Galatians 1:6-7 / The Forever Faithfulness of God

Sunday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time MMXXV

I am amazed that that you are so swiftly casting off from what you were called by the gift of Christ to another ‘good news,’ - not there is another ‘good news’ - except for that of those agitating you and willing you to turn away from the good news of Christ.

What exactly is the argument in Galatians? How does Paul’s good news differ from that of those troubling the Galatian believers? As we saw last time, Paul’s good news addresses a fundamental concern in Jewish theology, that of the continuing exile of God’s people - why has God’s glory not returned to the Temple? For the Pharisees, the solution to this problem was a renewed emphasis on torah, keeping God’s law and living as a distinct and holy nation. Paul, however, having encountered Jesus on the Damascus road, was convinced that the internal exile was over; God’s glory had returned in the man Jesus of Nazareth, and in the light of that event everything had changed. The glory of God had been revealed, and not just to Israel, but to all people. God comes no longer just into the temple at Jerusalem, but into the worldwide body of His people dispersed throughout the world, wherever they gather.

So far so good! So who were ‘the circumcision’ and what was their disagreement with Paul? They may have been Christians sent from the Jerusalem Church led by James, who had a slightly different view of the law to that held by Paul. If the letter was written before the Council at Jerusalem, as recounted in Acts 15, the event in which this very issue of ‘should the Gentiles observe torah’ is thrashed out, then this is a highly likely possibility. Given that Paul never mentions the council in this letter, this seems very plausible. These figures then, are not devils or anti-Christs. On the contrary. They are fellow Christians, and they likely have no malign intent; they simply have not yet understood the gravity of Jesus. Paul’s explosive rage in this letter we can attribute both to age (he is still fairly young and impetuous), as well as his character. One thing we know from Acts, is that Paul could be a difficult man.

The Apostle Paul - Rembrandt (1657)

So, the circumcision were likely Christians from Jerusalem, sent to help out with the newly formed church in Galatia. It turns out, however, that they were not helping. In Paul’s words, they were agitating, troubling, even disturbing the nascent community of believers. How were they doing this? Somewhat like the pharisaic party, which Paul had firmly left behind, they were encouraging the believers at Galatia to maintain commitment to torah, to be circumcised, and to keep the full gamut of laws passed down from ancient Israel. Why would this irritate Paul so much to engender such strong language in opposition? As we have seen, the fervent devotion to torah amongst the Pharisees was a solution to the fact that God’s glory had not returned to the Jerusalem temple. It was a program of national renewal in the hope of seeing God return to Israel.

Paul however believed that God had already returned to Israel in Jesus Christ. The commitment to torah espoused by the circumcision group, suggested that God had not really come back, and his people were still in exile. It was, in other words, a colossal failure to appreciate what had actually happened with the advent of Jesus Christ, and the good news that God has justified the hopes and expectations of his people in the resurrection of his son. Yes, justified. Not as jargon. Not as a complex theological term. In its plain, common and understandable sense. The longings and desires of the people of Israel had not been in vain; he had not abandoned them forever. By coming to earth as Jesus of Nazareth God justified the longings of his people Israel. He vindicated them, announced that he was for them, in spite of centuries of exile and misery, despair and abandonment. By raising Jesus from the dead, God announced that He was for His people no matter what. Not even death could stand in the way of His pursuing love. No matter how much they messed up, and no matter what terrible things happened to them. God was for them, he loved them regardless, and not just Israel, for in raising Jesus from the dead, Israel were commissioned anew to be God’s people for the whole world, to show God’s relentless love to all nations, to enfold them into his wonderful plan for the world, and to teach them to live bright and holy lives in the light of His amazing love. This is the good news which Paul was so anxious to defend, and it is the good news which the church is called to bear witness to, wherever she may be.

All our hopes and longings for a better world, a world where God and all his creation live in perfect harmony and peace, a world which is as God intended it to be - without conflict, without suffering, and most crucially without death - all those expectations are already justified in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and moreover, those very same hopes and longings will be justified again when Jesus returns and ‘the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.’ That is good news.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!