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For this research paper, I will seek information about one of the letters of Paul the letter to the Galatians. This letter is said that is an important letter to puzzle the story of Paul and his letters. This research paper will be shown different key information about the letter to the Galatians. It is mentioned the first impression a reader gets when reading the letter other with who is the messenger and what role the churches in Galatians represent. However, it is also providing one of the major key terms in Galatians which is the liberty that fulfills the law. Also, this research paper explains the most important term I got out of the letter to the Galatians which is justification by faith alone. The term justification is a term that defines human beings, who are a follower of God. Followers of God that follow him in the right way. People tend to misunderstand this term of justification because Paul uses different wording to explain this term. Most people are not aware of this term and the importance of understanding it and this research paper will be showcasing how Paul explains well the term and what he means when he first mentions it. However, it is important to pay close attention to the wording to understand how he talks about faith in God, his works, and the law. Overall, this research paper information summarizes key factors of the letter to the Galatians and more importantly covers the two key points of my research which are the liberty that fulfills the law and what justification means in the letter to the Galatians.
First, in the book of Galatians assuming we read the whole letter we end up seeing that is like a movie played by these important actors that had a history with God or experience his presence. As we move over and read the letter, we can see that it has a lot of drama. “First, to read this letter is to be involved in high drama, for one sense between Paul and the Galatians both deep and angry tension” (Martyn 13). And this could happen with back-and-forth arguments Paul trying to deliver a message and the Galatians standing up with their message or argument. ‘Second, Paul and the Galatians have a rich history with one another’ (13). In this letter, we can see that Paul and the Galatians have a rich history also meaning that this letter helps us with history and how we put them together. Galatians was a key factor for scholar people use to answer those questions of why Paul talks and argues with Galatians the way he did in this letter. ‘Third, what has already occurred has involved a number of persons in addition to Paul and the Galatians’ (13). However, to understand this letter, we need to see carefully what each of the people that appears in this letter has to say and what roles they play. It is important to analyze this letter carefully because people can get easily confused and miss understands keywords.
Second, it is important to know what the messenger of the letter is and the role that the churches in Galatians have in this letter. Today in this era we can say that if this letter happened to be shared in real life and if we use it as an example like showing the letter in a scene. We can say that it will be a scene with an author reading it out loud showing a lot of emotions and dramatic skills. “Not himself the author of the letter, he is the messenger, sent to Galatia by the author, Paul, with instructions to assemble the church in first one Galatian city and then another, in order to read the letter to them” (Martyn 13). And again, this will happen if we were to interpret this letter in real life and this era shows how dramatic this letter is. Following, we can talk about the churches in Galatians which are mentioned in three passages in the bible. And basically, Paul here is providing a strong message, a positive one, to the churches. Letting the gentiles know that he has good news and that this good news is all of what he was proclaiming. “Moreover, Paul preached this good news without laying on the Galatians any cultic requirements, such as the rite of circumcision” (Martyn 13). However, it is also mentioned that in the church we can see throughout the letter to the Galatians that they show more than love and endearment uniting the evangelist and infant gathering. Moreover, Paul uses the term the churches in Galatia with the purpose to locate them better and refer to them by their location:
It is, however, a natural way of addressing a group of ethnic Galatians living in the northern part of the providence, descendants of the Celts who had made up the old Galatian kingdom centered in Ankyra and Pessinus (with perhaps an admixture of some Greek and a few oriental immigrants). (Martyn16)
So basically, the churches of Galatia are a term that Paul used to refer to the location, their demographics, of the churches of Galatia. Not to mention that this could help the reader when they try to interpret the bible. Being able to understand how Paul refers to the churches in Galatia will be beneficial in this letter.
When talking about Liberty that fulfills the law this concept is first mentioned in James 1:25 and is letting us know that liberty that fulfills the law is the declaration of salvation in Jesus Christ and not to mention the declaration of righteousness. However, the book of Galatians when refers to righteousness as apart from the law. “That is so because of its concentration of themes central to the Christian gospel, its attack against legalism, and the complexity of Paul’s arguments in support of a law-free gospel” (Longenecker 98). This makes the book of Galatians essential to the understanding of what is the argument that Paul was making concerning laws that are not good examples of what it means to become a Christian. However, to demonstrate and support this we have two key examples or arguments. The first one is the experience that Paul demonstrates to the Christians in Galatians his experience sets up a bigger point of view for those Christians in Galatians that are not as experienced as Paul. ‘Paul is convinced that if the Galatians Christians would only make the connection between his preaching and God’s blessing in their lives, the Judaizers would have no opening and matters would be settled’ (99). however, the Judaizer is strictly convinced that people should live their lives as Jews or eat sleep or even follow their traditions as Jews. Moving forward, to Paul’s second argument of theological ad hominem. To summarize ad hominem means when people contradict other people’s proposition. ‘Rhetorically, ad hominem arguments are very much to the force-not arguments that attack persons rather than ideas, but arguments that build on the promises of opponents and seek to refute them on their own grounds’ (126). Paul, however, is not mentioning more arguments that on the other hand, he mentioned at the time of his probation. ‘Rather, here he spells out in ad hominem fashion the theological implications he sees as a Christian in the Abrahamic covenant” (126). The whole point of the first half of their probation of Paul was to be against the law of the Mosaic on the attempts of using this law. But to be aware of the true acceptance that God can provide to them through legalism:
The Judaizers of Galatia themselves might have claimed that this was not the thrust of their endeavors; that all they wanted was for Gentile Christians to supplement their faith in Christ with Torah observance, just as God directed Abraham to do and so to experience a more perfect Christian life. (Longenecker 134)
When it is mentioned in the book of Galatians the word of justification. People started asking why Paul uses this language and what it means. However, we all know that Paul confronts Peter about this problem of salvation and this confusing message. Because, Paul and Peter they both are Jews but for personal reasons, Peter was living as a Galatian and acted as a Galatian so when the Jews arrived at the place where this happened Peter, who was eating and talking with the Galatians, stands up and goes with the Jews. Paul notices this behavior and confronts Peter and he lets Peter know that he should not be acting like two different people technically. This looks bad for him for his religion and most important looks bad in the eyes of God. However, on the other hand, Paul makes it clear and points out that salvation is not by law it comes by faith.
The justification we can define has righteously been able to be right on the faith of God. “In Galatians, unlike Romans, Paul anticipates justification-being acquitted before God at the judgment as a result of trusting in Jesus and walking in the new life and the new power of the spirit that Jesus’s death made available to human beings” (DeSilva 218). And again, we can see that Jesus is the one that provides us with a new life with new opportunities. Also, we all know the power of Jesus and that his death was not taken for granted his death made us human beings. That is the reason why in Galatians Paul saw justification as a judgment that made us the readers of this letter think that we obtain justification by the side of God. “This understanding of justification in Galatians may conjure several unwelcome bugbears of the reformation and its tradition” (DeSilva 222). Paul thinks that he can provide the Christians to try to reach what is known as the resurrection. “At first sight, it seems as if Paul’s specific teaching on the justification of the ungodly ‘by faith’ and ‘without works of the Law’ was only expressed in his letters to the Galatians, Romans, and the Philippians” (Stettler). So, Paul uses this term of justification throughout the writing of his letter. This is why people and researchers (scholars) don’t seem to see what the true spot or stance of this term is. “According to the 19th-century scholar William Wrede, ‘justification by faith was simply a polemical doctrine designed to neutralize the theological threat posed by Judaism’ at a certain period of Paul’s missionary endeavors” (qtd. in Stettler). Following, when the letter of Galatians, it is mention justification we can see that this term is mentioned early on in Paul’s writing in Galatians. Paul mentions that justification is by faith and not by works. When we talk about justification it means to be declared right with God. According to Paul, we can say that we can’t be justified by God by doing or working with the rules. “Those who believe that justification by faith and not by works’ appeared rather late in Paul’s theological thinking, tend (like Schnelle) to give Galatians a date somewhere near Romans, about AD 57” (Stettler). On the other hand, salvation is not by work, is by faith. It doesn’t matter what works we have done as human beings because that will not give people salvation according to Paul. However, if human beings have faith in God that is when they will be saved and have salvation. We cannot be perfect for sinning or perfect by doing the right things. Because if that happens, people will be doing the works of the law and as mentioned salvation does not come from works or being perfect it comes from faith in ourselves and most importantly faith in God. ‘In other words, the Law reveals our captivity to sin, our inability to comply with God’s righteous will as revealed in the Law, which then directs us to seek liberation from sin through Christ, apart from the Law’ (Owen). The law is not being good but being perfect. The object of the people’s life is Jesus Christ. Nobody could be justified when it comes to the works of the law. Not to mention that it is also mentioned in Romans that the law causes sin. And then when we think about the point Paul was trying to make that the law those not bring us salvation. We see in other sessions in the bible that the law has not been good which is why there will not be any salvation if people use the work of law. ‘Paul is then saying that all those who are subject to what the Law effects or brings about are under a curse’ (Owen). Not to mention, the perspective that Paul has on Israel where we can say that Israel was cursed. “Yet Paul’s position was that the Law of God cursed Israel rather than working to Israel’s benefit because Israel could not go on to live according to the Law” (Owen). Again we can assume that we can be justified by Faith.
As a final point, we summarize some key points of the letter to the Galatians. It was covering the main two key points that this research paper wanted to accomplish which were the liberty that fulfills the law and what is just and what is attached to this term mentioned in the letter. By reading this research paper we now know that Jesus Christ declares salvation and righteousness to human beings. That we can live a perfect life by faith and not by works of the law. Because salvation comes from faith and not from works. To conclude after reading this information it is important to know that God died for our sins and that no matter what belief we have or what we do, or how we fail or succeed we can never lose faith in God. God is the key to life and the least we can do is trust him and love him showing faith throughout our life.
Works Cited
- DeSilva, David Arthur. The Letter to the Galatians. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018.
- Longenecker, Richard N. World Biblical Commentary: Galatians. Vol. 41, Word Books, 1990.
- Martyn, James Louis. Galatians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 33A, Doubleday, 1997.
- Owen, Paul. “The’ Works of the Law’ in Romans and Galatians: A New Defense of the Subjective Genitive.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 126, no. 3, Fall 2007, pp. 553–577. EBSCOhost.
- Stettler, Hanna. “Did Paul Invent Justification by Faith?.” Tyndale Bulletin, vol. 66, no. 2, 2015, pp. 161–196. EBSCOhost.
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