BEMA 148: Galatians — Set Free to Be Free
Transcription Status
28 Jan 24 — Initial public release
2 Oct 23 — Transcript approved for release
Galatians — Set Free to Be Free
Brent Billings: This is the BEMA podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host, Brent Billings. Today we wrap up our study of Galatians and try to grapple with the implications of this Gospel for Jews and Gentiles.
Marty Solomon: All right. Here comes the Pint o’ Bacon.
Brent: [laughs] Oh, I’ve been waiting for this.
Marty: Yes, that’s right. It’s coming to the table. After four chapters of pretty direct argument for these Gentile believers, last episode we took a visual look—we had a diagram representation of Paul’s arguments as they related to covenants. While the context of Galatia is incredibly foreign to us, hopefully, we have a much better understanding now at this point in our Galatians study of the argument that Paul is making. Whether or not Jews should follow the law is not up for discussion. I’m going to say that again. Whether or not Jews would be Torah-observant, whether they would obey the Miqsat Ma’ase haTorah, that’s not up for discussion.
This was never a problem for the New Testament community. There’s never a verse in your New Testament asking the question about whether or not Jews should eat kosher, whether or not they should follow Torah. Now evangelicals have often assumed that’s because they’re all the same, but in fact, it’s not the case because of course they would follow Torah. They see themselves under this everlasting covenant. It was obvious to them that Jews would carry the Miqsat Ma’ase haTorah. That was their role in the world and had been for generations. Brent, we can say this—here comes the Pint o’ Bacon—Marty the Jew is sitting at the table along with his good friend and BEMA podcast co-host, Brent Billings. Is Marty going to eat the Pint o’ Bacon?
Brent: I don’t think so.
Marty: No. No eating the Pint o’ Bacon for me. Fun little tidbit, fun little side note—let’s say I’m not at your friend’s restaurant or maybe let’s even say I am at your friend’s restaurant. You have brought me and you didn’t tell your friend, Brent; you should have, but you didn’t, so you dropped the ball there, but you didn’t tell them about my kosher eating. He is so proud, your friend is, of his Pint o’ Bacon, that he brings it out to my table unknowingly. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t understand kosher law, he’s just trying to serve me out of his hospitality. Now this is a sketchy little gray area, because Orthodox Judaism is definitely going to land on “do not eat the bacon,” but as a Jesus Jew—that’s what I’m going to call myself here—do I eat the bacon, Brent?
Brent: I think you might.
Marty: I think I might. If this is him truly wanting to serve me and bless me, I think the Jesus Jew, I think Paul said, “Whatever they put in front of you, you eat.” Now, he didn’t say it in that kind of situation, but is that the extension of the heart of—is that what Torah would actually have me do? Even though Torah says don’t eat the bacon, is Torah actually trying to teach me to be the kind of person that would eat? Nevertheless, I digress.
Brent: You’ll be unclean for eating the bacon.
Marty: Sure. Absolutely, I would.
Brent: You’ll absorb the consequences of that.
Marty: Absolutely.
Brent: But you do it as a gesture of thankfulness.
Marty: Absolutely. Yes. Because love supersedes some other obedience. We know—here comes the Pint o’ Bacon—all things put aside, all exceptions put aside, Marty’s not eating the Pint o’ Bacon, but the fiery debate was whether or not Brent Billings should eat the bacon. Was the Gentile free from that calling of eating kosher? Paul has made it quite clear to the Gentile believers in Galatia that if they cave into the pressure of converting to Judaism, they would be destroying the Gospel. Particularly for that region of Galatia, at that point in time, they needed to be walking billboards for the good news of Jesus and the inclusion of all people into the family of God. Now that we have this understanding of the book of Galatians, listen to one of the more popular passages from the letter. Go ahead, Brent, read us this next verse here.
Brent: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand affirm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yolk of slavery.
Marty: Alright, Brent, it is for freedom that Christ has set what…?
Brent: Set us free.
Marty: Us free. Is that Jew or Gentile?
Brent: It seems everyone.
Marty: Everyone. It’s us. Even Jews who eat kosher, we have been set free. What have we been set free from? Remember, we’ve been set free from that curse of believing that it’s through obeying—even I, as a Torah-observant Jew, I have been set free from believing that kosher eating is how I get justified. But by believing that kosher eating is how I’m going to match up, we’ve all been set free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us, Jew and Gentile, free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery, Jew or Gentile. Don’t go back to some old way of thinking that says following the rules is how you find your justification. Go ahead and keep reading, Brent.
Brent: Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that—
Marty: To who?
Brent: “Tell you.”
Marty: Okay, so Jew or Gentile?
Brent: Everyone.
Marty: Wait a minute. What?
Brent: Is it everyone?
Marty: I don’t know. Is it? The first one was us, but now Paul says, “I tell you…”
Brent: Oh, “you.” Okay.
Marty: Who is that?
Brent: Now he’s talking to Gentiles.
Marty: Now he’s talking to these Gentile—the people that want to convert, right?
Brent: Right.
Marty: The first statement was “for freedom that Christ has set us, Jew and Gentile, free, but mark my words, I, Paul, tell you,” right? Go ahead, Brent.
Brent: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised— see, I probably would’ve got it if I got just a little bit farther than passage.
Marty: I got you before you got there.
Brent: Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. For through the spirit, we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You are running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves.
Marty: Alright. That’s a fun little verse there at the end—a little graphic. Suddenly, this letter that Paul is writing swings into context. It has clarity that maybe we didn’t appreciate before when we got started. Paul’s argument through the whole letter has been that they, as Gentiles, have been called to be free from the Miqsat Ma’ase haTorah. It is this very freedom that shows the world what the Gospel is—particularly the Jewish world—what the Gospel is. In the same way that the Jews have been called to be set apart for the work of God in the world, the Gentiles have been set apart in freedom to make clear to the world that everybody is invited.
If they let themselves be yoked to a system of rules, the Gentiles lose the essence of their call. That’s the whole reason that God invited them in to say, “Hey, everybody’s invited.” If they just become Jewish, we lose that message. For many of our listeners who are probably Gentiles, most of them anyway, not all of them, but most, it’s important to realize that your freedom, I speak as a Jew to Gentile listeners, your freedom from the works of the law from the Miqsat Ma’ase haTorah is essential, it’s essential to the body of Christ putting the Gospel on display.
You must observe that freedom, celebrate that freedom. Here’s the kicker, Brent. Use that freedom. Observe the freedom, celebrate the freedom, but use that freedom well. Use that freedom to show the world what God is like. Of course, some are going to cry that this freedom is just a license for sin. It’s a free-for-all, promoting a nothing-really-matters and everybody-is-invited universalism—but this isn’t the case. That’s where Paul turns his attention next. Go ahead, Brent.
Brent: You, my brothers and sisters—
Marty: There’s Paul using that “brothers and sisters” again, bringing them on into the family. Love it.
Brent: You were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command; love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They’re in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
Marty: Okay. Paul says that in order to use your freedom to show the world the risen Christ, you cannot use it for self. Remember, Brent, if you went all the way back to Session 1, we said there were two narratives. A narrative of what? A tale of two kingdoms.
Brent: A Tale of Two Kingdoms: Empire vs. Shalom.
Marty: Empire and Shalom. We said empire was a narrative of what? Can you remember? Going way back here.
Brent: A narrative of it’s about me and it’s about getting more. There’s not enough, and so I have to get all of it for myself.
Marty: We called that self…?
Brent: Self…
Marty: Preservation.
Brent: Oh, self-preservation.
Marty: Then you had Shalom, which was a narrative of self…?
Brent: Self-sacrifice.
Marty: Self-sacrifice. Paul’s just aligned here that we said that that narrative goes throughout the whole Scripture. Paul is aligned with that here. He says, “You can’t use this for self. You have to use it for others.” That’s what Abraham did. We shouldn’t be shocked by this. This, by the way, happens to be, according to Jesus, the very essence of the law itself. This is what the pedagogue was supposed to teach us from the very beginning. If we go back to the sermon—you remember this Sermon on the Mount we talked about—you’ve heard it said, but I say unto you, Jesus interpreting the law correctly.
Torah showed us how to walk according to the Spirit and not through our own fleshly desires. You might remember Paul saying, “It’s through Torah that I learned that I wasn’t under Torah.” This teaching exists in the Torah itself. Of course, all this raises a question fine, Paul, but how do I know if I’m doing it right? If there’s no law for me to follow and I’m to walk in freedom, then how do I know that I’m walking according to the flesh or the spirit? That’s a pretty good question. One of the beauties of having a law, and part of the reason why some people are drawn to want to become Torah observant, want to become Jewish, want to do some of those things, is because it sure is nice to just have—what does God want? He wants these 613 things. Nice and tidy little package, do these things and you know that you’re doing what God wants you to do. It’s a good question.
Brent: I think we’ve talked about that before. Jews look at it as 613 ways to show God that you love him.
Marty: Absolutely.
Brent: It’s like you have a list. It’s like, oh, cool, I just pick from the list.
Marty: Exactly. It’s defined. It’s this beautiful thing. If Paul is saying, “No, no, no you can’t, don’t use that list,” people are going to be like, “Okay, but how do I know that I’m pleasing God? How do I know that I’m loving God?” Paul will say, sounding strangely like Jesus, that the test case for your walk is the fruit it produces. You might remember us routinely bringing up this teaching of Jesus. You will know a tree by its fruit. You will know a tree by its fruit. You will know. Paul says the same thing here about fruit. Go ahead, Brent.
Brent: Before we go on, this is the first time we’ve done this juxtaposition of flesh and spirit.
Marty: Yes.
Brent: There’s a nice little footnote on flesh. It says, “In a context like this, the Greek word for flesh is sarx and refers to the sinful state of human beings often presented as a power in opposition to the spirit.”
Marty: Incorrect. Bad footnote.
Brent: Yes.
Marty: Is that NIV?
Brent: It is the new NIV footnote.
Marty: Gosh dang it, NIV.
Brent: It is indeed sarx, but I thought you might want to comment.
Marty: Yes. I’m going to give NIV kudos for taking away the sinful nature translation. I can’t remember if the ESV still does that, but some translations will just translate sarx, sinful nature. It’s just a horrible translation in my mind. We’ll talk more about this in Romans, but I’ll give a little nod here since Brent brought it up. Sarx, and you can grab any can lexicon you want. Look up sarx, do a word study, and you’re going to find that sarx actually refers to animal appetites. It’s the animal, it’s the flesh. The flesh is my fleshly animal appetites. Now Christian theology, thanks to Augustine—not thanks to our Bible, but thanks to Augustine—we naturally think, “Oh, flesh, animal appetites, sinful nature.” We have learned in Session 1, Brent, that that is not what the animal appetites are. We can go all the way back to—it’s going to be episode 2, Adam and Eve, and we talked about how the thing that made us different—we are more than what, Brent, if you remember?
Brent: More than our instincts.
Marty: We are more than a beast, because if we were a beast, we would just be sarx, all we would be are flesh, but we’re more than flesh. We are more than sarx. This is coming up in the book of Romans, but I appreciate you bringing it up here. Sarx is not sinful nature. Sarx is the part of us that is-- It’s the beast part of us, and however, we are so much more than our sarx. There is more that is a part of us. Now, we can live according to the sarx, we can live according to the animal appetites, we can do that, or we can live according to the spirit, which is the fullness of who we are, the bigness of who we are.
Brent: Alright. Let’s look at some examples of what that might mean.
Marty: You got it. I like it.
Brent: The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Marty: Paul says, if you’re walking and you see that stuff, you know that you’re not walking according to the spirit, you’re walking according to your animal appetites. Fits of rage, debauchery, drunkenness, orgies. “How do I know? How do I know, Paul? How do I know if I’m walking and if I’m pleasing God?” Well, if the fruit of your life is that, you know you’re not walking correctly. Go ahead.
Brent: The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Marty: Paul says, it’s obvious to know when you’re walking in the Spirit. If the product of your walk is anger, rage, debauchery, division, a lack of self-control, you are using your freedom for yourself, but if what’s coming out of your life is love, and joy, and peace, patience, kindness, and goodness, well, those can only come from one place. Jews, we have been called to show the world what it means to walk according to the spirit of God, not according to the flesh and our every animal appetite, our every desire, but how we use our desires appropriately to bless all nations. That’s our call as Jews.
Our call is to follow Torah so that the world knows what it looks like to walk according to the spirit of God, but Gentiles, you have been called to freedom later on in this story. Now that we all know what faithfulness looks like, thanks to these faithful Jews that have walked appropriately, not all of them, but many of them, you are invited to take those principles of grace and extend them to everyone that you meet, but in Christ, neither one of our calls is a call for self. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, we are all called to lay our lives down for the other, to pray for our persecutors, to love our enemies. The world could use a model of grace, love, forgiveness, mercy, and hospitality.
I think it should and could and would start with a group of people who do that, Jew and Gentile together. Of course, we’ve potentially created a couple of problems for a number of our listeners. Some are going to cry out that, historically speaking, this task of being one body or, as Paul will put it in Ephesians, a new humanity is unrealistic. It’s an impossible task. It’s too difficult to carry out. Not only will the world of archeology—it’s going to uncover some things, Brent, that I will take people and show you. I will show you in Turkey—come with me in 2022. But the world of archeology has uncovered some startling pieces of history to prove that this assumption is wrong, but Paul actually moves on to address this very issue next in Galatians. Go ahead.
Brent: Just a note, if you happen to be listening to this in 2022 or later, there will probably be more Turkey trips.
Marty: Keep ‘em coming.
Brent: Yes.
Marty: Even years.
Brent: Check BEMA Messenger for that one.
Marty: You got it.
Brent: Keep you up to date. Back to Galatians 6. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they’re something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Marty: Actually, this section raised some pretty good questions. I’m not going to try to address every single one of those for the sake of time today but some good questions came out of that. Throughout this presentation of an inclusive Gospel, Paul is certainly not throwing out our ability to have objective conversations about appropriate behavior and what the way of Jesus looks like in our lives. He encourages us to hold fellow believers accountable and to restore them in gentleness. Brent Billings, we don’t do this very well. We need more gentleness in the world. Of course, he moves on to say what sounds contradictory. He tells the Galatians to carry each other’s burdens but also says that everyone should carry his own load. Did you notice that, Brent, as you read that?
Brent: Yes.
Marty: What’s up with that? Closer inspection shows us that Paul is actually making a great claim to how these relationships, whether they be like-minded or different people—Jew or Gentile would be a good example of that—how these relationships are fostered properly. Immediately after Paul tells us we ought to restore our brothers and sisters in gentleness, he suggests we help others carry their burdens by being concerned not primarily with their behavior, but our own. Everyone should test their own actions.
Everyone ought to take the list from Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the flesh, the acts of the flesh, whatever that list was, they ought to take that list from Galatians and ask themselves if their actions are producing the fruit of the spirit. This will tell us if we are doing relationships correctly. Go ahead and read us. Let’s finish this thing out. Brent, let’s finish Galatians. Let’s do it.
Brent: See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.
Marty: Paul must have used big letters.
Brent: I guess so.
Marty: Paul.
Brent: Have you ever seen a manuscript from Galatians?
Marty: I have not.
Brent: I’d be curious to see what that looks like. Do they—scribes who are copying it—do they try to emulate his handwriting?
Marty: Forge his signature.
Brent: Yes, I don’t know. That’d be—
Marty: Take a little screenshot and plug it in there.
Brent: Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation.
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
Marty: I actually remembered as you were talking about circumcision there, Brent, I forgot to make a comment on that. You remember that verse, that pretty electric verse in Chapter 5 where he is like, “I wish they would just go the whole way and just emasculate themselves. Just cut the whole thing off.” Some translations say, “They’re so obsessed with circumcision.” One of the things I loved, Lancaster pointed this out in that book we’ve recommended, we’ll have it in the show notes again on this episode, but some different theories of what’s going on there.
Obviously, Paul is making a—he’s very frustrated. He has been very frustrated in this whole letter. They’re so concerned about circumcision. I wish they would just cut the whole thing off, and yet some scholars have suggested Paul’s actually making a play on words here that the phrase to cut off is the same phrase in the Septuagint and the Greek phrase to speak of when people are not a part of the Jewish assembly, you cut them off from the assembly.
They are now an outsider. You cut them off. Some have suggested that Paul’s point underneath his point, he is using a play on words to say if they don’t really want to be Jewish, they should just stop claiming to be Jewish because our call is to be a light to the nations, our call is to bless all nations. “If they really want to just forget what our call is, I wish they would just go the whole way and just remove themselves from the Jewish family because they make a mockery of our faith.” Some have suggested that’s actually what Paul is going for there, but I digress.
I forgot to mention that when we were dealing with that earlier. We’ll circle back around. Let’s wrap this up. Paul’s not done taking every opportunity to remind us about fighting for the place of all people in this Kingdom narrative. He reminds us that in this new Jesus economy, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What matters is whether we are being made into a new creation. That’s what Torah was always about pre-Jesus, during Jesus, post-Jesus. Some will also cry that this inclusive Gospel we’ve been talking about sounds like a soft, gutless, everything goes mentality, that there is no call in this understanding to hold people accountable and no way to establish right and wrong.
They’ll say that an inclusive Gospel is just another way of describing universalism. They’ll talk a lot about slippery slopes, but all these accusations are based on a fallacy of logic. They create a false dichotomy and dilemmas that aren’t dependent on bifurcated choices. The ideas of inclusion and absolute truth are not mutually exclusive. Just because I believe there is a correct and an incorrect way to bring order to chaos, does not mean I cannot fight for the value and the place of all people.
It does not mean I cannot practice humility and examine the story of people and question my understanding of the scriptures. It could be that our situation might resemble that of the people of Galatia. Something to wrestle with there. Which party are we more like here? It could be that our fundamental beliefs might be structured in a way that more closely resembles Shammai than Hillel, let alone Jesus. We might need a reminder that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.
Maybe we have our own circumcision and uncircumcision today, Brent. Maybe evangelism has created their own sets of rules that say, “No, this is what allows you to sit at the table.” The only thing that counts is that we are being made into a new creation. That, Brent Billings, is our study of Galatians.
Brent: I do like how twice in this passage like in Galatians 5, “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.” Then later in Chapter 6, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation.”
Marty: Makes you wonder if there’s a chiasm.
Brent: He’s really hammering it home.
Marty: Yes, absolutely.
Brent: Yes, it does make me wonder that.
Marty: Oh, it was very interesting. Juicy little tidbits. Absolutely right. A repeat of that at the very least. Excellent.
Brent: Alright. Well, next up: Romans. Right?
Marty: Romans, verse-by-verse. Let’s do it.
Brent: We’re going to knock this out.
Marty: Yes, we are.
Brent: Alright. Well, if you have any questions, we are done with Galatians now, so you are free to send in questions about Galatians.
Marty: Pint o’ Bacon?
Brent: Pint o’ Bacon.
Marty: Can you eat it, Brent?
Brent: I’m all about it.
Marty: You apparently are supposed to eat it.
Brent: I’m supposed to eat it.
Marty: I’m not going to.
Brent: You will probably not eat it.
Marty: I’m going to refrain.
Brent: Depending on the circumstance, you may do it out of love.
Marty: Because the one thing that we’re here to do is show that God is loving.
Brent: Excellent. Love it. Alright. Go to bemadiscipleship.com. You can get in touch with us there and find anything you need to know about the show. Sign up for the BEMA Messenger. Make sure you get informed on when we’re going to Israel next or when we’re going to Turkey next so you can join us on those trips. Thanks for joining us on the BEMA Podcast today. We’ll talk to you again soon.