Galatians: Freedom in the New Age

By Paul S. Jeon

Dr. Jeon's treatment of Galatians is a balanced and accessible commentary that traces the flow of the apostle's argument from the beginning to the end of Galatians. Dialoguing with some of the best commentators, peppered with pastoral insights, and written in a clear manner, this brief work will be an invaluable help for all who want a deeper grasp of both the message and structure of this letter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Oct 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385200207

Paul S. Jeon

PAUL S. JEON (PhD, Catholic University of America) is visiting professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary (DC), an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and lead pastor of NewCity Church. He is also the author of two books published by Wipf & Stock: Introducing Romans (2010) and True Faith (2012).

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Preface

I’m not old, but neither am I young; and I definitely feel older each day. I suffer from the Asian curse of looking forever young until I suddenly fall off the cliff and look like I should have died yesterday. Either way, I feel old and feel time is passing by too quickly; we will soon be with the Lord.

This reality often leaves me reflecting on two related truths. Death is becoming less abstract. There was a time when I was attending one wedding after another. That season changed to attending the first birthday parties of friends’ children. Now, more of life is taken up by funerals. With death ever feeling more real, so too is my appreciation for Christian hope. Every aspect of life screams life isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, so much so that some people, if not many, wonder whether it’s worth continuing. I feel this acutely as a pastor that spends hours each week listening to parishioners struggle with regret, anxiety, and fear. No doubt this is in large part due to our decision to abandon the moorings that, in the past, enabled us to answer basic questions like identity and purpose.

With this in the background, I have grown in my appreciation for the importance of hope. Without it, we simply cannot survive. We need a hope that’s greater than the flimsy belief that life is as cyclical as the market and therefore will eventually get better before it gets worse. We need the kind of hope expressed by Tim Keller, heavily inspired by Jonathan Edwards: Our bad things will turn out for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come.¹

The good news of Jesus Christ offers such a hope—and it is for this very reason we need to do everything to preserve and promote it from any different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (1:6–7). The apostle Paul models what this looks like in this relatively brief but profound letter. Different parts of the letter are difficult to understand for different reasons. The historical distance and the assumed knowledge of the original audience force us to fill in some holes. Paul’s own passion sometimes leads him from the path of flowing logic. And we dare not forget our own ignorance of the Old Testament and the false assumptions we read into the text that perhaps pose the greatest danger. Still, the journey through Galatians is worth taking, repeatedly in fact. In the end, perhaps we too will be able to echo with the apostle, But for me let it not be to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I myself to the world (6:14).

In writing this brief work, on and off over several years, I often wondered what would be the best way of conveying the message of Galatians in a concise, clear, and meaningful way. My world comprises several young children and a wife-of-one-husband (1 Tim 5:9), a preteen church, and earnest seminary students. I often find myself being asked by my son on our way to Sunday service, What are you preaching on today, or encountering wonderful but somewhat inaccessible works in theology and biblical studies and asking, How can we get this in the hands of the laity? I read most of the memoirs included in The New York Times Best Sellers while contemplating Paul’s eschatological structure. I listen to songs by various Christian artists during the day only to join my friends and family in karaoke nights. It’s in this conglomerated setting I have pondered the question of how to best grasp the message of Galatians.

I suspect my answer will change over the years as I continue to work through Galatians. For now, I suggest beginning any remotely serious study of the letter by memorizing and meditating on Gal 6:14 (quote above) while playing the hymn Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.² The opening lyrics echo the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism: ‘What is your only comfort in life and in death?’ ‘That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.’ The apostle’s answer to this question according to Galatians is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer is that your reflection of this singular letter would lead you to the same liberating, guiding, and empowering conviction.

Following the commentary are two appendices that I have found especially helpful in addition to my main commentary partners Douglas Moo, N. T. Wright, and Craig Keener. I also thought the reader might be served by two appendices on Luther’s commentary on the letter as well as that of John Barclay, two men writing from very different periods. New perspectives on Paul, specifically Galatians, are helpful but not to the extent of dismissing the old perspectives. Against the current climate of disregarding the past, we do well to pursue all future conversations anchored in the wisdom and insights of our predecessors. If some have run the danger of accepting the past uncritically, today we seem to fall prey to chronological snobbery.

A Note on Interpreting Galatians

³

As with all of Paul’s letters, Galatians is occasional, meaning Paul is responding to a situation. But what this situation was is not entirely clear, given there were more than a few shared assumptions between Paul and the Galatians. Imagine receiving a friend’s email response to his colleague—but only his response. We could gather quite a bit from his reply, and yet there would be inevitable gaps in our understanding. With respect to Galatians, this means some historical reconstruction and some speculation are needed—and therefore some, if not much, humility and charity in interpreting the letter in dialogue with other earnest scholars and believers.⁴ Galatians is a letter that will continue to capture the hearts of Jesus’s followers, both those seated in the pews on Sundays and those seated in their study parsing through the latest commentary on the letter. In all this, my hope is that we would approach the letter with the very grace it promotes.

Differences will persist concerning the precise occasion for the letter, specifically whether the pressing theological issue is getting in or staying in (though some might argue that there is no real difference). The general principle—applicable for all of life—is to try to move from what appears very clear to what is obviously less clear. In the case of Galatians, it seems that false teachers have set themselves up against the apostle by insisting the Gentile converts must embrace the Jewish law if they wish to gain (or retain) the unique status of being the people of God. Paul’s response is explicit and forceful: observance of the Jewish Law, especially circumcision, is unnecessary because the Gentile believers have already trusted in Christ and received the Spirit like their counterpart Jewish believers. Therefore, they are as much equal heirs of Abraham’s promises as ethnic Jews that have embraced Christ. Keener summarizes:⁵

In my view, this means that Paul envisions gentile believers as spiritual proselytes (see Gal

3

:

39

; cf. Rom.

2

:

28–29

;

11

:

17

), whereas his competitors view them as merely sympathizers or God-fearers (cf. Acts

15

:

20

), still needing marks of the covenant to become full children of Abraham.

One of the greatest challenges in interpreting Galatians is the selection of primary sources for reconstructing Paul’s historical and intellectual context. For example, on the whole I agree with Keener’s assertion that It should go without saying . . . that sources closer to Paul’s time and geographic sphere of ministry should be given preference—thus, for example, Stoic sources over Neoplatonic ones, Josephus or Philo over later rabbinic texts, and so forth.⁶ On the surface, this is sensible. At the same time, this approach can cover over the inevitable complexities of communication. Should we presuppose that Paul and his audience were more influenced by recent thinkers and writers? Many today would say they are as much influenced by classic writers as contemporary ones. Also, how do we determine the degree of influence? Just because a given thinker was popular does not mean he or she shaped so-and-so so much. The question of how much the apostle himself was influenced by contemporary sources seems especially challenging given his repeated claim of receiving his gospel in the form of direct revelation. His claim that even the original apostles added nothing to his message should give us reason to reconsider how much non-apostolic sources shaped his message.

All this is to reiterate the need to be slow to speak and not to be unduly confident in our reconstructions and deductions.

1

. Keller, Prayer,

73

.

2

. See Getty and Getty’s song Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.

3

. For a more extensive and very helpful discussion, see Keener, Galatians, 1–45

.

4

. Keener, Galatians,

1

: That we have only one side of the conversation . . . warns us not to think that we know more than we really do. This is particularly the case because In keeping with ancient polemical conventions, Paul sometimes reduces his opponents’ principles to absurdity and puts the worst face on their intentions. In other words, even our best historical constructions are based, to some degree, on apostolic hyperbole.

5

. Keener, Galatians,

1

.

6

. Keener, Galatians,

1

.

Introduction to Letter

Galatians 1:1–5

Everything about these opening verses (1:1–5) is gratuitously long: Paul’s self-identification as an apostle goes beyond what we find in his other letters (1:1).¹ Equally, his prayer of blessing is far more complicated, including what appears to be a summary of his gospel. These expansions provide an important clue to the substance and emphases of Galatians.

Commentary

Paul begins his letter—not just by identifying himself as an apostle (an authorized representative of another),² but also by qualifying his apostleship. He does so through an emphatic contrast but-rather (alla).³ He has been commissioned neither from men nor through man. But-rather he has been commissioned through Jesus Christ and God the Father. The term man (anthrо̄pos) may be referring to actual persons. But more likely Paul is expressing human beings, who are polar opposites to divine beings (Jesus Christ, God the Father).⁴ Paul’s point is that his apostleship is divine in nature!⁵ (This declaration is almost as outrageous as Jesus’s many declarations to be the Son of God.) Also, as we’ll see in verse 10, this means that his main objective in life is to please the one that sent him.

In the first verse, Paul breaks the symmetry between the possible sources of his apostleship (not from men nor through men but-rather through Jesus Christ and God the Father) through the relative clause who raised him from the dead. Why does Paul focus on Christ’s resurrection at this point in the letter? The simple (and probably correct) answer is that from the very outset Paul wants to highlight the significance of Jesus’s resurrection. Whether Paul is referring to how Jesus’s resurrection has satisfied the wrath of God or has inaugurated a new era or has substantiated his identity as the Messiah is unclear at this point. But this much is clear: Paul is preoccupied with reiterating the import of the resurrection.

In his introduction, Paul includes all the brothers who are with me. The letter makes obvious that Paul is the sole author. The mention of "all the brothers who are with me communicates that there are believers aligned with him: they embrace his apostleship. The effect on the audience would have been, So how about you, O Galatians? Are you also with me?"⁶

Much has been written about the area of Galatia.⁷ Given the scope and nature of this commentary, we limit our comments to the following: Paul is addressing various churches of Galatia where he preached the gospel and enjoyed deep friendships. Later in the letter, he reminds the Galatians, You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me (6:13–15). The second point about the deep friendship and love shared between Paul and the Galatian believers is important to highlight because it helps us to understand Paul’s harsh tone. His passion expresses his deep care for the Galatians that have turned from the true gospel. Anyone that has ever loved another is familiar with the rage associated with seeing the beloved spiral.⁸ Paul is fighting to preserve their hope.⁹

The apostle begins this letter with a prayer of blessing typical of his letters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1:3). Grace (charis) refers to divine favor; it also can refer to supernatural power or even generosity. Peace (eirēnē) means a sense of inner tranquility, a feeling of equanimity even in the middle of a pandemic. This subjective peace comes from the new objective peace between God and man achieved by Christ. These blessings of grace and peace come from above, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This echo of verse 1 is likely deliberate, reiterating that God the Father and the Lord Jesus are the source of every calling (in the case of Paul, his apostleship) and of every blessing. In short, all of life is grace, a point that Paul will belabor throughout the letter.

What is different about this prayer-blessing is the extended qualifier that follows in verses 4–5. Paul begins with a weighty description of Christ who gave himself for the sake of our sins in order to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. Talk about packing a lot into a little! So much could be said here; but we’ll limit ourselves to a few comments since we’ll be exploring these themes in more detail as the letter unfolds.

•Jesus is the subject of the verb gave. He willingly laid down his life; he did this on his own accord out of love for his new people. Also, salvation depends primarily on Jesus, not us. We are not the main characters in God’s story of redemption. Rather, Jesus is the protagonist.

•We can’t appreciate the significance of his death without taking seriously the reality of sin: he "gave himself for the sake of our sins." His death was redemptive, or substitutionary, in nature. If we dismiss the idea of sin, as is the bent of many, we render Christ’s death meaningless.¹⁰

•In other words, Jesus came to rescue us—to set us free—in the way God rescued Israel from Pharaoh in the paradigmatic Exodus event. The assumption is hard to miss: we were in need of rescue, that is, we could not save ourselves. Keller comments: The average person on the street believes that a Christian is someone who follows Christ’s teaching and example. But Paul implies that’s impossible . . . Jesus is not so much a teacher as He is a rescuer. Because that’s what we most need. Nothing in who we are or what we do saves us.¹¹

•Jesus’ death is eschatological. Eschaton is a Greek term referring to last or final things. That Jesus delivered us from the present evil age signifies that his death has ushered in a new age.¹² Hays describes Jesus’s redemptive death as [Christ’s] apocalyptic rescue operation.¹³ The preposition of or out of should be taken literally; we do well to appreciate its force. Through their faith-union with the Lord, believers are no longer captives to this present age—they have been taken out of one aeon and are now citizens of a final and eternal aeon. As such, they should live like those that have been freed from Satan and the power of sin and have been called to live in step with the Spirit.¹⁴

•Jesus’s death aligns with the will of our God and Father. Our freedom was the Father’s will, his purpose. The Son and the Father always work in perfect agreement. As John highlights in his gospel account, nothing is more important to Jesus than submitting to his Father’s will, even if it costs him his life.

•The phrase according to the will of our God and Father also indicates that Jesus rescued us not because of our initiative and/or performance but because of the Father’s sovereign grace.¹⁵

•Given that salvation depends on God’s kindness alone, Paul concludes this lengthy excursus with the doxology to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen (1:5). It was the Father that willed our salvation, and it was Christ that accomplished it. Therefore, God alone deserves all the glory from eternities to eternities.

•This concluding doxology foreshadows much of what Paul will discuss in the letter. Paul’s gospel declares that God alone achieved salvation. There is, therefore, no room for human boasting and thus no basis for separation between Jew and Gentile. All have sinned and all are saved by grace.

One last comment regarding the opening five verses is in order. Several times in these verses Paul identifies God as Father (1:1, 2, 4).¹⁶ This repetition introduces the themes of adoption and sonship, which will play a prominent role in the letter.

1

. Note: I include my own translations unless indicated otherwise.

2

. Keller, Galatians For You,

15

: ". . . [W]e can call people who have unusual leadership gifts, then and now, ‘small-a’ apostles. But Paul is a ‘capital-A’ Apostle, commissioned directly by Jesus. The ‘capital-A’ Apostles had, and have, absolute authority. What they write is Scripture."

3

. The italicized words and phrases are transliterations of the original Greek.

4

. Keener, Galatians,

49–50

: "That Paul did not receive his commission from mere human beings (lit., from a human) but through Jesus Christ and God the Father (

1

:

1

) suggests that Paul understands Jesus as more than human (though Paul does not deny Jesus’s humanity;

4

:

4

). . . . That Paul assumes a shared understanding with his audience that Paul is somehow divine appears also in his letters’ opening greetings. . . ."

5

. Keener, Galatians,

49

: "Some suggest that his opponents envision his pre-Christian agency (Acts

9

:

2

;

22

:

5

;

26

:

10

) or the mediation of Ananias (

9

:

17

), but it is more likely that they view him as a mere emissary of the Antioch church (

11

:

30

), and likeliest of all that they view him as having gotten his message from the Jerusalem apostles (cf. Gal.

1

:

17–20

;

2

:

1–2

,

6

). In other words, they charge that he has at best a derivative, rather than foundational, apostolic authority."

6

.