Paul the Apostles Views of the Law in Galatians - Research Paper Example

?Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 2 Conclusion 9 Paul the Apostle's Views of the Law/Torah in Galatians Introduction Christian and the law is one of the most debated issues in evangelism. Pauline epistles, which focus on the issue of law forms the bases used in understanding Christian law. Most theologians argue that Apostle Paul was the emancipator from the law of God. The issue of law is highly discussed in Pauline epistles. Galatians, which is one of Apostle Paul’s epistles, centers on Paul’s views about the law or Torah. However, Galatians is inconsistent with other epistles and portrays Paul as an observer of the Law of Christ but a disregarder of Moses’ law. Understanding Paul’s view about the law is crucial in understanding theology. This is because Apostle Paul wrote most of the apostolic writings regarding law or Torah. Paul’ letter to the Galatians has been interpreted in varying perspectives. However, most people feel that the letter to the Galatians taught against the law. Most theologians have used scriptures from the Galatians to argue that Mosaic Law also referred to as the Torah was abolished and replace by the new covenant. Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to address a problem that was occurring amongst them. However, the problems he intended to address are not mention in this letter. It thus becomes hard to determine the actual meaning of his answers. This paper focuses on analyzing Paul the Apostle's view of the Law/Torah in his letter to the Galatians. Overview of Law or Torah Among all Pauline epistles, Galatians is exceptional due to its focus on law. Paul attacks the Mosaic Law emotionally and attempts to persuade the Galatians against being bound by the law. The term law is used to refer to the norms used by a group of people to direct their conduct. Law can also be defined as a set of regulations as well as guidelines used to guide the behavior of people. Torah refers to the Mosaic Law or the laws that were established in the Old Testament. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, law is one of the most discussed issues. However, at some point, it is unclear if Paul supported the law or was opposed to it. The content of the letter suggests that Paul was writing to a gentile community that cared less about the Christian teaching. Therefore, the community was being influence by the Jewish teachers to follow the Jewish laws that were based on the Mosaic Law. However, the Jewish had adopted the Mosaic Law partially and were using it to condemn others, especially the gentiles (Rapa 7-11; Barrick 277-280; Schirrmacher 22-26). Galatians was a letter written by Apostle Paul and addressed to churches in Galatia, which are believed to have encompassed of gentiles trying to convert to Christianity. However, the Jews who insisted that the gentiles had to follow Mosaic laws, which included being circumcised for them to be considered true Christians, were challenging the gentiles. However, Paul’s teachings proposed that attainment of salvation was only possible through God’s grace. He was encouraging the Galatians to avoid the erroneous teachings by the Jewish leaders. Jews were somehow opposed to Paul’s teachings. Paul appears to have been warning the Galatians against following the Mosaic laws blindly as the Jews did. Paul interprets the Mosaic Law and points at the controversial issues in the law (Rapa 4-7). Paul’s Views about the Law in Galatians In his letter to the Galatians, Paul makes constant comparisons of the law righteousness and salvation. The main controversy regards the path that the Jews should follow to convert to Christianity. Most commentators view Paul’s arguments in Galatians as a depiction that law was bogus and could not aid Christians in attaining salvation. Paul starts by showing his dissatisfaction towards the teachings by some Jewish preachers who persuaded the gentiles to convert to Jewish for them to gain salvation. Jews alleged that obedience to the Mosaic Law was fundamental for salvation. The main aspect of the Mosaic Law that caused controversy between Jews and gentiles was on circumcision. Jews insisted that circumcision was prerequisite to salvation. Although the preachers were not opposed to Christ’s teachings, they considered it insufficient for salvation (Lee 4-7). Paul argues that demands to follow the law were purposeless since they led to self-righteousness, which barred Christians from God’s salvation, which was God given and was based on faith. Although Paul’s shows disregard to Mosaic Law, his aim was to advise the Galatians to use the law not as the route to salvation but as guidance to understanding what God expected of them (Barrick 279-282). Paul is pessimistic towards Mosaic laws although he claims that it is good, virtuous, and sanctified. Paul considers strict followers of Torah to be enslaved. He claims that law imprisons those who choose to abide by it. Additionally, he attributes self-righteousness amongst the Jews to the urge to follow the Mosaic Law without seeking to understand it or questioning its credibility (Rapa 182-184). In Paul’s opinion, law was not made for believers but was meant to guide the non-believers to understand what God expected of them. He warns the believers against following the law blindly since it would take away their freedom, which would make them slaves. Paul condemns the Galatians and considers them to be feigning their obedience to the law, which he considers indicative of their hypocrisy (Barrick 281-282). The letter to the Galatians is quite hard to unravel since Paul tends to be inconsistent while addressing the issue of the law. Some theologians argue that Paul could have contradicted himself with the aim of showing the limitations of the Torah. Others argue that Paul lacked proper understanding of the law. He thus wrote the controversial letter to warn the Galatians that the Torah could be misleading and that observing it was not the way to salvation. Paul felt that the Mosaic Law had a temporal role in helping people understand the God’s plan for Christian’s salvation. However, he argued that it was not the path to salvation. He posits that it was only by the grace of God that salvation becomes attainable (Lee 1-3; Rapa 2-4). Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians prior to the convention of the church council in Jerusalem. The council was meant to settle existing controversies regarding gentile submission to Mosaic Law. The period was characterized by the urge for the gentiles to convert to Christianity. Galatians dwell on the role of the law in gaining salvation (Rapa1-4). The letter depicts controversy between the view of Galatians regarding the Torah and those of Paul. Since Christianity was novel, the Galatians emphasized on following the Mosaic Law as the way of gaining salvation. Christianity, which Paul advocated for was opposed to believe that salvation was based on the strict observance of Mosaic Law. On the contrary, Christianity maintained that following the teachings of Christ was the only way that one could gain salvation (Luther 37-40; White 1-3; Barrick 276-279). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul makes it clear that observing the law of circumcision , which was Abrahamic covenant, was not essential to being an observer of the gospel of Christ. To some extent, Paul regards the law as problematic. He considered the attempts to understand and follow the law as unrewarding (White 1-4). He feels that the law demanded for too much righteousness, which was unachievable. He thus advises the Galatians to seek for God’s grace for them to attain salvation. He argues that law pioneers conscious intractable defiance, which leads believers into transgressions. He feels that the law was established not to guide believers towards salvation but to enslave and punish them. He equates the law to a disciplinarian who awaits us to make mistakes to discipline us. However, he agrees that the law was not always difficult but existence of sin made hard for believers to abide to it (Rapa 7-11). Paul argues that the inheritance of God’s kingdom and other promises does not depended on observing the law. After criticizing the Torah, Paul reaches a point and “What, then, was the purpose of the law” (NIV Study Bible, Gal 3:19). He portrays the purpose of the law negatively. This is clear when he claims that the law was established due to existence of transgressions. Therefore, Paul feels that the law is not meant to make anyone righteous since it is not based on faith. On the contrary, the law is based on transgressions which violation of morals (Lee 2-6). Throughout the letter to Galatians, Paul stresses that faith in Jesus Christ was the only way that Christians could justify themselves and not the Mosaic Law. Paul’s views about the law are clear in Galatians 2:16 (NIV Study Bible). Paul states “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified (White 1-4). During Paul’s time, the Jews considered obeying the law as the way to salvation. However, Paul, an advocate of Christianity challenges the effectiveness of the law in aiding Christians to attain salvation. Paul uses his letter to warn the Galatians against overemphasizing on the law at the expense of following Christian teachings. He makes it clear that the law was incapable of saving the Galatians (Luther 23-27). Initially, Paul describes the views of the Galatians towards the law. He then proceeds to argue that the Galatians lacked adequate understanding of the Laws, including the Mosaic laws. He attributes their erroneous perceptions about salvation to their resistance to obey the teachings of the law (Lee 12-14). While attempting to demonstrate the insignificance of the law as the path to salvation, Paul uses a comparison feature in the Old Testament. He uses the two sons of Abraham, differentiate the law from the promise. This is because the Jews often equated the law to the promise. This is why they insisted that keeping the law was fundamental to gaining salvation. Sarah is used to symbolize promise while her son Isaac is used to depict the Abrahamic covenant, which bears the promise (White 1-4; Lucado 4-9). On the other hand, Hagar is used to symbolize slavery. Therefore, Ishmael, the son of Hagar is considered to have been born out of slavery. Since Ishmael symbolizes the Mosaic covenant or the Torah, it was sinful since it led to slavery. Paul thus warns the Galatians against being slaves of the law. Paul used the analogy to establish that Ishmael was born out of sin, which led to his enslavement. In the same way, the Mosaic Law was born out of sin and strict obedience to it would lead to enslavement (Lee 17-24). Apostle Paul’s Views on Righteousness and Law The Jew lacked differentiation between the law and salvation. They always considered the two to be closely associated and claimed that following the law was prerequisite to being considered righteous. Paul considered such views hypocritical since it was impossible for anyone to follow the entire law (Luther 23-27). In Paul’s opinion, Jews could not be considered true followers of the law since they proclaimed themselves righteous while their actions were opposed to the law itself. In Paul’s opinion, one had to follow Christ’s teachings to be considered righteous but not the mosaic laws. He thus encouraged the gentiles to abide to Christ teachings but since this would earn them, the God given righteousness and not the self-righteousness associated with keeping the laws (White 1-4; Lucado 12-14). Paul disputes the view that obedience to the law was a condition to attaining righteousness. He argued that righteousness could not be quantified. Additionally, he criticizes the use of law to judge others. In Paul’s opinion, use of law to condemn others would lead to condemnation of all since even the Jews themselves were not true abiders. He considers Jews to be pretenders and their actions as sinful and discomfiture to God. This is because God had given the laws to guide people towards him but the Jews were using the laws to judge others unjustly. Additionally, God expected the believers to keep the law not because they could benefit from its promises but because it was right to do so (Luther 23-27). Paul advised the Galatians to study and obey the law not because they hoped to benefit from its promises but for guidance. However, Paul fails to specify whether obedience to the law was indicative of devotion to God, as the Jews believed (Lee 3-6). Paul condemns some laws such as circumcision and laws regarding diet. In his opinion, obeying the law of circumcision was equivalent to arguing that obeying the law led to salvation, which was erroneous. Additionally, Paul criticizes laws relating to diet and posits that such laws focus on earthly particulars, which were not fundamental for salvation (Luther 23-27). Paul also gives his views regarding obedience of the laws as a show of morality. Galatians struggled with the question of how they could become righteous before God. However, they had been exposed to Jewish teachings, which focused on the laws as the way to righteousness (White 1-4; Schirrmacher 14-18). Therefore, the Galatians had misguided perceptions regarding the role of the Law of Moses. However, Paul’s corrects them when he said that we are judged before God based not on our efforts to follow the laws but on what Jesus did on the cross. Additionally, Paul posits that the true circumcision was that of the heart and it entailed following Christ’s teachings (Lee 11-14). Paul viewed Christ as the law. The Law of Moses was given by God and acted as the foundation of the Jewish religion. However, Paul posits that the Galatians needed to follow Christ teachings and not the Jewish teachings. The Jewish teachings focused on the law (Luther 12-15). However, the teachings were less focused on what God intended them to do by giving Moses the commandments. Instead, they followed the laws blindly. He felt that the Jewish teachings were intended to distract the Galatians from Christ and convert them to Judaizers. As opposed to Christianity, Judaism focused on keeping the law with ordinance of circumcision (White 1-4). In Gal 1:6-7 (NIV Study Bible), Paul states “I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him Who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; only there are some who trouble you and desire to pervert the gospel of Christ.” In this scripture, Paul felt that the Galatians were starting to follow the Jewish teachings that focused on observance of the Law. They were less interested in Christ teachings (Lee 5-8; Lucado 11-14). Paul felt that Judaism was misleading since it involved perversion of Christ teachings. Judaizers were more interested in Mosaic laws and Paul felt that they were prisoners of the law. They were keeping the law not because they understood its teachings but because they feared criticism. At some point, Paul acknowledges that Christ had become nothing to the Galatians. The law was more important to them than anything else including Christ teachings was (Luther 25-29). The Role of Laws in Paul’s Opinion Paul views the law as fundamental in aiding believers in avoiding sinfulness. He claims that abiding to the law was crucial but not indicative of righteousness. He disputes arguments by Jewish leaders that abiding to laws was fundament for salvation. In his opinion, salvation could not be based on ones capability to abide to the laws since no one was capable of abiding to the laws fully. This meant that no one would be saved (White 1-4; Wilson 7-12). Paul urges the Galatians to obey the law not with the aim of attaining salvation but to aid them in identifying and avoiding sinful situations (Lucado 24-26; Schirrmacher 2-4). Paul was opposed to use of law for condemning others as sinners since all people are sinful. However, Paul encouraged the Galatians to make use of the law to help them acknowledge their sinfulness and repent. He believes that repentance was the only way that sinners would reunite themselves with God and become his true followers (Lee 2-6). By looking at the background of the Galatians, it is clear that they had become distracted from Christ teachings and were now focusing on the Jewish Teachings. Paul wrote to the Galatians, not to divert them from the Law but to rescue them and prevent them from following the laws blindly. Paul tells the Galatians that Christ gave himself up so that we may be forgiven. The Jews emphasized on worldly teachings such as circumcision. Paul seeks to bring the distracter Galatians to God’s grace, which he considers sufficient for salvation (Lee 1-4). Conclusion Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one book that has resulted into great controversies. The letter of Paul to the Galatians addresses the issue of whether it was obligatory for Christians to follow mosaic laws to be considered true Christian. Additionally, the letter analyses the question of whether Mosaic Law was prerequisite to attainment of salvation. Paul view the law as an enslaver since it emanated from transgressions. Paul disputes the Jewish teachings that circumcision was necessary for salvation. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul deviates from the Jewish believes that abiding to the law was equivalent to gaining salvation. Paul is adamant that salvation can only be attained through God’s grace. He views the Jews as distorters of the law since they used the law to condemn the gentile while they themselves were incapable of abiding to it. He considered the law to be a form of enslavement. In his opinion, the law was establishing to guide the believers into doing what was right but not for condemnation purposes. Paul denounces the tendency of the Galatians to follow the Jewish teachings. Judaism, which was based on Jewish teachings focused on the Mosaic Law. Paul warns the Galatians that salvation is attainable by God’s Grace but not by the works of law, Judaizers constrained the Galatians, who were gentiles to undergo physical circumcision for them to be considered Christians Paul condemns such teachings and argues that Christ’s crucifixion on the cross was the fulfillment of true circumcision. Therefore, the gentiles did not require to be circumcised to be considered believers. Works Cited Barrick, William. "The New Perspective And “Works Of The Law” (Gal 2:16 And Rom 3:20)." TMSJ 16/2 (2005): 277-292. Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians: Messages 1-24, 1. New York: Living Stream Ministry, 2003. Print . Lucado, Max. Galatians. New York: Thomas Nelson Inc, 2007. Print. Luther, Martin. Commentary on Galatians, Luther. New York: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2002. Print. NIV Study Bible. Ed. Zondervan. New York: Zondervan, 2011. Print. Rapa, Robert. The meaning of "works of the law" in Galatians and Romans. London: P. Lang, 2001. Print. Schirrmacher, Thomas. Law Or Spirit?: An Alternative View of Galatians. London: Reformatorischer Verlag Beese, 2001. Print. White , Ellen. "The Law In Galatians." Sunnyside (1996): 1-4. Wilson, Todd. The Curse of the Law and the Crisis in Galatia: Reassessing the Purpose of Galatians. New York: Mohr Siebeck, 2007. Print. Read More