Romans 6 – 8 and Galatians – The case against Christian legalism

 I have presented these posts on Romans 6 - 8 and Galatians because I wanted to look at how the Apostle Paul exhorted Christians to live a godly life day-by-day. It soon became clear that Paul was no advocate of Christian legalism. Although he may have the ultimate aims and purposes of Divine law in mind – righteousness and cleanliness - he does not refer Christians to Covenant law as a means of living a godly life, just the opposite in fact. He argues that the law reveals our self-forfeiture and that the fleshly impulses within the Christian’s physical body take hold of the law and use it’s written codes as a springboard to bring themselves to completion in speech and behaviour. The law is good – it is our flesh that is the problem. Thus there is nothing good in our flesh and he calls our physical body ‘a body of death’ from which Christians will ultimately be released. Legalism leads to ‘deadness’, to criticism and judgement of other Christians, and potentially to a denial of the gospel. It leads to discouragement and a sense of failure.

Paul argues that we cannot deliver ourselves from divine judicial condemnation. Salvation is a free gift of God from start to finish. Whilst we are helpless God brings forth those He has selected by means of the Messiah and the set-apart Breath. As part of this process, the Christian’s ‘old formation’ or ‘old self’ or ‘natural earthy, sensuous self’ is crucified with the Messiah and they become a ‘new formation’ or ‘new self’, which Christians are encouraged to ‘put on’ or clothe themselves with. Possessing the indwelling of the set-apart Breath they are exhorted to walk around within the sphere of Breath. Paul’s emphasis is on Christians using their enlightened and illuminated mind that is enabled to perceive and embrace unseen realities, to reason things through to their proper conclusion. In other words he uses theological teaching. Then he says, exercise enlightened self-control and live life day-by-day in a way that is consistent with God’s calling and their enlightened understanding. The locus or ‘pivot’ of action is away from external written codes and towards the leading of the set-apart Breath. 

Paul is quite consistent when it comes to practical matters of living a godly life day-by-day. So, for example, if we were to look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we would see that it is a letter of two halves. The first half, chapters 1 – 3, is about God’s glorious free gift of deliverance by means of Jesus. The second half is about what this means in practice. If you read chapters 4 - 6 through for yourself you find no appeals to Covenant law. Rather you find appeals to imitate and emulate the love of the Messiah, and to reflect different aspects of the relationship that the Messiah has with those whom God has selected. 

But I don’t want to spend time on these chapters because instead I now want to turn to chapter 1 of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, because once gain Paul looks at Christians who miss the mark because they want to become teachers of law.  

Galatians 6 v 11 – 16 - Paul’s concluding remarks

 ‘See what large letters I have written to you with my own hand. 12 As many as wish to have a good appearance within flesh, these are compelling you to be circumcised, but only in order that they are not pursued and persecuted for the cross of Jesus the anointed one. 13 Because not even the circumcised themselves are observing law, but they desire you to be circumcised in order that they may boast within your flesh. 14 But for me, may it never happen to be boasting if not within the cross of our Lord Jesus the anointed one, by means of which the worldly arrangement has been crucified to me, and I to the worldly order and arrangement. 15 Neither circumcision nor foreskin is anything – on the contrary, a new original formation. 16 And as many as will walk within and follow this principle, on this basis, and on the basis of the God of Israel, their peace and compassion’, (Galatians 6 v 11 – 16).

Paul obviously had someone else to actually write his letters, but here he writes this last section with his own hand, as if to emphasise his concluding remarks. He once again criticises the Judaizers who have come in to cause so much trouble. He says that those insisting on male Gentile Christians being circumcised wanted to look good within the flesh. They wanted to obtain a reputation for religiousness, like the hypocrites who ‘love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen of men’ (Matthew 6 v 5). Appearing outwardly righteous in front of others, they wanted to be accounted in this way by them; and therefore they did all they could to be seen of them, and gain applause from them. They wanted by this means to keep in with their countrymen, the Jews, and to gain favour amongst them by seeming to win over proselytes to Covenant law.  

They were acting in this way in case they should suffer pursuit and persecution from fellow Jews for the cross. It is well known that the Jewish chief priests and elders were great persecutors of the disciples of Jesus, and began their persecution very early on. These Judaizers did not act from any true love for God. They escaped the bitterness that fellow Jews had against Christianity and the offence of the cross of the Messiah by making the Mosaic law a necessary preliminary for Christians. In fact, they were making Christian converts into Jewish proselytes. ‘Not even the circumcised themselves are observing law, but they desire you to be circumcised in order that they may boast within your flesh’. These Jews who were insisting on circumcision did not observe Covenant law themselves. Rather, they wanted to boast about how many Christians they had turned into Jewish proselytes. 

Paul concludes by saying that he does not want to boast about anything except the cross. By means of the cross ‘the worldly arrangement has been crucified to me, and I to the worldly order and arrangement’. Worldly values, methods and principles mean nothing to Paul and he regards the worldly arrangement as dying away so as to be superseded at the time of the harvest. (An event that he thought was quite imminent). 

His concluding remarks about circumcision? ‘Neither circumcision nor foreskin is anything – on the contrary, a new original formation’. What matters for Paul is being brought forth by God, or born again, and the Christian’s new formation or new self. ‘As many as will walk within and follow this principle, on this basis, and on the basis of the God of Israel, their peace and compassion’. 

Galatians 6 v 9, 10 - An apportioned share of the divine inheritance

 ‘And we should not grow weary in doing good, because not growing faint, in our season we will reap a harvest. 10 So then, in the manner that we have opportunity, we should be working good toward all, and especially toward those belonging to the family of faith’, (Galatians 6 v 9, 10). 

Sometimes, teaching the word faithfully and having practical beneficial love towards fellow Christians can seem to be a laborious and unrewarding endeavour. It can make us feel weary and lacking in motivation. Thus Paul encourages Christians not to grow weary in doing good. The Christian’s deliverance away from divine judicial condemnation by means of the Messiah and the set-apart Breath is given as a free gift as a result of God’s promise, a promise that He has sworn on oath on His own name. No one will snatch those who have been given to him from out of the Messiah’s hand. As Paul declares in Romans 8, no one and nothing can separate us away from the love of God. 

But for Christians, there is a prize to obtained and a harvest to reap. If Christians persist in wayward behaviour or become lazy, they will suffer ruin and loss. They will not lose their deliverance, but they will reap a smaller harvest. The ‘harvest’ is their allotted portion of the divine inheritance. It is his obtaining of the ‘harvest’ that is Paul’s motivation for persisting steadfastly in doing good. ‘…because not growing faint, in our season we will reap a harvest’. In our season, when the harvest comes, which will be at the advent of the Millennium Reign and the first rousing up from out of the dead so as to meet the Messiah in the air and enter into the unseen heavenly realms.

‘So then, in the manner that we have opportunity, we should be working good toward all’. Christians are not summoned to be antagonistic towards unbelievers, nor to negate them. Christians live in a world in which the majority of people are unbelievers. Christians are like wheat growing among weeds and wheat-like plants. So, while God continues life-breath to us and the season of sowing lasts, Christians are encouraged to live their lives as peaceably as they can. To be good marriage partners, family members, neighbours, employers, employees and work colleagues. But this is especially case when it comes to their relationships with fellow Christians, bearing in mind the primary injunction of the Messiah to show practical, beneficial love to one another.  

Galatians 6 v 6 – 8 - Sharing teaching

 ‘Now let the one being taught within the word, share the teaching within all goodness, 7 not leading astray. God is absolutely not ridiculed, because whatever a man is sowing, this also he will harvest. 8 Because sowing towards his flesh, from the flesh he will reap decay from within. But sowing towards the Breath, away from the Breath he will reap perpetual life’, (Galatians 6 v 6 – 8).

The Judaizers had come in to the Galatian assemblies with teaching. They were assertively teaching, instructing and exhorting that Christians had to follow Sinai Covenant law as the means of obtaining and maintaining divine judicial approval. So Paul goes ‘back to basics’ and says that Christians who have been taught within the word and who are sharing teaching should do so ‘within all goodness, not leading astray’. Such an individual should share the teaching honestly and faithfully. They should not twist the teaching in order to gain a good reputation, or to gain the advantages of status, material wealth or comfort.

Paul says, ‘Make no mistake. God is not ridiculed’. Why? ‘Because whatever a man is sowing, this also he will harvest’. Those who teach using malicious, deceitful motives are described as ‘sowing towards their flesh’, and the result of this is that  ‘from the flesh he will reap decay from within’. Elsewhere Paul describes the physical body and a ‘body of death’. This is because the impulses and raw passions inherent in our flesh are in opposition to God, and following these impulses – such as twisting the gospel message to obtain a good reputation – leads to withering away, to insensitivity and unresponsiveness to God and ultimately to divine disapproval and judicial condemnation. 

This is contrasted with the teacher who shares the word and the teaching accurately and faithfully. ‘… sowing towards the Breath, away from the Breath he will reap perpetual life’. The opposite of ruin, loss, withering away and death is ‘life’ – abundant life, life with a capital ‘L’, perpetual life. 

Galatians 6 v 3 – 5 – Restoring fellow Christians - Personal accountability, not self-superiority compared with others

 ‘For if someone is thinking they are someone, being nothing he is deluding himself. 4 But each one be testing his own work and action, and at that time he will hold the ground of boasting only towards himself, and absolutely not towards another, 5 for each one will bear his own burden’, (Galatians 6 v 3 - 5).

One of the dangers when Christians help to restore others is that they may see themselves as ‘superior’, as ‘rising above’ the wayward self-forfeiture that other Christians have fallen into. But ‘if someone is thinking they are someone, being nothing he is deluding himself’. No Christian is immune from wayward behaviour or from the impulses of their own flesh. No Christian is able to take the role of ‘superior judge’ over other Christians. Rather than criticising the behaviour of fellow Christians, the principle is that ‘each one be testing his own work and action, and at that time he will hold the ground of boasting only towards himself, and absolutely not towards another, 5 for each one will bear his own burden’.

Within the context of the situation that Paul has been writing about – Judaizers insisting that male Gentile Christians be circumcised in agreement with Covenant law – I suggest that Paul is primarily referring to the view that these Jews had of themselves. They thought that they had cause for self-praise arising from their self-righteous comparison of themselves with others, (Galatians 2 v 12, 13; and verses 12 and 13 below). No, says Paul. If you are about the business of adjusting and restoring fellow Christians, then don’t fall into the trap that these Judaizers have fallen into of being self-righteous and over-assertive, causing people to shrink back in fear. Rather, let a Christian judge their own work, not by comparing themselves with others, but by the ideal standard of the Messiah, then they will see what their work is worth and how much they have to boast of. Each individual will be judged by their own actions and not by any fancied superiority or inferiority to others. They will not be able to excuse themselves by drawing attention to their neighbour’s weaknesses.

In verse 2 Christians are exhorted to ‘bear the burdens’ of others in the sense of sympathising and being of practical assistance to them in their troubles. Here Christians are told that they must ‘bear their own load’ in the sense that they must answer directly to God for their own actions. Their responsibility cannot be shifted on to others. Each will bear their own ‘load’. The Greek word is different from that in verse 2. Here, self-examination will make an individual consider that he has enough to do with their own load of self-forfeiture, without comparing themselves boastfully with their neighbour.