Galatians 3:1, 5 NIV

Dear ICB family,

​Here Paul says that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ had been depicted or shown to the Galatians "before [their] very eyes," yet they lived over a thousand kilometers away from Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified. So how could Paul make such a statement? He didn't show the Galatians video clips or pictures of the crucified Christ. I doubt he used any visual aids whatsoever when he visited them. So in what way had they seen Jesus Christ as crucified?

They had seen a clear portrayal of Jesus Christ as crucified not with physical eyes but, interestingly enough, with their ears. That is, on Paul's lips they heard the Spirit-empowered proclamation of the news of Jesus' death, and that proclamation was enough for Paul to say that Jesus had been put on display to them as crucified.

Of course, Jesus could have been born, lived, and died during a time in history in which such events could have been video recorded and preserved for all of us to see with our own eyes. However, for his own inscrutable purposes, God decided that the way that we would see with our very eyes Jesus as crucified would be through our ears. We would need to be told it. 

And we would need to be told not merely what happened but also why it happened, which is exactly what Pastor Neil said: "Our eyes see what happened, but our ears hear the interpretation and give what we have seen meaning. With our eyes we can consider the heavens which declare the glory of God, but with our ears we can listen to the word of God that tells us who made those heavens" (my paraphrase from his sermon on June 27). And we could add in this case, "Our eyes could have seen the physical body of Jesus on the cross, dying in shame and agony, but with our ears we hear the words of Peter explain what this terrible, glorious spectacle was all about: 'Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God' (1 Peter 3:18)."

So take heart. By your simple words people will see Jesus as crucified. So open your mouth with great boldness and expectation, and beg God that people would hear and believe and receive God's gracious Spirit.

Longing for the loud and clear proclamation of our only hope,

Eric

v. 1: The Galatians had been "bewitched." It was as if someone had cast a spell on them so that their minds were confused and befuddled, and they couldn't think clearly. They had been distracted from the Jesus who had been publicly portrayed as crucified.

vv. 2-7: Before the Galatians had been bewitched, they had believed what they had heard. Here Paul moves from eyes to ears. Our eyes see what happened, but our ears hear the interpretation and give meaning to what we have seen. With our eyes we can consider the heavens, which declare the glory of God, but with our ears we can listen to the word of God that tells us who made those heavens. Verse 5 says that God supplies the Spirit "by hearing with faith." Abraham is an example of someone who heard the promise of God with his ears, he believed it, and God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:3).

vv. 8-13: God is in the business of blessing. The outcome of Abraham's faith in God's promises was that Abraham was blessed and through him all the nations were blessed. We receive the blessing of entering into a right relationship with God not by keeping the law but by accepting the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. 

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. How might you become "bewitched" and therefore distracted from keeping your eyes on Jesus and him alone?
2. When did you first hear the good news of Jesus and believe? Are you continuing to receive this good news and believe it today?
3. A consistent theme throughout the Scriptures is that God blesses us so that we might bless others. In what ways has God blessed you, and how are you using those blessings to bless others?

Galatians 2:14 ESV

Dear ICB family,

If Peter stood condemned for forcing Gentiles to live like Jews (Galatians 2:14)—that is, for forcing them to observe Jewish laws—then it might be easy to come to the conclusion that the Old Testament law has absolutely no place in the life of a Christian and that Christians should reject the law of Moses categorically. 

However, consider what Paul himself said about the Law of Moses: "[T]he law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7:12). And note the use of the present tense there. "The commandment is holy and righteous and good." Not just "was holy and righteous and good for the Israelites in their day." It remains essentially good even now.

What are we to make, then, of Old Testament law and its relevance for Christians today?

In order to answer that question, consider what the law was to Israelites, beginning at Sinai. First off, the law of God is rooted in the character of God. Ultimately, God's commands reflect who God is in one way or another. The essential demand God placed on his people was to be holy as he was holy (Leviticus 11:44), and God's command to follow his laws was essentially a command to be like he was.
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​Second, the law was much more than a list of rules that Israel had to obey. The specific commandments in the law served the purpose of maintaining Israel's relationship with God. William Klein puts it this way: "OT law represents the personal demands of Israel’s sovereign Lord, not an abstract system of morality or a technical legal code. In light of this, readers must interpret law relationally—as the guidelines that govern Israel’s ongoing life with her gracious God" (2017, 443). 

When God gave Israel the law, he was presenting his people with the terms of his covenant with them. Just like ancient secular covenants (e.g., between a victorious king and a defeated king) dictated the relationship that would now exist between two parties, so, too, God's covenant with his people outlined the type of relationship that God was establishing with Israel. God's insistence that his people be holy indicated that their holiness was the only way their relationship was going to work out.

​What about us today?

It is of paramount importance to understand that Christians today are not bound by the terms of God's covenant made with ancient Israel. When Jesus inaugurated the new covenant in his blood, he was enacting new terms by which God was going to relate with his people. The terms by which God related with his people previously (before Jesus) were superseded by a new agreement, and at the heart of that new agreement was the person and work of God the Son on behalf of humanity who were incapable of meeting God's demands on their own.

So we toss the old agreement in the fire and only read the terms of the new covenant, right? No. We cherish that previous agreement. And here's why.

First of all, the old covenant gives us insight into what it even means to live in relationship with God under the terms of a covenant. As observed above, the fact that God has made a new covenant with those who believe in Jesus does not mean he has simply given them a list of rules to follow. Yes, there are expectations, but those stipulations are spelled out for the sake of maintaining a relationship. Rule following is not ultimate. Relationship is ultimate. So when we come to explicit commands in the New Testament (some of which are taken word for word from the old covenant and included in the new), we are given fresh motivations for obedience: We obey because we are already in a covenant relationship with God; we don't obey in order to enter a covenant with God. And we obey because our love for God impels us to do whatever necessary to be close to him, and disobedience keeps us distant.

Second, the goals of both covenants remain the same: God desires that his people be holy today as much as he desired that they be holy some 3500 years ago when God gave Moses the law at Sinai. (Compare Exodus 19:5–6 with 1 Peter 2:9.) If we look at the commandments in the Old Testament law as shedding insight into what it means to live a holy life as God is holy, then the law becomes insightfully instructive and relevant for today. Consider one of many examples:

Deuteronomy 22:8 says, "When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet [a low wall] for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it." We as Christians today are not obligated to build our houses in conformity to this Old Testament law. However, it is incredibly instructive that the God we serve wants us show love and concern to our neighbor even through the architectural design we employ when building our houses (or doing remont on them).

​Klein says, "Laws that no longer apply literally still teach important timeless truths" (2017, 447). Admittedly, discerning those timeless truths in some instances is more difficult than in others (see Leviticus 15); however, there is so much to learn in the law about God's concern for his people's physical health, his care for the poor and the foreigner, his love of holiness and purity, his interest that his people maintain healthy relationships with each other, his incessant bent to want to live reconciled with his holy people and how he is able to make that possible, and so much more. 

May God grant the prayer "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law" (Psalm 119:18) so that we, right along with the psalmist, might sing, "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).

Longing for clearer sight and more profound love of God's law,

Eric

​Klein, William W., et al. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation: 3rd Edition, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, 2017.

Paul challenges Peter publicly because he preaches a gospel of reconciliation but lives a life of segregation. That's hypocrisy. 

In this passage we see

1. condemnation. You can't preach reconciliation and live segregation. Paul condemned this behavior that was antithetical to the gospel.
2. confrontation. When two heavy-weights of the gospel come toe to toe, that creates great instability; however, that is not as harmful as hypocrisy. Matthew 18:15-17 as well as other biblical passages (i.e., Exodus 18) show us how to deal with conflict. In all cases, the purpose of confrontation is not punishment but restoration.
3. confidence. See what confidence is ours in light of the fact that we are justified by faith alone and not by works of the law or by the observance of any human custom! If the Son of God has died to justify you before God, what arrogance it is to insist that a person needs Christ and something else to be saved.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. ​Are there ways in which with your mouth you proclaim a gospel of reconciliation but with your actions you live a life of segregation? Do you see how incompatible that is?
2. What would have been the consequences had Paul not confronted Peter? How do you decide when to confront someone and when to let things go?
3. How much confidence does Jesus' completed work on your behalf give to you? Do you feel the need to add to what Jesus did and help him out to secure your salvation? How differently would you live if you found unending confidence in the gospel of Christ? 

Galatians 2:5 ESV

Dear ICB family,

​​The tiny twig called Eric grew out of a rather conservative branch of the Christian tree. Pastors Neil and Marcus's exposition through Galatians seems incredibly relevant for my branch. We have seen how the false teachers in Galatia wanted Christians to accept circumcision, to keep the law, and to become Jewish in order to be saved. In other words, these false teachers thought that a change in physical appearance, the adoption of a new set of guiding principles for life, and a mere swap in what one called oneself were what God was ultimately after. How incredibly unimaginative and small-minded.

Paul paints a much grander picture of what God is after. He says that while God's people used to be like children under a guardian, now they've come of age and should therefore act like it (Galatians 3:23–26). They have not merely changed their clothes or their culture; they've "put on Christ" (3:27). God is forming a people comprised of Jews, Greek, slaves, the free, males, and females, and it's living faith in the Son of God that defines this people as opposed to any other man-concocted silliness (3:28). A person's salvation is not a matter of that person adopting new customs; it's about a person becoming an heir of the God of the universe (3:29).

​Of course, that's much harder for us. External uniformity is a much more easily manageable task humanly speaking. God's after something so much bigger: hearts that have stopped trusting in everything else in this world and that bank only on the person and work of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Son of the living God, as their only hope in this life and in the next. Coming to Christ is nothing less than that, and nothing less than that is what God is after. A heart that has experienced such dramatic transformation will change in a million ways, and you can bet that such changes will inevitably become manifest in that person's life. However, don't think you can tie some apples onto the branches of an orange tree and thinking you've changed the very nature of the tree.

Let's not be content with what we as humans are capable of managing, like getting people to adopt certain values or changing their lifestyles or even getting them to start identifying with a specific group (even if it's a Christian group). Let's aim higher and deeper. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to do what only he can do—remove a person's heart that loves and trusts in this world and replace it with a new heart that loves and trusts in Jesus Christ alone.

Longing for something more,

Eric

The frame of Galatians 2:1-10

The big picture: God's mending what humans have broken, and the cross of Christ is at the center of that picture.

The medium-sized picture: God's salvation is emerging out of the cradle of Judaism into the crucible of the Greco-Roman and Persian world, in which there will be all kinds of difficulties and persecution.

The micro-picture of Galatians: A conflict in a given church in Galatia in the middle of which Paul appeals to freedom in Christ, to the truth of the gospel of God's salvation, and to trust between believers. 

Paul's appeals to the Galatians

1. Freedom: The false teaching of these so-called teachers was deliberate subversion and enslaving. However, if the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed. You're free from evil, sin, fear, hatred, rage, anger, a desire for revenge, competition, etc. 
2. Truth: It's the truth of the gospel that sets you free, the truth of God's salvation. 
3. Trust: There was mutual trust, a trusting agreement to divide the workload, Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. There was not competition but cooperation. The gospel has practical consequences, and both trust and our care for the poor are some of them.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. Where do you feel bound or enslaved in your life? In what ways are you not living in the freedom from evil, sin, fear, hatred, rage, anger, a desire for revenge, competition, etc. that is yours in the gospel?
2. What gospel truths do you need to hold onto so that you can experience the freedom that is yours? Take some time to identify the specific promises from God's word that he has given you precisely so that you can experience the freedom that your good Father so desperately wants you to experience.
3. Have you given space in your heart to mistrust of fellow believers? Do you feel a sense of competition with them? How does the gospel speak to this issue? What other practical consequences does the gospel have in a believer's life? 

Galatians 1:11 ESV

Dear ICB family,
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​In Galatians 1 Paul labored to defend the authenticity of the gospel that he had presented to the Galatians. He was not asking them to just take his word. He offered them evidence that, upon examination, should have helped them (and us today) reach the conclusion that the way he spoke of the gospel was true and the way that others were speaking of the gospel was no gospel at all.

This led me to consider the following questions: Why do the biblical authors build their cases using logical reasoning? What is the relationship between faith and reason? To what extent are we to simply believe, even in the face of seeming contradictory evidence, and to what extent are we to seek out logical and rational reasons that can serve to bolster or undergird our faith?
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​The reasonable testimonies of Paul (Galatians 1:11–24), Peter (2 Peter 2:16–21), John (1 John 1:1–4), and Jesus himself (John 10:37–38) will not prove ultimately persuasive to a person's logic until such a time as that person has come to love the light more than darkness. Only then will coming to the light seem like the most logical, most reasonable thing in the world. Until a person has that kind of faith, no argumentation will ultimately do.

That doesn't mean we don't appeal to people using logical reasoning to defend the truth. Paul, Peter, John, and Jesus himself all gave reasonable explanations as to why their words were true. I'm very thankful they did, and I've been very helped by them. However, what we don't do is assume that our great powers of logic are ultimately decisive. Instead, we speak and write and debate with tears in our eyes and fire in our hearts in order to fan into flame the spark of faith that the Holy Spirit alone is capable of creating within a person's heart.

And exactly like we see in Paul's case, God loves knocking people off their high horses. May that be true in your case and in mine.

Grace and peace,

Eric

Paul defends his apostleship by presenting three distinct seasons of his life

1. Paul was a persecutor of the church.
2. Paul became a true believer through a supernatural call and transformation by Christ himself.
3. Paul was an apostle who learned directly from Christ.

This evidence supports the fact that the gospel that Paul preached was true and had no mere human origin.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. How does the defense that Paul gives of his apostleship demonstrate the reliability of his presentation of the gospel for us today?
2. While we accept the gospel by faith, there are certainly good reasons to believe that the gospel as it's been presented to us is true. What are other examples of evidence that convince you of the trustworthiness of the gospel message as it has been preserved in the Bible? 
3. Do you think it's possible for anyone to be ultimately convinced of the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the gospel message through logical argumentation alone? If so, how should such argumentation proceed? If not, why not, and what else is needed? What biblical proof would you give to support your answer?