everlasting life up above. So we were punished for our sins in the death of the Anointed One, in order that we may immediately enter into a new life of righteousness.[17] Should we not then do as Paul urges us to do, live our lives daily in honor of the One who died for us and the One who sent Him to pay that price? In fact, we cannot do any less.

Alvah Hovey remarked that nothing is deeper in the writings of Paul than his conception of the believer’s union with the Anointed One. He dies to the law and to sin by trusting in the Anointed One. His legal standing and his spiritual condition are reversed in a moment by that act and the union which depends upon it. Paul’s crucifixion with the Anointed One was first realized at his conversion, but the continuance of that crucifixion he experienced all along from that hour to the present. Essentially the same thought is repeated by the Apostle in his letter to the Romans.[18]

Certainly, this gave Paul the freedom to declare any life given to him he dedicated totally to living for the Anointed One. In fact, the Anointed One’s Spirit that now lives in him makes that possible. As Hovey goes on to say that faith was the main element in which Paul was living and breathing and that faith focused on its object, the Son of God. This faith no longer trusted in his own righteousness, as he did under the Law, but in the Son of God. Gone are the legal observances, or holy resolutions, or attempt at perfecting his character through good works. Here we see how tender and personal Paul’s relationship with Jesus became. How blessed must this sorely-tried servant of the Anointed One be when he uttered these words and believed that it would be as dear to the heart of Peter as it was to his own![19]

[1] “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less,” by Edward Mote (1834)

[2] Charles Simeon; On Galatians, op. cit., Discourse 2057

[3] Adam Clarke: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit

[4] 1 John 1:9

[5] John 8:11

[6] Ibid. 3:17

[7] James A Haldane: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., pp. 84-87

[8] Romans 2:13

[9] George Haydock: Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

[10] See Galatians 3:24; Romans 3:20; 4:15; 7:10.

[11] Justine Edwards: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[12] Colossians 2:13-14

[13] Heinrich A. W. Meyer: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 98

[14] John Peter Lange: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Volume 8, Kindle Locations 3683-3684

[15] John Eadie: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 184

[16] See Romans 6:1

[17] O’Conor, W. A: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., pp. 39–40

[18] Romans 6:6

[19] Alvah Hovey: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 34