Perspectives

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false brothers and sisters secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognised the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do (Gal. 2:1-10).

Paul met the Lord on his way to Damascus, not in the place where one might expect. It corresponds with the major point in Stephens’s speech in Acts 7 of how God showed up historically elsewhere. He is to be found but not always where we expect. He seems to make a great point in levelling things out – after 14 years. Not a short period of time. There he met with those were supposedly acknowledged leaders, not exactly a great strap line for the line up to the next world changing conference. (Come on now, surely you love this obnoxious not-so-gentleman that we call Paul. He does seem to have a way of cutting through religion and other such barriers.)

Here though we get a little nuance… ‘to make sure I was not running in vain’. He had never mentioned this aspect until this point. Underneath all the ‘no-one gave me this gospel’ presentation he is submissive. He is over-the-top strong as he wants to shock these readers (actually hearers) about their easy compliance and over-yieldeness to those who have come among them, and having done that balances out what they have been hearing.

The two he brings with him is illustrative also of how he is navigating this situation. Barnabas, the bridge builder, the one who sees the best in every situation, Mr. non-judgement (a #9????). Useful to have in any tricky situation, particularly useful for Paul who maybe just could go off on one. And Titus! A Gentile. The issue being over the gospel to the Gentiles, and Paul’s refusal to have converts submit to the law, and in particular the ‘works of the law’ marked by circumcision, food laws and Sabbath-observance. Titus was present. No discussion without it being personal. It can be so easy to make decisions about people, situations (right / wrong) but meet the person; talk and listen to the ‘other’. I have been challenged when I have sat with people who are different to me, such an experience has been the beginning of a change for me, a change even of my previous held beliefs.

Bridge building, listening, and presenting a human face to a tricky situation. It might not resolve every situation but it will certainly be a huge element in making space for the Holy Spirit. (I have much to learn.)

Another aspect that comes through is Paul’s sight of those he has a responsibility for – those false people came in to spy on their freedom (so it was NOT hidden) but he refused to give way for the sake of the Gentile converts.

They found a way of endorsing one another. Not of conforming each other to the other, but of agreement. Apostleship to a people group. In every generation, every situation there is the need for a new apostleship, the outworking of the ETERNAL gospel into a temporal or cultural setting. I might not understand what someone is doing into their setting (and in our world we have to also think beyond ethnic people groups, but into the very spheres of society) but they will have to be bold for the eternal gospel to enter, and they will have to do so without simply copying elsewhere. There are new expressions of the one gospel always… and a huge unifying part: ‘do not forget the poor’.

For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when the one who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with any human, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterward I returned to Damascus.
Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days, but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me (Gal. 1:11-24)..

The gospel Paul was bringing to the Imperial world was straight from heaven, so a pretty bold claim there; with a reference to his past life and how he excelled in Judaism to a level ‘beyond many among my people of the same age’. All of this led him not to go to Jerusalem at that early stage. (Later he will say he submitted what he had received, but he avoids that aspect here. He is still establishing his ‘independence’ from human influence and authority while insisting his total ‘dependence’ on heaven.) The conflict in Galatians is surrounding the need for the believers there (Gentiles) to fully submit to the Jewish law – he is all-but saying what to do these people who want to impose that even know about all this, for he (Paul) was previously the authority on all this, and given that he met with Cephas (Peter: maybe Paul is a little cheeky using his Jewish name here?) and with James, he is setting the scene for the conflict that he had with Peter when he acted in a hypocritical way after being intimidated by those who came from James (Gal. 2:11-14).

Tradition of his ancestors – he had been zealously committed to protecting on God’s behalf what he perceived God had given. Tradition, this is the God given way, can be so difficult to navigate. Paul is defending the ‘tradition that was given to him’ (to quote from another letter), and is incredibly forthright in condemning should even an angel from heaven come with a different message, with the implication of a message dependent on a previous tradition! Here in these verses he is setting the scene as to why he cannot defend what he used to defend, indeed to defend it he would become a sinner (as opposed to his previous understanding that in defending those traditions he was ‘righteous according to the law).

The coming of Jesus does not tweak what was understood previously, it turns everything on its head. It is not as if we start with what we had (call it the OT for simplicity’s sake) and then draw a straight line forward and go ‘see, now here comes Jesus, it all makes sense’. Rather the past is understood from the future. This understanding continues in the NT approach – a new creation has come so now we figure out from the future the world around us. This is why, though I am very conservative about eschatology I am also very cautious. We don’t get there from here, but there shapes our thinking here.

A difficult set of verses (difficult for me at least!)

In the passage above there is a little tough area for the likes of me (I am referring to the ‘predestination‘ bit). Set apart from before birth. Very reminiscent of Jeremiah (1:4). So what do I say about this, other than I would write those parts very differently(!!)?

1. If this is close to suggesting something along the lines of traditional ‘predestination’, these verses make it applicable to Paul, not necessarily to you and me.
2. It is not a reference to salvation but to calling. This is very key in all of Scripture. We tend to make everything about ‘in / out’, ‘get your ticket to be on the bus of salvation’, ‘eternal destiny’ etc., but calling and purpose seems to me the centre. To suggest (OT-wise) Jews are saved and Gentiles are damned seems to miss it, rather than Israel was uniquely chosen to be an access point for heaven to earth.
3. Any calling was not automatic, for Paul said when the time of calling was made manifest he ‘was not disobedient to the heavenly vision’ (Acts 26:19); the grace of God was not in vain when it was applied to him (1 Cor. 15:10). Nothing seemed to be predetermined and irresistible.
4. If applicable to all of us, we can only make it apply to our calling / purpose in life. Paul’s was to proclaim Jesus among the Gentiles. We are all set apart for the reason for which we are born (indeed sin is to miss the reason for which we are born); that is innate within us. There is only one ‘me’ (as Oscar Wilde said ‘be yourself, all the others are taken’).

If we pull Scriptures like this out and simply connect them to others we can end up with a strong ‘predestination’ line. However, for me, the weight of Scripture is to hold firm to human responsibility and the possibility of ‘being disobedient’ to who we are (God’s calling if you like). Predestination is to for Martin to be the Martin that is in the image of Christ… the one true human, so it is for me to yield to the work of the Spirit in such a way that I increasingly become who I truly am.

If you disagree with the above, of course you might have been predestined to do so… or maybe I am predestined to be an awkward customer (predetermined to be that specific number on the Enneagram where one just is awkward! And of course, Paul was definitely the same number… and only one more (humble this time) definite element is that I know almost nothing about the Enneagram).

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
Am I now seeking human approval or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:6-10).

The style of the letter is blunt and there are no ‘normal’ niceties up front. There is no ‘so good to see you, I simply want to bring up something…’ Not much to add to what Paul has to say – different gospel, pervert the gospel, let even an angel be cursed if they should bring something different to what brought, and I tell you all that as a servant of God. So your point, Paul, is?!!!!!

The language is remarkably strong. I am challenged by what might qualify as a ‘different gospel’. A while back a couple met Gayle and I for coffee and they explained their approach. Offer English as a second language, a few weeks in share the ‘gospel’ if they do not respond or show some serious interest, it would then be time to move on to someone else as they were obviously not good ‘soil’. Given also that the couple were strongly Calvinist in theology maybe it was God’s fault that they were bad soil?

At the end of our time the question came – would you work with us and support us. The answer was a one word answer and the shorter of the two possible words. Are they presenting a different gospel? Certainly their approach we could not put the word ‘good news’ to it. I think we maybe all have a ‘sub-‘ / not complete gospel, but there has to come a point when the gospel we hold on to and present is so ‘sub-‘ that it is different. And when it is way off maybe the ‘God’ we claim to serve might be a different god to the one that is ‘God’.

In the context of the letter in front of us different has to be measured by how much freedom or bondage is brought. We are likely to move toward error when the result is any level of burdens placed on someone… as has been said before:

The offence of the Gospel is not an offence of who is excluded, but the offence is an offence of who is included.

The door of entry is wide open. The narrow gate was the one that Jesus presented to Jews, those who really thought that favour with God was exclusively theirs. That’s just not how it works,

Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers and sisters with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen (Gal. 1:1-5).

Paul an apostle – I maintain that Paul does not use the term ‘apostle’ as a title: ‘Apostle Paul’ or as we often say ‘the apostle Paul’, but he simply says Paul an apostle. If it is used as a title there is an inherent hierarchy. I have a title so am ‘above’ you. As a description of ministry / calling the submission is first from Paul to the Lord. As an apostle he has to be accountable for that calling, he has something to live up to. If an apostle there has to be signs that indicate the calling.

After the common greeting of ‘grace and peace’ he then presents a (the?) central effect of the cross. It is for our ‘sins’ so that we might be free from this present evil age. Maybe he emphasises this in the Galatian situation, but I suspect this is central to Paul regardless of the situation. The problem is that our sins – (summary: our corporate failure to be human) means that there are powers that dominate and we end up captive to those powers. It is certainly a theme throughout the letter: Jesus comes at the ‘fullness of times‘ when the powers are at their extreme, both expressed as ‘heavenly’ powers and their influence and the ‘earthly’ power of the all-but one world government of Rome that shaped culture. (The tower of Babel / Babylon as type of imperial rule was never absolute, being an unfinished but substantial process. All the ‘antiChrist’ language fits into the context of the ‘fullness of times’.)

‘Forgiveness of sins’, ‘justified’, ‘redeemed’ could all be used to describe what results from the cross but Paul chooses to major on the deliverance from the powers. He uses it as he addresses the Galatians as the issue that he confronts is of a people who are being pulled back to servitude. Coming into obedience to the law he indicates will simply put them on a path that will bring a separation from Christ and a submission yet again to the elemental spirits / elements (ta stoicheia).

I think that for Paul this ‘freedom’ is more than a ‘theological’ truth, more than something positional. That is very clear in how he introduces himself. If we were to read the opening words without realising there is some nuancing that has to take place we would have to assume Paul was all-but saying: ‘stuff anyone human, regardless of who they are, I am totally independent and my apostleship is direct, so I have no plan to submit to anyone!’

We know as we go on to read that this bolshiness is not quite as strong as that, but freedom in Christ has to mean that we must be able to say ‘no’ at a human level, for I consider if we lose that there will soon come a point where we will not be able to give a wholehearted ‘yes’ to God.

But it is far more than freedom to say ‘no’ to someone. It is freedom from the powers that are shaping this ‘present evil age’. Powers that tell us to conform, to fit in. Powers that shape culture, economics, national identities and the like. Our passport does not define us – citizenship in heaven is what defines, and God has always had a global concern.

The Gospel is much more than put your hand up, pray this prayer and look now you have received a ticket to the cloudy place by and by. It is freedom from powers NOW. That is the door we enter through, the journey is life-long discovering what that means. Sanctification is not about some spotlessness but about a process where I can be observed to be free.

An aside: a while back as cryto-currency was beginning to hit the headlines I said that there is a new currency that will come, crypto as we have it is not it but is a sign that it is coming. This is gaining speed with the likelihood of the majority of nations developing digital, and centrally-controlled, currency. Many are raising (right) concerns over this. Will it be the mark of the beast? Yes indeed it will. Same mark as we have had for millennia! There is a growing convergence, a desire to get to a great ‘fullness of times’. How do we respond? First, without fear but with faith, and second operating on a different economy. The kingdom economy is ‘give and receive’; not ‘buy and sell’. So many opportunities are coming our way to work out what it means to be free from the powers of this evil age… and seems to me we have just shy of 20 years to work some of this out. What a wonderful journey ahead.

I have always liked the Galatians letter. Paul in a storming mood gets down to it, sends of his letter without any niceties, with a ‘listen to me, I am going to straighten all this out’. I like that for some reason, but I also like if for a few other reasons. It is short, it is not so involved as the much fuller version of ‘his gospel’ that we find in Romans; it is an early letter and it has conflict. So I thought (and hope I stick with it) I would simply make a few comments on the letter.

One of the issues surrounding the date is whether it comes before the council in Jerusalem in Acts 15 (AD50). He refers to a visit to Jerusalem (2:1) and of conflict with Peter (2:15-14… perhaps where he cheekily refers to Peter as Cephas). Did all this predate Jerusalem or come after? I think it came before and would date Galatians as very early 48/49AD. Peter’s behaviour being confronted by Paul prior to the letter that went out to the churches from Jerusalem. This adds to Paul’s depth of convictions to confront Peter before there had been a council to sort out those issues (though I personally think Acts 15 was a compromise that did not go far enough – all encouraging to us, where God takes a step back with a ‘you work it out’. Maybe all of this (date / who are the Galatians) is incidental but I like the idea that they were working things out as they went along.

An obvious theme in the letter is that of freedom / slavery.

• Set us free from this present evil age 1:4.
• Spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus 1:4.
• Scripture has imprisoned all things 3:22.
• Now before faith came we were imprisoned (under the law!) 3:23.
• No better than those who are enslaved 4:1.
• We were enslaved to the elemental principles (ta stoicheia) 4:3.
• You were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods 4:8.
• [Now] you turn back to the weak and beggarly elemental principles (ta stoicheia)… to be enslaved by them 4:9.
• Children of an enslaved woman or of a free woman 4:22.
• She is in slavery 4:25.
• She is free 4:26.
• Child of the enslaved woman… child of the free woman 4:30.
• For freedom Christ has set us free… do not submit to a yoke of slavery 5:1.
• You were called to freedom 5:13.
• Become enslaved to one another 5:13.

To that we could of course add words such as gospel, justified and grace; and also specific texts such as the ‘In Christ there is neither…’, or that only ‘new creation’ counts.

Paul is heavily biased toward freedom, indeed his first description of what happened as a result of the cross is that we are ‘set free… from this present evil age’. Freedom wins the day!

He navigates a line between ‘submit to no-one… do not give up your freedom’ and meeting with those in Jerusalem, submitting his revelation to them lest he run in vain; he also comes very close to describing the law in negative terms, seemingly indicating that the law (for Israel) and the gods of the nations were in the same category (ta stoicheia: elemental principles / spirits; that which orders and structures / shapes a society, hence it certainly spills over into the demonic spirit world; I suggest it includes the demonic that shapes society, culture etc. and is perhaps a summarising word for everything that shapes and holds a culture / nation back from finding maturity and freedom). He comes close but avoids that direct 1:1 relationship. He is close, but the law came from God… but he certainly seems to suggest that when approached as law performs the same result, it cannot deliver the freedom that is in Christ.

OK… enough for now.